Previously, we have dealt with paying the price for Greatness. We established in this post that we must pay the price of intimacy to achieve greatness. Intimacy with God is a true route to greatness but intimacy comes at a price. Even God paid a price for intimacy with us; the death of His only begotten Son. Paying the price is therefore key to attaining intimacy and paying the price of intimacy is key to attaining greatness.

Thus, for the past few weeks, we have looked at the concept of intimacy and the building blocks of intimacy – TIME, COMMUNICATION and SECRETS. Under these, we detailed our parts to play in building intimacy with God, that is our price to pay. Knowing the price to pay is however not always equivalent to being able to pay the price. As a result, today, we will be looking at how to pay the price based on the truth in Genesis 5:24.

“Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him”
– Genesis 5:24 NKJV

ENOCH WALKED WITH GOD

Walking is consistent movement propelling forward. Walking with God means having a daily consistent growth process with the Lord. Thus, your daily quiet time routine can be defined as a walk with God.

The first part of this scripture states simply that “Enoch walked with God”. This establishes two important things in paying the price of Intimacy; It starts with God and It takes process.

It starts with God
Your quest to pay the price for intimacy can become a struggle without the grace and guidance of God. There is nothing that as Christians, we can effectively do without going back to God. Intimacy with God is about creating relationship with God and it is always the responsibility of God to create in the beginning of anything. If God had not already created an ability to have intimacy with Him, intimacy with God would not exist. Your walk with God has already been laid out by Him because before God begins anything, its end has already been established. So in essence, He creates before He begins.

The story of the creation of all things starts with the phrase, “In the beginning God created…” so the beginning must always have God to create. Even Jesus did not begin his ministry until his baptism when he was openly affirmed by God. It is therefore only prudent to go back to God. It is important to note that it takes the grace of God for us to be able to pay the price necessary for us to build intimacy with God. Otherwise, we will struggle. Hence the first point to note in paying the price for intimacy is that we must go back to God to enable us and guide us.How do we go back to God? By simply saying a prayer inviting him to take absolute charge of the journey, order our steps and to give us the grace to play our part.

It takes process
Paying the Price for Intimacy happens in process. It is very important to know that God believes in process so that we do not get weary and give up along the way, because of the nature of the process. We pay the price in process because substance is derived from process. It takes a process to obtain gold from a gold ore. It took process to turn water into wine; there was a filling.

You must bear it in mind that building intimacy with God will take going through process. Knowing this can help us be consistent in our quest to build intimacy with God.

To illustrate this thought, let me share this experience with you. There were times in my process where I would be worshipping and not feel that sense of awesomeness that comes with being in the presence of God. It would really bother me, to the extent that, I would stop altogether or be discouraged from trying again. I felt it meant that God wasn’t there. Then I came to learn that God was actually teaching me to not judge his presence by a feeling.

In the process, you will not always feel like, “oh this is really working out.” There are times it may seem as though God has taken a back seat. For example, there are times where you may struggle with prayer or worship, or, not gain any understanding from meditating on the word. This doesn’t mean you should give up. Instead, you must persist in whatever you are doing. If you feel like you’re not “connecting” in worship or in prayer, just keep on doing it anyway. If you feel like you are not gaining any understanding or “Rhema” from meditating on the scriptures, keep meditating anyway. God may be trying to teach you something. Once you have entrusted the journey to Him, learn to trust God through the process. Do not give up at the slightest discomfort because with God, things always come to an expected end.

Moreover, “walking” denotes continuity or consistency.

You must continually dwell in the secret place. Even if it is a step at a time, it must be continuous. Be consistent. So let’s use prayer to illustrate. We’ve explained in a previous post that prayer means talking to God. It is a key to building relationship or intimacy with the Lord. The bible says we should pray without ceasing which basically means that we should communicate with God all the time. Now, consistency is not really about how long you pray (although there are times when it is good to do so) but the fact that you keep praying. So for example, if you decide to pray for four hours each morning, praying for four hours on Monday morning in September, then for four hours on Tuesday morning in November is not being consistent. But praying for ten minutes every morning before you get out of bed is being consistent.

In the same vein, doing your quiet time for 5 minutes each morning is consistency as opposed to doing it for 5 minutes today then another 5 minutes two weeks later, etc.

Finally, walking with God is also about obedience to God. It takes obedience to heed to guidance. Sometimes, hearing God is not the problem but listening to Him is. The more we learn to obey, the easier our walk becomes.

Usually God speaks to us by our inner man. It is not always you hear a clear audible voice. Most often than not, He impresses it on our spirit. The more we abide by it, the easier it becomes to hear God. In my experience, I have noticed that it is usually the first impression you get before other voices (e.g. the voice of reasoning, the voice of the flesh, etc) start to cloud it out. Other times, it comes as a persistent drive you get about something that just won’t go away. You are wired to hear the voice of God. Simply ask Him for the grace to be able to tell his voice from amongst the rest.

AND HE WAS NOT

The second part of the scripture reads, “and he was not”. This part is about losing yourself completely to gain God. Enoch was not because he had completely lost himself in God. In paying the price, you must lose yourself to gain. Jesus woke up at dawn to seek God. He sacrificed his sleep and hence his flesh. We must be willing to sacrifice the flesh to pay the price. Getting to know God involves prayer, meditating on the word, spending time in worship, waiting on God, walking in obedience, etc.; things that you have to sacrifice the flesh for. Spiritual things always require bringing the flesh under subjection.

There are some things that will always hinder your relationship with God. They are called the desires of the flesh. The bible says the flesh and the spirit are constantly at war so anything you do that scores a point for the flesh at the expense of the spirit is a fulfillment of the desires of the flesh. E.g. Sexual immorality, addictions (could even be an addiction to social media), pleasures, e.g. Reading books with obscene content, pornographic material, etc. all qualify as desires of the flesh.

We can sacrifice some of these desires by developing a prayer life. Prayer serves as a way of disciplining the body. When you develop a prayer life, there are a lot of things that will wear off from you. You can start by praying for 10 minutes each day and then build it up from there. Some days you can just pray in the language of the Spirit.

Fasting is also another way to bring the flesh under subjection. You can decide to have personal fasts e.g. once a week on, for instance, the day you were born or as led by the Spirit. You can also join corporate fasts with other brethren. Fasting must however be meaningful. It should not become tradition.

Furthermore, choose to take time to study the scriptures.

The more substance of God you have in your heart, the more you overcome the bondage of the flesh. There are a number of ways you can do this. E.g. you can schedule time to meditate on the scriptures (it is best to do so at a time when there are less distractions, e.g. Dawn or early mornings or any time you can have ample concentration). You can also have daily devotions where you have a word for the day which you can chew on throughout the day. You could study specific books of the Bible or a cluster of books such as The letters of Paul, The Gospels etc. You could also study the word according to topics e.g.: Faith.

FOR GOD TOOK HIM

This is the conclusion of the matter, “for God took Him”. But to get here, Enoch had to walk with God and lose himself.

As a price, we must be willing to give ourselves totally to building intimacy with God. At the end of the day, you are either all in or all out. When God takes over, all of you is taken, not part. The scripture only simply states: “for God took him”. God requires all of you.

To conclude, we can know the specific steps to take in building intimacy with God and even what part we are supposed to play. In order to effectively do so, we must ask God for grace, trust the process and give ourselves totally to the course.

I pray that this post blessed you today. Kindy feel free to share and also like us on our various social media handles- on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube . You may also express your thoughts in our comment section. God bless you.