REACHING HIGHER GROUND
by Kathy Pegram

 

The following is a message that Kathy preached at Reaching Higher Ground Ladies Conference.

Psalm 61:2,"From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”

Which way are you choosing to live your life? Do you want to live the above way or the below way? Do you strive toward a higher plane or are you content with lower ground?

I definitely want to find that way of life that is ABOVE, don't you,? Who wants to end up in hopeless situations all the time, living out a dismal life of despair? You and I can't possibly arrive on that higher ground apart from the Lord's leadership in our lives! But, when we yield to the Lord's leadership we can and will safely arrive on higher ground. But those who stubbornly resist God's direction for their life are choosing to live on lower ground where doubts arise and fears overtake their lives. They never seem to grow as a child of God and reach those new heights of maturity.

Climbing to a higher plane is a lot of work. I know this for a fact both physically and spiritually. Several times now my family and I have climbed Stone Mountain in Georgia. It's a lot of work getting up that mountain. Your legs are shaking, you're panting, you're hot, thirsty, tired and you always wonder why did I even attempt this. But, then you reach the top and the view is breath taking. You can see for miles and miles. It is wonderful to just sit there and look over the surrounding areas and reflect on God's goodness. But, it takes a lot of determination to finish the journey once you start it. Several times I've wanted to turn and go back down, because you see going down is a lot easier. You have gravity pulling you so that where you struggled to go up you practically have to stop yourself from running on the way back down. Once you reach the bottom of the hiking trail it's just not the same. The view isn't as beautiful, the calmness you felt on top of the mountain just isn't the same. And it's sad but true that a lot of people are afraid of heights so they never even attempt to climb up any distance at all. They will never know what a beautiful site they are missing.

From this point I'm not speaking of an actual mountain but a spiritual experience. We have people who are so afraid of trying to reach a higher level. They are afraid of what God will require of them. What if He wants me to stop doing this or going here. What if He wants me to preach, witness, sing, teach a Sunday class, etc. Let me tell you I stand here not because I want to, or because I feel that I am qualified to speak to you. I stand here only because God spoke to me and told me He wanted me to do this. When you feel God speaking to you, you only have two choices yea or nay. Yea, which lets you move up a little closer to higher ground. Or nay, which lets you stay there in your comfort zone lolling around at the foot of the mountain.

In our constant efforts to move in the direction of higher ground it is essential that we seek the Lord in prayer and ask Him to direct how we should plant our feet so that we're moving upward. The devil, will be dogging our footsteps in order to throw obstacles in our path. Satan wants us to move sideways or, preferably, downwards. We must watch for any obstacles before us so that we can detect when the Lord is redirecting our footsteps and when Satan is trying to move us off the right pathway. Christians ought to be constantly in touch with what the Lord desires through daily reading the Bible and praying. We need to leave behind those who want to live in doubts and fear in order to move onto "higher ground," and we need to be reaching out to draw others along with us so that together we may scale the utmost heights.

Paul said- "one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13, 14).

Once you start trying to reach higher ground keep your eyes on Christ. Don't look down or around there will always be someone to distract you or discourage you. Don't think about how easy it was serving God on the lower ground. Think of the view that awaits you on higher ground. We should not being discouraged by Satan's obstacles, but we should move forward from doubts and fears to higher ground. In a world were the darkest of sins are creeping through out the land. And man's degradation is casting it's shadows everywhere he dwells, it is certainly time for Christians to look for higher ground.

Maybe you have tried over and over to reach higher ground and you have finally settled with staying exactly where you are. Let me share this story with you I hope it will make you see that it is the obstacles that we face getting to higher ground that makes us what we are.

The first thing to emerge is the baby giraffe’s front hooves and head. A few minutes later the plucky newborn is hurled forth, falls ten feet, and lands on its back. Within seconds, he rolls to an upright position with his legs tucked under his body. From this position he considers the world for the first time and shakes off the last vestiges of the birthing fluid from his eyes and ears.

The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look. Then she positions herself directly over her calf. She waits for about a minute, and then she does the most unreasonable thing. She swings her long, pendulous leg outward and kicks her baby, so that it is sent sprawling head over heels.

When it doesn’t get up, the violent process is repeated over and over again. The struggle to rise is momentous. As the baby calf grows tired, the mother kicks it again to stimulate its efforts. Finally the calf stands for the first time on its wobbly legs.

Then the mother giraffe does the most remarkable thing. She kicks it off its feet again. Why? She wants it to remember how it got up. In the wild, baby giraffes must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with the herd, where there is safety. Lions, hyenas, leopards and wild hunting dogs all enjoy young giraffes and they’d get it too, if the mother didn’t teach her calf to get up quickly and get with it.

I can see the parallel of the giraffe's birth in my own life. There have been many times when it seemed that I had just stood up after a trial, only to be knocked down again by the next one. But God is always there helping me to remember how it was that I got up, urging me to always walk with him, in his shadow, under his care. Yes, there are times I found myself slipping. I began to let doubts and fears and confusion assail me. But, God continually calls for me to look up, to reach up. And so can you.

Love & Prayers,
Kathy