Walking With God
By Joyce Webb
2006
Outline
1. Believe in God and accept His Word.
2. Realize you are a sinner and ask for forgiveness and believe you are forgiven.
3. Know that when you fail or sin–you need to come to Jesus immediately.
4. Learn how God wants you to behave then do it.
5. Learn to obey God and know when He is talking to you.
6. To become a mature Christian is a growing process.
7. You can walk away from obeying God at any time, but His Holy Spirit will keep trying to get you back.
8. The person who stays true to the end wins a crown of life.
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1. Believe in God and accept His word.
To walk with God you have to first believe in God.
You have to believe there is only one true God and He is the God of Heaven.
There are many “gods” in the world. People worship idols and men. They pray to them. They obey their teachings. They believe their “god” will give them a life after death.
There can only be one true God. Only one being can be in control and greater than all others.
We believe that the Bible teaches about the one true God.
This God lives in heaven. He made the heavens and the earth. He made angels for heaven and people for the earth. We are told this in the first three chapters of Genesis.
He is a God who has always been there. He had no start and He will never end. He is eternal.
He is the most powerful. He knows everything. He knows what has happened before, He knows what is happening now, and He knows what will happen in the future.
He is everywhere at all times. He sees everything. He knows what every person is thinking at every second—everyone, all at the same time–continually.
He is a God who has 3 “parts”. He is God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit—all as one being.
This is called a Trinity. Trinity means three as one.
God the Father is a Spirit. Genesis 1:2 “Spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep”
And yet there is a Bible verse that says, “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me and live” (Exodus 33:20. God is so holy and powerful that for a man to look at God would kill a man.
In Revelation, it says that someday the people who love God will see his face (Rev. 22:4)
The question is, “Does God the Father have a face?”.
Most of what we learn in reading the Bible is that God the Father is a Spirit. Yet there are certain men in the Bible to whom God has shown His Glory and it seems that the men saw a shape of some kind. God can show Himself to man in whatever way He chooses.
God the Son was once a Spirit with God the Father. When God the Spirit was willing to come to earth and be born in a human body as a baby, grow as a man and die on a cross–it seems he kept the “body” of a human shape. When Jesus is seen in heaven by John in the book of Revelation, Jesus is recognized as a “man” shape, but Jesus’ body is glorified and wonderful now.
The Holy Spirit was and has remained a Spirit. One purpose of the Holy Spirit is to bring men to repentance. To make them see that they have sinned and that they need to ask for forgiveness. Then after we are forgiven, the Holy Spirit guides us unto truth so we can walk with God successfully and in the right way.
Once we are willing to believe that God is the ruler of heaven and earth, and that to obey His way is to have life, then we need to pray to God and tell him that we believe in Him and want to obey Him.
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2. Realize You are a Sinner and Ask for Forgiveness and Believe You are Forgiven
We need to confess that we have sinned. We need to confess that we believe that Jesus died on the cross for us. We need to confess that we know that Jesus is the only one who has the power to forgive us. We need to ask for forgiveness. We need to tell God that we want to obey His Word and walk in a way that pleases Him.
We pray to God by talking to Him like we talk to any one here on earth. We believe that God sees us and hears what we say.
We can pray aloud, or we can talk to God in our minds. God knows what is in our minds, so he hears us.
It is important that we believe that Jesus is God’s son and that he is the only one who can forgive sins. In the book of John, Jesus talks a lot about how He came from the Father and is God’s son.
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, a punishment came upon them–death. First, they died in their spirit–their spirit was separated from fellowship with God–next they would die in their bodies.
Because God loved them so much, He told Adam that someday he would send someone to crush Satan’s head. Satan is the one who tempted them to disobey God.
God sent “someone”–his own Son–He was given the name Jesus. He grew as a man and died on a cross. He never sinned. He never did any wrong. He died in our place. He took the death punishment so we would not have to pay for our own punishment.
So Jesus, God’s son, is the only one who has the right and power to forgive our sins because he is the one who died for us.
Once we have confessed our sins and asked for forgiveness from God, we have begun fellowship with Him.
When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, God would talk with them. Then after they disobeyed God, they were so ashamed, they hid from God. When God called to talk with them after they sinned, at first, they did not answer. Sin had broken the fellowship and relationship that they had with God. Shame kept them from wanting God to see them. Shame kept them from wanting to talk to God.
Adam and Eve had to confess that they had sinned and disobeyed.
Sin in our lives breaks our fellowship and relationship with God, too. Our sin makes us not want to get near to God. When we are sinners we do not like to hear church songs or preachers. We do not like to read the Bible. Sin makes us uncomfortable around the things of God.
But when our sin has been forgiven and we are clean, then we enjoy the things of God. We want to be near God. Fellowship and a relationship has been started.
When we ask God for forgiveness He will forgive us.
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13 “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him form the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Romans 10:9 “and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:37
This fellowship and relationship needs to continue through our entire life. At any time, sin and disobedience can break the fellowship.
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3. Know That When You Fail or Sin–Come to Jesus Immediately
The most important thing to remember is that when you fail to obey–immediately (right away) (don’t wait) go to Jesus and ask for forgiveness.
The biggest trick Satan plays on us is to get us to put off coming to Jesus immediately when we realize that we have disobeyed.
Satan whispers to us things like: “Aren’t you ashamed! Do you think Jesus wants to talk to you like this?” “What you did was so awful, you need to think about it for awhile and think about how bad you are.” “You need to prove to God that you are sorry for your sin and stay away from Him for awhile. If you go ask for forgiveness right away, He will think you are not very sorry for what you did.”
There are all kinds of things Satan will whisper in our minds. He will get us to think that since we failed, we might as well give up trying to be a Christian because we are just not able to live right.
The whole point Satan is trying to do in every sentence is keep us from going to Jesus. Satan knows that in Jesus is the power over sin. That Jesus will forgive us and that in Jesus is the power to conquer our sin habits. If we continually live close to Jesus then Satan will have no power over us.
The longer we let the fellowship with Jesus be broken the greater we are in danger of losing fellowship completely.
God has given us the will to make choices. We choose to allow Jesus into our lives. We choose to sin. We choose to come for forgiveness. We choose to break fellowship with God. We choose to walk without fellowship with God. We choose to come back to God.
The Holy Spirit will keep whispering into our spirits to come back to God. But it is our choice to obey or not.
If we break fellowship with God by disobedience and we do not come back to Jesus, we will get farther and farther away from God. It will become easier and easier to ignore the Holy Spirit and to go our own way without God.
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4. Learn How God Wants You to Behave then Do It.
Read God’s word.
Read papers that explain how to live for God.
Go to church and learn.
Talk with Christians and learn.
Watch TV programs or Christian movies.
Once you ask for forgiveness for sin and you begin to walk with God, try to please God and obey His teachings.
You have to know what God wants in order to obey it. You learn what God wants by reading His word and listening to people who can explain God’s word.
The Bible was first written long ago in another language. The Old Testament was written in the Hebrew language. The New Testament was written in Aramaic and Greek. Many years later the Bible was translated into the English language. The English language long ago has words that we don’t use today.
The sentences in the Bible are not the way we talk today, so sometimes when people read the Bible in the English King James’ version, they find it hard to understand. In modern times the Bible has been translated again into modern day English. Some of those are easier to read than others.
Here is a Bible that is easy for the deaf to read and understand.
New Life Version Christian Literature PO Box 777 Canby, Oregon 97013 Phone:503-266-9734 They also have a study Bible. The Bibles are about $12.00. They probably have a website.
You could probably get it from your local Bible bookstore. A regular bookstore would probably order it for you.
You need to read the Bible everyday. Try to read one or two chapters everyday. If you are reading the Bible for the first time, start reading in the New Testament with the book of St. John.
You do not have to start reading the Bible in Genesis or in Matthew. The book of St. John is easy to read and understand.
After you read St. John, then go to Matthew, Mark, or Luke.
As you read the Bible, it will get easier. Your goal is to read the whole Bible.
Some of the Old Testament books have many chapters of rules for the Jewish people. Some of the chapters explain how to do the feasts and sacrifices. If you are new at reading the Bible, skip over those parts for now. Those are things that people who really study the Bible can understand and often write booklets about to help us understand it all.
There are many stories in the Old Testament that are important to read. But if in your reading of chapters, it gets really boring and hard to read—skip over it and go on to more interesting things. It is ok. You don’t have to read every word and sentence in the Bible. Later when you understand things better, you can go back and read some of that. Don’t get stuck on “hard to read” parts–just go on.
Reading the Bible yourself is important. Just hearing preaching on Sunday is not enough. You need to read the Bible everyday and give some time to think about God and what He wants to say to you. As you read everyday, you will feel more connected and closer to God. The Holy Spirit can speak into your spirit as you read God’s word.
Pray before you read and ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand what you will be reading. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you as the day goes along. Ask Him to guide you and teach you.
Your relationship with God is personal. You need to read what God says and talk to Him personally.
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5. Learn to Obey God and Know When He is Talking to You.
God speaks to us by His Spirit. The Holy Spirit can whisper thoughts into our minds. The Holy Spirit can give us a certain pressure with a thought and we know we need to do what this thought is.
We need to learn when it is the Holy Spirit talking. Other thoughts can come into our minds also and they are not of the Holy Spirit. Satan can whisper thoughts into our minds. We also have thoughts of our own.
It is difficult to explain to someone when it is the Holy Spirit speaking to us. We learn by experience to know His Voice. The Holy Spirit would not ask us to do something that would be against what the Bible says. The Holy Spirit would not ask us to do something that is a sin.
The Holy Spirit does not come and condemn (blame) us. The Holy Spirit would come and convict (warn) us of sin and let us know that what we are doing is wrong and that we need to stop.
The Holy Spirit does not come and blame and put us down for doing wrong. Satan will do that. Satan will sometimes pretend he is like the Holy Spirit, and when we do wrong Satan will come and make us feel so bad about it and tell us how awful we are. Satan wants to confuse us. He wants us to feel so guilty that we will feel too ashamed to come to God and ask for forgiveness. Satan wants to put us down.
First Satan tempts us to get us to do wrong and then when we do it, he blames us and we think the “blaming” is coming from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not blame. The Holy Spirit simply tells us “That is wrong.” “Stop doing that.”
The Holy Spirit tries to get us to come to Jesus immediately to ask for forgiveness and get power and strength to do right.
We need to be careful about our own thoughts. Sometimes we want things so much that we think our own thoughts are the Holy Spirit saying those things to us.
Learning to know the voice of the Holy Spirit in our life is a learning experience.
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6. To Become a Mature Christian is a Growing Process.
When we come to Jesus for forgiveness, we are forgiven immediately.
Learning to live in a way that is like Christ takes practice and learning. It does not happen overnight. We grow little by little. Just like a baby is born and then begins to grow every year. When you are forgiven–sometimes we used the word in church “saved”–then you begin your Christian life.
You will make many mistakes. You will sin again. But every time you realize that you made a mistake or that you sinned—go to Jesus immediately–ask for forgiveness and ask for Him to show you how to live right.
Sometimes there are things in our lives–habits, sins, ways of thinking–that take a long time to change. Even when we try hard to change those things in us–sometimes it still takes time to succeed. Don’t give up. You are learning everyday how to be better. God is patient. He works with us to help us overcome our weaknesses and learn to be the kind of person who is like Jesus.
We keep learning and growing until we get to heaven. If you are not growing and learning then you must not be trying to learn and grow. Some people get lazy spiritually and do not try to learn to discipline themselves to be better. That is not a good thing. The Holy Spirit wants us to keep growing in the Lord.
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7.You Can Walk Away From Obeying God at Any Time, but the Holy Spirit Will Keep Trying to Get You Back
We have a free will. If we decide to walk away from God and never speak to God again–we can do that.
God loves us so much that He will have the Holy Spirit keep talking to us and trying to get us to come back to Him.
God is very patient. However, the Bible does say that at some point God may decide to just leave you alone like you want.
That will be a very dangerous place to be, because it is the Holy Spirit that draws us to God. If we push Him away so often and for so long–He may just let us have our way. And if the Holy Spirit is not there to draw us back to God, we may never come back to God. Genesis 6:3 “ And the Lord said, ‘My spirit shall not always strive with man’”—this means “struggle to bring man back to God.
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8. The Person Who Stays True to the End Wins a Crown Of Life.
Revelation 3:21 “To him that overcometh will I grant (give) to sit with me in my throne.”
Revelation 21:7 “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God and he shall be my son.”