Hitting the Shift Key: Breaking Cycles and Embracing God's Higher Calling

This powerful message takes us deep into the heart of Moses' story, revealing a profound truth about spiritual growth: our lives don't follow a straight upward trajectory, but rather move through cycles of highs and lows. Using the business concept of the S-curve, we're reminded that growth involves peaks followed by valleys—what's called the 'valley of death' or 'trough of disillusionment.' The critical question isn't whether we'll face these downturns, but whether we'll allow the Holy Spirit to shift our trajectory upward again. Moses' encounter with God at the burning bush exposes three devastating weaknesses that kept him trapped in a downward spiral: weak faith ('this is a bad idea, God'), weak self-image ('who am I?'), and weak obedience ('send someone else'). Yet God's response is transformative—He doesn't dismiss Moses' past or his shepherd's staff, that physical reminder of how far he'd fallen from palace royalty to tending sheep. Instead, God asks, 'What's that in your hand?' and proceeds to demonstrate that He can use even our testimonies of failure for miraculous purposes.

The shepherd's staff that represented Moses' lowest point became the very instrument through which God would part the Red Sea and deliver a nation. This reveals a stunning truth: God doesn't erase our past, but He can redeem it and use it powerfully when we surrender it to Him. The shift we need begins with changing how we think—fixing our eyes not on what we can see (our current struggles and limitations) but on what we cannot yet see (who God is calling us to become). When we allow the Spirit to renew our thoughts and attitudes, we position ourselves for a course correction that can pull us out of any nosedive and set us on a path toward the victorious life God intends for us.