Tuesday 2 August 2011

The Recipe for Enoch Living: The Challenge


Are you frustrated with a lame Christian walk? Have you read the life of Enoch and have had longings to walk that same walk that he did with God? Wouldn't you want to live in the very atmosphere of Heaven continually, rather than having a life of defeat after defeat each day? Well, friend, I believe by virtue of the fact that you are here reading these lines, means that you hunger for a closer walk with God, where you will be ready to withstand the imminent Time of Trouble, and behold your Saviour coming in the clouds of heaven.

Let me introduce to you something that I gleaned from my morning worship when studying out the life of Enoch. For one to walk with God as closely and consistently as Enoch did, will require discipline, self sacrifice and a carving out of time that you would naturally rather spend on other things. Why do I make it sound so against the human nature? That is because it is! The Bible tells us that 'The carnal mind is enmity against God....' The steps you are about to read, are radical, and will make you look extreme in the eyes of the world, and even in the eyes of your fellow Laodiceans. However, it is necessary that we be born from above, and learn this walk now, or else being in Heaven will be torture having to have constant communication with Jesus up there; and we know that God is love and will not permit the unconverted to enter Heaven with that mind set. So, it behooves us to experience the new birt now. Here is The Recipe for Enoch Living, which will be a challenge to the flesh at first, but as all habits, when tried for at least ten days it will become habitual and an absolute joy to experience:

1. The Love of God to be Meditated upon Day and Night
The infinite, unfathomable love of God through Christ became the subject of his meditations day and night; and with all the fervor of his soul he sought to reveal that love to the people among whom he dwelt. {PP 84.3}

Literally, make this your study to know the heighth, breadth and depth of the love of God as revealed in the life and death of Christ, and in The Desire of Ages.

2. The Heart to be in Harmony with God's Will in All the Duties of the Day
Enoch’s walk with God was not in a trance or vision, but in all the duties of his daily life...In the family and in his intercourse with men, as a husband and father, a friend, a citizen, he was the steadfast, unwavering servant of the Lord. {PP 85.1}

His heart was in harmony with God’s will; for “can two walk together, except they be agreed?” Amos 3:3. {PP 85.2}


3. Cultivate the Mental Faculties
Enoch was a man of strong and highly cultivated mind and extensive knowledge; he was honored with special revelations from God... {PP 85.3}

Apply the mind to grapple with deep and intricate themes in God's Word, and in other areas which will make you of usefulness to God and to man. The prophecies, and Godly Science, are great places to start!

4. Avoid Constant Association with the Ungodly
Distressed by the increasing wickedness of the ungodly, and fearing that their infidelity might lessen his reverence for God, Enoch avoided constant association with them... {PP 85.4}

5. Spend Much Time in Meditation (Thinking upon Christ) and Prayer
...and spent much time in solitude, giving himself to meditation and prayer. {PP 85.4}

6. Be a Preacher of Righteousness
Enoch became a preacher of righteousness, making known to the people what God had revealed to him. {PP 86.1}

7. Don't Limit your Messages to God's People
He labored publicly also, bearing God’s messages to all who would hear the words of warning. His labors were not restricted to the Sethites. In the land where Cain had sought to flee from the divine Presence, the prophet of God made known the wonderful scenes that had passed before his vision. “Behold,” he declared, “the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds.” Jude 14, 15.

8. Be a Fearless Reprover of Sin
He was a fearless reprover of sin. While he preached the love of God in Christ to the people of his time, and pleaded with them to forsake their evil ways, he rebuked the prevailing iniquity and warned the men of his generation that judgment would surely be visited upon the transgressor. It was the Spirit of Christ that spoke through Enoch; that Spirit is manifested, not alone in utterances of love, compassion, and entreaty; it is not smooth things only that are spoken by holy men. God puts into the heart and lips of His messengers truths to utter that are keen and cutting as a two-edged sword. {PP 86.2}

9. The More Busy You Are, The More Earnest Are to Be Your Prayers
In the midst of a life of active labor, Enoch steadfastly maintained his communion with God. The greater and more pressing his labors, the more constant and earnest were his prayers. {PP 86.4}

10. Exclude Yourself at Times from All Society, to Spend Alone With God
He continued to exclude himself, at certain periods, from all society. After remaining for a time among the people, laboring to benefit them by instruction and example, he would withdraw, to spend a season in solitude, hungering and thirsting for that divine knowledge which God alone can impart. Communing thus with God, Enoch came more and more to reflect the divine image. His face was radiant with a holy light, even the light that shineth in the face of Jesus. As he came forth from these divine communings, even the ungodly beheld with awe the impress of heaven upon his countenance. {Patriarchs and Prophets 86.4}