5 Things to Know About Walking with God

1. You will definitely meet some unpleasant situations

As you go through your path in life, you will definitely meet some unpleasant situations. These challenges are actually part of your route; some may have been caused by your ignorance, while there are others that have refused to change despite prayer.

When you face these situations that seem resistant to change, pay attention; it might not be something you need to avoid.  Trust the one who is leading you, and you will go through them.

The reason we can accommodate Joseph’s story is because we can see the end. But Joseph couldn’t see the end; he just had to hold on to God, and the Bible says he was a prosperous man because God was with him, irrespective of what he was going through.

The experiences that looked like challenges were actually training for where God was taking him.

So after you’ve prayed and you still don’t understand what is going on, trust the one leading you.

There is no one who doesn’t need training, so yield to the training and learn all you can.

You need to go through, so stop looking for short cuts to come out of your path; you will develop the strength to go through.

It reminds me of the butterfly story..

In the last stage of development, a butterfly was trying to come out of its pupa, or cocoon.

A man saw it struggling through the small hole and felt sorry for it. So he widened the hole a bit for the butterfly. 

The butterfly came out easily but deformed; its head was too big and other parts were too small. This was because the pressure the butterfly experienced when coming out was to help push fluid from the head to other parts of the body.

So these particular challenges make you strong and develop you, and as a result, you’re able to help others. It’s not every challenge that is a process to be aborted. 

Trust the Spirit of God to guide you through; after all, He’s the one leading.

Just know that the pressure is to your advantage, and you will eventually emerge as a beautiful butterfly.

2. The power is in who gives the instruction, not what the instruction is

Whatever God instructs you to do, even though it may look natural, is actually divine.

The power is in who gives the instruction, not what the instruction is.

Many have missed divine instructions because they had their own perception of what divine should be.

When we say something is divine, it simply means it has its links to God.

For example, healing isn’t only divine when hands are laid on you. God can lead you to a particular doctor, therapy, or medication, and you get healed. That is also divine healing because the instruction came from God.

I remember when Kenneth E. Hagin had a visitation from Jesus, when his wife had a goiter. Jesus actually instructed him to take His wife for surgery, and it was successful.

It pays to follow God.

That’s also why you can’t quote scripture in isolation without it being backed by the spirit of God.

Remember that even the devil quoted scripture to Jesus.

The word of God can’t work without the spirit of God, and the Spirit doesn’t work without the word.

They go together.

There was a sister who got attacked in a public place and went to tell her pastor because she was upset.

She was upset because she had confessed Psalm 91, “the Psalm of Protection,” before she left the house.

Her pastor asked her a simple question: “Did you have any reservations about going to that area before you left?”

She admitted that she felt disturbed inside but thought she should confess the Psalm more.

So the spirit of God had actually instructed her not to go, but she felt she could just confess scripture and go.

The benefit of knowing the word of God is that it helps you recognize the voice of the spirit. The Bible isn’t a book of formulas where you just dig in and pull out verses you think will suit your situation.

Let the Spirit, who is the author of the scriptures, guide you.

He knows the tablet you need. He knows your medication.

So as much as you study the word, you must pay attention to the spirit behind the letter.

He’s the one who gives the letters life.

3. You will need to take account of your life and remove the junk

When you allow your mind to become occupied by irrelevant things, you end up becoming unproductive because these things would have taken up space in your life. 

So if you’re wondering why you are not making progress, you will need to take account of your life and remove the junk.

Do you remember the last time you wanted to download an app and your phone prompted you that there was insufficient storage space?

You had to go back to take account of your apps and files, identify the useless ones, and delete them to make room for the app.

It’s the same with life.

Downloads are coming from the Spirit, but you can’t receive them because you’ve occupied yourself with things that are irrelevant.

You have become cluttered with “unnecessary files”, and it’s beginning to affect your productivity.

Let the spirit of God help you figure out the waste in your life.

It might be relationships or associations that are of no benefit whatsoever. It might be where you spend most of your time—watching the news, sports, or even social media.

These things or people are occupying space that the word of God should occupy in your life and taking away your productivity.

But this is usually a good place where many Christians throw accusations at the devil. They blame the devil for whatever stagnation they may be experiencing.

The truth is, the devil has nothing to do with how you spend your time or make choices. He only presents his own options; you make the choices. 

So when the Spirit of God is instructing you to listen to a particular 1-hour teaching, you choose to watch a 2-hour movie!

If only you would trust God with your life, walking with Him is the best life to live.

The principle of success with God is simply: whatever He tells you to do, do it.

Refuse laziness and respond to Him. Even if you don’t understand your situation after responding, don’t be afraid; trust Him.

Let Him help you remove the waste in your life. He wants you to be more productive.

4. It shouldn’t be a struggle to hear God as His child

God prepares you today for the challenges of tomorrow.

He begins to instruct you now, so when you get to the days ahead, you are prepared.

He is always talking, but the question is, are we tuned in? Just like, even though a radio station is always on, you don’t get to enjoy their programs unless you are tuned in to the right frequency.

When you follow His leading, there are situations that He will equip you for; He will protect you from wrong decisions and guide you into the right decisions.

Joseph was prepared ahead for the task in Pharaoh’s palace, while David was also prepared ahead to face Goliath.

Your task ahead may not be as major as the ones above, but you should learn to depend on God for guidance because He knows all things.

He might be prompting you now to take a course because, in the days ahead, a need will present itself. He might be leading you to move to a certain area or even invest in a certain business.

It might not look like anything spectacular at the time. But follow him. There was once a man who God told to buy a piece of land in an undeveloped area. Nothing was going on at the time, but three years later, it turned into a busy hub because of a petrol station that was built there.

So learn to respond to the spirit of God, because no one prepares for war on the day of war.

Many ideas came to you ahead of the challenges you faced, but you either didn’t pay attention or respond at all.

And it shouldn’t be a struggle to hear God as His child.

Train your spirit to become alert by feeding on the word of God and praying in the spirit.

When you pray in the spirit, there is a consciousness of the inner man. you are open to God, and thoughts, ideas, and answers easily flow in.

Also, when you’re familiar with the word of God, when He speaks, you will recognize His voice.

God is always talking, but is your radio tuned to the right frequency?

5. You need to pay attention to what really matters

When you set your camera to portrait mode, the background is blurred or faded out, and the lens focuses only on the image of interest.

And just like adjusting the lens of a camera, when you pay attention to what really matters, everything else fades away or becomes insignificant.

Jesus informed us that our environment will not always be conducive, but we should keep our focus on Him. He said:

 In the world, ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33), 

Even though David always seemed to have his enemies around him, he didn’t focus on them; he gave attention instead to the word of God (Psalm 119:98)

When the 12 spies returned from the promised land, their reports differed even though they came from the same environment (Numbers 14). 10 of them had their focus on the giants in the land and became fearful, while 2 focused on what God had said and were confident.

At the end of the day, it was only the two that got into the promised land and were successful.

Don’t pay attention to the things around you; the reason they look big is because you’re giving them attention and you’ve lost focus on the image.

And whatever you give attention to actually takes center stage in your life; it becomes magnified and assumes a position of importance in your life.

This is what happens when you also focus on the devil or demons. You empower them because you’ve given them unnecessary attention.

And fear comes when you focus on the wrong thing.

Enemies will always be there, and challenges will always be there, but that shouldn’t be your focus. Don’t amplify something small into something big by giving it unnecessary and undeserved attention.

Focus on the word of God. What is God saying about you?

So don’t focus on the pain; focus on “by His stripes you were healed (1 Peter 2:24); don’t focus on the feeling of being unloved; focus on “nothing can separate you from the love of God” (Romans 8:35).

Don’t focus on not having money; focus on “your heavenly father knows that you have need of these”(Matthew 6:32).

Your meditation should be on God’s word and not the devil, your enemies, or challenges. It may not be easy, but it’s a discipline.

The work is to adjust the lens.