Living High – Altitude Transforms Attitude!
Living High – Altitude Transforms Attitude!

Living High – Altitude Transforms Attitude!

My sister, Julie, and I standing next to Dad’s Piper Tri-Pacer where it was tied down in the landing strip below our house (1963).

I can assure you that everything looks different when you are “high” – a few thousand feet high to be specific. Altitude definitely changes our attitude. To prove my point, allow me to reminisce from my childhood….

[Note: You can listen to this message online on our family website or on our iTunes podcast where you can also subscribe to receive regular podcast updates.
Disclaimer: Not responsible for anyone who may actually become too “heavenly-minded” to be any earthly good! Remember, God is far more concerned about our attitude and earthly relationships than we could ever imagine! When we are rightly related to Him and rightly adjusted to His purpose, EVERYTHING in our life will become properly balanced. (See Mat 6:33 & Rom 8:28.)]

Flying “High.” Among my fondest memories were plane rides Dad would take us on. Dad had a love for flying and owned several planes during his lifetime. The two planes I remember most were a Piper Tri-Pacer and a Cessna 180 which we called the “Yellow Buzzard.”

This is me standing on the tail wing of one of Dad’s first planes. You can see the house Dad built on the house behind the air strip.

Whenever Dad announced we were going flying, excitement filled the house. Our house was on a hill overlooking a grass landing strip where our plane was tied down. We would pack up what few things we needed, run down the hill and jump into the plane. Once we were buckled in, Dad would begin prepping the plane. I clearly remember the whirring sound as all the instrument panel gauges sprung to life. Then Dad would yell out the window, “Clear!” – a final warning to anyone nearby. He started the engine, the propeller spun, and at first it felt like that lightweight plane was going to shake itself to pieces. Soon things smoothed out and we began to roll forward.

Dad refinishing and repainting his Tri-Pacer in our garage during the winter months (1965).

We then taxied to the northern part of the landing strip. Dad checked the instrument panel once again, then he pushed in the throttle and the plane lunged forward and began dashing, bumping, and bouncing down that grassy highway.

Then came the magical moment when the wheels left the ground and the plane began its ascent. Higher and higher we climbed. Mom was the official navigator. She mapped out our trips and had all the lines drawn out on the map. As we flew, she would use landmarks to pinpoint our location on the map.

Dad standing proudly next to his newly finished Tri-Pacer (1965).

Sometimes, just for fun, Dad would “buzz the strip.” This meant descending toward the landing strip, but instead of landing, he would keep up his speed and maintain a very close distance to the ground. Then, right as the landing strip ended, he pulled back on the yoke and up we shot in what, to my sisters and I, felt like a completely vertical climb. Our stomachs were left way down on the ground. Once we reached the peak of our climb, Dad would then ease in on the steering yoke, the nose of the plane slowly tilted over and down and then we entered into a kind of free-fall descent. At that drastic shift in direction, our stomachs (which were still catching up with our bodies) were determined to continue upward as we went downward. Eventually Dad would level off and our stomachs and bodies were finally united. Whew! I’ve been on a lot of extreme roller coasters since then, but nothing has ever even come close to Dad’s sky rides!

My most vivid memory of flying has always been the view as we flew around our county. Seeing familiar locations from this new perspective always fascinated me. It was so completely awesome to look down and see our house in the country as a tiny little Monopoly play piece on a hill far below. From that altitude, everything looked so neat and organized. The neighboring farmlands became perfectly sown patches of quilt-work stretched out upon the valleys and hills. In the autumn, changing leaves would cause the forests to burst into colorful displays that words could never describe. What a beautiful sight! There is no doubt about it, things definitely look different when you are high!

This is the Cessna 180 – Dad’s “Yellow Buzzard” – getting ready for take-off (1968).
This is the Cessna 180 – Dad’s “Yellow Buzzard” – getting ready for take-off (1968).

Revelation of God’s Altitude. Okay… I’m back from the past. Thanks for allowing me to reminisce. I do believe, though, that there is a wonderful application for our lives as believers. Let me start with this: There is no one who knows all about altitude like our heavenly Father! He is the Most High God. Take a few moments and use your imagination to grasp just a little bit of the magnificent view that He has from where He sits!

From God’s Heavenly Throne perspective, He sees things in ways we could never imagine.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:8-9 NASB
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Being omnipresent (everywhere at the same time!) and omniscient (knowing everything there is to know!), God has an altitude of perspective which is definitely mind-boggling. But consider this: in Isaiah 57:15 we read that God “inhabits eternity”. He knows the end from the beginning! This adds another truly marvelous dimension to His perspective! He sees and knows everything in the present moment and, at the same time, in all future and past moments! As the old hymn goes, “I know Who holds the future and I know Who holds my hand.” The Psalmist made a very unique observation about God:

“He who *sits in the heavens laughs…”
(Psalms 2:4 NASB / *margin: “is enthroned”).

Knowing that God is the Most High God in both time and space provides firm ground for trusting Him through the maze of life. As God’s children, we can find great comfort in this revelation. When God speaks, we can rest assured that His Word is as good as – and far better than – gold. He knows exactly what He is talking about. When He sent His Son, Jesus, to be the Savior of the world, it is because it is exactly what we needed. When He says that He is the Author and Finisher of our faith, we can be sure He will finish what He started. When He says that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, then it would probably be a wise and healthy thing for us to do just that – to acknowledge Him as Lord in every area of our lives! Yes, recognizing God’s altitude can definitely change our attitude!

At lower altitudes, “we can't see the forest for the trees.”
At lower altitudes, “we can’t see the forest for the trees.”

In the midst of the tangled mess of roots, brush, and trees of life’s twisted situations, it’s impossible to even realize that we are in a forest! As the old adage goes, “We can’t see the forest for the trees.” But “He who sits in the heavens laughs” as He sees everything all laid out neatly and all perfectly organized just as obviously as I viewed those farmland “quilts” from the window of Dad’s plane. No wonder He can sit back and lovingly laugh, knowing all that He knows and seeing all that He sees!

While writing this article, I came across a verse that really blessed me. It is the chapter in Proverbs that talks about the virtuous woman. Apparently, one characteristic of a virtuous woman is that she, too, has a high-altitude vision of life and can laugh at the future:

“Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come” (Pro 31:25 ESV).
“Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future” (Pro 31:25 NASB).

Experiencing the “High”. Knowing this truth is good, yet amazingly, our Heavenly Father offers something to us that is a whole upgrade better: our own personal “high”! You see, it is one thing to be on the ground watching Dad flying high, but something quite different to sit in that plane with him! It is one thing to know our Heavenly Father lives high, but another thing entirely to live high with Him!
How is this possible? Here is what the Bible says:

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

Ephesians 2:4-6 NASB

“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.”

Colossians 3:1-2 NASB

Now these Scriptures are powerful, but they must be experienced, and not tucked away in our Bible Study notebooks! Far too often we Christians mistake knowledge for real experience, and we become satisfied and even somewhat proud about that knowledge. Then when reality hits, knowledge evaporates, leaving us empty and frustrated. It’s one thing to know “doctrinally” that the believer is seated in “heavenly places with Christ,” but quite another to experience life at that higher altitude. In fact, trying to live high by ourselves is downright impossible – no matter how much we study the “doctrinal theory”!

But Hallelujah! God is passionate about making the impossible possible! He has made it possible for us to climb aboard His plane and fly with Him! We can laugh together with Him regardless of the future that may seem so overcast with clouds of doubt and doom. Our Heavenly Father wants us to live with abundant joy far above our circumstances and He has provided something wonderful for us. This is what Jesus was referring to when He told His disciples that they needed to wait for the “Helper”:

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

John 14:26 NASB

The Power of “High” Within Us. The Holy Spirit – the Third Person of the Trinity – has been sent to dwell within the believer through what Jesus referred to as the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. He comes to dwell within us for this very purpose: to teach us, to bring God’s Word to our remembrance, to imprint that Word upon us, and then to cause us to rise out of theory into living experiences!

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be IN you.”

John 14:20-21 NASB

Paul prayed that the Ephesians’ spiritual eyes would be enlightened to know the “surpassing greatness of power toward us who believe” (Eph 1:19-21) – the same power which raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in heavenly places “far above all rule and authority.” Paul explained that the resurrection power which “works within us” (Eph 3:20) is a Person. That Person is the Holy Spirit! This is most definitely a major upgrade far above and beyond doctrinal theory!
The Holy Spirit longs to lift us into a “high” – a real “high” in the truest sense of that misused word! Maybe this is what David the Psalmist was singing about:

“So I said, Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest” (Psalm 56:6 NKJV).

Paul exhorted the Ephesians that being “filled with the Spirit” was a “high” so much more excellent than wine could ever give:

“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but ever be filled and stimulated with the Holy Spirit” (Eph 5:18 Amplified).

Then Paul went on to explain to the Ephesians how to get that “high” and how to be filled with the Holy Spirit:

“Speak out to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, offering praise with voices [and instruments] and making melody with all your heart to the Lord.”

Ephesians 5:19 Amplified
worshipping

Praising, worshipping, singing, and making melody with our heart to the Lord – all of this enables us to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Paul also mentions “spiritual songs.” This special term, “spiritual songs,” is definitely not referring to singing from our favorite hymn book. The two Greek words Paul uses for “spiritual songs” are “pneumatikos” and “ode”. An “ode” we understand in English as a lyrical poem Intended for singing. “Pneumatikos” is the very same Greek word Paul used when referring to the nine “spiritual gifts” (1 Cor 12:1) and it refers to something non-carnal, divinely supernatural, and that which is of the Spirit (“pneuma”).

When Paul uses the expression, “spiritual songs,” he is referring to “singing in the spirit” which means singing in “tongues” – the gift of a prayer language which God makes available to all His children who are infilled by the Holy Spirit. What a fantastic gift! The gift of a prayer language is just for speaking to God: “For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries” (1 Cor 14:2 NASB). Paul tells us that we can sing in this language also:

“What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding” (1 Cor 14:15 NKJV).

Pulling it altogether, we understand that Paul was teaching the Corinthians that the supernatural ability to sing and pray in “tongues” is an extremely awesome gift and tool which God has given for us to use for becoming spiritually “high” by getting “filled with the Holy Spirit”!

Paul definitely knew what he was talking about! With all the persecution and suffering he went through (read 2 Cor 6:4-10 and 2 Cor 11:23-33), he always came out as “more than a conqueror” (Rom 8:37-39). Paul lived so “high” that, for him, eternity overshadowed this life. Listen to how he talks:

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 NKJV

One of the fruits of the Spirit is joy. Joy is a fruit which the world around us truly needs to see in our lives in these dark and uncertain times. Supernatural joy will abound to overflowing in our life when we learn to live at higher altitude by the Holy Spirit. Note also how Paul describes his passion for keeping his joy-levels high – even to the very end:

“But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race WITH JOY, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God.”

Acts 20:24 NKJV

If anyone knew how to stay “high” in the Spirit, it was definitely the Apostle Paul! Knowing all the suffering he would be facing and the importance of his ministry to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15-16), he desperately needed to keep himself edified and charged up:

“The one who speaks in a tongue *builds up himself…”
(1 Cor 14:4 ESV / *“builds up” can also be translated as
“to construct a building; to edify; to strengthen; to charge up; and to embolden.”)

Paul clearly understood the benefits of speaking in tongues. That is why he so boldly exhorted the Corinthians to follow his example:

“Now I want you ALL to speak in tongues…” (1 Cor 14:5).

Then he went on to make an awesome declaration:

“I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all.” (1 Cor 14:18 NKJV).

By the way, this single verse of Paul’s declaration totally destroys many of the arguments that people make against speaking in tongues as a regular practice. I plan on posting another blog to teach on 1 Cor 14:18 in order to provide new light for those with such arguments, but the question I ask myself is, “Why would anyone in their right mind ever want to argue against such a beneficial gift that God has purposefully made available for all of His children – a gift that so many of God’s children all over the world have already experienced ever since that first day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4)?”

There are many theories and arguments out there (and on the internet) against speaking in tongues. But, as they say, “A man with a theory is always subject to a man with an experience.” And this is especially true when that experience so easily lines up with Scripture.

I remember a close friend of mine who argued vehemently with me against the gift of speaking in tongues. He was the lead singer and musician of a Christian music band he had formed in which I, too, I was a member. He had some very strong reasoning and logic behind his arguments and for a while, I thought our friendship would be jeopardized. Little did I know that his wife was secretly seeking God concerning this experience. One day while he was praying and seeking God together his wife, God baptized them in the Holy Spirit and to their great surprise, they both began speaking in tongues! Obviously, that was the last time my friend ever argued with me about the gift of tongues. In fact, our music practices were totally transformed. We practiced as usual, but when we finished a set of songs, we would then spend a good amount of time just singing in tongues – “spiritual songs”! Hallelujah!

Personally, I have been immensely blessed by this prayer-gift of speaking in tongues. The pastor who was mentoring me shortly after I had been born again took time to teach me from God’s Word about the purpose of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and also about the benefits of speaking in tongues. On the same day that I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, this pastor gathered a small group of us together and we spent several hours just praying in tongues. We also sang new melodies in tongues. In fact, we even sang in tongues to the tune of Amazing Grace! What a “high” that was!

That was in 1976, 45 years ago, and speaking in tongues has never stopped being a very regular part of my life. I sing and shout praises in tongues while driving my car, singing in the shower, holding hands with my wife in our devotional times, or with my family in our church for Sunday morning worship service. When I was in India, I had no difficulty singing along with the precious Christians there. I had no idea what they were singing about in their language, but I could sing in tongues right along with them! What a blessing!

During times of “Intense Fellowship” (arguments) we encourage husbands and wives to hold hands and pray in tongues together until they get spiritually “high” enough to be able to see their situation the way God does.[/caption]

The practical benefits of being filled with the Holy Spirit and getting spiritually “high” on loving Jesus by praying and singing in tongues are endless! My wife and I taught a course that we called “Marriage Discipleship”. In one of the lessons, we taught a wonderful plan for “argument management.” During “intense fellowship” times (our code-word for arguments), emotions are running red-hot and the intellect gets clouded up. As important as prayer would be at such times, it is clearly obvious that for either spouse to pray anything even remotely meaningful with their understanding muddied up with emotions would be extremely difficult. Realizing this, we always counsel the couples to purposely hold hands and pray in tongues together until they get spiritually “high” enough to be able to see their situation the way God does.


So there it is! That airplane ride you always wanted (and probably, like me, need right now) is ready and waiting on the landing strip for you! When life down here gets all tangled up, we can just hop into our Heavenly Father’s airplane. We can become as “high” as we want – getting filled with the Holy Spirit by praising, worshipping, and especially by praying and singing in tongues and letting those “rivers of living waters” (John 7:38-39) run clear and clean from our belly within!“…a higher plane than I have found / Lord, plant my feet on higher ground!”

There is an old hymn that expresses my prayer:

Lord, lift me up and make me stand
By faith on Heaven’s Table Land;
A higher plane than I have found;
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground!


Lord, we want to enjoy life as “more than a conqueror,” living “high” and laughing together with You in the joy of the Holy Spirit. Thank You for the infilling and uplifting resurrection life of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us through the wonderful Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Jesus, please remind us every moment of every day to edify and charge ourselves up by praying and singing in tongues. We are so grateful that You have placed inside our innermost being the ability to change our attitude by changing our altitude. Dear Lord, we realize that we desperately need to be continually charged up, not merely for our sake, but also for the sake of all those precious souls You have placed around us! Thank You so much for enabling us live a “high” life that will attract others to You.

Amen.


Additional Note. If you have not experienced the blessedness of speaking and singing in tongues, you can experience it today! Jesus said that every born-again child of God can simply ask their Heavenly Father. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is the “promise of the Father” and the Father will never turn His children down when they come to Him. Read Luke 11:13; Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5; Acts 2:1-4; Acts 2:38-39; Acts 10:44-48; 19:1-6; 1 Cor 14:3-4. You can also read more about the Baptism in the Holy Spirit here: “Baptism in the Holy Spirit – What Is It?”.

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