Enoch and Elijah by Andre Niemand

Enoch and Elijah Elijah was a man with a nature like ours… (James 5:17a). Enoch and Elijah were two prophets, people with natures like ours, that never tasted death but by faith they were taken away so that they did not see death. They were not found among the sons of men, because God had taken them. Before Enoch was taken, and I believe also Elijah, he had this testimony, that he pleased God. This was a testimony of sonship. This was the same testimony that Jesus had received when John baptized Him and the Father declared Him Son with a testimony that the Father was well pleased with Him. Only after they have received these testimonies, that they were pleasing to God, they were taken to heaven. First came God’s testimony concerning them that they were pleasing Him then came the glorification of their bodies with the glory which Jesus had before the world was created. The only other person, besides Enoch and Elijah whose bodies never saw corruption and was taken to heaven in bodily form was Jesus after His resurrection from the dead (Acts 1:9). Christ was foreordained since the foundation of the earth to be sacrificed as a ransom for many and He was also made the firstborn Son of many brothers to follow. Enoch and Elijah conformed to the sonship of Christ before His manifestation in the flesh as His provision was established in the Spirit since the foundation of the earth (Revelation 13:8; Peter 1:20). Christ’s sacrifice was no afterthought, not

something God transgression.

decided

result

Adam’s

In the beginning God created all things, in Him, one with Him and in total harmony with Him and with all that is His. In Him, Adam lived and moved and had his being because he was in Him, one with Him. God made Adam head of Eve and all the earth from which he was taken. He gave him authority to rule over his domain or anointed area, which was the Garden of Eden. He needed no testimony that he was pleasing to God because he was created to bring God joy and fulfillment. Adam was God’s joy and fulfillment, His beloved son in whom He was well pleased. The transgression of Adam placed man outside of God’s inside, which caused separation from Him resulting in man’s death, as he was a branch severed from the Vine. Sin separated man from the joyful and peaceful atmosphere of God’s presence inside of Him and threw him into a broken universe covered with a cloud of doubt and fear. Since that time man had to present God with blood sacrifices for the atonement of sin. Men also began to call on the name of the Lord in prayer to seek His favor. For the first time men, through faith, had to breakthrough the cloud of doubt and fear to please God. Without faith it is impossible to please Him. For the first time, apart from love, faith and hope came into play to have a relationship with God. Fallen man had to present him to the Lord in faith as if he was perfect, in Him and one with Him, in hope for the redemption of the whole man. Faith changes things in the books of God. Though you may not have attained to the resurrection from the dead and is not made perfect, faith is the substance of hope to attain to resurrection life and perfection. When God looks at man He sees man as he thinks in his heart he is, for so He sees him (Proverbs 23:7). 2

Moreover, what you think in your heart, good or evil, you have already committed (Matthew 5:28). This is the righteousness of God through faith. Enoch (without the law) and Elijah (under the law) are living proof that since the transgression man could attain to resurrection life and perfection if he or she believed God for it. Adam was 687 years when Enoch was born. Enoch was 243 years old when Adam died at the age of 930 years (Genesis 5). Enoch must have learned first hand from Adam what he had in the garden and then lost it through his foolish arrogance. Enoch yearned for the Father-son relationship Adam had with God and also to walk with Him in the garden as Adam did. Through faith he discovered the fountain of Life, the source of Light, the epitome of Truth, which is the Creator of heaven and earth. He walked with God and He began to teach him like He did Adam. Enoch was a preacher of righteousness emphasizing that men should watch over their souls; hold on to the fear of the Lord and service to Him, and to serve Him in righteousness, innocence and justice in humility and purity. He also prophesied of the mighty ones who are soon to be released on the earth (Jude 14). He believed God so much he began to experience the joy and strength that man knew before the fall. He started to live in the penetrating light of God that filled all the earth but cannot be confined in anyplace or anything or by anyone. Life became so great in him that he would have still remain on earth if God had not taken him to dwell with Him in heaven. He was too full of life to die, so God took him bodily into heaven so that he did not see death and could not be found among the sons of men. Before God took him he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Without faith it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:5-6).

Many years after Enoch, God established a covenant of works with His people, the nation of Israel. The terms of the covenant of the Law were that if the Israelites kept the covenant they would be a special treasure to God above all people and they shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation to Him. If they diligently obey the voice of the Lord to observe all His commandments the Lord will set them high above all the nations of the earth and all His blessings shall come upon them and overtake them. If they violated the covenant, they would be cursed (Deuteronomy 28). The obligation was with man to keep the covenant. Because the law is spiritual and perfect the righteous requirement of the law could only be fulfilled in those who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:4). Through the flesh (power and might) the righteous requirements of the Law could never have been fulfilled but only through faith. Faith is the doorway to the Spirit where God dwells. The covenant of works utterly failed because it could never be fulfilled in the flesh. To be outside of God’s inside (His body) is death for you can do nothing without Christ in you the hope of glory. The excellence of the power is from God and not man. Elijah, the Tishbite, a mighty prophet of God, which lived in times when wicked kings ruled Judah and Israel, had a different spirit in him and he followed God fully. Through faith he fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law. He had the testimony that he constantly stood before the Lord, which is to live in His presence (1 Kings 17:1). He lived his life above the cloud of doubt and fear by positioning himself in the presence of God, which is in the realm of the Spirit. The presence of God is where the Spirit of God prevails, where the burden of suffering and shame of imperfect flesh is broken. It is where the glory of the character and power of Christ was revealed in him (1 Peter 4

1:11). He was uncompromising in his spirit yet saturated with joy and love of the Spirit of God in him. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. When he succumbed to the flesh, where doubt and fear rule, he fled for his life before Jezebel and prayed the Lord to take his life. The Lord asked Elijah what he was doing in the cave (past) spending the night (bad times) in that place (thinking about the bad of the past). He was meditating on how Jezebel was killing the prophets of God in the past and that she was busy to hunt him down. He was supposed to be positioned in the place of his anointing (his garden), the presence of God. After that episode he walked with God and he obtained the testimony that in his walk with God his fire never dimmed. Then God took him. Elijah was a prophet of fire. Enoch, which is a picture of the Lamb of God, and Elijah that came in the spirit of the Lion of Judah are the witnesses that God was blameless in His dealings with man before and during Old Testament times to conform to the glorious image of His Son. His Son was revealed from the foundation of the earth (Revelation 13:8). God eventually took away the first covenant, the ministry of condemnation that He might establish the second, the ministry of righteousness. It was brought in much greater glory, even in the glory of His Son. We are completed in Christ, yet God predestined the heirs of salvation to be conformed to the image of His Son, indicating a growing process. Through suffering on the cross the Lord Jesus Christ completed the work necessary for our salvation and sonship. There is nothing more to be done from the Lord’s side to complete our perfection. We only need to grow, like newborn babes, in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in maturity into the full measure of the stature of the Son of God. Spiritual growth is the same as natural growth; you are born a baby then started to mature toward adulthood. 5

When you are reading the word of God, praying or waiting on the Lord you should only drink living water, enjoying God. You should not be concerned about not bearing fruit out of season because your relationship with Him is a natural process of growth. If you abide in the Vine you will bear fruit in the time of your season. Though Enoch and Elijah seem to be the ultimate examples to attain to resurrection life and to be made perfect it is Jesus who is the plumb line. He is our vision and the pattern that points the way toward sonship. To study the life of the pattern Son is to interpret the prophecy concerning our lives. Why? He is the first among many brethren and the sons to follow will have to follow along the same way that He has paved. There are three major phases in Jesus’ live that needs to be studied to follow the course of events that will follow our lives. These are His birth and maturing process, His baptism and Sonship and His glorification on the cross. In this chapter we will only consider the first phase. Jesus’ natural birth placed Him in the kingdom of God for His own Spirit is the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9). Though Jesus is God He came into this world, as one of us, a mortal being yet without sin. Coming as a perfect man into the world He said He could do nothing of Himself but confessed His utter dependence on His Father. The Father who sent Him was in Him and He in the Father so that the excellence of the glory and power was from God in Him. Though Herod sought to destroy Him, He survived the onslaught on His life and kept Himself busy with the things of God, His Father’s business. In this He grew up and become strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. He increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. 6

The parallel to the birth of Jesus is to be born again. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His (Romans 8:9). You cannot see the kingdom of God unless you are born again. If you believe in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ, God will place you in His Son and you will be delivered from your sin and guilt and you will be justified in His sight. You will be joined to the Lord Jesus Christ and become one Spirit with Him. It is not a mixture of your spirit with His but you become one spirit with the Spirit of Christ. A mixture of spirits means a mixture of your fleshly glory with the divine glory of Jesus Christ. God shares His glory with no man. One spirit with Him means there is only one glory, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father has given us only one glory, Christ in us the hope of glory. This glory is the image of His Son, the only image He gave us to grow into by faith. If you are born again you are in Him (in His body) and He is in you (one Spirit with you) so that the excellence of the power and glory is from Him who lives in you. You relate to God with your spirit because it is that part of your being which is alive to Him and one Spirit with Christ. The kingdom of God is all about relationships. It implies that you should have an intimate relationship with God, to manifest His mercy and grace to your neighbor and to love and respect the earth. Relationships that are not in Christ are dead because it is severed from the Vine. Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matthew 7:22-23). Works outside of God is from the flesh, which counts for nothing. It is Christ’s relationship that you share with Him that minister love, trust and fulfillment to God. Love and trust do not develop outside of a relationship. 7

The bottom line is whether He knows you and whether you know Him. It is all about the substance of love you have become in Christ, to God. It is what you have become in oneness with Him, to Him and what He is to you that matter. Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven (Matthew 7:21). The will of God does not consist of do and don’ts but it is a state of your spirit (faith) that causes the anointing to flow. Faith is a state of your spirit. God has called you into sonship, which means to live and relate to God with that part of you which is alive to Him and one with Christ, so that Christ may be revealed in your whole being. If you are a son of God you are to be led by the Spirit of God. Naturally this is a gradual growing process. This is to allow God to be your Father and you to be a son to Him. Sonship is a full or mature revelation of the Son in you. The question is what you have become to God or will He not recognize you. The Father wants you to be a son and a worshipper to Him. The Son wants you to be brother and friend to Him, as He is one with you, in you, and desires to be made manifested in you. The Holy Spirit wants to be your friend, comforter and leader and to guide you into all truth, which is Christ. Your faith-love relationship in oneness with Christ is the substance that ministers love, trust and fulfillment toward God and all that is His. Acts without a relationship toward God is hypocrisy, acting or stage-play even if your intentions are good because it is without Spirit and life and thus without fulfillment, which is joy, peace and delight in the Holy Spirit. That was why Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites. The word hypocrite in the Greek means actor or stage-player. They were performers without having a 8

relationship with God. Acting is works or performance without a relationship. Remind you of a harlot, doesn’t it? Man can only relate to God through faith, hope and love in His word. As we live no longer but Christ lives in us, it is His faith, hope and love in operation. Our ability, which flows forth from that part in us that is dead to God, which is our flesh, cannot please Him. That which is dead to God indicates a separation and independence from Him, which is of necessity death. The flesh is the tree of the knowledge of good (law or legalism) and evil (lawlessness). Good is better than evil but it is still death. It is one thing to have knowledge about the goodness of God but another thing to know God as Good through a deep relationship with Him. I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:5-6). Knowledge of good and evil puffs up produces the fruit of arrogance and renders you vulnerable to the ignorance of futility and bareness. Faith, hope and love edify and yield the fruit of righteousness, humility and wisdom, and harvest joy and fulfillment in God. The first divine grace in a relationship with God is faith. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is the substance of your world or reality that you live in, which is based on the word of God. So faith is based on hope, which is filled with divine vision or revelation. The difference between hope and fantasy is that hope is based on the word of God and fantasy on the futile imagination of man’s heart. Hope is a constant focus on God that believes with great expectation He will bring to pass the vision of His Word which He has burned into your heart about His will for your life. Faith is to convert the promise, vision or revelation into substance by living your expectation right 9

now as if it is fulfilled though you cannot see its fulfillment. Expressing faith is the evidence or proof of the unseen hope, revelation or vision. Without divine vision, revelation or hope people perishes. Hopelessness is void of faith, which is sin. Without faith you cannot please God. We cannot live by feelings but by faith. Faith is life in the Spirit but feelings belong to the realm of soul, which is sin and death. Man experiences feelings all the time. Impulses flow from his internal and external environments making impressions in his body, emotions, thoughts, memories and spirit. Most of it comes from the twisted heart of carnal flesh pumping his doubts, fears and lusts into an already broken and polluted atmosphere. Occasionally some feelings are from heaven. Some feelings are important, serving as barometers to life systems in your body, give you guidance or alert you of pending danger, etc. However, most feelings can be dangerous in your walk with God because it relates to doubts, fears and lusts. It is important to train your spirit to ignore or resist some feelings. For example, if you only want to pray when you feel like it, you will pray very seldom. When you do not feel like praying recognize that feeling as a barrier that needs to be resisted and rejected. What is revealed by the light is judged by the light. The more you practice it, the easier it becomes. This way you will live above the cloud of doubts and fears. If you feel like praying, thank God for His grace because mostly you do not feel like praying. Normally you do not feel like praying because your body is dead to God because of sin and therefore enmity with Him. That is why you present your body of death to God through faith a living sacrifice (as if it is alive to Him) to serve and worship Him alone. However, it is something different when your body is exhausted. Then you must rest. This principle applies to all areas in your life. It is fun to walk by faith. Some say it is hard. I do not deny it but I 10

believe it depends on how much you hunger after the reward of the higher calling of God in Christ Jesus. To walk by faith is a onetime opportunity and privilege in all eternity that God granted to all men during their stay on earth. So do not waste your opportunity for it is your one and only chance to obtain a witness that you please God. The witness of pleasing God has nothing to do with your righteousness before God – the sacrifice of Jesus was sufficient. It is a freewill offering you bring Him because you love Him. It is to bring Him joy and fulfillment. The flesh is by nature an unbeliever and is enmity against God. How do you start out? By faith you present your mind that is enmity against God a living sacrifice as if it is alive to God by bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, in hope that all disobedience will be punished when your obedience is fulfilled. You do it by meditating only on things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtues and praiseworthy that you may be renewed in the spirit of your mind. The focus of your heart is not on you growing up into sonship but on Him being glorified in you. Growing up in Him will automatically be taken care of as you pursue Christ. Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? (Matthew 6:27). Revelation is never complete unless you see God exalted in His works and ways or where He is revealed as wisdom in any issue of concern. For you to live is Christ. Through faith you present your dead body as being alive from the dead and the members of your body though dead, as instruments of righteousness to God. Therefore, by faith you should live your life on earth as if you are in heaven. Paul reached into Christ through faith that he may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship 11

of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means He may attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:9-11). Life is not seated in formulae or some steps of conformation but in knowing Christ, which emphasizes the relationship. Eternal life in spirit, soul and body is in knowing God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. In knowing Him, the fountain of life, Paul pressed on to conform to His death and resurrection in hope that he may attain to the resurrection from the dead. He presented that which was dead to God as if his whole man was alive to Him. Not that he has attained or was already made perfect, but in faith he pressed on as if he has attained and was made perfect. He laid hold of Christ in the same manner as Christ has laid hold of him. With this quality of faith Enoch and Elijah have not seen death but received a witness that they were pleasing to God before they were taken. Their faith demanded that in their world of reality they were alive to God, spirit, soul and body and in their world the spirit and natural realms have become one. Their faith brought substance to a world where heaven and earth is united in the one world of Christ. In their world the will of God has being done on earth as it is in heaven. As far as they were concerned the New Jerusalem has come down and heaven and earth has become one. They had so much life in them that God had to take them. The second grace of the Spirit is hope. True hope is a steadfast focus on the Lord with an expectation that He will fulfill the vision or revelation of His promises according to the will of God for your life. Hope is an expression of trust in God’s goodness and faithfulness. It is waiting with confidence and patience for the fulfillment of God’s promise in the future. In the Spirit there are no time barriers. When Enoch and Elijah, by revelation, saw the 12

end from the beginning they immediately start walking in that hope by faith as if they have attained to resurrection life and perfection. In God’s books faith is the substance of His promises even if you have not received it. It will be accounted to you as if you have received it, which is the evidence of unseen realities. This is the type of faith that the Enoch-generation, the mighty ones to come, will manifest. The Enoch-generation will always regard the end from the beginning as the present. The greatest of all graces is love. If you love God, He knows you. Love is the anointed substance of joy and fulfillment you have become to Him through faith and what He is to you in your relationship with Him. It is the relationship that brings fulfillment. The relationship of the Holy Trinity with each other is one of fulfillment. The evidence of a deep relationship with God is fulfillment, which are joy, peace and delight. You find fulfillment in God and God finds fulfillment in you. When I am missing fulfillment in God, my prayer is always, “God fill the empty spaces; water the dry places.” Afterward it leaves you with a greater hunger and thirst after God. In following Christ you have become all things to all men, loving them with the love of Christ. To the widow you have become a husband, to the orphan a father and to the simple, wisdom. In your relationship to the earth you have become a steward of excellence to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. In all these things you find fulfillment in God.