Walking With God

The difference between religion and eternal life is that religion usually does not look to the Lord for direction and fellowship. Religion is presented in the Book of Revelation as "Babylon the Great." Eternal life, on the other hand, lives and behaves in close interaction with the living Lord Jesus. It walks with Him and talks with Him, like Enoch. Religion stresses its "Statement of Faith" and its practices. Eternal life emphasizes walking with Jesus.

(12/17/2006) The utter simplicity of what God expects of us has dawned on me. Our Creator, our Father, asks only that we behave righteously, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him.

The simplicity of this astounds me. I have been a fervent Christians for 61 years. Like all of us, I have been confronted with numerous problems, temptations, complexities. There is this and there is that! So many voices in the world.

But I have kept plugging along, repenting and making restitution when I have been deceived. At the present time I am in a broad place with the Lord, enjoying His Presence.

I have noticed several times how religions of various sorts, including the Christian religion, talk about God but do not listen to Him. We have our sermons, our responsive readings, our hymns, our choir selections, our special music, our giving, our building. But we tend to ask God to bless our efforts rather than to ask Him what He wants. Perhaps we don't believe He will talk to us or make His desires known.

As far as I can tell, the Christian religion began when Peter exclaimed, "Let us build three tabernacles." The Bible says he did not know what he was saying. So it is true that religion in numerous instances does not know what it is doing or saying.

In ancient times people said, "Let us build a tower to heaven." "Let us build three tabernacles." How much better it would be to say, "Should we build a tower to heaven?"; "Should we build three tabernacles?"

Notice in the account of the transfiguration that Christ did not answer Peter. This is because the Lord does not intrude on our plans. He waits patiently until we come to an end of our own works—if we ever do!

It is so simple! It is so utterly simple to walk with God!

Religion cries out: "Work, work, build, build, build, give, give, give. The King's business requires haste. Souls are sliding into Hell. We must rush to the aid of a lost and dying world!"

Jesus says, "Follow Me, and I will make you a fisher of men." Not "Go fish!" "Follow Me. My yoke is easy. My burden is light."

A teacher in Bible school told us this means Christ's burden is light, as opposed to darkness. It means light as opposed to heavy.

How many passages of the Scriptures does religion twist to its own ambitions. "The wages of sin is death," we preach, meaning that the unsaved will die unless they "accept Christ." The context of the statement means that if believers who are baptized in water continue to be the slaves of sin they will die spiritually. "God gave us His Son so we will go to Heaven and not Hell," we announce. But the Bible proclaims that God gave us His Son so we will not perish but have eternal life. Not the same thing at all!

There are numerous religions in the world today. The two that seem to be in the most direct confrontation are the Muslim and the Christian. Both look to their written sources for direction. Neither one to any observable extent claims to hear from the Lord.

Jesus Christ wants us to practice His Presence at all times. "He walks with me and He talks with me," the old hymn says. This is what Christ wants.

Do you have a particular problem right now? Are you worrying about it? Are you endeavoring to solve it by you own wisdom and strength?

Why don't you, instead, go to prayer and pray until you know the Lord has heard you. I think it is First John that says if we know He hears us we know we have the petition.

Do you know how to wait in prayer until you have the assurance that Christ has heard you? If not, you have a great adventure and joy ahead of you. You can pray until you strike fire. Then you can't pray anymore. All you can do is praise God.

I know we say we go by faith and not feeling. This is an ignorant statement. The opposite of faith is unbelief, not feeling. If you have no feeling that accompanies your walk with the Lord, it is time to get busy and pray for a personal encounter with Christ.

David prayed that God would not take the joy of his salvation from him, and David was not born again. God will give you love, joy, and peace if you will keep following Christ.

You can know that Christ is with you. If you will acknowledge Christ in all your ways, I said, in all your ways, He will direct your paths and make them straight.

But many of us are too busy to pray. Everyone knows at the holiday season there is no time to get alone and pray until we know God has heard us.

The reason Christian people become deceived is because they don't bear their personal cross faithfully and they do not pray and read their Bible faithfully.

Take every decision of your life to Jesus. Ask for guidance. Begin the moment your eyes open in the morning. You probably will make a thousand decisions during the day, one or two great decisions, the rest minor. Ask Christ about every step you take. Practice His Presence. Seek continual fellowship with Him.

As you make a practice of going to the Lord about everything, you will become more aware of Him. There may be seasons of perplexity, pain, misunderstandings. Do not let any of this deter you from your quest for Christ. It is important that various aspects of your personality be dealt with. Sometimes God's dealings are not pleasant.

But they all are designed to bring us to the place where, like Enoch, we can walk with God until we are ripe for fellowship with God in Heaven.