In this quest to know God we realise it’s a walk of faith and there is an amazing example of this in the scripture when we look at Enoch.
Not much is told us about him. We read in Genesis that after he lived 65 years he begat Methuselah. Then he walked with God 300 years and God took him. He lived a total of 365 years.
In the book of Hebrews in chapter 11 we are told that ‘by faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him for before he was taken he had this testimony that he pleased God.‘
Then Hebrews says “but without faith it is impossible to please him for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.“
So we know that the only way to please God is to believe in him rather than to try to do good things or try not to do bad things.
Thus we know that Enoch walked by faith, received grace and knew God just as we do as born-again people even as we see the same example with Abraham the father of all those who believe.
Trying to please God by our works guarantees that we will not know God and not be able to walk with God successfully.
Simply believing that God is is what he is after.
And that requires faith because there are many times when we look with our eyes or when we want some kind of feeling to show that God is with us that everything tells us that he is not.
It is interesting to me that Enoch lived 65 years and had a son named Methuselah. This son of his lived right up until the day that the floods came in Noah’s time.
Noah means rest. In fact his father Lamech called his name Noah saying “this one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands because of the ground which the Lord has cursed” Genesis 5:29.
Remember that the Lord cursed the ground because of Adams disobedience and disobedience really is not a matter of doing the wrong thing or the right thing first, it begins in the heart. Unbelief is what God calls disobedience.
So Noah, which means rest speaks of faith it speaks of trusting in God instead of in our own abilities to please God. Noah would give rest from all their works which speaks prophetically of the grace of God revealed through Jesus Christ.
It was this grace that Adam, the first man rejected deliberately in order to try to be like God by his own efforts.
Adam rejected being weak, which was how God created him and how he created all of us in the natural man. Adam was not deceived in the garden. Eve was. Adam deliberately chose to take from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil so that he could be like Lucifer who appeared in the garden.
God had made Adam in his own image and likeness and this is what Adam rejected. When he looked at himself. He saw weakness, when he looked at the serpent with all of his outward shining glory he saw strength.
He deliberately chose to reject his own human weakness and reached for strength and power and thus he became like Lucifer and was banished from the garden where the tree of life was.
The tree of life represented Jesus Christ crucified and no one can partake of Jesus Christ through works. That is why God barred the way back to the tree of life.
‘Adam’ must repent if he is to partake of Jesus Christ – the tree of life and he must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so it is for all of us who are children of Adam in the natural. We must turn away from all of our natural ability and strength and realise that we cannot please God on our own that all of our trying leaves us falling short.
In that place of repentance, God gifts us his righteousness as we receive faith to believe in his son Jesus the tree of life. We find entry back into the garden – the father‘s heart.
Many try to get around the flaming sword of the cherubim and insist on exulting themselves, declaring themselves to be right with God by their own efforts by their own goodness.
But it is a delusion.
Enoch walked with God and he pleased God therefore we know that Enoch did not rely on his own efforts but rather, believed in God.
Pleasing God involves hearing him and once we hear him, we believe.
Abraham heard God speak to him incredible things and he chose to believe what God said. I am sure the father was delighted.
As we choose to believe then God releases grace to us which enables us to continue to believe.
Think of Mary who was told she would have a child by the Holy Spirit and her response was let it be to me according to your word whereas John the Baptist father – Zachariah- doubted and said words of unbelief, therefore he was mute and not able to continue speaking unbelieving words.
We want to walk with God as Enoch did. We want to hear his voice as Adam did and I’m sure as Enoch did and as Mary did and as Abraham did.
and in hearing his voice we believe what he says is true and that he is able to perform his word and so we say like Mary let it be to me according to your word Lord – behold your maid servant!
The grace of God enables us to believe. His grace is not given to us so we can work in our own strength. The two are totally incompatible. It’s either Grace or works not both.
Enoch walked in the grace of God, hearing God, believing God, obeying God because that’s what belief is.
Genesis and Hebrews confirm that Enoch was not found because God took him which is prophetic for the one who is hidden in Christ.
Paul says in Colossians 3 “..for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God and when Christ who is your life appears or is revealed then you also shall be revealed with him“
Notice it says you are hidden with Christ?
With means in conjunction with or in union with.
This is the union we have as believers in Jesus Christ. God has placed us into Jesus so that it is no longer you that people see but Jesus. You have been taken into Christ! You have been seized by God and put into another person so that you are no longer seen or no longer found – just as Enoch was no longer found but he was taken into God.
Hallelujah!!!!
This is the reality of being in Christ Jesus Jesus said in John 14:20 “in that day you will know that I am in the father and you are in me and I am in you”
He was speaking to them of the day of Pentecost when they would receive him by the spirit or he told them at the beginning of John 14 that he would go and prepare a place for them in the father! not some house in heaven!
His desire and the father‘s desire was that they would be where he is… where is that?
In the father that’s where he is that’s where he always is because he is the door and no man comes to the father except through Jesus Christ.
John wrote in his first epistle in chapter 4 that God sent the son that we might live through him.
Which is what has happened. we live through Jesus Christ, in union with Jesus Christ. It’s no longer I that live however, but Christ that lives in me, and the life that I now live, I live by his faith, the faith of the son of God.
The King James version says in Galatians 2:20 “…the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith OF the son of God”.. most other versions have I live by faith in the son of God.
We have been placed into Christ and he has been placed into us so that it is him living as us and it is his faith joined with us.
God wants us to be ourselves and to rest in Christ knowing that Jesus is carrying us, that Jesus is doing the believing and as we rest in him and meditate on his word we begin to speak like him because it is him in us that is energising us and believing inside us!
This is what it is to walk with God! ”If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the father.” This is true of the believer just as it is true of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Religion insists that you are separate from Jesus and that you must try to be like Jesus here on the earth to please God. But that is totally obnoxious to the father.
You can never be like Jesus while thinking you are separated from him.
The fact is – if you have received Jesus the Holy Spirit you are not separated from him. You are one with him and it is Jesus that people see when they see you going through all of life’s ups and downs, struggles and trials. It’s Jesus that they see just by being you because the you that you are is Christ living as you.
Praise his name!!!
You went down into the water and died with him and you have been raised up in Christ Jesus a new creature.
