The Jump
Isaiah 6:5-10
"Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me."
October 14th, 1947
You see this man when he pressed this button rocketed to over 40,000 feet and more than 662 miles per hour.
What was so amazing about this feat, well at that altitude 662 miles per hour was the speed of sound, it was considered to be a brick wall in the sky. Unsurpassable, many men had attempted to surpass the speed of sound, but all had failed.
Failure was not due to the inability to build a machine capable of reaching those speeds, but failure was due to a fear of the unknown.
You see when you began to approach the thresholds of the speeds of sound, the plane would began to shake, and vibrate, to the point that pilots would give up for fear of the plane coming apart in mid air.
But for some reason this man decided not to back up, he decided that he was going through with this attempt to the bitter end even if it meant death.
Forget the fear of the unknown, I want to know the unknown, I want to reach a threshold that had never been reached before, I want to do what they say no man could ever do, the experts on aviation and the most skilled pilots said that Men would never reach this speed. Men weren’t meant to reach this speed.
But this man said Get behind me, I will do what no one has ever done, I will go and break this figurative wall or die trying.
This man was Chuck Yeager.
The reason for lifting the small experimental rocket plane with another one was because on its own the small plane couldn’t hold the fuel and still be small and aerodynamic enough to break this barrier or reach these speeds. So It had to have help up to a certain point, but once it reached that point the pilot had to make a decision, drop and go for the unknown or just return to Earth never having left the belly of the bomber.
You may have to rely on help to reach a certain point in your walk with God, people may guide you and help you, But you will reach a point, where you must let go and take a massive leap of faith for the unknown or just return back to earth and the same old same old without ever getting that breakthrough.
Your parents can only get you so far, your heritage will only get you to a certain point. Your youth pastor can only intercede for so much, your pastor can only touch God for you to a certain point. If you want to go farther and deeper with God then you have to go for it and let go go the comfort zone and take the leap alone.
You want it, well then take the leap, jump for the unknown, go for it, make the decision, you may not get a second chance to go for it.
God had called you, he has said come unto me. Then GO, reach for it. You are going have to set the security aside and take a leap, but what if you make it, what if you break through.
About two months ago I was in a church service and God was moving in unprecedented ways, and as I was praying I heard someone call my name, I immediately quit praying and listened as this person began to talk in my ear. This person spoke to me and gave me a message straight from God, this person said “Michael, you are back here praying, asking God what is your calling, and God wants me to tell you, “You know what I’ve called you to, all I am waiting on is for you to take the leap, and step out, and go for it.””
You see I wanted to go to new heights in my relationship, I wanted to do something for God, but I wasn’t willing to leap, I wasn’t willing to reach for the Heavens and shoot for the stars. I decided that If I was going to change my world, then I would have to take this leap and never look back.
I have spent my entire life hearing people making excuses for why they don't reach their true potential in life, I my self can at times be a bottomless pit of meaningless excuses, I am very adept at passing the blame of my shortcomings onto someone else's shoulders.
Our 33rd president Harry S. Truman had a famous quote "The Buck Stops Here". Quite profound actually, the blame goes no farther, pile it here and I will shoulder it. We so often pass off this blame that we fail to see that IF we would TAKE ACTION, there would be no reason for BLAME.
I have heard it all, and my favorites are the ones that people make when they are making excuses for not going for something, especially not venturing out into the ministry.
I am not good enough
I am not smart enough
I am not eloquent enough
I am not talented enough
I have done to much wrong
I have sinned
I have fallen
I am not perfect
I am not worthy
I am scarred
I have heard them all, and let me tell you a thing about Chuck Yeager, When he launched in the Bell X-1 for his attempt to break the sound barrier, his ribs were broken, the night before he had fallen off of a horse and had broken several ribs. He was a broken man, yet he changed history.
What are you going to do? Why don't you take the jump? What is keeping you from reaching your true potential?
Take the Jump, Go for it. So what if you have failed before, who cares if you are not perfect, who cares? God doesn't, he doesn't call the able, God enables the called.
I have seen ex-pornstars used by God
I have seen some of the state of Texas' biggest ex-drug dealers used by God
I have seen ex-drug addicts used by God
I've seen ex-porn addicts used by God
I've seen ex-alcoholics use by God
I've seen ex-convicts used by God
I've been used by God
So take your excuse and throw it away, God can use you if only you will take the jump. Your brokenness, your past is invisible to him, he just sees your potential and he wants to use you, but you must take the Jump.
Today I had a talk with one of my professors, and we discussed a very blunt and open essay I had written, and she asked me "why are you so hard on yourself".
Immediately I replied, "I was created for a reason, I was given this amazing amount of potential, but I'm wasting it all through my complacency".
I was content to sit here and say "It's all good in the hood. I'm cruising through life, but I have yet to realize my potential."
I wasn't called to sit here and just float along, I wasn't made to sit on the bench, I was not indued with talents and potentials to just stick with the status qou. I was called to change my world, I was called to make a difference, I was called to change the status quo.
I'm going to take my jump, I'm diving in, I don't care what happens, I am tired of life in my little world full of "normalities, and average results".
I don't care what sin I have done, I don't care whether or not I am eloquent, I don't care if I feel ill prepared and ill equipped, I'm going to change my world. I was called for this.
We were all called to shake the status qou around us, and I'm going for it.
We are called to be ground shakers, world changers, Heaven movers, when will we go for it. The people aroud us say we can't do it, maybe even you question whether or not it can be done. There is only one proven way to find out, and that is to Jump.
Quit backing away from the edge, you're called to jump, God is waiting for you to jump, he wants to use you to change your world, but he must know if you're going to jump.
God told Abraham to take Isaac up to the mountain top, to sacrifice him. You see Isaac was Abraham's blessing, God had give Abraham Isaac as a blessing but was now asking for him as a sacrifice. This barbaric request surely appalled Abraham, it quite possibly terrified him, but he decided to have faith in God and took a jump. Abraham took Isaac up to the mountain top and built a altar, he then proceeded to have his blessing placed on the altar to sacrifice it back to God, he took the jump, and then God stepped in and provided. God provided a ram as a replacement for Isaac. But then God proceeded to bless Abraham, blessing Abraham's seed to be a blessing to all of the whole world, all because Abraham took a leap of faith and Jumped.
One of my favorite poems is "The Charge of the Light Brigade" wrote by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and one of my favorite lines out of this poem is:
"Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die."
These lines have always intrigued me, you see someone ordered them to march, to what seemed like sure death, to jump in to the tempest of battle, outmanned and outgunned, but they went, they JUMPED, while for them it did not end well, we have a promise.
A promise that we will win, so why do we shy away from jumping? God called you to battle. And those who God calls, he enables. Those he enables, he equips, those who he equips, he makes to win. But only if they will Jump.
God has called, will you Jump? Will you sacrifice your life, will you lay aside your blessing, will you give it all up and just jump? It may see like certain death, the doubters will say it's not possible, they may say you will fail. But God is calling, he is choosing you, will you go, will you Jump into the unknown, will you let go and hope to soar?
Come let is Jump into the unknown, God is calling.
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