When Life Feels Like It’s Going Downhill.... Mount Everest Sermon Series | John Giftah Christian Sermon

0:01 Speaker 1: Do you ever look around and think, Wow, the world is a crazy place and it just seems to get crazier and crazier. Ease your mind and take a break. This is Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta. We're a hub for inspirational Christian sermons, practical keys for Christian living, in Christian discussions and interviews. You'll be inspired to live the life that you were created for. Your host is a top ranking podcaster, best selling author, world record holder, aerospace engineer, life coach, evangelist, and founder of John Gifta International.

0:41 Speaker 1: Welcome to Fuel for the Soul with John GIFTA.

0:46 Speaker 2: Hello everyone, Welcome to this edition of the Fuel for the Soul with John gift podcast. If you've been checking out our episodes. For this week, we're doing a series based on Mount Everest to look at various lessons that we can learn from God's word regarding the same. Because May the twenty nine is known as Mount Everest Day, the day that Hillary and Tensing climb the summit for the very first time in nineteen fifty three. So here's the thing I want you to understand. One of the practical things that a lot of people struggle with is John.

1:15 Speaker 2: I know God has a big calling for me. God has a big plan for me. I understand that I'm thinking steps. I really believe that God wants to take me from one degree of glory to another degree of glory. I believe that the Scripture says in Proverbs that the path of the righteous gets brighter and brighter. I really believed and thought that God would take me higher and higher, that God will lift me up and take me to greater levels of my destiny, where in reality it feels like I'm going down. It feels like things are just going downhill in my life right now.

1:45 Speaker 2: Maybe you're feeling down and discouraged, But I want you to understand a very very important principle to understand from Mount Everest as well as from God's word on how this whole process would look like. See, I want you to understand when somebody wants to climb to the summit of Mount Terrist, there's not a straight way to the top. I want you to understand that right you're are just going to climb and keep climbing up. That's not the process, because you have to understand that this is over eighty eight hundred meters above mean sea level and there is literally the death zone.

2:19 Speaker 2: So your body literally starts dying because the oxygen level is only one third of what it is over here and it's not a safe place. And so your body needs to start adapting to that high altitude. And so if you're just deciding to go to the top in just one go, or if you feel like I want to land on the summit by landing on a helicopter or something, I want you to understand. You'll say, hey, I reached the top. In two minutes, you'll reach the top that is heaven. Because your body cannot adapt to that eye altitude, it's literally going to be killing you because it's known as the death zone.

2:55 Speaker 2: All right, here's the thing. I wanted to not be confused with the technicality, but I want to understand that is why they go through a process known as acclimatization. Right, even when somebody is moving towards the Everest base camp, what they do is they go through so many places like lou Clark and then you have thing buche Low Bouchet and gorrex HP and all of these different places and eventually reach the Mount Everest base camp. And in two places, one is known as Namchain and the other place is known as thing Bushey.

3:26 Speaker 2: What they do is they go to that place and during the day they go to an igher altitude and during the night they come back and rest at a lower altitude. So in that process, the body gets adapted to this higher altitude. So the next day they are able to go to an even higher altitude and then repeat the same process of acclimatization and they're able to actually adapt their body to an even aigher altitude. The same thing when they're climbing from the base camp to the summit, they're not going to go in a straight line.

3:57 Speaker 2: They go to camp one and then they get a admatized come back to the base camp, they go to Camp two, come back to base scamp, or so on and so forth till they are in a place where their body is ready to make the push to the summit. What I wanted to understand is in life, it doesn't make sense. My ultimate goal is to go to the summit. Why should I come down? Why am I going down? Why am I going to this level and coming down? Well, that is what is called as the process. We expect to just go directly to the top.

4:30 Speaker 2: But the process is if you try to go directly to the top, you will not be able to handle what comes at the height of your calling. You will not be able to handle the weight of your destiny. That's why the process involves you go into a certain altitude, coming down, adapting to it so that you'd be ready to go to an even higher altitude. See that's the way it has been designed. That's the way the process is. See even through the scripture. Let's look at the classic example of Joseph. He didn't go trade from the favorite son of his father to becoming the prime minister.

5:05 Speaker 2: What happened from this amazing mountain high moment where he is the favorite son of his father, he's going down to the pit. From the pit, he's going as a slave to a foreign land, to Potifar's house. And then what happens in Potifo's house. He eventually ends up becoming the leader. He is made in charge of the entire household of Fortifi. It's like, wow, a mountain movement. But what happens right after that is now thrown into the prison. He's going down again, and in the prison he gets the favor and he becomes the leader in the prison.

5:39 Speaker 2: But what happens again he's forgotten by the comparer and now he's in the prison for a long period of time. But long story made shot is eventually taken to the palace. So what I wanted to understand is when you look at Joseph's story, it's not a linear graft that takes him to the top. It's a craft that takes him up and then down, then coming here, going up and then down, being forgotten, and then again he's down and eventually at the unexpected moment, he's going up to the palace. So we expect to have a linear graph of life.

6:14 Speaker 2: The Lord wants to remind you that a parcel of your plan of God over your life includes moments when you go down. That's why the Bible says in Romans eight twenty eight that God makes all things work together for good. What does it mean when he says all things? It means there will be moments when you're going up and it looks great, it's awesome, it's exciting, and there will also be moments when you're going down, and that is also part of God's plan. That is also part of the process. Say I wanted to understand there are seasons in my life that were really not as easy as it should be.

6:50 Speaker 2: One of the classic examples, especially if we've been checking out my podcast for quite some time, I've shared this that last year was one of the hardest years in my life. There were so many attacks on my finances. There was a moment when I had a huge financial loss, and three months later there was an issue through which there was a mass layoff that happened in the organization, and I lost my job, and it looked like everything was going downhill. People were saying, Oh, maybe God is showing you something.

7:20 Speaker 2: Maybe all going wrong in the wrong direction. Maybe you made a mistake. God is punishing you. People said all sorts of things. But in the moment, I knew that God was leading me through it all. And can I tell you something. God gave me the grace to have the faith to hold on to Him, to hold on to his promises even through that. And right after two months after that, my health took on a toe. So yes, the thing it was like, one after another was going down from a time when I was actually thinking I was going up just before that incident.

7:54 Speaker 2: But here's the thing I want to understand in that process, the Lord started using me to get better and be more polished and bringing in more depth to the sermons, to develop my walk with Him in a deeper fashion. And I'm telling you the quality of the ministry, the production quality, and yeah, we are recording these podcasts at the studio. All of this happened in this period which looked like a downhill season. Can I tell you something, never neglect these downhill seasons, don't discount them, because those other seasons where God is going to keep you grounded, help you trust in Him more, depend on Him more, and that will prepare you to the next higher mountain that God has since toff for you.

8:39 Speaker 2: So right now you may feel like, oh my goodness, I just came to Camp one. I was expecting to go to Camp two. Now I'm going back to the base camp. Maybe God is just preparing you, and now we're going to be ready to not just go to Camp two, but to be ready to go to the summit. And I believe, decree and declare that if you're discouraged, if you're in a place where you're wondering whether you are really made a mistake, And that's why God is punishing you. I want you to be encouraged if with the minute you repent, God forgives and his plans for your life are not going to be withdrawn by just you making one wrong move.

9:14 Speaker 2: When you give your life into the hands of God, even those downward movements are actually God preparing you to take you to newer levels of the destiny that God has in store for you. I really hope you're blessed and encouraged by this word. Do leave a comment if you're checking this out on Facebook or YouTube. I also want you to share with this with someone so that they will be blessed and encouraged. And I will see you back very soon on the next segment. God bless you.

9:42 Speaker 1: You've been listening to Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta. We hope you were blessed and inspired to live the life that God has for you. Make sure to subscribe to the John gifted YouTube channel for regular uploads of sermons, skits, interviews, and more. Follow John Gifta on Instagram for regular inspirational posts, and don't forget to check out the best selling books written by John Gifta Who Am I which will help you understand your identity and the latest number one best seller Unveil Your Purpose, helping you discover your purpose and to start walking in it.

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