Walking with God Part I

Aim: Obtaining the promise
Scripture background: Micah 6:8 “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”

Introduction:
Walking with someone simply means moving together along the same path. Imagine walking with someone who has no destination. If a friend asks walk with me on a mission and begins moving round a circle will you continue with such a friend on that mission? It’s not a wise thing to walk with a stranger because you can’t tell where he is going because you have no knowledge stranger is, his likes dislikes and his way of doing things. Walking with someone prone to mistakes is also very dangerous as you can land in a place you never expected. From the discussion above there are conditions to be met before you can walk with a person successfully towards the same destination and through the same path. These conditions are
1. You must know the person
2. You need to have knowledge of the capacity of such a person
3. You need to have an idea of the destination and the pathways to the destination
Knowing the above conditions would help you prepare well for the journey.
Walking with God can be likened to a marriage in which there are many ingredients that make up a successful marriage. As you read on bear in mind that the essence of this message is to make you see yourself in a mirror as you really are with your own eyes to determine if you are truly walking with God or not and take positive steps to walk with God that you may obtain the promise in the very end.Imagine a lion and a sheep on the same mission or a cat and a rat on the same mission, quite an impossible mission right? So is it with our creator

Essence of Man walking with God
Gen 18-25
In the last text, God saw that man was a alone and he judged it as not a good thing for the man because of the task that was given to him by God Gen 2:15 “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it”. God must have thought man would also get bored being alone and needed someone to talk to like a companion fitting for him,
Although man had started to perform his duty without any help and could actually do his duties but he would lack companionship and no helper. Taking a closer look at God himself, we would discover he made man to be like a companion for himself, to fellowship with man. God decided then to find him a help meet for him and he started by bringing all the animals to Adam to name them one by one Gen 2:19-20”And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him”.

God then saw that among all the animals he had created there was not found a help meet for Adam so God knew he had to make Adam a help meet for him that would walk with him and help him achieve the purpose for which God made him. Then God made the woman as a help meet for man for companionship and support towards a common goal which is performing the purpose of God given to Man in Gen 2:15.

God has a purpose for creating us all and that is to join him to achieve his own purpose just as 1cor 3:9 says “For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building”.
Therefore our walking with God is to join him in his purpose and labour with him as friends, workers and as a companion knowing his intention in all this is that we may also be glorified even as he himself is being glorified both on earth and in heaven.
We shall now take a short study of certain characters and how they walked with God during their life and obtained the promise at the end.
Examples of men who walked with God are:

1. Enoch Gen 5:21-24
This man walked with God for 300years out of 365years which he lives and the bible is quoted saying “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” Enoch walked with God to an extent that the immortality of God robbed off on him that he was translated for God took him unto himself. A question could arise that how come this people could achieve this even when the knowledge of salvation through Christ was yet to be revealed to mankind. This would be answered shortly.

2. Noah Gen 6.9 “These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”
 God testified of this man because he walked with God. Let’s look at the work of building the ark. I wonder how a man and just 3 sons would build such an ark at that time. Let’s imagine there were even machine at that time would it have been possible for just 4 men to do such work, the obvious answer is CAPITAL NO. There must have been something divine that happened and this was possible because of the faith Noah had in God. The work was completed because Noah obeyed God and God testified of him, Noah was a joint labourer with God in his purpose for the world at that time.

3. Abraham Gen 12-Gen 25:
What an example of exemplary faith and a journey of constant spiritual growth. Abraham was not without some mistake made ignorantly but he relied on God for everything till he was tempted by God and passed .He attained the status of a friend to God and why is the question. The reason is he gave his only beloved son and God therefore gave the world his only beloved son because Abraham obeyed God therefore God formed an alliance with him.In isa 51 :1-3 the bible says in verse 2 “ Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him”. God made Abraham a standard for us to follow. Rom 4:17-20 “(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;”. This is what everyone who desires the glory of God should become. Studying Abraham alone is quite a large topic but I would stop here on Abraham. This would be studied when treating the topic: Maximising the use of your God.

4. David: Act 13:22
“And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.”
God summarised the person of David as a man after his heart isn’t that the most romantic word God has use to qualify a man? Well I leave you to the answer. David knew God in-depth and kept wanting to know more even when he sinned God only punished him out of jealousy and in the end saved him. He tapped into the unseen grace of Christ even in his time because he knew his God. The story of David are recorded in majorly 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1kings, 1 chronicles. The story of David is the most detailed in the bible compared to all other biblical characters. He also got the promise of God even as Abraham did because he did the will of God.

5. Papa Oshoffa: CCC Constitution, Oshoffa by baba Odeyemi, The enigma Oshoffa,
What a Man oshoffa was, was he different from you and I? NO but he stood out in his generation. As we know he came from a humble background and didn’t have any formal education he excelled in his calling. God testified of him as having a clean heart through holy mary’s appearance and that was why the heavens could relate well with him psalm 24 3-5 says
 “Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?
He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” Papa was a man of a gentle spirit and humble. He trusted God on everything concerning the church and always said this statement that the church is not his but belongs to God and the owner would take care of the church himself and he re iterated this always that he is just a messenger through which the church came. His aim was to teach people how to worship God and that Jesus may be known and his favourite verse was john 17:3 and it says “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
Papa went through many tribulations from republic of Benin to Nigeria yet he never staggered in unbelief always focused on the crown God would give him when he would leave the earth.God went the extra mile to testify of him during his lying in state and burial when God himself showed wonders and rainbow with the sun, moon stars testifying to the testimony God gave through papa oshoffa that the world may know that he was sent by God. Even now God uses his name for wonders because He did as he was commanded and walked with God therefore God had respect unto him. Indeed he was the beloved of the lord. There is so much to say about papa not to mention of the miracles and signs done by Jesus Christ Through him. He was led by the spirit and not by the gift of the Spirit. All glory to God for his life. Studying is life would take a long time to do justice to but the little shared is enough to point out the importance of walking with God even in these last days

to be continue