Walking with God # 2
Were going to continue our teaching where we left off two weeks ago. We started a series called, “WALKING WITH GOD.” The title that I put on this particular message is called “WALKING IN THE GLORY.”
I) Last time we found out that Adam and Eve forfeited their rights to enjoy the presence of God when they committed high treason against Him. Their high treason was rebellion against God, which in turn was sin.
A) Until then, they had the privilege of walking with God in the cool of the day.
1) After the fall, they were banished from the Garden and from God’s refreshing presence.
B) But this does not mean that no one ever walked with God again.
1) In fact, in Genesis 5 we find an interesting note in the genealogy of Adam regarding his descendant, Enoch.
C) Turn with me to Genesis 5:23-24
1) Many preacher and theologians have speculated about what (verse 24) means when it says, “And Enoch walked with God.” There have been many different theories on the subject. But it’s not any great mystery.
a) To walk with God simply means, “To obey Him, to keep His commandments, and to fellowship with Him.”
2) God found that He was able to trust Enoch with His presence. Enoch was a man who would obey God.
a) We also know something else about Enoch. He was a man of faith.
b) And how we know that?
(i) Turn with me to Hebrews 11:5-6a
(ii) Doesn’t that tell you something? After Adam fell, God started looking for a man He could fellowship with, a man He could walk with in the cool of the day.
(iii) He finally found one when He found a man of faith, a man who could take God at His Word and obey it.
3) God is looking for the same kind of people today. His eyes are searching to and fro throughout the world for men and women who lived by faith and obey His Word.
a) These are the people He wants to walk with, the people He wants to bless.
b) There’s something else about Enoch that I want you to notice. In (Genesis 5:24) it says, “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not: for God took him.”
(i) Enoch never died. He never left a body behind to be buried and decay.
(a) His walk of fellowship with God was so strong that one day the Lord came for a visit and Enoch just went home with Him when they were done. He simply disappeared from the face of the earth!
4) Although Enoch was the 1st man in history to be taken up to heaven without dying, he certainly was not the last.
D) In the book of second Kings, we find another man whom walked with God, and that was Elijah, the prophet.
1) In chapter 2 we see God sending down a chariot of fire to pick up Elijah and carry him to heaven.
a) Once again, a man who knew intimate fellowship with God was whisked away without tasting the sting of death. (Second Kings 2:11)
2) I’m convinced that were living in a day that we’ll see the same thing happen again, only this time on a much larger scale.
a) I believe we’re the generation of believers who will one day, in the twinkling of an eye, be snatched up to heaven to be with the Lord.
3) This great event is called “THE RAPTURE.”
a) (1THES 4: 16-17) says, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: (17) Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
4) I’m also convinced that not every person that calls himself a “CHRISTIAN” will be making this glorious trip.
a) Many religious people are going to be in for the shock of their lives when they discover that their church membership was not enough to qualify them for the Rapture.
b) But for those who are walking with God, walking in obedience to His Word and fellowshipping with Him, that day will hold nothing but pure joy.
II) Enoch had a great grandson named Noah. Not too many years after Enoch’s disappearing act, Noah discovered another one of the prime benefits of walking with God, and that is PROTECTION.
A) In Noah, God found a man who would walked in OBEDIENCE AND FAITH.
1) Turn with me to Genesis 6:9. Now look at Genesis 6:22.
a) Noah’s close walk with God resulted in him and his entire family being saved from the destruction of the flood. It also resulted in the preservation of the human race.
B) The same will be true for God’s people today.
1) A great tribulation is about to come upon the earth; but if you will walk with God, you will be spared. The Ark of Jesus will carry us away, above the wrath and destruction that is about to be unleashed upon mankind.
2) There is protection in the presence of God.
III) The next one that I want to look at who walked in the presence of God, is Moses.
A) Few men in history have experienced the presence of God to the degree that Moses did.
1) He experienced God in the burning Bush. He experienced Him in the miraculous plagues that came upon Egypt. He experienced Him in the fire and thunder on Mount Sinai. And he experienced Him in the tabernacle.
B) The tabernacle of Moses is actually a type or a foreshadow of the Son of God, who is Jesus.
1) In Moses’ time God dwelt in the tent of the tabernacle, under the New Covenant God dwelt in a house of flesh—the body of Jesus.
2) And even more astounding is that the presence of God now can dwell within you and me!
C) There is a lot of revelation and truth that we can get from the tabernacle of Moses. So let’s take a look at how the presence of the Lord was manifested there.
1) Exodus 33:9
a) The “CLOUD” that filled the tabernacle was the presence of the Lord and it was a very common experience in the Old Testament.
(i) Moses and God had an extraordinary relationship.
D) Let’s go on reading in Exodus 33:11-15
1) Did you notice the exchange in conversation between Moses and God?
a) God said to Moses, “My presence shall go with thee.” In response, Moses was saying, “That’s good, Lord, because if Your presence doesn’t go with me, I don’t want to go!”
b) Moses understood something about the presence of God that most believers today don’t.
(i) He knew God’s presence was the only thing that would carry them all the way through to the Promised Land.
(ii) He had the wisdom to realize that without the power and provision which comes from abiding in God’s presence, he might as well not even try to walk down the block, much less walk through the wilderness.
2) One thing I’ve noticed about spending time in the presence of God is that it makes you want more.
3) Spend a little time in God’s presence and soon you won’t be satisfied with just a little taste now in then.
a) You’ll want more of His presence. More of His power. And more of walking in His glory.
E) Look at Exodus 33:18
1) After Moses had experienced a little of God’s glorious presence, he wanted more!
a) He was saying, “Lord I want to see Your Glory! I want to see Your face!”
b) Did God reject Moses’ request and rebuke him for asking? Absolutely not.
(i) God will always be just as eager for your fellowship as you are for His, and even more so.
(ii) Remember that it was God who set Adam in the Garden to be able to enjoy a closed, intimate communion with him. It was man who put the wall of separation between the 2 of them.
c) God will always grant you fellowship and revelation to the degree that you can handle it without being harmed.
IV) Look at how God responded to Moses’ request to see His glory.
A) Exodus 33:19-23
1) That cleft in the rock is a foreshadow of the ultimate Rock, Jesus.
a) (1Cor 10:4) says that Jesus is the Rock.
b) It is in Him that we are able to experience God’s goodness and glory.
B) We see Moses and the cloud of glory one more time in history, but he was nearly 2500 years after the events we just read about.
1) Let’s take a look at it in Matthew 17:1-5a
a) Once again we find Moses on a mountain in the midst of a cloud. But this time something is different.
2) This time God is present on the earth in human flesh. Now appearing as God the son. Peter, James, and John had been looking into Jesus’ face for months. They had even touched Him.
a) God became as accessible to them as He was to Adam before the Fall.
C) Many times when God appeared to man, He came in the presence of the Glory Cloud. The Glory Cloud served as a filter so that we would not see all of God’s Glory.
1) As we already read in (Exodus 33:20) the Lord said, “No man shall see me, and live.”
D) Back in our story in Matthew 17, on this mountain the curtain between heaven in earth was momentarily peeled back, and the Glory began to shine forth as in the former days.
1) But once again, the cloud descended to protect fallen man.
a) When we have a service and you step into that Glory Cloud, just remember you haven’t seen anything yet.
2) Matthew 17:5-6
a) For a few moments, a window between heaven and earth had been opened. Through that window came a message from the throne of God, and it still applies to us today. And that message was, “This is my beloved Son...hear ye Him.”
3) Earthly manifestations of God’s Glory did not end that day on the mountain.
a) A few months later, after Jesus death, resurrection and ascension to heaven, an event occurred that was unprecedented in the history of the world. It was an event that would make the Glory, presence, and power of God available to you and me.
V) Turn with me to ACTS 2:1-4
A) On that remarkable day, the Spirit of Almighty God was poured out upon man. To that point the Holy Ghost had only rested upon man for short periods of time. Now the Spirit was available to abide within man, indwelling them 24 hours a day and charging them with the power of God.
1) Moments after the initial event of the infilling of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Peter preached a Holy Ghost inspired sermon to explain what had taken place.
B) ACTS 2:14-18
1) Pentecost brought a whole new dimension to experiencing the presence of God. In fact, it almost brings us full circle to where Adam was before the fall. Adam had the life of God inside him; we too, as believers, can have the life of God inside us.
a) When your baptized in the Holy Spirit, God comes into your life, He comes to live on the inside of you like never before and fills you with His presence.
b) He’s opened the door for you to come and have fellowship with Him. Now you need to make the effort to come and fellowship with Him.
c) When we do we’re going to see the power of God begin to unfold in our lives, God’s blessings upon all that we do. We’re going to see God’s protection upon our lives, we’ll see supernatural provision, we’ll have a peace that the world can not give, and we’ll have pure joy in the Holy Ghost.
2) Now the question is, “How do we walk in God’s Glory?” How do we have close fellowship with God Almighty?
3) (Ephesians 5) begins to unfold to us how we can have that kind of fellowship.
4) (Ephesians 5:18-20) says, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; (19) Speaking to yourself in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; (20) Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
C) God is looking for a men or woman that will fellowship with Him, one that will obey Him and keep His Word. He’s looking for a man or woman of faith to fellowship with and bless.
1) Will you be that man or that woman that God can fellowship with?
WOLCC Sunday, December 28, 1997 From Creflo Dollar’s book “Answers Awaiting in the Presence of God” Chapter 2 and 3.