“Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.”
Genesis 5:24
Enoch was the seventh man in the whole of human genealogy. His first seventy-five years were lost years, so much so that they are not even mentioned in the Bible. The birth of his son Methuselah seems to be such a turning point for him that he experienced a radical change in his life. He saw himself reflected in his son. I can imagine Enoch lifting his son up and looking right into his eyes, while he wondered, “Am I living as an example for my son?” He realized that his messy life, always wanting to do his own will, would not help in the education of his son. Now, he held his son’s destiny in his own arms, because this son was the extension of his own character. He thought to himself, “If my son follows my example, his future is going to be full of sin and eternal condemnation. And I don’t want that for my son.”
I can also imagine him saying, “Son, I want to do whatever is best for you. I want you to have God’s blessing and the longest life anyone could have on earth. But let me help you with my example. From now on, I will be a different man. I’m determined to become a true servant of God.” Methuselah lived 979 years. That long life was the result of the commitment between his father Enoch and God. For 300 years Enoch walked day and night with God, without letting his heart go away from God for even one day. Enoch pleased God so much that He took him up into His Kingdom without experiencing death.
This event sets an example of what will happen one day to all those that have believed in Jesus. The same way the Lord took Enoch, He will take us one day in the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul said, “After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). And in his letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle adds, “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:51-53).
Think about this for a moment. One day you will be walking by a specific place and, in a fraction of a second, you will feel surrounded by a strong breeze. You will not only be transformed, but you will watch yourself ascending to heaven at great speed. Millions of people will join you and all will know this is the most powerful event in human history. We will be received in the clouds by the Son of God, the Savior of the world. We will not only be received by Him but we will also descend with Him when He steps on earth for the second time. It will be the most exciting experience ever lived.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
Years ago, a professor of the John Hopkins University set a task for his graduating students to go into the suburbs of the city. They had to take 200 young males teens between the ages of twelve and sixteen and investigate their background and environment. After this the students had to predict the youth’s future opportunities. After analyzing the social statistics, talking to them and gathering a lot of information, they came to the conclusion that ninety percent of those young males would spend some time in prison. Twenty-five years later another group of graduating students were assigned the task of testing this prediction. The students returned to exactly the same place. Some of the guys that had been investigated, most of them already grown men, were still there. A few had died; others had moved, but the students managed to contact 180 out of the 200 men of the original group. They discovered that after twenty-five years, only four of them had actually been in jail. Why if they had lived in the same criminal neighborhood their whole lives, were most of them showing far better behavior then expected? The students investigating this heard again and again the following words, “Well, there was a teacher…” The research students persisted in their studies until they discovered that seventy-five percent of the cases were referring to the same lady, so they decided to visit this lady who now lived in a home for retired teachers. They went to her with the following questions: How could you be such an influence for these young men? Can you give us any reason for why they still remember you? “No, I can’t,” she said. But remembering those years she said, more to herself than to those interviewing her: “I loved those kids…”
TODAY’S DECLARATION
“God rewarded my faith, pouring out indescribable spiritual riches upon me.”
Today’s post is an excerpt from Pastor Cesar Castellanos’ book, Declarations of Power for 365 Days of the Year: Volume Three.
TODAY’S BIBLE READING
- Old Testament: Isaiah 21-23; Proverbs 22:1-16
- New Testament: Luke 22:24-30; Hebrews 5
