How did Moses do it?

Moses has been on my mind lately, mainly because of his leadership and relationship with God. I could not imagine leading ONE MILLION (close fist, extend pinkie, palm out and bring pinkie to lip) people for 40 years through the desert. These people saw many signs and wonders from God. They experienced daily miracles of being fed without labor, and yet they complained constantly!

How did Moses do it? How did he maintain his close relationship with God, “as a friend of God”? (Exodus 33:11  And the Lord spoke with Moses face to face, as a man speaks unto his friend.)

To me, this is the key to how Moses was able to lead. He spoke to God as a friend. What an amazing picture! I have two people in my life that I talk to all the time, several times a day. There is not a day that goes by without me talking to them: my wife, Courtney, and my best friend, Steve.  They speak in my life; they say encouraging things to me, they also correct me, and let me know when I have been wrong in my thinking.

There are several things I want to point out about this relationship Moses had with God and it may take me several blog posts:

God uses other people to speak in your life. Moses constantly had people complain to him. Early on, Moses was the only judge Israel had. So day after day, people would bring him their problems for him to figure out. Could you imagine how this would weigh on you as ONE MILLION (close fist, extend pinkie, palm out and bring pinkie to lip) people bring their complaints to you day in and day out? Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, said that it was going to kill Moses, and that he couldn't do it alone. (Exodus 18).  So Jethro laid out a plan for Moses.

Moses listened to his father-in-law, and allowed him to speak in his life. But here are some key points we all need to remember:
1) The friends who speak in your life are looking out for you, 2) make sure what your friends say line up with what God is telling you.

Jethro said, “Hey Jack, I mean Moses, here is what you need to do - because if you don’t, you are going to kill yourself. “If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.””

Be careful of the people you let speak in your life, because they don’t always have the best intentions for you. Many times they can distract you from God.

More to come!