I think it would be safe to say that most believers want mountaintop experiences with God. We would like to float through our Christian experience without a care in the world. We would prefer sunny skies and warm days and a nice cool breeze at our backs, no rain, no hassles, and no problems. We would like to sit around sipping lemon-aid, dipping in a pool, and be waited on. We would like enough money to buy whatever we wanted--a nice truck, car or S.U.V., a chauffeur and a nice house! Working for a living would be out of the question. Maids and servants would be the norm. Everything handed to us on a silver platter. Oh yes, the good life, bring it on!
Even though many believers are taught they should, and can, have all these things, in reality it is not so. Don’t get me wrong I am not saying that it is a sin for believers to have nice things, but if you know anything about having all kinds of money you know it can destroy your life. And if God gave us everything we wanted it would more than likely destroy our relationship with Him. Instead of serving Him for who He is and what He is, we would only serve Him for what we could get from Him. Instead of having a healthy relationship with Him and honoring Him and exalting Him to His rightful place as King of Kings and Lord of Lords in our lives, we would reduce Him to be our sugar daddy.
The Lord allows us some mountaintop experiences to refresh us and renew us. Remember the Lord is in the business of renewing and transforming our lives and training us up in righteousness.
Having all kinds of money could enslave and put many in bondage and destroy their faith. God knows who He can trust with riches and who He can’t. The Bible says in Luke 16:10, “if you can be trusted with little things then you will be trusted with bigger things.” It also says in Mark 10:25, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.”
Question: where do we grow the most, on the mountaintop or in the valleys?
Did you ever hear of a fox-hole experience? When solders are in a fox-hole and the bullets are whizzing past their heads, many start praying, “Lord get me out of this situation and I will be in church every week and I will serve you the rest of my life.” You would be surprised how many promises are made in those kinds of situations. In the valley is where the Lord can get our attention the most. If you think about it, more believers pray and press into God when they are in trouble than any other time.
Think about your own walk with the Lord, when do you press into the Lord and seek Him more, when you are in a situation where everything is going the way you want them to or when most things are going wrong? I think the Lord knows if everything went the way we wanted it to we would start being independent, trusting in our own abilities and cease being dependent on Him.
It seems to me that the Lord takes us through both extremes so that we will grow and mature in Him and be balanced Christians. It is so much easier to praise the Lord when we are having a mountaintop experience than when we are struggling in the valley or desert, so to speak. When God gets us to the point of praising Him in either place then the valleys will seem much more like mountaintops. If you think mountaintop experiences take care of everything I have a story I want to share with you. (Check it out, the whole story can be found in I Kings chapters 17, 18 and 19. )
This story is about Elijah and some of the miraculous miracles that he experienced. First he prayed that it wouldn’t rain and it didn’t rain. Then he was fed by ravens while he hid from King Ahab and his wife, Jezebel, who was a Sidonian who worshiped Baal. After that he went to a widow in Zarephath who was about to cook her last meal for her and her son. Elijah told her to make him a small loaf of bread first and her flour and oil would not run out until it rained again and what he told her came true. Then this lady’s boy became sick and died and God used Elijah to bring him back to life again.
Now you would think that Elijah’s faith would be soaring and he would be flying high. Let me go on with this story, many months after these things happened Elijah is commanded by God to go meet King Ahab. To shorten up the story he meets him and there is a showdown between Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah. Elijah let the Prophets of Baal prepare their sacrifice first and they called on their god, Baal. After cutting themselves until their blood flowed there was still no answer from Baal. It was time for Elijah to repair the Altar of God and to sacrifice his offering. Then he dug a trench around the Altar. He had the people pour the water over the sacrifice until it ran down and overflowed the trench. He prayed to God and God immediately answered his prayer. The fire of God flashed down from Heaven and burned up the sacrifice and the wood and licked up the water. Then Elijah had the people seize all the prophets of Baal and Elijah killed them in the Kishon Valley.
Elijah told Ahab to get something to eat and he climbed back up the mountain. While up on the mountain he fell on his face and prayed for rain, telling his servant to go and look out toward the sea. He told him to go seven times and finally his servant saw a cloud as big as his hand. Then he told his servant to go tell Ahab to get into his chariot and get home or the rain would stop him. So Ahab set out for Jezreel. In the meantime the Lord strengthened Elijah and he tucked his cloak in his belt and ran ahead of King Ahab’s chariot all the way to Jezreel.
Now you would think that he would be so excited to have experienced all these miracles that he would be flying so high and his faith would just be soaring, but that is not the case.
When King Ahab got home he told Jezebel what Elijah had done to the prophets of Baal. So Jezebel sent a message to Elijah saying, “may the gods also kill me if by this time tomorrow I have failed to take your life like those whom you killed.”
Now with all the things that Elijah experienced you would think that he would have no fear, that he would just pray to God and trust God to deliver him, but the next thing we read is that Elijah was so afraid he fled for his life. He went with his servants to a town in Judah, left his servants there, and went alone traveling all day into the desert and sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough,” he said, “take my life for I am no better than my ancestors,” then he laid down and went to sleep. An angel touched him two different times and told him to get up and eat for he had a long journey ahead of him. So he got up ate and drank and had enough strength to travel for forty days and forty nights to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God. There he came to a cave and spent the night.
You would think that being on the mountaintop, like he was, would have sustained him, but it was when he went into the valley and through the desert he really started seeking God and that is when he found God.
This should help us to realize that we grow and seek the Lord much more in the valley or desert than we do on the mountaintop, so don’t be surprised when God continues to use the valleys in your life to help you mature and grow in Him. Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.” And through Him we can also overcome. Have a great day, God Bless You! Praise God!
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