Imagine, for a moment, that Jesus was like us, approaching Christianity as we know it today.

Suppose, for instance, He, the King and creator of the universe, was standing in front of the religious leaders of His day with the mindset we see in the church today.  Perhaps he might approach leaders of a “different denomination” with some cordiality, trying to find some “common ground” so that they could see a little more “on the same level”.

Perhaps He might have, to use popular expression, tried to scale the mountain of the religion in His day to try to disciple His nation.

But, from the text, Jesus didn’t do any of that.

Instead, we see this.

But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places. Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.

Luke 11:42-44

There has got to come a point where we realize that Jesus didn’t come to “get along” (Matthew 10:34).  He didn’t just come with a message to encourage and to bring hope, but He brought life, at a price that cost His all.  Jesus didn’t have an idea or an opinion about how things should be, nor did He ever suggest coming together upon anything other than the basis of absolute truth.

Without faith, it is impossible to know truth.  At some point, certain things just are, and it apparent.  Our correct grasp of truth is always borne out in real life, in how circumstances pan out for us after a while.  This is called wisdom and prudence.

Jesus’ form of Truth, His form of Faith, produced results so out of this world that backed up and verified His claims at being God.  Every true proclamation of the Gospel comes from this place, and it is evidenced as the only message of salvation.  Our God is the only God that saves, and demonstrates His unsurpassed greatness and power.

Jesus could stand and preach with authority because He knew that what He had was absolute truth, and He knew it because of faith.  Although He was God, He lived on Earth as a man.  He received direction as a man fully anointed by the Holy Spirit, as a demonstration of how we are supposed to live.

The difference between a man who stands and a man who falls is whether they are built upon something solid.  Jesus built His entire ministry (and life) around one thing, living by the Spirit in revelation, in gifting, in speech, in motivation, and in character and purpose.  He demonstrated, modeled, the way of the Spirit, the way of the Kingdom.

The place of faith sees things differently.  When you know something by faith, whether you know what is before it or after it may not matter, but you know that part absolutely.  You know by faith that by the Word of God the worlds were framed.  You know by faith that God raised Jesus from the dead.   You know by faith that the Kingdom is life Beyond measure.

For we do not desire to go beyond what is written (1 Corinthians 4:6) in the sense of contradicting things or leaving the main, and plain truth, but in the faith in “greater things”, we must abound.  It is in Faith that we understand these things, and the one who stands by faith does not fall, for faith is the substance of the thing hoped for.

Jesus, with perfect faith, could not bend nor inch away from His commands, for He was the Truth.  It was who He was and was all that He was.  He did not have to try to offend, He had to be the Truth, and when Truth spoke, it was he that was speaking.

With confidence Jesus rebuked the religious leaders, and did not join them.  He did not have to, for He knew the truth and He was free.  He did not need to bind Himself in with a corrupt system, He needed to be obedient and submissive to Heaven.

There is a place for proper shepherding and stewardship of the flock of God, but a man of God stands alone by the Spirit of God, or he is nothing.

There cannot be anything but the truth of God, known and revealed to a man, that is the basis and substance of the Church of God, for it must be by revelation, like it was given to Peter, directly from Heaven.  All the words of man must be backed up, protected, and always point to someone else.  Even as Adam pointed to Eve and Eve pointed to the serpent, the chain of responsibility never really ends, nothing is really known, until faith arrives.

And, once faith arrives, once something is known by the Spirit of God, by the substance of heaven, it is war.  There is no rest in this fallen, depraved world for the man of God, but in Him.  For, to stand by faith, you stand against the tide that wants their ears stopped and their eyes blinded.

When you have faith, the world stops, and hates you, because you testify, boldly, and without shame, that its deeds are evil.

There is no stable Christian without confidence.  It is for this reason that Paul exhorts his readers to not throw away their confidence for it will be richly rewarded (Hebrews 10:35).  It is the confident that stand in faith, regardless of what circumstances look like, that God is on their side.

The Kingdom of Heaven looks like something.  It is not formless and void, as the world was when it was created, but it has shape and purpose and meaning.  It is this way and not that way, that way and not this, for a reason.

As God designed our bodies with form and function, so the nature of the Kingdom reflects the one ruling it.

When we see and understand His ways greater and greater, no longer is it this way and that, but it is closer and closer to the Holy One, every step.

For He directs our paths, and He is the author and finisher of our faith.  He is the Great I am for framed the worlds, and by His command, we live and die.

Is it not right that we lose our wills to the King?  Is it not right that we take nothing of this world as our own?

For we are priests of the Most High for His pleasure.  And, we are not our own.

Jesus had an opinion on every subject, for He created them all, and He did not budge on a single one.  What other way is there for the true adherent to His ways than to be unmovable, unshakable, and un-bendable.

It is not enough to get along, we must be right by the Holy Ghost.

What good does it do if you get the whole world in unity with you, only for God to be displeased?  Mark 8:36.

There is no profit in any endeavor, save that it is from and toward the Holy Ghost.  God may be pleased for you to have a family, a wife, and kids, and it may be one of the most rewarding ventures, but if Jesus demands another way, what Jesus wants, He gets, take it or leave it.

One day, after Noah was completely done building His ark, something remarkable happened.  He shut the door.

From this day on, the fate of the world was sealed.

In the realm of the Holy Spirit, we have shut the door, and sealed it tight.  There is no going back.  We have sealed our self in, and, though the rains may fall for many days and nights, and the waters cover the Earth for months to come, I have hope in the Holy One that He will see me right.

But God remembered Noah…

Genesis 8:1 (portion)

When the way has been made, and the door has been shut, there is no voice but one.  And, if He leads us to the banqueting table, whether we are to dine ourselves or be eaten by others, our only voice is, “Yes, Lord.”