In a quiet Swiss village, God taught me valuable lessons about ascending to life’s highest plane. From my window in Grindelwald, I marveled at four towering, snowcapped peaks, feeling completely satisfied—until glimpses of hidden summits stirred a desire to climb higher.

One day, a group set out on such a climb, following green-marked paths. Carrying only necessities, we ascended steadily, enduring steep, rocky trails, aching muscles, and the sun’s heat. Yet, the beauty along the way made every hardship worthwhile. Frequent rests allowed us to appreciate the unfolding vistas, each step revealing greater splendor.

A striking, snow-covered peak caught our eye at one point—the majestic Jungfrau, queen of the Alps. Reaching Waldspitz, we were awed by the breathtaking panorama of towering Alpine summits. From this height, the once-mighty glaciers and nearer mountains appeared small, overshadowed by the grandeur of Schreckhorn and Jungfrau.

Though far from the Alps’ highest point, the climb proved its worth, offering a glimpse of the majestic glory awaiting those who dare to reach the top—where one can look up to God’s heaven and out over His world from the highest plane.

Dare I hope that the studies in this book have meant just such a spiritual ascent to some readers? Did the book find you living in the heat and stress and strife of life below sea level, on the plane of the natural, but with a genuine desire to seek relief in a higher spiritual altitude? Or had you already left the old sphere of the natural and enjoyed life a few hundred feet above sea level on the carnal plane? Had you settled down in complacent self-satisfaction with what you could see from the little window of your valley experience, and had you become content to live at the halfway house of spiritual achievement? Did you aspire for nothing higher than the pleasant walks you could take on the level road where you would not need spiked shoes, a traveler’s kit, and a climber’s stick but could still wear your best clothes and high-heeled shoes and only get comfortably tired? But when the book found you, was there a stirring of discontent in your soul because, at times, when walking in communion with Him alone, or in the companionship with some saint of God who had reached the highest plane and told you of its glories, you had seen glimpses of a life in Christ immeasurably beyond anything you had ever seen or dreamed of. Your whole soul cried within you for an experience of victory, glory, peace, and holiness as you knew was possible.

Dare I hope you essayed to make the climb and that the studies, chapter by chapter, have pointed the way for you out of the natural into the spiritual life in Christ Jesus? I know from experience that it has not been an easy climb. Besetting sins and hindering weights have had to be left behind, and only those things taken with you which would strengthen and assist you on the upward climb toward God; the sunshine of God’s chastening has heated you to the highest pitch of endurance at times; your feet have been cut and torn by the temptations and afflictions along the way; unused muscles of faith, love, long-suffering, patience and devotion have been stretched to the point of strain; perhaps you have been easily winded by the buffeting and blows of the world, the flesh and the devil. I am sure that before you had gone very far from the valley experience of life on the carnal plane, you found that every part of your being was feeling the pull of the climb and that spirit, soul, and body needed to be wholly sanctified and surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ and put under the control and guidance of the Holy Spirit, that the difficulties might not overcome you and might not miss the blessings God had strewn along the way.

But now you have reached the place where you may look out upon God’s spiritual Alpine range of salvation and get one glorious panoramic view of peak upon peak, which reveals the infinite grace and boundless love of the triune God. Off yonder in the range of vision are the twin peaks of Forgiveness and Justification; following in sharp, clear outline is the lovely peak of Regeneration; further to the back is a majestic peak which one does not see at all from the valley viewpoint of the carnal life because the nearer mountain of Regeneration hides it, the peak of Identification with Christ in His death, resurrection, ascension, and present life in glory. But off in the distance is one peak different from all the rest, distinctive in its snow-white purity and holiness, the crown of all the others. It is Sanctification, the Jungfrau of spiritual experience. As you have gazed upon the flawless perfection, the indescribable grandeur, the overpowering majesty of the wonders of God’s infinite grace and perfect love, has not everything in the valley of your carnal life seemed to sink into utter insignificance? Have not things that seemed high above you and overpowered you by their weight taken their proper place beneath your feet? Have you not realized how shut in you were down there by narrow interests, selfish enjoyments, petty pleasures, and puny aspirations? Do you not feel that life for you can never again be the same now that you have felt the thrill of the climb on the ascent and have viewed God’s gracious, glorious plan of salvation from the mountaintop?

If this be true of you, dear fellow traveler, may we not just rest a while with this glorious vision before us and sit in quiet meditation upon what we have seen life on the highest plane to be. 

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson