Sun am 29 November 2009 – Kobus Swart
Gen. 5:22-24; Gen.6:9; Gen. 22:1; Matt. 16:13-18; Luke 22:31-32;
2 Cor. 13:14; 2 Cor. 5:16; Rom. 12:1-2; Heb. 12:26-27; 1 Cor. 3:12;
1 Thess. 5:17; Mal. 4:5-6
One of the best ways to describe a Christian is somebody who has a walk with God. Many people feel that to be a Christian is to survive until Jesus comes. Your walk with God starts when you are born again; when you hand over the reigns of your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
The patriarchs in the Bible all had an intimate walk with God. Some are specifically mentioned.
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 years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him (Gen 5:22-24).
Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God (Gen 6:9).
The ultimate example was Jesus Christ Himself. He didn’t do anything unless He first saw the Father do it. He said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father”(John 14: 9).
I believe Abraham had a close, intimate walk with God. Every time Abraham heard the voice of God he said, “Here I am Lord.” He was always so positioned that when the word came he was ready to receive it. A very important part of a walk with God is our relationship with His Word. Are we dependant on Church meetings or music or entertainment or do we have a personal walk with God?
One of the foundation stones of a walk with God is to have a revelation of Him. If it is only a mental concept, Satan can bring something else to displace that. Once a truth is lodged in your heart by revelation, written on the tablets of your heart, you can be assured of a walk with God. Church politics and doctrinal ‘swordfights’ have robbed the Church of the basic requirement of being a Christian, and that is to walk with Him.
Intimacy, fellowship, communication with God, listening to His voice, a relationship with His Word and a hunger after Him, are all ingredients of a walk with God. Certainly also a relationship with His Holy Spirit because God presences Himself in our lives by His Holy Spirit. The fellowship in the Holy Spirit will sustain a walk with God. We cannot see God for He is spirit, but we can sense His indwelling spirit in our lives. A fresh revelation is going to come to this generation, of who the Holy Spirit really is.
Jesus challenged even His disciples. “Who do the people say I am?” And then asked, “Who do you say I am?” Jesus labelled Peter’s answer as a revelation. He said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said that even His flesh and blood did not bring that revelation about, but His Father in heaven revealed it to him (Matt. 16:13-18). Even though Satan tried to sift Peter like wheat, Jesus prayed for him (Luke 22:31-32). What kept Peter standing? He had a revelation of who Jesus was!
Paul never saw the Lord personally like the twelve disciples, but he had an encounter with God which models what is available to every saint after the ascension of Jesus, and that is a revelation that can come to us in various ways, of who He is. Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer (2 Cor. 5:16).
Testing will come your way. What keeps you through testing? A revelation of Him and a walk with Him. It’s beyond coming to meetings, it’s beyond reading the Bible; it’s beyond singing songs. You must have a revelation! It is God breaking into your mindset and bringing insight into your heart.
A walk with God must experience upgrades otherwise it is a stagnant walk. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect (Rom. 12:2). What does it tell you about your walk with God if the world cannot see the difference between you and the worldly person? Is there something wrong with your walk with God? Upgrade from good to acceptable to a perfect walk with God by the renewing of your mind, which comes by the proceeding Living Word.
Walk with God. It may redefine the word ‘prayer’. “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17) is intimately related to walking with God, conversing with God, fellowshipping in His Holy Spirit.
When Elijah suddenly appears on the pages of the Bible, (1 Kings 17: 1) it is almost as if he appears from nowhere. Engaging the nation on that level is an outflow of a very personal walk with God that has been upgraded to such an extent that he was able to engage the heavenly powers. He was able to shut the heavens for three and a half years and again see the heavens opened so the rain could come down. This is what the nations are waiting for, not for meek and mild and gentle little Christians but for people who are so intimately walking with God that they have reached the place in their constant upgrade where they have become conversant with the spiritual realm, the invisible. They see the invisible; they can engage the powers of heaven. As an outflow of his personal walk with God, Elijah did not die. He was taken up. The way we see aging and death must change. That will be a natural outflow of an upgraded walk with God, where you can see the truth in the realm of spirit beyond the physical.
Elijah is back in the earth. “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.”He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse”(Mal. 4:5-6). Here is a man who had an intimate walk with God. I believe his spirit is released in the earth, representing both the apostolic and prophetic.
In this season we will again see those who have an intimate walk with God, who will live and function from elevated vision!