Walking with God

Genesis 5:22-24 And after he had become the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years ……….Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and then he was no more because God had taken him away.

Among Biblical patriarchs, Enoch “the seventh from Adam”, comes across as a bit of an enigmatic character. The holy Bible makes a crisp, dramatic statement that he walked with God for 300 years and then disappeared.  There are others who were known to have walked with God like Job and Noah, but their walk was in a spiritual sense, meaning they were in close fellowship with God, pleased God. But it appears Enoch’s walk was more than that. Like Adam and Eve did before the fall, Enoch seems to have actually walked with God day after day and the practice came to an end abruptly, when he was taken home by God. He is one of the two mentioned in the Bible who went to heaven without experiencing death.

God told Abraham, “Walk before me and be perfect” (Genesis 17:1). How do you walk with God?

1.  Walk in the Newness of Life (Romans 6:4)

Colossians  3:3 says that the moment we have accepted Jesus as our  personal Savior “you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God”. When we repent and are baptized, we symbolically undergo an experience of dying to the old way of our lives and being born to a new celestial life, putting on the new man, clothed ourselves with Christ. Because we are united with Christ in His death, our evil and bondage to sin died along with Him. Now unified in faith in His resurrection life, we have unbroken fellowship with God and freedom from sin’s hold on us, with new goals, new hope and new practices.

Ephesians 4:24 claims that, in this new life, we put on a new self. This is in the likeness of God and has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Galatians 3:26,27 says that we are  all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, as all of us who were baptized into Christ have clothed ourselves with Christ. Paul tells the Galatians that he has been crucified with Christ and it is not he but Jesus who lives in him. If your salvation is genuine and you have totally dedicated your life to Jesus, you are walking with God.

2. Walk in the truth. (3 John 3-4).

The apostle says he has no greater joy than to hear his children walk in the truth. He calls the Christians his children because, as a result of his practice, he was the spiritual father of many. Our steps should be ordered in the Word of God. His word reveals Him to us, edifies us, and leads us to perfection. In Psalms 32:8 God says  “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you -  

In his second letter the writer (John) defines love: ‘’And this is love, that we walk according  His commandments. This is the very commandment you have heard from the beginning, that you must walk in love“. Jesus is the Truth. He told the Jews who were slaves to their tradition and oppressed by religious leaders that the truth will set them free (John 8: 31, 32). Before the crucifixion He prayed to God that His disciples and followers must be sanctified by truth (John 17:17). The Holy Spirit is referred to as the spirit of truth who will guide us into truth (John 16:13). He told Pontius Pilate that He came to witness for truth. When you walking in truth, you are walking with God.

3. Walk in Faith and not by Sight (2 Corinth 5:7)

Life is a journey, or a pilgrimage, and the Christian is traveling to another country. We conduct ourselves in our course of life with reference to the things which are unseen, and not with reference to the things which are seen. To say ‘by faith’ means in the belief of those things which we do not see. We believe in the existence of objects which are invisible, and we are influenced by them. To walk by faith, is to live in the confident expectation of things that are to come; influenced by the belief of the existence of unseen realities. The people of this world are influenced by the things that are seen. They live for wealth, honor, splendor, praise, for the objects which this world can furnish.

The Christian, on the contrary, has a firm conviction of the reality of the glories of heaven; of the fact that the Redeemer is there; of the fact that there is a crown of glory; and he lives, and acts as if that were all real, and as if he saw it all. The simple account of faith, and of living by faith is, that we live and act as if these things were true, and allow them to make an impression on our mind according to their real nature. Paul says in Philippians 3: 13, 14 “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”. When you walk like this, you are walking with God.

4. Walk in the Integrity of Your Heart (1 Kings 9:4)

In order to preserve the integrity of our hearts, we must first trust in the faithfulness of God and endeavor to keep our hearts pure and remember we have been chosen before creation to be holy and pure in Him (Ephesians 1:4). Talking about David’s rule the Bible says the king  shepherded the people with integrity of heart and guided them with skillful hands (Psalms 78:72).  

The Bible overflows with stories of people who walked in the integrity of their hearts, sometimes paying a high price for it. job didn’t waver in his faith in the midst of very serious hardship. Joseph ran away from his tempting mistress and courted a long prison sentence. Shadrack and his friends refused to worship the emperor’s statue and were thrown into the fiery furnace. They were all rehabilitated and exonerated by God. God warned Solomon  if he  walks before Him  faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David did, and do all God’s command and observe God’s  decrees and laws, then He  will establish Solomon’s  royal throne over Israel forever. God cannot ignore rebelliousness. When Solomon failed in his integrity, his country was torn into two. 

Paul instructs his young spiritual son Timothy to run away from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, to pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace and enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord, with pure hearts (2 Timothy 2:22). It is essential eigh every thought and intention of your heart and keep it pure and blameless. God has promised He  will not withhold any benefits from those whose walk is upright. “Blessed are the pure in the heart”, Jesus stated, ‘’they shall see God!’’ (Matthew 5:8).

5. Walk Humbly with Your God. (Mica 6-8)

“What does God require of you but to act justly, to show mercy, and to walk humbly with God?” asks the prophet in Micah 6:8. Humility in God’s children is an estimable quality which God commends. 1John lists pride as a sin.  God hates proud lips, the Bible says. 1 Peter 5:5 says God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Jesus is the ultimate example of humility. When it was required of Him to become the Savior of mankind, He set aside his glory and power, assumed a human body and human nature, submitted Himself to human constraints playing a servant’s role.  Prayers are made effective when offered in the humility of heart. In a parable by Jesus, two men, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector, go to the temple to pray. The religious leader boasts about how righteous he was. The despised tax collector beats his chest and cries and petitions God to have mercy on him. It was latter who was justified by God, Jesus said, for his humility.

In conclusion:

God instructed Abraham “Walk before me and be perfect”.  Walking in the integrity of heart is the epitome of perfection. When you walk this way you are walking “worthy” of your call. (Eph 4:1) Jesus said, in John 8:12 "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life." He further says in 11:8 ‘’any one who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”

Psalms 23 says “Even if you walk through the valley of the shadow of death you won’t fear any evil. His rod and His shaft will comfort you”. When Enoch walked consistently with God, God rewarded him with the unusual privilege of taking him to Himself; perhaps they continued to walk together in heaven. Jesus promised He’ll find houses for us, then come and take us with Him. We will walk in the light of the Lamb in New Jerusalem (Rev 21:24).

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2 Timothy 2:22 Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue ...