EXCERPTS FROM THE MINISTRY

a. To Walk with God

Do you expect to be raptured? If you do, you need to walk with God. We should not only call upon the name of the Lord, but should also walk with God. The calling must be followed by the walking. To walk with God is not to override God, not to be presumptuous, not to do things according to our own concept and desire, nor to do anything without God. To walk with God is to take Him as our center and everything, to do things according to His revelation and leading, and to do everything with Him. It is not only to live for God and to do things for God, but to live and to do things according to God and with God. Enoch walked with God in such a way, living and doing things according to God and with God, not according to his own desire or concept, nor according to the current of the age in which he lived.

It is not easy to walk with another person. When I have walked with the brothers or with the members of my family, they all have said that I walk too fast and that they cannot keep up with me. They have asked me to walk slower. However, I have a question to address to the brothers and to my family: Are you going to walk with me or am I going to walk with you? Let us firstly determine who is going to walk with whom. If you are going to walk with me, you must keep up with me. Do not blame me for walking too fast. If you complain that I walk too fast, forget about me and walk with someone who is as slow as you are. But, if your intention is to walk with me, you must come up to my standard. If my intention is to walk with you, I should slow down to your pace and be as slow as you are.

Please tell me, is God walking with you, or are you walking with God? Was God walking with Enoch or was Enoch walking with God? The Bible does not say that God walked with Enoch; it says that Enoch walked with God. It is difficult to find a place in the Bible that tells us that God walked with people. We do find an instance of this in Luke 24. On the day of resurrection the Lord Jesus walked with the two disciples who were going from Jerusalem to Emmaus. The disciples did not walk with the Lord Jesus; the Lord Jesus walked with them. Whenever the Lord walks with you, it means that you are going downward. You are descending from Jerusalem to Emmaus. However, whenever you walk with the Lord, you are going upward, coming back to Jerusalem from Emmaus. Are you walking with the Lord or is He walking with you? In other words, are you going downward or upward? If you are going downward to the movies, for example, the Lord Jesus will walk there with you. Many times the Lord has walked downward with the saints in such a way. A number of saints have told the Lord, "Lord, I cannot stay with You. I want to go to a movie." Then the Lord has said, "Are you going to a movie? I will go there with you; I will walk downward with you. Why will I walk with you there? Because I am going to bring you back. You shouldn't go downward to Emmaus. My intention is that you all remain in Jerusalem. Since you are going down, I have to go with you. I must walk with you in order to bring you back."

Enoch walked upward with God. Do not think that Enoch's being taken away by God happened suddenly. Do not think that one moment he was on earth and that the next he was in heaven. Enoch did not walk up and down with God; neither did he walk in a zigzag pattern. He continually walked upward until he touched heaven. At the age of three hundred sixty-five, as he was nearly touching heaven, God said to him, "Dear child, I am here. Come with Me." And Enoch was taken away.

Do you believe that Enoch's walk with God was up and down? Do you believe that Enoch walked with God inconsistently and that God said to him, "Poor child, come up quickly"? I do not believe that that was God's way of taking Enoch up. Enoch walked with God day and night for three centuries, for more than a hundred thousand days. Enoch walked with God day by day, a little closer to God each day than the day before. Enoch looked at the situation, the environment, the people and their deeds, and saw that everything was ungodly. Yet he kept on walking with God in a godly and holy way, walking with Him in this way for three hundred years.

In order to walk with God we must be with Him. We must be one with Him in our thinking, loving, and choosing. As I have already pointed out, it is not easy for one person to walk with another. Suppose, while I am walking with you, I have a different concept from you and say, "Brother, I love you and I want to walk with you, but don't go that way. Turn this way. I don't want to go that way." If I say this, I am not walking with you, I am arguing with you. However, this is exactly what so many lovers of Jesus do. They say, "Lord, I love You and I like to follow You. I want to go with You." However, when the actual time comes, many do not walk with Him, but argue with Him. For you to walk with the Lord implies a great deal: the denial of yourself, the denial of your thinking and your loving, the denial of everything that is of you. It implies that you have given yourself to Him, that you will give in to Him and let Him take the lead. To walk with the Lord is not a small thing. Walking with Him will kill you. My wife suffers whenever she walks with me. Nevertheless, if you are going to walk with me, you have to deny yourself. On the other hand, if I am going to walk with you, I must forget myself, condemn myself, and renounce myself that I may be one with you. If I am unwilling to do this, I cannot walk with you or with anyone else.

It is not simply a matter of calling on the name of the Lord. It is wonderful and enjoyable to call, "O Lord Jesus," but what follows the calling? When the Lord says, "Follow Me," will you follow Him? Will you walk with Him? Never forget that calling is found in Genesis 4 and that walking is revealed in Genesis 5. If walking does not follow our calling, our calling will not be very genuine. In a future message we shall see that after the walking we have the building. Enosh called, Enoch walked, and Noah walked and built. We must go on from Genesis 4, progressing from calling to walking. Calling may supply you, but it will not kill you. Calling makes you living. However, walking always kills you. But it will also resurrect you. Walking firstly kills you, then it resurrects you to make you so living in enjoying the presence of God. You will be living to the uttermost, not in a natural way, but in a resurrected way. Oh, how we all must walk with God!