The Duffel Bag

Pastor David: Hello. I want to share a story with you. It's a true story.

I just call it the duffel bag. You'll understand why in a minute. I have for many years, probably 20 plus years, I've ministered along the border of Texas and in Mexico, in Texas, and all around. But I lived on the East Coast and would fly out to Texas frequently to a very close friend of mine, in fact, my best friend.

He would ask me to come minister at his church, his parents' church, a friend's church, or someone else that he knew. We had Bible schools, and we started quite a few churches.

So there were always places to go and minister the good news. There was this particular time I flew out, and I ministered in one church in the morning, and then I was scheduled to minister in another church on another part of town in the evening.

So my friend brought me back to the hotel, ministered in the morning, went out to lunch, and then they brought me back to the hotel so I could freshen up, and rest, and get ready for the evening service at a different church.

So I was there in the hotel and was praying, as you know, as I do, and seeking the Lord about. if there was something specific He wanted me to minister that evening.

And it was really, really cool, really interesting.

The walls inside the hotel room were kind of stucco color, kind of a light tan, if you will, color. I was sitting on the edge of the bed. I'm wide awake, praying and reading the Word, my Bible, and preparing for the evening service.

I look at the wall, and I see a shadow. It's like to begin with, it was kind of zoomed out, if you will. What I see is a person; all I see is the silhouette. It's a shadow, but it's like animated. This person, I see, where it's like they've got one arm with one hand up towards their shoulder.

It zooms in, and I see it's just the silhouette, but I see the person's face, and their shoulder, and their hand, if you will. If you were to take your arm and bend it all the way up to where your hand is at your shoulder, that's what I saw, just the silhouette of it, because it was a shadow. But I realized, hey, that's me.

I was looking at the wall in the hotel, and I'm looking at an animated shadow, and it was me. I knew it was me. And I'm like, wow. I'm just fascinated, just staring.

Well, then it zooms out to where I could see the whole person, my whole body, and all the way down to my feet, and I'm walking.

I've got this duffel bag and the strings to it are on my shoulder. Then I stop, the shadow stops, and bends over, opens up the duffel bag, and starts putting things in the duffel bag. I knew while I was watching it, it was cares, it was burdens, it was concerns.

God was ministering to me. Put your burdens on Him, put your cares on Him, put them in the duffel bag.

I see me just stuffing one thing after another. It was like cares, concerns, and burdens, stuffing them in this duffel bag.

Then, the shadow throws the string over the shoulder again, and it's still a full screen, if you will, where I'm seeing me from head to toe, and the duffel bag. The duffel bag was so full of stuff.

It was not only going, the strings I'm holding at my shoulder, over my shoulder. The strings went all the way down, and the duffel bag was so full, it went all the way down and folded, and drug behind me for several feet. If you could picture a really full bag, and I'm six three, so it was a big bag. So it was at least more than half the length of my body.

It hit the ground, and it was dragging the ground several feet past that. So it was a really full duffel bag. Well, He showed me walking while my feet and legs are walking in this shadow.

It's like watching a movie on the wall, except it was real, and I was awake, and I knew it was me, and it was my shadow. I'm walking, then the camera zooms in again back to where it started, to where it's my face, the silhouette. I could see my hand over my shoulder. Then He started ministering to me.

Holy Spirit said, 'Cast your burdens on Me. Put them where they belong. There's nothing that should come between you and Me.'

Then the camera zooms back out, and this was the cool part: that long duffel bag was now just two strings hanging over my shoulder. The whole duffel bag had just worn in two while I was walking, and whatever was in that duffel bag was gone.

There was nothing over my shoulder except the string and a memory of what used to be there.

He led me to the ministering that He did for me. I'll give you some scriptures, but what He ministered to my heart I want to share with you because it's so important.

Number One: our cares, and burdens, and concerns, I don't want to say worries, because the Bible says worries are a sin, but even worries, everything that you can consider a burden or something that can weigh you down or is just bothering you, it's heavy on your heart, or whatever, all of those things, none of them belong between you and God.

Here's another thing. Even the blessings, even miracles, even healings and things that are of God, they don't belong between you and God. He wants nothing between Him and us. He just wants that relationship between us and Him; that fellowship between us and Him.

You can go back and picture Adam and Eve and the Father walking in the garden. That's what He wants with us.

That's exactly what He wants with you and I. He wants that fellowship. He doesn't want anything in between us. Those burdens and cares, concerns, whatever it is. He doesn't want anything, even good or bad, nothing between us.

Put things where they belong.

You know, I learned that I ministered that, that night, and it definitely was for many of the people, but it was for me. And I'm sharing it with you because I believe it's for every believer.

I see myself for years after that, you know, I just start to get overwhelmed. Maybe this, that the other is going on. And I go, whoa, timeout. The duffel bag.

I need the duffel bag. And I just visualize myself taking every one of those cares and burdens and sticking them in the duffel bag and then putting them where they belong - behind me, not in front of me, not between me and God, behind me, so that I can pray and fellowship with God one on one, like He wants us to.

Here's a couple of scriptures that I'm sure you've read before, but they took on a whole new meaning for me after that experience.

Psalm 55:22. Easy to remember. 55:22. Psalm. 'Cast your burdens upon the Lord.'

First Peter in the New Testament, 5:7. 'Cast all your cares upon the Lord.'

He literally wants us to give Him our burdens, but most importantly, the cool thing He taught me in that visualization of watching my shadow up there with that duffel bag on the wall in the hotel room I was sitting in was, it's literally that simple.

Put your burdens where they belong, behind you, not in front of you, not between you and God, behind you, and then just keep walking.

Stay on your path, stay on your course, and God will take care of all those things.

Give them to Him, and He will. Trust Him, and He will. Pray and say 'God you've got to take these', like we just read in Psalm, in 1st Peter: Psalm 55:22 and 1 Peter 5:7. Give Him your burdens, give Him your cares, and He'll take care of them.

Get back to fellowshipping with God. 'God, I love you. Forgive me of my sins, and what would you have me do today? You know, thank you for this and thank you for that. You're a blessing.'

Love on God. He wants to love on you all the time, 24/7. I hope this turns into a blessing for you as it has for me over the years.

The duffel bag - each one of us have our own duffel bag but until that moment, I didn't know how to use it.

Hopefully, this helps you know how to use the duffel bag in your life. Put all your burdens and cares behind you, throw them over your shoulder, and get your eyes back on God, and God will take care of it.

Amen. Be blessed. God bless.