Morning At Last

Some people think of our Christian walk like climbing a ladder.  I suppose it comes from thinking about Jacob’s ladder reaching to Heaven or may be the influence of our natural life – climbing the corporate ladder, so to speak.  In truth, we aren’t climbing anything and our Christian walk is much more of a metamorphosis.

I’m a fan of Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard.  It’s an allegory of our Christian walk where little Much Afraid follows a path through rugged mountains to the high places.  Along the way she confronts various fears and finds truth to overcome them.  As she embraces the lessons she faces, she is changed from the inside out.  There is a follow up book called Mountains of Spices where we find that her Aunt is told she can ascend to the high places without leaving home.  Therefore we see our Christian walk is not so much a journey or a mountain to climb as it is a metamorphosis.  As we turn loose of those things that we believed were our nature and allow God to show us the Truth of who He is in us, we are changed from glory to glory.  It’s a liberating process that brings us more and more into leaning on Him and less and less on relying on ourselves.

That is why I have a problem with much of the existing church programs as they are today.  Too many of those occupying the leadership positions are leading the members to depend on them instead of helping them discover God within.  I know many of them feel responsible for the people under their charge and they believe they have to lead people in such a manner.  The truth is, all of the Five Fold Leadership: Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, Teachers and Evangelists, are charged with one thing and that is leading the church into maturity.  That’s it and mature Christians are able to hear from God for themselves and have learned to be obedient to that voice even when it is telling them to do something the rest of the church around them isn’t doing.  It takes courage to follow God.  You have to be willing to let things that you identified with go and embrace the light He is giving you today while knowing that people around you might not understand.

God calls each of us as individuals.  He loves our diversity.  Our Christian walk is about learning to follow the leadings of the Spirit as He relates to us personally.  The unity of the body is more about letting Him join the diverse parts into a harmonious whole than it is about making us all the same.  That is one of the things I love about Him.