One day many years ago God asked me to go to the top of a mountain in Southern California and said, “What do you want from Me?” At first I started making a list on a fresh new crisp piece of paper. But when I got to number 14, something in my anxious spirit was wrong. It finally hit me what the Lord was really asking.
I slapped myself in the head, ripped up the piece of paper, fell to my knees on that mountain, and begged God to forgive me for such trifleness. I recalled in the Bible when God asked the ancient King Solomon this question and the young king answered, “Wisdom, my Lord, to guide Your people.” Now God was asking me the same question and I was giving him a senseless list of my daily needs.
For the next four days I walked alone contemplating upon the top of this mountain. I was searching deeply through the vastly cluttered recesses of my heart for the thing that I was really wanting from God ~ that igniting reason for the searching desires in my inner spirit that I wanted from Him. Then the answer came to me just as clear as a crystal bell.
I answered, “Lord I want to bring people into Your presence.” At that moment on the mountain I felt the presence of God come down upon the ground all around the place where I was standing. Though He did not say anything, I knew my answer pleased Him. Later that evening when I saw my wife Sandy, she said, “Why did you ask the Lord for the gift of bringing people into His presence?”
I looked at Sandy’s innocent face and felt her deeply felt desire to know the reason for her husband’s request. I understood that for some it was like Jack In The Beanstalk trading the family’s only cow for just beans.
I held Sandy closely and said, “You see, honey, the presence of God detoxes people from every single thing that is bothering them. I believe this because all my life His presence has been fixing me. So I know if I can bring San Franciscan people into His presence it will fix everything for them too.”
King David is known as the greatest king of Israel. Matter-of-fact, Jesus was called the son of David, and David said these wonderful words, “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” Every man and woman on earth is seeking in someway pleasures forevermore. And that’s exactly what the presence of God offers us.
Last Sunday morning in church I shared with you about the provisional patent that I have filed with the U.S. Patent Office ~ to build a physical tower that reaches into outer space. Think of how fun that adventure will be, to take an elevator into outer space, then step into your spacecraft and explore God’s wonderful universe! This is just the beginning of the kind of impossible dreams God is going to give to you.
I am sure when Christopher Columbus shared with his church his dream of going to the other side of the earth, some looked at him and thought that he was crazy. Today, what he thought was impossible you and I can do today with just the simple click of a credit card ~ then we can sleep under warm blankets and wake up the next day rested on the other side of the earth. Oh such wonder to have God give you the impossible dream! What one time was impossible today is your family’s summer vacation trip.
For many years the presidents of Zambia would not allow escalators to be installed in their country so the people of Zambia never knew what they were. Pastor Gershom Sikaala said this was because the president said, “Someone might get hurt if they fall backwards.”
This year it all changed because Zambia built its first escalator. Wow! It was a national craze to see this new technology! But not everyone was excited about this modern invention. Some thought it was impossible and others thought it could be evil. But all of these negative comments came from those who still lived in the African bush and never visited Zambian’s new escalator.
Can you imagine the day this year when the first Zambian from a dusty bush village saw his first escalator? He steps on it and wonders if it’s going to throw him off. Then, after much prayer and consideration, he takes his first ride to the second floor.
After he gets off he takes pictures of himself for his family and friends back in the bush ~ so he can prove to them that he actually rode the escalator. Later he rejoices and compliments himself for having enough courage to ride the escalator to the next floor. He’ll probably even want to write a song about what happened when he gets back home.
When the African native gets back home to his eagerly awaiting village and tells everyone about his journey up the escalator to the second floor ~ the village people sit with their eyes wide open as they listen to him share his unbelievable heart-stopping adventure. His village, family, and friends are like the hobbits listening to Frodo tell about his adventures to drop the ring in the top of Mount Mordor in Middle Earth.
Or wait a minute! Maybe the story is about you, when you tell your friends that you just went on an elevator to outer space! How you stepped inside a space bus and took your summer vacation in Pleiades!
Let the presence of God detox you. Then go to the mall and ride the escalator!
A Place To Meet Jesus 