My Top Won't Go Down!

I rolled into my driveway kind of weary and in need of a diversion. It was Saturday at 4 o'clock and my day had been filled with stress and anxiety. This was the day before my best friend and long time ministry partner Kerry Wilson would announce he was stepping down from his role of pastor for Victory Christian Center. This news rocked my world and left me kind of shell shocked. My love for this family as well as the church family left me with grave concern. How do they get through this? How will the church handle this? Then alongside of it all was the realization that his stepping down meant my stepping up and a very heavy responsibility upon my shoulders. In the natural it all seemed too much to bear and would have overwhelmed me except that somehow God gave a special impartation of grace and a great peace filled my heart. He assured me that He was going to get us ALL through this and I believed it.

This was not confidence in me or my ability, it was God-fidence and the assurance that He was going to walk us through this. God always has you covered when the unexpected happens in your life. This was a defining moment in my life and the life of the church. It is when that time comes and even though you didn't see it coming you know you are ready and prepared to take on the challenge. The path is laid out for you, yes an uphill one, but nonetheless, you know everything before you has brought you to this moment and you are ready to climb.

My daughter, who didn't even know all that was going on texted me to listen to a new Matt Redman song called "Never Once"(check it out on you tube). So I listened as he sang,

"Standing on this mountaintop looking just how far we've come,
Knowing that for every step, You were with us,
Kneeling on this battleground, seeing just how much you've done,
Knowing every victory is your power in us,
Scars and struggles on the way, but with joy our hearts can say,
Never once did we ever walk alone, Never once did you leave us on our own,
You are faithful, God, You are faithful"

Needless to say this song just wrecked me and filled me with such hope and peace that I was ready to do anything and everything to help my friend, his family, and the church through this very difficult time.

Back to my day.

All week I prayed and cried, cried and prayed for the coming Sunday and all involved. By Saturday evening I was ready for a break, a little diversion, a little fun. I decided I wanted to go to the fair and enjoy the exhibits and just walk and eat an elephant ear, walk some more, eat another elephant ear. Then for dinner have one of those sausages with onions and peppers and a elephant ear for dessert. Then come home and nurse my stomach ache from all that walking.

I pulled into the garage at home and before I even could get out of the car my neighbor was standing there in a panic. "Mike, I need help! Things are in a mess. I don't know what to do, I have never seen anything like it!" I asked him what exactly was the problem as I drug myself out of the car. "My top won't go down!" He has a little pop-up camper he just bought and cleaned it all, aired it out and was folding it all up and one of the 4 corners wouldn't collapse as he cranked it down. I must admit it was quite trite compared to all I had dealt with that day but to him it was catastrophic. I threw my laptop on the back of the car and walked over to take a look.

It was about 95 degrees and inside the camper at least 105 and to expose the parts that controlled the system we had to dismantle the whole front inside of the cabin. I am sweating, I am watching the clock tick away on my fair trip and then I find the problem. A cable, just one, mind you, jumped off the track and wedged tightly in the housing. But to get to it now we had to remove the water heater, and the seating system that surrounded it. Tick, tick, my plans are out the window. After removing the tension from the pulley and removing it I was able to dis-lodge the cable and free it up. We put it all back together and it was FIXED!

I picked up my tools, a soaking wet mess of a man, asking the Lord, "Are you mad at me?" As I put my tools away He answered, "That was a prophetic lesson. You just saw in the natural what I am going to do in the Spirt. I am about to dis-lodge the things that have gotten VCC off track and free up hearts from the tension that has drained there life." I asked the Lord if He was talking about the Wilson family or what and He assured me it was for EVERYONE! In a flash He showed how many people were "stuck" and it had nothing to do with Kerry Wilson, it was about peoples own struggles and fight. "The problem there was the roof wouldn't go down, here the roof is going up and before it is over I am going to blow the roof off this place! And by the way stop thinking it as a process--I am going to do it SUDDENLY with power!"

I have watched now God moving one by one, and people who have been wedged and locked up for months are breaking free. When I shared this story this past Wednesday night God touched many and they were set free! Not all got complete freedom, but I could see in my heart that just like when a car is stuck and you get free by rocking back and forth--God started rocking our world to get us UP and OUT! Get ready church, God is raising the roof in our lives. The things that have kept us from climbing higher are shaking up, and the glory of God is coming down!

Are you stuck? You know if you are. You know your need to go to the next level in your walk with God. Deeper love, stronger intimacy, and greater power. This is where we are going, this is our destiny, let's break free from EVERY sin and the weights that so easily get us stuck so we can RUN this race! I have been stuck at various times and seasons in my life but this is no time to be lodged by ANY thing. Hear the voice of the great Shepherd calling to you saying "GET UP, GET OUT! GET GOING! In Jesus Name AMEN!

God Bless You!