A request two weeks ago about a skill that seemed far from my wheelhouse left me a bit reeling. It lined up perfectly with the topic of projected lies that I had been working through the very same week. Not to mention the words that were spoken over me in front of the church not too long before that. Words that touched on this topic in a way that I couldn’t comprehend for myself. A door closed and unexplored. Resigned long ago that wasn’t something for me. 

How to proceed? What answer do I give?

I want to have that faith filled life where I can step into the Jordan and the waters will cease to run. Where barriers dissipate with a step of faith. That healing is just around the corner with a touch of His robe or in an immersion of His presence. 

God is certainly in those moments but He’s with us in the smaller steps of faith too as we move towards what He is calling us to. He is with us in the slow climb to the mountain view. Even when we stumble a few times to get there. 

I want to take those big steps of faith, full of trust that God will move mountains. And God I pray that when the time comes for such courage that it will be undeniably known to me that it is your will!

But success in the small steps produces encouragement to keep trudging up the mountain. 

The fear of not walking in obedience feels overwhelming in these circumstances. Maybe the fear is really a tactic to compel me to move too fast. Small stumbles are easier to come back from than large disappointments and embarrassments. This especially holds true when it revolves around an old wound.  Even lies that we or others told us. It can feel safer to operate within the bounds of those lies. To avoid the embarrassment and failure. 

The thought of what is on the other side of the Jordan, the breakthrough that will come, drives us to want to move fast. Propelled by fear that if we take the “safer” road at a slower pace that we will miss what God has to offer us. When nothing can stand in the way of what God has prepared for us.

“I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”
‭‭Job‬ ‭42‬:‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus was the One preparing the way in advance. He cut off the flow of the water upstream before the Israelites got to the river. 

“Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the Lord had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried over,”
‭‭Joshua‬ ‭4‬:‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Was it the pressure of crossing with 40,000 soldiers that made the Israelites hurry or that they were holding up the priests carrying the ark and all its weight while they crossed the Jordan? Was there a fear to cross the Jordan slowly in case the water came back before they fully crossed? A willingness to quickly follow God’s commands? Moving an army is never a speedy task. What about the patience of the priests standing in the middle of the then dry river? Maybe what seems like a big act of faith was really just one step of courage after the next?

That was my answer. It wasn’t jumping straight into something that God hadn’t prepared me for yet. After all, Jesus was and is never in a hurry. 

But it did set the picture. It implanted an idea, a possible new aspect of my gifting in an area I was previously wounded in.

I’ll seek to rely on God to guide my confidence in this area. Taking small steps into the Jordan with Jesus by my side. 

Why should I doubt when nothing can stop what God has planned?

Grace and peace,

Jo

Resources:

• The Genesis Process – Michael Dye, CADC, NDAC II
• Do the New You – Steven Furtick
• Joshua 4