How to tell when a Burning Bush is actually God
This is the question my son, Carter, posed the other day. We’d been at the grocery store where he and his brother rode around in a cart shaped like a fire engine, which is awkward & elephantine for the one pushing the cart. In the van he asked, “Mom, when do you know to call the firemen.”
As I’m want to do I launched into an answer without carefully considering it, “Well when you see something on fire like a…” (it is at this point my parenting gene kicked in and yelled: don’t scare him! Name something unlikely to burn!) I paused to pick a good item to throw on the imaginary flames and Carter chimed in, “Like a bush?”
“First you’d better see if it is God in that burning bush before you call the fire department,” I replied.
Scoffing, he said, “Mom! I’m not Moses!” It hadn’t crossed his mind that God could (and probably will in one way or another) appear to Carter himself. I told him that all things considered he should check first. And of course Carter then asked me the question of the ages, “How will I know if it is God in that bush?”
How do we know when God appears to us? Let’s start with something far less abstract. Where does God connect with us? Through the Word, the Bible. If you don’t have one: get one. It matters very little which translation you use, but you should be comfortable with it. I personally use both the NIV and NRSV translations. How do we talk with God? Through prayer and meditation (which is a fancy way of saying: listening once in a while). Paul says in Ephesians 6:18, “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” So when you think you’ve been encountered by God in nature, through a sense of calling, in a dream ask God, “Is this really you?” when you pray. There is no harm in asking God to confirm an uncertain feeling you have; in fact it is a Biblical tradition. Look at Gideon! (Judes 6, esp verse 17)
Now as for Moses and the burning bush, let’s just consider what he encountered. “[At Horeb] the angel of the Lord appeared to [Moses] in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight - why the bush does not burn up.” Exodus 3:2-3
Moses moseys over to the bush engulfed in flames!?! What? Brave! Courageous! I often fear that I’d run for safety if God chose to appear to me in such a way! I take heart in the idea that self protection is a natural human reaction, but I fear that I’m not strong enough for God to bother appearing to. After all, I might take it the wrong way and run.
You see God appearing is not about the person God appears to. Moses is important yes, but God could have gotten Israel out of Egypt another way, regardless of the Cecil B DeMille interpretation God’s plan is not contingent on Moses alone. God appears in myriad ways to further God’s kingdom in this world. To empower the body of Christ as his hand and feet in the world: loving, working, worshiping. This is why God comes to us and calls. You don’t have to be Moses for God to appear to you. Get used to it because odds are God will come to you one way or another!
So is the burning bush, dream, vision, sense of call really from God? Well, are you inspired to find out or to run for your life? Is it a haunting (aka Holy Spirit) experience? Do you feel like the subject keeps returning to the fore of your mind? When you listen to God in prayer (standard communication mode), what do you hear?
And what is the result of your burning bush? Are you consumed? Is the call you’re feeling making you diminished in any way? Don’t confuse diminished with changing your life. When God calls you change. But God’s calling is overall nourishing spiritually to us. God wants nothing less for us than a full, burgeoning relationship with God. Ask yourself, Am Ion fire for God but not consumed?
How do you tell when a burning bush is actually God? Ask.
