We have been sailing with Noah, ‘The Ship Builder’ for several weeks and now it’s time to drop the anchor and dive for some pearls to add to our, “Principles of Prayer.” We have looked at two men in the ‘Book of Beginnings’ who walked face to face with Elohim the God of creation. From Adam the ‘Garden Tiller’ we learned four principles in Gen. 3:8-10; 1 – He knew the sound of God’s voice, and we need to be in the Word, John 10:27; 2 – He knew the place to meet God, and we need to be in our prayer closets, Matt. 6:6; 3 – He knew the time to meet God, and we need to have our ‘Quiet Time,’ morning, evening, afternoon, or at midnight; 4 – He came bare naked, Gen. 2:25; 3:10, without a hidden agenda and that is how we should come to God, with our hands wide open.

From Enoch, ‘The God Pleaser’ who walked, talked and pleased God, we learned three principles in Heb. 11:6; 1 – We must have faith or we are absolutely powerless to please God; 2 – We must believe that He is who He says He is, the ‘Great I AM’; 3 – We must persist in our request to receive our reward and not let go! Now we look in more depth at the third man who had sweet, intimate fellowship with God, Enoch’s great, grandson Noah who also “walked with (eth) God.

Remember the preposition with (eth) in Hebrew denotes intimacy and fellowship and only appears in reference to God with Enoch and Noah. However, in Hebrew the phrase in Gen. 6:9 is reversed, “with God Noah walked.” This is slightly different from Gen. 5:22 with Enoch. Here ‘with God’ is first for emphasis. Even though Noah was walking among godless, wicked people, his walk was “with (eth) God.” It sort of reminds us of II Cor. 6:14-17, separation is not from contact with evil in the world or the church but from compliance with or conformity to it. Personal communion, ‘Spiritual Yada’ was the taproot, the central element in this godly man’s life. The (sine qua non) Latin for ‘without which nothing.’ The absolute, absolute!

The Hebrew we saw was (yalak) which means, ‘to walk about or to live.’ You see the real test of a man’s religious life or character is not what he does in the exceptional times of his life but what he does in the ordinary times. When there is nothing tremendous or exciting going on and nobody is watching. Do you want to impress God? Then go into your prayer closet, shut the door and get on your knees. You see reputation is what people think we are but character is what God knows we are and there is a big difference between those two. The day by day, moment by moment, step by step, walk with God, that is the test of a man’s religious life and character. How you run the race is as important as how you finish, even if you finish first! At the ‘Bema’ three things were judged at a race; training, did you foul anyone and did you keep the rules; this is also true with God, the end does not justify the means, its how you ran the race that’s important. Enoch walked with (eth) God for 300 years and God took him. Noah, with (eth) God walked for at least 450 years, maybe longer. “and he died.” Gen. 9:29, God had a different plan for him!

Let me ask you a question, How is your walk with God? How is it? On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 is poor and 10 is excellent how is your walk today? Intimate, personal, affectionate, devoted or remote and distant? Maybe I should be writing on revival instead of prayer but they are both inseparable, you can’t have one without the other. Revival begins when Christians go into their closets, shut their doors and get on their knees and revival ends when Christians get off their knees and get out of their closets. There are three positive, ‘Principles for Prayer’ that can be seen in Noah’s life that we must exhibit to have an effective walk (eth) with God and an effective prayer life and you can’t have one without the other. These three elements which seem to stand out in Noah’s life in Gen. 6-9 which can help us in our prayer lives also are Noah’s piety, his preservation and his propagation. (Next time)

“Father, it’s not just running in the race, or winning the race that matters but it’s how we prepare for the race, how we treat the other contestants, and whether we obey the rules that really matters. Help me Father not to feel like I’m running the bulls but I’m in this race for You and for Your glory. Help me to pace myself and to focus on Jesus.” In His name I pray. Amen!   ‘Between The Lines’

“Portraits of Prayer in Genesis”  (Noah – Part #5)

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