Mountains were a very significant part of Jesus’ life here on earth. Just before he started his ministry, Jesus went into the desert to pray for 40 days and 40 nights. The devil tempted Jesus at the end of that period. One of the things the devil did was to take Jesus to a very high mountain where he showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and he said he would give them to Jesus if he would fall down and worship him (Matt 4: 8-9). Jesus refused to bow down to the devil and told him that only God alone deserves our worship and praise.
Many of us know about the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus gave The Beatitudes. The Message Bible says he sat down and taught His climbing companions. I love the way the Amplified Bible expounds the word blessed in this co
ntext: Blessed (happy, to be envied and spiritually prosperous with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward condition) are the poor in spirit (the humble, who rate themselves insignificant), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed and enviably happy (with a happiness produced by the experience of God’s favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His matchless grace) are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matt 5:3 &4), and so on.
The Bible tells us that Jesus often went up to the mountain to pray – Matthew 14:23, Mark 6:46, Luke 6:12, John 6:15. Mountains were solitary places and Jesus needed a quiet place to pray – to talk to His Father, to commune with Him, to receive strength and guidance from Him. Jesus also performed miracles on the mountain. In Matthew 15:29 to 31, we are told that on the mountain great crowds came to Him bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others and put them at His feet and He healed them and the crowd was in awe and worshiped God when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking and the blind seeing.
It was on up a high mountain that Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John, where His face shone like the sun and His clothes became white like light and Moses and Elijah appeared with Him (Matthew 17: 1 to 17). And it was on the Mountain in Galilee, where Jesus gave His disciples the Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that God commanded.
Mountains are places of prayer, they are places of healing, they are places of revelation and they are places of commissioning. I look forward to all these experiences and more as I climb Mount Elgon. And I know God will come through for me because He answers prayer.
FROM ONE CEO TO ANOTHER..... 