Sit and Walk

Years ago a man named Watchman Nee wrote a book called Sit, Walk, Stand. I have not read it personally, but recently I heard that statement come up again in someone else’s message.  I was refreshed to hear that the whole body of Christ has not moved from walking (doing) to only sitting (believing).  I am one of the first to teach on believing to enter your rest. Hebrews chapter 3 and 4 are very clear that the Israelites did not enter their rest because of their unbelief, and neither will we. It says disobedience than clarifies what the disobedience is, unbelief.   Disobedience always starts with unbelief.  That is why we must “sit” first.  The Word of God  tells us that the “just shall live by faith”, and “as a man thinketh in his heart so is he”. He spent a large portion of the New Testament telling us who we are as a New Creation. This is so we will meditate on it, think upon it and see ourselves seated in heavenly places with Christ.  That is us learning to sit, in our identity in Christ.  From that place we then walk. Walking according to His ways is very hard unless you first see yourself as righteous in Christ, presented holy and blameless in Christ, totally forgiven and accepted and deeply loved by God. Wow! From that place Christ’s power and love flow through you so much easier and walking in obedience becomes a longing in your heart.  So you read and study and ask God to change you and make you more like Him.  When you get back out in the flesh, you repent and get back in the Spirit.

You see, we labor, as Paul tells us, to enter our rest.  The labor is learning to believe that what God says is true, and being determined to keep all doubt out. But, then the New and Old testament are full of how to live (walking).  There is a part we play in walking out who we are.  There is a dying to the flesh in the believing and in the doing. James is very clear that faith and works go together. Jesus is very clear in the gospels. I heard last year that the gospels are part of the Old Testament and what Jesus had to say was to be considered law.  LOL! I must laugh at that concept.  Let’s think about it for a minute. The King of kings, God of gods, spends 3 years teaching people information that will be obsolete as soon as he dies and rises again.  Really??  I am believing God is so much wiser than that. We have to be careful to not get on the bandwagon of what itching ears want to hear.

The grace and glory of God is amazing and I love living in the center of them both!  But living there is work. God says, “seek me and you will find me”, “Love me and love your neighbor”. etc.  When He created us He said we are created in God’s image, that is what we “sit in”, rest in, believe in.  Then He said “till the land”, work!  I always say if you want to check out a theology go back to Genesis in the garden of Eden. That is where God created His perfect plan, and in Jesus’ death and resurrection He gave us back God’s perfect plan. He did not erase it for some sloppy grace, and image of God as our candy machine. We already have it all in Christ, But, you and I will not experience it on this earth unless we are willing to walk it out.

As most of you know I could add over a thousand scriptures to this article to make the point that we are to believe and to do.  But, I encourage you to get in the Word and read it for yourself, not just through the messages of those you listen to. My first pastor always said, “don’t just listen to me, go back home and study it out in the Word”  I think among many other things that is one the best things he taught me as I ventured into the world from underneath his pastoring.

Remember,  from Genesis to Revelation there is a message of grace and work. Grace is actually the empowerment to work, not the eraser of work.