For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you.
It had been a lifelong goal of mine to climb a 14,000 ft mountain. I was on the verge of scratching this off my bucket list but as I approached the summit of my first 14,000 foot peak, things started to happen. Unwelcome things. My vision began to narrow. “Uh oh!” My progress became labored; I started loosing my balance. “Oh #!*t” Thoughts ceased to move around in my head. Finally I could not take one more step without collapsing. Remaining upright became my new goal. “Help!”
Oh how I wanted to achieve that objective. I had dreamed of that view. I had anticipated the cold thin air in my lungs. I thought (in a muddy sort of way), “Why Lord? I have the conditioning! Why couldn’t you let me make it just a few 100 more feet?” Well, the Lord didn’t have anything to do with it. The problem was me. I was not acclimatized. I did have the shape but I had not spent the time at that altitude. Time spent in that environment was all that was missing.
As you probably suspect (if you read my stuff) there is a moral to this story. I believe the church is in much the same condition as I was. We too have the conditioning. We are in Christ. He is the only Life we have or ever will have. In Christ, we are seated at a very high altitude. We are seated with Jesus at the right hand of the Father. We are just not accustomed (or acclimatized) to this reality. We need to let this word dwell abundantly in our hearts. In Christ, it is our basic nature to live at high altitude where the air is invigorating and the view is astonishing.
When we get dizzy, loose our balance or even stumble, we should not go into a tailspin thinking, “Man! I am just a low lander (or low-lifer). I will never be able to ascend to any high calling. I’m just a sinner but at least I’m saved from the pit. Oh well…..I guess I’ll get to the high places someday.” I know this thinking because I’ve thought these thoughts. They can even sound pretty righteous but as the half truths they are, they are very deceptive and destructive to the life we are called to live in the Spirit. Here is the higher perspective and the word we must proclaim. Check out 2 Corinthians 4:8-11;
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing….. struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
Altitude sickness. It is horrid. Anticipate intense headache. The good news is that there is a cure. We simply need to spend time there acknowledging that we too have the conditioning we need, by nature, in Christ. We are seated together with him in high places (“high” – as on heaven)!
My current perception of the liberating word that God has spoken over us which is higher than heaven is than earth, which is higher than our ways (therefore hard to grasp intellectually) which will not return to him void is this..
When we stumble and sin (and we will) it is best not to allow the devil to use it for condemnation sake. He would say,” See, you really are just a sinner and that is all you ever will be. Hope for heaven, you wretch, because it ain’t nothin gonna change in this life. All is futility and striving after the wind. Have you not figured that out yet you dunce! You are depraved, therefore get used to it.” For sons it much different. As different as light is from darkness.
For me, as a son, when I sin I am deeply sorry and I ask for forgiveness but I wash my face, stand on my feet and move forward knowing that stumbling is not unnatural for children. What is totally unnatural is for them to mope about as if they were enslaved to corruption. What has this form of righteousness conveyed to the world about the Father?
For me, I just get up. I reach up my hand and the Father faithfully reuses me from my folly and immaturity (not me irredeemable nature.) BIG difference. Along this pathway, one can be led forth in peace and proceed with joy. We will find that we will break forth with the hills and the mountains and the rivers,( OK, the whole cosmos) with shouts of joy. This is what his word is capable of producing in 100-fold magnitude.
Father, thank you for LIfe in CHrist. May you show us that we are already dwelling in the highest possible place (in You) and that there is nothing necessary beyond our thank you’s necessary to acclimatize. So be it. Amen.