Mount Everest

I have been reading Dreaming With God by Bill Johnson and in it he talks about an incident that I have shared in church before. The details vary in different accounts of the story, but most say that it occurred at a dinner for survivors of George Mallory’s third attempt to scale Mount Everest. Mallory had tried twice to reach the mountain’s summit and failed, and on the third attempt he was killed. It is reported that, at the dinner for those who survived (but didn’t make it to the top, either—that was still about 30 years away), the leader of the expedition stood up, faced a picture of Mount Everest at the back of the room, and said:

"I speak to you, Mount Everest, in the name of all brave men living, and those yet unborn. Mount Everest, you defeated us once, you defeated us twice, you defeated us three times. But Mount Everest, we shall someday defeat you, because you can't get any bigger, but we can!"

I love this story! I have seen tremendous victories in my life and the life of people I have ministered with, and I have seen some heart-breaking losses—some times when “Mount Everest” won a battle. I don’t understand why I don’t see more victories, and why I sometimes struggle so, but I do know that I am an heir of tremendous promises from God and I have in me the Holy Spirit of my God, who defeated Satan at the cross. I am lured, and invited, by the possibility latent in such verses as:

John 15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

Matthew 17:20 . . . For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.

John 16:23-24 . . . Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

Mark 9:23 . . . All things are possible for one who believes.

Additionally, God’s Work tells me that I don’t need to be anxious for anything, that I am a co-laborer with God, and that I am to pray (and play a part in bringing about) that His will would be done ON EARTH, as it is in HEAVEN! I am to partner with God in showing Heaven’s realities and the Father’s heart and love and will (which is always good!) to a world that desperately needs to hear it.

I am, according to 1 Peter 2:9 . . . a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession [that I] may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you [me]out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Here is the thing. The devil, like Mount Everest, can’t get any bigger. But I have an invitation from my Father in Heaven to grow in intimacy with Him, to walk in purpose with Him, to live for the eternity He promises me with Him that the devil can’t take away, to demonstrate His love and power and nature to the world, to be transformed in to the image of Christ, to grow in grace, and to work toward seeing those awesome promises above become more and more the reality of my life as I seek to destroy strongholds of the enemy in my life and the lives of others.

The temptation the devil would love me to swallow is to say those promises (or, as I see them, invitations) above don’t really mean what they say, or seem to say. Once I swallow that I start to water their meaning down to match my level of experience, and I don’t grow but I shrink the meaning of God’s Word down to justify the level I am at. But, as long as I don’t water down what God’s Word says and, instead, contend to raise my experience level to match it, I continue to grow and the devil hates the sound of that! It is time for the people of God to start moving in greater and greater measure of not just declaring, but also demonstrating, the love and power of our mighty God! A world bound by deception, pain, hopelessness, abandonment, addiction, disease, purposelessness, orphan spirits, and counterfeit power desperately needs it.

Photo of Mount Everest from a free download of travel wallpaper at http://travel.desktop-wallpaper-photo.com