Stepping Forward in Dense Fog.
Imagine an extremely long, old wooden rope bridge in the heart of a jungle. You have been traveling for days and you’re pretty much out of water. You come to this bridge with a choice: turn back and go to your known water source or press forward and take this chance. Looking at the condition of the wood jacks your nerves. You don’t know how long its been since someone has been on this bridge and your gut tells you it’s sketchy. You take a deep breath then step out, for you decide to keep going. You know that with God’s help anything is possible and thinking about that eases your mind.
As you’re walking step-by-step on the old wooden rope bridge, you hear the cracking of the wood and feel it swaying back and forth. The further you go, the more intense a fog settles in. Before you know it, you literally can’t see your hand. Immersed in this dense fog, a fear tries to trap you. However, you choose to speak those words of truth, “Anything is possible with God,” and your faith is risen.
Feeling for the rope side and praying to Jesus, you confidently walk forward with peace. The distance didn’t seem that far when you started with clarity and now it seems minutes drag into days. There’s parts in your journey where a wooden plaque cracks entirely and falls below into the depths of the jungle. You press forward though and know that God has you no matter what.
Finally you come to the end and with a shout of joy echoing the jungle in your priceless victory! I like to call this illustration “processing” or “following God”. When you follow God you have a romantic love story unfold on your behalf. Living by faith and not by sight can seem difficult at times, but the outcome is always so sweet. Sometimes that journey loses time in itself, but knowing that He loves you and the reward is greater than the challenge… you live beyond yourself.
God likes us to experience trails from the world and within ourselves for perseverance that produces maturity. Sometimes its both present and past when He moves and speaks into our life. Think of a bow: when you shoot an arrow you need to pull it back. God pulls us into our past for certain things; unhealed parts, un-forgiveness, confessions, etc. Sometimes we need to go back to be launched forward.
I am going to highlight the things I have processed so far in my race.
-He can love me more in a moment than I can love Him my whole life. Trust me, I love Him with everything and feeling this was powerful.
-To restore my joy by focusing more on His greatest sacrifice.
-If women should be in leadership within the church.
-A certain amount of persecution.
-Confessed my last and deepest secret. Instantly felt a weight off me that I didn’t even know was there and God’s presence move deeply on me.
-Falling more in love with Him as my Father.
-Stepping much more into the side of the prophetic. Hearing God’s voice to minster to people while evangelizing to them.
-That my soul can be greedy for His presence. That I can find myself searching more for an inheritance than the relationship.
-I repressed all of my memories of my dad when he died. I was 15 and thought it was easier for me to forget him than to live in the pain of losing him. God restored precious memories to me.
– Being thankful where I am and soaking in the sweet moments where He has me rather than focusing on why I am not to a certain point or have a certain amount of His presence in my life.
-I knew that God doesn’t have favorites, that we are equal in His love but people are closer to Him through open hearts, obedience, and revelations of His love. However meditating on the fact favoritism is as intense as murder, because sin is sin. We show favoritism in so many ways.
-Discerning my righteous anger and self-righteousness. I think I am still in this and it’s tied to favoritism to an extent. This has been a tough one.
-Seeing so much potential in children from the slums.
