by Alan Langstaff

I like the stories in the Old Testament for many reasons. They tell the story from beginning to the end (i.e., birth to departure). They so often reveal principles of Kingdom living that are spelled out more in the New Testament. They are real and honest. They tell us the whole story, the good and the bad. For these and other reasons, we so often associate with them. We see ourselves like David coming against the giant Goliath and so on.

One of the incidents from the Old Testament that has caught my attention concerns Moses, a great leader of a new nation. Moses was the son of a member of the house of Levi. So too was his mother. It came at a time when Pharaoh afflicted the Jewish people even to the point of ordering Jewish baby boys to be killed. Moses’ mother hid him for three months and then placed him in the Nile. Now the daughter of Pharaoh found him and decided to keep him. So eventually, he was brought up in her household. 

He grew up and, following an incident with an Egyptian soldier, whom he killed, the next day had a confrontation with two Israelite men. He wound up, out of fear, in all probability, fleeing from Egypt, and found his way to Midian.

There, he teamed up with Reuel, for whom he worked. He ended up marrying one of his daughters, Zipporah. He stayed out there in Midian for some 40 years when it happened.

He was out tending the flock when he came to Horeb, the mountain of God, that is where it happened. An angel of the Lord came to him from a flame of fire from the midst of a bush.

Moses looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Moses in turn said, “I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.” Then it happened.

“When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, ‘Moses, Moses!” (Exodus 3:4 NKJV)

Those words struck me as I read them. “When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him.”

In other words, the Lord was waiting to see if Moses would turn aside to look. He was no longer an onlooker; he was instead a searcher. He wanted to explore what was happening and not just look and be amazed.

Those words have stuck with me:
“When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look.”

God was looking to see if Moses was really a searcher, not just an onlooker.

PEOPLE TODAY

Many times, people are just onlookers. Observing what is happening and have not been searchers after God.

So often:
– We don’t pray regarding the supply and use of our finances until we are in a financial pickle
,
– We don’t pray for His guidance until we face a situation where we don’t know what to do,
– We don’t pray about our future until circumstances make us seek God.

What a difference it would make if we regularly and consistently sought God and His solution to the situation.

What if we had a church full of people who are actually seeking God and His will for their lives?

What if we were to turn aside from the regular things of life and seek God and His will for our lives?

What a difference it would make.

DAVID WILKERSON

When I was a young man back in the 1960’s, I was greatly influenced by the book “The Cross and the Switchblade” – the story of David Wilkerson, the founder of Teen Challenge.

The book tells the story of the founding of Teen Challenge. 

As David writes, “This whole, strange adventure got its start late one night when I was sitting in my study reading a Life Magazine, and I turned a page… it carried a pen drawing of a trial taking place in New York City, 350 miles away. The Holy Spirit said to me ‘Go help them boys.”

God challenged David to sell his TV and devote time to prayer instead. Wilkerson asked himself, “What would happen if I spent two hours every night in prayer?” It was an exhilarating idea, substitute prayer for television, and see what could happen. Only God could have known the amazing result of this act of obedience.

THE HEBRIDES REVIVAL

Lest you think this is simply a call to significant leaders like David Wilkerson, consider the story of Peggy and Christine Smith. This is part of their story:

“Following the trauma of World War II, spiritual life was at a low ebb in the Scottish Hebrides. In 1949, from their cottage near Barvas village on the Isle of Lewis (the largest of the Hebrides Islands in the bleak northwest of Scotland), Peggy and Christine Smith, aged 84 and 82, started praying constantly for revival.

God showed Peggy in a dream that revival was coming. Months later, early one winter’s morning, as the sisters were praying, God gave them an unshakable conviction that revival was near.

Peggy asked her minister, James Murray Mackay, to call the church leaders to prayer. Three nights a week, for several months, the leaders prayed together. One night, having begun to pray at 10 p.m., a young deacon from the Free Church read Psalm 24 and challenged everyone to be clean before God. As they waited on God, His awesome Presence swept over them in the barn at 4 a.m.”
(from the Revival Library)

This all ended up in what is called The Hebrides Revival!

SEEKING GOD

The key to it all. David Wilkerson made “seeking God” the priority of his life, in his case giving up TV for prayer.

The lesson is simple: “He sought God.” He turned aside, and when God saw what he was prepared to do, it was only a matter of time before a new ministry was born, “Teen Challenge,” that has had an international impact.

He called the two sisters, Peggy and Christine Smith, to pray and seek Him. This they did, and eventually revival came to the Hebrides Islands. But it only came following months of prayer.

“They turned aside,” like Moses and God did the rest.

A CLOSING THOUGHT

There you have it. Two examples of Turning Aside to seek God. One is an international leader and speaker, and the other two are unknown Christians who prayed in a Revival. 

One other thought we must add. God often breaks into our lives and, like Moses of old, like David Wilkerson and Teen Challenge, like the two ladies who prayed in Revival – God often comes at the most unlikely moment to speak to us and to call us to, above all, pray.

We need to be like Moses, “Turning Aside” from the ordinary to discover the supernatural.

It’s time to Turn Aside.