God said to Moses: “Why cry out to me? Speak to the Israelites. Order them to get moving. Hold your staff high and stretch your hand out over the sea: Split the sea! The Israelites will walk through the sea on dry ground.”
(Exodus 14:15-16 MSG)
Moses was Israel’s great leader, but he often failed to act as such. We hear him crying out to God more than once, failing to exercise his God-given authority. I know this to be the case because every time Moses cries out to Him, God tells him to use his staff or words to solve the problem. In today’s Scripture, we find Moses crying out to God about being chased by the Egyptians prior to crossing the Red Sea and the Lord says to him:
“Why cry out to Me? Speak to the Israelites. Order them to get moving. Hold your staff high and stretch your hand out over the sea: Split the sea! The Israelites will walk through the sea on dry ground”…Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and God, with a terrific east wind all night long, made the sea go back. He made the sea dry ground. The seawaters split. The Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground with the waters a wall to the right and to the left. (Exodus 14:15-16;21-22)
As His children, God has also given us His Power, the Holy Spirit, to enable us to do what we need to do in life. Yet so often, like Moses, we cry out, waiting for God to do something. There are certainly times when we need to seek His direction and guidance concerning a matter and wait on a word from Him, but most of the time His answer to us is the same one He gave Moses, “Why cry out to Me? Get moving!” Just recently, I asked God to intervene in a situation because I knew that I shouldn’t take a certain step and sensed Him say, “You need to take action. I’ve given you the Power to do the right thing.” So I did. I got out of what I knew wasn’t the right thing to do. Using our authority really is that simple. It’s about time we started exercising it.
Rising with the Son 