A man or woman of God is born in one moment, but only grows into usefulness over a lifetime of getting to know God intimately. Too often, Christians have the attitude that once a person is born again they have finally "arrived." The truth is that the journey's just begun. Salvation is not the finish line. It's the starting place. We come to know God in salvation, but we must grow in sanctification if we are to become the man or woman that He wants us to be.

Moses met God on a mountain in the Midianite desert. God revealed Himself to Moses, but that was just the beginning of his relationship with God. He would get to know God intimately. After Moses encountered God on that fateful day, he begin to have some logical questions about his new relationship. There were three ways in which Moses began to grow in his intimacy with God.

First, he came to know God as being omnipresent. God told Moses, "I will be with you" (Ex. 3:12 NIV). Moses needed to know that no matter where he went, God would be there. God would be with him when he stood before Pharaoh and when he stood before the Red Sea. He would be with him in the wilderness and in the city. He was with him on the mountain and would be with him when he descended into the valley.

When the Romanian revolution took place there was a wonderful cry that exploded in the hearts of the people. They had been systematically brainwashed all of their lives with atheism. But in one Divine moment, God came and revealed Himself to the people, and 200,000 people in the country's second largest city began to shout, "Dumnezeu este cu noi!" which translated means, "God is with us."

When Jesus came to this planet, one of the names given to Him was "Emmanuel," which translated means, "God is with us." When God reveals Himself to His people, He always wants them to know that He will be with them no matter where they go.

But God also revealed Himself to Moses as Eternal. God is everywhere all the time. Moses asked God a logical question, "What's your name?" If he was going to go back to the children of Israel, then he should at least know the name of the One who was sending him. God's answer to that question was the ultimate of His very nature. He said, "I am that I am" (Ex. 3:14). Note that He didn't say, "I was that I was, or that I will be that I will be." At that moment with Moses, God was, "I am that I am." Today He is "I AM," and tomorrow He is still, "I AM." He doesn't grow old. He's the same "yesterday, today, and forever."

Finally, Moses came to know God as perfectly faithful. God said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers-- the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob-- has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation" (Ex. 3:15 NIV). What God had done with and for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He would do with Moses. God had been faithful and true to His promises to their forefathers, and He would be true to Moses.

Moses became God's man, not because he was a great man, but because he had come to know a great God - the God who is everywhere, all the time, and completely faithful. And the wonderful thought is that the God of Moses is the God of every true follower of Jesus, the Christ. The making of the man of God doesn't begin with the man, but the God who makes him. It's the man or woman with the mark of the character of God upon their soul that is useful in His kingdom. Such a mark is branded upon the human heart by intimacy with the Savior.