【Bible Study】Exodus 14: Why Are You Crying Out?

Pastor Samuel Sharing

Brother William Sharing

Bible Study: Exodus

Don't forget the mighty hand of God

Good morning, everyone. Let’s look at Exodus Chapter 14 today. This chapter is one of the amazing chapters in the Exodus. Do you know what happened in this chapter? God killed more people. All the Egyptian army went into the Red Sea and God buried them in the water. After the Israelites came out from Egypt, they forgot the mighty hand of our Lord. I am not sure the reason why Israelites behaved like this, but it is so often when people were facing difficulties, I have seen Christians immediately forget about what God had done to them.

Similarly, the Israelites celebrated and remembered when they came out from Egypt. Despite the pillars of cloud and fire being with Israelites every single day, when they saw the Egyptian army following behind them, Israelites immediately started to complain.

They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!" (Exodus 14:11-12)

This is not logical. Do you know what is the logic behind it? The Israelites forgot the time when they were in Egypt and how the mighty hand of God had stricken the Egyptians so that the Pharaoh king of Egypt allowed them to move out from Egypt. Moreover, the Israelites had also taken away articles of silver and gold from the Egyptians, and God struck down all the firstborns in the land of Egypt. That’s why the Egyptians urged the Israelites to hurry and leave the country. God knew how these people would behave, God knows how you and I will behave and God also knows you and I will somehow forget that we are the Army of Almighty God.

When we are facing problems, the first thing in our mind is: "We are screwed, game over." That’s human nature. I would tell people: "How much more sufferings you want?" as we easily forget the power of Almighty God. It is even worse today that churches are preaching a message about God is not that powerful. Sometimes, people might think: "Oh, God is powerful but not in me." When we face problems, we will behave like Israelites and that is exactly what God wants to transform us. God knew how Israelites would behave, that was the reason why God did not let Israelites to go straight into the Promised Land because Israelites did not choose to fight the battle.

Every time when Israelites faced a battle, they said to God: "Oh, my God, where are you? How can you bring us into this kind of situation?" Israelites forgot the Army of God came out from Egypt, and they had to go through the hardship of training. The foundation of Abraham was totally different from all the Israelites because the foundation of Israelites was all about: "As long as I can live and that's all I want." Israelites treated their lives so seriously, when they were encountering a problem, their immediate response was: "Oh, don't we have the graves in Egypt?" So today, I want to tell you the topic of this chapter: Why are you crying out? Every time we face a problem, we will cry out to the Lord.

God has given us the power and the authority

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. (Exodus 14:15-16)

Every time when we meet the point, we like to cry out to the Lord. Have you heard people cry out to the Lord? People would say: "Oh Lord, help me and save me." And Lord said to them: "Why are you crying out to me? The authority and the power are in your hand and I have given them to you! You can open the Red Sea." How often have we been using the authority? Remember that the power and authority are already in our hands, but many Christians did not know that.

In front of the Red Sea, God told Israelites to move on and there was no road. God is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. God purposely brought the Egyptian army into the sea and hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Pharaoh forgot all the firstborns in Egypt were killed by our Lord just after he buried his beloved ones and only a few days later.

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, "What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services! (Exodus 14:5)

God had the plan to kill more people. If your heart is hardened and if your memory is short, you don't even know you are heading to death. There were about 600,000 Israelites excluding children and women, these people could pick up weapons and fight. Among the 600,000 Israelites, only two of them were able to go into the Promised Land. Why? The reason is very simple. The mind or the logic went wrong. The Israelites forgot the mighty hand of our God. That’s why in the Doctrine of Destiny which I have founded and extracted from the word of God, the power of God is one of the major elements. If the gospel has no power and authority in the spiritual world, I am not sure if that is still the gospel.

When you face a problem, you don't need to cry out to the Lord, you just have to exercise the authority in your hand. That's why God said to Moses: "Why are you crying out?" But actually, Moses did not cry out. He told the Israelites not to be afraid. However, the Israelites were so terrified and cried out to the Lord.

They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!" (Exodus 14:10-12)

How do you know you will die in the desert? But if you believe so, then you will die in the desert. We can see in the end 600,000 Israelites died and only two were left.

Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still. (Exodus 14: 13-14)

"Only to be still" simply means that you don't need to do anything because God would kill them all. Although Moses spoke to Israelites in this manner full of faith. God said to Moses: "Why are you crying out?" In fact, Moses was crying out to the Lord in his mind: "Oh Lord! Please help me! All these people are crying out to me." I did that quite often. The problem is that we do not know we have the authority and the power in our hands. God has given us the staff which has the authority and the power. With this staff, Moses had performed many miracles in the past days.

We believe in the power and the authority, it doesn't mean all the power, authority and glory are all yours. Our Lord Jesus owns all the power and authority and God has given that to us. Many people did not know that we have the power in our hands and we can command the sea to be opened. Instead, people are preaching a message: "If God does not open the Red Sea, do you still believe in God? If God allowed the Egyptians to kill you before crossing the Red Sea, do you still believe in God?" These are funny questions. What they truly mean is "I would rather die and I don't want to cross the Red sea".

For people to die in the desert or to be killed by the Egyptian army was never in any plan of our Almighty God. We don’t have to tell people "if" because there is no "if" at all. I can tell you a joke: If I had a billion dollars, then I would give it to you. People would say: "Can you give me the car you are currently driving?" No, I cannot give you my car. They would ask:" If you are willing to give me a billion dollars, why can’t you give me the car?" That’s because I do have the car but I don’t have a billion dollars. Do you know what I mean? Just because I don't have a billion dollars, that's why I told you earlier that I will give you a billion dollars only if I have it, but you cannot ask for my car because I do have it.

That’s why politicians speak in this way: "If you did this, I will give this piece of land to you." But in fact, if the people really did this, they would not give it to you because they used a lot of "ifs". I would never preach any message with "if". "If God does not heal you, do you still believe in God?" I don't preach this kind of message because our God is our healer. Our God is the one who opened the Red Sea in front of us. Our God is the one who killed the Egyptians, our God is the one who saved us from the hand of the Egyptians, and our God is the Almighty God who has given us the authority.

I did not sleep well last night. I was thinking about a brother who has liver cancer and is in the fourth stage. A couple of days ago, I called him: "Brother, I'm willing to pray for you." And he said: "Thank you very much." Yesterday, he went to the hospital for a diagnosis. They had the scan and saw the cancer is spreading. He sent me a message that he is willing to accept my minister and I need to pray for him.

It is tough because the cancer is still spreading after chemotherapy. My heart is full of sorrow and every time I was facing these kinds of cases, I know our God is a God who opened the Red Sea, not because our God can do all this. It is because Moses raised up the staff and stretched out his hand, the staff which became a snake and the snake could change back to the staff. That staff is a powerful staff that stands for the authority given by our God.

I do not know the result, but I believe our God is a healer. Do you know how often I have been solving this kind of problem? Five years ago, a cancer patient came to me and I prayed for her, she was healed. But her cancer came back again. Do you know why? She did not obey the word of God and continued to consume the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil for four years. Her cancer not only came back but is also spreading. So, I took over this case and started to pray for her. It is very difficult to change the memory of people and to put the logic of our Almighty God into people's minds. It is also very difficult to tell people to repent and tell them that they get it wrong.

I'm telling you, it is very challenging for me to open my mouth and tell them this. It's a really tough area for me to cross over. How often do we face a challenging situation? Do you act like Moses, or do you act like the Israelites who complain? Or do you act like the Egyptians leading the army with horses, horsemen, and chariots and they didn’t know that death was ahead? If you do not know the mighty hand of God, you will go against God. If you know the mighty hand, you will go along with God. Will you see a different picture from carnal eyes? With carnal eyes, you are going to be scared of the Egyptians, "Oh no, the Egyptians are chasing us with their powerful army, their chariots, and horsemen. Oh, we are going to die here!" Is that so?

There Is No Such Thing As "If"

Even if cancer spreads, so what? Can cancer fight against the mighty power of God? We’d better change our minds when we face a situation like this. I tell you I’ve faced it many times, all of them were healed because our God is a healer. There's no such thing as "if". Take it away, don’t say if. It’s going to take away all your faith, all your belief in your heart and mind. Our God is a healer, our God is mighty, and he is our salvation. So in my mind, all of them are healed, if they're willing to take the logic of our Almighty God and do accordingly, obey his word and repent from the path of wrongdoing, stop going astray and come back to obey the word of God.

Today, people who obey the word of God are very rare. Do you know why so many Christians get cancer? They are good people, they are nice, really nice, but they are too nice. That's why they got cancer. God’s perspective is to build up the church because the church is the body of Christ. But a lot of Christians want to transform the world, the government, the entertainment, and the education. They want to transform this and that, but they just don’t build up the body of Christ. Is that part of the plan? Is that our job? Is that part of our obligation as Christians? No, there's no such thing in the Bible. I searched from start to end, from Genesis to Revelation, and I’ve never found these things. These people are so active in doing these things that they changed the word of God. Because of this, they will surely be cursed.

A lot of churches have ministries that God did not want them to do. They go to prison with some other people. They visit the poor. They do all these things and they change the word of God with some people. They do all these kinds of things and sometimes they become the leader of these kinds of things. Is that part of the plan? Is that recorded in the Bible? No, I’ve never seen that. I have had a lot of bad experiences with Christians who sit in the leadership role of the secular organization.

Our job is to build the church of God

Our job is to build the body of Christ. Our job is to build the glorious church. The church is the Temple of God. The church is the new Jerusalem. A lot of people say that they got to pray for the Israelites. But do they know what Israel stands for? Israel is not Israel in the Middle East. The Temple of God, Israel, and new Jerusalem are all pointing to the church. So my job is to build the Temple of God, the glorious church, and the body of Christ. My job is to bring the church to victory, and overcome all the spiritual forces. But a lot of people don’t do this. When I tell them, they have 1001 reasons to question me "Oh so you think you are right, and we all got it wrong?" No, that's not the problem, the problem is your cancer has to be healed. When the army of God has the same mind as Jesus our Lord, we preach the Gospel, cast out demons, heal the sick, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. So in my mind, as long as this brother is willing to go with me, surely he will be healed. There is no such thing as "if".

So come together, we will build the glorious church, we will build the body of Christ and it will be called new Jerusalem, not transforming the word, not fighting against LGBT, not going to do this and that. Feeding the poor is okay, but that's not our main job. You see how horrible that can be, it is going to be very sorrowful. They did a lot but they didn’t know that they were disobeying the Word of God. They tweak the Word of God, they add things or take away things. Yes, they get together every week, but can they please God by what they do?

What is the foundation of our faith?

Let me tell you the fundamentals: If we do not know our life is meaningless on this earth, we can not serve God, because our life is only focused on the 80 or 70 years on the earth. Our eyes are all looking at a different picture than God. Our God is eternal and He wants to give us eternal life. He wants to bring us into his presence, the spiritual world.

Why are you crying out? I teach people how to pray. Don’t cry out. Using their power in their hands, they can demand the demon to leave. The foundation is to build the army of God. The army of God came out of Egypt. What was the job of the army of Almighty God? They were going to form a mighty army and march into the promised land and this is representing the church today. The church has got to march into the promised land to gain access to all the promises. Our hand is holding the authority. That's why I teach people not to pray by asking the Lord: "Oh Lord, Please heal me!" I never teach like that. The authority is in your hand, lift it, stretch out, and command the devil to leave. The foundation goes along with the plan of Almighty God.

We should obey His Word. A lot of Christians collect all sorts of things in the house. All these are cursed items. Antiques are probably worth a million or worth a thousand, but it is a cursed item. They look very normal in our eyes. But in the eyes of God, those things are like dirt. That's why I like to keep my lifestyle simple. I don’t like to keep and collect all kinds of things. I throw them away.

Even if the Egyptian army, which was led by Pharaoh, was just behind you, the pillar of fire, the pillar of clouds was dividing the two camps. The Israel camp was on this side, the Egyptian camp was on the other side. They can not come near because God was blocking them. What are you afraid of? Do you need to be so afraid?

God won’t let danger near you

I have had so many experiences like this. I know God is a mighty God. When I tell you these stories, don’t take them as just legends, but take them as real stories. One day a person, who is a martial artist, came to me. His body weight was about 120kg. My weight was about 60 kg. If he sit on me, I would surely be gone already. He was quite famous. He came to Singapore to study because he got into a lot of trouble in other places. One day this guy walked into my office, and he said "Help me! Help me!". I asked him what happened, "The spirit in me wants to use my hand to punch people". You know his hands are so big, that he can take up a basketball using one hand. I’ve never seen such a big hand. I prayed for him. Suddenly he stretched out his hand, wanting to kill me, wanting to hold on to my neck, but he could not get nearer to me. It seems that something invisible is blocking him. He was about one foot away and was struggling. He started to manifest and he fell from the chair onto the floor. I continued to pray for him. Later, he stood up and said all of the spirits were gone. He told me what the spirit looked like. They were very powerful demons. I asked him: "Why did you put your hand in front of me and try to reach me?" He told me: "You know why? The spirit in me wants to kill you, it wants to hold your neck and kill you". I asked, "Why didn’t you do it then?" He said: "I can’t, because there was an invisible force so I could not get near to you." I said: "Oh my God! Praise you our Lord Jesus Christ! How powerful you can be." The pillars were dividing the Egyptian and the Israelite camps. From that day on I knew that God was protecting me so nobody can kill me.

Another day, another guy, 1.9m tall, probably over 90Kg, was quite big. He’s also a martial artist. He was a coach. When I prayed for him, his spirit started to manifest and he started to run, and jump, demonstrating a martial arts show. The show was very beautiful. The fellow walked near to me and I knew he wanted to punch me off. The moment when he lifted his hand, the fellow fell off onto the floor. It was so hard that the sound was so loud. The power of our God divided us. He can not go near to me. When he was set free, he stood up and said: "The spirit in me wanted to punch you, but the power of God pushed me off." Do you know that it is a real story?

Brothers and sisters, our God is powerful, he is really powerful. From that kind of experience onward, I have no more fear. The Egyptians, the horsemen, or the chariots are not a big deal, not at all. Everything is controlled by Almighty God. Do you remember how he did? He let the Israelites walk through the Red sea. The water stood up like a wall of water. Nothing was blocking the water but the water won’t flow down. It was standing up like a wide corridor. I’ve never seen such a sight, to be honest. But the Bible said water was divided into both sides. In between, there was dry land and on both sides were walls of water.

Renew Our Memory and Have Faith in God

Have you ever seen a wall of water? That would go beyond my imagination! If I walked through the walls of water, I would never forget it! Can you see the water? It's not like a glass surface, but the water was just standing up there and starting to grow. I believe that I would never forget this scene if I saw it. I will keep on remembering: God is a mighty God; God is our healer; God is our salvation; God is our everything! God can do everything! You know what? It is I who stretched out my hand, straight up ahead with the staff and then the Red Sea would be open. The Red Sea is opened not only because of the mighty God. It is also because I stretched out my hand and the Red Sea is really opened up and the Israelites can walk through it.

If I did this, I do not think I will behave like the Israelites: Whenever facing a little problem or a little challenge, they would start murmuring, complaining, and challenging Moses. I hope all our brothers and sisters remember this. And this is the time God is going to renew our memory. God is going to renew our memory and renew our logic. Our logic will no longer be the logic of the world, but the logic of the power of Almighty God.

Do you still fear any sickness? No. I'm not going to fear. Be it COVID-19 or COVID-20, even COVID-21 or COVID X, what a big deal? Cancer? What a big deal? Yes, when the cancer patient told me that his cancer already spread. I would say: "Yeah, that is tough." But every time I restore the logic of Almighty God, it's no longer not a big deal. That's why I build up people's faith by sharing what God had done through me.

Do you know what happened? After the Israelites get crossed, the Egyptians also wanted to cross the Red Sea. Do you think that the Red Sea would be open for you the Egyptians? No, they are not opening for you. That's for burying you. Then God told Moses: "Stretch out your hand again!" Moses then stretched out his hand, and then the Red Sea closed up. The dry land was now filled with water and the Egyptian army, all the powerful horsemen and the chariot, even including the Pharaoh. No one survived. Not even one survived, including the Pharaoh of Egypt, the King of the Egyptians. Do you want to have a hardened heart? Do you want to fight against God? With your horsemen and with your chariot? With your authority as the king? No, no, no! God will bury you. God will bury you and God will kill you. God will not just kill the firstborn of the Egyptians, but also kill the people who continue to go against God, against God's people. Those who go against God's people will die, for no reason. I'm so amazed at what God had done for Moses. Not one of the Egyptians survived.

Look, that day, our Lord saved the Israelites from the hand of the Egyptians and the Israelites saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. When the Israelites saw the great power that the Lord took against the Egyptians, they feared the Lord and put their trust in him, and in Moses his servant.

What a nice story it is! From now on, keep this memory. Keep this memory in you: God can save you once, then God can save you forever if you trust in him. Fear the Lord and obey his word. Never go against him. May the Lord bless you.

Thank you very much for spending this time with me. I will hope your memory gets renewed. God has done so many things among us. You and I all have experienced the power of Almighty God in one way or another. Are we going to refresh our memory and remember that the staff is in the hand of yours and mine? Let's continue to hold this staff, hold the authority and the power God has given to us and our destiny is to become a mighty church. The Church is full of the glory of Mighty God. No enemy will ever stand in front of us, regardless it is cancer or any other sickness.

May the Lord bless you. Thank you very much.

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