Mountain Time

Tom Barnard

 

“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.”

(Psalm 121:1, 2 NKJV)

 

“There are people, thank God, who set the watches of their daily living by mountain time;

who live not by the thinking of the street level but by the eternal hills of God’s revelation.

Their guide is not what everyone is saying this season, but what God has said for all

seasons; not what everyone is doing this year, but what God has done for all the years.”

Halford Luccock, in Marching Off the Map

 

“Mountain time” is more than a geographical time-zone that separates one region of America from the rest of the country. The Mountain Time that Luccock referred to is the place to which Jesus retreated to pray to his Father. It was a place where the crowds did not follow him. He went to the hills when others were sleeping. He didn’t do this to “escape” from the pressures of people and pain. He retreated to the hills to be with the Father. He knew he had to re-supply spiritually before he could minister physically.

 

As I write these words today, I am in my own mountain-time zone. Not geographically, but spiritually. I am not “doing something religious” but I am engaging with the Spirit of the Lord as I write to you. I sense his presence here in my office—right here at the computer—now. He is here. I don’t recall having invited him for this specific moment. He just showed up. I was reading from one of Halford Luccock’s books and the Lord said, “Let’s write about mountain time today.” As my fingers touched the keys, I could sense that the Lord was shaping words and sentences and paragraphs for me. Not audibly, but in my mind.

 

Is this how you experience your own “mountain time” with God? When you sit down with a good book (or better yet, the Scripture) do you let God stream his ideas into your mind in a simple but direct way? I hope you do. And when this happens, do you thank him? Perhaps you say something like,

 

Father, I know you are here right now. I sense your Spirit flowing into my spirit. You are creating thoughts of truth for me—thoughts of hope. And my heart is responding to you thankfully and devotionally. Please don’t stop doing this. Please, Father, let this “mountain high” experience be part of all of my activities this weekend. As I teach on Sunday, speak through me in ways that touch lives. In the strong Name of your Son I pray. Amen.

 

Thank him now. He is listening. It’s all about time. His time. Your time. Mountain Time.