Thursday, February 29th, 2024
A few days ago God gave me a vision that I wanted to share. In the vision I saw a very narrow passageway between two high walls. The Lord was inviting me through that opening. In my finite mind I didn’t understand how my body would fit through that opening. A little while later, God said, “Only your spirit needs to pass through.” The verse that He brought to me was Matthew 7:13-14:
13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
According to Strong’s Concordance, the word narrow in the original Greek language is translated as strait, narrow (from obstacles standing close about). The word difficult means to crowd, afflict, or suffer tribulation. The word broad means wide and spacious. This is why more people go through the broad opening. It makes more sense to our human brains and it’s easier to pass through. The broad way is where we say, “Oh yes, I have the skills and qualifications to do that,” or “It’s perfect, I can fit all of my things and my baggage through that path.” Our analysis and words often do not make room for the God of the impossible.
Getting through the narrow passageway on the other hand takes something that not everyone has, faith. It also often requires sacrifice. We may be asked to sacrifice some obstacles like our time, our hurts, our possessions, some of our relationships, our finances and even our mindsets. We will have to learn to stop living by what we see and embrace the vision of things that cannot be seen. The Christian walk truly is counter to just about everything this world offers. It’s about narrow vs. wide, being last vs. being first, selling everything vs. acquiring everything, dying to ourselves vs. living for ourselves, surrendering vs. striving, living by what we don’t see vs. living by what we see, and loving our enemies vs. cursing our enemies to name a few.
Final Thoughts…
A lot of times we get hung up on what we think we can accomplish with our human body versus what God knows we can accomplish with Him by our side. He is calling us to a life of complete faith that will often stretch us to do things that seem impossible to man so that He can show us and others around us that nothing is impossible to Him. Moses said he couldn’t talk, but look what God did through him. Saul was a fierce persecutor of Christians, but God got a hold of him, and he became one of the Bible’s greatest apostles and a significant contributor of the New Testament portion of the Bible. David was a shepherd whose own family didn’t even think was big enough or strong enough and look at the king and conqueror he became. God often uses the places where we are weakest as this is where His strength can shine through the brightest. No matter what narrow passageway God is asking you to go through, trust in the God that is not bound by any obstacle. Obstacles are nothing more to Him than fans on the flame of our testimony.