“What is that in your hand?”
Exodus 4:2
“And the Lord said to him, What is that in your hand? And he said, A rod.”
When Moses encountered God in the desert, The Lord asked him a simple question, “what is that in your hand?” As many people familiar with this story will tell you, over the years the “rod of Moses” became known as the “rod of God,” yet it was the same rod. That rod, was used in all the miracles of Moses.
Again, when Jesus wanted to feed a multitude, He asked for what was available. A little boy offered his lunch, and The Lord used it to feed thousands of people. I want to extract a simple but powerful principle from these two stories; which is that, it is not true that you have “nothing” in your hand to use to make an impact in your life or the lives of those around you. For you to be reading this post, you have a cell phone or computer in your hand, even if you are in an Internet cafe. When God wants to solve a big problem He likes to use what is in your hand, even if it seems like it is nothing or inconsequential
So if God visited you today and said, “what is that in your hand,” would you answer, “Facebook” or even the “Internet”. Would you say, “Lord, I have a computer in my hand, I know how to use it.” There is nothing you cannot do, with just the Internet or Facebook. The question is, “what are you going to do with it?” Success and prosperity are nothing more than a way of thinking. We need to think differently about these things. We need to think about what we can do with the Internet or even Facebook. When the Chinese saw applications like Twitter, or Facebook, they rushed to create their own sites, such as Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba.A few weeks ago I shared with you the story of Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, which is now bigger than Facebook. Jack Ma was an English language teacher and not a computer expert.
Recently I was in Kenya and I saw what young people have begun to do in that country with social media and the development of apps. I was so excited, I immediately set up a business there to help tap into some of these ideas. The same is beginning to happen in Nigeria. It is good to be able to “use” platforms such as Twitter and Whatsapp, but it is better to think in terms of “what can I really do or create with this?”
I was in the church meeting where Pastor Chris challenged Christians to set up their own social media site. Within a few months, the Christian blogging site Yookos was up and running, and I agreed to chair the company. It was created by young Christians from South Africa, Nigeria, UK and Zimbabwe collaborating on the Internet. Today, it has more than 20 million registered users! Imagine if Moses had complained about the heat in the desert, or complained about not having enough money, or about the economic situation. If he had done that, I know for sure God would not have used him. There is room for an African Alibaba; there is room for an African Facebook; there is room for an African Twitter. Africa has 1bn people, which will double in your life time.
God: “What is that in your hand?”
Man: “It is the Internet Lord”
God: “What is that in your hand?”
Man: “It is Facebook Lord”
God: “What is that in your hand?”
Man: “My cell phone Lord”
God: “What is that in your hand?”
Man: “It is my bicycle Lord”
God is the same God, yesterday, today, and forever. The God of Moses is very much alive, and He wants to use you to change your world. As far as He is concerned, what you have is enough!
“What is that in your hand?” I have meditated so much on this simple question ever since I read it in the bible. If you have faith, there is nothing too little or too small. Faith is the response of the human spirit to the Word of God; so when the Word of God, says to you, “what is that in your hand?” What will your answer be?
Now you are beginning to get it!
Let us move one more step forward, because I am not going to let you go.
Every time you use that phone, or that computer, or go to Facebook, or Twitter, or whatever, start thinking in terms of, “what business idea can I develop with this?, what need is there out there, that I can reach, using this?” And that brothers,and sisters, is how innovation sparks. It is how Twitter and Facebook came about. Young people just like many of you.
Say to yourself, every time, “I don’t want to be just a user of this, I want to use it to generate projects, and ideas, and help others.” Don’t think in terms of obstacles, that you might encounter, because that will paralyze, your creativity or your faith. Some of the things you will come up with initially will look silly, and usually you will find that someone else has already done, it but you keep trying… and gradually it becomes your mindset: you are then always saying, what can I do with this thing… This thing is money, right in hands! glory!
Bless you.
Sent from my iPad
By Strive Masiyiwa.
What is that in your hand? you may answer in the comment section below.
