Grace for My Home | Christian Women, Growing in Faith, Spirit-Led, Hearing from God, Sowing Truth

You Must Have Your Own Encounter with God

• Audrey McCracken | Mom Encourager • Season 4 • Episode 121

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Audrey:

Hello friends, welcome to Grace for my Home. I'm Audrey McCracken and I'm so glad to be back with you again this week. I hope you're doing well. Spring has sprung here. It is just gorgeous outside. We live in South Carolina, near the coast, and it's just the perfect weather right now. It's not too hot, not too cold. The trees are starting to bloom. You can just tell Easter is right around the corner.

Audrey:

I have a little walk that I do not daily, but I try to do it a couple of times a week to a pond that's not far from our home. There's a beautiful pond with a pier and you can walk out on the pier and walking there from my home and back is about a two mile walk. That's something that I do for my physical health, but mostly for my mental health, because it's just very relaxing and gets me exercise, and I just love that, that walk, and right now is the perfect time, the perfect weather, to do that. We have had some recent developments in our home and for so many of you you've become my friends and I like to let you know things, some things that are going on in our home, in our lives. My husband recently resigned as pastor of our church. He was set in as the pastor there 16 years ago and it's the church where he grew up, where he was raised, and it's the church where I came to the Lord, where I became a Christian, and so we have deep roots there and it was just something he felt like it was time. He felt like his assignment there was over. For you guys who listen to the show, you know that he is also a full time principal. He is the principal at the high school where my, my sons attend, all three of our boys attend, and he's been there several years and he's working on his PhD. He has a lot going on and he felt like it was time for him to step down, and so we're just trying to maneuver through all of that and what that looks like, you know, trying to find our place. We feel like we're still going to be there to serve, just not in the same capacity.

Audrey:

This past weekend we got away. We went to Savannah just to kind of decompress. Savannah is one of my favorite places and before we had children and when our children were small, we would go there on the weekends and I just I love Savannah, and so we did that this past weekend. Honestly, I completely forgot that it was St Patrick's Day weekend and that's a big deal in Savannah and we're not partiers, so but it was nice. It was nice St Patrick's Day was on Monday. We left on Sunday, so we didn't get in, you know, into a lot of it, but we did stay right downtown and the good thing is there was a lot of things going on in the city because of that. So we just I just enjoyed spending time with him, so that was. That was refreshing, that was such a blessing and I'm very thankful for that. But so, yes, we're trying to figure out our place there. I would really appreciate your prayers as we go through this transition.

Audrey:

Transitions are always hard. Even when they're good transitions, they're still hard. So much of what we do is wrapped up in our identity and we can say that's identity, and we can say that's wrong and we can say, well, you shouldn't do that. Well, it's just the facts. I mean, that's just what we do. You know, when we do something every day consistently for years, then that becomes a part of how we see ourselves and how other people see us, and so when that changes, there's always a transition. So my prayer is that we would transition. Well, I'll still be running the church's coffee shop, and what I hope is that this will free me up a little bit to do some of the things I've been wanting to do online, where I've not really had an opportunity to do. I've not really felt like I've had the time to commit to it, write some more books, those kinds of things. So just wanted to let you guys know that and ask you to please be praying for us during this transition time.

Audrey:

And we believe it's the Lord, we believe that God has good things in store. But today I wanted to share with you a message that I shared at my church about three weeks ago, and it's about having our own encounter with God. We have to meet God for ourselves. God has to become our God. He can't just be the God of our parents or the God of our pastor, or the God of our husband or our wife. He has to be our God. And the only way for that to happen is for us to come face to face with God, and not the God that everyone tells us about, but the God that we actually meet. And today's message is about that, and I talk about Moses and how he had an encounter. He had a true encounter with the living God, and God not only showed him that he was the one and true and real God, but he also showed Moses who he created him to be. And that's what happens when we encounter God we are transformed and we find clarity in what God has asked of us in our calling, and so I share this with you today. I hope and pray that it's an encouragement. God bless you. Hope you have a great week.

Audrey:

Good morning, it is so good to be back with you again this morning. I just thank the Lord for the worship this morning. I just thank Him for His presence. You know the worship, it's for the Lord, right, we worship him, it's his worship, but it does something in us. It gets our eyes on him, it gets our heart straight. You know he, we worship him, but he does something in us and I just thank him this morning for his worship. I just thank him for worship this morning and I'd really appreciate the opportunity to speak. I don't take it for granted. I'm honored today to speak to you and hopefully to give you some encouragement and something to chew on and to think about for the week, but I want to talk with you today about Moses, and you know, moses, I'm just going to get right into it this morning.

Audrey:

Moses was a man in two worlds. Okay, that's how I think about Moses. When I think about him, you know, we read him and we study him and we talk about him. But Moses was a man of two worlds and he didn't fit completely in either one of them. He was a Hebrew that was supposed to be killed but was spared, and so he was never a slave. But he was brought up as Pharaoh's daughter's son. But he was brought up as Pharaoh's daughter's son so to the Hebrews he didn't really fit in there because he wasn't a slave and everybody else was a slave. There were no other Hebrews his age because at the time he was born all the male children were killed. So he was unique and he didn't really fit in with his people.

Audrey:

And so he's growing up in Pharaoh's court and he doesn't really fit in there and everybody knows that he doesn't look like them, he's different, and y'all know, especially young people, nobody wants to be different, nobody wants to stand out, right, just want to fit in, just want to find my place. Most people don't want to stand out. And Moses had no choice. He stood out wherever he went. And I'm sure there was a lot of confusion. And there was a lot of confusion on the outside right. Where do I belong? Where's my place? There's a lot of confusion on the inside too. Who am I? And you know he finds himself rejected by both worlds.

Audrey:

He I believe his mama prayed over him. I know his mama prayed over him. I know she sent him out into the world, prayed over. I know she loved him. She, she was his, she was his advocate. I mean, she saved him from the Nile, she brought him into Pharaoh's court. She was his advocate, she was praying for him and I believe she taught him. God has a plan for you, god has a special plan for you. You are different. God has rescued you for a purpose and I believe all of that little bit of time she had with him, she was pouring into him. She's praying and she's pouring into him. She's telling him who he is and what God had for him.

Audrey:

And then he has to live that out and it doesn't quite settle with what he sees around him, the reality that he finds himself in, and so he's rejected on both sides because when he tries to rise up and protect his people, he ends up killing an Egyptian. And then his people said who made you judge over us? We didn't ask you to do this. Who do you think you are? That's his own people. And then Pharaoh's trying to kill him. So he ends up running into the desert and he runs and he finds himself in a place where there are no Hebrews and there are no Egyptians. It's just him.

Audrey:

And he spends 40 years there. He spends 40 years there and one day something catches his eye and it says there was a burning bush, but it wasn't consumed and it was unusual, it was something different. And it caught his eye and he said I will turn aside and I will look at this, I will ponder this. In other words, god got his attention and he listened. God got his attention, god was doing something different, god was doing something new and he recognized this is unusual, this is different, and I will turn aside. And because he turned aside to God, god spoke to him. And that's how it is when God is speaking. We got to have ears to hear and recognize this is different, this is God, because if we don't recognize it's God, then we don't take it serious, amen. And he's about to tell us something that we need for our life, and we have to have ears to hear and recognize this is God. And so he turns aside and God speaks to him, and God tells him things he doesn't necessarily want to hear, but he needs to hear.

Audrey:

See, not only was there a confusion over who am I? Which camp do I land in? Am I Hebrew? Am I an Egyptian? Am I neither?

Audrey:

But there was confusion over, well, who is God? Because his mom is telling him there is a God and he is our God. We are his chosen people and he has chosen you to deliver His chosen people. And he is all-powerful and he is all-knowing and he is the God, the only true God. And she's telling him this right. And then he's in Egypt and he can see the gods. Do you understand that they're gods? He could touch, he could see them. They were huge, they were taller than this building and they ruled everything. And he was taught in their schools, and he was taught that these are the gods, these are the real gods. And see, here's the conflict. If my mama's God is God, then why are we all slaves? If we're his chosen people, then why are we the ones in bondage? If we're serving the right God, then why are we living like this? Amen. If what she's saying is true, then it doesn't make sense, because Pharaoh was saying these are God and he is the one in charge and he's powerful, and he even himself claimed to be a God and for all of God's people he was the one in charge, and so he, I imagine, moses.

Audrey:

I'm not trying to read into the scripture, I'm just trying to think what would be going through a person's mind that has been raised this way. He's been taught one thing at home and then, when he goes out into the world, something completely different. What would be going through his mind? Not only does he not know who he is, but who is God, until he has an encounter with God. See, we can love our children. We can love and not just our children the people that we minister to. We can love them, we can pray for them, we can believe for them, but until they have their own encounter with God, until they have their own day when he meets them face to face and they are curious and they draw aside and they give Him their attention, then he will not be their God, he will not be real to them. They might go through the motions, they might go to church, they might say the sinner's prayer, but until they meet God face to face and they have an encounter with Him and he draws them near and they draw near to Him and it's real, then he will never be their God, amen. And so in this scene, when Moses and God come together, he's becoming not just the God of my fathers, not just the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He's becoming Moses' God. He's showing Moses. This is who I am. I am real and I am the one true and living God.

Audrey:

But by this time Moses has been through a lot. He was about 40 when he ran from Pharaoh and he ended up in the desert, and he's about 80 when this has happened. He's been in the desert for 40 years taking care of sheep. We say he went from hero to zero, right, I mean, he went from the top to the bottom really fast. And now, instead of dressing nice like he lives in Pharaoh's court, he's got on the robe of a shepherd and he's carrying around a piece of wood. He's carrying around a stick. And that's where God finds him. God finds him humbled. God finds him. He's not real busy, right, he's just taking care of sheep, don't have a whole lot going on. That's where God finds him and that's where God reveals himself to him. Amen.

Audrey:

And that's where God changes everything, because he comes into contact, he comes face to face with the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and he tells him you're going to go do this, this is what you're going to do, and God, in Exodus 3.18, and I just want to read this real quick God is explaining to him the mission, the mission that he has for Moses. In Exodus 3.18, he tells him. He says he's saying this. Actually I'm going to start in verse 16, because it gives a little bit more context.

Audrey:

In verse 16, chapter 3 of Exodus, it says Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me saying I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt. So I said I will bring you up out of your affliction, out of the affliction of Egypt, to the land of Canaan, to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite to a land flowing with milk and honey. So he's telling Moses what to tell the elders of Israel and he says they will pay heed, they will pay attention to what you say, and you will. And you, with the elders of Israel, will come to the king of Egypt and you will say to him the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent us. So now, please, let us go three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord, our God. So he's telling him go and speak to the elders. They will listen to you. They will listen to you. They will listen to you.

Audrey:

But see, he tried that before and they didn't listen to him. His own people said who are you? Who do you think you are? You don't rule over us. Do y'all remember that? So then, in Exodus 4.1, moses gives his reply. Then Moses said what if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say the Lord has not appeared to you.

Audrey:

So have you ever been burned? Have you ever stepped out and done something and you thought it was what God called you to do? But you fell flat on your face and people ridiculed you flat on your face and people ridiculed you and it hurt and it burned and you were embarrassed and you just want to go and crawl under a hole, under a rock and a hole. Have you ever felt that way? You? If you haven't, you should. You should experience that. It is a wonderful place to be, and I mean that because it is a place where you get real with God.

Audrey:

I thought, obviously I thought wrong, but I thought we were in this together, lord, sometimes it's the right call, but it's not the time and you're not doing it. You're doing it on adrenaline. You're doing it thinking I got this, I got this, look who I am, look who God called me to be, and we step out and we fall face down and it hurts. And so when God really calls us, when it's time for the call, when he's prepared you for 40 years in the desert, it's time for the call, we're gun shy. I don't know about that, lord. This seems very familiar. This seems very familiar.

Audrey:

I remember the last time I believed what my mama said. I remember the last time I believed that everything she said about me was true. I remember the last time I believed that you had a call me was true, I believe. I remember the last time I believed that you had a call on my life or you asked me to do something and I stepped out and you weren't there and they didn't listen to me. And now you're wanting me to go do the same thing, and God's already told them they will listen to you. Why? Because God is sending him now will listen to you. Why? Because God is sending him now. Amen, it's his time. So, finally, after he says, they're going to say the Lord never appeared to you. That's Moses' fear, that's his fear. His fear is I'm going to go to my people, I'm going to put my neck out again. I'm going to step out and say I'm going to do this thing and the same thing is going to happen. I'm going to fall again.

Audrey:

And then the Lord says in chapter 4, starting in verse 2, the Lord said to him what is that in your hand? And he said a staff. We'll read a little bit more. And he said throw it on the ground. So he threw it on the ground and it became a serpent and Moses fled from it. But the Lord said to Moses stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail. So he stretched out his hand and he called it and it became a staff in his hand that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and that God has appeared to you. So the Lord gave him a sign, but he said what is that in your hand? God knew what was in his hand.

Audrey:

Moses had been through the school of the Holy Ghost, the school of the Holy Spirit. God has put us in school if we so choose to learn. He will put us in the school of the Holy Ghost if we decide we're going to do what he's called us to do. And Moses had been in the school of the Holy Ghost and did not know it. He didn't even know he was in training. He didn't even know that everything that happened to him, that looked like a big mess, that looked like a big mistake, that looked like he failed, it was all part of the process, it was part of the training because he was in the school of the Holy Ghost, amen. He didn't realize that his people rejecting him, that Pharaoh rejecting him, that him falling flat on his face, that him being exiled to the middle of nowhere where nobody knew him and nobody cared about him and nobody was looking for him. That that was all part of the process, because he was in the school of the Holy Spirit.

Audrey:

Because God cares about you, you know you can have a great call on your life and you can have, you know, dreams and visions of what God wants to do in your life and what things God wants to do through you powerful things that God wants to do through you. But God cares more about your character than he does your performance. He cares a bit more about who you're becoming than what you're going to be doing. You know, if God used us that way, we would just be pawns on a chessboard, moving us where he needed us at that time. And there are things and positions and places and timings that God wants to get us set up at the right place. But we're not dispensable to him. He cares about us. He cares about who we are and who we're becoming, because we're his children. We're not his pawns, amen.

Audrey:

And so God is doing something in Moses bigger than Moses can see, and it's good. But it doesn't feel good. See, the first time he stepped out, he failed it. The first time Moses stepped out, he failed it. He failed it. It was bubbling up inside of him I'm called to do this and I will do this and I'll show everybody that this is what I'm called to do. But now he didn't want to do it. See the difference Now, when God's actually telling him it's time to do this, he's like I don't really want to do this, I'd rather not.

Audrey:

Lord Luca, please go find somebody else. I'd rather not. Lord Luca, please go find somebody else. I'd rather not. I'm okay. I like it here. Now. It's peaceful here. Nobody's expecting a whole lot from me, amen. I've got a family. Now let's just chill. Find somebody else. Find another young buck that's excited because I'm not Amen. But God said nope, I've just got you ready now. Now you're ready. Now you're ready because I've done a work inside of you. Amen.

Audrey:

And it's not about a feeling. If it was about a feeling, then it would be in your power, be in your ability, be in your authority. But it's not about a feeling, it's about a calling and it's about obedience. Amen. See, obedience isn't really obedient until you don't want to do it. You ever thought about that? If I call my child to eat chocolate cake, it's really not a hardship, it's a oh. Okay, I need you to eat this cake. Okay, I need you to clean out the garage. It's a whole different spin. Amen. Because that's when I got to do it, though I don't want to do it. That's obedience, amen.

Audrey:

And so now he doesn't necessarily want to do it, but it's time to do it, amen. And so he's got to step out and God says what's that in your hand right now? It was a humble stick, it was a piece of wood. Do you know, pharaoh? Had you ever seen pictures of the Pharaoh where he's got the crook and the flail is what they call it? You ever seen that? And in the mummies, the coffins that he's holding it like this? You know what that is? It's a shepherd's crook and it's a shepherd's flail the crook for when the shepherd's out in the field, he can take the lamb and pull him back, and the flail for when he misbehaves he can give him a little spank and he won't do that again. And see, the symbolism was Pharaoh is the shepherd of Egypt, he shepherds Egypt, he's the shepherd of his people. That was the imagery, with the flail and the crook. He is in authority, he is in charge, and so God is sending a true shepherd back to Egypt with a stick. Now, pharaoh's stick and his crook and his flail was made out of copper and zinc. It was golden and beautiful.

Audrey:

Moses' Moses' was a stick. It was made out of wood. And so he's sending Moses back into Egypt as a true shepherd, and what he's saying is these are my people and this is their shepherd. You have mistreated my people. You have not earned the right to be their shepherd. I'm pulling my people out and this is the shepherd that I have decided to use.

Audrey:

But see, moses didn't feel qualified because the instruments that God gave him were not fancy Amen. They were very simple, very modest, very humble, but they were everything he needed, because if they had been fancy, if they had been impressive, if they had been bold, then the glory wouldn't have rested with God but with Moses. So you've got everything you need right now to do what God's called you to do. That means that we have to step out in faith and do it when we don't feel qualified. Amen, amen.

Audrey:

See, moses was telling them I've given you all the authority to do this. I've given you Look what's in your hand. I've given you everything you need to do this. You just got to step out and do it. Amen, you got to do it. You got to put it to it, you got to do it. I've given you everything you need to accomplish what I've asked you to do. It just doesn't feel like it. It doesn't look like it because it's not what you thought it was going to look like. It's simple, it's humble, but it's powerful. Amen.

Audrey:

See, the power of Moses' rod was in God, and God wants you to take what's in your hand, what he's equipped you with, and he wants you to apply it. Amen. It might be a simple word, it might be a humble word, it might not be much at all, but he wants you to take what you have. But you don't feel like it's enough and he wants you to apply it to the situation. So he goes, moses goes to his people's leader, to the people's leaders, and they believe Pharaoh was not as easy to convince.

Audrey:

But God used that rod, that simple rod in his hand, to bring about the plagues, to bring about the hell, to bring about the locusts, to bring about the darkness, to part the Red Sea, to close the Red Sea. He used what to us would seem like nothing to do miracles, to make a way where there seemed to be no way. Guys, you've got something. You don't think you do, but you've got something and it's powerful when you step up to the plate, even when you don't want to, even when you don't feel like it, even when it's not burning anymore, even when it's not exciting anymore, and just say, if God wants me to do it, I'll do it. Even if I don't feel like it, even if I'd rather not, I'm going to do it. I'm going to take this. That doesn't feel like it's enough and I'm afraid I'm going to fall again like I did last time. But if Jesus wants this of me, I'll give this to him. Amen. Here you go, lord. It's not enough, but it's what you've given me, it's what you put in my hand and I use it. Amen.

Audrey:

If God says stretch out your rod stretched out. If God says place your rod in the sea, place your rod in the sea, amen. If God says hold the rod over your head, hold the rod over your head. If God says take your rod and strike the rock, you take your rod and you strike the rock. See, because it's not about you, it's about obedience, and when you obey the things God told you to do, when he asked you to do it, then God moves, it's not you. You know they had to hold that rod. They had to hold that rod over Moses' head. He had to have people around him to hold that rod over his head because it was the same rod. But when he held that rod up, they won. They won the battle. But when the rod starts to fall, they lose. But they held it back up because the power was in the authority that God had given him.

Audrey:

Amen, it wasn't in him, it was in the authority God had given him. And, guys, god has given us an authority to take the land. He's given us an authority to go in. He's given us an authority to love and to see the power of God transfer from us to the next generation. Amen, that's in you. It's in you, whether you choose to use it or not. Amen. And God wants to do something in us. You know we are a work in progress. We're in the school of the Holy Ghost and nothing is wasted. God knows what he's doing. You know Moses spent 80 years in the desert. I mean, he spent 40 years from the time he fled Egypt to the time God appeared. But then he goes back and he gets his people and he spends 40 more years in the desert. Poor Moses, he was in the desert. 80, two-thirds of his life he was in the desert.

Audrey:

Why, see, sometimes we've got to go through the desert to show people how to get out of the desert. How are you going to help somebody get out of the desert when you've never been there? And how are you going to get them out unless you go with them to the desert? See, I want to be in Canaan telling them turn right, turn left. That's what I want to be in Canaan. Telling them turn right, turn left. That's what I want to be.

Audrey:

I want to be able to sit on my high pedestal and say y'all shouldn't do it this way. This isn't going to turn out well. You should take a left, you should take a right. But see, god wants you with them, guiding them, listening with them. At the same time, he wants you with them in the desert. And see, sometimes we just think well, why do I have to go around this mountain again and again and again? Well, maybe it's for somebody else, maybe there's somebody behind you, following you that needs to know the way out. And if you're not there to show them the way. Yes, god can show them, but you've been walking with God longer.

Audrey:

You know some things and they need it. Guys, there's a whole generation. I get upset. I get a little upset when I hear people talk down about the current generation. You know the generation wars where one's talking about how bad the other one is and one's talking about how bad this one is. Because I see a whole generation of very hungry people. They're hungry and they're not easily fooled. They can spot a fake and they want the real thing. And you've got the real thing. And your delivery may not be spot on right, we may not be polished, but what we've got is good. And there's a whole generation out there that's hungry for something real. They want something good. They've heard about it. They've heard about it. I want to give out what I have received Amen. If I have to walk in the desert with them, I'll stay in the desert, I'll walk around the desert, I'll walk around the mountain, but, god, it's so worth it if they can get the real thing. Amen, amen, thank you Lord. Thank you Lord.