06/08/2026
🔥 THE MYSTERY OF THE THORNY BUSH AND THE SNAKE'S TAIL 🔥 - Part 3.
🐍 3. THE SNAKE BY THE TAIL: THE COST OF SURRENDER.
When Moses objects to his calling, God asks him a simple, ordinary question: "What is that in your hand?" Moses replies, "A rod." (Exodus 4:2).
To a shepherd, a rod/staff is everything. It is his identity, his livelihood, his security, and his weapon of defense. God tells him to throw it down.
📖 Exodus 4:3-4 (NKJV) : "And He said, 'Cast it on the ground.' So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Reach out your hand and take it by the tail' (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand)..."
Anyone who knows anything about snakes knows you never pick a venomous snake up by the tail. If you grab its tail, it can easily whip around and bite you with a lethal dose of venom. To catch a snake by the tail is an act of absolute surrender. It is a willingness to die.
When Moses reached out his hand and grabbed that tail, he was saying: "Lord, I surrender my survival instinct. I surrender my logic. I surrender my fear of death. My life is Yours."
The moment Moses died to his own will and fully surrendered, look at what happened to his ordinary piece of wood:
📖 Exodus 4:20 (NKJV) : "...And Moses took the rod of God in his hand."
It was no longer just the "rod of Moses"—the tool of an exiled shepherd. It became the Rod of God. The very rod that would part the Red Sea, strike the rock for water, and bring down plagues upon Egypt.
What is "in your hand" today? Is it your career? Your reputation? Your control over your children? Your finances? Your deep-seated need to be right?
Often, the things we hold onto for security become "snakes" of anxiety and fear when we try to control them ourselves. God is asking you to throw them down, and then-terrifyingly-to pick them up by the tail in absolute, trusting surrender.
👉 What is the "snake" you are terrified to grab by the tail? What is the area of your life where you are saying, "God, I'll trust You with anything, except THIS"?
🕊️ YOUR DAILY WALKING OUT:
Today, let go of the need for an audience. Welcome the Holy Spirit into your quiet, ordinary, and even thorny spaces.
Take whatever you are holding onto so tightly-your plans, your worries, your security-and cast it at His feet. When you surrender your will and dare to trust His voice over your fear, He will transform your ordinary, everyday "staff" into a tool of supernatural power.
You are not disqualified. Your desert is just the training ground for your deliverance.
Let’s talk in the comments: What is the "staff" in your hand that you need to surrender to God today? 👇👇👇
Ps Geoffrey
