The First Step — People of a Flower-Garden Faith
1He brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, waters flowed out from under the threshold of the house eastward, for the front of the house faced toward the east. The waters came down from underneath, from the right side of the house, on the south of the altar. 2Then he brought me out by the way of the gate northward, and led me around by the way outside to the outer gate, by the way of the gate that looks toward the east. Behold, waters ran out on the right side. 3When the man went out eastward with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the ankles. 4Again he measured one thousand, and caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the knees. Again he measured one thousand, and caused me to pass through waters that were to the waist. 5Afterward he measured one thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass through; for the waters had risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be walked through.
Every one of us comes into the world without knowing God. We are able to live a life of faith because God called us and led us.
A newborn baby cannot talk or walk from the start. In the same way, no one is born with faith, so we pass through several stages of faith as we grow to maturity. When we first begin to walk with God, we wonder whether he is truly alive, and we may even take a faith that bargains for blessing to be faith itself. But as we listen to the word and live a life of prayer, our faith will steadily grow. We leave behind the worldly life we once lived only for ourselves and become people who sacrifice themselves for God. As we wrestle over whether to live by human righteousness or by faith, our rough edges are worn away, what we lack is filled by the grace of God, and little by little we take shape as God’s people.
Because everyone passes through this process of growth, it is not right to criticize and judge another person’s faith. For to condemn someone else’s faith, forgetting the seasons of wandering we ourselves must have gone through, is in itself a sin. Faith is not something to be measured against other Christians. The faith God recognizes, the true faith of a saint, is the faith that gives thanks without condition for the love of God, the sacrifice of Jesus, and the working of the Holy Spirit.
The vessel of faith differs from person to person, according to their character and effort. There are people like Peter, who was rebuked and yet did not leave Jesus; there are also people like Judas Iscariot, who, though he heard the word, could not let go of human righteousness and went the way of death. Because the vessel with which each person receives the gospel is different, when we share the gospel we should not strain to make people understand; what we need is to proclaim the word of truth just as it is, adding nothing and taking nothing away.
In the church there are some who are filled with faith and others whose faith is as weak as a child’s. That is why it is so necessary for us to be members of the body of Christ, working together for good. Yet faith is a war with Satan, and because of that, the mature and the weak each have struggles of their own. The reason is that Satan, who holds the power of the air, never stops shaking people’s faith, seeking to lead to death not only the people of the world but the saints as well. If we understand that the life of faith is spiritual warfare and lean on Jesus alone, we will be able to overcome easily, however relentlessly Satan attacks. If each member joins with the others for good, God will work through his angels to keep the church from falling, and he will help it to be filled with the Spirit.
Satan’s temptation provokes sin, and this is also why God made the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If God’s people did not fight against sin so as not to eat of that tree, the plan of God, who gave us free will, would not be fulfilled. Since our faith will not grow unless we use that freedom to fight sin, we must use it to live upright lives. This process of growth is something all of us go through. So when, instead of criticizing one another or losing heart, we strive to build a faith that is one with God, there will be no one who is proud and no one who stumbles.
Ezekiel 47:3
3When the man went out eastward with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the ankles.
The name Ezekiel means “May God strengthen.” The book of Ezekiel is thought to have been written around 565 BC. Ezekiel was carried off as a captive in the second invasion by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. In his fifth year in Babylon he received his call as a prophet, and for twenty-two years he prophesied, proclaiming the word so that the people would set their hope on God.
While he was praying he saw a vision: water flowing out of the temple and rising, and with it he heard prophecies about the restoration and the future of Israel. God showed him living water flowing out from under the threshold of the new temple and running all the way down to the Dead Sea, the symbol of death, bringing every living creature back to life. This was God’s revelation that Israel would come to the end of its captivity and be restored. He promised to make captive Israel new again, and one day to give the holy land as an inheritance even to the Gentiles.
Ezekiel saw the water from the temple rise first to his ankles, then to his knees and his waist, and at last he saw it become a swollen river that no one dared to cross.
As I read this passage and noticed the order in which the water rose, it struck me that this is what a saint’s growth from weak faith to mature faith looks like. I saw the water rising one step at a time as the stages by which God’s people grow into a higher faith. With our lips we confess that we love God, but what he truly desires is a faith that does not waver. To confess with the lips and not act on it is not true love. What God wants is the faith that believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness.
To live as children of God, we must first lay down our own will and embrace the higher world of God; yet without reading the Bible we have no way to enter into close fellowship with the realm of almighty God. Only by reading the Bible can we grasp how vast and wondrous is the spiritual world he has made. Only in prayer are we bound fast to God and able to grow in the spirit. When we know the truth in this way, we will discover how wide and deep his love is.
The steps of faith begin with the step of flower-garden faith, followed by stumbling-block faith, the faith of the sharp low hills, the faith of high mountains and deep valleys, the faith that overcomes the waves of the world, and the faith of an eagle flying in the open sky. And at the very end comes the last faith, one that human eyes cannot see and only the eyes of God can: the step of despair.
There is a ladder that joins all these steps together, and that ladder is Jesus Christ. If, in God, you realize how deep his love for souls is, you will be able to climb onto the step of despair. And if, standing on that step, you see the traces of sin that the world and human souls have left behind, you will understand that God’s love for the saving of souls is a pain that had no choice but to bear the cross. We began like children, with flower-garden faith; but if we grow all the way to the step of despair, we will know how much we owe to the grace of almighty God and what an astonishing miracle salvation is.
When we begin the life of faith, the first faith we meet is flower-garden faith. Having a flower-garden faith does not mean a person’s faith is poor, and having an eagle’s faith does not mean they know everything in the spirit. Still, it is true that an eagle’s faith has more strength than a flower-garden faith to endure from moment to moment, and more power to rise above hardship when it comes. With a faith like the eagle’s, we gain eyes that discern with spiritual wisdom, and with those eyes we readily read Satan’s movements and are not deceived. We must therefore strive for an eagle’s faith, which endures through faith and the word, rather than a flower-garden faith that sways in every wind.
Everyone loves a lovely flower garden in full bloom with flowers of every color, because when we gaze at blossoms opened wide, the cares of life that weighed on our hearts and the worries other people bring us melt away. If butterflies and bees flit among the flowers, the heart will feel all the richer and happier. So people strive to own a larger garden, more splendid and more worth boasting of than anyone else’s. Because a wide garden gives them power to rule over others, they run without rest after advancement and success.
Yet however much care has gone into tending it, if frost falls unexpectedly in the night, the world’s flower garden is left bare in a moment. Frost is beyond human power to hold back, which means the blooms can be gone at a single stroke. Once life is lost, whether a person’s, a plant’s, or an animal’s, no one can ever bring it back. Because God is the master of all creation, we must obey his boundless power.
Satan pours into people a greed for wealth, envy, jealousy, and hot temper, and whips them on to run after success. Those who give their hearts to Satan and race toward the world will feel the joy of success as their tower of Babel rises higher. But before they have time to enjoy their rising tower, it comes crashing down in futility at the hands of others who are striving to take it from them. And so people squander their lives building wall upon wall of sin with hearts grown harder still, and they cut themselves off from every relationship. Satan cannot give life; whoever bows to him will in the end lose everything to the cold breath of God. Because the allure of its splendor and fragrance is not easily forgotten, anyone who has once owned a beautiful flower garden keeps circling back to it. But those who throw away their faith lightly do not even draw Satan’s interest, and because of this they are forsaken by God and by Satan alike.
If we remain in flower-garden faith, we think little of sinning against God. But if we know that life is spiritual warfare and live with steadfast faith, we will not stay there. Because God is spirit, we can neither touch him nor feel him, and to give up for his sake the flower garden that is our pride is never easy. To have a new wineskin that can hold God’s grace is to have a faith that lays down our human nature, formed from the dust, and resolves to live by his will. When we stand before God with this new wineskin, then at last we will grasp eternal time, the eternal world, and our own being, which human ability cannot see. Those without a new wineskin watch bees and butterflies flitting about their own garden and show the shallow faith that thinks God loves them alone in some special way. Those who testify that when they prayed God filled them with material things, and when they served faithfully their children were blessed, are not innocent but immature. When such people see another person’s garden flourish, they will at once complain and ask why God does not give them a greater blessing.
You too will likely feel uneasy when someone in the world seems to be getting ahead of you. You may not stop there; you may wonder what that person believes, and you may feel yourself shrink in the presence of someone successful. Such feelings come from not trusting the plan of God, who works in his own time. When people are not content, they have no choice but to leave for the world in search of a splendid garden, to gain the power that more land can bring. But even if they fill their field with flowers in riotous bloom, a single cold breath from God will freeze it all. However much people stake their lives on living as greedily as they please, when God calls them home, the moment they put off the flesh, all they own passes to someone else. I am not telling you to live in poverty; I am telling you that you must know what comes first. What comes first is not worldly possessions but living according to God’s will.
When we know what comes first, we know the heavenly world, wide as the sea; and knowing it, we do not cling to a cup of water sloshing at the brim, nor are we ever proud or afraid. Because foolish human beings do not know how great a sin it is in God’s eyes to build a tower of Babel, they think that if only they can build one, they can make a name for themselves. If we could take the tower we spent our lives building with us into the next world, it might mean something. But heaven is a place where we cannot take even our bodies, which we treasured as though they were everything. Our own efforts cannot help us escape death, and Satan’s efforts cannot take a life. Believing this, we must give ourselves to the Kingdom of God.
When God shook their language for only a moment, the people who had been building the tower of Babel with one speech were all scattered. That every nation now speaks a different language bears witness that the tower of Babel truly happened, and it is the fruit of sin. Like them, anyone who thinks that having much will raise them as high as God has fallen for Satan’s scheme to ruin humanity, God’s masterpiece. Of course, since people are born with Satan as their father, going against human nature to live by God’s will is never easy.
Even so, God had mercy on those who joined with sinful hearts in the lie Satan spread. He made those who believe in the atonement Jesus accomplished at his first coming able to overcome Satan’s attacks in full. We who carry the light of Christ must boldly proclaim the gospel to our neighbors who are living as Satan’s servants. This is because God’s will is for the gospel to be preached in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth, and living as witnesses is how we fulfill our duty as his children. This is how God gives blessing to both soul and body: if we strive first to keep our souls healthy, we will receive the blessing of prospering in all things.
Genesis 19:11
11They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.
When the angels came into Sodom and Gomorrah, the men of the city pounded on the door so that they might commit sexual sin with them. What ordinary people would be too afraid to do, they did boldly, because they had come as a mob, shouting, “Bring them out! Let us sin!” They had grown numb to sin, because sin had already filled Sodom and Gomorrah and, through people who craved ever greater pleasure, homosexuality had taken hold there. Perhaps at first these men too hesitated, thinking it was sin, but as they repeated the same acts their fear faded away. As time passed, lustful thoughts darkened them, and as the number of homosexuals grew, their hearts would have become seared as with a hot iron. Had they feared God, then when the angels struck them blind, they would at least have stopped to ask why they suddenly could not see, or whether they might be under God’s judgment. Instead they kept groping for the door until they were worn out, and right up to the moment of their end they could not leave their place of pleasure and lust.
Look at the destruction of Sodom, and you see that Satan takes his time, slowly changing human character. He was patient to the end, slowly brainwashing people until they came to think that living by the desires of the flesh is no sin. Through these efforts, they no longer regarded homosexuality as sin. As they grew dark in spirit, they took their pleasure by switching the sex of their partners, and still did not fear God; even with the angels before their eyes they acted just as Satan drove them. Steeped in evil habits and a filthy environment, they were drifting ever farther from the vast and eternal Kingdom of God. That God cared enough, even for people who had abandoned him, to come and judge them shows how great his care is for the saints who give themselves to him.
It is no different for us who believe in God today. We say that God gave us eternal life freely, but in practice we act as though we were doing God a favor by believing in him, and we want worldly blessings as the price of our belief. Yet almighty God, through the blood of Jesus, saved sinners imprisoned in death without any condition. If we do not grasp this, then rather than fearing God’s judgment, we will think as those who perished in Noah’s flood did: that they were dying only because they had failed to escape the waters. It is like people rolling in a mud pit together: when everyone is filthy, no one can tell how dirty they have become.
Today church members go to church but do not believe in God; they own Bibles but do not read them; they have time but do not pray. Because far too many of them, like the people of Sodom, hold a blessing-seeking faith, they feel no shame at not knowing the Bible. Worse, absurd things are happening: someone who earnestly tries to learn the word is asked whether all that zeal means they are trying to become a pastor. Once this way of thinking takes hold, people treat the pastor’s academic credentials, church titles, and the size of the building as though these were their own faith, and they boast of outward things, as if building a tower of Babel, rather than of the word of truth.
What is truly heartbreaking is that the number of people chasing illusions, rather than looking to the end and the judgment that will come on the last day, keeps growing. This corruption of the church and its people is, in the end, making room by its own hand for the abomination of desolation to stand in the holy place. It is a grievous misfortune that Christianity has fallen so far. Because of it, the whole church, pastors and people alike, must repent.
Once the world accepted homosexuality, people’s resistance to it faded; and as religious pluralism gained strength, people began persecuting belief in the one God as narrow-minded. When Satan insists that all religions must become one in love, people know very well that this can never be, yet they waver—“Isn’t Christianity too lacking in love?”—and fear being shut out by the world. All this comes from having a fragile flower-garden faith. Think about it for a moment: Christians shaken by such faith are no different from the idol-worshiping world, because the God they believe in is as dead as the idols of those who carve them from stone and wood and bow down to them.
Unless we seek the genuine truth of Christ and turn back now, we will have no choice but to chase illusions that Satan dresses up as flower gardens. Of course, money is needed, since the gospel must be preached to save souls. Wealth and power used for the gospel can be instruments of good, but what is gained out of greed is nothing but worthless rubbish. Only by living in the bright place where the light of Jesus Christ shines can we see the world clearly. When we live wisely, with ears to hear and eyes to see, we can feel happiness just from seeing the spiritual fruit God gives us by grace.
I hope you will now honor God with a more mature faith. Just as a seed, once planted, always pushes through the soil and sprouts, so if you plant the seed of faith with God, it will grow into a tree where the birds make their nests. Just as a house built on sand, however grand, cannot stand for long, a tender faith, unable to put down roots, rots away. But a mature faith, like a great tree that has grown through patient endurance, will stand tall in one place through every storm, where God can see it.
Rather than a flower garden that loses everything at a single frost, may you become a great tree that no typhoon can shake.