Defining Moments

There are moments in our lives when the decisions before us carry more weight than we may initially realize.

I used to tell my children that there are probably ten to twenty-five decisions in life that you really want to get right. That doesn't mean we can't recover from poor decisions. We can. But some choices alter the course of our lives, and recovering from them can take years.

There are also moments when God places an opportunity before us that requires a response.

Those are defining moments.

I believe one of the great tragedies would be to come to the end of our lives and discover that we missed the ultimate purpose for which God placed us on the earth. That is why we need discernment concerning the season we are in and what God is asking of us within it.

There are times when God calls us to a higher level of focus. That means eliminating distractions—not necessarily things that are evil or wrong, but things that simply don't count for where He is taking us.

Lightening the Load

There are times when God calls us forward, and part of responding to that call is recognizing what we can no longer carry with us.

Mary Anne was preparing to speak when she came across a prophetic word from Bob Jones dating back to 1996. In the dream, a group of people was traveling on a higher way when they were stopped and their vehicle was inspected. There was no contraband, but there was trash—things that had once been useful but had already served their purpose.

The instruction was simple: get rid of the excess and lighten the load.

Bob connected the dream with Psalm 24 and the question, “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?” He also pointed toward the Highway of Holiness described in Isaiah 35.

Then, almost immediately, there was an unexpected confirmation.

Someone shared a dream in which he was driving an 18-wheeler on Highway 35. He was directed into a weigh station, where he discovered that the truck was too heavy to continue. He could not proceed until the excess weight had been removed.

He began unloading the truck. When it finally reached the proper weight, a chariot appeared with angels and an invitation came:

“Get on. We’re going up.”

The parallel was difficult to miss.

Hebrews 12:1 tells us to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily entangles us,” and to run with endurance the race set before us.

Notice that Scripture speaks about both weight and sin.

Not everything God asks us to lay aside is sinful. Some things may have been useful. Some may have belonged to a previous season. Some may simply have served their purpose.

But what was useful yesterday can become unnecessary weight if we insist on carrying it into tomorrow.

There are moments when the invitation to go higher is accompanied by an instruction to travel lighter.

That requires discernment.

What has God asked us to carry into the next season—and what has already served its purpose?

Recognizing the Opportunity

I learned something about significant opportunities through athletics.

In 1972, I had the opportunity to walk into the Olympic Stadium with the United States team. I remember standing beside Bob Seagren, who had won the pole vault in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. As we prepared to walk out of the tunnel, he told me that we were about to be seen by an enormous worldwide audience.

It was an extraordinary moment.

But I didn't arrive there without first going through the Olympic trials.

Fifty-one athletes had been invited to those trials, but only sixteen would ultimately make the team.

What surprised me was that some people didn't seem to comprehend the magnitude of the opportunity in front of them. They had prepared much of their lives for this moment, yet not everyone approached it with the focus it deserved.

I believe there are times when something similar happens spiritually.

God gathers people. He prepares people. He opens doors and creates opportunities. But we still have to recognize the moment.

The invitation itself doesn't remove the need for our response.

There are seasons when God is asking us to become more focused, more intentional and more aware of what He is doing. We don't want to become so occupied with lesser things that we fail to recognize the opportunity He has placed before us.

The Power Was Already There

Some time ago, I walked into a church service and suddenly heard what sounded like the roar of Niagara Falls.

I had been to Niagara many times. I went to college not far from there, and if you've ever stood near the falls, you know how difficult the experience is to describe.

The sound. The volume of water. The sheer power.

As I remembered it, I sensed the Lord speaking to me about that power.

What struck me later was that Niagara's power had been there for thousands of years. Human beings didn't create it.

What changed was that creative people eventually learned how to harness and distribute the power that was already present.

That became a picture to me of something God desires to do among His people.

We don't manufacture the power of God.

But God can give us wisdom, creativity, relationships and systems capable of stewarding what He releases.

There are ways of carrying the Gospel, equipping people, releasing revelation, restoring lives and strengthening regions that perhaps have not yet been developed.

The power belongs to God.

Our responsibility is to become trustworthy stewards of it.

Creativity and Kingdom Relationships

When people began developing ways to harness the power of Niagara, it required creative minds capable of building systems that had never existed before.

I believe there is a Kingdom parallel.

God gives people different gifts, perspectives, experiences and assignments. When those people recognize what God has placed in one another and learn to walk together, something can happen that none of them could accomplish alone.

Competition limits what relationship can multiply.

There are things God wants to release that will require people to come together—not to build around personalities, but to strengthen what God is doing in one another.

The power may already be present.

The question is whether we will have the relationships, wisdom and creativity to steward it well.

Not by Might

That brings us to one of the most important lessons I have had to learn.

Zechariah 4:6 says:

“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit.”

I have had to learn this repeatedly.

Years ago, before Mary Anne and I were married, I believed the Lord had shown me that she would become my wife.

There was only one significant problem.

She hadn't caught up with that revelation yet.

I was becoming frustrated with the lack of progress, and I started thinking about what I could do to help things along.

As I was talking with the Lord about it, I sensed Him telling me very clearly:

Back off.

Not by your might. Not by your power. By My Spirit.

There were things God needed to do in Mary Anne's heart. There were things He needed to do in her family. None of that could be produced by my effort.

When I gave God room to do what only He could do, things moved rather quickly.

Decades later, I am still learning that lesson.

Learning the Yoke of God

Jesus said in Matthew 11:29:

“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me.”

There is a nuance to walking in the yoke of God.

We can pull ahead of Him.

We can also drag behind Him.

Neither is obedience.

There have been times when I tried to initiate something before God was initiating it. It created relationship problems. Sometimes it cost considerable money. Human effort can become very expensive when we're attempting to produce something God never asked us to produce.

But there are other times when God is moving and we hesitate.

The answer isn't passivity.

The answer is learning His yoke.

What is God doing?

What is my part?

What belongs to Him?

What has He asked me to leave alone?

And when He begins to move, am I willing to move with Him?

We don't want to run ahead of God, but neither do we want to drag our feet when He is inviting us forward.

Height Must Be Matched by Depth

There was another characteristic of Niagara that captured my attention.

There is extraordinary height to the falls, but there is also tremendous depth.

I believe that is important for the people of God.

We may desire encounters, revelation, prophetic ministry, healing and demonstrations of God's power. Those things can draw us into remarkable heights in Him.

But God also wants depth.

He wants to go deeper into our hearts.

The greater the power He entrusts to us, the more important our foundations become.

There is a danger in wanting greater spiritual power without allowing God to establish deeper foundations within us.

This is why Paul speaks about being rooted and grounded in love.

Power without proper grounding can become destructive.

Spiritual power must be carried by people whose lives are established in love, humility, character and relationship with God.

Learning to Handle Pressure

There was something else about Niagara that caught my attention.

The environment surrounding those powerful waters creates tremendous pressure, yet life has adapted to survive within it.

That became another picture for me.

The pressures around us are not necessarily going to decrease. Nations experience upheaval. Culture changes. People face uncertainty, conflict and increasing demands.

God wants to develop a people who know how to live faithfully under pressure.

The environment in which we are being formed can prepare us for what is ahead.

Pressure doesn't have to destroy us.

When we are rooted in God, it can strengthen our endurance and prepare us to carry greater responsibility.

Power Is Intended to Go Somewhere

Once Niagara's power was harnessed, it could be distributed.

It could light entire regions.

That is another important picture for us.

What God gives us is not meant to terminate with us.

Revelation is meant to strengthen people.

Teaching is meant to equip people.

Prophetic ministry should help people recognize what God is doing.

Healing restores people.

Creativity can create new pathways through which truth reaches cities and nations.

The question is not merely, How much power can we experience?

The better question is:

How faithfully can we steward what God gives us so that others are strengthened?

God is able to create places and people through whom what He is releasing can flow far beyond one gathering, one ministry or one location.

The Highest Lift in the Shortest Distance

Near Niagara are systems of locks that lift and lower vessels as they travel through different elevations.

That became another prophetic picture for me.

I believe God desires to establish places where people who have been discouraged, wounded, burned out or sidelined can be lifted again.

Restoration requires wisdom.

You don't rush someone who has been deeply wounded back into responsibility. You care for them. You pay attention to their spiritual condition. You help them regain strength.

But I believe there are people who have been through difficult experiences who will become some of the most skilled restorers in the Kingdom.

Nehemiah rebuilt Jerusalem's wall using stones that had been burned.

God knows how to restore burned stones.

He knows how to take people who thought their usefulness was over and establish them again in His purposes.

Some of the very things we have walked through may become part of how God equips us to strengthen others.

Places of Freedom and Restoration

Niagara also became associated historically with routes by which enslaved people sought freedom.

That imagery speaks powerfully to another part of God's heart.

There are people everywhere who are bound by things they cannot seem to escape.

They need places where freedom is possible.

They need communities where they can encounter God, receive truth, experience healing, and begin walking into the identity and assignment He has given them.

The Church should be such a place.

Not simply a place where people attend meetings, but a people through whom captives encounter freedom, wounded people experience restoration, and those who have lost their way discover that God still has purpose for their lives.

What Comes Down Must Return Up

Niagara Falls and Victoria Falls are also known for a phenomenon sometimes described as inverted rain, where mist generated by the falls rises back upward.

That gave me another picture.

God pours out, and His people respond.

Worship, praise and adoration should remain central to anything God releases among us.

We don't simply receive His presence, His power or His revelation and then build something around ourselves.

What comes from Him should ultimately return to Him in worship.

Everything begins with God.

Everything depends upon God.

And everything ultimately belongs to God.

Properly Grounded

There is one final lesson in the picture of a power station.

Great power requires proper grounding.

History contains examples of power systems that failed because the structures carrying that power could not withstand what was flowing through them.

That should sober us.

If God entrusts greater influence, revelation, power or responsibility to His people, our foundations matter enormously.

We need to be rooted and grounded in love.

Our character matters.

Our relationships matter.

Our humility matters.

How we treat people matters.

The goal isn't simply to experience greater power.

It is to become people who can safely and faithfully carry what God wants to release.

Recognizing Our Defining Moments

So what do we do when we recognize that we are standing in a defining moment?

We pay attention.

We remove unnecessary weight.

We refuse to manufacture through human strength what only the Spirit of God can accomplish.

We learn His yoke.

We allow Him to deepen our foundations.

We build relationships and structures capable of stewarding what He entrusts to us.

We help restore those who have been wounded.

We create places where people can find freedom.

And above all, we remain rooted and grounded in love.

The goal isn't simply to experience something impressive.

The goal is faithfulness.

My prayer is that when each of us eventually stands before the Lord, we will know that we recognized the moments He gave us.

We responded when He called.

We released what needed to be released.

We carried what He asked us to carry.

And we fulfilled the assignment for which He placed us on the earth.

“Well done, good and faithful servant.”

That is the defining moment toward which all the others are leading.