WALKING IN THE WAYS OF GOD
(PATHWAY TO HIS PRESENCE)
“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” Gal 5:25.
Judges 2:6-10 And when Joshua had dismissed the people, the children of Israel went each to his own inheritance to possess the land. So the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD which He had done for Israel. Now Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died when he was one hundred and ten years old. And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash. When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel.
The second-generation syndrome.
1. They had heard but not had experienced God.
2. They neglected God’s word.
3. They were satisfied with what they had.
These people were in the Promised Land but did not know how to stay there and experience its goodness.
Deuteronomy 6:23 ‘Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers.
The place God brings us out of is Egypt, the place of slavery to sin and Satan. The place God desires to bring us into is Canaan, the place of freedom, a land of abundance. We want to make this journey but in what route do we travel? How can it be accomplished? There is only one way, the way of God.
Jeremiah 10:23 O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.
Judges 5:6 “In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, In the days of Jael, The highways were deserted, And the travelers walked along the byways.
Or winding ways as referred to: Judges 17:6 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Psalm 103:7 He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.
Ways = Hebrew 1870 “Derek” meaning way, road, journey, path, direction, habit, conduct, condition, destiny. It also means power and rule.
THE ROUTE
THE LIFESTYLE
THE DISTANCE
Genesis 3:24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
1 Kings 2:4 “that the LORD may fulfill His word which He spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons take heed to their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul,’ He said, ‘you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’
THE WAY OF THE WILDERNESS
*There is a way in which God wants us to walk. It is not conceived or planned by man. It is the way of God that leads to life.
*No person in God can circumvent God’s dealings with themselves except at the cost of prolonging the lessons God would want to teach us.
*The way of God is the journey through life where God reveals Himself and by so doing restores us to the place we need to be in Him.
*God graciously has given us the example of this way in the picture of the wilderness wanderings of Israel after their deliverance from Egypt.
*In understanding this we must realize that the wilderness represents the self-life that we live with all its reasoning and resources. Egypt to Canaan is a spiritual journey we must all undertake in order to enter and walk in the fullness and fruitfulness of the life we can have in God.
*God has prepared a place for us to rest in Him but in order to enter, we need to be prepared. A prepared people for a prepared place.
Exodus 13:17-14:22
The spiritual way. It is God led. It is not the way of the Philistines.
The Philistines = the spirit of the world and natural man. It is the cloud or the crowd. What causes us to do the things we do?
*God desires to work the flesh out of us He does this by bringing our self-sufficiency to nothing. It is in the impossible that we see God work His mighty acts and so build our faith in Him.
*The classroom was in the wilderness or desert place. In Hebrew it means learning. It took place in the place of impossibilities, it was only here God could demonstrate a lesson that all believers need to learn, God is the only answer to our needs.
THREE LESSONS
1. Stand firm. V13 when the enemy comes against you stand on the word of God.
2. Be still. V14 in your fleshly inclinations.
3. Move on (in faith). V15 faith is a step into a supernatural realm. The parting of the waters.
Proverbs 3:5,6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
Trust in Him at all times: In times of trouble - In times of trial and temptation - In times of darkness
Power and strength are in Him to help. Our understanding is opposed to God’s understanding therefore contrary.
Acknowledge = know Him, set Him before you. Consider Him ever present to meet you’re need.
