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Hinds’ Feet on High Places Chapter 18 Hinds’ Feet Introduction
We arrive at a chapter full of wonderful
surprises! Much-Afraid has been overwhelmed by the renewal and
restoration she’s found in her post-altar canyon setting.
But her spirit is alive even more to the call of the Shepherd,
and her yearning to be with Him overcomes any desire to remain
apart from His presence. The high walls that would have
deterred her before are now merely an obstacle to confront and
overcome!
This is a time for you to reflect on the
sovereign faithfulness of your Lord to allow the sorrows and
suffering of your life to prepare you to serve Him in joy and
peace regardless of your life situation. You’re being
groomed for service to represent Him down in the Valley from
which you ascended seemingly long ago.
Chapter 18
Hinds’ Feet
1. On the third day...; 2. Then it came
again...
Those quiet dark hours just before sunrise
can be the most refreshing moments of your day if you view them
from the right perspective. It’s too early for you to
leap into your list of to-do’s. No one else is up yet, so
you can concentrate on welcoming your Lord into the new day
He’s awakened you to and seek His direction for it.
If anyone knew about communing with his
Lord each morning, it was the man after God’s own heart,
David. Picture him in the silence of His tent intoning his Lord
in trust: “Give ear to my
words, Lord, consider my inmost thoughts. Listen to my cry for
help, my king and my God, for I pray to you. Lord, in the
morning you will hear my voice; in the morning I lay my needs before you and wait expectantly” (Psalm
5:1-3).
Sue: A few years ago I signed up to take
part in a month-long, round-the-clock prayer vigil. My
appointed hour was 3 AM, once a week. What a joy that sweet
hour of prayer became! The first morning I wondered a little if
sixty minutes was going to be hard to fill with praying and
listening! My only previous experience in focused, extended
prayer had been at a chapel during a time before I’d even
encountered Jesus. What stands out most from that time was how
often I’d glanced at my watch to see if my time was up
yet!
But this time was different — a
delightful garden of praise sung in my heart, scripture
promises prayed back to Him, petitions according to the
prompting of His Spirit, thanksgiving for His faithfulness and
unalterable character — sometimes that hour stretched
into two!
Wee-hour sleepless periods no longer are
cause for distress but opportunities to whisper into His ear
and rest in His presence — and I don’t think He
minds if I drop off in drowsiness as a child secure in her
Father’s arms! Go to bed each night having secured the
day’s responsibilities into the hands of the One Who can
direct your path into just what He wants you to fulfill. Let
tomorrow’s concerns and cares, which are inevitable, be
left in the realm of tomorrow (Matthew 6:34).
Much-Afraid has been eagerly anticipating
a call from the Shepherd, and not even the fortress-like walls
of the canyon could keep her from responding.
• How do you respond when you find
yourself awake while it’s still night? Do you fret
restlessly because you know you have a busy day ahead? Or, do
you choose to make that time a special vigil as a love offering
to your Shepherd?
• Do concerns and worries often
fragment your sleep? What changes do you purpose to make so you
can gratefully receive the gift of sleep with which our
Shepherd sustains those who trust Him (Psalm 3:5)?
3. Then she stood straining every
nerve...; 4. Much-Afraid did not hesitate one instant...; 5. In
a moment or two...
If Much-Afraid had not been urgently and
eagerly “straining every nerve” to find a way to
respond to her Shepherd’s call, she might have missed the
unexpected answer as it sprang up nearby.
Too often we become so tunnel-visioned in
our expectation of a certain answer to a need that the pathway
He reveals eludes us. Just because our Father responded in a
particular way to a similar situation previously in our lives
or in someone else’s does not guarantee He’ll
answer the same way again. Keep alert for His hand of
intervention that just might appear through a totally
unfamiliar source!
Sue: I’d recently been wondering how
to access an elderly couple who lived nearby. While my gifts of
bread and knitted slippers had been received with thanks, there
didn’t seem to be any interest as I shared the work of
Jesus in our lives. So Mike and I kept praying for some sort of
inroad.
One morning I was out watering when the
wife ventured onto her back porch and called out to me. Her
husband had just been hospitalized and they were having to
relocate to an assisted living facility. I knew from the Spirit
that now was His appointed time. I turned off the water and
headed over. As she poured out her grief and uncertainty, I
hugged her and directed her attention to our Father. She
listened carefully and expressed a desire to deepen her trust
in Him. I was able to pray with her, and to gently exhort her
to keep calling upon Him in trust in Jesus.
The next day I was able to visit her again
to build on our previous time together and found her very open
and eager to listen. The door had been opened by our Lord but I
had to be willing to walk through it as His instrument!
Three weeks after the couple moved away
her husband died. I don’t know how God might have used my
encounter with her...
Much-Afraid spotted the familiar hart and
hind and remembered that they had earlier guided her on the
safe path despite the apparent danger. Note that the male hart
led the way, closely followed by the female hind. God’s
order for the family accords with this same pattern! He intends
for the husband to search out and pursue His intended pathway
so that his wife can boldly follow the guidance he’s
received and share with him whatever God has shown her as well.
Neither the deer nor Much-Afraid hesitates
or is distracted from their purpose. Much-Afraid is fearful no
longer — her heart has been transformed! Her focus is
singleminded, and she’s determined to obey. Confident
that she is being guided according to His plan, she follows
precisely in the footsteps of the deer.
Isn’t that the essence of
role-modeling — knowing that the ones you’re
following are trustworthy, and that you are walking out the
pattern of their example to fulfill the same noble purpose? The
apostle Paul often exhorts those less mature in their walk to “follow my example even as I follow the
example of Christ” (1
Corinthians 11:1).
Knowing the power of a positive role
model, he also encourages young Timothy in his relationship
with new followers of Jesus to “set
an example in your speech, behavior, love, trust and
purity” (1 Timothy 4:
12). Someone is always watching you, fellow traveler. Be alert
to model the One in whose steps you purport to walk!
Mike: Sue and I grieve over how few make
themselves available to mentor and disciple those who are still
babes in their relationship with Jesus. So often the only
contact new believers have with other followers of Jesus is
during scheduled services. But that format only portrays what
happens “under the steeple” rather than the 24/7
privilege and responsibility of being in union with Jesus and
with one another! When Jesus is confined to the context of a
service or meeting, His heart’s desire to penetrate
families, neighborhoods and workplaces is never tapped or
demonstrated.
Having frequently relocated, we know how
it feels to not always have extended spiritual family readily
accessible. But our Lord faithfully continues to work in us to
be changed, and brings about those loadbearing relationships in
very creative ways. Out of the love He has instilled in us, we
are able to come alongside the ones He gives us to model His
handiwork in our lives. Isn't this interconnectedness the
fulfillment of Paul’s encouragement to the Corinthian
Christians?
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who
comforts us in all our affliction so
that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction
with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2
Corinthians 1:3,4).
Our Father delights when His children
depend on Him in trust and remain at peace in all
circumstances. When our dependence on Him is so habitual that
we role model it for others, we enact the strongest testimony
that evidences He is our Abba, “Daddy.”
• Everything the world needs to see
of Jesus in us flows from the same trusting dependence on our
Father that Jesus had. Does this describe you?
• Who in your life can you mentor to
help along in their pathway as a role model and a friend? If
you’ve gotten this far in your journey, you’re
ready!
6. She gave one last flying spring...; 7.
“At last,” he said...; 8. Still she could not
speak...
There stands the Shepherd, “strong
and grand and glorious”, awaiting you! This be-robed
figure mirrors the majestic image worshiped by the exiled
apostle John in the first chapter of Revelation. His welcome to
both the elderly man and the awestruck young woman is equally
gracious and welcoming.
The Shepherd was backlit by the glowing
rosy tones of the sun rising in the east. So often scripture
references the direction of the east in making mention of
matters of God: the Temple of the presence of God’s glory
faced east; in Ezekiel’s vision, the glory of God
approached from the east; Jesus will return in glory on the
Mount of Olives, which is directly to the east of the Temple
Mount in Jerusalem.
This is encouragement for us each morning
to rise up daily with thanksgiving. Each new dawn signifies
that He has extended our lives for another day. And, as His
Word confirms, “joy comes in the morning”, perhaps
because His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:
22,23)!
With so may reasons to cling to hope in
His faithfulness, why would you want to continue in your old
Much-Afraid identity? Sadly, it’s all too easy to drift
back into your old behavioral patterns and attitudes.
That’s why it’s vital that you journey in true
fellowship with those who are determined to “walk
uprightly” by staying repentant and pressing on in His
steps.
Our Lord did not intend that keeping a
clean slate of uprightness be a burdensome chore. Listen to
John’s description of turning away from sin to walk
afresh in cleansed fellowship with our Lord: “If we claim not to have sin, we are deceiving
ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we acknowledge our
sins, then, since he is trustworthy and just, he will forgive them and purify us from all
wrongdoing” (1 John 1:
8,9).
Fellowship with our Father and His Son
Jesus is renewed as we confess and repent of our sins. Sin can
become habitual if entertained, and a gateway to demonic
servitude. Heed the apostle’s strong warning to those who
are walking the pilgrim path:
Children [that’s us!], don’t
let anyone deceive you — it is the person that keeps on doing what is right who is righteous, just as God is righteous. The
person who keeps on sinning is from the Adversary... Here is how one can distinguish clearly between
God’s children and those of the Adversary: everyone who
does not continue doing what is right is not from God” (1
John 3:7,8a,10).
There is indeed a very clear connection
between your walk of obedient trust and your union with Jesus.
Your actions evidence the truthfulness of your words.
It’s those who walk together in union with Jesus who
enjoy true fellowship.
Because of her profound transformation,
the name Much-Afraid no longer reflects the traveler’s
identity. Her new title, Grace and Glory, bespeaks the
character of her Shepherd. In the heavenlies, we too who walk
in step with the Spirit, responding only to His voice, are
transformed into a new identity.
That new identity has nothing in common
with who we were when we heeded the disparaging voices in the
Valley of our Strongholds! Now the Spirit has free access to
continue His transforming work to conform our character into
increasing Christ-likeness. As we shall see, our hearts will
need to respond to our Shepherd’s call to become burdened
by what is on His heart.
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how eagerly
do you greet each new sunrise as a gift from Him, and as one
day closer to seeing Jesus’ face?
• As you reflect on how our Lord has
transformed you thus far, what new name might best match your
growing identity in Him?
9. Then he went on...; 10. Grace and Glory
spoke for the first time...; 11. “No flower of
love?”...; 12. At his word she laid bare her heart...;
13. Grace and Glory gave a little gasp...; 14. “Why, I
planted it there myself”...
Absolutely astonished, Grace and Glory
discovers that all she had yearned for but had thought lost had
been quietly germinating and blossoming in her heart! Have you
ever experienced a supposed loss of something precious, only to
later have it returned? Even in the material realm we get
excited if a misplaced treasure suddenly reappears.
That’s natural, just as the parables of the lost sheep
and mislaid coin confirm. But to have something brought to life
that you thought was irreparably destroyed...
that’s super-natural!
All along, that tiny thorn-shaped seed
planted in Much-Afraid’s heart way back in the Valley of
Humiliation had been patiently abiding, awaiting the necessary
heart condition for it to take root and grow. Her
journey’s trials had not been in vain. They had provided
fertile preparation for her to want her natural human love to be uprooted.
The day that you responded to the Holy Spirit’s
wooing and purposed in your heart to turn from sin so that you
could receive forgiveness and be in union with Jesus, your
heart was penetrated by the Father’s seed (see 1 John 3:
9). The plant which has sprouted from that seed has produced
the sweet fragrance of His life in you.
Isn’t that blossoming our
Lord’s desire for each one He leads from the Valley to
the Mountains of Transformation? Our Father is faithful to lead
us in triumph in Christ so that He “manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we
are a fragrance of Christ to
God” (2 Corinthians 2:
16).
Those who are responsive to the Spirit
inhale that fragrance with joy. But those who are determined to
revel in their sin find that aroma of life in Jesus repulsive.
You aren’t responsible for people’s response to His
fragrance. You just need to be that clay vessel available to
exude it!
• How are you able to detect the
“aroma of Christ” in people you encounter?
• When has the aroma of Christ in you
brought joy to those “who are being saved”? What
was the reaction to you of those who were perishing in their
sin?
15. “Then, my Lord”...; 16.
“Do you remember, Grace and Glory”...; 17. That was
the natural human love...; 18. “You tore it
out”...; 19. He bowed his head...
Has it been a struggle for you to forsake
your perceived right to experience human love the way you want it —
reciprocated and appreciated? The longer you take to put that
longing on the altar, the slower your character transformation
will be. Our Lord yearns to uproot those tentacles so that your joy will be
complete in His joy! (See 1 John 15:10,11.) Then His Kingdom love can
penetrate those corners and crevices of your heart to change
your attitudes and motivations and hopes.
During the process of your sanctification,
the Holy Spirit removes the priority of human love and
your proclivity to depend on it. Just as the Shepherd transformed
Much-Afraid into Grace and Glory, you no longer need to love in the
same manner you once did. You are no longer dependent on others to
love you back. Instead, you can love regardless of the
circumstances or response of the ones to whom you extend His
love. And this is the love that Grace and Glory would need if
she were to return to the Valley as the Shepherd’s
representative.
No matter how honest and earnest your
intent, no human striving can ever bring about lasting
transformation of your character. Much-Afraid was powerless to
root out natural love by herself. And without the
Priest’s intervention, neither can you! The Spirit of
Jesus can expose all that you are willing to have rooted out so
that He can replace it with the mind and heart and love of
Christ.
Sue: One verse in particular reminds me of
the tough-yet-tender aspects of our Lord’s character,
penned by a man well-familiar with the heart of God: “One thing God has spoken, two things have
I heard: that You, O God, are
strong, and that You, O God, are loving” (Psalm 62:11,12a). That intertwining of such
diverse character traits of our Lord — His might and His
love, His righteousness and His mercy, His justice and His
grace — reveal that only by His
intervention can we be
conformed to His image.
This heart transformation doesn’t
come about easily. The Shepherd had to tear out by the roots
— ouch! — the natural longings of
Much-Afraid’s humanity in order for His agape love to
take root and blossom. Those same hands that endured the
meekness of supernatural restraint on the cross exercised a
“grip of steel” in yanking out that which was
hindering her growth in Him.
Half-hearted acquiescence to live as a
“good Christian person” is never spoken of, much
less lauded by our Lord. Only those whose hearts are
steadfastly pursuing the pearl of great price will be able to
perceive the Shepherd’s call to absolute yieldedness. How
often Scripture intones utter dependence on the mercies of
God’s hand:
“Create in me a pure heart”
(Psalm 51:10).
“Give me an undivided
heart”
(Psalm 86:11).
And His glorious promise to Israel through
the prophet Ezekiel, “I will take you from
the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own
land. Then I will sprinkle clean
water on you, and you will be
clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your
idols. Moreover, I will give you a
new heart and put a new spirit within
you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you
a heart of flesh. I will put My
Spirit within you and cause you to walk in
My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My
ordinances” (36:24-27).
At this point the young woman recalls her
despair when she thought the Shepherd had forsaken her back in
her hour of greatest need. Can you recall a period of personal
desolation when abject loneliness and grief convinced you
He’d broken His word and you really were alone? Sue:
Almost as if in a bad dream, I remember times of thrusting
myself on my knees in anguish, crying out, “WHERE ARE
YOU???” — when in reality, He was within me,
grieving with me in my depth of agony.
Don’t believe for a moment that the
One Who has made you in His image doesn’t know your pain!
Camp on this: Whatsoever He has promised in His Word, He will
accomplish! You are NEVER alone in Jesus! Circumstances and
appearances and emotions may deceive you, but He never deceives
His own!
And because our Shepherd sees the end as
well as the beginning of your journey, He rejoices when you,
His beloved sheep, respond to His love, His authority, His
freedom and His boundaries! Could any of us not respond with the same
humble joy as did Grace and Glory as she clutched those
nail-scarred hands?
Perhaps it’s been awhile since
you’ve seen some of the people who knew you before you
began your journey to the High Places of His transformation.
Hopefully, if they encounter you now, they’ll be amazed
at the differences they perceive in your attitudes, motivation
and actions. They may not be comfortable with the “new you” but they should
at least notice you’ve changed!
And that transformation may give them
reason to ask why you’ve changed. As the apostle Peter urges, “Always be
prepared to give the reason to anyone who asks you
to explain the hope you have in you, with humility and fear,
keeping your conscience clear” (1 Peter 3:15,16a). Peter adds, you may be spoken
against and abused for “the
good behavior flowing from your union in the Messiah”, but your consistency and faithfulness in Jesus
may eventually put them to shame — and humble them to
seek after the same Lord Who has so changed your life!
• Have you encountered any specific
people from your past who have commented on or even noticed any
change in you since you began your pilgrimage?
• Was there ever an episode in your
life when you were so despairing that you thought that even
Jesus had forsaken you? At what point did He reveal His
steadfast presence?
20. “And now for the
promise”...; 21. She took it out...
What is so touching about the revelation
of the altered stones in Much-Afraid’s purse is that it
comes as such a surprise to her! The jewels had never figured
into her journey as a “reward” for which she could
work. The pebbles had become jewels as her heart had been
transformed.
Each stone represented a painful life
lesson of death to some aspect of self-will or expectation
— a struggle each time during which the Shepherd’s
will had taken precedence over her own. Each tempest of the
soul had swirled around her decision to yield. And what hope we
too can derive from the fact that our own love-grounded
obedience to our Lord is producing spiritual jewels of praise
for His glory, even if we sometimes focus more on our own frail
weaknesses than on the joy we’re bringing to Him.
These “jewels” of His
workmanship in us are well attested to by Paul in his prayer
for the called-out ones in Ephesus:
I pray that from the treasures of his glory he
will empower you with inner
strength by his Spirit, so that the
Messiah may live in your hearts through
your trusting. Also I pray that you
will be rooted and founded in love, so that you, with all God’s people, will
be given strength to grasp the breadth, length, height and depth of the Messiah’s love, yes, to know it, even though it is beyond all knowing, so that
you will be filled with all the
fullness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19).
Our Father’s riches surpass anything
we could ever imagine because they have the power to change our
innermost heart through His love at work in us. Being
“rooted and founded in love” relates directly to
the implanted seed of Kingdom love being lodged in our hearts.
When we truly grasp how great is His love in all its dimensions
and realize that He intends for that love to be our own prime
motivation rather than the facts which are in our minds, then
we’ll be truly “Spirit-filled”.
• How have you been able to show the
exceeding love of Jesus toward someone for whom human love
would seem almost impossible?
22. “O thou who wast
afflicted”...; 23. First he picked out of her hand...;
24. At that moment Grace and Glory...
Let’s revisit the testimony of
transformation Mike had related earlier as recorded in Demolishing Strongholds. “As I read my Bible on the morning of November
29, 1989, one day before the prophesied date, I pondered
Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians (chapter three, verses
16-19, quoted in the previous section).
“As I sat there quietly in my
recliner, I was convicted that the amount of the love of Jesus
that I had ever felt, even after many years in ministry, was
about the size of a decimal point. The love I had perceived had
no depth, breadth, or width to it, and it certainly did not
surpass my knowledge.
“Later that day I was playing golf
with my close friend Casey. As we walked along the course, I
shared with him my deep conviction from my reading in Ephesians
that morning. I told him with determination, “I’m not going on in ministry until I feel
this height, depth, and breadth of the love of Jesus.’ He joined with me in prayer right where we
stood.
“The next morning at 8:00 on
November 30, 1989, I received a phone call from a pastor who
lived about an hour away from us. In a somewhat irritated tone
he began, ‘Mike, what’s your problem? God woke me
up at 4:00 this morning and told me to call you at 8:00 AM to
tell you that He had heard your prayer.’ When I explained
to him my prayer on the golf course the day before, we both
sensed that this was the reason the Lord had awakened him
earlier. I continued in my ministry, waiting for God to show me
the next step.”
Now that the strongholds are gone I can
tell you with confidence: You cannot share the love of God if
you’ve never experienced it yourself! Grace and Glory had to take ownership of
God’s means of suffering in her life in order for her to
experience the love He wanted to give her.
The process of Grace and Glory’s tranformation from
“pebbles to jewels” is captured in Mike’s
story of the funnel from our book, Restoring
the Early Church.
“Early one Sunday morning, hours
before I was to speak at a morning worship service, the Lord
woke me up. There in my mind’s eye was a vision of a
funnel. As I stared at the funnel I could hear in my
spirit an explanation of its meaning. Sketching the funnel on
my computer, I made an overhead transparency of it.
“When I finished sharing my message
that morning, I put the funnel transparency on the overhead
projector and explained it to the congregation. To my surprise,
people left their seats and came forward to repent of their
sins, convicted of having believed a gospel that did not
include the Lordship of Christ in their lives.
“The following week I was asked to
address a different congregation. The Holy Spirit prompted me,
‘Just tell them about the funnel.’ I again
displayed the funnel. After I finished explaining its meaning,
people again left their seats and came forward to repent. When
the funnel image was presented on retreats, the explanation
elicited the same response: conviction
and repentance.
The Funnel
Paul offers a profound promise from God
that is linked to an explicit responsibility on our part:
If you acknowledge
publicly with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and trust in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be delivered. For with the heart one
goes on trusting and thus continues
toward righteousness, while with
the mouth one keeps on making
public acknowledgement and thus continues toward deliverance” (Romans 10:9,10,
JNT).
 During the past few decades the Gospel has
become “watered-down.” Many have come to Christ
with the goal of “getting saved.” But salvation is
the by-product of the biblical command to confess “Jesus is Lord.” The Lordship
of Christ is your entry point into the funnel. Lordship implies
a rejection or yielding of all that you are in your sin nature —
all of your will, your rights, your possessions, your plans.
You become His “disciple”. It is a conversion that
demands that you weigh the cost. Jesus sets the standard for the kind of
relationship He calls for: “If
anyone comes to me and does not hate [by comparison] his father and mother, his wife
and children, his brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he
cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26,27). Discipleship entails total trust and
selfless obedience to the Master.
Like the pull of gravity, your humility to
submit to the Lordship of Jesus draws you downward into the
funnel as an invisible but constant force. The tug of His
faithfulness does not let go of you. When you sin, His Spirit
seeks you out and brings you to repentance through His kindness
(see Romans 2:4). God pursues you to the point of your yielding
so that your broken heart and spirit can once again enjoy the
fullness of His presence as Lord.
As you pass into the stem of the funnel,
the love of Jesus is so compelling that you don’t desire
to think about yourself but only to
do His will. Your personal
discretion to choose what you want to do withers as you continue to yield
yourself as a bondservant to His will. God’s goal for you
as His child is to be changed by
His Spirit into Christ-likeness in
such a way that there truly is evidence of a “new creation.”
If this resonates in your spirit, you can
see from the funnel explanation that the popular but fallacious
“getting saved” gospel consigns you to the sides of
the funnel to deal with all your imperfections. Through the
influx of reasoning and psychology into the church during the
past few decades, sins that require repentance are now considered
“problems.”
No longer are believers held accountable
to take personal responsibility for their own sins, which would
bring them through repentance into the center of the funnel.
Much of pastoral counseling now convinces people that they must understand their problems and find out who is at fault for their
current condition.
Through the process of problem
exploration, individuals may expand their awareness about their
difficulties. At the same time, however, they develop an
increasing unhappiness with God. Though they might not put it
into words, in their hearts they neither trust Him to do what
He promises in the Bible nor do they entrust themselves to Him
as Lord of their lives. Thus many Christians live as if they
have been “victimized” by both God and by others.
They have not grasped a loving trust in a sovereign Lord.
A word of encouragement in your ongoing
journey: If you will stay repentant and let the Holy Spirit
draw you further down the funnel of your life to walk in
willing yieldedness in His love, you’ll discover that the
stones of painful remembrance from your past are really
precious jewels of Christ-like character being formed in you.
• If
you’ve been honest with yourself on the journey this far,
you can recognize the changes our Lord has already made. Do
you? Do others?
• How can you help others who are
close to you climb off the ledges of imperfections and excuses
in their own “life funnel” so that they can move
closer to the stem of love?
25. She marveled at the grace and love...;
26. “Hearken, O daughter, and consider”...; 27. At
that Grace and Glory regarded...; 28. Now she was here and they
were not...
Sue: I too marvel as I look back at my own
life journey! So many potential dangers and foolish decisions
that could have been disastrous were forestalled by His
gracious Fatherly warning to return to His path. Perhaps you
can recall with a shiver the situations in which your Shepherd
directed you out of harm’s way as He guarded you through
those He sent to you, or kept you securely in His grip when
your heart was aching. He didn’t let you turn back! All
those trials and challenges were preparation for this moment of
your life.
At this point comes the first hint to
Grace and Glory of the ultimate assignment to come now that
she’s in union with the Shepherd in the High Places. He
tells her that she’s “to go where I go, and to
share my work in the valley below.”
Grace and Glory is so caught up in her
longing for her faithful traveling companions that she misses
the significance of this statement. She’s ascended to the
High Places for a purpose — to share in the Shepherd’s
work back in the Valley in order to bring others into His
Kingdom of love.
You may have been blessed along the way to
find a few faithful friends who have been your companions
during your seasons of suffering and sorrow. Some of these
special ones may have been alongside just for a specific time
in which you, like iron, sharpened one another for a new
assignment that took you in different directions. And
that’s all right! Our Father has multitudes of servants
who fulfill His purposes in diverse ways among very diverse
peoples.
Grace and Glory’s heart appreciated
the “help and gentleness and patience” that Sorrow
and Suffering had so lovingly shown her all along the way. Our
Father means for your past experiences to be used by you as
instruments of hope for healing in someone else’s life.
He takes away the sting of those memories so you can help those
in the Valley below find refuge and healing in Him.
If you have difficulty believing that,
comfort yourself with Paul’s confident promise “that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day
of Christ Jesus” (Philippians
1:6).
• Whom did our Lord send alongside
you as special companions when you were especially needy during
your journey?
• What changes have occurred in your
heart to equip you to be that special companion for someone
else back in the Valley?
29. Two radiant, shining figures...; 30.
“Who are you?”...; 31. Instead of answering they
looked...; 32. “Why, you are Sorrow and
Suffering.”...; 33. They shook their heads...; 34.
“Brought you here!”...
The two radiant figures in their dazzling
array have undergone dramatic transformation as well. The love
of Joy and Peace for their young charge has been a constant
despite their awareness of her very real weaknesses. But what a
difference when the sorrow and suffering in your life are
recognized as instruments that have led to such joy and peace
in your inner person!
You are still the “you” you
were before the journey, but the transformation process by
which your character is being conformed to that of Jesus has
made you a more radiant version of the person He always knew
you’d become.
Note that Grace and Glory expresses
astonishment that she was responsible for bringing about the
transformation of Joy and Peace. If you think about it, would you have chosen
Sorrow and Suffering to be the means by which you ascended to
the High Places? None of us enjoys suffering, as the writer to
the Hebrews makes clear: “All
discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to
those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (12:11). And
the endurance that is molded into our hearts genuinely benefits
us and enables us to share in His holiness (Hebrews 12:10).
• What situations or circumstances in
your life that once caused you sorrow have you had to face
again, now that your character has undergone transformation?
Have you learned from the past?
• As Paul bemoans in Romans chapter
7, we’ll always be faced with the possibility of doing
what we don’t want to do in our hearts because the
demonic war against us won’t cease until we reach
eternity’s shore. What arena of warfare is most likely to
shake your peace and joy?
35. Again they shook their heads...; 36.
Looking at one another again...; 37. With that they came up to
her...
Transformed people start seeing the
instruments of their sorrow and suffering in a different light.
Grace and Glory had once shuddered at the presence of her
companions. Now she’s consumed with appreciation for
“Joy” and “Peace.” Let’s anchor
for now that when you accept the suffering our Lord permits you, you
are surrendering to His will: “Each time you accepted us
and put your hands in ours we began to change.”
Think of the hope you can bring to others
from your own pilgrimage testimony as you encounter them
struggling with diverse trials. Had you turned back or walked
away from our Father’s path, you never would have
understood how loving was our Father’s intent to transform
you so you could come into His presence.
No parent enjoys the pain his or her
children must endure on the road to maturity. Neither does our
Father take lightly our pain as our souls cast off their
useless, filthy garments. But we have great joy ahead of us, as
did our Example and Role Model Who endured the cross for the
joy that lay ahead.
Traveler, your trials and temptations
don’t end now that you’ve come to the High Places.
But your response to them should be far different! Each time you
embrace the trials the Shepherd allows is a step you take
toward your own transformation. If you learn this lesson and
allow it to seize your heart, the things you might cringe from
can become opportunity for spiritual growth rather than
obstacles to personal peace
Don’t be discouraged if those who
are dear to you seem to resist your testimony or the changes
the Shepherd has made in your life. Our Father yearns for their spirits to
unite with His just as He has longed for and found yours!
Continue to pray about ways to shine as a bright candle in His
Kingdom, and be diligent in interceding for His penetration
into their hearts so that their spiritual blinders can be
removed. As long as there is breath in the body there is hope
for the soul!
• When have you had to “cause
pain” for the good of someone for whom you were
responsible? How did that person respond? Did their anticipated
reaction keep you from fully following through the way you
needed to?
• Make a list of those for whom your
heart is breaking in love and hope that they will seek the face
of Jesus. Are you willing to be the instrument by which He
reaches out to them if He opens the door for that to happen?
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