What is this "walk with God" that characterized Enoch? I suggest that it involves suffering and
loss as well as self-abandonment every step of the way! This is because we walk with God when
everything is in revolt from Him. If there were more self-abandonment among us, many of our
difficulties would vanish. If it is a simple question of God_His claims, His pleasure, His
interests_why the difficulties are overcome at once! If God’s will is sweetest to me, even though
it triumphs at my cost, look how well out of the difficulty I am!
Looking at the pathway of the Lord Jesus as a Man here, was He successful as a man? Was it not
shame, scorn, contempt, reproach, and loss all the way for Him? We find with Him the
abandonment and surrender of everything that belonged to Him, from the throne of God to the
cross. Is that the pathway into which you and I are called? How little we consider these things.
If I set out to follow One who had not a place to lay His head, I cannot go on with trying to make
the best of everything around me. I must banish the idea of trying to surround myself with
anything that would make me comfortable. On the contrary, I seek to have as little as I possibly
can in this world if I am truly "walking with God."
There is another side to this "walking with God." While there may be loss and suffering as to
things here below, at the same time there is the blessed reality of Christ’s presence, of the joy of
walking the same road with Him. What is the end of such a walk? As with Enoch, it is to be taken
out of the world; it may be today! Is it the expectation of your heart that you should be translated
and not see death, like Enoch? There was a power of life in him that completely overcame the
power of death.
It may be noted that a good assembly state is the result of a close individual walk with God on the
part of all. You never have assembly power apart from individual faithfulness. May the Lord stir
up our hearts to a closer walk with Himself, in the blessed hope of being caught up at any moment
to be with Him forever!