Re-naming Your Valley

Last night our church was blessed to hear the wonderful preaching of Brother Raymond Dupree from Morgantown, IN. I've heard Bro. Dupree preach many times and I always feel blessed to have heard God's word from such an amazing preacher.

Last night Bro. Dupree preached a message entitled "Re-naming Your Valley." It was a very powerful message and one that I won't soon forget.

He spoke of Psalm 23 in which the psalmist emphatically states that even though he is walking in the valley of the shadow of death, he still knows that the Lord is his shepherd, and that he will not want for anything. He knows he will continually be blessed because the Lord is with him to comfort and protect him. Because he knows the Lord is his guide through his valley, he is still giving God praise and glory. This was the statement in which the psalmist named his valley 'the shadow of death'.

Our valleys can have many names, and can be many different things. Some may be walking through the valley of 'addiction', the valley of 'marital crisis', the valley of 'financial dispair'. When we give God praise and glory even while we are in our valley, we can put our faith and trust in God knowing that He will deliver us. When we 're-name our valley', we are claiming by faith in Jesus' name that He is going to bring us out.

Bro. Dupree went on to encourage us by saying that even when we claim it in Jesus' name that we may not see immediate results. We have to keep pressing on with a belief that God will come through in our time of need. The story below depicts a woman who knew in her heart that God would bring her out of her valley and she never gave up hope.

A middle-aged woman walked into a Sunday night revival service at a United Pentecostal Church in the south. She had never been to an Apostolic church before, and having been confined to a wheelchair for the past eight years with no hope of healing in sight, her depression had brought her to a low point in life. She found her way to an altar of prayer during this uplifting revival meeting where she claimed her healing in Jesus' name....she had re-named her valley. This woman's valley of broken-ness had now become a valley of hope and trust in the Lord.

Although she had claimed her healing that night, she left the service still wheelchair bound. The woman didn't lose sight of the promise God had given her that first night and she told the preacher she would return the next night for her healing.

The woman returned the next night, and again she left the service in her wheelchair. Knowing the Lord would heal her in his own time, she vowed to return to service each and every night until the Lord healed her.

On the third night of revival the woman showed up with an entire pew filled with her family members, none of whom were serving God. When the altar call was given, the woman knew she would be able to make it to the altar...on her feet. She stood up on her own and took a small step, and then another, and then another until she had steadily walked all the way around the sanctuary. In the past eight years she had only taken a total of seven steps, and on this night she felt as if she could run a marathon.

The woman knew right away that God had only waited to perform this miraculous healing until her family could be there to witness her take her first walk around the sanctuary. That is faith!