Faith Without a Walk is Dead
By faith [that pleased God] Enoch was caught up and taken to heaven so that he would not have a glimpse of death; and he was not found because God had taken him; for even before he was taken [to heaven], he received the testimony [still on record] that he had walked with God and pleased Him. [Gen 5:21-24] But without faith it is impossible to [walk with God and] please Him, for whoever comes [near] to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He rewards those who [earnestly and diligently] seek Him.
Hebrews 11:5-6 AMP
This verse shows us something that many of us fail to fully conceptualize and that is the fact that God is knowable. Yeah, we can assume that God exists or at least that something abstract may be present outside of our known dimension, but God isn't just a concept. He is a person, and like with any other sentient and conscious being, we can grow in a tangible and personal sense of understanding through interactions.
When I describe the idea of knowing God, many of us turn in our minds eye to a factual sense of knowing, yet we fail to understand that to know God is to know Him at an experiential level. Knowing God factually but not intimately is like me knowing what Lebron is likely to average in a game, when and where he was born, what school he went to, the names and bios of his wife and kids, and what he likes to eat but never sitting down with him to talk to him one-on-one. A lot of people know of LeBron, but they don't know LeBron. Jesus is the same way. We know where He was born and where He died. We know what He did and how He did it, but many of us don't know Him.
Jesus isn't to be known as we know facts but known as we know a friend. Let me say it like this—I always had a job while growing up, and many of the summers I spent working were at a popular restaurant in Nashville called JamaicaWay. Now this restaurant practically sold itself. It was on The Food Network multiple times. Tourists would be brought to us as a stop on their bus tours of the city. We were within walking distance from the State Capitol so many government officials would frequent on their lunch breaks. Tennessee Titans and other professional athletes would frequent the restaurant throughout the week. I could expect to see a few Grammy Award winners while working because of the restaurant's stamp in Nashville culture and our proximity to popular studios. Ouida and her son Kamal had fed, worked on tours with, or served as personal chefs for multiple celebrities like Rihanna, Drake, Bruno Mars, Richard Branson, Kanye West, Quincy Jones, Jill Scott, and the entire Manchester City soccer team.
Whether it was oxtail, jerk chicken, ackee and saltfish, or red snapper, this food wasn't hard to sell. However, I had one issue. I was a vegetarian. So while I knew how to make it, I knew who liked it, and I knew how to describe it based on the accounts of others, I didn't know it intimately. I knew all the facts about the restaurant and food. I could tell you about the owners and the patrons, yet I hadn't experienced all of it myself. The Bible says to taste and see for yourself that God is good. Don't take others’ word for it. This isn't about knowing your grandmother's story. God doesn't want to be knowable in terms of facts. He wants to be known in terms of personal experience.
God will talk to you. God will walk with you. You can sense His presence throughout the day and hear His invitations to intimacy in the same way you'd connect with a friend. Have you ever texted someone all day, giving updates and commentary as you go through the various thoughts and experiences of life? Have you ever just sat on the phone talking about everything and nothing all at once? God wants to be that integrated into your life.
The Bible says that God spoke to Moses face to face as one speaks to a friend. There was no sense of distance or separation. God was there and Moses was there, nothing between them. In this story, we see that Enoch walked with God like Adam and Eve walked with Him in the garden. You may hear this and think that maybe that proximity was available to others and not you but the Bible says that when Jesus died, the veil in the temple tore from top to bottom. The veil symbolized separation but after the crucifixion, the veil was torn so that God could come closer.
All through the Bible, God is on a mission to come close to you. The Tabernacle was developed as a tent of meeting for God to travel with the people. Then Jesus said that isn't enough and said I must come in a body of flesh so that I may be even closer, more real, and more tangible. The Bible says that Jesus would be called “God with us.” Then if you thought that was enough, Jesus said that He must leave so that something greater could be given. That gift was the Holy Spirit which is designed to dwell in and around each of us every day. God with you isn't reserved for pastors and super spiritual old ladies. It is made available for all.
A Ticket Home
God wants to be with us. He wants to walk with us like He did with Enoch. The Bible says that He walked with God so closely that He did not experience a glimpse of death. The conversation was going so well that God said “Let's get out of here” and went home with His friend. God said “You've seen enough” and took him right to heaven to continue their union.
Many of us are experiencing heartache and pain and we are looking for escape not realizing that our way to peace is through presence. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is victory. One of my favorite verses found in the fourth chapter of Paul’s letter to Philippi says that prayer doesn't just bring peace, it brings presence, and that presence teleports us to where Jesus is. While you may not physically be taken from the earth like Enoch was, you can be spiritually transported to heaven while on earth. Jesus will create your own personal bubble of heaven on earth. God will be a refuge and strength in trouble. As the winds and waves of life are surging, you will be found safe and rested in paradise with your Protector. We are missing out on the escape Enoch experienced because we do not prioritize the presence. Walking with God is a ticket home.
How to Walk
The text says that it was by faith that Enoch pleased God. Faith is sometimes presented as an abstract idea that rests somewhere between concepts of belief and trust. Words like belief and trust help to encompass faith but alone they may not grasp the full scope of what faith looks like in action. Faith is complete confidence in something that results in movement.
The Bible says that faith without works is dead. A faith that doesn't result in action isn't faith because faith is more than a noun, it's a verb. Faith is not just believing, it's moving as if you believe it. It's not just arguing that your team will win, it's putting your money on the line. The Bible says that Abram brought his only son to a mountain with a plan to sacrifice him because he wholeheartedly believed that God would raise him from the dead. Faith is doing crazy things because you trust that God is who He says He is. Noah spent years building a boat because he trusted the word that God said. His belief in God led to action. Peter stepped out on the water, expecting to defy the laws of physics because his Savior said that he could. That is faith.
Imagine a chair. You know what a chair is. You can see it, touch it, and maybe even know how to build it. You believe that it is real. You know it exists. But that belief alone isn't faith. Faith is not just about believing that a chair exists, knowing how it's made or what it looks like. Faith is believing that the chair can accomplish what it is here for and putting your weight on it. Faith is not just believing that God exists, it's leaning on Him as if He is who He says He is.
Faith might not make sense to others. It may not feel logical. However, it's a belief in God that is strong enough to make you act. One speaker said that faith is acting like God is telling the truth. How would you move if everything He said about Himself, you, and your situation was true?
This walk with God won't be in our control or comfort zone. It actually will take weight off of your own feet as you lean into God’s power. You have to let go as you lean in. This walk in faith will not work if you don't give up control. I don't believe Enoch was the one telling God where they were going as they walked together. The Bible says that man can organize his own plans but God is the one who orders his steps. Walking in faith is about letting go. It's about leaning in. It’s about trusting His character, power, consistency, and clarity above your own. It is a decision to ask yourself how you would behave if God was telling the truth about Himself when the paths He leads you on don't make sense. This walk by faith is more about what you're learning on the journey than it is about the destination. God wants you to walk with Him because the more you learn not to lean on your own understanding but to lean on Him, the better off you will be.
The Pursuit of God
We are called and invited to walk with God as Enoch did, and this faith walk is not a one-time act. Walking with God does not assume a one-time acceptance but a continual experience. Walking with someone doesn't paint a picture of meeting them and then leaving to never come back. It argues a continued longing and pursuit to go through the ebbs and flows of life's journey with them at the hip. We should not be satisfied with just one encounter. Walking with someone describes multiple moments of encounter. If faith is a movement and not a mere idea, it cannot be limited to a one-time act. Faith is a lifestyle of continued decisions. Like marriage, it's not a one-day experience. It is a making a decision that you will continually make the same decision.
You will hear many athletes talk about how they made the decision that they would go to the league or be the best. While they had a moment when they decided what their goal would be, the true work happens when they make that same decision the next day, and the next. You cannot decide you will be in the NBA in middle school and not continue to act like it in high school. Walking with God is the same way. It's not just about raising your hand in church and saying “God I choose you.” Motivation gets you started but discipline will keep you going. The real transformation happens if you say yes to the same thing when life gets hard and motivation wanes. The true difference happens if you are still living like you made that decision ten years from now. A pursuit argues for a continued trajectory of decisions in a specific direction. It's continually choosing something. That is what walking by faith looks like.
Eating to Get More Hungry
A.W. Tozer in his book, The Pursuit of God, argues that many of us have become complacent with just one encounter when true desire is one that births a deeper longing after each encounter. It's like a drink that quenches your thirst but at the same time makes you desire more. It's a food that fills your voids yet has you yearning for more. We see this in drug addiction as use leads to a desire for more. Christ has a way of satisfying you by making you unsatisfied. He has a way of making the chase a part of the desire. Christ has a way of giving all your needs while still inspiring a longing for more. It’s a godly gluttony that increases your desire and capacity after every encounter.
The chorus of SEU Worship’s song, What a God says, “If the highest place I reach is at Your feet, then I've done it all. If the best thing that I've seen is Your glory, then I've seen it all. Your love has changed my life, forever satisfied. God, You are my everything.” It continues, “If one word is the only thing You speak, then I've heard it all. If I feel Your heart and never see Your hand, I still have it all. No treasure of this life could ever satisfy. God, You are my everything”
The true pursuit of God is one that is satisfied if His hand does nothing else but is continually searching for more of His heart. Walking with God is a journey that recognizes His total supremacy and sufficiency but powers a pursuit for deeper still. It's a pursuit that loves the journey more than the destination. If I don't hear another word, what I’ve heard is enough to keep me looking.
The Bible doesn't describe a one-time experience that is never continued. It describes an encounter in the past with lasting results in the present and future. It describes an addiction. We have watered down religion to a superficial concept of acceptance and not a daily death in which we find life. For many of us, our experiences with God are as Tozer described, “Christ may be ‘received’ without creating a special love for Him in the soul of the receiver. The man is ‘saved’ but he is not hungry nor thirsty after God. In fact he is specifically taught to be satisfied and encouraged to be content with so little.” If we are to talk with God, we have to recognize that walking describes a continual relationship and not a one-time meeting. Tozer continues later in the chapter by saying, “We have almost forgotten that God is a person and, as such can be cultivated as any person can. It’s inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities, but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored.”
Enoch walked with God continually because one walk spurred his desire for another. The same will be true for you. I pray you get addicted to God. I pray you get to a point where you desire God like you desire food, water, sex, or the gym. You will be at a point where your mornings won't be the same if you don't talk to Him. It is in that desire that you find life. It's in that walk that you find worship.
The old hymn says,
“We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread,
and long to feast upon Thee still.
We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead,
and thirst our souls from Thee to fill.”
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