To be pleasing to God involves a faith that first accepts God’s revelation of Himself and then believes that God will meet and reward those who seek Him. Many people believe in God, but they do not walk with God and they do not please Him.
To walk with God is not as easy as you might think. You must believe that He is what He reveals Himself to be, and that He is what He says He is in the Word. If He reveals Himself to be your healer, then you are bound to walk with Him, believing Him for your healing. If you believe Him to be your sanctifier, then you must walk a sanctified life. If you believe Him to be the Lord of lords, you must walk as a bond-servant. The revelation of what He is comes to you out of the Word, and from that moment on a walk with God means the complete embracing of everything that He has revealed Himself to be. If you fail to walk in every truth that God reveals Himself to be, you will face many problems and difficulties. You cannot excuse your failures, because walking with God overcomes every difficulty.
A man who is fighting rebellion, withdrawal, greed, lust, and a thousand distractions that stop him will still overcome them if he is always pressing on to walk with God. Because he is pressing on to walk with the Lord, the Lord will loose him from those things, and they will drop off. Look at the path of a man who walks with God, and you will find that he has been throwing off problems all along the way. A man will never overcome if he waits to become perfect before he approaches God. He will sit in his own cesspool from that time on. God meets the man who is walking in the light. Walk in the light as He is in the light, and the blood of Christ will cleanse us from all unrighteousness; and there will be blessed fellowship with one another, according to the promise of God (I John 1:7).
Accept what God says that He is and what He intends to be to you. Without faith in that, it is impossible to please Him. You do not please God because of the knowledge that you have in your head or the revelation that He brings to your spirit. You please God when you walk in that revelation and accept the relationship to God that He reveals. This is the basis of a walk with God. Come to the house of God and hear the Word, but hear it with fear and trembling. When something reaches your heart in revelation, review it again and again until your reluctant, stumbling spirit presses in to know the Lord in that aspect. There is no other way to do it. The world is full of churches that had revelations which never became real to them. Lip service, a token obedience, is not enough.
Believe first of all that God is what He reveals Himself to be. Believe also that as you seek Him, He will reward you, that He will meet you and keep meeting you. God does not promise you exactly what you ask, but He is a rewarder. Sometimes He seems to dole it out in little chunks, little blessings, little tidbits, and little samples. Sometimes He seems to tease and torment, but He is only drawing you ultimately into everything that you believe Him to be. The acceptance of every promise is valid for you. Do not only accept the fact that He is the Lord, but believe that He is your Lord and that your diligent seeking after Him will be rewarded. Move out. Take a step. No one else can do it for you. Continually looking to the elders for ministry can keep you from walking with God. You become lazy if you do not seek God or pray or press in yourself. Sometimes you get into trouble and look to the elders to bring you out of it. That may work for a while, but you will find yourself drifting further back. A walk with God belongs to the people who press in for themselves.
Elders and apostles and prophets are not given as a substitute for walking with God. There is no substitute. They are given to help you be no longer a child, but to grow up into Him, reaching and striving. They are not to prolong your infancy so that you can have a pacifier and someone to pamper and carry you. The army of the Lord is not a glorified nursery. The word comes through the ministries of authority to help you stand on your feet and move. Those who continually look to the elders as a substitute for their own lack of spirituality should be told to pray for a day or a week and then to come back to find out how they are doing.
Do not expect someone else to receive all the revelation and the guidance for you. Grow up and become mature. You cannot walk with God by being carried and dragged along, with someone patting your back and burping you every time your feelings are hurt. Grow up and develop a sensitivity toward God for receiving the word and the revelation yourself.
Press into everything that God brings to you. The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. Luke 16:16. The more revelation you have, the more diligence you must exercise; for with revelation comes a responsibility. Faith has a responsibility to diligently believe everything that God reveals. If you think that is easy, try going over all the things that you have heard and received. Do not purpose that some day you will tithe; do it now. Do not purpose that some day you will pray more; start praying today. Do not hear about the Lordship of Jesus Christ without submitting everything to His inspection and direction. Do not listen passively to the truths that come to tell you how to walk, how to live, and what God is to be to you. Take hold of them with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength.
What is the goal? Pleasing the Lord. You please Him with the kind of faith that is not presumptuously running ahead, nor withdrawing or holding back, but pressing on with the Lord.
Hold an expectancy of faith in your heart. Believe for the day when the Lord will say to you, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of the Lord” (Matthew 25:21). This will take diligence because it cannot be a secondary idea in your mind. Love Him first of all. Seek Him and cherish His Word.
Let God stir you and move upon you to delight and love the Word above everything else, so that as it reaches your heart, He will smite you with a revelation of Himself. Then you will bow before Him and repent where you have failed; for this kind of faith involves repentance. When a truth reaches your heart, do something about it.
This generation will walk into the days of the Kingdom. There cannot be any truths presented to us of the discipleship and the total demand that God makes upon our lives without our saying, “Lord, if we are not able to present this to You, work in us to will and to do of Your good pleasure, that in all ways we may please You and serve You acceptedly.” None of us have really arrived, so let us keep pressing in to please the Lord, and walk with Him every day.