Emmanuel Okoro (aka MrLift)

While in Egypt  "GOD said to Moses and Aaron while still in Egypt, "This month is to be the first month of the year for you." (Exod.12.1 -2) God spoke to Moses and Aaron all the time especially while they were in Egypt trying to get Pharaoh to release the children of Israel. So it should come to us as a surprise when He speaks to them this time around, we are told, it was while still in Egypt. Of course, where else would they have been? The catch was that God was already talking to them as though they were out of Egypt. He was talking to them now about their impending deliverance from Egypt. He was speaking to them about a future they haven't yet come into as though they were already in it. So he says, "This month is the first month of the year for you"  That means the servitude of previous months, the pain from the taskmaster's wip, the burden of working double shift just so they could build the cities and economy of Egypt were now all in the past. God...

God will see to it  "GOD saw to it that the Egyptians liked the people. Also, Moses was greatly admired by the Egyptians, a respected public figure among both Pharaoh's servants and the people at large." (Exod.11.3)  God is in the business of seeing to His will being done in our lives. Our text says that God saw to it that the Egyptians liked the people. It seem a bit far fetch for the Egyptians to like the children of Israel on whose account they have suffered a great deal. But they were besides themselves, and couldn't help themselves.  Why?  Because the Lord saw to it.  This shows us that God has influence on the behaviour of people, especially when it has to do with working out His predetermined will on the earth. Remember He told Abraham that his children will be slaves in a strange land and that He was going to bring them out after with great wealth after 400 years.  "GOD said to Abram, "Know this: your descendants will live as outsiders in a land not...

Respect for God's words  "All of Pharaoh's servants who had respect for GOD's word got their workers and animals under cover as fast as they could, but those who didn't take GOD's word seriously left their workers and animals out in the field." (Exod.9.20 - 21) The way one attends to the word of God show how much one respects the word or otherwise. Our text says that" All of Pharaoh's servants who had respect for God's word got their workers and animals under cover as fast as they could". And this says a lot as we discuss respect for God's word.  One way this passage show us that we can respect the word is that we heed and do what the word commands. Because they had respect for the word, they did what the word says. You cannot say you have respect for the word and do otherwise. In fact, those who did not respect the word did not heed the word.  God, through Moses had spoken that hail will rain down on Egypt and that they should get th...

If God said it, then He will do it  "Then GOD set the time: "Tomorrow GOD will do this thing."And the next day GOD did it. All the livestock of Egypt died, but not one animal of the Israelites died."(Exod.9.5 - 6) God's word is true. Whatever God says He will do, He will do but we must and cannot rush God. God is in perfect alignment with His timing. He will not be a minute late nor a minute earlier, He will be right on time.  Timing is very important to God. We know  this because when you read through the Bible, you will see lines such as "according to the time of life", in the fullness of time etc. Meaning timing is important to God and to His purpose. Eccl.3 tells us that there is a time for every purpose. So we see that purpose and timing work hand in glove.  In our text the Bible says that "God set the time". It might just be that the time is not right just yet, that's why there seem to be a delay but truly it is not a delay. The tex...

Stay on the mandate  "Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, "Go, sacrifice to your God in the land."(Exod.8.25)  The enemy will try to trick you into believing half truth or do something other than what God has instructed you to do, do not fall for it. Pharaoh had spoken to Moses and asked him to "Go, sacrifice to your God in the land". This sounded almost like what God had said to them but it was not.  Thank God for discerning men like Moses who quickly spotted the difference. He refused and said, "It is not right to do so..."  "And Moses said, "It is not right to do so, for we would be sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians to the LORD our God. If we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, then will they not stone us?" (Exod.8.25)  For if they had done as Pharaoh asked, it would not have amounted to sacrificing to the Lord in the wilderness. So Moses said: "We will go three days' journ...

The Lord will make a difference  "And in that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, in which My people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the land. I will make a difference between My people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall be.""'(Exod.8.22 -23) God always makes the difference. When God is involved, the difference is clear. There is this peace that His presence brings that is not explainable, that is why the Bible describes it as the peace that passes understanding. There may be trouble all around, but peace within you guarding your heart and mind. Situations that would cause others to loose their mind, but you are clam. The Lord makes the difference.  This was what Moses declared to Pharaoh in our text. He says swarms of flies shall fill the land but Goshen, where the children of Israel dwell in shall be set apart that no fly will be there to disturb them.  In others, the world aro...

Keep saying it "And the LORD said to Moses, "Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh as he comes out to the water. Then say to him, "Thus says the LORD: "Let My people go, that they may serve Me." (Exod.8.20)  Keep saying what it is the Lord has spoken to you. Say it until it becomes your reality.  There is so much power in repetitiveness. The more you say it, the more it registers in your consciousness and the more it registers in your consciousness, the more it is engraved in subconscious.  Why is this important?  Just as reflex actions come naturally to you because they are from your a subconscious level, you do not need to process them mentallybefore they are done. You do not think to blink in order to blink, so also will God's word to you, when speak them repeatedly.  So God kept sending Moses back to Pharaoh with one singular message, "Thus says the Lord: Let my people go, that they may serve me". Every time Moses appeared before ...

This is the finger of God  "Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." But Pharaoh's heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, just as the LORD had said." (Exod.8.19)  The magicians of Egypt had used their powers to replicate some of the initial miracles that God through Moses had performed but when the miracle of lice was wrought they couldn't replicate it and they had to admit to Pharaoh that it was by the finger of God that this was done.  "And they did so. For Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and struck the dust of the earth, and it became lice on man and beast. All the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.Now the magicians so worked with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not. So there were lice on man and beast." (Exod.8.17 - 18) Did not the Bible tell us that the earth is the Lord's? I wondered why they thought they could replicate that.  This holds a lot of les...

Why not now, why not today?  "And Moses said to Pharaoh, "Accept the honor of saying when I shall intercede for you, for your servants, and for your people, to destroy the frogs from you and your houses, that they may remain in the river only." So he said, "Tomorrow." And he said, "Let it be according to your word, that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God." (Exod.8.9 - 10) Procrastination is the thief of time. Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today? Why not now, why not today?  The story of how Pharaoh was given the honour to request the day the frogs that had ravaged his land and the lives of his people be destroyed and he puts it off until tomorrow.  Are you willing to suffer that pain one more day? Are you willing to endure that shame one more day?  It is note worthy to mention that like Pharaoh a lot of us have put off till a later day what we can do today. Moses tells us that it was an honour for Pharaoh to pick the ...

See...  "So the LORD said to Moses: "See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet." (Exod.7.1)  God could have told Moses that He has made him God to Pharaoh but no, He says to him, "see". So that it very important for Moses to see it It is very important for Moses to see it. To see is to perceive, to mentally ascent to the reality that God presents to him. If you do not see it, you almost could not walk in it.  You need to see your victory before it becomes reality. You need to see that God has won the victory for you. Little wonder the Apostle Paul say, we are more than conqueror, but if you do not see it, you may never walk in it.  God told Gideon, "Go in this thy might" because Gideon was not seeing what God was seeing. That's exactly what God was saying to Moses also. To walk in it you first got to see it.  When you meditate on the word of God, you are training your mind to see what the word of God says...

Say only what God has commanded  "That the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "I am the LORD. Speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you." But Moses said before the LORD, "Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh heed me?" (Exod.6.29 -30)  A song writer sang, "I no dey hear wetin God no talk, I no dey talk wetin devil talk". These lines are so powerful when you think about them. How often do we say things that God has not commanded us to say, we say things that are not in alignment with what God's word says. God commanded Moses to say what He has commanded. But instead Moses spoke his own words - spoke his incompetence, his failures and defeat, he spoke what his situation was saying instead of speaking what God commanded.  Some would say, "let's be real... '' and then proceed to reel out facts that contradict the word of God but what they do not know and understand is that nothing is more real than the word of...

The Lord says speak, speak  "That the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "I am the LORD. Speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you." But Moses said to the Lord, Behold, I am of deficient and impeded speech; how then shall Pharaoh listen to me? (Exod.6.29 AMP) We are prone to see our deficiency instead of our efficiency. We see and concentrate on the things we do not have but fail to see the ones we have. And in most cases, the ones we have are usually more than the ones we do not have but because we focus on what we do not have, we amplify them and as such increase their ability to hold us down and hold us back.  This was the case of Moses in our text. God had instructed him to speak to Pharaoh and had told him what to say. So it was not an issue of him not knowing what to say. But instead of speaking Moses complained to God that he is of deficient and impeded speech.  But we must realize that God will not ask us to do something He know we cannot do. He knows we can...

Speak to Pharaoh but first speak to yourself  "Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, and gave them a command for the children of Israel and for Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt." (Exod.6.13)  If you look closely at our text, it implies that for the children of Israel to come out of the slavery of Egypt, Moses would need to not only speak to Pharaoh the enslaver but first speak to the children of Israel, the enslaved. The command to Moses and Aaron is to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. But for that to happen, they must first speak to the children of Israel and then to Pharaoh.  Why was this important?  Moses had reported back to God that the children of Israel did heed his message. These were supposedly the ones who knew God talk less of the Pharaoh that doesa not know nor have a relationship with God.  This implies that you have to first believe God's word to you before you can speak to the ...

Yahweh "I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty [El-Shaddai], but by My name the Lord [Yahweh - the redemptive name of God] I did not make Myself known to them [in acts and great miracles]. (Exod.6.3 AMP) The knowledge of God we all have, when aggregated still does not sum up to the totality of Who God is. God is so great, so vast we cannot phantom the entity of the person of God.  God told Moses that He appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by the name God Almighty or El-Shaddai as seen in our text. They related with Him thus. But there were many sides or aspects of God that they did not encounter. He say but now, I am appearing or relating with you, Moses, not just as God Almighty or El-Shaddai but as the Lord or Yahweh. That is , the God Who is mighty in great acts and great miracles. God needed to be Yahweh in order to deliver Israel from the slaveryy of Pharaoh.  The God that shows up for you is the God that He wants you to encounter or engaged with. ...

For the word sake...  "So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, "You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves." (Exod.5.6 -7)  Has it occurred to you that once you received the word of God, the word is tried in order to ascertain the veracity of that word? Jesus told the parable of the sower, and in that parable informed us that tribulations arises for the word sake. In other word, the word heard and received causes trials and tribulation to arise.  "But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. (Mark.4.17 NIV) This was the situation in our text. Moses and Aaron had spoken the word of God to the children of Israel and to Pharaoh and because of this word, Pharaoh increase their workload and made working condition stringent. All of these he did to make them disbel...

Let my people go...  "Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel: "Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness."' (Exod.5.1)  The bible is replete with types and shadows. Pharaoh speaks of taskmaster that held the children of Israel in a captivity for 400 years. Pharaoh was so powerful Moses was scared to go before him. When God told him to go before Pharaoh he asked God, "Who am I that I should go before Pharaoh? Pharaoh was  like the number one citizen of the world, he was powerful.  But after Moses gained insight into who he truly was, he went before Pharaoh and demanded the release of his people from Egyptian slavery. We see him in our text, in the company of his brother Aaron. He did not speak his own words but God's word. He spoke God's word to the Pharaoh of slavery "Thus says the LORD God of Israel: Let My people go"  I don't know what Pharaoh has held you down...

Reevaluation "So the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A rod." (Exod.4.2)  In Marketing we are told that "There are two fools in the market, one who overprices himself and the other who underprises himself".  The story of Moses in our text teaches us to properly evaluate or reevaluate ourselves. Moses had a rod in his hands and with this rod he already had, he was going to deliver the children of Israel but because he did not properly evaluate his asset, he did not know how to value himself. And as such doubted and second guessed himself. So that even when God was showing him all that was possible, he wasn't able to see them. God had to help him see what his rod could do through diverse signs and wonder. May be, you too needs a reevalution.  God is asking you today, "What is that you have in your hands?" Are your properly evaluating yourself? Do you really know who God say you are? If the answer is yes, then you mu...

No excuse is tenable  "Then Moses answered and said, "But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, "The LORD has not appeared to you."' (Exod.4.1)  Have you ever encountered a child who will look for every and any reason to not carry out an assignment? If you have then you would see through Moses' excuses. He had every excuse imaginable but God kept knocking them off one after the other. That tells you one thing among others, and that is, God believes in you more than you could possibly believe in yourself.  As far God was concerned, no excuse was tenable.  What's your excuse? Really, what is holding you back and holding you down? You can achieve an incredibly tall feats if you apply yourself.  No excuse is tenable. Moses excused himself to the point that God became angry with him.  "So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and He said: "Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak w...

But who am I?  "But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?" (Exod.3.11)  When God cast a vision before you, there is always this sense of inadequacy that overwhelms you. It is interesting that the God of the whole world believes in you. The least you can do is believe in yourself. Great achievement are often accomplished despite self-doubts. That is, despite the inadequacies, you keep acting on what God has told you to do.  Moses had to ask God, "Who am I that I should go before Pharaoh and that I should bring the children to Israel out of Egypt?" That would be the sum total of Moses' assignment yet he felt incapable to the task.  What is your assignment and how has it made you feel small? Know that God gave that assignment to you because He believes you are capable. That reminds me of Gideon, who God called "A might man of valour" yet he saw himself as an intimated sl...

Preconceived notions "Moreover He said, "I am the God of your father--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God." (Exod.3.6)  Why did Moses hide his face from the God he ought to seek? We see a similar situation when Jacob stumbled on the house of God, once he found out it was God's house he became scared.  "He was terrified. He whispered in awe, "Incredible. Wonderful. Holy. This is God's House. This is the Gate of Heaven." (Gen.28.17)  This simply tells us that there was a preconceived notion that the isreality shared and that is, if you see the face of God you will die. Come to think of it, we all carry these notions in our own lives. Question is, are they in alignment with the word of God?  Most of the things we know about God we were told. As early as the Garden of Eden, when man hid himself because he had sinned and was naked, God asked him, "Who told you ...

Acknowledged by God  "And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them." (Exod.2.25)  What does it mean to acknowledge someone or something?  The wise king Solomon tells us to acknowledge God in all our ways and when we do that, he says that God will direct our path.  "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (Prov.3.6 KJV) So that our direction is premised on acknowledging God. What does it mean to acknowledge someone? It means to defer to Him, to rely on him, to give full and undivided attention. Imagine then tbat the Bible tells us that God acknowledged the children of Israel. The Amplified shared a bit more light on that verse. It reads: "God saw the Israelites and took knowledge of them and concerned Himself about them [knowing all, understanding, remembering all]. (Exod.2.25 AMP) God gave His full attention, knowing all there is to know, understanding all there is to understand, and remembering all there is to rememb...

Surely this thing is known  "Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting, and he said to the one who did the wrong, "Why are you striking your companion?" Then he said, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" So Moses feared and said, "Surely this thing is known!" (Exod.2.11-14) Moses sets out to stand up for his brothers in slavery and in doing that, he killed an Egyptian who was oppressing an Israelite. This throws up that factor in human nature that thinks, for and against, them versus us.  You would think because so and so is not with us, therefore is against us. You would thin...