Resurrecting And Restoring Your Lost Gifts

INTRODUCTION: The church's potency and influence is contingent on the saints of God operating in the full potential of the giftings and talents God has endowed them with. By the same token, the church will remain weak and ineffective if God's people are discouraged, unintentional and poor stewards of their giftings and talents. Moses is one person the enemy tries harm by quenching, nullifying and causing to forfeit his giftings and talents.

"At that time Moses was born, and was fair in the sight of God. And he was reared for three months in his father's house. When he was put out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up and reared him as her own son. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in words and in deeds" (Acts 7:20-22).

Moses 'Lost' his Powerful Words & Deeds

Moses grew up "powerful in words and in deeds." That was his testimony. That was who he was. He was confident, articulate, eloquent, a great communicator and strong physically. It is amazing that the same Moses, when God called him years later, would repeatedly give excuses for the same qualities and giftings God had given him. He was about 40 years old when he struck down the Egyptian and had to flee to Midian. For the next 40 years, he was a shepherd in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. And then the Lord encountered him powerfully in the burning bush (Acts 7:23-34). A long time had passed since Moses was "mighty in words and deeds." We are about to see how far Moses had departed, from an eloquent, mighty man to an insecure, stuttering shepherd in the wilderness.

Moses' Excuses & Insecurities

When God called him to deliver His people from Pharaoh, Moses would give these excuses:

• "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?" (Exodus 3:11b).

• "What shall I say to them?" (Exodus 3:13c).

• "But they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice" (Exodus 4:1b).

• "O Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant. But I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue" (Exodus 4:10).

• "O my Lord, send, I pray, by the hand of whomever else You will send" (Exodus 4:13).

God Restored Moses' Voice

Watch how the Lord breathed life to the very giftings of Moses that had become dead and buried, resurrected his hope and confidence, brought vision to his disillusionment and spoke promise into his prophetic destiny. God was speaking directly to the very places of strength that had become weaknesses in Moses' life. God was building up this man of God again. He was restoring the power of Moses' voice:

And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM," and He said, "You will say this to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'?"God, moreover, said to Moses, "Thus you will say to the children of Israel, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.'

"Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, "I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt. Therefore, I said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey."

"They shall listen to your voice, and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you must say to him, 'The Lord, the God of the Hebrews has met with us. Therefore, now, let us go, we ask you, three days' journey into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.'"

Footnotes: "Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you must say" (Exodus 4:12).

God Restored Moses' Mighty Deeds

The Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?"

And he said, "A rod."

He said, "Throw it on the ground."

And he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent. Then Moses fled from it. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Put forth your hand and take it by the tail." And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand. "This is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you."