“The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.”
Habakkuk 3:19

In 2003, I watched a documentary on architecture. It featured the construction of the Trump Tower, and the Willis Tower (also known as the Sears Tower or SkyDeck), and it’s been on my Bucket-list to visit ever since.

As a born-and-bred mountain goat, I’ve always experienced a sense of freedom in high places. It grants a vantage point from which you can see far, it’s a fresh perspective, and usually, getting to the top requires grit (or a high speed elevator). (Sidebar: city towers are neat, but they’ll never beat my love for the mountains!)

Standing on the thick SkyDeck glass, looking over Lake Michigan and Tiny Chicago beneath my feet, certainly ticked the boxes of my childhood imaginings. But, more than that, I realised how necessary it is to consider things from His perspective.

When I was a student (circa 2010), I’d walk around on campus with my eyes closed — practicing hearing the voice of Holy Spirit, and, quite literally, trusting Him to blindly lead me.

Did I walk into things? Yes. Multiple times.
Did I fall down steps? Yes. Multiple times.
Did I learn how to trust His voice? UNDENIABLY, YES.

Habakkuk 3:19 says, “The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.”

As I’m stepping into a new season, I’m drawn back to those high places, trusting Him to guide my feet, to boldly follow His voice, and to look at things from His perspective.

As we March on (so sorry), may that be our perspective.
May we have the courage to venture out into mountain goat territory.
May we look at life here on earth from His perspective (even if we have to take the elevator to get there).

#runwildlivefree

We hear a lot about Kathryn Kuhlmann and Maria Woodworth-Etter, but there also was a black woman that God had his hands mightily upon named Elder Lucy! Her ministry is a legacy of hope and dreams come true!

Lucy Turner-Smith, also known as Elder Lucy Smith, was the first black woman to build and pastor a megachurch, in Chicago, called All Nations Pentecostal Church. She saw an estimated 200,000 miracles and healing in her ministry.

The most significant encouragement from Elder Lucy Smith was, “just be yourself.”

Lucy was known to have little regard for proper grammar and never tried to be oratorical. She would talk calmly and move around as she preached or ministered, but when she prayed for the sick, all manners of sickness and disease would be healed.

Lucy was born on 14 January 1875 in Woodstock, Georgia, and her birth name was Lucinda Madden. She was born in a little one-room log cabin, where she and 5 siblings were raised by their single mother. Lucy gave her life to the Lord when she was 12 and went to school for the first time when she turned 13. She went on to marry and have nine children, but her husband left them, and she decided to move to Chicago in 1910.

After being in the city for a couple of years, Elder Lucy joined a predominantly white Pentecostal church called Stone Church. It was known for its incredible healing services. The most well-known divine healing ministers of the time regularly ministered there: William Seymour, Smith Wigglesworth, John G. Lake, and Maria Woodworth-Etter. In this atmosphere of miracles, Lucy received her unique calling into the divine healing ministry.

Lucy began a one-room prayer meeting in her own house with only two people. The size of the meeting grew fast, as many were being healed and baptized with the Holy Ghost. Three years later, they moved out to a larger facility. After 10 years, in 1926, she built a $65,000 church (equivalent to one million dollars today). By the 1930s, the church had nearly 5,000 members. Lucy said that the healing services were the reason for such growth.

The healing services at All Nations Pentecostal Church were phenomenal. Elder Lucy Smith would hold healing services three times a week. The deaf, the blind, the crippled, the lame, stroke victims, and those with goitres and cancers were healed weekly. The church basement was decorated with crutches and canes that were left behind by those who were healed. Lucy travelled across Illinois and abroad, taking God’s healing power and seeing several hundred healed and saved. She was popular with people of all classes and colours who would come from near and far.

God spoke to Lucy and told her to broadcast the services over the radio. This broadcast became known as The Glorious Church of the Air radio program in 1933. It was the first LIVE service to be broadcast from a black church. She received letters from all over the country, telling how people had been healed as she prayed. The radio program also helped fund the tremendous charity work the church did. They fed thousands of people during the Great Depression and provided food and clothing to black families in the city.

Lucy Smith is a primary example of what tremendous exploits God can do with a simple, yielded vessel. She didn’t try to be more than she was. She knew what she was called to, and she stuck to it. Lucy died on 18 June 1952, and over 60,000 people came to show their respects. It was the largest funeral in Chicago history.

God uses those who are available and obedient. He qualifies them for their calling with HIS ANOINTING!