Jesse Duplantis - Jesses gold

One More Night With the Frogs By Jesse Duplantis

One More Night With The Frogs

God raised up a man named Moses to deliver the children of Israel from Egyptian slavery...but it wasn't easy for him. Moses wasn't what you'd call a "born leader," and, in fact, he was one of the most unpopular pastors ever. He pastored three million people, and it seemed like nobody really liked him.

Some of them wanted him dead!

Actually, Moses would have been dead had his mother not orphaned him as a baby. His childhood was weird by Hebrew standards since he was actually raised by a royal Egyptian familythe same family who ordered all the Hebrew children under two to be killed. How's that for a paradox? God works in mysterious ways. The most unlikely candidates for leadership are often the ones to whom He chooses to show His amazing power.

Moses' mother wasn't anybody's fool, and she had a plan to save her son from death. She put him in a basket by the water's edge where the Pharaoh's daughters bathed, hoping that one of them would see him, have mercy on him and raise him as their own.

Sure enough, one of the women did exactly that, and Moses was raised in the house of Pharaoh.

This made him a very rich man, but all his new family's wealth and power didn't distract him from the unjust treatment happening to his people. You see, Moses knew his heritage, and the older he got, the more it bothered him to see the Hebrew people living in slavery.

Moses may have been able to see right from wrong, but he was by no means perfect. In fact, the man had a fierce temper when it came to Egyptian taskmasters, and one day, his temper drove him to commit murder.

The Bible tells us that Moses saw an Egyptian beating one of the Hebrew slaves, and it angered him so much that he immediately killed the Egyptian and buried his body. When Pharaoh heard about this, it made him furious! He sought to kill Moses as punishment for his crime against the Egyptian. But, Moses wasn't a fool, and he didn't hang around long enough to feel Pharaoh's wrath. Instead, he ran away and hid out in a town called Midian, and it was there that God began to work on Moses' character.

Moses had issues! But God saw His heart, and although his temperament was not perfect, He chose Moses to lead His people out of slavery.

Before God would put him in that position, however, he had some growing up to do. He had to work some things out and other things in to Moses' character.

Growing Out of Diapers and Into Mature Faith

God will never ask you to do something until you've worked out some of those "new-born" issues.

He didn't call Moses to leadership as a newborn floating in the reeds, and He won't call baby Christians to leadership either. A firm foundation in Christ must be laid first.

You see, nobody begins life as a wise person.

Everybody has physical and mental growing up to do, and we all make mistakes. It's just part of life.

When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we are "re-born" in the spirit realm, and God expects us to begin growing up spiritually. As we learn more of God's Word, His way of doing things, and develop our relationship with Him, we grow in godly wisdom.

Wisdom is the characteristic we need to lead ourselves and others well.

The Bible tells us in Luke 12:48, "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required..." This means that as you mature as a Christian, God will require more of you. He's not going to cut you as much slack as He first did. He's not going to treat you like a baby anymore. You're going to have to learn to rely upon His Word.

Before you accepted Jesus, you simply relied on your five senses to get through lifeeverything was determined by what you saw, tasted, touched, smelled and heard. Now that you're "born again," instead of relying on your basic senses, you can depend upon the Spirit of God, who lives within you, to guide your life. This is a sign of spiritual maturity.

I believe that God gets no pleasure in seeing Christians who've been saved for 40 years still wearing diapers, sucking their thumbs and whining about all the issues of life. He gets no pleasure in Christians who let the devil whip them as if they have no hope and faith. We are powerful because we have God! That gives us hope in any situation. The more we renew our mind to His ways, the more confident we should be in our faith and the more "grown-up" we should act when it comes to "doing" the Word.

Another sign of maturity is patience. James 1:4

says, "But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." Patience is not an instinct; it's something that you learn by doing. Babies don't have it, but grown men and women of God should have it. Hebrews 6:12 says,

"That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises."

Moses did some growing up in Midian. It was there that he married and started a family, and much time passed before he had his burning bush experience. After the Pharaoh died, the Bible tells us that God decided that it was the right time for Moses to rise up into leadership and set the children of Israel 8

free. Notice that God is the one who chose the person to lead and the time to save the people.

As the flames on the bush roared, God called Moses to do the job. Of course, Moses didn't think he could do it. He said, "Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?" (Exodus 3:11). But God knew Moses, and He knew Himself! He chose the man with a heart for the job. After all, He knew that Moses just needed to be encouraged and to know that he was not alone. So God assured Moses that He would not do it alone and said, "Certainly I will be with thee..."

(Exodus 3:12).

This is an important point for you to remember in life. If God asks you to do something, He will always help you to get it done. You may not be able to do anything worthy on your own, but with Him, ALL things are possible!

There is Always Opposition Before Freedom

Moses obeyed God and went back to Egypt, but freeing the people wasn't exactly easy. The new Pharaoh wasn't about to give up his slaves just because Moses said, "Let my people go!" But that didn't make any difference to Moses. Read the Bible and you'll see that Moses just kept on commanding the situation to changehe stuck to the same line, "Let my people go!"

Now, this is a good point, because the truth is that there is always opposition before freedom. It can be disheartening, but it is part of the process because there can be no testimony without a test. If you want results, you're going to have to stick with it. Nothing comes easy, and if it's worth something to God, the devil is going to fight it!

The Bible tells us in Exodus that Moses told Pharaoh what God would do to Egypt if he didn't free the slaves, but Pharaoh didn't listen. He didn't care because he didn't believe in Moses' God. So, do you know what he did? Pharaoh made the slaves work even harder out of spite, and he ordered them to be beaten if they didn't produce more work with less materials.

This ticked the people offat Moses! All of the unfair treatment made the children of Israel wish that Moses had never come, and they told him so. They even wished the judgment of God on him. Moses didn't know what to do! Everything was looking worse than when he started, which is an important lesson to learn about dealing with opposition.

Sometimes it can look like you're making no headway at all. You can do what God said, and things can seem worse. Remember, if God said to do it, there is a reason for you to continue. The devil is just fighting you and betting that you'll give up. Don't give in. He won't win if you keep on going.

The devil is an idiot, and he will only attack you with what is "common to man" (1 Cor. 10:13). So, it's going to be the same old attacks as usual. Remember, the Bible says that he'll crack eventually and he'll flee. But you've got to put up some resistance to his attacks (James 4:7). The Lord, on the other hand, will never crack! The God we serve is the same yesterday, today and forever, and He will always win. (Hebrews 13:8) If you stick with Him, you'll win too.