Of Mountaintop and Valley Experiences

[Pilgrim525]

Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents* here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” (MT 17:4)

I can easily relate to Peter’s reaction to his mountaintop experience with Jesus. I recall my own similar experience when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit during the very first Catholic Life in the Spirit Seminar that I attended in May of 1988. The culminating event of that CLSS was the Laying of the hands or what we call “Baptism of the Holy Spirit” which coincided with Pentecost Sunday of that year. The event had been so memorable because we experienced a semblance of that 1st Pentecost Sunday complete with the manifestation of a strong, roaring wind and rain pouring down on all the participants and community elders while the Music Ministry was singing in tongues. At that time our parish church was an incomplete structure with only the roof but without the walls hence we ended up dripping wet but miraculously, no one got sick. It was an exhilarating experience and spiritually uplifting!
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[Reuben_J]

“It would really be wonderful to experience God atop a mountain forevermore. And like Peter I would also wish to stay there permanently but it is in the valley that we are called to serve and follow Jesus. It is in the valley that we are to embrace our own daily crosses if we are to become true disciples of Christ. It is in the valley that we are destined to be until the time He calls us home to eternity.”

Thank you for sharing. How wonderful it is to experience the Holy Spirit that changes our lives.

The mountain top experiences are the glimpse of the things to come but the valley is the reality of our journey in this world. We can only be in the world but not of the world for our real home is in the eternal with the Father in heaven.

It is by grace of God that He allows us to experience Him in the mountain. It is kind of a jump start to our lives, if you may. The battery is weak, and the car would not start but if you take the cables and jack up the battery from another car, your car may start after all.

That is how the love of God works in the Holy Spirit. He loves us so much that He jump starts our lives so that we can experience a new life, a life that is being led by the Spirit so that we will be convicted of sins and given the strength to overcome them. For in Jesus we are more than conquerors.

But we need to go down from the mountain. Life at the top though nice is not real; the real lives are in the valley where we need to go back to. And they are not nice. By the power of the Holy Spirit we can overcome the dreary and the hard life of the valley though.

As the apostles went down from the mountain, they were faced with the reality of the world. Like them, that is where we meet our Jesus – the suffering, the marginalized, the naked, the imprisoned, the hungry and the thirsty. And we have to feed them because we have been given the power by the Holy Spirit.

Let’s pray for each other, that in all the trials of our lives, we still have the strength to move on and be ministers for Jesus; and that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit continues to fill our lives so that we can be the salt of the earth and the light to the world.

God bless you.

Reuben