Intention
When you depend on someone, you make an intention to hear from them and seek how you should live your life from them.
So I believe Enoch made an intention to seek the audience of God, especially after the birth of his son. They must have received prophetic words about each of the children.
Genesis says “Enoch walked with God; and he was not for God took him.
Hebrews 11 ,explains further that he pleased God , that’s why he was raptured, so in this study we are trying to see how to walk with God in a manner that pleases him.
You can find part on the first step here:
How to Walk with God Part 1
Amos 3:3, says:
Can two walk together unless they are agreed?
The word walk means in Hebrew “appointment” which is a meeting.
We know that to set up a meeting there is a date, location and time. Therefore if you want to walk with God, you need to learn how to intentionally set up a time, a location and a date.
Its a sign of respect of commitment, he is after all a King.
Our intentionality attracts God to walk with us.
God says in his word,
Jeremiah 29:13–14
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back from captivity.
I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declares the Lord,
and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.
The Art of Setting Up Altars to God
Recently, I have learned about the art of setting up prayer altars to God — to pray, to worship — that when you are consistent in keeping an altar, the Lord of heaven hears you.
The fathers of faith set up altars. Abraham set up an altar in Genesis 12:7 — When God promised him the land of the Canaanites, he set it up after the Lord had appeared to him.
Moses, when they fought the Amalekites and they won, set up an altar in Exodus 17:15.
Why did they set up altars?
It was a way to honour God and to worship Him
They usually set up the altars in a way to worship after an encounter and a great intervention of His nature
Since these are the fathers of faith, we should follow their example and set up altars to seek God, and have encounters with God
This is a discipline that attracts heaven.
It is therefore wise to follow the example of men that sough God, gained his favour and pleased him.
We see Cornelius in Acts 10 — he always used to pray and fast regularly to God and give to the poor, and in due time he encountered an Angel of God. God commanded His servant Peter to go and get his whole family baptised in the Holy Spirit.
He is evidence of what consistency in seeking God can achieve.
Peter was the leader of the church in Jerusalem and because Cornelius sought God, he sent the leader of his church to meet and baptise him in the Holy Spirit!
Matthew 6:33
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and everything will be added unto you.
Jesus says:
Luke 18:1
Men ought always to pray and not lose heart.
He taught them a parable of a widow that sought justice from a judge and would not give up until justice was met. She wore the judge out and he gave in.
In the same attitude and manner we should bombard heaven with prayers until God moves, and we have a good God — He does not grow weary and wants to move!
Relentless Pursuit
When facing great battles were the opponents are too might for us , we should seek God’s help. The intention to seek him is birthed on the realisation that we depend on him. When King Jehoshaphat learned that the moabites and ammonites were coming against him.
He sought God and it worked!
How did he do it?
2 Chronicles 20 vs 3 — King Jehoshaphat proclaimed a fast for all Judah, and people came to seek God, confessing:
And Jehoshaphat feared, and set him self to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.
Because they sought the Lord and his help they overcame their enemies. But they intentionally came together as a nation to ask God to intervene.
Matthew 7:7 says,
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
This means “keep on asking, keep on knocking,” meaning a continuous, intentional action to seek God, that does not stop until it gets an answer.
We don’t stop the act of seeking until he answers!
2 Chronicles 15:2 , says
The Lord is with you when you are with Him.
If you seek Him, He will be found by you,
and if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.
Fasting as an Act of Seeking God
Daniel, when he needed an answer or help, would go on a fast. He would pray until he received an interpretation. (Daniel 2)
There is humility in such an act — in asking God to intervene — and He will always respond. As a result, Daniel was shown things to come and to pass — news relevant to the current times.
God will never ignore a person that seeks him.
Psalms 9:10
Those who know Your name trust in You, Lord,
for You, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek You.
Blessings of Seeking God
Zephaniah 2:3
Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land,
you who do what He commands.
Seek righteousness, seek humility;
perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger.
Psalms 24:5
They will receive blessing from the Lord
and vindication from God their Saviour.
Such is the generation of those who seek Him,
who seek Your face, God of Jacob.
Seeking God stands on the realisation that we need Him and that outside of Him there is no way out.
There are Rewards for Those Who Seek His Face
We must have an intention to seek Him out, read His Word, understand Him, and know Him more so that we can please Him, just like Enoch and the great people of faith.
Above that we must believe that he rewards those who seek him.
Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please Him,
for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists
and that He rewards those who seek Him.
James 4:8
Draw near to Me and I will draw near to you.
Psalms 9:10
Those who know your name trust in you,
for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.
How desperate are you for God?
The Bible is full of promises for those who seek Him, but are you willing to wait and consistently seek Him?
As it says in Hebrews, He is a rewarder of those that seek Him. You want to please God? You want his favour? Seek His face!
Men of Faith Who Sought God’s Attention
Abel sought the attention of God through an acceptable sacrifice; he gave God the sacrifice of his best and fattest cows, and God favoured him. (Genesis 4)
Enoch sought God — he pleased God and was raptured.
Noah found favour with God because he was righteous. Righteous living can get God’s attention. After the flood, he offered a sacrifice of clean animals, and these were the only ones left at that time, meaning they became extinct after he sacrificed them. Clean animals are those that they could eat for food. And he offered those as a sacrifice to God. That act got him a promise from God — He vowed not to flood the earth again.
Abraham, when he received a promise from God or encountered God, built an altar of worship in that place that God encountered him. In Genesis 12:7, when God made him a promise, he built an altar to worship Him.
Abraham also got God’s attention through obedience. In Genesis 12:4, he went as the Lord told him. Obeying Him when He seeks is a way to walk with Him.
Summary:
Obedience
Acceptable, righteous sacrifice
Building altars
Fasting
Obedience Is Better Than Sacrifice
According to the prophet Samuel, obedience is better than sacrifice. Obeying God is a way to get His attention and is the highest of the above, because through obedience Abraham was called righteous and could therefore offer an acceptable sacrifice to God.
Not obeying will cost you your walk with God. Obedience is the first step you take in intentionality.
Example of Saul:
Saul failed to obey a simple command — to kill Agag, the king of the Amalekites, and all the sheep and animals.
He disobeyed and offered sacrifices without Samuel being there.
He valued people’s opinions over God’s command.
His heart was not fully surrendered to God.
1 Samuel 15:22
Obedience is better than sacrifice.
As a result, though he offered sacrifices to God, they were rejected because he did not obey.
When you seek God, do it in obedience, do it in his character or your seeking will be fruitless.
Don’t be like Saul offering Sacrifices in disobedience.
Don’t be like Cain , offering sacrifices to God in half measures when it is in your capability to do more.
Be like David, Daniel , Abraham, Noah, Moses.
Live to seek him out and please him.
Are you willing to seek the face of God?