Moses witnessed the bush burning, but not burning up. This was the turning point for him. The bush hadn't been ignited by the desert heat or the pounding sun. It had been ignited by a different fire, a supernatural flame, that burned in the brittle wood but didn't consume it.
You may be brittle and combustible in your weak humanness but you need a revelation of glory-fire that can live in you.
That will be the turning point; the revelation that points you towards walking in your calling.
Moses was changed enough by his experience in the Midian over forty years. He could now carry the fire within him wherever he went. Herding sheep had developed compassion in him. His heart was tender enough to lead the people of God into freedom.
Any calling from God, whatever it is, is always and without exception, to lead His people away from bondage and slavery and into God’s freedom.
God then begins to reveal Himself to Moses. This revelation will set Moses up for what God has called him to do. Our specific calling relates to how God reveals Himself to us. It is that personal revelation burning within us which makes us into the unique ‘ministers’ that we become.
First of all, God tells Moses that He is the “God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” (Exodus 3:6)
I want to give a ‘Fatherheart’ interpretation to this. It strikes me now that this is a sort of ‘heart of sonship’ moment for Moses.
He is reconnected again to his own father, and to his forefathers.
Calling is stilted if it doesn't flow from a heart of sonship.
Heart forgiveness of our parents and heart-repentance toward our parents (getting back a heart of sonship) reconnects us with our calling. There is so much in this that I could write about, but now is not the time.
In declaring that He is the God of Moses’ father and forefathers, God reconnects Moses with his identity and his connection to the family of God.
When Moses killed the Egyptian and buried him in the desert forty years earlier, he was operating as a ‘lone Ranger.’ He was a maverick, trying to do it all on his own steam.
Now he is ready to return to Egypt, shattered and humbled, but standing on the shoulders of his forefathers.
But Moses asks God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them.” (Exodus 3:13)
Moses knows that the people are deeply immersed in orphanness; they are slaves under a tyrant. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob does nothing for them. The God of their fathers has not done anything to help them.
If Moses is going to lead them he needs to reconnect them with a God who can help them supernaturally.
Then God answers Moses, “I AM WHO I AM…Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:14)
If Moses just preaches the God of the past, who helped Abraham, Isaac and Jacob many years ago, this will not cut it with the enslaved people.
Moses needs to preach and demonstrate a God who is present and relevant to them, who will work supernaturally on their behalf.
This is I AM THAT I AM.
The Hebrew meaning of this has the sense of “I will be whatever you need me to be.”
In other words, I (God) will supernaturally meet you at the point of your need and demonstrate in your experience who I really am.
Sounds like the closest thing to the revelation of the Father. The Father is the one who will be for His kids whatever they need Him to be.
Don’t be afraid to push the boat out and believe that signs will accompany the revelation that God is Father.
We need more than words. We need a demonstration. We need God to be whatever we need Him to be.
We need to have the confidence to tell those trapped in orphanness that God will meet them at their point of need. He will be I AM WHO I AM. He will be a Father to them.