Can you think back to a ‘mountaintop experience’ in your spiritual life? Maybe, it was during a church service or a special retreat where the Spirit of God felt powerfully present. Maybe, it was during a season of tremendous blessing or in prayerful solitude while surrounded by the beauty of nature. These earthly glimpses of heaven’s joy are precious…and all-too-often, short lived. We don’t currently enjoy permanent residency on the mountaintop, do we? For now, we traverse somewhere between them and the valleys.

Life happens in up and down seasons. Figuratively, Jesus was ‘climbing down His own mountaintop’, right before He entered a ‘dry valley’ for a time of testing. In Matthew 4, Jesus is in the Judean desert being tempted of Satan. But right before that, in Matthew 3, Jesus is in the Judean region for another reason: His glorious baptism, which marked the formal beginning of His Messianic work.

Can you imagine the thrill and marvel of His baptism? There, humbly standing in the waters of the Jordan River, God the Father praised Him with a loud voice, as the vastness of the skies opened up and the eternal Spirit of God descended upon Him in majesty! “Spiritual mountaintops” don’t get much higher than that!

Shortly after this, the same Spirit that had descended upon Jesus like a dove drove him right into the long and rigorous trials of the wilderness. (Mark 1:12) Jesus transitioned from an extremely thrilling spiritual experience to a difficult time of supernatural warfare and physical fatigue. Did His change in circumstance indicate a change in Divine opinion regarding the Son? Of course not! The sinless Son of God was right where He was supposed to be – in the barren desert with testing to come.

Luke 4:1 reads, “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.” While Satan attempted to assassinate the character of the Son of Man, Jesus remained Spirit-filled and in complete submission to the Father’s plan. The spotless Lamb of God overcame the vain attacks of the enemy by the indisputable authority of God’s Word. Jesus entered the desert in perfect holiness, he continued in perfect holiness, and he exited the trial with every bit of His perfect holiness in perfect tact. May we walk as He walked.

Let us remember that when we submit to God’s will for our lives, it does not mean that we will always be led ‘beside still waters’. Sometimes, Spirit-following means times of testing, which are meant to purify and prove us. God’s ultimate agenda for our lives is not necessarily momentary ease, but rather, lasting refinement. Wherever the Spirit leads, whether it’s beside still waters or barren wastelands, let us trust and obey our Good Shepherd. As we ascend and descend our mountaintops, let’s look forward to that Great Day when our Lord’s booming voice, as “the sound of rushing waters” (Revelation 1:15, NIV), may say to us: “This is My beloved child in whom I am well pleased.”

“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” (I Peter 4:12-13, KJV)

Liz Miller lives in Daphne with her husband Matt and son, Logan. She looks forward to responding to your thoughts, prayer requests and guest speaker invitations, please write to millerfam3@hotmail.com.