Finding time to Blog right now is hard. But today I felt it was right to share with you some of the things I am learning – some of the things God is depositing in me and challenging me to think through. I hope it helps you.

Today I was listening to a sermon by the microphone-murdering TD Jakes. Never have I heard a man who is more passionate for the word of the Lord. He literally sweats litres as he preaches, shouting his message with great fervour and conviction. Some American preachers with similar delivery drive me to instantly find the ‘off ‘ switch, but there is something authentic, winning and genuine about who he is and what he has learnt. I like him and I find him easy to learn from.

Today I heard him preach on the story of Moses. Some of what he spoke about left a real impression on me. It was what the old school preachers would call a “timely word.” So I share my simple thoughts with you.

Moses was a man with an identity crisis. He wasn’t Hebrew enough to be a proper Hebrew and he wasn’t Egyptian enough to be an Egyptian. He was, in all honesty, a misfit.

Ever felt the same? Ever felt that you don’t fit in your family, or your church or your neighbourhood, or your job, or your office environment, or your school? I think at times we can all feel this. But we have to recognise that being a misfit is often part of God’s methodology. It’s not some kind of huge mistake. It is totally intentional and designed by Him for your purpose and destiny – and for mine.

He WANTS us NOT to fit in for a reason.

Moses runs away from his problems and wanders around in the desert for 40 years. 40 years! That is a long term at school. That is a long class. That is a long degree. That is a long PhD. That is a long double doctorate. 40 years of not knowing who he was or why he was. Maybe he had to learn a few things twice, or the hard way? At any rate, he stayed where he was all that time.

Remember that he was trained and raised to be a prince. He was not Ray Mears. He was unlikely to have studied desert survival training as part of his education. There he was, not knowing which cacti he could eat and which would poison him. He did not know how to find food or water. He did not know how to build a shelter. He did not have a GCSE in solar-resistant wind-proof -animal-protected-tent-making. He was a guy alone in the desert. A criminal and an outcast. Albeit a very well-educated and well dressed one.

I bet during that time the enemy came to him and jeered at him saying “Where is the God of the Hebrews now? You can’t do anything right. Look at where you are! You got it all wrong didn’t you? You have failed yourself and your people. Why did your mother call you “Drawn out?” What kind of name is that for a nomad?! You haven’t been drawn out of anything at all!”

We are not told of course. I am just guessing. Guessing because I know the kind of language the enemy likes to use too well.

Sometime during this period Moses begins to meet up with his purpose and his destiny. He meets Jethro and Jethro offers him a job. This high-flying high-minded high-tempered prince of Egypt with fine clothes and gold jewellery was asked to watch a few mangy smelly animals. Talk about a come down…
But it is in the call to become a shepherd that God can start to do business with Moses.
Moses, who had never had a job in his life and who had spent his formative years in a palace with slaves and servants to wash his clothes and feed him grapes….now he is looking after sheep.

Again he must have felt like a misfit.

He must have thought that he had been wrong to dream and hope and work towards his own betterment. What good is science and technology and a Mphil in Sanskrit when all you have to do each day is find grass?

So had God got it wrong? Or had Moses himself got it wrong?
The enemy doesn’t care which one of those we answer in the affirmative. He just doesn’t want us to realise that desert seasons are meant for our good. Not at all. He wants us to whine and moan and curse God. Because then he has won.

As the story is told in the Bible, we then know that Moses had an epiphany. God, the master of “Suddenly,” changes his destiny and his purpose in an instant. There is no prayer prayed, no prophecy given, no speaking in tongues, no sermon preached, no course passed, no person encouraging nearby. God appears out of nothing, in the middle of nothing and announces that the ground Moses is standing on is HOLY ground.

Moses may well have been within his rights to argue. I mean, this was presumably ground he had stood on before, slept on before and led his sheep to before. Perhaps the sheep had even nibbled at the bush itself – the bush that was now on fire.

But now Moses was about to learn, as I am having to learn, that his destiny is IN the fire.

Nothing Moses had learnt was wasted after all. God was teaching him every step of the way, through every circumstance and situation. Being a misfit helped. Being a shepherd helped. Being able to navigate the wilderness helped. Being a prince by background helped. Being a murderer on the run helped. Being an ordinary man who had lost his sense of duty, calling and purpose helped. God knew what He was doing.

If Moses had taken the Hebrews with him into the wilderness 40 years before he would have led them into the same mess he had got himself into. He needed the credibility and the experience of survival in that tough place to be able to lead those people out and through. You can’t lead people where you have never been.

God will take the disconnected pieces of your life, the parts that make no sense, the hurts, disappointments, achievements, griefs, successes, abject failures, and turn them into something wonderful. He specialises with misfits.