Please read Mt 17:1-9 and Luke 9:27-36 for the setting of the subject. This was an awesome experience for Peter, James and John, so much that they wanted to build 3 tabernacles there. Getting close to the Lord is an experience unequaled in this world. I want to use this experience to show how to have a mountain top experience with the Lord.

1. We have to listen to the Call of God to come up to a higher plain. "Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you." If you are satisfied with where you are, you will never hear the call, "come up higher."
   
   
2. We have to leave the crowd. Notice in Mt. 17:1, Jesus took them "up into a high mountain apart." "Apart" means "Private," "Separate." Some people will never have a mountain top experience with God beacause they are unwilling to separate from those that keep them involved in sin and rebellion. Please read 2 Cor. 6:14-18.
   
   
3. We have to leave the cares that consume us behind. In verse 4, Peter said "it is good for us to be here." Having a mountain top experience with God will require us to leave our cares behind. The things that consume our time and thoughts and take us from a deep, personal, peaceful and joyful Christian life will have to be cast upon the Lord. Please see Ps. 55:22, "Cast thy burden upon the LORD and he shall sustain thee." It is impossible to have a mountain top experience when your life is filled with cares of all sorts. Give them to God!
   
   
4. We have to lighten our collection of things. Mountain climbing requires we carry only the bare essentials. See Heb. 12:1-2 where we are to "lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us." There are some things in life that will keep a true believer from a mountain top experience. We cannot go up to higher ground with God with things like drugs, alcohol, immorality, tobacco products, ungodly music, ungodly dress styles and any other thing that offends the holiness of God. We do not do these to be saved; we do them because we are saved.
   
   
5. We have to give God complete control of our lives. Verse 5 says a "bright cloud overshadowed them." They are now unable to see the surroundings and are at the Lord's mercy. They lost their point of reference and God said out of the cloud, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." That is all we have to do: "Hear ye him."
   
   
6. When all else is in order, we can see Christ only and clearly. Vs. 8 tells us they "saw no man, save Christ only."

   There are some conditions for having a mountain top experience with God: You must be saved; you must be cleansed from sin; you must yearn for fellowship with God and you must learn in order to be a servant of God.

   There are some things that will keep us off the mountain with God: Unconverted; unconfessed sin; uncaring attitude, and an unconcern for the will of God. We cannot get closer to God on our terms. IF YOU ARE READY, HE IS READY!