Do you remember when I said that there must be a lesson in all the mess I went through last week? Well, there definitely was one. Here’s what happened…

The morning after I wrote that blog, I watched a sermon by Tavner Smith called “The Detour is for Your Destiny”. In the sermon, he talked about Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt and into the wilderness. This is the excerpt from the part of the message that hit me in my core…

When they got out, they had three options. And in their limited perspective, they didn’t see the big picture. All they saw was the immediate options. We can go left and it’s short. ‘Let’s go!’ But they didn’t because God knew this… “If you go left, it is the shortest route, but it’s also the route through Philistine territory. They hate you. In this moment, you think Pharaoh’s for you, but once you leave, he’s gonna change his mind and he’s gonna chase you. And if I let you go left, two days from now, you’re going to find yourself in a position where there’s an enemy in front of you that hates you and there’s an enemy behind you that hates you and you don’t have what it takes to overcome both of them. So I love you enough not to put you in that position, even though it’s the shortest.”

“And you could go straight because there’s the least obstacles. But here’s what I see that you don’t see because I’m at a higher place.” God’s saying, “If I let you go through that place with no obstacles, the enemy that’s about to chase you will also have no obstacles. Which means the rest of your life they will always be in your past haunting you every where you go.”

“And I know it don’t make sense to go to the right, because when you get there you’re gonna feel trapped by a Red Sea. But I need you to go to the right. Cuz what you don’t know is I’m gonna part that sucker, I’m gonna dry the ground on that thing, I’m gonna let you walk across and they’re gonna follow you right in the middle of it. And at the end of the day, when you step back and see the picture, you will see that the longest route that seemed the most complicated was the only one that would eliminate your past from behind you, so it could never chase you into another season of your life.”

I. NEEDED. TO. HEAR. THIS.

I don’t think I realized that I have been in a wilderness season. Probably because it’s been more spiritual than physical. My spirit was trying to be freed from a slavery of some kind and it had three options…

The Shortest Route, which could have gotten me to my goal quicker, but likely with a lot more pain and scarring, if I would even make it out alive.

The Easiest Route, which could have looked like peace was straight ahead, but it wasn’t real peace. It was an imitation of the real thing. So all the problems I was running from would have followed me into my place of “freedom”.

The Longest Route, which could feel like it might take forever and still have some pain up ahead, but it would give me the chance to look back and see the bondage that’s keep me from being free. It will allow me to get far enough ahead of my enemy so that when it gets closer and tries to attack, I can look it in the eye and say “Good-bye!” instead.

Part of what happened to me last week was how the situation I found myself in reminded me so much of my past. In this part of my past were a lot of wounds. Wounds that I had not yet dealt with, which I guess indicates that at some point my spirit decided to take the easiest route. So, guess what? I dealt with them that morning.

I allowed my spirit to take a detour via that would take me to the longest route. What did the detour look like? Time with Jesus.

I took some time to get alone with Jesus and allowed Him to walk me through everything. He showed me how the people in my present represented the people in my past. He showed me how the spirits and demons that were operating back then were manifesting themselves now. So, naturally, I asked Him why, because that part of my past was from before I knew Him.

This is what He told me… “I needed you to face those demons again, because you didn’t know you were still being held back by things from your past. I needed you to face them, knowing this time I was beside you, so that from now on when they try to take you down again, when they try to steal your joy and peace again, when they try to destroy who I created you to be again, you will know them by name and know how to take them down!”

The Longest Route. It looks bad, but… it destroys your enemies. It prepares you for battle. It allows you to stop seeing the people in your life as though they are the demons from your past. It frees you.

One last thing… I took a vacation last year to the West Coast. My niece and I started in Portland, Oregon and I knew I needed a coffee mug souvenir from every place we went. We didn’t spend a lot of time in Portland, but I still wanted a mug. But since we didn’t really go anywhere special, I was limited to where I could find a mug. I settled for getting one from a grocery store that we stopped at to get food for the road trip we were about to embark on. There was one mug that I was really drawn to, but I wasn’t sure why. It spoke to me. Now, though… it makes perfect sense.