When we hear the word intimate, it almost brings a feeling of calmness and security. It signifies a deep personal relationship. A closeness that is private and personal. When we are intimate with someone, we allow them to know things about us that the average friend does not know. Most of us have very few people that fit into this category. However, God wants us to be intimate with Him. He already is intimate with us, He knows everything there is to know about us. He even knows things that we still have not recognized about ourselves.
An example of someone in the Bible who illustrates this relationship with God is Enoch. There are very few words about his life, but the few speak volumes! He was 65 years old when his son Methuselah was born. It was after this birth that Genesis 5:22 tells us he became serious about his relationship with God. He was sold out, intimate, committed, and consecrated to God for 300 years!
Genesis 5:21-24 “When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah for 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus, all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.”
Enoch followed God closely and agreed with everything God said. Agreement with what God’s word teaches us is imperative to obedience. Amos reminds us in Amos 3:3 that two can only walk together if they agree. Enoch agreed with God!
Amos 3:3 “Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?”
He was God’s man in every way. To walk with God is to want to please God in every way. It is to be so conscious of God’s presence that nothing is thought about or done without being aware of how God would view it. To walk with God is to make God’s rule, and bringing Him glory the ultimate goal of life.
Enoch was dead to this world, it did not concern him what others thought or how they viewed his choices. He did not walk after God. He walked with God. Circumstances did not interfere with his decisions. His eyes were fixed on God and pleasing Him. Enoch was a preacher and prophesied of the coming of the Lord.
Judges 1:14 “It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones,”
Enoch would have been as Paul in Philippians 1:21, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Except for one thing: he never died! When I read Genesis 5:24, where it tells me, “he walked with God, and he was not, for God took him,” I can’t help but wonder what it must have been like to be walking and talking with God and all of a sudden, God to say, come on home! WOW, try to wrap your mind around that!
Enoch had been so committed and faithful to God that God wanted to bring him home forever. What a joy to be in God’s presence, but an even greater joy for God to want to be in our presence, to be a saint that he can depend on to please him above everything else. We should want God to be able to look at us with a loving Father’s smile and say, “That’s my child.”
What a legacy to leave for your children and grandchildren. For them to know that you loved God above EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE! That would mean nothing stood in the way of your worship. Nothing took the place of your daily walk with God. Nothing was more important than serving others as Jesus did. Nothing, and I mean nothing, happened without finding out what God thought about it. Can we live that way? I not only think we can, I think God expects us to. However, most of us make excuses and expect God to overlook our attitudes and actions. We think that because he loves us and has forgiven us, it will be okay. We think God will understand, and our infractions will just fade away. We are deceived when we think this way. God hates sin, and when we are not pleasing him, it is sin. He cares about everything in our lives, just like He did Enoch’s. The problem is that we don’t care about everything in our lives like God does!
We are to be in this world, but not of this world. We love this world far greater than we want to admit. We are to be a “living sacrifice.” A sacrifice has no will of its own. It is solely at the mercy of the one who owns it. We say we are sold out, but our constant talk is about us and what we want. It’s time we become so consumed with God and serving Him as Enoch was. To be as Paul, who proclaimed to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
What could, or would God do, with a people that were totally sold out to pleasing Him? Our prayers would be according to His will, and they would be answered in the affirmative. The world would feel conviction because they would sense His presence when around us. The church would be a true light to the world because they would not see us, but a reflection of Christ.
Excellent