Walking with God, Trusting in Our FaithChristian Ministries of the Apostolic Faith Church | Erie, Pennsylvania

There is a phrase that appears early in the Holy Scriptures and never loses its weight: walked with God. It is not said of a multitude. It is said of men who chose a path that the world around them did not choose, and who kept to it when there was no company on the road.

"And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him" (Gen. 5:24). "Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God" (Gen. 6:9).

Walking is not a single decision. It is a direction held over time. A man may stand still and still call himself a believer; but the Scriptures do not describe the saints as standing. They describe them as walking — moving forward, day after day, in agreement with the God who called them. As the prophet asked, "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" (Amos 3:3).

Agreement is where the walk begins. And for the body of Christ, that agreement is not a matter of private opinion. It is settled in the Word.

The Walk Begins with the Word- Faith in God

Our Preamble declares that Almighty God "has established a record for all mankind through His Holy Scriptures; which is the written Word of God contained in the Holy Bible" (II Tim. 3:16-17). That is not a small statement. It means the path is not one we invent as we go. It has been marked out for us.

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (Ps. 119:105).

Notice how much light that lamp gives. Not a floodlight over the whole journey — a lamp for the feet, and a light for the path directly ahead. God gives enough light for the next step. He rarely gives enough to satisfy our curiosity about the next mile. That is by design, and it is where faith is required.

The New Testament Scriptures contain the Apostles' Doctrine, "the doctrine that God gave His Son to give to his Apostles so that the body of Christ would be unified as one body and in one faith through their word" (St. John 17:6-23; Acts 1:1-2; St. Matt. 28:18-20). When the church at Jerusalem was born, we are told plainly what they did next: "And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers" (Acts 2:42).

Continued stedfastly. That is the walk. Not a single moment of enthusiasm, but a settled continuing.

Faith Is the Evidence

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1).

The world tells us that seeing is believing. The Scriptures reverse it. "For we walk by faith, not by sight" (II Cor. 5:7). Faith does not wait until the outcome is visible before it moves. Faith moves because God has spoken, and God does not lie.

Consider Abraham. "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went" (Heb. 11:8). He did not receive a map. He received a promise, and he counted the promise sufficient.

And the Scriptures are direct about why this matters: "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Heb. 11:6).

Diligently seek him. Faith is never passive. It is trust that produces motion.

When the Water Is Rough

There is no more honest picture of our walk than Peter on the sea.

"And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me" (St. Matt. 14:29-30).

Peter walked. Let us not pass over that too quickly — he actually walked on the water, because JESUS CHRIST had said Come. But when his attention moved from the One who called him to the wind around him, he began to sink.

This is the pattern of most of our struggles. The trouble is real. The wind is genuinely boisterous. But the sinking begins not when the storm arrives; it begins when our eyes leave the Lord.

And here is the mercy of it: when Peter cried out, "immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him" (St. Matt. 14:31). The Lord did not wait for Peter to recover his composure. He reached for him in the middle of the failure. The rebuke that followed — "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" — came from a hand that was already holding him.

If you are sinking today, cry out. The hand is not far.

Trusting When We Do Not Understand

"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (Prov. 3:5-6).

Much of the difficulty in our walk comes from a quiet unwillingness to stop leaning. We want God's direction and our own understanding at the same time. But the promise is attached to the surrender: lean not — then he shall direct.

Job said it in the worst season of his life: "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him" (Job 13:15). David said it in the darkest valley: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me" (Ps. 23:4).

Notice that David still walks. He does not stop in the valley. He does not pretend the valley is not dark. He walks through it, and the reason he gives is not that the valley is short — it is that God is present.

The Walk Is Not a Solitary One

Some believers imagine the walk of faith as a private matter between themselves and God alone. The New Testament does not present it that way.

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of JESUS CHRIST his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (I St. John 1:7).

Walking in the light produces fellowship. This is why God set ministry in the church — "For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:12-13).

The purpose is stated in the verses that follow: "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine" (Eph. 4:14). A believer who walks alone is a believer easily blown off course. A believer joined to the body — taught, corrected, encouraged, held accountable — grows up into Him in all things.

This is the very charge our Constitution was formed to keep: that the ministries of this church "will teach, uphold and continue in the Apostle's Doctrine as contained in the New Testament Scriptures of the Holy Bible and will endeavor to fulfill what God has ordained in Ephesians 4:11-16."

How We Walk

The Apostle Paul gave the practical shape of it:

• "Even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:4) — the walk begins at the new birth, in obedience to Acts 2:38.

• "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16) — the walk is empowered, not self-generated.

• "Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called" (Eph. 4:1) — the walk matches the calling.

• "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil" (Eph. 5:15-16) — the walk is deliberate and watchful.

None of these are accomplished in a day. All of them are accomplished in a direction held.

A Word to You

Perhaps your faith feels smaller than your circumstance right now. Perhaps you have prayed and heard nothing back yet. Perhaps you have taken a step of obedience and it has cost you something you did not expect to pay.

Keep walking.

We are "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people" (I Pet. 2:9), called out of darkness into His marvellous light. That calling did not depend on your strength when it was given, and it does not depend on your strength to be kept. "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith" (Heb. 12:2) — He began it, and He will finish it.

If you are in Erie or the surrounding area and you are looking for a church family to walk beside you, we would be glad to receive you. Come as you are, and let us grow together in the Apostles' Doctrine.

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