In the Garden of Eden, God came down and walked and talked with Adam and Eve. But when sin came, it seperated them from that walk with God.
Throughout the Old Testament there are instances where men walked with God. In Genesis 17:1, God said to Abraham: walk before me, and be thou perfect. Abraham almost took that phrase as the identifying mark of his life. When he was blessing his servant to send him after a wife for his son Isaac, he said, “The Lord before whom I walk will bless you.” Abraham really walked with God and the Scriptures speak of him as “the friend of God.”
In Genesis 6:9 we read, Noah was a righteous man, and perfect in his generations: Noah walked with God.
What does it mean to have a walk with God?
It’s very important for us to know what a walk with God really is, for we often have wrong ideas about it. Some people may think they have a walk with God and they have not. They don’t know the Lord, they don’t walk with Him, they don’t commune with Him; there’s none of that real hunger reaching out.
No one can walk with God unless he is consumed by a hunger after God. If you don’t have it, cry out for it until God puts that hunger for Himself within your very heart.
There are people who have experiences with God; they’ve had the Lord answer their prayers; they’re dedicated to His service, they work for Him, they really love Him—but they don’t know Him. They don’t really have a walk with Him.
The Bible speaks of only a few men who walked with God; but those who did, were instruments in changing the destiny of the human world.
Abraham walked with God and God promised him that he would be the father of kings, and through him nations would be moved and blessed.
Noah walked with God and the whole human race was preserved because of one man’s dedication to walk with God.
Enoch walked with God, and it is very significant what God did for him, he was translated without experiencing death.
Genesis 5:21–27. And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: and Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. And Methuselah lived a hundred and eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech: and Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters: and all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.
There’s a little phrase we used to say, “The oldest man who ever lived died before his father did.” That is true. The oldest man who ever lived was Methuselah and he lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years, but he still died before his father did because his father never died. Enoch was translated when he was three hundred and sixty-five years old.
Enoch was an amazing man. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews tells of his tremendous faith. Verse 5, 6: By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God translated him: for he hath had witness borne to him that before his translation he had been well-pleasing unto God: and without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after him. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death. He believed for it; he believed it with all his heart.
In the fourteenth verse of the book of Jude we read, And to these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, Prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment upon all. Enoch lived at the dawn of history and he wrote a book, the Book of Enoch. There is a true book of Enoch somewhere, but the apocryphal book I believe is a specious one which was written about 100 B. C. Enoch has been said to be the father of writing. Frankly, I think the Book of Enoch is preserved some place and during the great kingdom age it will be discovered again. No doubt other books that are mentioned in the Bible will also be recovered.
God always has His perfect word and revelation. The Old Testament was perfect for the Old Testament times. It contained all the seed principles and thoughts that were to govern the church age and the kingdom. It was complete even without another revelation; but aren’t you glad we received the New Testament in due time?
Eventually there will be other words that God will add to govern us when the kingdom comes, but that will be for another age. We have everything we need right now. We have so much that points the way.
Enoch wrote his book as he was walking with God. He was listening to what God had to say, he was seeing the things God wanted him to see. He saw the great visions of the Lord coming. The Lord must have taught him many things, and his faith kept growing.
During Enoch’s life the days were probably growing very evil in the world. He was more concerned about the walk with God than anything else. God showed him the flood coming that would destroy all flesh, and that is why he called his son Methuselah which means man of the dart, or he dies and it (the flood) is sent.
That is why Methuselah was the oldest man that ever lived. God kept extending his life, and extending his life because God is longsuffering and merciful and not willing than any should perish, but that all would come to repentance.
God showed Enoch the things that are going to come in the end time, when He would bring judgment on all the ungodly. Enoch was on very close terms with the Lord but not in a “buddy, buddy” type of relationship, but a friendship relationship.
Enoch had the kind of faith that reached in and believed for translation right out of this old world. When you walk with God you have to believe He can do anything, you have to have faith. Enoch had the faith that could believe for anything and he believed for the most fantastic thing—to have his mortal body literally transformed. Doctrinally it was impossible, for man was under the curse from the fall.
The world had a lot of vitality back then, but can you imagine a man living three hundred and sixty five years filled with energy and force.
In spite of all the vitality the earth had back then, Enoch was technically in a human race that was fallen and depraved. No doubt they were talking about the Adamic nature back in those times. There were probably some good theologians around saying, “We don’t know how to cope with this situation of the fall, but we know we can’t believe for anything like they had in the Garden of Eden. We don’t believe that man can talk and walk with God now. We have been driven out of the Garden; this is our doctrine; that age is past.”
But Enoch disproved it all by walking and talking with God. When you have it all worked out that it isn’t Scriptural and you can’t do it, there’s always somebody who comes along and does it anyway. I’d like to be one of those people.
The only qualification you have to have to do signs and wonders and exploits is to walk with God. Daniel 11:32: … but the people that know their God shall be strong, and do exploits. Tremendous things will happen because you will know Him, you will trust Him, and you will draw from Him.
A number of things were involved in Enoch’s walk with God. First of all he had real faith; for without that faith it would be impossible to please the Lord.
A walk with God means that you are more concerned about worshiping and communing with the Lord than you are in communing with any other individual on the face of the earth. It’s very easy to let the Lord take a second place. When you love someone in this world, and you want to be with them all the time, it’s very easy to put them ahead of the Lord. It’s easy to put something that you’re vitally interested in ahead of the Lord. A person can even take a blessing from the Lord, and give it precedence over the Lord. That’s why God had to say to Abraham, “Offer up your only son; put a knife in his heart.” He had to demand that, he had to test him, to see if Abraham loved and worshiped the blessing of God more than God. Daniel was a very busy man, an executive with many responsibilities, but he managed to walk with God.
A walk with God involves your faith, your communion, your worship, your obedience, waiting on the Lord and meditation. It involves the fear of the Lord and submission to God; that no matter what God does, or what He requires, you are absolutely submissive. It requires a great deal of discipline. It takes time to walk with God, to pray and to be in the Word, and it’s so easy for other things to be more important.
It takes a great deal of dedication, because you’re dealing with an illusive thing. You can write a book, and there is always the satisfaction of seeing the finished product. You can make some pottery or build a house, and you see the finished product. You can go out and earn money, and see the result of your labor. But you can spend endless days and years in walking with God, while Satan torments you, saying it’s all worthless, that it is not worthwhile; because you’re doing such an illusive thing.
A walk with God! Who could even define it, let alone know whether you had it or not? You’ll know; it’s a very real thing and it’s worth the effort. God can’t have any rivals. The dedication is there.
Isaiah 40:31 is a familiar Scripture—but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles. That’s great—mounting up with wings like eagles, those soaring experiences in God. And we say, “Oh, I soared into the third heaven; I saw wonderful things.” … they shall run, and not be weary. It is marvelous to be dedicated, and work at the job with endurance. But the last is the greatest of all: they shall walk, and not faint—to walk with God with a heart that will not faint, with a spirit that will not judge, without letting anything get in the way.
It’s your confession, your decision, “I’m not going to let anything upset me: I’m determined on the course; “I’m not going to let anything trip me up or put me in a corner; I’ve set my course: I’m going to walk with God.” There will be people in this generation who will come up and walk with God during this time of judgment in the earth.
If you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, the other things will be added. When you put God first, and seek Him first, it will be the one time of your life that you’ll not be disappointed and disillusioned.
A walk with God is based upon whole-hearted love and service. People are often disappointed because God can’t give them what He wants to give them.
Abraham walked with God and God rained money on him like it was dew from heaven. Here was a man after God’s own heart, who loved God and walked with Him, and God blessed him and made him exceedingly rich.
Job was a man perfect in all of his ways before the Lord, and God made him a very rich man. There can’t be any restriction of finances, any restriction of health, any inadequacy whatsoever; there can’t be any spiritual limitation; there can’t be anything but happiness and real joy and fulfillment in life, for anyone who is walking in the perfect will of God. To walk with God can open the door, as it has in every instance that you can find in the Scriptures, to fantastic things.
Is this walk with God something that you want for yourself? Do you want to discipline yourself, get up in the morning and seek God? Get away from this thing of saying prayers, of reading the Bible as a ritual.
Read it until it lives; read it until you eat it; read it until you begin to feel the Author breathe down your neck as He whispers into your ears what it is all about, what He really meant when He wrote it. Read it until the fire that burns in the prophet’s heart burns in your heart as the Word is transferred from a cold page to the tablets of the heart.
Love His word, love Him. Does it sound complicated? It isn’t—just love Him, trust Him. Repentance is a good thing. Repent of every time you’ve displeased the Lord. Repent in depth, until you see the awfulness of even the most insignificant things, if they kept you from breaking through to that communion with God.
Be obedient. If you promised the Lord something, do it. If He told you to do something, do it. Be submissive; come to the full submission of all that He has said in your heart. Hold everything else loosely; lay it all on the altar. Be ready to turn your back and walk away from everything in the world—if that is the price required to walk with God.
Don’t let anything mean more to you than God does; don’t let anything rival God. Come to the place where you want Him above everything, even your own life. Oh how God blesses those that hunger and thirst after Him! What is the most profitable thing you can do? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8.