A Life that Changes the Age is a Life that Inherits the Godly Ways of the Forefathers

Noah’s life was a life that changed the age, and if we prayerfully consider his life, we see that this life inherits the godly ways of the forefathers: Adam’s way of salvation, Abel’s way of offering to please God, Enosh’s way of calling on the name of the Lord, and Enoch’s way of walking with God.

Lord Jesus, we want to have a life that changes the age we live in today! We love You and we give ourselves to You. May we inherit the godly ways of our forefathers in Christ and may we continue with You on the pathway of faith. May we be those who enjoy God’s salvation by drinking from the springs of salvation! May we offer Christ to God for His satisfaction! May we call on the name of the Lord! May we walk with God until God takes us! May we be those who work with God to build up the church, the Body of Christ! Amen!

With Noah, we see God the Father in His faithfulness to keep His eternal covenant, in Daniel, we see Christ the Son as the centrality and universality of God’s economy, and in Job we see God the Spirit transforming man through the renewing of the Spirit.

In particular, we want to focus on Noah, a man who changed the age. Noah found favor in the sight of Jehovah. He didn’t just walk here and there, doing this and that, and suddenly found grace in the eyes of God.

Rather, Noah walked in the way of his forefathers by inheriting Adam’s way of salvation, Abel’s way of offering to God to please God, Enosh’s way of calling on the name of the Lord, and Enoch’s way of walking with God.

He lived and walked in righteousness, being upright before God, and he inherited the godly ways of his forefathers. As he was walking with God, Noah found grace in the eyes of God.

This means that God opened His heart to Noah to tell him what He was about to do, and God came to Noah to be everything for Noah to build the ark.

On the one hand, Noah inherited the godly ways of his forefathers and walked in them. On the other hand, he went a little further; he also worked with God.

We need to be those who inherit the godly ways of our spiritual forefathers, and we need to go on with the Lord to cooperate with Him in this age, according to how He reveals to us in an up-to-date way, for us to end this age.

We want to be the Lord’s age-turners today, those who inherit the godly ways of our forefathers and who cooperate with the Lord in this age to turn the age and bring in the kingdom of God.

A Life that Changes the Age is a Life that Inherits the Godly Ways of the Forefathers: Adam’s Way of Salvation and Abel’s Way of Offering to Please God

As believers in Christ who see something of God’s economy and are infused with a desire to bring Him back, we need to realise that we’re not here on our own, nor are we suddenly here as Christians: we have those who went before us.

Noah’s life changed the age; if we look at his life, we realise that through his life and work, he changed the age. A life that changes the age is a life that inherits the godly ways of the forefathers.

Noah was the tenth generation, and he had Enoch, Methuselah, and Lamech before him, and even more, he had Adam, Abel, Enosh, and Enoch as his forefathers.

We are here as a continuation of those who went before us; we inherit their godly ways and we go on with the Lord in this age.

There are three falls of man, as seen in Genesis 1-6; first, man did not exercise his spirit and fell, then man over-exercised his soul and invented a new religion, and third, man abused his fallen body and became full of lust, fornication and violence.

In a short span of four chapters, from Adam to Noah, there were four falls. But praise the Lord for Noah who inherited the godly ways of his forefathers!

Noah inherited Adam’s way of salvation, receiving the promise of Christ as the seed of the woman and the covering of Christ as the God-satisfying righteousness (Gen. 3:15, 20-21; cf. Isa. 12:2).

After man fell, he expected to die right away; man disobeyed God by eating of the wrong tree, and God promised that the day he does it, he will surely die. So man covered himself with leaves, for he realised he was naked, and hid from God.

God, however, did not come to punish him but to preach the gospel to him; he preached the gospel to Adam and cursed the serpent.

Adam believed the gospel, for he called his wife, Eve, living; he was full of faith that they would live, so he called the name of his wife, Eve, a living one.

Today we inherit Adam’s way of salvation. We have fallen, but God came to save us; He came not to condemn or judge us but to preach the gospel to us, make a promise, and judge the enemy.

We can now taste God’s salvation. We have fallen and we sinned, but we can turn to the Lord and drink from the springs of God’s salvation (Isa. 12:3). We can draw with rejoicing from God’s salvation as a living spring, and we can be living!

This is something we inherit and enjoy day by day.

Noah inherited Abel’s way of offering, which is that of offering Christ to God not only as the sacrifice for our sins but also as a gift for pleasing God (Gen. 4:3-4).

Abel, the second generation of mankind, was a tender of sheep, and Cain, his brother, was a tiller of the ground.

Before the flood, man was permitted to eat only fruits and vegetables, not meat; Abel’s way of tending the sheep was not to produce food for his living but to provide offerings for God’s satisfaction.

Abel not only believed in the gospel but also practiced the gospel and lived the gospel. He lived for God, labouring day and night to tend to the sheep so that he may have something to offer to God for His satisfaction, for God to be pleased.

We inherit this godly way today. We live a life for the Lord’s satisfaction, and we enjoy the Lord as our redemption.

We enjoy Christ, we partake of the riches of Christ, and we grow Christ, and we offer Christ to God for His satisfaction today.

We want God to be satisfied; we do not live on earth for ourselves, for our own satisfaction, or for our future, but for the Lord to be satisfied.

We believe the gospel, and we live the gospel. We practice the gospel we hear from our forefathers, and we follow in their footsteps.

Whenever we meet with the saints and even in our fellowship with the Lord personally, we offer Christ to God. What satisfies God is Christ Himself, for He is the Father’s beloved. When we offer Christ to God, He is satisfied.

When we sin, we have the Lord as our redemption, even as the lamb of God that was slain for us; we apply the blood of the Lamb and we come forward to God. This is pleasing to God.

We do not follow Cain in his way to try his best to please God but not in the way that God has ordained. We follow God’s ordained way to be saved by believing in the gospel and applying the redemption of Christ to our being.

Lord Jesus, we want to have a life and work that changes the age. We give ourselves to You today to live and work in such a way that You can have a way to end this age and bring in the age of the kingdom. Oh Lord, thank You for the godly forefathers we have; we want to inherit their ways and live before You. Hallelujah, we can draw water with rejoicing from the springs of God’s salvation! We can simply believe in the gospel, accepting that we are sinners and repenting, and we can partake of God’s salvation! Amen, Lord, we believe into You and we are living, for You come into us as life. We want to live a life for Your satisfaction today. Amen, Lord, we take You as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We apply Your precious blood. You are the One who redeems us and brings us to God. We offer You to God the Father for His satisfaction. Oh Lord, we are fallen, we are sinful, but we take You as our everything and we offer You to God in faith for God’s satisfaction!

Inherit Enosh’s Way of Calling on the Name of the Lord and Enoch’s Way of Walking with God

Noah inherited the godly ways of his forefathers and went on with the Lord to work with God and build the ark, having a living and working that changed the age.

Noah inherited Enosh’s way of calling on the name of Jehovah to inherit all that He is (Gen. 4:26; Jer. 33:3; Rom. 10:12; 2 Tim. 2:22). When Enosh was born, his parents called him, Enosh, which means, frail, mortal man. Wow, what a name!

Then, we are told in Genesis 4:26 that it was in his days that men began to call on the name of Jehovah. Enosh and the people with him realised they are frail and mortal, and they called on the name of Jehovah.

They realised they need to be saved and also to enjoy the riches of God, so they called.

Today we need to realise that we are frail and mortal men, and we need to call on the name of the Lord. We call on the name of the Lord to be saved (Acts 2:21) and also to enjoy all His riches.

Many Christians think that we need to call on the name of the Lord to be saved, so they may not call on the Lord after salvation.

However, as Romans 10:12 says, we need to call on the name of the Lord to enjoy His riches. The Lord is rich to all who call on His name. Whether Jew or Greek, we can enjoy the riches of Christ by calling on His name.

This is a rich way to live the Christian life; Enosh practiced this, and his descendants also practiced this. Now we inherit this godly way from our forefathers to enjoy the riches of Christ by calling on His name. Oh Lord Jesus!

Noah also inherited the way of living and begetting (Gen. 5:3-28). Noah was not idle but lived with a purpose for God, and he begot children for man’s proper multiplication so that God’s purpose might be fulfilled on this earth through mankind.

This is something we inherit today by faith for the fulfilment of God’s purpose. Noah also inherited Enoch’s way of walking with God (vv. 22, 24).

Enoch walked with God. He not only enjoyed God’s redemption and salvation, and he also called on the name of the Lord; Enoch walked with God.

To walk with God is to take God as our centre and everything, living and doing all things according to God and with God (Gen. 5:22-24; Heb. 11:5-6; 2 Cor. 5:4, 9, 14-16; 6:1).

We need to inherit this in our daily living. We need to walk with God. The way we walk with God is by taking God as our centre and as our everything. We live and do all things according to God and with God.

When we walk with someone, when we want to walk with someone and not force them to walk with us, we need to walk in oneness with them, at their pace, and being with them.

This is how Enoch lived. Enoch did not walk with God from birth; he learned to walk with God. He had a son, and then he walked with God.

We are also learning to walk with God. We look at our forefathers in Christ and their way of life, and we walk with God.

We allow the Lord to train us so that we may not do things in ourselves, by ourselves, and for ourselves but be one with God in everything we do.

Enoch was pleasing to God in his walk with God to such an extent that he was not, for God took him.

Our walking with God must be upward day by day, more and more, until God is so pleased with us that He takes us to be with Him forever. May we discover and learn the way of walking with God.

May we take Him as our centre and our everything, and may we do all things according to God and with God. We do this by faith, for only by faith can we be pleasing to God.

It is not by outward imitation but by faith, by living in the organic union with the Lord in spirit.

Amen, when we inherit all the godly ways of our forefathers and go on with the Lord to work with God for the building up of the church, as Noah did, we live a life that will turn the age.

We inherit Adam’s way of salvation, Abel’s way of offering Christ to God for His satisfaction, Enosh’s way of calling on the name of the Lord to enjoy all that He is, and Enoch’s way of walking with God.

And we go further with the Lord, working with Him to build the ark today, the church as the Body of Christ, so that we may be saved from this crooked and perverted generation and end this age!

As we inherit all the godly ways, we walk with God and we work with God, and He has a way to change this age.

Lord Jesus, thank You for giving us a way to not only be saved but also enjoy all Your riches: calling on the name of the Lord! Hallelujah, we today inherit Enosh’s way of calling on the name of the Lord! Amen, Lord, we are frail, weak, and mortal, so we call on the name of the Lord! Save us as we call on Your name! May we enjoy Your riches by calling on the Lord! Praise the Lord, He is rich to all who call on His name! Amen, Lord, we want to partake of the riches of God by calling on the name of the Lord! Praise the Lord, we can walk with God! Amen, Lord, may we be those who inherit Enoch’s way of walking with God. May our walk with You be by taking Christ as our centre and our everything. We want to do all things according to God and with God! Praise the Lord, we are now walking with God by faith, and we expect that He will rapture us! Amen, Lord, as we walk with God, may we work with God to build up the church as the Body of Christ! May we be those who live in such a way that we end this age and bring in the age of the kingdom! Amen!

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 the brothers on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis, msg. 29, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Noah, Daniel, and Job – Patterns of Living an Overcoming Life on the Line of Life to Fulfill the Economy of God (2026 International Chinese-Speaking Conference), week 2, The Line of Life with Noah— the Life and Work That Change the Age – day 2.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – 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)
  – O how nigh the Lord is unto all who call on Him! / When we call, His very presence strengthens us within. / Seeking Jesus, He is found, and calling, He is near— / O what a comfort to our hearts to call His name so dear! / Jesus! O what a name! / O Lord Jesus! Life-giving name! / Name victorious, name all-glorious, / Name exalted—O what a name! / Jesus! Strengthening name! / O Lord Jesus! Comforting name! / Name to breathe in prayer, calling everywhere, / “O Lord Jesus!” O what a name! (Hymns #1083 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – Take thy first walk with God! / Let Him go forth with thee; / By stream, or sea, or mountain path, / Seek still His company. / Thy first transaction be / With God Himself above; / So shall thy business prosper well / And all the day be love. (Hymns #615 stanzas 4-5)