In my two series, The Way of Enoch and Wake Up and Rest, the focus is in Spiritual Maturity as we Walk With Jesus through our life here on earth
Gen 5:24 And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
That walk is the pathway to fulfilling Romans 8:29 as well as the same translation that blessed Enoch. The key, however, to staying on that path is not what we do in those exceptionally spiritual moments in our life; it is rather what we do during the ordinary times when there is nothing tremendously spiritually going on. That is when God measures where we are during our probationary period here on earth. Are we matching Jesus’ stride-for-stride or are we surging ahead or lagging? I have been there on both sides far too many times and I can attest to the fact that life is a lot better when we are matching His stride. And just what is Jesus’ stride?
In its simplest terms it is “Jesus’ life” and, when we are in it, we are allowing His life to manifest itself in us. It is those moments when we completely disappear in our union with Him. Our problem is that what makes it so difficult to stay there is the fact that He so often out paces us within the very first steps He takes each day of our life. That happens because He has a completely different way of doing things than we do and it takes the Holy Spirit to train us along the way. Our part is allowing Him to conform us into the life of Christ so that our transformation is apparent to all.
I love what Oswald Chambers said about the process: “Spiritual truth is learned by atmosphere, not by intellectual reasoning. God’s Spirit alters the atmosphere of our way of looking at things, and things begin to be possible which never were possible before.” It reminds me of the medallion my mom gave me before leaving for Viet Nam; Just Let Go.
The bottom line is that getting in stride with Jesus is nothing more or less than getting in union with Him with the goal of making that a 24x7x365 relationship. It will take us a lifetime to get there, but He promises that we all will.
Will we and do we stumble along the way? Absolutely! But Jesus has a way of slowing down in those moments because He promised that He would never leave or forsake us. Just remember that it is a marathon and not a sprint, and that means it takes endurance, patience and sometimes suffering along the way. The Holy Spirit is in it for the long haul. We just need to be certain that we are as well.