Walking on The King’s Highway, Constantly Going Higher

Ref: Pastor W. F. Kumuyi

TEXT: Isaiah 35:8

There are many ways and paths in life and many of them lead to despair and the dungeon. There is one highway, the highway of the King, anyone who treads on it goes up. All you need to do today is be sure to discover the highway, decide to walk on it, and determine to remain on the highway. A little step which we call baby steps, one step at a time and you focus on the destination you want to get to. After some months and years, you will get there in Jesus name.

It is an expressway that helps the one who walks thereon to get to go on till he gets to the higher ground. “Walking on the King’s Highway” indicates that it is a continuous process, not going forward or backwards, this is why some people don’t go up higher. They take three steps forward and four steps backwards When you do this, you actually go back one step, but if you are constantly taking at least a step forward courageously, and purposefully every day, you will get there.

So, it takes determination and dedication for you to take the right steps forward every day. To go up higher, if you are told to stand, you cannot continue to sit down, otherwise, you don’t understand that stand is an action word. When you are told to come and you remain where you are, and there is no desire, decision, or response from you, you don’t understand the word.

The great Architect of heaven, the Creator, Builder, the Provider of everything knew He would call us, so He built steps for us to go up. One step after the other, you will get up there.

Everyone starts at the ground level. Nobody is born a Doctor, Engineer, achiever, conqueror, or militant soldier, we all start from the ground floor. God has built steps so that you don’t remain on the ground floor. There is a level called despair, and discouragement, but you don’t stay there all your life.

Apart from all of these, you must be diligent in everything you do so that every day and every action will add to your destiny which is higher. You also have devotion in all you do to get here. Then you make a petition and demand to God to help you, and the help, assistance, and promise of God that cannot fail gives a decree to confirm your demand.

Going up higher is a journey and you must never forget where you are going. You will never forget the determination and the destination: higher, higher, higher. You will reach there in Jesus name.

POINT 1: Dissatisfaction with The Hedged Way of Limitation

Deuteronomy 1:6-7; 2:3; Proverbs 15:19

There are lives that are hedged in and around, as a result, they are limited. Just like when you tie a goat to a rope, one end of the rope is around the goat’s neck while the other end is tied to the pole. The goat can move around but can never go beyond the length of the rope. The circumference and radius are determined already. A time comes in your life when you are dissatisfied with the merry-go-round, and the hedged path you are on, and you want to break free and move forward.

In many lives, when their brackets open, there is a hedge, limitation, and merry-go-round, as they were last year, so they are this year. As they are this year, they might be next year. They do the same thing, plan and walk the same way for all years of their lives. All they have is a limitation upon limitations. You have to be dissatisfied and you cannot decide to continue that way.

Why did the children of Israel move around in the wilderness for 40 years and didn’t get to the promised land? Working and expending energy, working, rising, and exercising with no proof of anything better coming up in their lives. Let me tell you some things about them so you can learn the lessons:

i.. Deliverance Without Devotion

The Lord delivered them from Egypt but there was no devotion from them to their Deliverer. Same with us, we go to prayer, and for deliverance, but there is no dedication to the goal.

ii. Manna Without Manners

They got Manna from heaven every day but they didn’t have good manners, character, behaviours in the sight of God. Manna is a provision from God but no manner, changed life and behaviours in them.

iii. Triumph Without Tamed Tongues

They triumphed over their enemies in the wilderness, over Pharaoh at the Red Sea but they didn’t have victory over their tongues. When people have triumphed over their challenges and they don’t have tames tongues, their tongues will keep bringing them down.

iv. Healing Without Holiness

God brought them out of the Promise Land and there was no feeble person among them. He made a healing Covenant with them but they didn’t have holiness joined to the healing. That was why many of them did not get to the Promise Land.

v. Song of Praise Without the State of Purity

The children of Israel were excited people, but happiness alone cannot take them to the Promise Land.

vi. Water from The Rock Without Willingness for Righteousness

And the miracle water they drank was not enough to make them go higher, they were still doing merry-go-round. In our lives, we must look at the water of life that God gives, and then have the willingness for righteousness that He wants us to have.

vii. Demand for Milk And Honey Without Desire For Movement Towards Heaven

What success or privilege do we have on earth if we have all earthly supplies and we don’t have the desire and willingness to get to heaven?

Below are what God wants to do so that the hedges around our lives which have been there all these time can be removed and we now have the desire and determination to get to higher ground. Not only in our academics and professions, but in our spiritual lives, we must ensure that we are born again with the Spirit of God bearing witness that we are children of God.

• We must have the decision to follow Christ,

• There must be devotion to follow the way of the Lord.

• We must have good character and behaviour of true believers.

• That the grace of God transforms our tongues, many people talk when they should be quiet, they talk, talk and talk, not looking at the weight and value of what they say. When the grace of God comes, our tongues and lives are transformed.

• And we pray with the transformed tongues, the Lord puts righteousness and holiness in our lives, He gives us blessing for our bodies, brains, and our hearts, lives and we are holy by His grace, then we are truly going higher.

• He will put the willingness to be righteous in us everywhere we are, we know we are there to represent Christ well, then we move up higher.

Those who are slothful, idle, with no plan or purpose and any perseverance of moving up higher, they are hedged around with a hedge of thorns and cannot rise or move up higher. But when you tell the Lord that you want a higher ground and what the Lord has ordained for you, you will get higher. This is the way of the Lord. A decision to follow Christ and not turn back. This is when the possibility of moving up higher will happen in your life.

POINT 2: Dedication on The Highway of Life’s Liberation

When the Lord comes to liberate and set you free and all the limitations that hold you down, you are liberated and free indeed. You are ready to go, run and come up higher.

Liberation: that the Lord takes you out of the life of dissatisfaction and despondency and blesses your life with salvation and sets you free with new life in Christ, that is when your journey to the higher place begins. The Lord has given us the promise for higher ground, He said come unto me all you who labour and are heavy-laden. You make up your mind, get up and go in the direction of God who is your Liberator. Anytime anyone come to the Lord, He will ask what he wants Him to do for them. He has the power to take and put you on the highway of holiness. You can’t do it on your own, how can you liberate yourself from all yokes and bondage? He is the One who can set you free from all things that will not allow you to have progress.

He can take you from the poor situation you are to put you on the throne to reign with the Lord. All the things we can do and achieve by our ourselves are not enough to take us to higher ground. Whosoever comes to the Lord He will not cast off. Come to Him and depend on Him and He will lift you higher. He is the only Liberator.

What steps are you to take since getting to higher ground is step by step?

i. Leave All Your Sins and Self-Centeredness Behind. Talking about sin, some people say they have left all, but how about idleness? He who knows how to do good but fails to do it is sin. How about bringing all your gifts to be useful for God? How about reading your books and preparing for your exams?

ii. Lean on The Saviour of Sinners

You can lean, trust, depend and have confidence in Him. You can have your petition sent to Him as well.

iii. Learn from The Scriptures for Success

When you learn from the Scriptures, it will reveal to you that the path to success is not by stealing, or spying on others and taking their work to be yours.

iv. Live Loyally In The Faith Steps of Christ

Who is the model and pathway to success? Who is the perfect example for success? Christ our Lord and Saviour.

v. Love Lawfully in The Sunshine of His Sermon

He has given us the sermon on the mount and the way up, the way to discover what we have if we follow the Lord.

vi. Loose Yourself from The Shackles of Satan

If some gangs and secret society have won you to their sides and they encourage you that that is the in-thing, you say No to them all, and walk in the steps of the Saviour and lose yourself from the shackles of the devil. Christ lifts and liberates us and we move on and go higher.

vii. Labour in The Strength of The Lord

This is what takes us from where we are to where we ought to be.

POINT 3: Diligence in The Heavenly Way for The Lord

Proverbs 22:28-29; 2 Corinthians 8:22; Hebrews 6:11-12; 2 Peter 1:5-11,13-14; 2 Peter 3:13-14

In many parts of the Bible, we were told to put diligence to what we are pursuing, that is, your mind will not turn from here to there. A man of one goal, purpose, desire, dedication, power and you are on and on, going higher. The Lord will help you.

Solomon is asking a question, he was a diligent man from his youth, and had the willingness to follow the way of the Lord. He was not the only one who was diligent till he got what he wanted. He said “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men“.

Have you seen a student, boy or girl, a researcher diligent in his or her way? A focused and diligent man or woman, he will stand before kings, he will work in the office of the President. Being diligent in everything we do, knowing that the way you do one thing in life is the way you do other things in your life. Learn to be diligent in one area, and that will affect other areas. Diligence in prayer and supplication, studies and profession, then you have the place you ought to have in life.

Have a desire in every area of your life. Don’t be a cake burnt on one side and raw on the other. In every part of your life, physical and secular, professional and purified, personal, in the family, congregation, in the office, school, college, have a desire for a high level of living. In the area of your private and spiritual endeavour, have the desire to live as you ought to.

Every area of your life as a married and professional person, the way you live, stand, the things you do and say, you must ensure that every step, deed is by the grace of God which helps you to please Him at all times. He is able. Desire, decision, determination, dedication, diligence and God will take you to where He has ordained for your life in Jesus Name. Amen!