Some people exist but they’re not alive, that’s because all you need in order to exist is to have pulse. Some people live only to survive. Their main concern is to have a house to live in and food to eat.  And others live hopping from one experience to another or from one relationship to another. But to truly live you need to have more than a pulse, you’ll need to do more than survive and hop from on experience and relationship to another. You’ll also need to have a purpose; you need to have a reason to exist. 

Then the  Lord  said to him, “What is that in your hand?” – Exodus 4:2 NIV 

If you’ve ever read the Book of Exodus or if you’ve seen the Movie the Ten Commandments you probably know a little bit about Moses. Towards the end of his life, he was merely existing and was living without any purpose other than to survive. He had fallen from being the Prince of Egypt to becoming a shepherd in the backside of the desert. But one day God appeared to him and asked, “what is in your hand?” “A shepherd’s staff,” Moses replied. And God said to him, “throw it on the ground” and Moses did and the staff became alive. Then God told Moses, “pick it up” and when Moses picked it up it turned back into a piece of wood. In Moses’ hand it was a staff but when he let go it came alive. 

Moses staff was more than just a piece of wood, his staff represented his identity, his influence and his income. For Moses the staff was a means of survival. But when he threw his staff down at God’s command it became alive, and suddenly Moses’ staff gained historic and eternal significance. In Moses’ hand the staff was a simple piece of wood good for temporal survival, in God’s hand it became a tool of eternal value and the purpose for Moses’ existence. Later on Moses would deliver the people of Israel out of four hundred years of bondage in Egypt. And the vehicle through which Moses accomplished this historical feat was the shepherd’s staff. It was with the staff that Moses caused pestilence over Egypt, parted the Red Sea, and was used to produce water from a rock, enough for more than two million people plus all of their animals to drink from in the desert. 

Moses discovered that in order to activate his purpose he would have to let go of what he had in his hand, his identity, his influence and his income. So, What’s in your hand? If you hang on to it, you’ll merely be existing to survive. But if you’d be willing to release it to accomplish God’s plan you will also be activating His purpose for your life. After all, God created you on purpose and for a purpose.