Have you ever heard that expression? “I’m just walking with God.” What a great and mighty statement to make. It sounds Holy. In most cases it immediately paints a mind-picture of someone hand in hand with the Almighty God Himself. Maybe it doesn’t affect you in this way, but in my mind, it marks that individual as somehow having special favor with the LORD. Perhaps some even think that the person walking with God must have a special relationship with Him and be someone of great importance.
Indeed, in some situations this was the case. Take for example, the very first person who was described as walking with God – Enoch. The Bible doesn’t record much about this man. His entire life is described in Genesis 5:21-24. He is again mentioned in the New Testament Book of Jude. He must have been very close to God because the Bible says of him, “… he walked with God three hundred years … and he was not, for God took him.” (Genesis 5:22, 24). That means that most of his life (he lived 365 years) he sought God, he was passionate for God, and at the end of those years, he did not die but God took Him (meaning that he was translated straight to Heaven without experiencing death). That is simply amazing!
Again, in Genesis, we are told that Noah found favor in the eyes of God and walked faithfully with him,” (Genesis 6:89). He and his family were the only human beings saved during the great world-wide flood brought on the Earth. Out of all the population of the world at that time, only Noah was described as “finding favor” with the Almighty. It didn’t even say that about his family, indicating that they were saved from destruction because of their relationship with Noah.
The idea of walking with God is also found in the New Testament. Galatians 5:16 instructs us to “walk in the Spirit,” or, in other words, be spiritually following after the Spirit of God. By doing so we are told that when we do, we won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. Walking in the Spirit (following God, letting our minds dwell on Him, obeying His word and instructions in our lives) will keep us so busy we won’t have time to sin. That doesn’t mean that we won’t be tempted but that in our temptation we will be more apt to see the way to escape those lusts and temptations. Ephesians 5:2 instructs us to “walk in love.” 1 John 1:7 says that “if we walk in the light [the truth of Christ] as He [Jesus] is in the light that we will have fellowship with each other and the Blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us from all sin.” Finally, in 2 John 1:4 it talks of walking in the truth (same as walking in the light). There are more, but the concept is walking with God.
Now, I know that we aren’t physically walking with God, not yet anyway (we might get that opportunity when we get to heaven – wouldn’t that be great?), but the idea is that we are in communication through our thoughts and prayer with God. Our every decision and move is based on His instruction and we seek Him in all things. I know, that makes it sound like we can’t do anything without consulting God. It paints the picture of someone who acts like and thinks that they are holier than everyone else. There may be some people like that, but I’d say that in reality, those folks are more like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day (pretending to be something they really are not and making themselves look good, and like they have special favor with God when in reality, their own pride makes that picture the farthest thing away from the truth).
Truly walking with God and doing those things we have mentioned from the Scripture, is something we do without flaunting it. We don’t do it out of pride. We don’t paint a picture of ourselves to make us look like we have an “in” with God that no one else has. It takes work, but over time begins to be a natural part of our lives. We can walk with God and that walk is not to show off to others but to strengthen our own relationship with God.
My wife, Rose, handed me a slip of paper the other day. On it she had written a revelation given her by God. She wrote, “Letting go of God’s hand is like when we are a child and let go of our parent’s hand and we get hurt.” Think about that. Though nowhere in the scripture can you find a reference of us holding to God’s hand as we walk our spiritual walk, walking with God could certainly include that concept. Think about it; how much confidence it would give us to walk with God, holding to His hand! But in a sense that is exactly what we are doing. You see, we depend on God to help us as we go. In most cases, when we try to walk in the Spirit under our own power, we will fail. When we attempt to live a holy life for God without His help, we just wind up walking in legalism, deceit and failure.
But if God is with us, if we are, in concept, depending on Him – Holding to His hand, then we have the help we need. We can’t be holy without God’s help. Only in Christ can we ever hope to be righteous, holy and perfect. When we are honest with ourselves, we will always acknowledge this. We must have Him in our lives or we will always, inevitably fail. But as we walk with Him, holding to His hand, feeling safe and secure in our relationship with Him, we must not get over-confident. When we do, it is like letting go of His hand that protects us, guides us, keeps us safe, then we have pulled our hand out of His and we get into trouble. We fail. We sin. We drop to the ground and skin our spiritual knees. It always happens. Trust me, a guy who has been a Christian for fifty-six years now. When I have pulled my hand from His, I have always fallen and failed. And, by the way, fifty-six years doesn’t exempt me from falling. In fact, I do it more than I’d like to admit.
But the good news is that when we fall, and in our tears lift our hands back towards God, He will again take our hand. He will lift us up and once again walk strong together. His presence in our Christian experience is not negotiable. It is mandatory. Walk with God, holding His hand, clinging tightly as we depend on Him. He will keep us safe. He will make the way. He will lead us down the paths — Jerry D. Ousley is the author of “Soul Challenge”, “Soul Journey”, “Ordeal”, “The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional” and his first novel “The Shoe Tree.” Newer books include “Finality” and “Dividing God’s Church.” Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge