What is a walk with God all about? Sounds simple. But walking with God is not like walking with
another human, like--for instance, walking in the park with a friend. Even though we can include God in our walk
in the park, there is an invisible barrier between Him and us that keeps us
from touching him physically, and we cannot see him with our natural eye. So
while He draws near to us in our abode in the “lowlands”, it is a temporary and
limited affair. While he would walk with us that way as long as possible, his
desire is to bring us to Himself, for there is no other way for us to truly
have a deep and growing relationship without it.
Just like a human friend we have come to know through time and experience, love and respect develops through face-to-face contact. We cannot appreciate or understand God’s true character if we don’t spend intimate time with him, stepping up into higher realms--while walking in a human body. That can only come through a melding of soul and spirit when the soul has yielded to His spirit. He must enable this happening, for our natural flesh and blood tendencies are not open to this. It seems inconceivable. When in a past dispensation, he appeared as fire on a mountain, it was not possible for anyone to draw near except Moses, who had been forged by God to live through the experience. Literal fire was only a temporary manifestation, for the Savior had not yet come forth, enabling God’s presence in the invisible, in the soul. I will come back to the reality of God’s fire after this assertion:
The God I have come to know and love, whose name is Jesus, is loving and compassionate. He has always wanted us to be close to him, and it was His ultimate intention to have a family from his creation. God wants to be loved! God needs to be loved! If he didn’t, we wouldn’t want those same things, for we are molded from His own soul which was used to produce our existence. Here is the perspective of God: “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him [be] the glory forever. Amen.” Romans 11:36 (NAS). This is more than a perspective; it is reality. *
Everything comes FROM him. Everything is THROUGH him. Everything is TO him. What is left out of that summation? What cannot be IN the jurisdiction and territory of God? What is outside of that arena? Nothing! Therefore, we are OF HIM! We are clay in the Masters hands, and His hands are very warm and loving, bringing us forth step by step, season by season. Even though our existence begins in a lowly realm of death and darkness, He has never left us or forsaken us, but draws us to himself in our time of calling. (John 12:32, 1 Cor 15:23)
He is ever forming us on the potter’s wheel, in the furnace of affliction, on the threshing floor, in the winepress. These are all scriptural depictions of the “walk” we will experience when we are drawing closer to the Creator. It’s His call, His way, and His timing. (Eph 1:11) Even so, creation has not been willing to be subjected to this pain (Romans 8:20). The natural man fights against it, the religious "rebuke it", and that is understandable and normal if we have a say in it. But God will bring us around. He never fails, and his intention is Love. He is changing us in fire. Every trial we experience is God’s sanctification in our space. He is cleansing and purifying a weak potential in us, expanding His presence in our soul.
God is a consuming fire (Heb 12:29), and what is consumed is darkness in our soul of many varieties, including inclinations to live separate from Him--which is impossible. These visitations of God (our trials) transform us and change our dark matter into light. Our carnal kingdom will be overtaken one space at a time and replaced with a Divine nature. Death was swallowed up in victory, and these fiery experiences are powerful and life-giving! Having deficiencies and weaknesses in our soul was not our fault, and He has continued to take responsibility, for we are His creation. But it is painful, nonetheless! The good news is that he is with us, making victory possible. And so much more!
I speak from my own experience, and can relate to many who have gone ahead of me, and to others who are being changed now. Being transformed into His likeness (1 Cor 15:53-54, 2 Cor 3:18) is a journey of constant challenge and pain, but He is always with us and in us clearing the field for victory. When the angel of the Lord stood before Joshua, telling him that the victories in Canaan (across the Jordan) were assured, so it is with our journey; our victories are assured! He was told that the battles would have to be walked out. We, too, must walk them out.
This is not about “dying” and going to heaven. We are born into death and come through it and up out of it, aided by the comforter, the Holy Spirt, to bring heaven to earth. This is the true “born again” experience! As I have spoken of before in many articles, heaven cannot exist without the presence of Jesus. And His abode is here, with us, in us, AS us (as our understanding increases). (John 3:30, Phil 1:21) We are here. Therefore, heaven is here! And the journey is all about being consumed by God. A loving transaction of swapping death for life.
The closer I have been pulled to God, the more the fiery trials have come to me. I have been changed in the process, and there is no other way for the miracle of God’s life and influence coming into me to happen. While I am still a human, I am a spirit-led human. My rules and regulations come from within. This includes self-judging (so God won’t have to), and repenting (adjusting my thoughts, changing my mind) on day-to-day issues. God’s fire is mostly comforting to me now, and I have no desire for it to diminish. His beauty growing and glowing in me through OUR relationship is the power of true communion with Him. I have become a firewalker, for I walk with God.
"and unto the messengers, indeed, He saith, 'Who is making His messengers spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire," Heb 1:7 (Young's Literal)
*Romans 11:36 is witnessed by Col 1:16-17: "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." (KJ)
