Up On the Rooftop – A Word by Kathi Pelton

As I waited upon the Lord I heard the words, “Faith is up on the rooftop.” Then immediately I began to see the scene in Mark 2 of the four friends of the paralyzed man,  whose faith was so sure that Jesus could heal him that they were willing to dig through the roof.

“Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on.”

There was a time in my life, over 25 years ago, where my desperation for a healing touch from Jesus caused me to stay up almost every night for many hours into the early morning until I received his touch. After nearly nine months of this I not only received a touch from him, but I was given an encounter with him that lasted for thirty days (24/7) and it healed me of terrible trauma that had occurred in my life. I was set free— my faith had taken me to the rooftop where I dug my way through until I reached Jesus.

It is not that Jesus isn’t willing to touch and heal those who are merely asking because he often does— but there is something about the faith that takes you “above the circumstances”, above the disappointments, above the despair and caused you to raise the roof through a desperate act of faith.

I personally believe that the paralytic was urging, if not begging, his friends to take him up to the roof. He was willing to go to whatever extreme that would get him to the One with the power to heal.

There is something powerful that happens when we add faith to our desperate situations and begin to press in to receive what we need no matter how extreme it appears to others. Just this past weekend, my friend, Jodie Hughes was speaking at our church and she began to say, “This is not a time for what is proper but a time to say, ‘I will become undignified before the Lord.’” Just as King David danced (unrobed) before the ark of the covenant, offending his wife, so we too will be willing to become undignified as we give our all to him. We won’t care who is looking or what they think, we will dig through a roof or dance in the streets unashamedly.

This is an hour that we will begin to see desperate acts of faith from those who are tired of captivity, sickness, torment and having their faith paralyzed by circumstances. They will begin to throw off what is proper as they demand to be lowered through the roof to Jesus. They will dig through the mire and throw off all that hinders their faith, just to receive a touch from him.

My nine month journey of “going to the rooftop” was effectively breaking off a spiritual paralysis that had kept me in captivity— then the Lord met me with an encounter that changed my life forever. He was not withholding from me— he knew that I must shake off chains and partner with him for my freedom. It was a roar of deliverance that I needed to go down.

If you have something that you’ve been waiting for, contending for, longing for— maybe it is time to pull off restraints and find the faith that takes you to a rooftop where you will dig through until you receive what he has for you. Do not let “proper” stop you or pride stop you— or UNBELIEF stop you! Begin to press in until you breakthrough.

He is calling you into the faith that takes you to the rooftop!