Focus: Expiration Date

Text: Act.7:30

"And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush."

Life is lived in phases, and every phase of life has expiry date. Moses was born in Egypt and lived in the palace of Pharaoh for forty years. And then one thing led to another, and he found himself living in the desert for another forty years. Imagine moving from the palace to the desert, from limelight to obscurity, and from the top to the bottom! His regal power vanished and his accomplished glory dimmed.

When the time of his desert life came to an end he met God. It was a meeting that changed the course of his life and set him on the path of making history.

Moses saw the invisible, and as a result of that, his desert life came to an end. The divine appearance gave his life a new meaning. God invaded his personal world and ended his forty years of hard labor. God granted him a new start, new hope, fresh vigor and a vital role in history.

It is even more interesting how all of this happened. Moses strolled into the presence of God unknowingly. Ex.3:1 says, "Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb." Moses led the sheep far into the desert and came to a mountain which turned out to be God's sacred spot, known as Horeb or Sinai. Surprisingly, and pleasantly too, Moses found himself on a spot where God's holy presence ignited a fire that burned without consuming the shrubs. That spot was made holy by reason of the presence of the Holy One.

Moses left the desert after his meeting with God. The next time he came to the desert with the children of Israel, it was not to live there, but only to pass through it. The desert is for you to go through, but not to live in it. By divine encounter the desert became only a passage, not a residence.

I say to you that your time in the wilderness has elapsed. Your time of low living has expired. Your season of unceasing pain is over. God is bringing you into a new season of amazing destiny. The story of your life is beginning to enter its glory stage. What you couldn't do before is doable now with the support of God. It is time to move on to the next level of your life. You still have fruitful years ahead of you. Moses lived for another forty years, fulfilling the will of God for his life - making a total of a hundred and twenty years. First 40 years of marvelous MAJESTY in Egypt. Second 40 years of mundane MYSTERY in the desert, and the last 40 years of mighty MINISTRY through the desert.

God is ushering you into a new level and phase of your life. Old things are leaving you for good. New things are knocking at the door for you. Amen.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter