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Writer's pictureBrandi Bourne

What’s in your hand?

Updated: Oct 23



Some of you have probably heard this as a sermon title, it is one I have heard more than once. I think even my church may have used this one at one point. It’s a pretty common topic, and a good one at that. It starts with the story about Moses. But I think that’s a rather good starting place, so I’ll piggyback on that. The story is in Exodus 4, but let’s do a quick re-cap here. Now I’m not giving you all of Genesis – you’ll have to read that on your own if you haven’t already, but the book finishes with Joseph’s death in Egypt. Exodus opens explaining that the Israelites are now slaves in Egypt – a sharp contrast to their treatment while Joseph was alive. However, the Israelites are God’s promised people, so they carry His favor regardless of the circumstances they find themselves in. So, they begin to multiply. The king of Egypt aka Pharoah calls for the execution of all Hebrew baby boys out of fear of a rebellion. This is the time when Moses was born. His mother placed him in a basket and he floated down the Nile to Pharoah's house, where Pharoah's daughter saves him. Moses grows up as royalty but recognizes the injustice being done to his people and he reacts badly. He kills an Egyptian that had struck one of the Hebrew (Israelite) people and has to flee, leaving behind his entire life and his “royal” identity. He flees to Midian and settles down with a family. That particular Pharoah dies, and the Israelites cry out to God for rescue. Cue the burning bush. Moses encounters God and a conversation begins. The Lord explains who He is and what His plan is for Moses. He is appointing Moses as a deliverer for the Israelites. Pretty cool right? Well Moses was not ok with this idea at first. Thus begins Exodus chapter 4.

“Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”
Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A staff,” he replied.
The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”
Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So, Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. “This,” said the Lord, “is so 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.”
  Then the Lord said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous[a]—it had become as white as snow.
“Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So, Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.
Then the Lord said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile, and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”
Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”
Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses, and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”
(Exodus 4:3-14 NIV)

If you haven’t read the whole story, or even if you have, I’d recommend giving it a read! This burning bush moment is the beginning of quite the adventure with the “pinnacle” of it being the famous parting of the Red Sea. So now that we have the context of what’s going on here and we’re not just cherry picking the Scripture out, I do want to ask you the question reader:

What’s in your hand?




What gift or talent has God given you to work with?
Are you using it?
How are you using it?

So, here’s what sparked my thoughts about all of this. One of my “weaknesses” you could say is spending too much time on social media. Now I know I’m not the only one guilty of this, but that doesn’t mean it’s ok because everyone else does it. So periodically, I will take breaks from Facebook and all social media. Particularly during the time of a fast. At the moment, my church is in 21 days of prayer (we do this twice a year) and this would normally be a time I would be off, but at this present moment I am in a phenomenal class that uses Facebook for group discussion. So, I realized that I was going to have to learn to exhibit some self-control rather than just deleting everything from my phone in one fell swoop. But the last two times I got off Facebook, I wasn’t fasting. I was hiding.

See what tends to happen at times is I get on social media, and I post – a lot. I started sharing so many amazing things happening in my life, maybe some pics of my kid and cool things he is doing, Scriptures, songs, all kinds of things. Just about anything God does is going to be posted because I will shout from the rooftops what God has done for us. Ninety-eight percent of what I post is faith based. But it’s usually right around the time that the Lord reveals something awesome for me to share - some revelatory post, something from His Word, or something to encourage others - the thoughts begin:

“You’re sharing too much. Leaders should be private about their lives. Nobody cares about these posts. You just want attention, that’s why you post so much. You need to be quiet. You talk too much in real life and on social media. Look nobody else posts like this. Your leaders are going to see this and judge you (side note – this is a completely unfounded thought I want to make that truly clear)”

I realize it’s the enemy. It’s his lie. But when some of that comes through the voice of people you know, it hits differently. Most of the time they’re talking about people who share not so appropriate things or are obsessed with sharing selfies or the “poor me” manipulative posts. But somehow my brain will grab that, run with it, and think that’s what I’m doing. And that’s when I shut down. Either I stop posting completely, or I get off social media. Now I’m all for a social media detox and I definitely want to put it out there that it’s definitely needed periodically. But running or isolating is not of God.

So the last couple weeks or so, I’m back on Facebook and here I am posting a lot of stuff again. I’m archiving things on my story because I’m thinking "this is too much nobody cares about all this what are you even doing?" (Jesus and I are definitely walking out the “caring too much what others think” thing still in some arenas.) Then it hits me. I remember a video I watched awhile back, and I remembered why I started posting more, and why I started a minor amount of content creation. I asked the creator of that video for permission to share but haven’t heard back so I’ll edit and add it here if he gets back to me with that permission. But the premise was this. The "main character" is talking to God and the Lord welcomes him to heaven and asks something like “who are you bringing with you” or “how did this ministry I gave you do.” So, the person says well I shared here and there but I didn’t really have any opportunities, a bunch of excuses basically. But at the end the main character basically says well you didn’t give me anything to work with. And God shows him his phone/social media and that was supposed to be their ministry their avenue to reach people. I’m not recalling all of the details correctly here, but it was something that got my attention. While we do share the goodness of God everywhere we go, I had underestimated one of the most powerful tools in my hand – my phone/social media. I fell for the lie that it was a hinderance and a distraction instead of seeing the tool that it can be.

After initially seeing that video, I started making a handful of simple encouragement videos. Never showed my face because it's not about me and I don't want it to be. Then I got hit with thoughts of “oh are you trying to monetize this now you’re trying to make money off sharing the Gospel.” (Mind you, nothing I have is monetized, not even this blog. In fact, I pay for the webpage to do this blog monthly and I have yet to put ads on the page.) I shut it down for a variety of reasons but only temporarily. The primary purpose though was to seek the voice of God deeper before proceeding further.

So back to the present day, I’m about to archive a story, a song or Scripture I don’t recall, and I look and see however many people have seen the story and I decide to look at who has seen it. Some of the names I was surprised to see. I start looking through the posts and the names of the viewers. Of course I won’t share them here. Some of those names are not believers yet. Some are new to the faith. Some may have just needed some encouragement. And others are genuine people who care about what’s going on in my life and I appreciate that too. But I realized – people were reached. I had tears in my eyes realizing that even if I impacted just one, there was a purpose. And you know most of the time it’s a repost of a video or a Scripture I came across in my one-year Bible plan or a song - it’s not my own content. It's God, working through a series of His people to reach the one. Of course, I do share pics of Lennon because I can’t help it, he’s just so awesome. And I even get to share some of his faith journey at 8 years old and that's a whole new world of parenting for me. I’ve also started something I want to keep going for awhile that’s going along with our 21 days of prayer – 21 days of gratitude. Each day, I’m finding one or two things that I am grateful for and sharing a picture of those things. And I’d like to challenge you to do this reader, in whatever way you are comfortable with. (I know not everyone posts pics of kids or personal pics, but you can do a text post too) Gratitude should be something we practice every day but sometimes we just need a reset, and others need to share in that too.

So now it’s almost routine – share the 21 days video from my church I just watched, spend time in the Word/prayer. Get ready for work, leave. I might share the song I listened to for Worship – (which Lennon is now in on because we’re doing this 21 days together and the initial worship time is in the car on the way to his daycare). Then I share something for which I am grateful. At lunch I might share something else though I’ve been using that time for prayer and also my class. Then I’ll share when I get off work or before bed. But what I am not doing is spending ridiculous amounts of time scrolling. I might check in with a few people and see what’s going on in their lives. I’ll use it to find people to pray for too at times. But I’m not wasting time in my usual area of the video/reels section.
Here and there God will share something with me that I do a full post about. And all those thoughts I mentioned earlier do come. But I think I’ve finally hit a breakthrough in realizing – I don’t care anymore what people think about it. And I’m not really concerned with the number of people that see it either – the one who is supposed to will.

Now I do think there’s a boundary to be careful not to cross. Any pics of Lennon are never public. My story is not public. I don’t share every little detail of what’s going on in my life. I caught myself the other day deleting a post about a particular situation I found myself in because I had to ask – does this post bring glory to God? I ended up using it instead as a moment of gratitude for my story and that did because even in the trials, we can be grateful. (It was also a dig at the enemy like oh you wanna try this well I’m gonna praise God publicly because you’re a loser what now.) You all will hear a story about it once it’s all said and done but I’m still walking that out right now. But I am trying to use caution that I don't draw attention to me but to what God is doing in my life.

I am in a process of revaluating all of the content I post. Not with a filter of “oh what are they going to think” or “does this make ME look XYZ fill in the blank,” because I realized – it’s not about ME at all. Now I filter it by asking that simple question – “does this bring glory to God?” Or “does this bring someone else closer to God.” And sharing personal stories can do that because it helps people see they are not alone in their struggles that someone else is facing it and God is with us through it all. So, I’ve shifted my perspective now. I won’t apologize for posting the way I do or as often as I do. And I won’t feel “guilty” about it or be pressured to be quiet. Now I’m also not going to let it become an obsession nor will I allow it to lead me to being overly concerned about likes or comments or any of that. No, I’m going to keep it simple. I am going to share whatever the Lord leads me to share unapologetically on my social media platforms. Now longer thoughts will come here to the blog of course. And I’m still learning how to do this, so I surely am not perfect in it. But when I get to heaven and God asks me “did you use what was in your hands?” I want my answer to be a resounding “yes.”

So, here’s where I might touch a nerve. First let me say, what I am about to say is not for everyone. Seek God on what you should or should not do with social media. I 100% believe there are some who it is detrimental for them and for their spiritual walk to use it regularly so God will not use that as a vessel in their life. I also realize there are several people who are running full-fledged ministries and aren’t going to have the time to post often. But I also think that many are not sharing as much as they should. Many are spending more time scrolling. I see many people I know personally that have one heck of a testimony that people need to hear. And others I've heard bits and pieces but even those carry encouragement for others facing the very things they've walked through.

What if in this season, your ministry or part of it is on social media? What if this is the avenue God wants you to use? Or one of them? Have you asked? Or do you just avoid it altogether grouping all social media as negative? Or, are you so concerned about your own personal image that you don't want to taint what others think of you by sharing the raw real stuff that's going on? Why are we hiding our struggles from people? And yes, I said we. Why aren't we saying "I was struggling with depression as a believer, but this is how God brought me out?" Why aren't we saying "God blessed our family with this awesome blessing and He can do the same for you." Why aren't we admitting that we struggle still but that His grace is sufficient for us because His power is made perfect in our weakness? Why do we always uphold this image that everything is fine when its not always fine? We are hurting people by not being honest. We are losing people in the body because we aren't showing our authentic, real selves anymore. Why?

Hear me out here. Each and every believer has a circle of influence on social media. You may only have people you know personally, or you may have added friends of friends. Or maybe you just add everyone (I don’t recommend that by the way because of scammers and “monitoring spirits” seeking to gain more info about you to do harm. Use discernment. And I am not talking about public pages here, that’s different.) But you have a specific circle of people in your life, ranging from family to friends to acquaintances. I’d say there’s a good chance there’s a handful who don’t know Jesus yet. Social media is a powerful tool for evangelism if it's used correctly. I can definitely say that every single person on your friends list can use some encouragement. Add me, I can use encouragement. We all can. But are you using the tool that is in your hand? It may not be posting often but are you sharing your story, your testimony? Are you sharing what God is speaking to you? (I don't mean personal revelation some of that is meant to stay private until the time of "birthing.") Or are you only sharing that with the small circle around you? There is an entire world out there that is desperate for connection. Desperate for real encouragement and love and positivity. Desperate to know they are not alone. Desperate for the truth. THE truth, not THEIR truth. Are you sharing God’s Word with them? Are you sharing your story? Are you sharing what God has done for you? Or are you just gonna save that for your Sunday circle?

Here’s one – get ready– are you only sharing in your church? Only with your church family or other believers? Are you using the tool in your hands not just to lead others to Christ, but to encourage and strengthen your brothers and sisters? I’m not talking about in-person or even over the phone, I am talking specifically about the world of social media. And let me say there are those of you out there that a lot of people may look up to and you don’t even realize that God wants to use you as a voice in their lives. Whatever platform you choose to use, if any – are you using that for God’s glory? Or are you building your own kingdom? Your own business? Your church only? Who's Kingdom are you building? Are you using the voice and platform that God has given you to encourage and build up others or are you just over here stalking on FB checking in on folks. I can only say that because I’ve been there. I had a whole second account at one point though there were multiple purposes for that. Are you only sharing doom and gloom negative end of the world things or are you sharing the hope that Jesus brings? And I’m not going into those of you who are on social media commenting terribly negative things but let me remind some of you – we can all see your comments now. Occasionally we see “so and so commented on….” And I’ve seen a side of people I did not know was there prior to that. So please take caution. Go back to that filter I use – “does this bring God glory? Does this draw someone closer to Jesus?”

Are you using your voice at all? Are you like Moses, asking God to use someone else and trying to come up with an excuse as to why you can't?

This is your sign to step out. Or if you have been starting to step out, this is your sign to keep going because you are having an impact greater than what you see. DO NOT SILENCE YOUR VOICE. It is NEEDED at this hour. This is not a season of silence. This is a season where God is calling people to step out and speak out in many ways. Follow His guidance on the details of how and what to say. Prioritize intimate time with Him but don’t hoard your revelation. Share it.

I cannot begin to talk about the many ways God has used social media in my life. How many times I’ve had a really rough day, and I open up and BAM word of encouragement. Exactly what I just talked to God about. It’s those moments I love so much. Moments where two things just happened. 1. God just spoke to me directly. It’s not likely the person knows me or what I am going through unless it’s a close friend I’ve shared with. Though there's been a time or two it has been someone I know personally or someone I look up to and have a respect for the anointing they carry that allows them to speak into my life in a certain way that others can't. 2. That person just used their God given gift to impact someone and that someone was me. Getting excited about that is a new thing for me by the way but it’s such a beautiful thing to witness anyone at any level being obedient to the call of God on their life. I also recognizes that costs something.

There was a social media post that influenced this very blog post. I was sitting here pondering this, trying to find that video and I was frustrated. I just wanted to share the video to get that message across because I knew people needed to hear it. But I didn’t know how to say it in a simple post without sounding critical. Then it occurred to me that I probably couldn’t find the video because this was something God wanted me to expand on. To write here, in the blog. I felt this like burning desire to talk about this. To ask myself these questions first. To share my own experience with social media being a form of ministry. But I set the phone down and knew I needed to call it a night. Went to the restroom, then checked to see that my alarm was set to the right time and FB was still open. And a simple yet profound word was in front of me, shared by Craig Groeschel (one of my favorite Pastors to learn from). All it said was “What’s on your mind is on God’s heart.” And I knew. I knew it was time to start writing again. I knew this very topic was on God’s heart and that’s why I felt the urge to write about it. And to “pick up the pen” again. Then around 5 am while interceding for others after being awoken from a few dreams, I had a vision that confirmed this. So here we are, back at it again. That’s only one of probably thousands of times that God has used social media as an avenue to reach me. I’m willing to bet there’s many of you who will read this who can say the same.

Now don’t get me wrong – we should never go searching for a Word from God on social media. I know people who do that. Early in my walk I became a “Word chaser” when I first discovered the world of online prophetic ministry. It’s dangerous. God will use many avenues to speak to us, but remember it is HIM who speaks through people. If you need a Word from God, open the Bible first. Seek Him first. Do NOT seek man. I promise you that is a pit you do not want to get stuck in. You also can easily fall into the trap of hearing what you want to hear, not what God is saying with this avenue. Use discernment and know His character well enough to know what is and what isn’t Him. The enemy is very tricky. This is why there are few people I would trust as a "voice" in my life. I do not receive everything I hear and you shouldn't either. Listen for God's voice.

So again, I present this question to you. Are you using what is in your hand? And a follow up question and topic for another day is are you seeking to grow the gifts and talents that God has given you in practical ways? Listen I get it, time is valuable and there is definitely balance in this. But it takes 5 minutes to share an encouraging word. Then close your phone. Go spend time with your family. Go spend time with God. Don’t let it become an obsession. But there are some of you out there that this is your sign from the Lord to step into content creation. He already told you so what are you waiting on? Listen, none of us are ready. I’m not ready. But if we could do this in our own strength, we wouldn’t need to depend on the help of our Father. We can’t do it alone because we were never meant to. Moses didn't do any of those signs on his own. All he did was say yes Lord. I mean he did kinda argue with God about it hence Aaron stepping in. But God still used Moses as the vessel to perform these signs for Pharoah to get his attention to set the Israelites free. He used the staff that was in Moses hand over and over again. He used it to part the Red Sea. He used it to bring water from a rock. If God can use a piece of wood to perform miracles, what do you think He could do with a phone, with the internet in your hand? Don't underestimate what God has given you. This is only one example of what can be in your hand.

Seek His voice today, then share what He asks you to. That word might change someone’s life. I have a story about that today. It wasn’t on social media, but it was a word that came through a person, but it was from God and when I tell you I got breakthrough sitting there…I’ll share the story one day. I haven’t even had a chance to talk to that person yet. But my point is this. When you allow God to use you, remarkable things can happen. Shake off the fear. Step into the unknown with Him. Fumble your way through it. Be ok with learning. It’s all a process. But I’ll say it again – when God shows you something, ask Him – should I share this? Because I promise you that not all the revelation is for you. Learn how to share it the right way – I’ve got some hard recent lessons there myself – but don’t be afraid to step out. Don’t hoard what God is showing you because it's not just for you.

Here's your challenge for the evening – in addition to the gratitude one I mentioned earlier. Go encourage someone. I realize this is getting posted late lol so in the morning for my US people (I don’t think this blog has gone international yet but comment below if you’re reading from another country!). It doesn’t have to be this like long prophetic word or something. Post something simple. Share a clip from a sermon with someone or on your page. Send someone a message on messenger saying you’re praying for them. Go encourage someone and to stay on topic here, if possible, use social media to do that. And let us know below how it went!

May God’s blessing, peace, protection, and guidance rest on every person who reads this. I will see y’all again soon.



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