How to walk like Jesus.

Mike Hosey, Elder

The first part of Genesis 3:8 seems rather ordinary, perhaps even mundane.  In fact, I think most of us probably miss the sheer magnitude of that verse most  of the time that we read it. Take a gander at it again. Read it carefully.  It says that Adam and Eve heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden.  God, whose Spirit in previous verses had hovered over the waters in some shapeless and unknowable form, in verse 8 walks like a man in the garden where He placed the man and woman that He made. And His walking makes a sound that Adam and Eve can hear! Perhaps I am stretching good Bible interpretation, but I believe that God was actually walking in the Garden in a physical form of some kind!  Perhaps, the Lord in these verses was Jesus.  But regardless of which part of the Godhead was present, or whether He was physically there, it's still pretty amazing.  In reading that passage, one gets the distinct impression that God was a regular walker with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. 

Walking with Caleb and Justin

Certainly, this would make sense. After all, Micah 6:8 tells us that one of the things we are expected to do is to walk humbly with God. This is a tall task, but we know that Enoch walked with God (Genesis  5:22), and that Noah did as well (Genesis 6:9). Notice that our expectation  is not to walk before God, or behind God, but to walk humbly with God. We are to walk with him as a friend would walk. While we will always be lesser than God, He graces us with the privilege to walk alongside of Him and share our lives with Him, and partake of His life just as we would a companion that we love.

It is interesting to me that this is how the disciples of Jesus learned about their Lord.  They walked with Him -- quite literally -- everywhere they went.  And you can do the same today. How do you do this? Study your Bible daily as if you are listening to Jesus himself (John 1:1-5) , talk to God daily in prayer, and seek companionship with fellow believers often. Go to the places that Jesus would go and say the things that Jesus would say. Obey his commands, and you will be called his friend (John 15:14-15).