Never forget what happened to you in the cloud of God and the mountaintop experience. Don’t let it become a distant memory. Life off the mountain is only sustainable when you implement the change that took place there.
“As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” The disciples asked him, “Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?” Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist. (Matthew 17 v 9-13)
The scene changes. They are coming down the mountain with Jesus.
The voice is no longer speaking. The cloud has gone. Elijah and Moses have gone. The transfiguration of Jesus has gone.
The divine is replaced with the human.
Peter had wanted to stay there forever on the mountain. But they learn that mountains are to come down from as much as to go up.
They come down to instructions from Jesus.
They return trying to understand once again what Jesus is meaning.
They have their questions trying to reconcile what they have always been taught by man with what Jesus is revealing. They use the scriptures of Malachi where it states Elijah will come first then the Messiah. They now know Jesus is the Messiah but why hasn’t Elijah come first? Jesus reveals how John the Baptist was the Elijah of their generation.
They return to what they knew. They would soon team up with the others again.
But something has changed and it is them. They had been in the cloud. The cloud changes everything.
Your life may be described as having many questions, confusion, trying to understand the shape of it, how it is meant to be, what God is doing, this may be with you for your entire life. But remember, even though it is hard to describe, even if you are not meant to tell anyone, remember what you have experienced with God. Remember what happened on that mountain. You were in the cloud. It changed you. You came out of that different.
Missions Paul 