The High Places

Wow… today marks the one year anniversary of this blog!  That old saying about how time flies is really true.  I am believing that we will continue to expand our daily readership and our number of faithful followers, as we endeavor to increase the EXPECTATIONS of God’s Word coming to past in each of our daily lives!

This morning I found myself thinking about mountain top experiences.  I recalled back in the late 1970’s and how this was a common discussion among the congregation of the Baptist church in which I served as the Youth Minister.  I have always tended to believe that we should be living in and around the mountains in our walk with God.  Many of the individuals that I talked with back then though felt that the mountain top experiences where only meant to be few and far between.  They thought that we actually lived in the valley and only occasionally went up to the mountains for a peak experience with God.

I do not see the Biblical principle behind that particular line of thought.  Yes, we all go through valley times in our lives but that is not where our heavenly Father wants us to stay.  Psalm 23 talks about going “through the valley” (KJV) while Habakkuk 3:19 says “The Lord Almighty is my strength.  He makes my feet like those of a deer.  He makes me walk on the mountains.”  (Gods Word ©)  The King James Version states that we are “to walk upon mine high places.”  The Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary says that prophet was talking about God’s “own land, a land of hills which are places of safety and eminence.” In New Testament terms we could compare that to living in the places where “Thy kingdom come they will be done in earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10 KJV)

I believe that our loving heavenly Father wants us to stay safe and secure in His high places.  Once again, that’s not to say that we are not influenced and touched by the difficulties in this world, but our refuge is always upon the mountain top with Him.  On one of the many retreats that we took over the five years that we worked with the youth at that church, we camped at a California State Park located on the top of Mount Diablo.  This mountain is visible from most of the San Francisco Bay Area as well as from much of northern California.  According to State Park sources, geographers claim that hikers can see more of the earth's surface from the top of Mount Diablo than from any other peak in the world with only one exception: Africa's legendary 19,340 foot Mt Kilimanjaro.  (see http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=25098 for more info)

At the top of the mountain the scenery was awe inspiring, the air was fresh and the silence was golden… until nightfall.  Although most of the area is protected by preserves on and around Mount Diablo that total over 90,000 acres, it is still located in a metropolitan area.  Unknown to our hardy group of campers, there was a restaurant and bar located near the base of the mountain.  As the night grew dark the music from the dance floor made its way up the mountain and loudly challenged the atmosphere that we had worked to set for our retreat experience. You could say that the ways of the world definitely affected our mountain top experience.  Although we ended up having a great time, we had to work a lot more diligently in order to keep the program and anointing of the Lord on track for our 15 to 20 youth.

Thinking of yourselves as living on the mountain top instead of in the valleys of life may take a little more effort of your behalf, in fact in might take a complete turnabout in your understanding of the Christian walk!  But it definitely seems to be what the Bible describes as our position as sons and daughters of the King.  So I encourage you to go for the gold!  The hard work is worth all the effort and time, and the view is outstanding!  Stay tuned and keep asking yourself… “What victory am I expecting today?”