Focus: The Little Extra!

Text: Ex.3:3

"And Moses said, I will now TURN ASIDE, and SEE this GREAT SIGHT, why the bush is not burnt."

The difference between the words 'ordinary' and 'extraordinary' is the little word 'extra.' There is a vast difference in meaning between those two words - ordinary and extraordinary - because of that little word - extra.

As Moses went about his business of shepherding, he came across an ordinary bush or shrub, and as one who had spent no less than 40 years in the desert, he must have been familiar with this common spot. There was nothing unique about it, compared to other spots or shrubs of the desert. But then, on a particular day, and in just a moment, something out of the ordinary happened to that small ordinary spot. We read, "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" (Ex.3:2). An ordinary shrub caught fire, and it was the kind of fire that no water on earth could quench. It was a supernatural fire announcing the presence of YHVH, the creator of the heavens and the earth. It was the fire of God's glorious presence and essence. On that small ordinary spot, the transcendent God became the immanent God. 

In a unique sense, God left heaven and came to the earth, and of the places on earth, God chose that tiny and insignificant spot in a wilderness.

God bypassed great towns and cities, and identified Himself with an ordinary place - dry and lackluster spot. The fire of God's glory was burning with high intensity, but the amazing thing was that the shrub was not consumed.

Moses saw the fire and noticed something beyond the normal fireworks that he was used to, back in the days when he lived in the royal palace of the great Pharaoh. He was immediately attracted as he paused to take a closer look. He encountered a supernatural phenomenon that took his breath away. In the words of the author of Hebrews, "For he endured, as seeing him who is invisible." Moses saw, experienced, discerned clearly, stared at, actively and intentionally observed, or heeded the invisible. 

The word in the Greek is horaō. It was a great sight, and he was drawn to it. He suddenly entered into a sabbatical moment. In that solemn moment, Moses cared less about business or anything else. He gave his whole attention to what he saw, and we read, "And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I" (Ex.3:4). He was fascinated to a new focal point. He switched off from all else and focused on the Lord's manifest presence and the fire of His glory.

The same thing happened when Christ came to earth. John records, "And we beheld his glory…" He was here in the flesh, but they could see beyond His physical self to His supernatural glory. John and his colleagues saw divinity in humanity. They saw the invisible, heard the inaudible, believed the incredible, and touched the intangible. Moses, by seeing the invisible, accessed an incredible ability that made him supernaturally invincible.

Then God told Moses that he was His man for the top job of redeeming Israel and establishing them as a unique nation, but he said to God, "Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?" (Ex.3:11). Moses saw himself as insignificant, inadequate, incapable, and insufficient - a nobody. He saw less of himself than he was capable of being and doing. Little did he know that he was divinely crafted and supernaturally empowered to accomplish the extraordinary.

God brought that little extra that turned an ordinary spot into an extraordinary place. God brought that little extra that transformed an insignificant Moses into an extraordinary personality and a mighty deliverer. God in the ordinary place turns it into an extraordinary one. God in the common man makes him uncommon. 

We are all in need of God's extra. The divine extra makes all the difference in our lives. The 'super' is the difference between the natural and the supernatural. Christ in you is the hope of glory. I pray God to add the divine 'extra' to your ordinary life. God's original version of you is nothing ordinary.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter