These days, as God cleans house, He’s helping to open the eyes of believers to the rhetoric that feels good, but really doesn’t make a lot of sense once you’ve thought it through. An often quoted objection to God restoring truth to the church bubbles up from time to time. It sounds like this: “God wants us to walk with Him. Christianity isn’t about a formula—it’s about relationship.”

The idea is that the pattern of truth somehow cramps your style and prevents you from having a personal relationship with God. This, of course, is a fear that the devil sowed into the heart. We’re going to cast off these disparities weighted against God.

It’s  true, God does restrict faith to the reality of Jesus Christ. He did that to prevent the imagination from building a one-sided relationship with God. When following God’s blueprint, God directs the heart into the full measure of Christ. That is a very tangible two-sided relationship with God.

Christianity is not about a one-sided relationship – it is about a two-sided relationship that takes place when faith is a mirror image of Jesus and not a mirror image of self.

The word formula means, “A plan or method for doing, making, or achieving something”.  The word “formula” holds the same meaning as the words “pattern” or “master builder”. These are words that God uses to communicate that our relationship with Him takes place as we build with Him according to that which He gives us.

God instructed Moses saying, “According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.” (Exodus 25:9)

Apostle Paul used similar language to convey to the church that their instruction was according to the pattern he received, “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.” (1 Corinthians 3:10)

The carnal mind fights against the idea of working from one framework of truth (pattern of Christ) because it perceives a threat against the free flow of one’s imagination. The imagination feels good, the pattern feels controlling. So those still in the wilderness tents might also express that frustration shouting, “Stop controlling me!”

As minds continue to struggle with God’s commandment that the church build from one pattern, God mercifully continues to bring those of humble hearts out into His light to understand what a living relationship with Him is really all about.

Sometimes a comic illustration says it all, helping to brush away the cobwebs that tend to gather when the habit was to turn knowledge inward to serve self.

And the craftsman responds, “Hey man… Moses. I know God gave you the pattern… uh, the blueprints. But don’t tell me, man. I don’t work well with formulas. It takes all the guesswork out of it. I decided to toss the instructions  you got from God and go it alone. That way I can build a relationship with God in the process.”

Moses would think, “Oh dear, more intuitive revelation. At this rate, we’ll be out here forever.” The craftsman might go on to explain why he’s refusing to build according to God’s pattern – it’s because something else feels good to him.

He might say, “Stop trying to control me, Moses! I know it might not be the vision you had. But hey, what the heck. I developed my vision of God’s house. Pretty neat, heh!? I’m headed back to prayer to see what else God wants me to build.”

Relationship with God by the eyes of the flesh means, I can do what seems right in my own eyes (develop my own pattern, teachings, etc), what seems good to me. For a long time, ministers were not held accountable to this disparity, but the tide has shifted against independent ministry and the teach one-sided relationship with God