|
|
!--COMETZONE CURSOR CODE - PLACE ABOVE /BODY TAG AT BOTTOM OF WEB PAGE-->
Walking With GodGenesis 5:22-24:
Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five yearsEnoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.. And
Concerning this same story we read in Hebrews 11:5:
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. For the last mention of Enoch in Scripture, but not the least important, we are told in Jude 1:14-16:
And about these also Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."
These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.
There is a message in these texts that is crucial for our own times. The most special characteristic about Enoch is that he walked with God. He walked with Him so closely that he did not have to taste death, but the Lord took him directly to heaven. This was a foreshadowing of what has been popularly referred to as “the rapture.” As Paul wrote in I Corinthians 15:51-52:
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
Enoch was but the first fruits of the last day church that would also be caught up without tasting death. There have been many books written about how and why this takes place, and even some have speculated about when, but the reason this happens is the same reason it happened to Enoch. The last day church will walk with God so closely that He will be obliged to bring them into the fullness of His presence in the heavens, transforming them from the mortal to the eternal in a “twinkling of an eye.”
I have often heard Christians say that they were trying to decrease so that the Lord could increase in their life. This seems to be a noble endeavor, but it is not biblical, and is actually the opposite of what John the Baptist said, which was, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). If we try to decrease before He increases in our life we will just get empty, and the void will usually be filled with an evil religious spirit. “Enoch walked with God” and “he was not...” When we walk with God we will be caught up into who He is, and our old nature will just disappear.
Though our old man was crucified with Jesus on the cross, rendering our old nature as dead so as to experience the resurrection life in Christ is a process that takes place as we walk with God. The more we see of Him the more we are changed.
Enoch is also the first one recorded in Scripture to have prophesied. True prophecy is a product of walking with God. When we walk with God so that we are changed into His image we will begin to see with His eyes, hear with His ears, and understand with His heart. God sees from the perspective of eternity. To Him the future is just as clear as the present. Because of this, Enoch who lived in the days of Adam was able to look all the way to the end and see the Lord coming with His hosts.
It is fitting that Enoch should prophesy of events all the way at the end of this age, as he is a prophetic model of the church at the end. The church at the end is going to walk with God, prophesy, and be caught up into the heavens to be with Him. Could this be your destiny? There is nowhere in Scripture that says you cannot do what Enoch did. The greatest testimony of the last day church will be that she walked with God, and she “was not,” because God took her so that she did not even have to taste death. She did not have to taste death because she died daily to herself by walking with Him daily, taking up her cross daily to sacrifice anything that was required, to walk with Him.
