Exercise Your Faith, Walk with God
Everyone knows exercising is good for the body and good for
the heart. Exercise takes making up your mind to do it and putting that thought
into action. Walking with God is excellent exercise; it's good for your body, soul,
and heart, besides keeping you spiritually healthy. You have to make up your
mind to walk with Him daily, and put that thought into action. Genesis 5:21-24
tells how Enoch walked with God for 300 years, he had a long life. Psalm 91:14-16 explains how a long life with
the Lord will be satisfying.
The longer you live, the more you can tell and testify of
the Lord. Adam lived 930 years and seen many grandchildren and generations
born. All these years Adam could tell his loved ones about walking with the
Lord, he could tell of conversations he had with the Heavenly Father. He could
speak with the wisdom and knowledge of God because he was personally with the
Lord. He could tell of creation as God spoke it to him, how he named the
animals, and even how their great grandmother came to be. Adam could tell his
children of the beautiful Garden and how satan came into the picture.
Enoch apparently listened to the stories of great grandpa
Adam because he walked with God too. He was with the Lord, always moving along
with Him. He didn’t just sit still and watch God. He didn’t watch Him walk
away, but stayed with Him every step of the way. He never stopped, he was
faithfully with the Lord each moment. Enoch kept getting closer and closer,
knowing more, absorbing more, communicating with the Lord, and believing every
Word his Father spoke to him. Exercising his faith, he lived for the Lord.
Enoch had so much faith and belief in God, that one day the Lord just took him
right into eternity. Enoch knew the Almighty personally, lived for Him daily, and
was taken up to Heaven by the Lord Himself. Enoch was translated from earth to
Heaven, from physical to spiritual. Hebrews 11:5 says before this happened that
God was pleased with Enoch. His lifestyle was very pleasing to the Lord. “Enoch’s
translation was a testimony to the whole world of God’s approval of his
conduct”- John A James.
We are created for God’s pleasure (Eph 1:5) and Enoch was
definitely pleasing to the Lord. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him.
How did Enoch please God? Faith. He pleased God, therefore he had faith. He
walked with his Father daily, so he had continual ongoing faith. “God removed
him in so unusual manner from the earth that all might know how dear he was to
the heart of God”- Calvin. God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek after
Him. (Hebrews 11:6) The Lord rewarded Enoch for seeking after Him.
Enoch never did anything special or out of the ordinary. He wasn’t
a hero and he probably was not sinless because he was human, but it was his
faith that pleased God. It’s impossible to please Him without faith in Him.
When you put your foot forward, God wants you to keep going
onward believing Him and all He says, not just part. You can’t pick and choose
which truth to believe. God wants you to lean on Him. Walk in His direction,
with His assistance. Under the influence of the Lord is a good place to be.
Believe every Word our Heavenly Father has written. Jesus is
the Word. Believe in Jesus, have faith, and know beyond a shadow of a doubt
that He is real. Every Word spoken by Him is true. Jesus lives and reigns. He
lives within your heart. God has spoken His Word in you. Just believe and
receive what He tells you don’t ignore or cast it out.
Jesus is the pathway, the only way to the Father. Why turn
away and deny your only access to Him? Mark 16:16 He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. Why would
you not want to believe? Why would you not have faith in God? He does not speak
lies. Not believing God’s Word, which is Jesus Christ, is condemning yourself.
To condemn means to judge against, to sentence. Don’t sentence yourself to
damnation.
Not walking with God, or putting faith in Him, could result
in being trampled by the enemy or being snatched away. He is your safeguard.
Once the first step has been taken by receiving Christ, you have received solid
ground for growing. You can now continue to grow and be built up in Him, having
a firm foundation to stand and walk on; you can now be developed in Him and His
image.
Colossians 2:6-7 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and stablished
in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Receiving
Jesus into your heart, you have seen the light, your eyes are now open and can
see which way to go, which is with the Lord. He wants you to advance with Him.
Just as you have received the Lord in faith, you should live in faith. Don’t
stop having faith but exercise that faith and go on walking with Him.
The Lord wants you to build your faith in Him. You have that
solid foundation in Jesus now. He doesn’t want you to build your house with hay
or twigs, you have access to the sturdy things. You have access to gold and
silver. You have access to Him. God wants you to grow up to be His holy temple.
He wants your faith established, confirmed in Him. Establish means to be prop,
lean upon, or take hold of. To be propped up against the Lord is to be in a
place that will not falter.
Receiving Christ is just the beginning. It’s the first step.
Just like a baby learning to walk, God has your hand and will guide you the
rest of the way. Put your faith in Him, put your hand in His and He will help
and show you the way. Don’t be stubborn and sit down or throw a fit because you
can’t have what you want. God knows exactly what you have need of and what is
best. Just keep moving with Him and things will go the way they are supposed
to, which is His way. Have faith that He will lead you the right direction. The
Lord wants you to be rooted in Him, like an oak tree, growing in His strength
and truth. He wants His children to grow up to be like Him.
Growing in Christ is not hard. Walking with Him is not hard.
He provided the instruction book on how to do this and His Holy Spirit to guide
us. Read the Bible, believe it. Keep the faith and belief in Him alone. Listen
for His voice. Don’t let the world and it’s lies come between you and God.
Having faith in the Lord is putting your foot toward Him, putting your hand out
to touch Him, reaching your arms out to receive Him, and knowing He is there.
It is opening your heart to receive His love, believing He loves you, opening
your eyes to behold His beauty and glory. In faith, you can open your ears to
hear and take in His wisdom and knowledge.
Believers have hidden treasures. The treasure of wisdom and
God’s knowledge and His love. Everything of Christ’s is yours if you believe,
if you have faith. The closer you walk with God, the more treasure is unearthed
and revealed to you. Walking with God is like being on a treasure hunt. The Lord wants to be alone with you on a
deserted island, just you and Him communicating and walking together, hand in
hand. God stops and points out the beauty of a flower, or shows you knowledge
of a situation, or tells you to dig a little deeper and you find wisdom. He
will show you different treasures. He can paint a sunset and reveal His peace,
mercy and grace to you. He can point out pearls along the seashore and tell you
of the joy He gives.
All this time of walking, God keeps you safe from the
devourer and the evils of the world. He has placed His seal upon you, His
protection surrounds you. God is holding you, have faith that He keeps you
safe. The devil cannot take your soul when you are walking with the Lord in His
will.
Luke 7:50 And He said to the woman, "Your faith has
saved you. Go in peace." If are just now realizing that Jesus is Lord and
He loves you enough to forgive your every sin, or if you haven’t been walking
with God the way you should be, your faith in Jesus HAS made you whole, your
faith HAS saved you from evil. You are forgiven. You can now go along in peace
again. Don’t worry about paying for your sins because they’ve already been paid
for. Go in peace and walk along in His presence, back in His grace and mercy. Along
with faith in the Lord comes forgiveness, salvation, eternal life, glory, joy
and all the other fringe benefits of Jesus.
Colossians 2:6 Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, walk in Him. Receiving Christ through faith, you can now go on
God’s path. John 14:6 Jesus saith unto
him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but
by Me. Jesus is our pathway. You are on the right road, walk in faith.
Having faith in God is far better that just having knowledge of Him. You can
have faith in eternal life and salvation, have faith that
Jesus is alive and living in you, have faith in all Jesus says, but your
knowledge alone cannot comprehend these facts.
We cannot see things that are invisible. 2 Corinthians 5:7 For
we walk by faith, not by sight. Our natural mind isn’t made to see the Lord but
our spiritual mind can, our faith through the Word can. Being born again, our
natural mind is now open to the spiritual aspects of life, therefore, we can
now walk with God. Our faith lets us see all the beauty He has to offer. Our
faith is a gift given by God, a grace He has afforded us. Faith is the eye of
our soul that looks towards Jesus and all His splendor. We must walk by faith,
not by sight. When we look into the sun, we are blinded and cannot see. We have
to look away. We can look towards the sun, but not directly at it. Our eyes
cannot handle the brightness. We know that the sun is there, we can still see
the light with our eyes closed. We cannot look at Jesus directly, His glory is
too much to behold, but we can walk by faith towards the Light knowing He is
there.
Faith is the evidence of things not seen, with faith we can
see the invisible glories of God. Just as we can still see shades of light when
our eyes are closed when facing the sun, our faith is like seeing through a
dark glass, not a full sight of the Lord and all He is or has. That will come
when our life on earth ends and our faith is turned into reality. Then we will
see what our faith has believed in, we will finally have our eyes wide open and
see Jesus in all His beauty and all that was ours that we could have had on
earth if we only knew… and we will walk with God every single moment, eternally
in His presence. But, why not exercise your faith, please God, and walk with Him here and now, every single
moment?
