To be perfectly honest, this last couple of months have been difficult. It’s been a time of standing in faith—faith for the TV programs to be completed, faith for the finances needed to complete projects, faith for the next step in marketing for the Taking the Mountain of Education. You would think I would know how to react to all these pressures, and I do, except when they come at me on so many fronts, I can say with Paul “that which I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:15) – All of a sudden I realized that I’ve gotten myself into a serious state of worry. I mentally know what to do, but failure to act in faith allows worry and anxiety to creep in.
On my first trip to South Sudan in 1999, the last 80 miles of the journey took as much time to navigate as it took me to fly across the ocean to get to Africa. Starting at the small Ugandan border village of Aura, the road snakes north to the village of Yei, South Sudan. The road consists of large ruts, interrupted only by sections of slippery mud. Getting bogged down is not an option—it’s a given. Many times the passengers had to wade the mud and push the vehicle. It’s impossible to describe the weariness that accompanies a lengthy journey over challenging roads. The same is true when we hit a patch of road in life that, by all appearances, looks impassable.
I’ve had a sense that a lot of you have also encountered a rough patch of road, so I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you what has been a tremendous help to me.
We all have encountered those roads—in the natural as well as in the Spirit, where getting from where we are to where we want to be looks impossible. Lately I’ve hit more than my share of rough spots in the road. And when I started on this newsletter, I felt the Lord say that I was not alone, that a lot of you had encountered rough sections of road in your lives. God in His mercy gives us the grace to go through.
Here are a few “course correction” suggestions that have helped recently:
- I Have To Dig Deeper—in life we can either go broad or deep. I’ve found that when things get rough, it’s better to go deep. I reach back for the teachings on faith that sustained me through past difficult times. Last week I searched through my bookshelves to find a 1975 copy of Kenneth Hagin’s book, Thresholds of Faith. As I read through the 96 page book, I was amazed at how much it ministered to me.
- I Have To Believe—I have to believe that I can come out of this section of road victoriously. Depending on where I am in my prayer life this can be easy or difficult, but it is a big step in the right direction.
- I Have to Speak— Speaking to a situation is vitally important. Jesus told us many times in the Gospels to speak to mountains. That means speak to the problem and to the answer. Jesus spoke to the storm. Something happens in the realm of the Spirit when I verbally, with passion, command authority over a problem.
- I Have to See Down the Road— visualizing the answer gives me faith to know that I can make it.
While these are simple actions, they are profound. I can either do these simple actions or proclaim with Naham that they are too simple and therefore of no importance. I want to believe with you for miracles in your life. Those miracles that bring us through our rough section of road are a calling card to the world as a testimony of who Jesus is and what He can do for each one of us.