Sometimes when things don’t go the way we planned, we get
upset and discouraged and completely miss the fact that maybe GOD HAS SOMETHING
BETTER IN MIND. We have a vision of the
way things should be or we want to recapture a moment where God revealed
Himself clearly to us. So we push
forward with all of ‘our’ strength trying to reach the goal we have set for
ourselves. It’s not necessarily that the
goal is wrong or that the motives aren’t pure, but maybe it’s the point that we
must wait on God’s timing, God’s clarity and GOD’S defining and focusing of the
vision. I have had several of those
moments over the past few years as I seek God’s purposes for myself and those I
have been entrusted with. I am learning
(continually) when to move and when to stop.
But sometimes I try to push forward in my own might and God has to get my
attention in a mighty way. This past
weekend was one of those times.
I had been anxiously waiting for the visit of my friend
Kirsten and we had plans to go up to the Bible Institute to study and pray
together, as we had the last time she was here.
We were both looking forward to recapturing those moments of clarity
that God had given us in our time on ‘Top of the Mountain’ (physically and
spiritually). A few days before she
arrived, she told me of a leg injury in which she would not be able to ‘climb’
the mountain, and she flippantly said ‘but you have a truck to carry me up’. And thus the plan began to unravel. The day she arrived, my truck had to go to
the shop. We were juggling vehicles to
get everyone where they needed to be and only the Isuzu was available to take
us up the mountain for our morning devotion and prayer time. We were talking and laughing as we started
the climb up the mountain and just as we turned the corner to climb, the
vehicle died. I started it again and
warmed it up and we both laughed about maybe we weren’t supposed to go up. We made it a little further and it died again
at a very difficult angle of the climb, so we rolled back down a little and
tried again. After countless tries and
no luck, we resolved that for some reason we were not supposed to go up this
day. I put the vehicle in neutral and we
literally rolled back down the mountain and down in front of the Faith Home
gate. I left the truck there for
Mauricio to fix and we walked back through the gate, heads down, feeling
somewhat defeated. There were no other
vehicles available…now what? So we
walked to the team house and sat on the porch to study and pray. During that time, God poured scripture and
thoughts into our hearts and we felt a calling to prayer walk the Faith Home
campus. There are so many things going
on every day in the lives of the children and adults on this campus, and we
felt an overwhelming drawing to pray specifically for each and every soul and
building.
The next morning we walked and prayed for several hours and
received such a blessing as we poured ourselves out to God on behalf of each
and every one on campus. Alejandra and Eduarda felt the leading to do the same the next morning. I went down at 5 am and prayed on the porch
of the girls’ house, while they walked and prayed over the entire campus. Later that morning, we had a fasting service
in the Faith Home chapel and others decided to form a chain of prayer and went
out 2 by 2, for 4 hours, walking and praying over our campus and asking God’s
blessing and protection over the lives and hearts of our children and adults
here. Some of the Faith Home children
even joined in the prayer walk with curiosity and reverence. What an incredible blessing for all!
Reflecting on this experience, I am ever so thankful that I
was not able to climb the mountain that day.
I am thankful for God literally rolling me back down against my own
determination and bringing me back into the valley to be poured out for others
instead of standing on top of a mountain for my own desires.
Sometimes He takes us to the top of the mountain, and
sometimes He requires that we stay in the valley below so that we can see ‘what lies
underneath’ and take every need to Him in prayer and submission. Lesson learned….again. J
