Morning Manna 3
I AM That I AM
Intro. :Heb 11:6
But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He IS,
and that He is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
- The Bible Says:
1.When Moses was Commissioned to deliver Israel out of Egypt…
- He Asked:Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and… bring forth…Israel out of Egypt?Exo. 3:11
They shall say to me, What is His name? What shall I say unto them?Exo. 3:13
- God Answered…Moses, I AM THAT I AM:Exo. 3:14
and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
- I Am that I Am literally is: Iwill be that Iwill be (Geddes)
- The Idea behind the name is: real, perfect, unconditioned, independent existence.
- The I AM hath sent me to youis an abb. form of “I am that I am,” and is intended to express the same idea.
- I AMdenotes “The Alone Existent”—“He that is, and was, and is to come” See #2
2.The I AMConnotes the following:
- He is the Self-Existent pre-Existent One – He ISHeb. 11:6
“I AM that I AM” i.e. “He that is, and was, and is to come”Exo. 3:14
Before there was a was, He IS, and after there is a will be, He will still be He IS.
For I am the LORD, I change not.Mal. 3:6
- He is the Ever-present One:
From Him which is, and which was, and which is to come;Rev. 1:4
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to comeRev. 4:8
Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be.Rev. 16:5
- He is the Eternal/Everlasting One:
Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen.Psa. 41:13; 106:48
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world,
even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.Psa. 90:2
Thy throne is established of old: Thou art from everlasting.Psa. 93:2
Cf. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.Rev. 21:6
Cf. The Lord Jesus: I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last:Rev. 1:11
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.Rev. 22:13
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.Heb. 13:8
Jehovah’s Name is I AM and He is to beRemembered, Respected and Revered as such: Exo. 3:15b
This is My name for ever, and this is My memorial unto all generations.
- Oswald Chambers (in My Utmost for His Highest) Says:
1.April 18 Meditation:Readiness – “God called to him …And he said, ‘Here I am’ ” Exodus 3:4
When God speaks, many of us are like people in a fog, and we give no answer. Moses’ reply to God revealed that he knew where he was and that he was ready. Readiness means having a right relationship to God and having the knowledge of where we are. We are so busy telling God where we would like to go…
but we are not ready for some obscure duty.
Readiness for God means that we are prepared to do the smallest thing or the largest thing—
it makes no difference. It means we have no choice in what we want to do,
but that whatever God’s plans may be, we are there and ready.
Be ready for the sudden surprise visits of God. A ready person never needs toget ready—heis ready.
Think of the time we waste trying to get ready once God has called! The burning bush is a symbol
of everything that surrounds the person who is ready, and it is on fire with the presence of God Himself.
KC Ung says:
We are as in a fog, not because God is all covered up and we cannot see Him, but rather we are all covered up and not ready to reveal to God where we are. Cf. When Adam and Eve sinned…the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? (Gen. 3:9) Adam had gone into hiding.
He was not Ready to face up to God.
It is true, with God He gives us no choice and He expects us to obey to inherit His best. But at the same time, He gives us a choice to choose if we are prepared to accept His choice, or to reject and face the consequence of our own making.
The Confidence and Courage to Commit “Here Am I” is the knowledge that He is the I AM that I AM!
2.October 13 Meditation – Individual Discouragement and Personal Growth.
“… when Moses was grown … he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens” Exo. 2:11
Moses saw the oppression of his people and felt certain that he was the one to deliver them, and in the righteous indignation of his own spirit he started to right their wrongs. After he launched his first strike for God and for what was right, God allowed Moses to be driven into empty discouragement, sending him into the desert to feed sheep for forty years. At the end of that time, God appeared to Moses and said to him, “‘… bring My people … out of Egypt.’ But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go …?’ ” (Exodus 3:10–11)…
We may have the vision of God and a very clear understanding of what God wants, and yet when we start to do it, there comes to us something equivalent to Moses’ forty years in the wilderness. It’s as if God had ignored the entire thing, and when we are thoroughly discouraged, God comes back and revives His call to us. And then we begin to tremble and say, “Who am I that I should go …?” We must learn that God’s great stride is summed up in these words—“I AM WHO I AM … has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14)… If you are going through a time of discouragement, there is a time of great personal growth ahead.
KC Ung says:
At this time of life, do you feel you are in life’s wilderness; your vision blurred and your mission in tatters? On a personal analysis have you been striking out on your own with the “I can” syndrome without considering and consulting the “I AM”? Then what you need is to be like David [who] encouraged himself in the LORD his God and stop questioning “Who am I?” butoffer yourself “Here am I” to the I AM THAT I AM.
At this Camp, you were faced with To Be Or Not To Be – your vision for yourself and the challenge to Choose “not mine, but Thine” and to let Him take Control of every Circumstance in your life, no more believing in Whatever Will Be, WillBe. Now comes this Challenge: do you believe in The I AM That I Am to offer yourself “Here I am” ?
3.October 4 Meditation: The Vision and the Reality
“… to those who are … called to be saints …”1 Cor. 1:2
Thank God for being able to see all that you have not yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not yet to the reality of it by any means. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the bumps and bruises that must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision. We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to be battered into the shape of the vision to be used by God? The beatings will always come in the most common, everyday ways and through common, everyday people.
There are times when we do know what God’s purpose is; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends on us, not on God. If we prefer to relax on the mountaintop and live in the memory of the vision, then we will be of no real use in the ordinary things of which human life is made. We have to learn to live in reliance upon what we saw in the vision, not simply live in ecstatic delight and conscious reflection upon God. This means living the realities of our lives in the light of the vision until the truth of the vision is actually realized in us. Every bit of our training is in that direction. Learn to thank God for making His demands known.
Our little “I am” always sulks and pouts when God saysdo. Let your little “I am” be shriveled up in God’s wrath and indignation—“I AM WHO I AM … has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). He must dominate. Isn’t it piercing to realize that God not only knows where we live, but also knows the gutters into which we crawl! He will hunt us down as fast as a flash of lightning. No human being knows human beings as God does.
- KC Ung Says:
To Be Or Not To Be is not our Choice, it is God’s. It is beyond our Control.
Whatever Will Be, Will Be does not Reckon with the Reality of God. While He gives us the Choice to obey or disobey, we take the Responsibility to Receive His Best of Blessings or His worst of Blights.
I AM THAT I AM reveals Him as the Eternally Self-Existent One Who is Omnipresent, Omniscient and Omnipotent. Either we Receive Him as the I AM and lose our I am in Him or we increase the Stature of what I Am and lose the Size of His great I AM.
When God Reveals Himself as the I AM,
We should not Respond with “Who am I?”
Instead, we should be Ready to Reply “Here am I.”