Walking on thin ice
There is a time and place where we begin to walk on the edge of reason. The edge of reason is like walking on thin ice and feeling that, at any moment, we could break through and sink to our death. The further we go, as the ice progressively thins, ominous cracking noises confirm our fears. We think, this time, we have gone too far. Yet still, the Holy Spirit beckons us onward.
Each time we put one foot in front of the other we feel it might be our last step. Only faith, hope, and love drive us onward. Many times those who walk with us will go no further for their courage, in the face of certain doom, fails them. As we continue onward we find that fewer and fewer of our fellow believers are still with us. Finally, there comes a time where we are alone and only open water lies before us.
Open water
Suddenly, to our surprise, we look down and realize that there is no more ice underneath us. We don’t know when it happened but as we look back we see where the ice stopped and the open water began. We look down at our feet again shocked to see that we are truly walking on water.
What happened is that we left the edge of man’s reason and began to step onto the outer edges of God’s reality. We left the familiar and began to set foot upon what is truly real. Nothing in the natural world says that we should still be standing, yet we find that where there was fear, there is now peace which begins to fill us as we walk onward supernaturally.
We walk by faith, not by reason
Our first steps are cautious because we are still afraid that even though the water upon which we stand seems firm, the next patch may not be. By faith we step out again and again, finding that the water before us is just as solid as the water behind us. Where constant worry plagued us at the cracking edge of what our natural minds would accept, we are now certain that God is making our footing sure by His power as we walk on ever more confidently by faith.
Between these two edges, one of man’s reason and one of God’s reality, there is always consternation and fear. It is the valley of decision where many choose to believe God and go on or drawback in unbelief. Once we leave the edge of reason and enter into God’s reality, all our doubts and worries start to melt away.
Rejecting the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
Every believer who truly desires to follow God eventually takes this path. God, through faith, weans us off of our own reason and replaces it with absolute trust in Him. This path looks different for every person who travels it, but the effect is always the same.
Here is a truth,
“No one will enter heaven because it made sense to the natural man.”
Paul says,
“For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”
1 Corinthians 1:17-19
And,
“Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”
1 Corinthians 1:20,21
Live by every word
Ours is a walk of faith and it is designed by our Father to be so. It hurt God deeply that Adam and Eve did not simply believe Him in the Garden of Eden. Therefore, God made salvation dependent upon simple, unreasoning belief. We should not trust in teaching nor in knowledge. Simply live by every word that issues out of the mouth of our God to us as individuals.
The cross symbolizes the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil that Christ hung upon. Jesus Christ died on the cross, not because it made sense, but because God asked him too. Likewise, through faith, we must forever remove that forbidden fruit from our consciousness. By faith, we live by revelation and return to the communion man left behind in paradise. Our own reason and our own path leads only to destruction. Total reliance is the path God sets before us. To choose life, we must journey beyond the edge of reason and set foot upon God’s true reality. We do this simply because we believe.
