God Is Not Through With You Yet - Part III
September 20118 |
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.”
Joel 2:28
This verse began to be fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out. The phrase, “your old men shall dream dreams” ties in with the theme, “God Is Not Finished With You Yet” and applies to both men and women. Many times when people become older they think that their lives are over, and God does not have anything for them to do, but that is not true. As long as a person is alive, God has a plan and purpose for his life, and He still wants to work through him. This was true in the lives of Moses, Caleb, and the apostle John.
Moses was supposed to have been killed as a baby, but he was spared because of the faith of his parents and the intervention of Pharaoh’s daughter. He was raised in Pharaoh’s court and was being groomed to be the next Pharaoh, but something was missing. At age 40, he realized his heritage was with the Israelites, their God, and that he was supposed to help them. But, because of his rejection of becoming the next leader of Egypt, the existing Pharaoh wanted to kill him. As a result, Moses had to flee from Egypt to Midian where he became a shepherd. It seemed that he had missed the biggest opportunity of his life as he spent the next 40 years in the desert as a lowly shepherd. But God was not through with him yet and was preparing him to be used by Him as the deliverer of 3 million Israelites from Egyptian slavery and lead them to the promised land.
When Caleb was 40 years old, he was one of the 12 spies sent into the promised land. Although 10 of the spies said the Israelites were not able to possess it because of the giants and walled cities, Caleb and Joshua encouraged them to trust God and go in and take the promised land. But, because of their rebellion and refusal to obey God, the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 38 more years, and during that time, that generation died. But at the age of 85, God was not through with Caleb, who still believed God’s promise and asked Joshua for the mountain that had been called Kirjath-arba after the giants that still lived there. After his victory, it became Hebron which was a city of refuge.
John was the younger brother of James, and they were the sons of Zebedee. They were also fishing partners of Peter and Andrew on the Sea of Galilee when they were called by Jesus to be His disciples. John was greatly involved in the ministry of Jesus and the early church. After the temple was destroyed in AD 70, he was a senior citizen, an age when most people would retire, but God was not finished with him yet. He became the pastor of the church of Ephesus and founded churches in Smyrna, Pergamos, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, and Thyatira. It was also during this time that he wrote the Gospel of John, and the epistles of I, II, and III John. In about AD 95, he was exiled to the Isle of Patmos “for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus” (Rev. 1:9) by Domitian, the Caesar, where he wrote the book of Revelation. In about AD 96, he was released from Patmos by the next Caesar, and he spent his last days in Ephesus until his death in about AD 100.
When Moses doubted whether God could use him, He asked Moses, “What is that in your hand?” (Ex. 4:2), and He took his common shepherd’s staff, and it became the rod of God (Ex. 4:20) that was used to perform all kinds of miracles. What would happen if more of God’s people who are “over the hill” would let Him use them like He used these three men who simply believed that God was not through with them yet?
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