Walking Through Hell in a Hallway

The film industry depicts heroes as big and strong and bold, but in reality our heroes look less like Arnold Schwarzenegger and more like Rosa Parks.

Courage. Strength. Resilience. Honesty. Compassion. Perseverance. Selflessness. These are a few of the qualities that come to mind when we describe these folks we so admire. Do you realize that God has designed you to be a hero among your generation? It’s true, and it’s time for you to make your mark on the world. You can be the one who transforms your home, your neighborhood, your community, and even your nation. We are living in an hour when God is calling each of us to rise up and take our place, and I believe if we respond to Him individually and corporately, we will see the Church’s finest days ahead of us!

Next we will look at some personal and corporate adjustments we can make that will help us to navigate the extraordinary days that are upon us. We’ll address mindsets and choices and examine what it looks like when believers move and act as one unified body. Let’s be honest, we all want to be more. We want our lives to matter. Why? Because we’ve all been created for a greater purpose.

 Each of us is wired to be a hero—to leave a mark on the world, to do something great. This isn’t by accident. God has set eternity in our hearts. When He created you and me, He put in our hearts a sense of purpose within His divine plan. People like George Whitefield, William Seymour, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are prime examples of this. These men risked everything to raise a standard of righteousness over our nation—they are nothing short of heroes. God intends for us to live our lives in same way. You may not be a William Seymour or a Dr. King, but there is eternity in your heart; God has created you to be something great that the world is crying out for.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end (Ecclesiastes 3:11 AMPC).

Kids innately know they are made for greatness. This is why they put on capes made of towels and jump off the roof expecting to fly. Kids aren’t afraid to try. Maybe this is why Jesus was so excited to give them the Kingdom—He knew they were open to all the possibilities the Kingdom holds. What happens to us as we get older and “wiser” is that we don’t really get wiser at all. Sometimes we get discouraged and sometimes we get afraid. Past experiences hurt us and make us cynical. And a lot of times, we just stop trying.

 I think far too many Christians have been stuck in powerless lives because circumstances have beaten them up and they’ve just stopped believing and, consequently, stopped trying. Corporately, the effect of lives like this takes the shape of a cowering Church that doesn’t believe they have the ability to stand against the tides of the world and the enemy’s insidious agendas. But there is a way for us to move from where we are and into a place of power and childlike faith. The truth is, we are a powerful people and we can stop the advancement of the enemy in our land. We have to know who we are and exercise the authority that’s been entrusted to us.

There is always a battle going on for our thoughts. God knows that when we know who we are in Him, we are unstoppable. At the same time, the devil knows that as long as he can keep us believing we’re less than who we really are, we are no threat to his agenda. The truth is, how we behave is determined by what we believe. We will either stand or cower, based on who we think we are. Remember, we have to know how big we are!

 One way we move from a place of fear to a place of power is by holding on to God when life’s circumstances tempt us to quit. We have to know that He uses every painful trial we face for our good. I know it typically doesn’t seem like it when we’re in it, but it’s the truth. It’s time for us to change our perspective on hardship and difficulties. When we’re born again, we’re born into a war. If we think God puts us in difficult circumstances to harm us, we will never gain the strength we need to fight. But if we realize that He doesn’t necessarily send trials to us, but He does use them to shape us and to strengthen us, we will be able to stand strong in the face of every opposition. He has promised that He works all things for the good of those who are called according to His purpose (see Rom. 8:28).

Hell in the Hallway

A long time ago I heard someone say, “God never closes one door without opening another one. It’s just hell in the hallway.”

I, like most of us, can attest to the fact that sometimes the hallway feels like hell. I was married for 23 years and traveled the world in ministry, doing what many Christians see as glamorous and glorious. One day my world came crashing down when divorce entered the picture. I had to bear the responsibility for my part of this scenario. For a large part of our life together, we had been apart because I’d been traveling. I was gone all the time.

 Just prior to this, in 2003 and 2004 I had had a sense that God was stirring inside me. I could tell something was shifting, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I was thinking about starting a church. Maybe that’s what He had next for me. But suddenly the divorce papers arrived, and it didn’t take long to figure out that what God was doing in me ran much deeper than starting a church or a change in my ministry schedule.

Three months later I was divorced and sitting alone in a small apartment wondering what had happened. God was so silent that I thought I was going to shrivel up and disappear. I didn’t know which way was up anymore. I had been in ministry and now I was divorced. What should I do? What would people think of me? I needed God to show up and write on the empty wall of my apartment. Better yet, show up as a fire that burns but doesn’t consume my dining room chairs. But He didn’t. He stayed silent. For what seemed like an eternity.

I wasn’t wrong in what I had been sensing in my spirit—God was, in fact, doing something different with my life. The door to my previous ministry life had closed, and I could tell something else was opening up, but as I trudged through the season of being newly divorced, I was living through the “hell in the hallway.”

At some point, we all have to go through the “hell in the hallway.” It could be a death in the family, a financial disaster, a health issue, a job loss, or a host of other things that life throws our way. These are the times that try our souls, for sure. And sometimes it feels like these events bring lots of well-meaning people out of the woodwork who, like Job’s friends, are really no help at all. In fact, it can feel like they show up just to pour salt in your fresh wound. Think about it—if you lose your job, it’s really easy for all your friends (who still have jobs) to gather around and encourage you to “just live by faith.” But take heart. God knew how to get through to Job’s friends and He also knows how to speak to yours.

None of these adversities in “the hallway” are God’s plan for His children, but He uses them to mold and shape us so that we’re prepared to go through the next open door. When we look back on these seasons, we see that though they were excruciatingly painful, embarrassing, or ugly, they were also the times that we grew the most. I hated God’s silence during that season in my life. But somehow, by His grace, I eventually made it to the end of the hallway and there was an open door waiting for me.

Maybe you’ve already walked through a hellish hallway, or maybe you’re in one now. Either way, I want to offer you some encouragement. First, you’re not alone. Even though everything may feel turned upside down and you can’t make heads or tails of your situation, you are not alone. We all walk through painful and difficult seasons that we don’t understand. If we can quiet ourselves long enough to look closely, we can always find that God is at work as He walks alongside every single one of us in our hallways.

Second, you have to keep going. No one makes their home in a hallway. By its nature, it’s not a destination—it’s just a passageway from one place to the next. Of course, the enemy will tell you that you’re not going to make it. He’ll try to convince you that your life is over, your ministry is over, and there’s nothing left. Don’t buy into his hopelessness. Know that the God who opens doors and closes doors is also walking with you through the hallway.

 As we said, the hallway is a great training ground for the battlefield. Remember King David? I know he didn’t live in a hallway, but he had years of solitude in the desert caring for his sheep. And he didn’t start out as a king. God used David’s lonely years under the stars to shape him into the king that Israel would need. It was alone in the desert that he became skillful enough to kill the lion and the bear. And it was in the desert that God began to mold a worshiper’s heart after His own. I’m sure on some of those nights David wondered what his future would hold. I wonder if he ever imagined himself standing against a giant and killing him outright with the throw of one small stone, or running from a mad king to save his own life.

 As we know, David’s future was full of victory and grief, adventure and peril. And it was his training in “the hallway” (the desert) that prepared him for it all. Friend, don’t think for a moment that God doesn’t have a great future planned for you. Remember, the hallway is not meant to destroy you but to strengthen you. Though you may not see it, He is using everything that happens in the hallway to train you for greater days ahead. There are giants for you to slay and conquests to lead. There is a stamp of eternity on your heart, and He is committed to seeing you through to its fulfillment.

Saul’s Armor Won’t Fit You

When the challenge had been made to fight the giant, young David readily accepted while more experienced warriors turned away. Saul said what most of the others were probably thinking, “You’re too young to fight this battle.” Thankfully, David didn’t believe him and didn’t let Saul talk him out of the fight. Where did David get this kind of confidence?

But David said to Saul, “Your servant was tending his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a sheep from the flock, I went out after it and attacked it, and rescued the sheep from its mouth; and when it rose up against me, I grabbed it by its mane and struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.” And David said, “The Lord who saved me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, He will save me from the hand of this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:34-37 NASB).

David was well aware that it wasn’t his own strength that struck down the lion and the bear—it was God who had given him the victory.

So Saul said to David, “Go, and may the Lord be with you.” Then Saul clothed David with his military attire and put a bronze helmet on his head, and outfitted him with armor. And David strapped on his sword over his military attire and struggled at walking, for he had not trained with the armor (1 Samuel 17:37-39 NASB).

David was ready to face the giant head-on, so Saul did what he knew to do—he put his armor on David. After all, he was going to battle—he’d need armor, right? But Saul’s armor only did one thing for David—it made it hard for him to walk! This is such an important point for us as we face our own battles. The armor that our well-intentioned friends and others try to put on us just won’t work. Often the very things that others think will give us victory are the things that weigh us down the most.

So David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, because I have not trained with them.” And David took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook and put them in the shepherd’s bag which he had, that is, in his shepherd’s pouch, and his sling was in his hand; and he approached the Philistine (1 Samuel 17:39-40 NASB).

On the day David went out to face Goliath, he went out as the guy he was—not clothed in bulky armor that weighed him down but dressed like a shepherd and holding his sling and stones. They may not have seemed like much to anyone else, but David’s trust wasn’t in what was in his hands, it was in the One who had trained his hands for war and his fingers for battle (see Ps. 144:1).

David had been trained in the “hallway” and he’d passed with flying colors. This was not his first battle. David had a series of victories under his belt from the years he’d spent in the desert caring for his sheep. But on this day, in this battle, the young shepherd boy would become a hero to Israel. Because he’d come to trust the Lord to direct the stones from his sling, David saw the battle and ran toward it, not away from it like all the others who were there. He even went so far as to taunt this giant who physically towered over him. He knew that Goliath was larger than he was, but that he was no match for God.

Intimacy with God

David conquered Goliath because he knew who God was. He didn’t just know about God, he had developed a deep, intimate relationship with Him. One essential key to our intimacy with the Lord is our understanding of Holy Spirit. We have to cultivate a relationship with Him. He is not just the third member of the Trinity that we know is there but don’t really pay much attention to. He is our guiding light, our comforter; He instructs us and teaches us in the right way to go. As we are in a transitional season, we can’t afford to move forward into where God is taking us without knowing Holy Spirit!

Kenneth Copeland has said, “There’s no sin that exists that is bad enough to stop God from loving you.” Think about that for a minute. Intimacy has nothing to do with your performance! Knowing that you’re loved and will always be loved is the starting point.

 Jesus told us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Intimacy doesn’t happen because we “do” enough things for God; it doesn’t have to do with our works, but our availability. Are we available for relationship? Do we show up? If I were to come home every day and ignore my wife, what kind of relationship would we have? In the same way, if we don’t invest in our relationship with God, we will never get to know Him. Understanding and being intimate with God involves giving Him our time, not just giving Him our lists, but taking time to sit and listen and just be with Him. Relationship is always a two-way street, and the time we spend in the prayer closet is what equips us for everything else in life.

Along those same lines, we need to press in to have God’s heart. It’s easy to say we want to be in His presence, but having His heart is more than being in His presence. When we want God’s heart, we’re saying we want to love what He loves and hate what He hates; we want to know Him on a much deeper level. We want to understand Him and we’re willing to align the daily things we do in order to know more of His heart. This is what God meant  when he said David was a man after his own heart (see 1 Sam. 13:14).

It can be easy to want a shortcut to intimacy, but really there are no shortcuts. Sometimes we depend on someone else’s relationship with the Lord to give us what we need. We show up at church on Sunday wanting to be fed because we haven’t spent time with God on our own. Or maybe, rather than sitting at His feet, we go from conference to conference looking for one more prophetic word. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with prophetic words; I value the prophetic and I love and honor the prophets God has set among us. But the prophetic can never and will never replace our own intimacy with the Lord. Prophetic ministry should not be our lifeline—Holy Spirit alone is our lifeline!

When I worked with Benny Hinn, he spent a lot of time in worship. That’s where we entered into the secret place; he would never rush the Lord but would rest and be at peace with that connection. When he led everyone into that place corporately, the door was opened for people to encounter God at a deeper level. He was able to do this corporately because he lived it personally.

Kathryn Kuhlman once said to someone, “He’s more real to me than you are.” This is a perfect picture of intimacy with God. When the Lord is more real to us than anything we see going on around us, we are the most connected with His heart. When we are connected with His heart, we will find ourselves loving people because His compassion will naturally flow through us. The fruit of 1 Corinthians 13 will easily manifest in us as we spend time with God and are changed into His image. Otherwise, all our gifts are just noise to Him.

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

What Is Overflowing You?

Bill Johnson has said, “The fullness of the Holy Spirit is measured by what overflows you.” This means that whatever we are most aware of is what we’re going to emit to others. Have you ever been with someone who constantly talks about the health issues they’re dealing with? They talk about their health because their health is what they’re most aware of. I’m not saying it’s wrong to be honest about health concerns (or finances, relationships, etc.)—I’m saying that when we are consumed by these concerns and they dominate our conversation, something is out of balance. The other option for their conversation would look something like this: “By Jesus’ stripes, I was healed. Even though I have some health issues, Jesus paid the price for me and His Word says that He heals all my diseases.” I know it takes time for us to grow into this, and it’s more complex than this short description. But this is the reality of who we are in Christ, and we have to grow to the place where we are more aware of Jesus than we are of anything else. When we grow into this, we will talk more about the Lord as a natural overflow of what’s in our heart.

If I’m really aware of Holy Spirit, if I’m spending time in the Word and in prayer, my awareness of Him is greater than my awareness of my surroundings. This means that whatever is going on around me isn’t as great as what is going on within me! For example, you’re driving home after attending a powerful and anointed church service, and you’re so aware of what God did during the service that you’re not thinking about the drive, you’re not thinking about the news on the radio or anything else— you’re preoccupied with the Lord. You’re more aware of Him than being in the car, getting home, or what you’ll have for lunch. If we want to change our politics and the world around us, we’ve got to become more aware of who Holy Spirit is!

Now, I realize that we all lead busy lives and we don’t have countless hours alone with the Lord while we tend our sheep, like David did. There is a battle over our time. Electronic devices and a constant flood of information at our fingertips are major distractions to spending time alone with the Lord. But we must fight this battle first. Folks, we will never gain ground against the enemy of our souls apart from a deep and abiding intimacy with the Lord. And we can’t wait on a feeling. Investing in your relationship with the Lord is not about a feeling, it’s a simple decision.

Prayer is a conversation, and when you have this conversation, you are opening up a portal. As a believer, you have an open portal to the Father at all times! Unfortunately, most believers either don’t realize this or don’t take advantage of it. In America, we have a tendency to minimize this truth or assume that God is not paying attention to us. I think if we really understood the access we have to God and the power of our prayers, we would pray a lot more than we do! Jesus told us that every hair on our heads is numbered. Does this sound like God isn’t interested in the details of our lives?

When we intercede for another person, a situation, or our nation, we are putting ourselves in between God and whatever we’re interceding for. For example, if I pray for Ft. Worth, Texas, I pray for the city and ask the Lord what He wants to do there. As I take time to hear from Him, I get understanding of His heart and His plan for the city. We can take this one step further and pray in our heavenly language (tongues) and open up a powerful line of communication in the spirit realm. As we pray in heavenly language, we are truly praying the heart of the Father and we will not miss what He wants to do. And I encourage you to sing in tongues too. When you sing in tongues, you are touching the heart of the Father and worshiping Him at the same time!

Authority and Permission

When you look at the spiritual battle over our land, what is your response? Are you confident to run toward it, or is it easier to turn and run away? You may not realize it, but God has been training you. You are stronger than you know, and when you start from a place of intimacy like David did, you can run toward the Goliaths that raise themselves over every sector of society.

There are some things we can do personally that will strengthen us to be able to go out and do the things that God is awakening us to in this hour. First above everything else, we have to know that Jesus has given us authority—it takes us asking Him, to see His hand move. This is true in our personal lives and in our nation.

Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you (Luke 10:19 ESV).

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

The Bible can’t just be words on a page anymore. It has to become real to us to the point that it changes us. When we allow these truths to sink in, they give us the courage to silence the voices of our past and take a stand in the face of opposition.

William Booth once said, “I’m not waiting on a move of God, I am a move of God.” This is true for you, too. The first step to living it is believing it. You have all the authority that Jesus had—isn’t it time you started using it?

Sometimes all we need to take a step of radical faith is for someone to give us permission. Permission? Yes. Let’s be honest, most people go along with the crowd on any given issue or matter of behavior. We’ve seen this play out in a thousand different scenarios throughout history and during this past election and the pandemic. From the beginning of time, those who push back against the “norm” have often been publicly labeled as dissidents.

Tired of Giving In

On December 5, 1955, Rosa Parks received her label as “dissident” when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a public bus. In doing so, she gave thousands of others “permission” to push back against the evils of segregation.

As Parks later explained, “The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” Her unwillingness to relinquish that seat triggered in thousands of others the shared exhaustion of “giving in” and all of its contingent humiliations and sorrows.

Dedicated civil rights activist E.D. Nixon, who’d fought tirelessly for racial equality since the years of World War II, offered his help to Rosa and believed her case could be the key to defeating segregation in Alabama.

Nixon had hoped for years to find a courageous Black person of unquestioned honesty and integrity to become the plaintiff in a case that might become the test of the validity of segregation laws. Sitting in Parks’ home, Nixon convinced Parks—and her husband and mother— that Parks was that plaintiff.

Did you see that? One “courageous Black person of unquestioned honesty and integrity.” God used Rosa Parks because of her character more than simply the action she took. But her character, coupled with her willingness to stay in her seat that day, made her the perfect catalyst for overturning segregation laws. On that same night, December 5, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began. The spark that had been quietly burning inside of multitudes of people immediately burst into a collective flame. Thousands participated in the bus boycott, which lasted 381 days and ended with a Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional. During that time, many people were willing to walk “miles in inclement weather, or, worse, to be harassed on their way to work, school, or home.”

Like Rosa Parks, individuals with character and integrity who are willing to stand alone in a crowd are the ones who give “permission” to those of us who are fearfully less bold. Inside we want to do what they’re doing, but there’s a roadblock. Why won’t we stand up? Why won’t we let our voice be heard? We’re afraid of what others will think, and of what it will cost us. But as we see in this powerful story, once Rosa Parks gave her generation permission, they were willing to stand up and pay whatever price was required. Thousands of people participated in the bus boycott, choosing to forego the public bus and walk. They were harassed in all sorts of weather for over a year. And in the end, they won.

It’s Your Turn

You don’t have to wait to do what is in your heart. I give you permission to fully be the person God’s created you to be. You have permission to not stay stuck where you’ve been. You have permission to let God define you, not your past, or other people’s opinions, or the lies of the enemy. And you have permission to take off Saul’s armor and wear the garment God has made for you! In fact, may I activate you? I charge you to go out and be the catalyst for the move of God, wherever He places you and however He directs you.

I want to stir up your faith. It’s time for the hero inside you to come to the surface and do the things you think you’re afraid of. If there’s ever been a season when it’s “all hands on deck,” it’s now. God is not just looking for the pastors and the people who preach from the platform; He’s looking for you. You don’t have to sit in the boat. Your seat-warming days are over. Stand up, put your foot over the side, and believe that you can walk on water. If you keep your eyes on Jesus, there’s no telling what might happen.

We don’t need to be commissioned—we just need to be obedient! Jesus already commissioned us when He said, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:19-20).

Decisions, Decisions

We often underestimate the power of our decisions. If I want six-pack abs, that isn’t going to happen automatically. They’re not going to magically appear while I’m sitting on the couch watching TV with a bag of chips in my hand; I am going to have to decide to do the work. Our bodies are constantly changing physiologically, and in order to keep ourselves healthy, we have to make choices that promote health. In the same way, there is no pause in our spiritual lives.

Oral Roberts once said, “A miracle is either moving towards you or moving past you.” Along the same lines, Hebrews 2:1 says, “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away” (NKJV). There is no sitting still in the Kingdom of God. And whether we catch the miracle coming toward us or whether we get closer to the Lord or drift away is dependent upon our decisions.

Deciding to pursue the Lord more will take you to a whole new place in your relationship with Him. You can walk in authority and power by deciding to believe what the Bible says is true about you. All through our lives we encounter points of decision. We tend to focus on the big decisions of life—who to marry, which job to take, where to live, etc. But our life is more a product of the little day-to-day decisions we make.

 Here’s a great example of a small decision that moved me in the right direction. The TV show The Walking Dead used to be one that I really enjoyed. I watched it for a long time, while I was also watching shows about revival. I could tell that God was drawing me in the direction of revival, so when I started to feel a sense of conviction about watching The Walking Dead, I paid attention. I knew I wasn’t going to hell for watching the show, but I had to make a decision to stop watching it if I was going to be serious about going farther with the Lord. This was a point of decision for me, and I’m happy to report I chose to allow the Lord to burn off more of the chaff from my life in this way. Once I made the decision, I didn’t miss watching the show.

 I once asked Kenneth Copeland how people end up so far off from the mark they originally intended to hit. He replied, “If you get on the highway, you’ll see a sign that says Dallas: 30 miles. If you go down that road, you’ll end up in Dallas.” This is pretty straightforward thinking. If we’re on a road that’s leading us away from God, it’s time to turn around. This is especially true now, when we need to be more connected with Him than ever.

Here’s the big picture—we’re walking through a pretty intense “hell in the hallway” as a nation. At a glance, it can look like America as we’ve known it is over. This is a crucial time for all of us to evaluate the small decisions we are making. Let’s pay attention to the road signs that tell us where we’re headed individually and corporately. And let’s decide to believe God and go into all the world with the power and authority we’ve been given. There’s a nation just outside your door waiting for its heroes to arise.

I exhort you to hear the voice of God, obey Him, and be the one who turns the tide in your generation!