The Fourth Step — People of a Faith Like High Mountains and Deep Valleys

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.

Once you climb onto the fourth step of faith, you will know a spiritual fullness like a high mountain, and you will also pass through painful spiritual experiences that feel like plunging headlong into a deep valley.

We will be in anguish whenever a faith at its fullest runs up against human instinct, because through the word we can discern what is good and what is evil. At the height of our faith we give ourselves to the work, sure that we can bear anything; yet once greed takes hold of us, we can show a weakness that brings us down in a single moment. Hence, when one who was once filled with faith stumbles, recovery is all the harder. Even a man like the apostle Paul confessed that when human righteousness and faith collided, he beat his body day after day to bring it into submission, and begged to die.

The apostle Paul was born into a good family of the tribe of Benjamin, received a strict education at the feet of Gamaliel, and grew up wanting for nothing. As a legalist who guarded the law as he would his own life, he had been taught that doing what the law commanded was the faith that served God fully. Believing that persecuting Christians was God’s work, he persecuted a church that did not keep the law. So he watched Stephen being stoned to death and thought it only right; he threatened the disciples, and he even put saints to death.

As he drew near Damascus to arrest anyone who believed in Jesus, man or woman, young or old, a light from heaven too bright to bear suddenly surrounded him, and he lost his sight. Then a stern voice said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Shaken, he asked who was speaking. The answer came: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Get up and go into the city, and I will bring you to someone who will tell you what you are to do.”

What is remarkable here is that, though many people were present, no one but Saul heard the voice of Jesus, and only Saul saw the blinding light. God had chosen and called Saul in order to use him in a particular way, as the apostle to the Gentiles, and for this reason he worked so that Saul alone could hear and see. The strong light of Christ darkened the apostle’s eyes. He had been racing toward the city, burning to kill Christians, and now the dazzling light of Jesus had struck him blind.

In that moment Paul realized that Jesus is the living God. And while Christ was meeting Paul, something astonishing happened: the Holy Spirit came to Ananias in the city and commanded him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, find Saul of Tarsus, and lay your hands on him.” God was at work in Saul and in Ananias at the same time — in Saul through light and a voice, in Ananias through the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit were working together to accomplish the plan of God.

When Ananias was told to heal the eyes of Saul, the enemy of Christians, at first he was somewhat perplexed. In human terms it made no sense to lay hands on such a man, but Ananias obeyed without condition, knowing that when God gives a command there is always a reason behind it. We must believe that God never works without a purpose. When he sends us suffering, there is a reason for the suffering, and when he entrusts us with a task, there is a reason for that too; knowing this, we must obey.

Because Paul had rejected Christ himself until then, he felt no guilt in killing Christians; he thought they deserved to die. But after meeting Jesus he was deeply shaken to learn that the people he had killed belonged to the living Jesus Christ. The blow was all the heavier because he had gone as far as killing them in order to keep the law, and the moment he met Christ he realized how mistaken his faith had been.

At once the apostle Paul abandoned the Jewish faith and received Christ. Then, without delay, he began to preach the gospel. To put the gospel into action the moment one grasps it, as Paul did, is certainly hard — yet he did it.

Romans 7:22-23

22For I delight in God’s law after the inward man, 23but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.

The more human wisdom advances, the wider the realm of ignorance grows in proportion. Think of knowledge as a circle: the larger it grows, the more of the unknown it touches along its edge. King Solomon, who wrote three thousand proverbs, had more wisdom and knowledge than other people, yet he confessed that in much wisdom is much grief, and that he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. Solomon enjoyed riches and glory, but in Ecclesiastes, written in his old age, he confesses from the heart that life is vanity of vanities. Knowing that wealth and power are empty, he looked at those who feared God and confessed, with envy, that they were far more mature than he. In the end, such a confession likely means that the world cannot fill the human heart. In the same way, the more our knowledge of God accumulates, the more we will see our own spiritual ignorance, piled higher still than that knowledge.

The apostle Paul, too, found that the better he knew Jesus Christ, the plainer were the limits of any human being who tries to know and serve God fully. When he kept the law, he had believed in God by works; but once he met Jesus Christ, he realized that salvation comes not by works but by faith. Yet proclaiming to others a faith that can be held only by laying down human righteousness proved so hard that he went through a fierce inner conflict. Paul saw two minds fighting bitterly within him, for he too was a man of flesh and could not be free from sin. His gratitude for the salvation won by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ must have collided with his human thoughts and hot temper, leaving him torn in spirit. These two minds were always at war, yet he could hold fast to his faith because he was held up wholly by the grace of God.

If the high peaks are the place where faith overflows, the low places would be where we wrestle with human nature and the world’s temptations. Only when we understand that our faith has seasons when it is filled, high as a mountain, and other seasons when our weak flesh drives us to plead with tears, can we overcome by faith. You have probably known this too: when you were filled in spirit, no problem could frighten you, but when you were not, the world and other people seemed fearsome. Everyone has times of bold faith that stands on the mountaintop and times of fragile faith that feels as though it has fallen into the valley. Therefore we must not grow proud when our faith is high, and when we are downcast we must not hesitate but ask God for help.

2 Corinthians 11:23

23Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself) I am more so; in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths often.

Once he had met Christ, the apostle Paul lived an utterly different life, because he laid aside the human thinking and habits he had held until then and armed himself with the word, so as to live as a Christian to the very marrow. With the saving of souls as his one concern after he received the Lord, he poured all his zeal into evangelism. Arrested for preaching the gospel, five times he received forty lashes minus one, three times he was beaten with rods, and countless times he was nearly stoned to death. Three times he was shipwrecked; he could not count how often he was imprisoned, hungry, and thirsty; and he was betrayed by people more times than he could number. It is astonishing enough that Paul, once a legalist, took up the life of an evangelist right after meeting the Lord. But the persecution he endured was suffering so immense that even someone filled with the Holy Spirit could not easily have borne it. Having given his whole life to the gospel alone, Paul had a faith that stood tall on a high mountain.

Who was the apostle Paul? He was a nobleman, born into a family people envied, schooled in the finest learning, and holding Roman citizenship, which opened every door to him. Yet this man threw away as refuse the very things the world longs so much to have, and lived the rest of his life by the word alone. If you were told to give up not only what you own but even your family for the sake of the gospel, could you obey?

Paul knew that whoever gives up the world gains a greater one, and he had grasped that beyond the visible world lies a greater spiritual realm. That is why he could enter into Christ so willingly. Yet Paul, too, was a man of flesh; he would make his resolutions, and still there were times when he sank down in discouragement as though he had fallen into a valley. At such times only by leaning on the love of Christ, who saved us by the blood of the cross, could he keep from stumbling, and the same holds for us.

Paul suffered fierce persecution from the Jews, yet he prayed earnestly that the churches he had planted with tears would withstand that persecution and stand firm. Knowing that the gospel is life, he prayed with all his heart that every church he had founded in Asia Minor and Macedonia would flourish. To those who stand like this on the high mountain and hold fast to their faith, God entrusts his word, and through them he works to bring souls to life. You too should become people with hearts large enough to take souls into your care.

2 Corinthians 12:7-8

7By reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted excessively, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, that I should not be exalted excessively. 8Concerning this thing, I begged the Lord three times that it might depart from me.

Paul was blessed to be caught up into heaven itself and see Paradise, and he had the power to heal the sick when no more than a handkerchief was laid on them; yet his body was frail beyond words. The Jews who followed him about to harass him would have mocked him as they watched him heal others while he himself suffered from illness. People generally think that if you believe in God, you ought to have no sickness, no poverty, and no enemies. But look at Paul struggling with his illness, and you can see how impartial God is.

The grace God gave Paul was this: he made even the apostle realize that he was a weak creature who could not be healed unless God healed him, and through his enemies he caused him to know that he too needed God’s protection. Paul’s faith was as high as a mountain, but because he had human weaknesses as well, he could not live without God.

Suppose Paul stood before you preaching the gospel, his eyes so sore and crusted that he could hardly see. What would you think? Would you not say, “Stop worrying about healing others and cure your own disease first”? It would probably not be easy to receive grace from someone preaching the gospel in such a state. Some who say they trust in the atoning work of Christ likewise declare openly that if they are poor or unwell, they are too ashamed to share the gospel. If so, they should not envy the spiritual blessings of the apostle Paul, who chose poverty for himself and suffered for the gospel’s sake.

Knowing how people think, Paul pleaded earnestly with God to take away the sickness of his body that stood in the way of the gospel and to drive off the Jews who persecuted the church, but God did not answer. Because the saving of souls was at stake, Paul’s prayer must have been desperate. Yet God told him that he could not grant the request, for the grace he had received was too great, and without the thorn in his flesh he might become proud. So great was the grace given to Paul that God had made a special check upon it, and that check, God said, was the weakness of his body. The thorn in the flesh tormented Paul and wore him down, but he realized that it, too, was the heart of a God who loved him, and he gave thanks from the heart. This is the mark of a mature faith: though it carries the weakness of a human being fallen into the valley, it sets its hope on heaven.

Those of you whose faith has high mountains and deep valleys must be careful in everything and judge wisely, because you bear responsibility for leading other souls as well as your own. In everyday life, if you find you are on the wrong road, you can simply turn back; but in the matter of salvation, if you follow someone who has no faith, both of you will end up falling into a pit. On the road to salvation, we will meet Christ at the end of life only if we discern the spirits.

If a nation elects the wrong president, it can wait for the term to run out. But a pastor who does not preach the truth becomes a tool of Satan that keeps people out of heaven. That is what makes it so grave. At the judgment, someone may plead that they had the wrong pastor and never learned the word, or excuse themselves by saying that so many people took the broad way that they simply followed; but they will have no chance whatsoever of being forgiven. The excuse of a bad pastor or poor surroundings will not stand, because God has already given us the Bible and the Holy Spirit walks with us.

Adam and Eve heard the word from God himself, yet they were deceived by the devil’s temptation and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the penalty they bore was eternal death. So you too must examine yourselves: what word are you hearing, and what faith do you hold? If you do not know the Scriptures, then even if I were preaching falsehood to you right now, you would have no means of judging it and could not help being deceived. Yet since heaping up Bible knowledge is not the same as understanding the word, you should grasp what the word is trying to tell you, and believe it.

Ezekiel 28:12

12“Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and tell him, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “You were the seal of full measure, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

Satan was once the seal of full measure, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, but now that he has left God’s side there is nothing in him but darkness. Cast out by God, Satan deceives people as though he himself were a perfect god, yet he can never be like Christ. A poisonous mushroom is bright in color and lovely in shape, yet eating it kills. In the same way, the moment someone is deceived by Satan and accepts a different gospel, their spirit dies. That is why we must make every effort to discern the spirits.

Satan knows that people want the blessings of the world and long to be exalted like God, and so he has made a different gospel that deceives them easily. Heretical teaching, accordingly, borrows the Bible and changes its ending, crafting something close enough to the truth to lead people astray.

To judge false spirits rightly, you must rely on the Holy Spirit. When he leads you, your spiritual eyes are opened, so that even when a fallen angel imitates Christ, you can readily tell the difference. God says that only by laying down human righteousness can we exalt the righteousness of God; but false pastors and cult leaders tell the lie that by exalting human righteousness we can be exalted like God. Therefore you must know precisely what the Scriptures say.

God is spreading the gospel by the most foolish of means: the mouths of his people. If we consider that a soul may die or gain eternal life through what we say, the answer to how we ought to live will become plain. The chance of salvation lasts only as long as a person lives on this earth. For that reason all of us who carry the word, pastors and church members alike, must proclaim the true gospel and not mix our own ideas into the word of truth.

Now those who have heard the gospel will have to choose for themselves which way to go. They must decide whether to take the broad way that many travel, or the way of truth, narrow and hard though it is, and they will have to answer for that choice themselves.

One day every person will stand before the judgment seat and give an account to God of what they did in this life. To confess with our own tongue before the Judge all we have done on earth is a truly fearful and terrible thing. Yet what is said before the judgment seat does not change the verdict; it is simply each person telling God how many sins they have committed. It is admitting for themselves that, though given many chances in life, they did not live by the truth, and that they could not complain even if cast into hell.

The reason you must live today well by faith is that you will have to tell God, face to face, every word you have spoken and every deed you have done. Standing before God, we may want to lie, but our tongues will speak the plain truth, and that is what makes that place so terrifying. God’s forgiveness is offered only while we still draw breath. When the life of the body ends, the chance to be forgiven by God is gone with it. If you take it that in causing you to hear this word now, God is giving you one more chance to turn back, it will become grace to you.

Since God has given us no other name by which to be saved than the name of Jesus, Jesus alone is salvation and the power that overcomes death. You who believe in this Jesus are therefore richly blessed. If you have a faith that stands on the high mountain, I hope you will show a humility that bows lower still; and if you meet suffering that drops you into the deep valley, I hope you will have the wisdom to cry out to God. Because the world’s glory collapses in an instant when God takes it away, you who rely on God must be filled with hope, joy, and thanksgiving.

In this dark world, only your faith can shine the light of Christ. So may you live as a holy bride, keeping a lamp that never goes out as you wait to meet the bridegroom. If you have compassion on souls as God does, if you give yourselves up as Christ did, and if you resist evil as resolutely as the Holy Spirit does — if you live the life of God’s people in this way — you will receive and enjoy the wondrous blessings of heaven.

May you be the Lord’s people, always living out a faithful life with an honest faith.