Are You A Burning Bush?
Everyone has heard about the burning bush
God says,
“ And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.”
Exodus 3:2
The day Moses noticed the burning bush
One day Moses was tending the flocks of his father in law Jethro on the back side of the desert. In that place, there was a certain mountain called Horeb which was reputed to be the dwelling place of God.
Moses looked up from his work and saw a bush that burned. It was a strange bush because, though it burned, it was not consumed by the flame. We call it the “burning bush.”
Why that bush Lord?
I was thinking on this the other day and I wondered why God chose that particular bush. Was there something about that bush that was better than the bush next to it? Was it a bigger or greener bush than most? I don’t actually know but I suspect it was a bush pretty much like any other. In fact, I don’t think there was anything special about the bush at all.
A shrub in the right place at the right time
It just so happened that by coincidence that shrub was in the right place at the right time in relation to what God wanted to do. However, I think there may be another, deeper more profound reason that God chose that bush to speak out of. I think God chose that bush because it was ordinary. I think the angel of the Lord wanted to demonstrate that He could manifest His glory out of anything, even a common bush that was like a million other bushes. In fact, often in scripture, wood represents man. Therefore, a lesson to learn is that God can dwell in and speak through anything or any man.
God makes an ordinary burning bush special
The bush did not choose God but God chose the bush. The bush did nothing during the meeting between Moses and God except be a bush. Likewise, men, being made of the dust of the Earth, are nothing in and of ourselves. Only when we are chosen by God to manifest His glory do we become something special.
This gets to the heart of the issue with God and mankind. A man or women is simply a bush like every other bush. We can do nothing to be more than we are but when God chooses to use us we can become something greater in Him. All the world knows about that bush simply because God chose to reveal Himself to Moses through it. Likewise, as we reveal the nature of God to those around us we, like the moon, reflect The Son.
What do you do after you have been a burning bush?
That bush, which hosted God, simply went back to being a bush when God left. It became, once again, just like any other bush in a hundred miles of that hallowed place. In fact, no one could have known that God Himself had been there after He had gone. Ministers forget that someday, when the anointing moves from them to another, that they will simply be an ordinary bush again. While God is manifesting through them it feels good but when God is gone they have a crisis of identity. At that time, it is important for us to remember that it is OK to be a bush and that we don’t have to be anything more than a bush.
John the Baptist became a burning bush, for God says,
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:”
Malachi 4:5
And then,
“He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.”
John 1:23
But,
“John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him...”
…He must increase, but I must decrease.”
John 3:27,28, 30
And finally,
“And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?”
Luke 7:19
He must increase and I must decrease
What happened to John? Malachi foretold John’s coming. The voice in the desert was the Elijah which was to come. The man clothed in camels hair knew Jesus was the Christ when He baptized him, yet later he sent his disciples to ask if Jesus was the Messiah.
What happened is that God burned brightly through John for a time and by revelation, John knew that Jesus was the Christ, but when the anointing of God lifted from John to rest upon Jesus, John diminished and became only a common bush. Yet Jesus said of John,
“For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
Luke 7:28
Be a burning bush!
In conclusion, we are all just bushes. We may be a little different in size, color, gender, or age but no one really notices us unless God burns brightly in us. If a bush aspires to be something more than a bush let him or her aspire to be a burning bush. If we allow God to dwell in us and reveal Himself through us we can be more than any bush could ever hoped to be by the presence of the Almighty. We will be remembered throughout eternity because God dwelt in us. Therefore I say to you most emphatically, “be a burning bush!”
Interesting thought about the burning bush. Never really considered what happened to the bush after that encounter. But the subject does introduce something that could explain a few things about what happened AFTER the big revivals, Great Awakening, the Azusa Street, and the others, then the small ones like Brownsville Revival, and the Toronto Blessing. Men pushed hard to keep the fire going after it was over, but no one really seems to want to recognize that the burning bush just went back to being a bush. It appears that it was all a natural part of what God wanted to do at that particular time.
Here is the important part about all this to me. God sometimes reveals Himself to an individual in a spectacular way and completely changes a persons life. That person hangs on to the manifestation and tries with all the their might to keep the flame going when in reality God just meant it as a ‘hug’ just to let that person know He is there. So much time is spent by that person trying to keep that feeling alive when, maybe, all God wanted was to reveal Himself and then let you go back to being a bush.
Seems natural to me. And so much more peaceful than trying to live ones life holding on to a spark that God wants you to let go so He can bring a new one somewhere further down the road.
Moving on is a good thing too in God’s eyes.
Dear Curtis,
I think your point is well taken. Building a shrine around that particular bush would have been to honor the method more than the manifestation of God. What is relevant is what God revealed to Moses and the experience that he carried with him the rest of his life.
I believe that no revival of God is ever meant to dissipate. I believe that if people would be willing to “go the distance” that our Father would take them all the way to the promised land (so to speak.) It is just that, though the spirit may be willing, our flesh is weak and we tend to fail over time.
When I experienced the moving of God’s Spirit what I took away from that situation was a greater revelation of who God is and what His plan for mankind entails. Indeed, the place where I met God no longer exists and it would be foolish to try to recreated where God used to be now that He has moved on to somewhere else.
The revelation that God gave me, and is still adding to, is the portion that is salient. Men tend to fail and to draw back from God when things are difficult. While they may venture a little distance from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they often run back to the familiar when the going gets tough. They say, “ah, the burning bush was not that great after all” and content themselves with less in order to have peace.
However, I embraced the experience of the burning bush and followed after the Spirit of God which illuminated it withersoever He led me. I have not camped around where God was but followed Him from place to place in order to be close to whatever He desired to do.
I have recognized, though, that the theology the church presently believes is antithetical to what God wants to do. The dogma that people are steeped in has prepared them to accept only natural man things while God wants to feed them spiritual manna. It has also, more than I think anyone realizes, prepared the vast majority of God’s children to accept the man of sin, the Antichrist. We have been taught to set our natural minds above the Holy Spirit. The truth is, the son of perdition is the embodiment of the natural man. This is why all the world wonders after the Beast: he embodies all that they have become. This is why we must free ourselves, whatever the cost, from the Strong Delusion that has ensnared us.
Through apathy, fear, and compromise, many live in prisons of their own minds. They have acquiesced to the cares of this world and essentially given up. They have seen mighty things and perhaps even partaken of them, but in the aftermath of disillusionment they have chosen to withdrawn from the course that God set them upon. Moses did not do this. Moses heard the message of the burning bush and went out and did his best to realize it. As he stepped out in faith, God was with him to do mighty things.
The burning bush, if I may disagree with you a bit, was not a “hug” from God but rather a seminal moment in the development one of the greatest men of God the world has ever known. It was an experience that set off a chain of events that ultimately freed the Children of Israel from bondage and brought them to the promised land. My time at CC&BTC is just such an event in my life and it is why God has brought me to the breadth and depth of understanding that I have in Him. Without it, I might have become just another cog in the normative church.
Once you have seen God, even His hinder parts, you can never be the same. It sets you on a path towards His will that cannot be denied except through blaspheme of the Holy Spirit. Having tasted of the powers of the world to come I can never deny the heavenly vision that I have seen. If it is something I talk about for the next 100 years, I could never do it justice and share its fullness of His glory.
People who read what I write must decide whether this particular bush burns with the light of God or not. They must decide if what is written manifests the divine light of our creator. They must decide if they hear the voice of their Almighty speaking through it. I have been given a message to share with this generation and I cannot and will not forbear to speak it.
God bless,
Michael