Exo 33:11 The LORD would speak to Moses personally, as a man speaks to his friend. Then Moses would come back to the camp, but his assistant, Joshua, son of Nun, stayed inside the tent.
Exodus 33:11 ”The LORD would speak to Moses personally, as a man speaks to his friend. Then Moses would come back to the camp, but his assistant, Joshua, son of Nun, stayed inside the tent.”
This has always been a very special scripture for me on how God met with Moses without a mediator, but in the last year or so I’ve been more aware of the second half of this verse. This post serves as a return after a weekend filled with a group of 31 young adults who participated in the youth camp that we assisted with this past weekend.
From the post, Desires of the heart, I’m quoting from the last paragraph, ” . . . I strongly believe that He is still the same to confirm His word with signs and wonders, and in this situation, signs and wonders of changed young adults, who came face to face with Him. To be changed by Him and not the words of a person, neither the teachings of a religious organisation”.
The difficult thing is to decide how much detail do I add to this post, as I don’t want to bore you with to much “had to be there” information, but trying to stick to the heading of the post. I’ll highlight a few things from this amazing weekend. Let me first of all say that the Lord is true to His word, again. I suppose you’d like to say “I told you so”, but it is just so fresh each time when He does show up to confirm His word.
As you might know that the theme for the weekend was to make God a reality in your life. It sounds very easy, but in my opinion that is one of the most daunting tasks that the church have today, and that is to introduce young adults to a person, and not an event, as many of our “youth programs” are so event orientated to be “interesting”. This is something that the Lord has been placing in my heart for some time, ever since the second half of Exo. 33:11 became a reality to me. Joshua was at Moses’ side and obviously came to know the Lord Himself too in the process, that’s why he stayed. He didn’t have any preoccupations or people to meet, He could just be there with God, kinda like a Mary & Martha episode. So what do we need to install into the upcoming generation, the revelation of God’s reality. Passing the baton, introducing them to a Person and not a religion, allowing them to meet Jesus first hand and not just talk about Him all the time, as we are so used to doing.
The program of the weekend was mostly built around four sessions where we shared with them on specific stuff. Friday night Tilana shared her own testimony with them and the rest of the weekend I shared on the principle of being with God and how that can transform you automatically. So there was some thoughts shared with them, but the main events was either times where we went to sit under the stars, each one on his own to reflect on what was shared, or early in the mornings to spend some time on some pieces of scripture that was later then worked through in the sessions. Most of this was linked to times of worship, led by Marlize, to allow for time to just “be” with God as “me”. Then we would spend some time sharing and testifying to one another about what the Lord Himself shared with us. This was sooooooo amazing! To see how young adults between the age of 14-18 experienced God and share with their friends about how God spoke to them in person!
For myself this was a trying experience as I would subjectively link my attempt at sharing a thought with the response that follows by God’s Spirit, but now I just did what I did, and said what I wanted and then left room for God Himself to minister to them. What a liberating experience to know that God does not depend on my attempt, but I can only walk in obedience and He will do the rest. As the Lord used the word, worship, dances, testimonies, nature, other people around us and even circumstances to talk to us all, it is something that can never be forgotten.
I would just like to share a very short “something special” that blew my mind away about how God knows our thoughts even in the midst of a time when you are ministering. During the last session I was sharing with the group from Ephesians and as I was making the point of how our exterior needs to be connected with the truth in our hearts, a few thoughts of doubt popped into my mind and I was really distracted by it, because all of a sudden I wasn’t sure if my interpretation of the scriptures are true to what God intended for me to find there and share with the group. Within a few seconds one of the girls interrupt me and asks if she can read a small piece of commentary in her bible that refers to the piece that I was talking about. What a moment when she read it and almost word for word confirmed what I was sharing with them. How faithful is He to even consider me in times of doubt. Needless to say I just broke down in front of them as I was so touched by the moment that I couldn’t hold back my tears of joy.
I’m sorry for the long post as I know it takes some time to read through it, but thanks to everyone who assisted in making this camp a reality. You invested much more than what you could ever imagine. We will be posting some of the testimonies of the young ones over the following week as they reflect on it at their respective youth groups and capture it to be shared here.
He lives!!!
Louw
