In order for us to follow the Lamb and to go on to maturity to become the firstfruits, we must walk with God by faith to escape death as Enoch did and obtain the testimony of being well pleasing to God; we need to walk with God day by day, doing things according to God and not according to ourselves.
Lord Jesus, we love You and we want to walk with God today. We give You our daily living. We open to You concerning all things in our daily life. We love You, Lord, and we want to walk with You, walking in step with You and following Your lead to go where You want us to go. May we live by faith and walk by faith. May we allow You to apply the cross to our being so that we may walk with God and be well pleasing to God! Amen!
The firstfruits in Revelation 14 are on Mount Zion with God, in the temple of God, and they are there for God’s satisfaction. We are not told that they were raptured; they were just there.
This indicates that these ones walked with God so much that, like Enoch, they were just in God’s presence continually, even on Mount Zion with Him. They obtained the testimony that they were pleasing to God, and God just took them.
We need to walk with God day by day to such an extent that, whether we are here on earth or we are with Him on Mount Zion, we are well pleasing to Him, and He is pleased to have us in His presence, for we are well-pleasing to the Lord.
This means that we need to grow in life unto maturity and love the Lord, for we live a life not merely to defeat God’s enemy and subdue him, but even more, we are here for God’s satisfaction. God created us for Him to be satisfied.
He created us in His image and according to His likeness, and He wants us to be part of His corporate expression and to represent Him with His authority.
As believers in Christ who are growing in God’s cultivated land, His building, we want to grow in life and ripen faster, even to be the firstfruits that are taken to the presence of God.
In the Old Testament God told His people not to eat the firstfruits but rather, bring them to Him in His house for His satisfaction.
He wants to taste the firstfruits and be satisfied. It is the same in Christ’s resurrection; the firstfruits of His resurrection were for the Father to enjoy and be satisfied.
Similarly with us today, the believers in Christ, we want to be matured and ripened so that we may be for God’s satisfaction, simply to be in His house for His delight and satisfaction on the heavenly Mount Zion.
The Way to Escape Death and Obtain the Testimony of being Well Pleasing to God is to Walk with God by Faith
In Genesis 5:22-24, we see that Enoch had a son, and he walked with God; after begetting Methuselah, Enoch walked with God for three hundred years, and he begot more sons and daughters.
All the days of Enoch were 365 years. And Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him.
In Hebrews 11:5-6 we are further told that it was by faith that Enoch was translated so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had translated him.For before his translation, his rapture, he obtained the testimony that he had been well pleasing to God.
If we want to be the firstfruits for God’s satisfaction and escape death, having the testimony that we’re well pleasing to God, we need to walk with God by faith today.
Without faith it is impossible for us to be well-pleasing to God, for he who comes forward to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
What does it mean to walk with God? How can we walk with God by faith today?
As believers in Christ, we have been saved by faith through grace, and now we walk with God; our Christian walk is by faith. We need to ask the Lord to teach us how to walk with Him.
We should not take this for granted, thinking we know what it means to walk with God by faith; we should simply take these verses and be before the Lord, asking Him,
Lord Jesus, I want to walk with You. Teach me how to walk with God by faith. Shepherd me into this in my daily life. Grant me to cooperate with You so that I can give You the best cooperation for You to intensify Your organic salvation and make me an overcomer who is pleasing to God! Amen!
One aspect of walking with God is not overriding God; we walk with God and not God with us, so we don’t override God.
We are not presumptuous, we don’t do things according to our own concept and desire, and we don’t do things according to the current of the age; rather, we learn to do all things with God and in God (Psa. 19:12-13; Josh. 9:14b; Luke 24:15).
Many times we do things by default, simply because we are used to doing this and that, and we don’t check with the Lord about things. We do things without asking for the counsel of the Lord.
We are presumptuous, simply because we know so many things about the Lord and from the Bible, that we presume we should do this or that for the Lord or in the church life.
Who can discern his errors? Who knows his secret faults? Who realises that he is presumptuous?
Even in our service to God, we may be presumptuous. We see this in Matthew 7 where the Lord answers those who did great works of power in His name, cast out demons in His name, and did great things for God; to them He said, Depart from Me, I never knew you. Wow.
He never acknowledged them. He does not recognise them. This means that it is possible to do things for God and in God’s name, yet we are not walking with God, nor do we behold Him face to face to see what He feels about what we’re doing.
The Lord wants us to just behold Him and be with Him; He wants us not to do this or that thing for Him but just behold Him, be with Him, enjoy Him, and partake of His riches.
May we learn to walk with God and not override Him. May we learn to adjust our pace to walk with Him. If we want to be raptured and not taste death, we need to learn to walk with God.
The principle of rapture, as seen in the first mention of rapture in the case of Enoch, is that we need to walk with God by faith until we obtain the testimony of being well pleasing to God.
Lord Jesus, we love You and we want to walk with God by faith today. Oh Lord Jesus, we open to You concerning all things. We want to bring all things to You in prayer. Save us from overriding You in our walk with You. Forgive us for our secret faults. Keep us from presumptuous sins. Oh Lord, save us from thinking we know what You want us to do yet without contacting You. We want to consult with You in all things and concerning all things. We love You and we turn our heart to You. We invite You into our life, we give You the first place, and we want to walk with You. Amen, Lord, may we grow in life unto maturity as we walk with God by faith in our Christian life. We want to live a life for Your satisfaction today. May we be those who obtain the testimony that we are well pleasing to God in our lifetime. Oh Lord, save us from doing things apart from You. Keep us depending on You, always checking with You, and never doing anything apart from You! Keep us in the organic union with You in spirit!
Learn to Deny the Self and Walk Upward with God until we are Well Pleasing to God and are Taken by Him
When we speak of walking with God, when we walk with someone, this means that we need to adjust our way of walking to His way of walking.
For example, if we walk with our wife, we cannot walk faster than her; we need to adjust our pace to hers, and we need to match our walking with hers.
If we walk with God, we cannot ask God to go faster or slow down, nor should we give Him ideas to do this or that; we should simply deny the self and walk with God (Matt. 16:24).
The question is, do we walk with God or do we force God to walk with us?
In the Bible there are quite a few cases where God walked with man; this is always so that God would gain man and bring man back to His original intention.
In Luke 24:15 we have two disciples going down on their way to Emmaus; they were confused and discouraged, and the Lord Jesus came and walked with them.
He wanted to bring them back to Jerusalem so that they would receive the Holy Spirit as the holy breath, but He had to walk with them where they were going so that He would shepherd them back to Jerusalem.
In Psalm 139 we also see that the Lord is with us when we’re in heaven, but even when we go to Sheol, He is there with us. He goes along with us where we go, for He wants to bring us back to the enjoyment of Himself so that we may walk with God by faith in our Christian life.
Too many times God walked with us, but we did not see Him but rather, rejected Him. As we walk in our Christian life, as we live our daily life, we need to learn to contact the Lord and depend on Him.
To walk with God is to do things according to His revelation and leading; it is to do everything with Him.
To walk with God by faith is not only to live for God and to do things for God but even more, to live and do things according to God and with God (Rom. 8:4, 13-14; Gal. 2:2a; 2 Cor. 5:14-15).
In Galatians 2:2 Paul went to Jerusalem not just to visit or to fellowship about a certain problem with the brothers; he went there according to revelation.
As he fellowshipped with God, he walked with God, and he went to Jerusalem one with God. To walk with God means that we don’t live by what we are or can do but by the immortal life, which is Christ Himself (2 Cor. 2:4, 9).
We walk because of Christ, with Christ, and according to Christ. We need to be with Him. In our thinking, loving, and choosing, we must be one with God.
As we grow up in the world and learn to do things in and by ourselves, we become quite independent, and the whole world wants both men and women to be independent and take care of themselves, love themselves, and pay attention to their own benefit.
But when we walk with God it is different; we depend on God, we pay attention to God, we do things one with God, and we don’t give God any suggestions what to do and where to go but we walk with God by faith.
As lovers of the Lord, may we walk with God and follow the Lamb wherever He may go.
We need to let God take the lead. We want to do a certain thing, but God wants us to do something else; we deny the self and we take His will and His way.
Walking with God by faith will kill us; it will kill the self and the flesh. We need to love the Lord, live by faith in Him, be one with Him, and forget ourselves, condemn ourselves, and renounce ourselves. If we’re not willing to do this, we can’t walk with God.
To walk with God is to have habitual fellowship with God and be in constant contact with God to be under His constant infusion (1 John 1:3; Phil. 4:6; 2 Cor. 3:16, 18).
This starts in the morning, when we wake up and come to the Lord, we simply need to be with Him. We shouldn’t ask Him to do this or that for us; we simply need to be with Him and enjoy His presence.
What we need is not more of this or more of that; we simply need to be with the Lord and let Him infuse us. Our fellowship with the Lord needs to be habitual and constant so that we may be infused with Him.
Even regarding our desire to be raptured, if we want to be raptured so that we escape the great tribulation, our focus is wrong. We want to walk with God by faith until we are raptured to be with Him for His satisfaction.
We need to simply make our requests known to God and not be anxious about anything but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let God know about everything concerning us.
We need to make a motion toward God, making our requests known to Him. As we fellowship with God constantly, we walk with God by faith. Our walking with God is upward; Enoch did not walk with God in a zig-zag or up and down, but only upward.
His rapture was not sudden, as a surprise; rather, as he walked upward with God, he touched heaven, and he simply was not, for God took him.
We need to walk upward with God by denying the self and fellowshipping with Him in all things until God takes us. May we open to Him concerning this. May we learn to simply tell Him all things.
Lord Jesus, we take You as our centre and our everything. We want to do all things according to God and with God! We don’t want to do anything apart from You. May we do all things according to Your revelation and leading so that we may walk with God by faith. May we not just do things for You or in Your name but in oneness with You, even do everything with You. Amen, Lord, we love You and we open to You. We cast all our anxious thoughts on You. We bring to Your knowledge all our problems and feelings. We do not want to live in ourselves, by ourselves, or for ourselves; we want to live by You as our life. We put ourselves aside and we deny the self; we want to live by the immortal life in our spirit, Christ Himself. Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to have habitual fellowship with You throughout the day. We want to be in constant touch with You and be under Your constant infusion. May we walk upward with God by faith until we are not and God is. May we live a life that is well pleasing to You!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ricky Acosta on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis, msg. 26 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (4) (2025 December Training), week 45 (msg. 9), The Lamb Whom the Overcoming Firstfruits Follow – day 3.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Not I, but Christ be honored, loved, exalted, / Not I, but Christ be seen, be known and heard; / Not I, but Christ in every look and action, / Not I, but Christ in every thought and word. / Oh, to be saved from myself, dear Lord, / Oh, to be lost in Thee, / Oh, that it may be no more I, / But Christ that lives in me. (Hymns #591 stanza 1 and chorus)
– Lord, we would be as Abel, fully contacting You; / Not by knowledge or concept, but by life fresh and new. / Just as Enosh began to call upon Your name, / And as Enoch who walked with You, we’ll do just the same. / Oh, we’ll stay on God’s life line, never turning aside. / We don’t care for vain knowledge, which will cause us to die. / Lord, we’ll touch You by calling on Your name each day; / Living in Your appearing, in Your presence we’ll stay. (Hymns #1194 stanza 2 and chorus)
– While He lifts His hands in blessing / He is parted from His friends; / While their eager eyes behold Him, / He upon the clouds ascends; / He who walked with God and pleased Him, / Preaching truth and doom to come, / He, our Enoch, is translated / To His home, to His home, to His / everlasting home. (Hymns #130 stanza 3)
