WALKING WITH GOD

Micah 6:8

He has shown you, O man, what is good;

And what does the Lord require of you

But to do justly,

To love mercy,

And to walk humbly with your God?

Copyright © 2014 CreationSwap LLC

We were created to walk not only in the natural but also in a spiritual sense. Walking in the spiritual sense can pertain to our day-to-day fellowship with God or our life journey as a whole. That is why we often hear among Christians questions like “How is your walk with God lately?” or “Where are you in your walk with God?”

We will all make a choice of how to walk. Man can either walk on his own, with wrong company or with God. That God requires us to walk with Him reveals how God does not desire for man to walk on his own.

 A. Walk alone. To walk on one’s own is to be independent. An independent attitude is to desire to chart your own path and pursue it with your own strength, not desiring to receive guidance and strength from God. Independence is a problem of unbelievers but it can also be experienced by believers. Somebody who is independent does not inquire of God nor seek and receive counsel from others. He does not want to walk with others. He refuses to have authorities over him. He would rather make decisions alone. He believes he can manage on his own. He refuses to be accountable to anyone. Proverbs tells us that when a person is independent it is because he is seeking his own desires.

Proverbs 18:1-2

“A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire;

He rages against all wise judgment.

A fool has no delight in understanding,

But in expressing his own heart.” 

There was once a young man who was very zealous in his pursuit of God. He sought to live consecrated from worldliness. However, he had a certain vulnerability that was beginning to surface. What was peculiar about this young man was his refusal to go to church believing that churches in the area he was were not going to he satisfy his needs. He also thought he can carry on with Christian life seeking God alone. Not long after, he fell into deep immorality and has chosen to continue a path that further distanced him from God.

Independence is rooted in pride and a disdain for submission. Ultimately when a person seeks to walk on his own, he is refusing the lordship of God over his life because he desires for “self” to continue to reign.

B. Walk with wrong company. We can also choose to walk with the wrong company. This may mean surrounding ourselves with people who will not lead us to God but will pull us to the world. How important it is that we choose our friends. Because the people we spend time with, whose counsel or opinion of us matters will greatly impact our path in life.

Psalms 1:1

Blessed is the man

Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

Nor stands in the path of sinners,

Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 

May we choose to surround ourselves with people whose lives we desire to emulate or whose lives inspire and encourage us to go on with God. I am eternally grateful to the fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters in the faith whose lives and words have led me to seek more of God. It was because I was surrounded by people who so desired to reach full Christ-likeness that I have many times been spared from wrong choices. It was because of their timely sharing of how God has been meeting them that many times the flame in my heart for God was rekindled. Truly, I owe my walk with God to Him and the many beautiful saints He has brought to my life.

C. Walk with God. We were called to walk with God.

Micah 6:8

He has shown you, O man, what is good;

And what does the Lord require of you

But to do justly,

To love mercy,

And to walk humbly with your God?” 

Micah 6 says that the Lord requires three things: to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.

Why was man created to walk? Because God walks.

Genesis 3:8

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” 

God designed us to walk because He himself walks and He desires to walk with us. We were designed to walk so that we can move from where we were originally to our destination. We were designed not to stay where we are but to reach a destiny. However, we can only move forward if we are walking with God because only He knows the way and only He can see us through the journey. The Israelites walked their way to the Promise Land. They arrived there as they were led by God. They had to walk with God.

What does it mean to walk with God?

A. To walk with God, we must follow Him. To walk with somebody we must agree to walk a certain path together.

Amos 3:3 Can two walk together, unless they are agreed? 

Therefore if we want to walk with God we must be in agreement with Him. We must always agree with Him and align ourselves to His plans regardless of the consequences. One cannot walk with God unless that person is willing to let God determine the path to take. If we will walk with God we must follow Him. God cannot follow man. So to walk with God is to follow Him through our journey in life. We have to relinquish control to Him. To walk with God we must allow Him to decide where to go, how to go, and when to go.

Are we walking with God today? Are we allowing Him to call the shots? Are we seeking His choices for our lives?

B. To walk with God also means to converse with Him along the way. It is as we journey with God that our relationship with Him grows because we are able to commune with Him.

Teachers during the time of Jesus walked whenever they taught their disciples. Jesus imparted precious truths to his disciples while they walked. Today God continues to desire to walk with us to commune with us and to unfold to us His precious truths. Our walk with God must be a journey of communing with Him where we listen to Him everyday as well as pour out our hearts to Him. Our prayer times are integral to our walk with God. Thus, we must cultivate our prayer lives. We cannot follow God unless we hear His voice. Hearing God’s voice is part of our communion with God.

Isaiah 30:21

Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,

“This is the way, walk in it,”

Whenever you turn to the right hand

Or whenever you turn to the left.

Practice listening to God throughout the day whether you are having your quiet time or doing other things because God can speak anytime. Keep your ears open to Him. It helps that our environment is quiet. It also helps to hear God when we listen to preachings and read the Word. The more we soak in His Word the easier it will be to recognize His voice. Let us also practice inquiring of Him daily not only for big decisions but also for our day-to-day activities. I have heard of the testimony of a woman who always began her day by asking Good "Lord, where do You want us to go today?" What a heart of submission and reliance on God!

C. When we walk with God we must allow Him to change us. When we walk with God, because it means being in His presence, we behold His holiness more and more and we also behold our filthiness more and more. When we walk with God He will deal with the issues in our lives. May we allow Him. We will get corrected by God. We will be disciplined by God. Take the example of the disciples who walked with Jesus throughout His earthly ministry. As they spent time with Jesus, impurities were exposed and yet the faithful stayed on and yielded to the transforming work of God. 

Thus, to walk with God, Micah tells us, we must do so humbly. It takes humility to acknowledge that only God knows what is best for us and to submit to His choices for our lives. It takes humility to inquire of God and to depend on His strength. It takes humility to submit ourselves to the discipline of God. We can only walk with God if we are humble. The Lord walks with the lowly in heart, those who are broken and contrite before Him.

We must walk with God continuously.

Walking with God is progressive. The more we walk with God, the deeper the revelations and experiential knowledge we will have of God. If we will choose to walk with God, He will take us to heights where we are presented the choice to move on further or to merely settle where we are at already.

John 6:60 “ Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” 

If I may quote from Dr. Brian Bailey's Book The Gospel of John (1997: 166-167):

"The demands of the Christian life are very high. Jesus set before us the ultimate standard of dedication, righteousness, holiness, truth and faithfulness. Many like these hearers in the synagogue and the rich young ruler, find the cost of following Christ too high.
Faced with revelation of a higher ground in their walk with the Lord and with greater demands, many Christians are prone to hesitate and say, “Am I ready and willing to pay the price?” However, there is an abundance of God’s grace to meet our needs. These Jews were not willing to turn to the All-Sufficient One who can enable us to meet His standards."

John 6:66

From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. 

John 6:67-69

Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?”

But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

When faced with deeper revelation in their walk with the Lord and with greater demands, many decided to stop walking with Jesus. They did not want to move on any further. We will have to ask God for the grace to move on with Him.

Peter in his response demonstrated his heart to continue his walk with God to the end. While throughout his life, he would have failures, he continued to walk with God and saw the fulfillment of what Jesus said.

John 21:18-19

Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me.”

Enoch walked with God until he was taken. Very little is said of Enoch but that for 300 years he walked with God and pleased Him.

It pleases the Lord when we walk with Him and like Enoch doing so until the end.

Genesis 5:22-24

After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.

The result of walking with God in Enoch's life was receiving revelation from the Lord of the end times and being kept from the judgment.

Jude 1:14-15

“Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” 

Hebrews 11:5-6

By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.“

By the grace of God may we be like Enoch or Peter who will walk with God to the end.