One More Foot!
The power of one step can determine the destiny of us all! What if you are currently on the wrong path digging your own grave without even knowing it. The adversary is the father of lies and his goal is to bury you alive.
My favorite line from a song lately comes from Ben Fuller song, He Found Me. The line goes like this, “I found empty in a bottle, trying to fill the hole, dug myself five feet deep, had One More Foot to go!
That One Foot is where the Battle of the Ages rages. It is a spiritual battle beyond even our most vivid imaginations. Paul describes it like this.
“Your hand-to-hand combat is not with human beings, but with the highest principalities and authorities operating in rebellion under the heavenly realms. For they are a powerful class of demon-gods and evil spirits that hold this dark world in bondage. Because of this, you must wear all the armor that God provides so you’re protected as you confront the slanderer, for you are destined for all things and will rise victorious.”
Ephesians 6:12-13 TPT
I love the last part of verse 13. “For you are Destined for All things and Will Rise Victorious!” Paul goes on to share about the weapons and armor God gives each of us in order to win this battle. He stresses the importance of each of us placing each piece of the Armor on every morning. Then He calls us to pick up our sword, The Word of God, which is the one offensive weapon God has gifted you with to fulfill His Mission.
Even if you are only one foot from the devourer’s destiny for your life, there is no better time to turn around and see the light! Repent is the word used in the Bible, which simply means to turn and go in the exact opposite direction.
God says in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
It is the best game of hide and seek you will ever play. What? Because when you take just one step in the right direction toward finding God, He sends the Holy Spirit to your rescue. He Finds You! You were made for Victory! He will leave the 99 to come save the 1 and nothing can stop Him!
It is at that point that the Holy Spirit comforts, empowers, and guides you on the path of your true destiny! As you begin this journey out of the valley of death, fear no evil God says, for I am with you always!
Do you realize that Mountains Were Made to Climb!
It is time to put your mountain climbing boots on because there is no mountain high enough that you are unable to conquer with the help of the Holy Spirit. The impossible is what our God and King specializes in. He tells us to dream bigger, greater, at a level we can’t even imagine!
Is the climb through the valley and up the mountain worth it? Have you ever actually climbed a 14K? The pain on the way up is excruciating. How do I know, because five years ago, I climbed my first 14k Mountian on my 50th birthday.
I woke up in the middle of the night and we just happened to be in Colorado finishing up a basketball camp. Not sure if it was the Holy Spirit, but it sure seemed so. A thought immediately came to my mind. It is time for you to climb a big mountain, a 14K. It is time to cross this dream off your bucket list.
I have a habit that I try to live by. When I feel led by the Holy Spirit, I don’t hesitate. I got up at 3 AM and went to a local Wal-Mart and picked up a cheap pair of hiking boots. I waited until 5 AM and woke up my wife Sheri. I shared with her what I wanted to do for my birthday. My plan was to drop her and my son Kade off at Estes Park and then head to conquer a Mountain called Longs Peak (14,249 Feet).
Of course my beautiful wife thought I was crazy. She knows better than to try and stop me, but she said no way I am letting you do this alone on your birthday. It is one thing to climb a mountain, but to do so carrying your wife and son is a whole new monster.
This is about the time when Faith always enters the picture. I heard another line recently in a Brandon Lake song that hit me like an arrow being shot into my soul. It says, “Faith is where your Fight is!” Trusting to obey God when you can’t see the why or how is where you find what God is capable of doing through you!
I told Sheri, let’s do this! So we stopped by and bought ten bottles of water and a giant subway sandwich, which all ended up adding about 10 more pounds to my backpack, and headed to go climb a 14K!
What most people do not realize is the road to Glory goes directly through the darkness of tribulation, adversity, and struggle. It is because in and through your weakness, God shows up and exposes you to the Light. What feels like darkness closing in is instead exactly the what will lead you to the top of the mountain!
Unless your dream becomes your mission, you likely won’t reach the top. When you discover you are called, anointed and empowered with the Holy Spirit to accomplish His Mission, then nothing becomes impossible! Only God can take an impossible mountain climb and use it to open our eyes to His Greatness!
You actually climb a mountain way before you reach the top! You have seen the view from top in your visions and experienced reaching the crest of the mountaintop in your dreams way before you achieve your mission.
Do you realize that one step from the top of the highest mountain top, you are still in the valley! Who One Foot from the top of the mountain turns to look down. You wait until you have conquered that One Foot before you enjoy the beauty and experience the joy of the cross that was set before you!
Champions understand that in order to do hard things, they must dream daily and see their vision long before reaching their destiny. They climb their mountains when nobody is looking way before the actual day of the the climb. You conquer your enemy and fulfill your destiny as a Champion long before you enjoy your Championship moments and experience them in front of others!
Sheri is an absolute warrior and one of my heroes. For me she would climb a million mountains. In her granny tennis shoes, she made it to the top of the tree line before I convinced her she had made my birthday, but I needed to finish the climb on my own. I told my son to make sure his mom made it back down the mountain safe and I would meet them at the bottom.
We had run into a park ranger at the beginning of our hike and he let us know that we were going to have to push it to get off the mountain before the dangerous afternoon showers came. If you were above the tree line at that point in a storm, then you became a human lightning rod. He shared with us the surprising number of deaths a year resulting from this. That gave Sheri reassurance that I had gone completely mad.
I wanted to make sure Sheri and Kade got to enjoy as much of a view as they could, so I told them to wait and I would run up around the next turn to see if it was worth them pushing a little further. Once I got past the next turn, I realized I had a whole lot of hiking to go so I set my backpack down and removed my car keys to give to Sheri. I ran down about a 100 feet to where they were waiting and tossed the keys to them. I told them I would see them at the bottom. On the way down to Sheri, I had passed a couple of girls hiking up the mountain. I didn’t think anything, I just said hello.
I tossed the keys to Sheri, turned and began running back up to where my backpack was. As I approached it, I passed another male hiker on his way down the mountain.
Once I made it back to my backpack, there was a beaver looking animal called a Marmot sitting next to it. It quickly scurried off. I also noticed the top pocket on the backpack zipper was still open where I had removed the keys. The thought crossed my mind. I should just double check to see if my wallet was still in the pocket of my backpack.
To my dismay, my wallet was gone. The hikers quickly came to my mind. I began a frantic pace running down the mountain to catch the male hiker. Luckily he wasn’t far. I nicely asked if he had mistakingly taken my wallet. He said no, but said he was sure it was the two female hikers that I had passed earlier. He said he had saw them stop at my backpack.
A rush of zeal hit me and I turned my direction back up the mountain to catch the two female hikers who I was sure had stollen my wallet. By now they had made it quite a ways up the mountain so I had to really dig down to catch them. At about ten thousand feet, I was really feeling the pain of the pace I was pushing to catch the hikers. I ran them down and tried not to be too startling when I approached and asked, “By chance did either of you see my wallet, it might have fallen out of my backpack just a little ways down the mountain?” They looked at each other and said they had saw the male hiker at my backpack and they were certain that he had stolen my wallet.
You can only imagine my dismay. In order to catch the male hiker at this point, I would basically have to dead sprint down the mountain. I had simply lost my mind and turned without hesitation and started barreling down as fast I could go down the mountain. It took me 15 or so minutes, but like a blood hound I tracked him down. This time not so nice, I accused the man of taking my wallet saying the girls had witnessed him standing over my backpack.
The man was shocked and immediately told me the girls were lying and that he had just gotten to my backpack right before he passed me. He repeated that he had zero doubt the girls had stollen it and were trying to tag it on him.
It did seem factual that he had just gotten to my backpack right before I passed him and the Marmot was sitting there. Geez, maybe the Marmot had gotten my wallet. I apologized turned and began my track back up the mountain. At this point, I was completely exhausted from sprinting back and forth up and down the mountain. I could no longer keep up the fast pace, especially up the mountain, but I knew the girls were going up so I would eventually track them down!
Finally after a good hour of climbing I saw them and another couple hikers had stopped at a spot that had a lookout. As I approached, I acted like I was taking pictures of the view on my phone, but was secretly taking pictures of the two girls so I could turn them into the Park Ranger after getting to the bottom of the mountain later.
It was at the point for the first time, I could see my destination and mission returned to my main focus of reaching the top of the mountain. All I could see was a large group of boulders that I would have to climb still about 400-500 feet up a dicy trail that now was covered in snow. There were a couple chipmunks that ran by me, they stopped to laugh at a 50 year old with cheap boots trying to conquer this mountain.
I had a mission and had concluded that I was going to reach the top even if it killed me. I remember thinking, now I know how it got its name, Longs Peak, because every footstep up the mountain seemed to make the top seem further away.
My legs were toast and burning like crazy, but what really was beginning to consume me was my head throbbing from the lack of Oxygen. I was entering rare air. I passed a llama tied up to a pole, which seemed odd, but found out later the Park Rangers use llamas to carry supplies up to the checkpoints.
There was water coming from the melting snow forming a steady stream and creating an amazingly beautiful waterfall, but I would enjoy that view on the way down. I had to hurry and reach the top, because Sheri, Kade, and the Park Ranger would be waiting for me at the bottom.
I remember reaching the first boulder in the final climb to the top. The trail came to an end and you had to now climb about 40 feet nearly straight up this final wall of boulders to reach the top. With every carefully placed foot and hand I began my climb. Every part of my body now aching, but it was my head throbbing from the lack of oxygen that was screaming at me to turn and stop the climb.
My mind started saying you have gone far enough. You have a good view from here. Just turn and look for yourself. I refused. Who looks down, when they are close to reaching the top?
It was then when I heard for the first time thunder. No way, the storm the Park Ranger was referring to was on its way. I would become a human lightning rod, but I was only now less than 20 feet to the top of the mountain. What would the view be just past that final rock? I was not stopping. It is not in my DNA. God didn’t make me that way. I remember praying for God to give me the strength and even singing the old hym “I’ll Fly Away” in my mind to just try and take my mind off the pain.
I remember arriving at the final foot! One More Foot from pulling myself over the final boulder to reaching the top! I thought I was gonna cramp and collapse a couple of times, but just when I thought I was completely out of gas, God seemed to give me just enough strength to push on.
With one last pull, I will never forget what was waiting for me on the other side of that
One More Foot!
It was the most beautiful crystal clear lake I had ever seen. There was snow around the backside and another level of rocks that seemed to reach up into the sky all the way to the very peak of the mountain. I did not have the equipment to make it to the very peak by rock climbing, but God had taken me to exactly where He wanted to take me! It was the destiny He had spoke into my Spirit when He woke me up in the middle of the night and told me I was gonna climb a mountain on my 50th Birthday with Him.
The storm passed by and the Sun and Son came out as I looked over the lake at beauty few get to enjoy this side of Heaven. God then said “Jump In” or at least that is what I believe I heard. I walked over to a big rock and did a Nestea Plunge into the ice cold water. My body went numb to the core as I could honestly feel blood rushing to every inch of my body bringing healing as I climbed out of the water feeling refreshed at a level that is truly unexplainable.
I ran down the entire mountain landing on stone after stone like a young kid singing praises to God all the way to the bottom. I had experienced the One Foot Climb to the Top and the Glory that comes with Victory over pain, fear, and everything else that wanted to stop me from reaching that moment with God on top of that mountain.
What is the reward of conquering your final One Foot, the last step to the top of a mountain? For that answer, let’s look at what Abraham’s reward was.
“AFTER THESE things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am your Shield, your abundant compensation, and your reward shall be exceedingly great.” Genesis 15:1 AMPC
The Final Reward of One Foot of Faith is to enjoy eternity in the Presence of our Father God!
I’m sure you want to know what happened with my wallet right? Well, once I finally made it to the bottom, I found Sheri and Kade sitting in the van waiting for me. I asked Sheri if she had seen the Park Ranger. She asked why. I didn’t want to tell her about my wallet, but being my wife, she has the supernatural gift of knowing everything.
I said, “Honey, when I went to grab my keys to bring to you, I left my backpack and someone stole my wallet.” She laughed and said, “Oh your wallet. I forgot to tell you. When you were checking about parking I got a couple dollars out and felt it was safer if I put your wallet in my purse!”