A Devotional Influenced by Acts 2; Exodus 3:1–15; John 8:58, Life Relaunch, Leadership Foundations, Moorings Presbyterian Church and Sam Shoemaker
Good Morning Friends,
A friend of mine, Ray Jensen, helped to start the Life Relaunch Ministry with Mel Goebel who had a God imparted vision to help people discover their God given purpose. Another friend of mine, Reid Carpenter started the Leadership Foundation ministry to share the healing Gospel of Transformation throughout the cities of the world given a vision imparted by God on the top of Mount Washington in Pittsburgh by Sam Shoemaker. Today’s devotional takes that spark that ignited something inside of Ray and Reid and perhaps someday in you as we explore the presence of Theophany that our Pastor Steve Agguzi preaches on this Sunday at Moorings Presbyterian Church. We ask the question: How Are We Changed When God Comes Near With Fire?
Scripture Summary
In Exodus 3, Moses meets God in flame—fire that burns but does not consume. God reveals His name: I AM WHO I AM, the God who sees, hears, and comes down to save. In John 8:58, Jesus declares, “Before Abraham was, I AM,” identifying Himself with the God of the bush. In Acts 2, the same God descends again—this time not on a bush, but on His people—with tongues of fire, empowering them to love God, love others, and make disciples.
Message: Sam Shoemaker often said that the Christian life begins when a man realizes God has come near. Not when he climbs, but when God descends. Not when he improves, but when God interrupts.
Moses was not seeking God. The disciples were not expecting fire. And most of us are not looking for a theophany—we’re looking for relief.
But God does not wait for perfect conditions. He comes down into wildernesses, upper rooms, addictions, wounds, and quiet despair. He comes down in a flame.
Shoemaker wrote, “The Holy Spirit is God coming into the room.” Exodus 3 is God coming into Moses’ room. Acts 2 is God coming into the Church’s room. When people start ministries, it is God coming into the wounded rooms of the human heart.
A theophany is not a polite religious moment. It is God breaking through the crust of our self‑sufficiency. It is God saying all things are possible.
Scripture points the way. The bush burned. The mountain shook. The room was filled with wind. The disciples caught fire.
Shoemaker would say: “When God shows up, He shows up to change things.”
This theophany is not spectacle, it is a summons. God appears to Moses not to impress him, but to send him. God appears in Acts 2 not to thrill the disciples, but to thrust them into mission. God’s work is built on this truth: God reveals Himself so He can release His people.
When Moses asks God for His name, God answers with the simplest and most shattering words: “I AM WHO I AM.”
Shoemaker loved this name because it cuts through every excuse. Moses says, “Who am I?” God says, “I AM.”
Jesus stands before the Pharisees and says the same: “Before Abraham was, I AM.” He is not merely a teacher. He is not merely a prophet. He is the God of the bush in human flesh.
Shoemaker would say: “The Christian life is not what we do for God, but what God does in us.”
Maybe you are asking the same questions Moses carried:
- Who am I?
- Am I enough?
- Can I change?
God answers with His name, not ours. Identity begins with I AM, not “I am not.”
God tells Moses to remove his sandals. Shoemaker would say this is the moment Moses stops protecting himself from God.
Holy ground is where love begins, where God is no longer a concept but a presence.
In Acts 2, holy ground spreads. The Spirit falls. The disciples speak. The nations hear. Love becomes fire.
Shoemaker wrote, “The Spirit makes God real, and when God becomes real, people become precious.”
Loving God and loving others are not two commands, they are one flame. The fire that falls on us is the fire that sends us to others.
The Burning Bush is commissioning. Acts 2 is commissioning. The Holy Spirit working in your life is commissioning.
Shoemaker believed deeply that every Christian is a witness, not by expertise but by experience. He said, “We speak of what we know. We testify to what we have seen.”
Moses saw fire. The disciples felt fire. You receive fire in the form of freedom, identity, healing and then have the privilege to carry it outward.
Disciple‑making is simply this: Fire spreading from life to life. Not coercion. Not pressure. Not performance. But presence.
Shoemaker would say: “You cannot give what you do not have. But if you have the Spirit, you cannot keep Him to yourself.”
And So, Where is God breaking into your life right now? What sandals of self‑protection must you remove? What lie about your identity must be replaced with I AM? Where is the Spirit sending you to love, serve, and disciple? Who needs the fire God has placed in you?
Pray for a Theophany of the Fire of the Holy Spirit, in the power of Father ignited by Jesus who comes down, to break into our rooms again. Pray we experience the burn without it consuming us. Pray You speak Your name over our fear. Pray You make the ground beneath us holy. Pray You fill us with Your fire as You filled the disciples, that we may love You with all our heart and love others with all Your strength. Pray You send us to make disciples not in our power, but in Yours. Pray we realize You are the great I AM, yesterday, today, and forever. Amen.
Blessings,
John Lawson
