Karla Jo Wasion

irreversible power

The book of Exodus has God’s power, His terrible, beautiful power, on display. But there is also another power on display.

Aaron threw down his staff and it became a snake. “Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake.” (Exodus 7:11-12)

God turned the water of the Nile into blood. “But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts…” (7:22)

God brought frogs to cover the land. “But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.” (8:7)

God brought gnats. And that’s where their power found its limit. “But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not.” (8:18)

From these displays of power, I am impressed with two thoughts.

~ The power of the enemy has a limitation, but God’s power goes on, limitless. I love what God said to Pharaoh, after the plagues of blood, frogs, gnats, flies, death to livestock, and boils. “let My people go, so that they may worship me, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you…” (9:13-14)

By the time the enemy’s power had reached it’s limit, God’s was just getting started!

~ The enemy can mimic God’s power, but he cannot counter His power. Notice that Pharoah’s magicians only did what God had already done…turned a staff into a snake, turned water into blood, brought frogs to cover the land. What they did not do was turn Aaron’s staff back into a staff, turn the blood back to water, or make the frogs go back where they came from.

They had no power to undo what God had done. God affirms this truth in Isaiah.

“No one can deliver out of my hand.
When I act, who can reverse it?” Isaiah 43:13

And again…

“My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand.” (John 10:27)

Today, I am struck once again by the beautiful, limitless, irreversible power of the God to whom I belong.

Uncommon faithfulness

Many promises are made with good intentions, but good intentions without the faithfulness and power to back them up are useless. We have become jaded by man’s inability to keep his word, so common are broken promises. Our hope lies not in the promises of men, but in the uncommon faithfulness of God to keep His word.

In Genesis 15 God made a promise to an old man with a barren wife.

“‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars – if indeed you can count them.’ Then He said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be’.” v. 5

“Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.” v. 13-14

The stage is set. The promise has been made.

Fast forward to Moses, who is currently in a bit of a tizzy. “Moses returned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.” (Exodus 5:22-23)

We can all tend to get a bit frantic when it looks like God isn’t doing what we thought He would do, what we were sure He said He would do. I’ve been there, and I know the sense of hopelessness it brings. I know how tired we get of waiting and how frightened and overwhelmed we can be in that dark period of time when it appears that God, while faithful to others, is not going to come through for us. It can turn our waiting into unbelief. We find ourselves waiting to see if God will really do what He promised, if He will do something about our circumstance, if He is really there for us. It will make the waiting so much easier if we can stop waiting for if, and start waiting for now.

“Now you will see what I will do…”. (6:1) For every promise He makes, there is a “now” moment.

And so begins the very dark days of Pharaoh, the enemy of God who refused to let His people go, until finally…

“The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country… The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians. The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.” (Exodus 12:33-37)

God’s promise to an old man with a barren wife. Four hundred and thirty years after He made the promise, God made good on His word. He never forgets.

How long have you been waiting? More importantly, are you waiting for if, or are you waiting for now? With God’s promises, it is never a matter of if, it is always a matter of when.

“…What I have said, that will I bring about;
what I have planned, that will I do.” Isaiah 46:11

Uncommonly faithful.

the real question

Who are you? A doctor, lawyer, teacher…famed preacher of God’s Word? Maybe just an ordinary Joe. A tired housewife and mother or a stressed out husband and father. A misfit.. outcast…addict.

Moses was a murderer who covered up his crime, and had to flee his home. (Exodus 2:11-15) He settled down in a place called Midian and quietly attended the flocks of his father-in-law. Nothing flashy, nothing big. Just a man with a sense of justice that got him into trouble, living an obscure life. (2:16-3:1)

Then one day, God appeared and called Moses to be the deliverer of His people. And like most of us, Moses questioned God’s decision to use him, an ordinary man who had lived a less than sinless life.

“But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?'” (3:11)

And then it comes. The five words in answer to every person’s insecurity and question of their own ability to do what God has told them to do. It is the answer to our identity issue.

“And God said, ‘I will be with you'”. (3:12)

Moses, it doesn’t matter who you are. What matters is Who will be with you.

“Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you.” 2Samuel 7:8-9

David…shepherd, military leader, adulterer and murderer. King. Man after God’s heart. It was never about any of that. God is the One who was with you.

“But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.” Judges 6:15-16

Dear Gideon. It doesn’t matter how weak and small you are. It’s all about Who will be with you.

^“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20

It has been His promise from the beginning. He knows who and what you are. And He has always known that who you are is not the issue. The question is not are you good enough, smart enough, brave enough or strong enough. The question will never be “who are you?”.

Who is with you?

women. don’t underestimate us.

It’s time to dig into another book of the Bible to study, and I’m feeling pulled to Exodus. I look forward to hearing God’s voice as I turn to one of my favorite books in the Old Testament.

The book opens with the Israelites being fruitful and multiplying, which becomes a threat to the new King of Egypt. I would love to stop here and make the correlation between the Israelites, God’s people, and the Church, also God’s people. I’d love to talk about the threat we become to the enemy when we are “being fruitful and multiplying” (and I’m referring to evangelizing…bringing people to Christ. Just so we’re clear about that). But I can’t stop here. God is speaking something else to me, so I have to keep moving.

So the king begins to oppress the Israelites by putting slavemasters over them, but the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the bigger threat they became. What was the king so afraid of?

“Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” Exodus 1:10

So the king took drastic measures. He ordered the Hebrew midwives to begin killing any male babies born to the Israelites, which the midwives did not do. So he gave the charge to his own people.

^“Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: ‘Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.’” Exodus 1:22

Why the boys and not the girls? From the oppressor’s perspective, it makes complete sense. Boys become men. Men are warriors, created and built to fight for what is theirs. They are fierce, competitive, strong and brave, created to lead. With this in mind, it is understandable why the king of Egypt wanted to rid himself of the males of the people he was oppressing.

But while this king understood men, he greatly underestimated women. Many people do.

When Moses’ mother gave birth to him, she managed to hide the fact that a male had been born for 3 months. When she could hide it no longer, she made a basket, put him in it and put him in the reeds along the Nile river. Pharoh’s daughter bathed in the Nile, and found the baby in the basket.

And here is where I begin to smile.

Moses’ sister had been watching to see what would happened to the baby. When Pharaoh’s daughter found him, she knew he was “one of the Hebrew babies” (2:6). So, the sister asked her if she should go find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby. You can see the plan coming together now. Of course, she went and found the baby’s mother and brought her to Pharaoh’s daughter, who then told her “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” (2:9)

Not only did this Hebrew woman save her male baby from the clutches of Pharaoh and his evil decree, but she ended up being commanded to nurse the baby (which probably would have lasted around 2 years), and was paid for it! By Pharaoh! After she finished nursing him, she gave him back to the Pharaoh’s daughter, and he was raised in Pharaoh’s household. Because of these women, Moses was spared the fate of so many other Hebrew babies.

Women. Fiercly protective of their children. Resourceful and intelligent. Quietly dangerous to the schemes of evil.

Pharaoh feared what the Israelite men could do, and rightly so. His fear should have been bigger than that.

As we know, Moses grew up and became the man who would be used by God to make the Pharaoh’s biggest fear a reality. He would lead God’s people out of Egypt.

A lesson for the enemy…Fear God’s men, but never underestimate the threat of His women.

made for love

You were made for love. It is a need that is deeply planted into every human being by God. From that need we search, we crave, we manipulate, we push and we pull. We will often suffer shame and indignity in our desperate pursuit of love, and in the end, the need remains unsatisfied. Finally, we settle for what passes for love, or we settle for no love at all, having finally tired of the chase.

But oh, there is a love. The very love we were made for. The only love that will finally cause our heart to rest from it’s pursuit. It is God’s desire that you know this love.

The Apostle Paul understood that there is a vast love, a deep love, a love that comes from the very heart of the One who made you for love. One of the richest prayers I find in scripture is his prayer for the saints at Ephesus (Ephesians 3:16-21). Before we read his prayer, we need to settle something.

“All scripture is God-breathed…” (2 Timothy 3:16). The prayer that Paul prayed for the Ephesians was from the breath of God.

“I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

A God breathed prayer for us, to put an end to our searching for the Love we were created for.

“…being rooted and established in love…”. Think redwood, think 100 year old oak. Imagine their roots, and the earth moving equipment it would take to uproot them. You have been rooted in the love of God, and there is nothing that can pull you up out of it.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ” Romans 8:38-39

You have been established in love. This means that the love of God is your foundation. Everything in your life now rests on, and is built on His love. From it comes the mercies you receive, the grace, the comfort, the strength and yes, even the trials. In all of it, love came first. Your life rests upon the love of God.

“…to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…”. This love that you were made for has no dimensions and is without an end. It is not a small love, a limited love or a fleeting love. It is a wide open, down deep love that goes on and on and on.

“…I have loved you with an everlasting love…” Jeremiah 31:3

“and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God“. It is a love that goes far beyond what we know to be love, and He wants you to know it…feel it, understand it, experience it and be filled with it, filled with Him.

A prayer breathed by God and full of His desire that you stop searching for a love that will satisfy your heart. He is the only One who has that kind of love for you. He has loved you first, loved you always and loved you completely. It is the same love that took Him to the cross, compelling Him to give His life for yours.

That’s the love you were made for.

here I stand

So Ahaz, King of Judah, was under the threat of invasion. Other kings had allied together to overtake Judah and “the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.” (Isaiah 7:2) God instructed the prophet Isaiah to speak to Ahaz, giving him comfort and encouragement. But it is what He said in verse 9 that has captured my attention today.

“If you do not stand firm in your faith,
you will not stand at all.”

Invasion comes, and we scramble for a place to stand through it. Where do we often find our feet? Two places in particular come to mind right away.

Blame ~ it’s easier to stand firm if you have someone else to blame for what is happening. Some of us find our place of “this is not my fault” and that’s where our righteously indignant feet get planted.

Shame ~ we resign ourselves to whatever is coming, because we assume we deserve it. So many of God’s children stand in shame, unable to get their feet to move onto the solid ground of His forgiveness.

We all have our spot, our place that we plant our feet. We stand on our moral character, our common sense and on traditions. Some are standing in fear, in anger, and in resignation. Some are not standing at all. They are running. Running away from their situation, running to try to stay ahead of the invasion, running to stay in control, running in circles.

And God has said that we will all fall down. All but the one who has chosen to stand on one thing. Faith. It is the only piece of solid ground in existence…depending, of course, on where our faith rests.

So we dig a little deeper. What do we have faith in? What is it that gives us peaceful assurance and determination when our life is under the threat of invasion? We all know the “right” answer to that question, but for our hearts to be changed, we have to uncover the “real” answer. For many, our faith moves around a lot. It can look somewhat butterfly-ish at times, even though our faith in God is strong. In times of trial or under the threat of invasion, faith looks for a place to land. The overall character of God, the fact that He is good, or even the fact that He works everything out for our good can still leave our faith flitting around looking for something solid.

So we turn to people, reaching for someone who will tell us something we can rest our faith on. Someone who can tell us why this is happening and what we should do about it. Our faith wants to rest on something tangible, and unfortunately, it usually lands on people. Good people, wise people, but still just people.

Which leads me to the scripture that links up with Isaiah 7:9.

“My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” 1Corinthians 2:4-5

I have gone through an invasion of the enemy. It brought destruction to my marriage and to my family. The invasion took place over many years, and during those years, I stood in all of the places I mentioned earlier. And I fell from every one of them. Then God broke in, took me by the hand and led me out of destruction and into His fire. While there, He fed me Isaiah 7:9 and 1Corinthians 2:4-5. He taught me that I could stand against the enemy’s destruction only by standing in faith, a faith at rest solely on His power. And then He proved that it is indeed the most solid place on this earth.

It was His power that overcame the destruction the enemy brought to my family. It was His power that turned our hearts and changed our minds, repaired our broken walls and brought restoration from ruin. Only the power of God could have healed the many wounds inflicted during the invasion of the enemy in our lives. And it is His power that is still at work, repairing, restoring and healing.

No matter what comes, or threatens to come, I will stand in faith. A faith at rest on the power of God to contend for me and my family, to overcome the enemy’s plans of invasion and to restore what has been destroyed.

It is in the incomparably great power of the One who is for me and not against me that my faith has found it’s resting place.

He’s looking for a weakness

Sometimes, it’s all just a matter of perspective. Sometimes. But not always.

In Exodus 4:10, Moses was trying to convince God that He had the wrong man for the job of convincing Pharoah to let the Israelites go.

“Moses said to the LORD, ‘O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.’”

Moses knew his weakness. He knew he was quite ill-equipped to be God’s spokesperson to the ruler of Egypt. He may have been good at many other things, but wouldn’t you know it…the one thing he can’t do is the very thing God assigns to him. And bless his heart, he really tried to get out of it. “But Moses said, ‘O Lord, please send someone else to do it.'” (v. 13)

I can hear the fear in Moses’ voice, and to my ears it’s bordering on panic. He just knows that he cannot do what God has called him to do. He knows his weakness and his limitations, and they do not fit the job description. What Moses apparently did not know, was the power of God, and what would be said of Moses many generations later.

“The LORD said to him, ‘Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.’” (v. 11-12)

Here is what I hear God say to me in this ~ “I know you are weak. I am the One who created you, and your weakness. Obey My call anyway, and I will enable you to do what your weakness prevents.”

When we try to help people learn what their calling from God may be, what their place in the Body is, we often ask them “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” Then we focus on their strengths, because for some reason we think that’s God’s focus. It isn’t. It never has been.

“Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” 1Corinthians 1:26-27

God uses our weakness far more than He uses our strength. Our weakness keeps us close to Him, causes us to depend on Him. But mostly, our weakness causes God and His strength to be evident. It is His glory revealed when we do what we are called to do in our weakness. Our strength does the opposite.

Moses knew his weakness. God said “I will help you”. Generations later, listen to how Stephen describes Moses.

“Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.” Acts 7:22

Perspective? Or is it what a weakness becomes in the hand of God?

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