[PraiseNews] The Zip Line

[Ministry]

Tomorrow morning, 8 a.m. PST.  M.H.I. Teleconference
Type of Conference: Prayer, Teaching, Praise & Worship
Dial-in Number: 1-641-297-5600
Participant Access No.   7773777#
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The Zip Line

Greetings in the name of Jesus... Our Mighty King

Recently I was at an outing at a camp where a few hundred
men had gathered to draw closer to the Lord. There is a
catchy phrase coined by the late Dr. Edwin Louis Cole that
goes like this:

   "Being a male is a matter of birth, being a man is a
   matter of choice."

I choose to be a man. (More on that later)  While there all
of us men had a chance to ride the zip line.  A 500 foot
steel cable that runs down the side of a very large hill in
the woods.  At the top, you hook yourself to a pulley that
is placed over the cable and connected to your harness and
once you step off the rock, off you go.  In a matter of
moments you are flying about 20 feet off the ground with
nothing between you and the ground but air and the pace is
fast.  Perhaps 50mph or so.  I cannot begin to tell you all
of the messages spoken to me by the Holy Spirit during this
short but powerful experience.

We were competing with one another (like running a race) and
there was a prize.  There could be only one winner and the
winner was the man who dropped his man-size sock full of
beans closest to or directly on a 10 inch bullseye at the
bottom of the hill as he went flying over top of it.  As I
passed by that bullseye on the way to walk up the steep hill
I spoke to that bullseye and literally said "you belong to
me and I will be the victor!"  When I stepped off that rock
I was dead-on squared toward the target.  But in no time at
all I had rotated and turned around so that as I approached
the target area, I was flying backwards and there was no way
to control the direction I was facing because I was at the
mercy of gravity and other forces too physics-cal for me to
comprehend.

But I had not only believed in my heart that I would run
this race, FINISH this race and WIN THE PRIZE... but I had
also confessed it out of my mouth and to the object of my
challenge.  I landed my beanbag nearly dead square in the
bullseye and not a man out of probably 75 who tried came
hardly anywhere close.

Oh.. how I can (and time permitting would love to) talk to
you about the many messages in this little experience and
how the Holy Spirit taught me from it.  For now, we will
only have time for the main course and maybe a little side
dessert.  Dessert first -

Romans 10:8-10 says

But what does it say? The Word (God's message in Christ) is
near you, on your lips and in your heart; that is, the Word
(the message, the basis and object) of faith which we
preach,(A) Because if you acknowledge and confess with your
lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe (adhere
to, trust in, and rely on the truth) that God raised Him
from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a
person believes (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on
Christ) and so is justified (declared righteous, acceptable
to God), and with the mouth he confesses (declares openly
and speaks out freely his faith) and confirms [his]
salvation.

I practiced in real life what you just read.  The Word of
God which says I am more than a conqueror, He makes me
ALWAYS to triumph, I can do ALL THINGS through Christ and
there are so many more... "The people who know their God
(that's me and it's you too?) will be strong and do
exploits!"  You see I had this Word "near me" "on my lips"
and "in my heart" as I faced the battle ahead of me. 
I believed it in my heart and confessed it with my mouth
to the Lord, to myself and to the soon to be conquered.
And it came to pass...

Now for the main course.

Our life is like a ride on the zip line.  We get to make
choices all through our life.  But none of our choices are
without influence, external and internal.  In this case I
had the pressure of peers to compete at a "man's
conference."  I had the desire to win within me, there was
the offering of a prize to the winner and so much more.  You
see I made the choice but it was not free from many
influences.  This is how God's SOVEREIGN will is able to
bring about decisions in our favor and able to turn hard
hearts that seem impossible.

Once I had chosen to "buckle up" and step off, as badly as I
wanted to turn left or right, I was going where the zip line
and other forces took me.  I believe that day the Holy
Spirit spoke clearly to me "your life is like this in my
Kingdom"  Once you buckle up to Jesus as the Captain of your
soul, you will arrive at precisely the destination He has
chosen for you.  No sense striving against the course He has
set for you.  He is working ALL THINGS together for your
good anyway.  No need to get distracted or caught up in the
"scenery" because it will not change where we end up.  This
is why He is called "the Author and Finisher of our faith"
and "He who has begun a good thing in you is faithful to
perform it until His day"

If you have surrendered your life to the Master and Captain
then sit back and relax, enjoy the ride.  You're going to
end up precisely where He planned it for you.... and His
plan is GOOD!

Man's goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand
his own way? Pro 20:24
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