I remember an occasion in a remote village in the bush of Zambia.
We were walking from hut to hut to minister the Gospel, and along the way, we met two young men who were lounging on the branches of a tree. We started a conversation with them and began to minister, taking turns amongst our group of five, each continuing and expounding upon the previous person’s thought. As one of my teammates spoke on God’s purpose and plan in our lives, I sought the Spirit on what He wanted me to add. I glanced down at the ground beneath our feet and noticed a throng of tiny ants moving in and out of their anthill, as well as an assortment of small rocks scattered on the ground surrounding their pint-sized home.
When my turn to speak arrived, I pointed out my terrestrial findings and invited our listeners to visualize the scene from the ants’ perspective. To them, the pieces of gravel would have looked like colossal mountains, pervading the entire horizon and providing an impossible hurdle in reaching their goal destination. From our higher, broader perspective, however, we could see the truth of the matter: a quick trip around and home was near. This is a clear archetype of God and us; our finite vision sees mountainous impossibilities where God sees opportunities, not only opportunities for victory, but for growth and refinement.
We all face mountains in our lives. But what if we changed our perspective and saw them with God’s eyes?
One of my favorite Biblical examples of mountain-facing is Joshua vs. Jericho.
“Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, ‘See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor.”
If you ask me, these two sentences completely contradict one another.
The first tells us what Jericho looked like, and this city was nothing less than a fortress, with high walls and a secure gate. Furthermore, the leaders of Jericho knew all about the Israelites and the power that accompanied them, knew that they were in the area, and were very much afraid. Thus, the city was on high alert, keeping watch for anyone potentially associated with the Israelites–hence the king’s interrogation of Rahab in chapter two.
The Israelites knew all this. The spies sent in chapter two saw it all first hand. And yet, God tells Joshua to see that Jericho has been given to them.
What? What do you mean “see”, Lord? All I see are the walls and the gate. All I see is a mountain. All I see is an impossible task.
The Hebrew for “see” (ra’ah) means to see, perceive, look at, observe, watch, consider. NONE of those definitions changed what was true of Jericho; none of those definitions made the walls disappear, made Jericho less impenetrable. Yet, the Lord said, “see!”
What we can deduce, then, is that God wasn’t inviting Joshua to look at Jericho with his fleshly eyes, but rather with eyes of the Spirit. What would have happened if Joshua didn’t look with eyes of the Spirit? What if he had decided that the walls were too great and the plan to simply march around the city too crazy and nonsensical for it to actually work?
Fast forward to 2 Kings chapter 6.
The king of Syria sought to capture Elisha, so he sent an army out to surround the city where Elisha was staying. In the morning, Elisha’s servant went outside, saw the army surrounding them, and totally panicked. “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” (verse 15)
Elisha responded, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (verse 16). Then Elisha prayed to the Lord, asking Him to open the servant’s eyes “that he may see” (verse 17a).
There’s that word again. See. And it’s the same Hebrew word as before. What the servant saw, perceived, looked at, observed, watched, and considered was a great army with horses and chariots, a two against many match-up, an impossible situation. That’s what the servant saw with his eyes of the flesh. But when the Lord answered Elisha’s prayer and helped the servant see with eyes of the Spirit (the Voice translation says “heavenly realities”), he saw things completely differently. Verse 17b: “And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”
So you see, our perspective matters. It matters greatly. It matters whether we view our [supposed] mountains with eyes of the flesh or eyes of the Spirit.
I say “supposed” because not all of our mountains are actually such.
“Satan puts straws across our path and magnifies it and makes us believe it is a mountain, but all the devil’s mountains are mountains of smoke; when you come up to them they are not there.” – Dwight L. Moody
Sometimes, we make mountains out of molehills simply through our unbelief, simply because mountains look far more grandiose through the eyes of the flesh.
However, we know that we will face challenges in this life; we will walk through valleys only to come face to face with mountains. And the higher the mountain, the more clouds and fog, the less we can see with our eyes, and thus, the more impossible it seems. But the less we can see with our eyes, the more it forces us to rely on God’s vision instead of our own.
So instead of viewing those mountains as fearsome impossibilities, we should approach them with joy, knowing that they present us with opportunities to grow our faith and draw closer to the Lord.
I don’t think it’s mere coincidence that in the Old Testament, mountains were used as meeting places with the Lord. The elevation of a mountain represented a closeness to the Heavens, and thus, easier access to God. Scaling those mountains wouldn’t have been an easy task, but the reward at the end was standing face-to-face with the King. In the same way, when we successfully ascend our mountains and defeat our obstacles with His help, we find ourselves closer to the One infinitely greater than any mountain we could ever face.
There is nothing impossible with God. All the impossibility is with us when we measure God by the limitations of our unbelief. – Smith Wigglesworth
When we come to the place of impossibilities, it is the grandest place for us to see the possibilities of God. – Smith Wigglesworth
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