“As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.” (Luke 9:29 NIV)
If you want to have a mountain top experience, you have to pray. Jesus’s mountain top experience began with prayer. He begins praying and his appearance changes. He is with Peter, James and John on top of the mountain. When Jesus prays, He has an encounter with Moses and Elijah while the disciples are sleeping. They wake up to this scene, Jesus in His glory standing with two men. This is where the term “mountain top experience” comes from in church language. People use it to express when they’ve had a moment with God that is all encompassing and hard to explain. If you want to have a mountain top experience, you have to pray.
If you want to have a mountain top experience, you have to pray.
One of my most memorable mountain top experiences happened at a women’s conference. The conference was held at a large church, women gathered from all around for two days. We prayed, we worshipped, we listened to teachings on how to grow closer to God. We all came away from that weekend filled with God’s spirit, ready to take on the world. I will never forget the speaker’s words as she closed us in prayer. She told us that we were on the mountain top because of our weekend of prayer and worship together. When we leave, we’ll go back to our individual lives. We can’t stay on top of the mountain, we have to go back down into the valley. But the time we had on the mountain top can help us when we’re in our deepest valleys.
We need mountaintop moments to sustain us in the valleys of life. They are moments so filled with God’s presence, they carry us through when we can’t feel it. The disciples wanted to build a shelter so they could stay on top of the mountain, but they couldn’t. They spent the night, then headed down the mountain the next morning. Jesus’s ministry wasn’t finished, He still had work to do. The first thing He does is heal a demon possessed boy. The entire story can be found in the Further Reading section below.
If Jesus had stayed on the mountain top, the boy would never have been healed. If we stay on our mountaintops, who will we miss helping? Who will we miss pointing to Jesus in time of need? As I write, we’re in week one of social isolation. People need encouragement in today’s world. They need hope, they need light, they need direction. What people need is Jesus. We have to leave our mountain top experiences so we can lead people to Jesus. And all of it starts with prayer. If you want to have a mountain top experience, you have to pray.
Question of the Day:
When was your last mountain top experience?
Further Reading: Deuteronomy 18:1-20:20 NIV, Luke 9:28-50 NIV, Psalm 73:1-28 NIV,
