Your Burning Bush Moment: When God Calls You to Surrender
By Claudia Hines
I believe that we all have the opportunity to experience what I would call a “burning bush moment.” It may not look the like the story of Moses and the burning bush, but it will have the same effect on our lives. An encounter with God should change and lead us to being transformed as we recognize His presence, respond to His calling, and understand the need to surrender in order to follow Him.
As a review of the story, Moses was tending his sheep in the desert when he literally saw a bush burning, yet the bush was not consumed by the fire. Moses made a decision to stop, investigate and said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight” (Exodus 3:3).
That decision, to turn aside, brought him into an encounter with the mighty and powerful living God. God spoke to him saying, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses answered, “Here I am.” God told him to take off his sandals because he was standing on holy ground.
That encounter changed the direction of Moses’ life. God was calling him to leave the life he was living and live out His new God-given purpose, to return to Egypt and lead the Israelites out of bondage.
God even gave Moses a promise that would sustain him through the rest of his life: “I will certainly be with you” (Exodus 3:12). This was Moses’ burning bush moment.
It is an example of what happens when we truly encounter God, respond to His calling, and surrender our will to God’s. We become aware that we need to surrender something, change something, or step into something that is bigger than ourselves. We are not being asked to accomplish something by our own strength. We are being asked to trust and rely completely on God.
This story in the Bible is a picture of what can happen to us when we have a deep and spiritual encounter with God. The blinders of our eyes are removed and we have clarity on who and what God is, His purpose for each of us, what we have to give up to follow God, and an understanding it is through His power not our own that we will live our lives.
Our life completely changes in what we say, do, think, and how we act. Our relationship with God changes how we respond to others. No longer are we living for ourselves.
Modern Day Burning Bush Moments
What does a modern-day burning bush moment look like?
I believe it can happen in many different ways. It may happen during prayer, worship, fasting, reading Scripture, a difficult season, or a time when God gets our attention and causes us to stop and look at our lives differently.
A burning bush moment is not necessarily a dramatic spiritual experience. It may be a quiet realization that God is asking us to surrender something we have been holding onto.
I can identify with this personally. There was a time when I came face to face with God in a way that changed my life. I did not physically see Him, but I knew I had encountered Him. There was an awareness of His presence and a clarity about my life that I had not experienced before.
When we truly seek God, something begins to happen within us. We begin to understand that we cannot seek Him with our whole heart and then continue living exactly as we have lived before. Change is required.
God changes our perspective. He changes what we desire and begins to show us things in our lives that we need to change. Sometimes that means giving up things we once thought were important. Sometimes it means changing the way we think, the way we respond, or the way we treat others.
This encounter with God will forever change you. This is where surrender becomes important.
Life After a Burning Bush Moment
Paul said, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). This is what true believers are called to do. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).
Following Christ means surrendering our own desires and choosing to obey God even when it is difficult and even when we do not understand what He is doing.
We are called to be “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20). An ambassador represents someone else. Our lives are to represent Jesus Christ.
When we have our “burning bush moment”, just like Moses, we are faced with a choice. Will we continue living according to our old ways, thoughts and desires, or will we surrender ourselves to God and allow Him to change us?
Surrender means putting off the old man. It means allowing God to change our hearts and minds and learning to walk in forgiveness, repentance, love, grace, and mercy.
What is Our Responsibility
Jesus told us that the road that leads to life is narrow.
“Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:14).
The narrow road is not always the comfortable road. It is not always the popular road. It is certainly not the road that says we can have Christ without changing our lives.
Following Jesus requires us to go against the current of the world at times. It is easier to go downstream with everyone else. It takes determination to walk in another direction when the crowd is going the opposite way.
Jesus warned the church at Laodicea about becoming lukewarm. He said, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot” (Revelation 3:15).
God does not want us to simply know about Him. He wants us to know Him.
Jeremiah 29:13 says, “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart”.
If we truly seek Him with our whole heart, we should expect to be changed by what we find. We may experience rejection, betrayal, disappointment, or people speaking against us. We may walk through seasons when we wonder what God is doing. But our lives are not defined by what other people say about us. Our life is defined by who we belong to.
God can use trials and suffering we go through to build His character in us. Romans 5:3–4 reminds us that tribulation can produce perseverance, character, and hope. James 1:2–4 tells us that the testing of our faith produces patience and spiritual maturity.
When we encounter God, we begin to understand that our lives have a purpose beyond ourselves and that we are no longer in control. We are here to know Him, to love Him, to obey Him, and to make Him known. We are called to encourage one another, pray for one another, exhort one another, and share the truth of God’s Word.
We are called to be light in a dark world. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). That means we are to be different than those in the world. People should see Christ through the way we live.
Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).
That is complete surrender.
There have been times when I have prayed for God to change a situation, only to realize that He was asking me to allow Him to change me. I wanted an answer, but He wanted my trust. I wanted circumstances to be different, but He was working on my heart. Those moments were not always comfortable, but they brought me closer to Him and reminded me that following Christ means giving Him control.
Our burning bush moments may come during some of the most difficult seasons of our lives. God can use those moments to strip away what no longer belongs in our lives and draw us into deeper dependence upon Him. This makes me think of Psalm 51:10: “Create in me a clean hear, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”
Romans 12:2 tells us to be “transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Transformation means we do not simply add Jesus to the life we were already living. We make a decision to allow Him to make us new.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
When we truly encounter Him, our priorities begin to change. Our desires change. Our attitudes change. The way we respond to people changes. We begin to see our circumstances differently. We become less concerned with ourselves and more concerned with what God’s purpose is in our lives.
Just as Moses stood before the burning bush and responded to God’s call, we too will have our burning bush moments when God gets our attention. We then have the opportunity to stop, turn aside, listen, and surrender to Him.
The question is not whether we will have a burning bush moment. The question is what we will do when it happens. Will we stop, turn aside, listen, and surrender? Will we allow Him to lead us into the purpose He has for our lives?
Are you willing to give up the old man and allow God to make you new creation?