What is, ‘Faith’ anyway? The answer is found in Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is simply believing, God! Faith is the confident assurance, the confident boasting, of things expected, the conviction, the evidence, the proof of things not seen, as of yet! Let me quote it from the Amplified Version, “Now ‘Faith’ is the assurance (the confirmation, the title-deed) of the things (we) hope for, being the proof of things (we) do not see and the conviction of their reality – faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses. For by (faith) and trust and holy fervor born of  faith, the men of old had divine testimony borne to them and obtained a good report.” WOW! How is that for a definition of faith? Title-Deed to property you have never seen as of yet, but it’s yours, all the same!

Faith is the (hupo – under) and (stasis – to stand) to stand under.  This is a present, passive, participle showing action. A better translation would be, substantiating. Faith is the substance, basis, essence, substructure, foundation of things hoped for; the evidence, proof, conviction of things not seen as of yet! Enoch was one of those, ‘Heroes of Faith!’ You see, ‘Faith is not believing God CAN do something, that’s just wishful thinking or dreaming; Faith is believing God WILL do it!’ You say, “I have faith, but I don’t believe God will do it.” Then you don’t have faith! Gen. 1:1 says, “B’reisheit bara Elohim – In the beginning God.” No argument for His existence, no defense for His origin, no apologetic for His presence, no explanation for His purpose. Just a statement of His being! Who are we to question God, when we can’t even make a rock? God doesn’t need defense attorneys, He needs disciples! This may come as a shock to you but the demons have faith! They believe in the existence of God; they are neither atheists nor agnostics! They believe in the deity of Christ, when they met Him they bore witness to His Sonship, Mark 3:11-12. They believe in the existence of a place of judgment, Luke 8:31 and they recognize Jesus as the Judge, Mark 5:1-13. They submit to the power of God’s word and tremble at it, James 2:19. I can give you ten arguments for God’s existence but ultimately you must come by faith, because that is how God set it up and that is what pleases Him. Enoch walked with God, hand in hand and Enoch talked with God, face to face. Now there are two prayer principles that can help to revolutionize your ‘Prayer Pantry’ and that leads us to our third principle for prayer from Enoch’s life:

Enoch lived for God and with God! In six verses in Genesis 5 the Holy Spirit gives us a brief but blessed biography of Enoch. What could be said about your life in six verses? The repeated statement about Enoch ‘walking about with (eth) God’ implies progress, 5:22,24. One step at a time, you can’t take step two or three until; Listen, you have taken the first step! Amen? (Are you still with Me?) You can’t become a disciple (miniature Christ) until you become a ‘child of God’ first! And spiritual progress is dependent upon unbroken communion! The Hebrew word for ‘walking’ as I said signifies to, ‘go on habitually.’ In fact the Hebrew word to ‘walk about’ (yalak) means ‘to live!’ So progress in holiness was the habit of this ancient saint. We see the result of Enoch’s life with God in his witness for God. Before we can be a witness for God, we must live with God. The order can never be reversed, it is of ‘Divine Appointment!’ In other words, if you are not living for God, keep your mouth shut, too much witness for God today is mere wood, hay and stubble. To use an old phrase, “Put up or shut up!” “Put you money where you mouth is!” James must have run into this 2:18 deals with these people, “show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works.”

Listen to the words of Jude talking about Enoch and remember Enoch lived in the days of Noah; “And Enoch also the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints; To execute judgment upon all, and to convict all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their own mouths speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.” How much worse could it get? Read Gen. 6:5-6 and you will get a feeling how God felt. Enoch’s son Methuselah died the year of Noah’s flood. In fact, the name Methuselah implies that Enoch received a direct revelation from God. There are several translations of his name but the most popular is, “When he is dead, it shall be sent, i.e. the deluge or the flood!” So this prophecy in Jude was made about 1,000 years before the flood, before Abraham on Moriah, before Moses on Sinai, before Christ on Calvary. How did he know all this? He lived in daily communion with God and was in the habit of taking long walks alone with God and one day, God just said, “Come on home!” Gen. 5:24 does not conclude with those three words, “And he died!” When you live in the inner most presence of God, in His sanctuary, He will reveal to you His inner most secrets.

“And he was not, for God took him.” Gen. 5:24; The Hebrew word for ‘he was not’ (enennu) means he was translated, carried away; Three times in Heb. 11:5 we have the word ‘translated.’ The same word is used for Elijah in II Kings 2:1-11. Jewish tradition states that Enoch was born on Shavuot or Pentecost and was translated on Shavuot or Pentecost. Early church tradition said that ‘Enoch and Elijah’ were the two witnesses in Rev. 11 and that Enoch was a type of the church. How? The Rapture, the Harpadzo, the Great Snatch, the Translation! He did not see death! If we are going to be raptured or translated like Enoch, “How should we then live?” To quote the late Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer, like Enoch! To walk with God you must be reconciled to God, have a similar nature, holy fitness, and a surrendered will. To talk with God you must be a ‘God-Pleaser’, to be a God-Pleaser’ you must have ‘Faith’ because without it, it is impossible to please God. No, you are absolutely powerless to please God, but remember, without risk, ‘Faith’ is impossible! To live for God is ‘to walk about’ to ‘go on habitually’ (yalak). Spiritual progress is unbroken communion! Enoch by faith was, pleasing God, walking with Him in daily union and communion, going forward on his knees in prayer and living out God’s witness! Enoch along with his life principles left us three prayer principles in Hebrews 11:6; 1 – Without faith we are absolutely powerless to please God! 2 – We must believe that, ‘He is Whom He says He is, GOD! The great, ‘I AM’ The self-existent, all sufficient, all powerful, ‘YHVH!’ 3 – ‘That He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek(ek-zeteo) Him!’ Search Him out, investigate Him, scrutinize Him, and don’t stop! Kenneth Wuest says, “Diligent seeking finds its reward!” There is the key, ‘Don’t Stop!’ Matthew 7:7-11, ask, seek, knock and don’t stop, keep asking, seeking and knocking until you get an answer, we give up to soon. Luke 11:5-10 “because of his importunity” ‘to request or beg for urgently’ or ‘to be overly persistent in a request’ or ‘troublesomely urgent, shameless.’ This is the only time this word is used in the Bible and it’s used in prayer for a friend. Or Luke 18:1-8 so many examples of persistence in prayer, we give up way too soon! In James 5:16 you have Elijah’s example and we will get there. I love that old African proverb on prayer, “When you pray, move your feet!” I wonder if that means, ‘Put feet on your prayers?’  “Abba, Father, help us to be more like Enoch in our prayer walk. May we be reconciled to You, may we be conformed to the image of your Son, may we step back into Your circle and get back into spiritual shape again, ‘Holy Fitness’ and may Your will be our will. LORD we believe, ‘Help Thou our unbelief!” In ha Shem Yeshua’s Name, Amen!    ‘Between The Lines’

“Portraits of Prayer in Genesis”  (Enoch – Part #3)