Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

Waiting in habitual fellowship with God – Part 3

By Theodore Effiong
23 June 2019   |   4:13 am
The Word: You cannot say you love God and yet not love God’s Word or have any affinity or attachment to His Word. God and His word are inseparable. “…and the word

Rev. Theodore Effiong

“…And Enoch walked (IN HABITUAL FELLOWSHIP) WITH God and he was not, for God took him (home with God).” Genesis 5:22 & 24 AMP

There Are Five Components In Walking With God (Cont.)
• The Word: You cannot say you love God and yet not love God’s Word or have any affinity or attachment to His Word. God and His word are inseparable. “…and the word was God.” John. 1:1. You must develop love for God’s word. The extent to which you love God’s word is a mirror or measurement of your love for God. “Therefore I love thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold.” Psalms 119:127. It is expected of us to have dynamic daily morning encounters with God’s word. How truly hungry and thirsty are you for God? It will manifest in how you devour the word. I suggest that part of your habitual fellowship with God should also include the strict habit of Bible reading.

• Holiness: We have seen how Enoch walked with God in a very evil generation. The Hebrew’s account further relates, “Before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” Hebrews 11:5. He lived a life style that heaven approved of or agreed with. “Can two walk together, except they be agreed”Amos 3:3. God wants to walk with you. But His eyes are too pure to behold evil or look on iniquity, Habakkuk 1:13.

We have also seen how Noah walked in habitual, unbroken fellowship with God. The Bible has this remarkable statement to say about him; “Noah was a just and righteous man, blameless in his evil generation” Genesis 6:9 AMP. If Noah could do it then, you and I can do it now, it’s a matter of choice. Before Abraham could qualify to be a member of the elite group called the friends of God, James 2:23, God ordered him, “walk before me and be thou perfect” Genesis 17:1. Holiness is a pre-requisite to walking with God.

• Waiting: This is a lost art most Christians today have no time for. The reason being that we live in a microwave society. We want quick, immediate and rapid results. We don’t want to hear the word ‘wait or be patient.’ In developed countries, not only are fast food outlets prevalent, but they also have fast food drive inns. You drive in at the entrance to make your order. You then drive around to the collection point to collect your order. I have seen people place order, drive around to the collection point and if it exceeded one minute, they start honking their car horns in anger. Here in Nigeria, we have traffic lights that count down the seconds from the red light to green. While the traffic light is still showing that two seconds are left to go, the vehicles behind you are already honking for you to move.

What Is Waiting?
It is an act of staying in God’s presence in stillness and silence, so as to hear His voice and encounter Him. Waiting is the highest and hardest level of prayer. In prayers, we do all the talking. But in waiting, you remain silent until God speaks. You stop talking. Do you know it is very hard for human beings to stay silent? It is even tougher to practise waiting in God’s Holy presence. In the first place, you must battle to get into His holy presence. That alone usually takes between 1 to 2 hours. Thereafter, your spirit, soul and body must come into a place of stillness. Be still and know that I am God. Psalms 46:10.

“I will stand like a guard to watch, and place (station) myself at the tower, I will WAIT to see what he will say to me, I will WAIT to learn how God will answer (or I will answer) concerning my complaint.” Habakkuk 2:1 EXB

Living bible puts it this way: “I will climb my watchtower now and WAIT to see what answer God will give to my complaint.” Habakkuk 2:1

In Habakkuk chapter one, the prophet complained to God about the intolerable national injustice. God answered him by revealing His plan to raise a new world power, called the Chaldeans, who would come and break down all opposition, collecting captives as sand, pouncing on the prey. The prophet further argued before God that it would be wrong for him to use the Chaldeans to chastise and correct them for their awful sin, as the Chaldeans themselves were far more wicked. After arguing his case before God, he now positioned himself in stillness and quietness to hear what God would say in response. This is the act of waiting. Prayer is not a monologue; it is a dialogue.

You speak and then God speaks back. In prayer, you supplicate, you tell God your problems, and you ask God for directives. In waiting, you wait to receive those instructions. “They soon forgot his works, THEY WAITED NOT FOR HIS COUNSEL.” Psalms 106:13. “But I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, I will look for him.” Isaiah 8:17.
Rev. Theodore Effiong, ASSEMBLIES OF GOD CHURCH, Calabar Or Prayer To All Nations (PTAN), Prayer City, Calabar. CRS
Email: theoeffiong@yahoo.com
Phone – +234 9030012007, +234 7031921770

In this article

0 Comments