Walking for Purpose…
- White Stone
- 3 days ago
- 11 min read
Walking with God implies, that the prevailing power of the enmity of a man's
heart be taken away, and also that we are actually reconciled to God the
Father, in and through the all-sufficient righteousness and atonement of his
dear Son. Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Jesus is one, and
we are one in him. Jesus is our peace, as well as our peace-maker. When
we are justified by faith in Christ, then, but not till then, we have peace with
God; and consequently cannot be said till then to walk with him, walking with
a person being a sign and token that we are friends to that person, or it may
be that we have been at variance, yet that now we are reconciled and desire
to become friends again. This is the great errand that true believers are sent
out upon. To us is committed the ministry of reconciliation; as ambassadors
for God, we are to beseech each other, in Christ's stead, to be reconciled
unto God, and when we comply with the gracious invitation, and are actually
by faith brought into a state of reconciliation with God, then, and not till then,
may we be said so much as to begin to walk with God. Walking with God
implies a settled abiding communion and fellowship with our brothers and
sisters, or what in scripture is called, `The Holy Ghost dwelling in us'. And
this is what is meant in the words -‘And Enoch walked with God', that is, he
kept up and maintained a holy, settled, habitual, altogether uninterrupted
communion and fellowship with God, in and through Christ Jesus. Walking
with God consists especially in the fixed habitual bent of the will for God, in
an habitual dependence upon his power and promise, in an habitual
voluntary dedication of our all to his glory, in an habitual eyeing of his precept
in all we do, and in an habitual complacence in his pleasure in all we suffer.
Walking with God implies our making advances in the divine life. Walking, in
the very first idea of the word, supposes a progressive motion. A person that
walks, though he moves slowly, yet he goes forward, and does not stay in
one place; and so, it is with us who walk with God. When a soul is born of
God, to all intents and purposes he is a child of God; and though he should
live to the age of Methuselah, yet he would then be only a child of God after
all. Hence it is, that we find the people of God charged with exhorting others
to let their progress be made known to all men. For the new creature
increases in spiritual stature; and though a person can but be a new creature,
yet there are some that are more conformed to the divine image than others,
and will afterward be admitted to a greater degree of sanctity. Believers keep
up and maintain their walk with God by reading of his holy word. Search the
scriptures, for whatsoever was written aforetime was written for our learning
and our admonition. If we but once get above our bibles, and cease making
the written word of God our sole rule, both as to faith, and to practice, we
shall soon lie open to all manner of delusion, and be in great danger of
tsunami wreckage of faith and a good conscience.
Believers keep up and maintain our walk with God by secret prayer,
prevailing secret prayer. The spirit of grace is always accompanied with the
spirit of supplication. It is the very breath of the new creature, the fan of the
divine life, whereby the spark of holy fire, kindled in the soul by God, is not
only kept in, but raised into a flame. There should be no day begun without
our being in our closet making use of secret prayer. It is one of the most
noble parts of the believers' spiritual armor. Praying always, with all manner
of supplication. Not that our Lord would have us always upon our knees, or
in our closets, to the neglect of our other relative duties. But he means, that
our souls should be kept in a praying frame, so that we might be able to say,
could these walls speak, they would tell you what sweet communion I have
had with my God here. Prayer! It brings and keeps God and us together. Be
much in secret, set prayer. And when we are about the common business of
life, be much in ejaculatory prayer, and send, from time to time, short letters
posthaste to heaven upon the wings of faith. They will reach the very heart
of God, and return to us again with spiritual blessings. Holy and frequent
meditation is another means of keeping up a believer's walk with God.
Meditation to the soul, is the same as digestion to the body. We read of
Isaac's going out into the fields to meditate in the evening; or, as it is, to pray.
For meditation is a kind of silent prayer, whereby the soul is frequently, as it
were carried out of itself to God, thereby to commune with the Father and by
a kind of immediate intuition always to behold the face of our heavenly
Father. None but those joyful souls that have been accustomed to this divine
service, can tell what a blessed advocate of the divine life meditation is.
Especially that work of works, that wonder of wonders, that mystery of
godliness, God manifest in the flesh, so that we are obliged to speak and tell
of the loving-kindness of the Lord to our soul. We keep up our walk with God,
by watching and noting his providential dealings with us. Every thought of
the cross has a call in it, and every particular dispensation of divine
providence has some particular end to answer in us to whom God sends it.
Every interstitial event is founded with intent and consequential happenings
to bring us to God. If we…us…walk with God, we must from time to time hear
what the Lord has to say concerning us in the voice of his providence.
Abraham's servant, when he went to fetch a wife for his master Isaac, eyed,
and watched the providence of God, and by that means found out the person
that was designed for his master's wife. A little hint from providence is enough
for faith to feed upon. In order to walk closely with God, his children must not
only watch the motions of God's providence without them, but the motions
also of his blessed Spirit in their hearts. As many as are the sons of God, are
led by the Spirit of God, and give up themselves to be guided by the Holy
Ghost. It is no doubt in this sense that we are to be converted, and become
like little children. And though it is the quintessence of enthusiasm, to pretend
to be guided by the Spirit without the written word; yet it is every believer's
duty to be guided by the Spirit in conjunction with the written word of God.
Watch the motions of God's Spirit in our souls, and always try the
impressions that we may feel, by the unerring rule of God's most holy word.
We, that would maintain a holy walk with God, must walk with him in
ordinances as well as providences: in all God's ordinances, as well as
commandments, blameless. We look upon these as our bread, and as our
highest privileges. We will know the sanctuary truths and be as waters
issuing out from the south of the house. We will associate and keep
company with those that do walk with him. Our delight is in them that do
excel in virtue. The excellent ones of the earth will keep up their vigor and
first love, by continuing in fellowship one with another. See to it, that we do
not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. As iron sharpeneth iron,
so doth the countenance of a man his friend. If we therefore make a just
observation of our own times, we believe we shall find, that as the power of
God prevails, group bible studies will prevail proportionably. So necessary is
it for those that would walk with God, and keep up the life of conviction, to
meet together as we have opportunity, in order to provoke one another to
love and good works.
Now we offer motives to excite all to come and walk with God. Listen, walking
with God is a very honorable thing. This generally is a prevailing motive to
persons of all ranks, to stir them up to any important undertaking. We pray
that God’s honor has due weight and influence with all in respect to the
matter now before us. That all would think it a very high honor to be admitted
into our earthly prince's private council, to be trusted with his secrets, and to
have his ear at all times and at all seasons – just to express ourselves.
Besides his being advanced above all; yea, moreover, we await the invitation
to the King of kings, the Lord of lords. And afterwards, this question – what
is done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor? We hear the
answer, “let the royal apparel be brought to these who are they”. This then,
it seems, to be honor to those that walk with God! The secret of the Lord is
with them that fear him: and says the blessed Jesus…call I you no longer
servants, but friends. It is a pleasing thing, to walk with God. Wisdom's ways
are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths peace. A life spent in communion
with God, is the pleasantest life in the world. Is it not better to have enjoyed
more solid pleasure in one moment's communion with my God, than you
could have enjoyed in the ways of sin for thousands of years? Do we heed
the appeal to all of us that fear and walk with God, for the truth of this? Has
not one day in the Lord's courts been better to us? In keeping God's
commandments, have we not found a present, and very great reward? Has
not his word been sweeter to us than the honey or the honeycomb? Think
on our wrestling with our God? Meditating in the fields. Has not the Holy
Ghost frequently shed the divine love abroad in our hearts abundantly, and
filled us with joy unspeakable, even joy that is full of glory? We answer all
these questions in the affirmative, and freely acknowledge the yoke of Christ
to be easy, and his burden light. Now, what need we then any further motive
to excite us to walk with God? Now let’s talk. Some may say how can these
things be? For, if walking with God is such an honorable and pleasant thing,
why is it that the name of the people of His way is called out as dividers, and
most everywhere spoken against? How come it to pass that we will be
frequently afflicted, tempted, destitute, and tormented? Is this the honor, this
the pleasure, that we speak of? Hear the answer: yes! Hold on a minute;
pause. We are a different people everywhere spoken against. But by whom?
Even by the enemies of the Most High God. And do we think it is disgrace to
be spoken evil of by them? Have we not so learned Christ. We, who are His,
will be persecuted, and have all manner of evil spoken against us falsely. He
counsels us to rejoice and be exceeding glad, for it is the privilege of our
discipleship. He himself was thus treated. And can there be a greater honor
put upon a creature, than to be conformed to the ever-blessed Son of God?
And further, it is equally true that the people of this way are frequently
afflicted, tempted, destitute, and tormented. But what of all this? Does this
destroy the pleasure of walking with God? Hear the answer – no! For those
that walk with God are enabled, through Christ strengthening them, to joy
even in tribulation, and to rejoice when they fall into divers temptations. And
this, the appeal to the experience of all true and close walkers with God,
whether or not their suffering times have not frequently been their sweetest
times, and that they enjoyed most of God when most cast out and despised
by men? This we find to be the case of Christ's last day posse, when
threatened by the world, and commanded to preach no more in the name of
Jesus; we rejoice that we are accounted worthy to suffer for the sake of
Jesus. Therefore these objections, instead of destroying, do only enforce the
motives before urged, to excite us to walk with God. But supposing the
objections were just, and walkers with God were as despicable and unhappy
as the world represents us to be. If we are weighed in the balance of the
sanctuary, truth will over-weigh all objections. That there is a heaven at the
end of this walk is truth. The way is narrow, but it is not long is truth: the gate
is strait, yet it opens into everlasting life wide enough to receive all who desire
entry. Enoch found it so. He walked with God on earth, and God took him.
He by-passed the common death of man. We may expect to be taken away
as he was or rather after death, be among the souls of those who have
walked with God to return to God; and at the morning of this resurrection, so
shall we ever be forever with the Lord; filled with all the fullness of God. We
shall sit on thrones; we shall judge angels. We shall be enabled to sustain
an exceeding and eternal weight of glory, even that glory which Jesus Christ
enjoyed with the Father before the world began. The very thought of it is
enough to make us desire to leap our seventy years and to make us break
out into the earnest language, “My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God:
when shall I come and appear before God?” In our talk as we walk, we
ponder the sense of this, when under a more than ordinary irradiation and
influx of divine life and love by the Holy Spirit, causes some persons,
hopefully us, even for a time to lose the power of our humanly senses. A less
sight than this made Sheba's queen astonished; and a still lesser sight than
that, even made Jacob faint, and for a while, as it were, die away. Daniel,
that Daniel, when admitted to a distant view of this excellent glory that we
now see, fell down at the feet of that delegated angel as one dead. And if a
distant view of this glory be so excellent to one such as Daniel, what must
the actual possession of it be for us? And if we, the first fruits are so glorious,
how infinitely must the harvest exceed in glory whom God purposes us to
bring to perfection be? And now, what more indeed can we say to excite any,
even those that are yet strangers to Christ, to come and walk with God. If
they love honor, pleasure, and a crown of glory, come. Come, put on the Lord
Jesus. Come, and walk with God.
We speak to all that are believers as well as to those that are openly non-
believers. We need not tell them, that walking with God is not only honorable,
but pleasant and profitable also; for they will know it by a joyful experience,
and will find it more and more so every day. Walk with us as we walk with
Christ. Only give us a chance to stir up your pure minds by way of
remembrance, and to beseech you by the mercies of God in Christ Jesus, to
take heed to yourselves, and walk closer with your God than you have in
days past: for the nearer you walk with God, the more you will enjoy of him
whose presence is life, and be the better prepared for being placed at his
right hand, where are pleasures for evermore. We plead that you do not
follow Jesus far off! Don’t be so formal, so dead and stupid in your
attendance on ways! Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together,
or be so indifferent about the things of God. Remember what Jesus says of
the church of Laodicea. Think of the love of Jesus, and let that love constrain
us to keep near unto him; and though we die for him, we do not deny him,
we do not keep at a distance from him in any way. In our walk our hearts are
made full, and oh, that it were more full day by day as we know that we are
empty without Jesus; we could almost say it is too big to speak, and yet too
big to be silent, for we are commanded to give a word to all. In a very
particular manner, we have the honor of being styled stewards of the
mysteries of God. Enoch in all probability was a social person, and a flaming
teacher of truth. How did Enoch teach! How did Enoch walk with God, though
he lived in a wicked and adulterous generation! Let us then follow him, as he
followed Jesus Christ. In a few days our walk will be over. The Judge is
before the door: he that cometh will come, and will not tarry: his reward is
with him. And we shall all, if we are zealous for the Lord of hosts, be as the
stars in the firmament, in the kingdom of our heavenly Father, for ever and
ever to all eternity. Amen, and Amen.
📖 Applying the Study
For ongoing spiritual encouragement and prophetical insights, visit Higher Learning.
Comments