What is in Your Hand?

A recent mission report from Thailand highlighted four partnering ministries rescuing trafficked youth, running orphan homes, training media leaders, and leading a 13-week Jesus Quest that has guided thousands of Buddhist-background students toward baptism. Financial and practical needs surfaced clearly: sponsoring one rescued girl costs about $2,000 a year and that support secures legal identity, education, and a pathway away from trafficking. A wide vision for revival emerged from seeing young leaders raised and communities changed as gospel hunger met organized, contextual ministry.

A sustained exegetical reflection on Exodus 4 reframed Moses’ rod as the material record of his life—marks of river, Egypt, shepherding, and failure—yet also as the very object God intends to anoint. The narrative traced Moses’ forty years in Egypt, his flight, and the burning bush encounter where God asked practical questions: “What is in your hand?” The rod became emblematic of personal testimony, including the ugly and shameful parts, which God neither discards nor merely forgives but transforms and employs for redemptive purposes.

The sermon defined anointing as the supernatural power of God operating through the natural to produce humanly impossible results. Concrete images—rod producing plagues, the rod dividing the Red Sea, everyday objects becoming altars—illustrated how God’s presence changes ordinary tools into instruments of deliverance. The anointing does not depend on resume, pedigree, or polished speech but on offering what is in hand to God.

An altar call connected theology to practice: the anointing breaks yokes. A vivid invitation urged people to come forward, stretch hands, and pass an anointing oil circle, emphasizing communal intercession, the laying on of hands, and immediate expectation for release, healing, and mission. Testimonies from Honduras and prison ministries underscored how transformed testimony becomes a catalytic witness. The closing charge encouraged surrender—bring failures, testimonies, and small resources to God—and trust that the anointing will multiply, heal, and set captives free.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Offer testimony, not cover shame Owning the full contours of a life—good marks and bad—lets God authenticate testimony. Disclosure of past failures becomes the raw material God refines into credibility among the broken. Vulnerability invites the Holy Spirit to translate shame into a gospel that resonates with those who know real wounds. [36:35]
• 2. Surrender failures; God repurposes them Presenting failures to God doesn’t merely erase guilt; it reassigns purpose. God can retool what once enslaved into a tool for liberation and leadership. That repurposing testifies more convincingly than polished competence ever could, because it proves grace works in the worst places. [37:29]
• 3. Anointing transforms ordinary into sacred The anointing conveys divine efficacy into commonplace things and actions, converting them into instruments for deliverance. The supernatural does not cancel the natural; it empowers it to accomplish what humans cannot. Expect miracles where faith meets the simple elements in hand. [41:19]
• 4. Anointing breaks yokes; release burdens Spiritual bondage yields not primarily to techniques but to the empowering presence of God. The anointing confronts entrenched oppression—fear, addiction, relational wreckage—and creates conditions for practical freedom. Approach God with the burden and receive strength to remove it. [57:31]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [05:26] - Thailand ministries overview
• [06:53] - Sponsorship and practical needs
• [27:00] - Exodus 4 reading and transition
• [28:38] - Burning bush and first signs
• [33:50] - Moses’ objections and the rod
• [41:19] - Defining the anointing
• [45:53] - Rod anointed; miracles follow
• [57:31] - Anointing breaks the yoke
• [71:11] - Anointing, altar call, and commissioning

Bible reading
Exodus 4:1-5, 20 (ESV)
Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” Again, the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign.
...Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand.

Observation questions

1. What was Moses holding in his hand when God asked him, and what was its significance in his daily life? [34:36]
2. What were the three specific signs God gave Moses to perform with the staff and his hand to convince the Israelites?
3. According to the sermon, what did a shepherd's rod represent beyond being a simple tool? [35:15]
4. What are the "marks" or parts of our story that we might be tempted to hide or be ashamed of, as illustrated by Moses' rod? [36:35]

Interpretation questions

1. Why do you think God chose to use the ordinary, everyday object Moses was already holding, rather than creating something new and spectacular for him to use?
2. God told Moses to pick up the serpent by its tail, the most dangerous part. What does this action symbolize about how we are to confront the fearful or shameful parts of our past?
3. The anointing is defined as "the supernatural power of God operating through the natural to produce results that are humanly impossible." [41:19] How does this definition change our perspective on the value of our natural abilities and resources?
4. The sermon states that "fear is false evidence appearing real." [39:24] How does holding onto our failures and shame feed that false evidence and prevent us from stepping into God's calling?

Application questions

1. God asked Moses, "What is in your hand?" What is the ordinary "rod" in your hand right now—a skill, a resource, your story, or even a past failure—that you have been hesitant to surrender to God for His use?
2. What is one "mark" on your personal "rod"—a part of your testimony involving shame, failure, or pain—that you have believed disqualifies you from being used by God? What would it look like to finally offer that specific thing to Him for repurposing? [37:29]
3. The anointing transforms common things for sacred purposes. [41:49] Where in your life (your home, your workplace, a relationship) do you need to ask God to anoint the ordinary so that He can produce the impossible?
4. Is there a specific "yoke" of burden, addiction, fear, or oppression you are carrying that you need to bring to the altar for God's anointing to break? [57:31] What is the first step in releasing that burden to Him today?
5. Who in your circle of influence needs to hear a testimony of how God has repurposed your failure or pain for His glory? What is one practical way you can share that story with them this week?
6. The power of God is often released in community, as seen when the anointing was passed from person to person. [01:13:07] Who can you ask to pray with you this week for the faith to surrender your "rod" and believe God for His anointing?