Traveling Light Stepping In Power

by Pastor Gina

So, how many of us know the joys and the woes of packing for a trip? Yeah, that's right. Whether you're packing single or whether you're just like that crazy person who's like, “Ah, let's have six kids and let's see what it's like when you have to pack for them.”

Take a moment and ask yourself, what is the most important item you don't want to forget? I'm going to give you two choices and I'm going to leave you the third one as other. But I want you to read all three before you decide. All right?

A change of underwear would be number one. You're going on a trip, you know, whether it's two days or two weeks or two months. Hey, a change of underwear. You know, I've never really understood why people call not having underwear going commando because I don't think a lot of people feel empowered when they're not wearing underwear. Well, we are in a university town. Maybe some people feel more empowered going commando.

Number two, a toothbrush. How important is that toothbrush?

And number three, if it's something else to you. What is that something else? Money? Medication? It could be anything.

Well, I am an over-packer. You know, my kids, we might go to see Isabella for one night and I want them to bring three pairs of underwear. And they're like, “I'm not going to shower until morning. I only need one.” I'm like, “I don't care. Stick one in your back pack, stick one in your suitcase, throw one in your pocket.”

And it's funny because, my dad, he was a Boy Scout leader and I did do ROTC, and I've never run into a time of not having these things I need, yet I've managed to give myself a false fear that it's going to be the first time I don't overpack where I'm going to forget something. You know, the things that I do forget never seem to be those essentials. It seems to be that odd item that I was bringing for whatever reason.

Today as we go into the scripture, we're going to talk about Jesus sending out his disciples. And as he sends out his 72, he gave them some beautiful instructions for going on their journey. It's not just about sending them out to new places and new lands and saying here are some things to consider. The directions he gives them are great Spiritual lessons for us in our journey of unfoldment through life.

In Luke chapter 10, verses 1 through 11 and 16 through 20.

10 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two^[a] others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. ² He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. ³ Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. ⁴ Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

⁵ “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ ⁶ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. ⁷ Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

⁸ “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. ⁹ Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ ¹⁰ But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ¹¹ ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’

¹⁶ “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

¹⁷ The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

¹⁸ He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. ¹⁹ I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. ²⁰ However, do not rejoice that the Spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

And so as we break this down piece by piece, as I was saying, this is not just some ancient disciplines that Jesus is giving to his disciples. This is a great model of how we can move through life in freedom, in focus, as we spoke about last week, and being in step with the Holy Spirit.

So, the first directive that he gives is he sent them out two by two.

One of the strongest messages that I found in representing not only a relationship of two by two, but our relationship with another and with the Spirit, comes from Ecclesiastes. And it really fits the purpose of you're not meant to do life alone. It says,

Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.

If either one of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.

But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

It's interesting because there are a lot of things that we can do on our own. But we see from the very first example with the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that there is something to community. There is something to having a person and persons that we can call our person, that we can lean on, that we can navigate this journey with.

As we fall, they're there to help us up. As we encounter something that might be new or challenging, we don't have to face it alone. And even in those moments where we may feel like we are on our own, we are never alone because we're never without Spirit. The truth of the matter is, is if we really recognize our roles of loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself, there should be no one who is going it alone.

As we see people out there, perhaps it's the same person we've seen sitting in the same spot, be it at the park, be it at morning coffee at a McDonald's or a Burger King. Perhaps it's just an individual that we know doesn't have a lot of family anymore, doesn't have a lot of people checking in and keeping up with them. This may be the individual who is looking for someone to be that other, is looking for someone, now that they are in a different stage of their life, to remind them that we don't have to do this journey of unfoldment on our own.

We always have Spirit, but even more so, we have the projection of Spirit in one another. We have the extension of Spirit in one another. So ask yourself, who are you walking with? It's like when you're young, you're a kid or a teenager, you might get a lesson or two on who you keep company with. And really, those things should continue throughout life.

As Jesus is sending them out two by two, there's that meaning of not having to do it all on your own, but also recognizing that when you link yourself with someone who is strong in their Spiritual understanding and the remembrance of their self and their relationship to God, then you have yourself a partner to walk through this journey with. Who are you walking with? And are you walking in shared purpose?

And if you're not, is this a time to consider what our shared purpose is? And I mean that in the highest meaning possible. How can we best lock arms and serve God?

Another example of two is a beautiful congregation and a minister. As your minister, I should never walk alone. As a congregation member, you should never walk alone. Together we are fulfilling the purpose that God gave us.

Another thing that Jesus says as we continue on in verse four, he says, “Do not take a bag.”

And this is kind of where we started, right? And what do we pack? What do we need to pack? How many things are we carrying around that we no longer need to carry around? Jesus is simply saying, simplicity. He's telling you that you do not need to carry around things that aren't essential. How many of us carry around fear, people pleasing?

How many of us have a lot of Spiritual baggage, which we should never look at parts of our Spiritual life as some kind of burdening baggage, but in the path of discipleship, we tend to do that. We tend to carry emotional baggage. We tend to have unspoken fears and doubts that we carry along with us. We tend to carry around past disappointments, places where we're keeping record, where people have failed us or we've failed them.

We even carry around religious habits that are no longer serving us. And Jesus isn't just teaching them how to go into these new towns and take what's offered to you. He's teaching them how to go forward unencumbered and fully alive in Spirit.

He's teaching them how to have a level of trust that when a moment comes, your provision will be there from God. Your provision will be there from Spirit. Your provision will be there within yourself because everything you need, God has provided within you and the means to see it externally.

If it is a need, such as food, such as clothing, such as medical care, those ways are there, but first we have to identify that all that provision is inside of us. Sometimes we continue to pack heavy because we are fearful. We hold onto things and say, “What if I let this go and need it later?” How many people have stored clothes and other random items in your homes, in your closets, in your garages, in your spare vehicle trunks that are parked down the driveway because you're like, “I might just need it later?”

So, as a 46-year-old young woman, I'm going to say, “I don't want to clean up, mom and dad, when you all transition on, okay?” So, for all of you who are still storing the things you don't need to store, I want you to look at them and ask, “Would I have liked it if those who went before me left me all this to clean up?” And some of you already know it because some of you have already had to do it for others.

Well, you know, that's kind of the same thing with our Spiritual baggage. If we don't take the time to really dive into the root, just know that that baggage affects those around you. Ask yourself, “What is causing me this fear? What is causing me this separation? Why do I still carry this past disappointment when that was 10, 20, 30 years ago, and now I am in a place of reconciliation?” Because as you walk around, encumbered by fears and disappointments and places where you see yourself falling short, consider what you are spreading to your relationships now, your friendships now. As you're walking that journey with your partner, what is it you're carrying around that's a weight on them as well? It says in Hebrews 12:1, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles. Ask yourself that question, “What am I carrying with me that Jesus never asked me to bring along?” We'll be amazed what it reveals to us.

When we get to verses 5 through 7, Jesus is basically saying if you find peace, then stay there. And you know, sometimes we enter into a place and we listen for peace and we feel the peace and we experience the peace, but some of us are really good at self-sabotage.

Some of us are finding such a peaceful experience that it seems too good to be true. It's something unlike we've ever experienced before. And so, because of that, we keep looking for what's going to go wrong here.

But I'm telling you, if you find that peace, that biblical peace that surpasses all understanding, that peace that occurs not because you know exactly how it's going to come together or you know exactly where it's going to come from, if you find that internal deep peace that cannot be challenged or taken away from anything outside of yourself, stay there.  Remember that message from a while ago where we say if you release the how, the how will reveal itself. Sometimes people like to associate peace with a direction of a feeling.

It's how I'm feeling. I feel peaceful. Oh, this is really stressful. I don't feel at peace.

But if we go deeper and recognize that peace is something internal, instilled in all of us, and it's really at the foundation of our faith, if we just clear away the clutter and the noise and experience it. If you are going off the internal signal of peace, then you will feel that ability to settle in wherever you are.

But don't force it. Because if you're in a place and you continue to feel this internal unrest, then I encourage you not to step away and take that 30,000-foot view of “What am I seeing here? What is being displayed in front of me?” Look at yourself and say, “Why is someone else or something else causing me this unrest? How can I reclaim my peace?” Recognize that if something external doesn't allow you peace, then it's OK to let it go.

But if you step into something and you feel that peace meter really shoot up, then stay a while and allow yourself to really experience that depth of peace that you are meant to offer first to yourself and then to others.

In verses 10 through 11, he says, “Shake the dust.”

It's really interesting because a lot of times when we move on from a ministry location, from something that we were called to do, we might feel that the mission work that we're partaking of is being rejected. But that's not true. Moving on and being rejected doesn't necessarily thwart your mission.

He says, if anyone welcomes you and listen to your words, stay. But if they do not welcome you, then to leave that town and shake the dust off your feet.

Why does Jesus say that? Why does he go the extra step to tell his disciples to shake the dust off their feet? Well, I'll tell you, because dust can linger. Dust is like residue.

You know, when I was little, there was a classic chore in my house to dust the furniture. And I feel like I would dust it and just later that same day, there would be little particles of dust again and I'd get that question, “Did you dust the entertainment center, Gina?” “Yes, I did.”

But it's rather interesting because dust, it lingers. It'll cling to your sandals, it clings to your vehicles, it clings to your skin, but it also clings to your memory.

If you go into a place with the mission that you've been called forth to bring, the ministry work that you've been called forth to do, the love and the grace that you've been called forth to bring into that place, and it's not received, then shake the dust from your feet. Do not carry that rejection with you.

Jesus isn't just offering a traveling tip here. He's saying, “Don't carry with you what doesn't belong to you.” He's saying, “Don't let someone else's ‘no’ become your ‘no,’ when it may just be Spirit prompting you to change directions.”

There's a lot of places in our journey of discipleship where we will see a closed door and we will interpret that to mean, “Okay, we're done here,” but it might just be time to shake the dust off your feet and explore those misunderstood intentions. Never internalize that dust. Keep moving and shake it off.

In verse 16, Jesus says, “He who listens to you listens to me.”

So, just a brief story here. There was a peaceful kingdom and there was a great king and he sent one of his messengers to go and visit various villages across the land. And the messenger simply wore a cloak, but on his chest, he wore a king's emblem. It was a gold pin shaped like a dove.

“Go,” the king said, “and speak my words. You do not need to convince anyone. Just carry my heart and speak with kindness. Those who listen to you will be listening to me.”

So, the messenger walked village to village. Some welcomed him with joy. They listened and they learned and their hearts grew lighter. But in a few towns, the people scoffed, “You're just a man. Why should we listen to you?” And they turned away from him.

The messenger felt sad, but when he returned, the king smiled gently. “They didn't reject you, they rejected me. You were faithful to speak and that's all I ever asked.”

When you walk confidently in the Spirit, when you walk confidently in the highest expression of your highest good and you feel that alignment, then trust that those who have the ears to hear will hear. Those who have the eyes to see will see.

And when you walk in the love of Christ, you are walking not only in representation of yourself, but of the Christ that is you. It's like when Jesus says, “Those who have seen my father have seen me.” Can you carry that same confidence and recognize that when you speak through the Spirit and the Spirit speaks through you, then regardless of what you encounter, you know that you are speaking on behalf of the Almighty.

There is St. Francis of Assisi. I don't know how many of you have heard of him, but when he was young, he decided to set out because he felt something calling him to more. He had all sorts of things because he grew up with a family that provided well for him, but something stirred in him that said, “Go and rebuild what is broken.”

And so, when he went, he let go of many of his possessions. He only took a robe and a belt. People started calling him little brother Francis.

Well, one day St. Francis heard of a town that was in terror. They were being attacked frequently by a wolf. Now, St. Francis had a gift with animals, and so he shows up, it's almost like a David and Goliath story, and people are mocking him. People think, what is he going to do? And you know what he says? He says, “I'm gonna go talk to the wolf.”

Can you imagine how many people are laughing at him hysterically? And people laughed and people begged him not to go. You know, there were those that were like, “Go ahead, good luck with that.” And some were like, “Please don't do it, don't do it. That wolf is gonna devour you.” But he believed in something deeper than fear.

As he was packing his bag, he didn't pack fear. He packed understanding, he packed Spirit, and so he walked lightly, he walked barefoot, but he walked free in Spirit. And he went to the wolf and he simply said, “Brother wolf, I am not here to harm you. I am here to understand you.” And in that moment, the wolf stopped.

It's interesting, because we have those moments of saying, you know, does that really happen? Does it really happen? There are beautiful stories out there with a variety of saints where these things happened because they weren't encumbered by doubt and fear. They were empowered by the Spirit and the gifts that we all have when we recognize Spiritual empowerment.

St. Francis, in that moment, he knelt and he prayed. And then he experienced something that he thought for a moment was a dream because he felt called to reach out and touch the wolf. But the wolf whimpered and the wolf lay down. It wasn't that he tamed the wolf with some kind of magic weapons or rituals, he just tamed it with his presence.

How many of us are that confident and free in who we are in Christ, in the Spiritual empowerment that resides within us, in that place without separation? How many of us are that confident that when we walk into a room, we tame the wolves? We tame the naysayers. We tame those who are caught in illusions and stories, those who are being beat down by labels, who are being beat down by things they call trauma and past situations that lock them in.

How many times can we walk in and calm that fearful wolf that's in the room, that aggressive wolf that's in the room, and not do it with magical words or shaking a Bible at anyone, but simply the presence and the love that we possess being free in Christ Jesus?

The wolf, people would say, was hungry and mean and he just keeps attacking because he's angry and he's alone. But the truth of the matter is the wolf was just afraid and the wolf was just lacking peace. St. Francis gave that to the wolf and after that so did the villagers. Where can we continue in that pattern?

And last but not least, in verses 17 and 18, you hear Jesus saying, “I saw Satan fall.”

It's interesting because when I think of the word power, I think of plugging something in. I think of batteries. I think of a car accelerating. I even think of superheroes and television and movies. But over the past several years, I recognize that power is real. We all have great Spiritual power. We all have great Spiritual authority.

And when Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished,” that is where we take our power. In that demonstration that shows death is not a thing and the eternity that we have in Christ is what is real, that is power. So, when you're moving around in this world, when you are feeling like you are the only light within the darkness, that you are the only vessel of love within the hate and the anger, when you are the only peace in the face of fear, don't just see it as a touchy-feely moment. Don't just see it as, “Oh, I'm confident because I know this,” but see it as the trueness of your being.

You are powerful. You are strong. You are not only sent in the image of Christ, you are the image of Christ.

Jesus didn't say, “Hey, pack well.” He said, “Go.”

He wasn't looking for perfection. He wasn't looking to overload you with burden and expectation. He was just looking for those who were willing. And when those willing to follow and return to remembrance of the true self of who they were, he blessed them and he sent them and they walked in love and they walked in light and they walked in trust.

So, I ask you today, are you traveling light and stepping in power? Or are you stumbling around with your burden of illusions and falsehoods? Remember your power, pack light and step boldly.

Please join me in prayer.

Our most gracious and loving God, we are so grateful for your word that continues to remind us of the truth of who we are through Christ Jesus, through all of the teachers and the lessons and the opportunities that continue to bring us back to our fullest expression. We are thankful. And may the words that were said here today meet us exactly where they're intended to meet us.

May your Spirit supersede all that was said with words and meet us in the power of presence and unity. And may our actions that we take from this place glorify you and the truth of who we are. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.