"Let's Cross Over to the Other Side"
For a believer wondering Who or what they can rely on.
On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, 'Let us cross over to the other side.' Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him.
And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, 'Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?'
Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, 'Peace, be still!' And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, 'Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?' And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, 'Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!'
—Mark 4:35-41
The Word said “Let us go to the other side.”
Going to the other side of the lake was the will of the Eternal Father, whose Word (which structures and is the structure of Reality) always accomplishes His purposes and never returns void.
When He said “Let us go to the other side,” that meant: “We are going to the other side, and we will arrive at the other side. It will be done, because My Will will be done.”
Jesus knew this to the uttermost, and with that confidence, He took a nap on a pillow.
When a storm of darkness hit the boat, His disciples interpreted His confident rest in faith as a lack of care, and were convinced they were going to die and not make it to the other side. Their visible circumstances were more real to them than the invisible Source who had created the very elements of the material world that were being hurled at them. They had “no faith” in the Eternal Word of Reality Who had guaranteed their successful passage simply by speaking, “Let us go to the other side.”
Faith — according to Scripture — is a “substance,”1 one more precious than gold tried by fire2, more abiding than spiritual giftings3, and one that Jesus Himself is looking for when He returns to earth4. It is so strong a substance that it is even fashioned into a shield that is able to protect one against the assaults of the devil himself5.
The substance of faith is so real, in fact, that not only did it enable Peter to defy the structural principles of water and gravity6, but Hebrews 11 accounts "faith" to have been responsible for the collapse of Jericho’s city walls, entire kingdoms being subdued, lions' mouths being stopped, the violence of fire being quenched, and women receiving their dead raised to life again (among other things).
When we have that “substance” of Eternity7 called “faith,” the very presence of that substance is the proof that we also have that which we hope for, and is the very evidence of the presence of that (and Who) we cannot see.
Abiding in God's Word (the structure of Reality) in faith (the substance of Reality) enables us as the people of God to do things and go places in the world (and beyond the world) that the world itself is utterly incapable of going to and doing.
Hebrews 11:29 says
“By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.”
Literally, by the substance of Reality and in obedience to the Word of Reality, the people of God passed through the middle of an elemental substance that would have otherwise overpowered them.
The Egyptians did not have faith, they did not have God, and they were destroyed by the collapse of the material world around them as a result of trying to do what the people of God were doing and going where the people of God were going.
The world can not do or go with God.
Throughout Scripture, God has laid out what is going to happen on the earth in the last days. It will be done, and IS being done. As I wrote about before, 2 Peter 3 reveals that this current heaven and earth are stored up for FIRE, and WILL perish.
And yet, the admonition again and again to the family of God is: “see that you are not troubled, for all these things must come to pass.”
If we are to “look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our FAITH,” we see a Man filled with the Holy Spirit, obeying His Father's Will, who is so confident in the Eternal Reality of God that He rests in perfect peace in the middle of a demonic storm simply because God said “Go to the other side of the lake.”
This same Word has told us: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
IN Christ we may have peace.
To be IN something, there must be a structure which is around you:
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.”
—Psalm 46:1-3
If we abide IN His Word... we are INSIDE the structural reality of Eternity.
If we are in Him, we will have peace despite the tribulations of the world around us, because He has overcome the world and He has said that He is “with us always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
"For whatever is born of God overcomes the world.
And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"
// 1 John 5:4-5 //
Hebrews 11:1 — “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
1 Peter 1:7 — “that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,”
1 Corinthians 13:13 — “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
Luke 18:8 — “I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”
Ephesians 6:16 — “above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”
Matthew 14:28-31 — “And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”
So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”
And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Romans 10:17 + John 1:1 + Hebrews 12:2 — “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God + In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God + looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”