HOW YOU OUGHT TO WALK AND PLEASE GOD

“Finally, then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us HOW YOU OUGHT TO WALK AND TO PLEASE GOD."
1 Thessalonians 4:1 (NKJV)

• Believers are to abound, be consistent and more in their walk with God, and please Him. They should do things which they have been taught, walk in the light of His Word.

• In walking with God, a believer has to be consistent and grow in their relationship and fellowship with Him.
• Some believers are not steadfast in their faith, and they are not consistent in their walk with God.

• You should not be a yo-yo Christian, a Christian who changes repeatedly from one extreme to another (Ephesians 4:14; Hebrews 13:9).

• Christianity is about walking with God—in a relationship and fellowship. Thus, we are called to walk with God in a relationship and fellowship (Genesis 3:8).

• God called Abraham out of his country, his father's house, to walk with Him; He wanted to take Abraham to a particular land (Genesis 12:1-4).

• Abraham was faithful in his walk with God; but he did make a mistake by heeding the counsel of his wife on the issue of fruitfulness.
  They wanted to help God, they wanted to expedite, speed up, the promise of God—Abraham slept with Hagar, Sarah's maid, and Sarah consented to it (Genesis 16:1-4).
• God will not need your help to bring His promises to fulfilment in your life.
• God appeared to Abraham:

“When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.”
Genesis 17:1 (NKJV)

• You have to walk with God in holiness if you want to relate with Him.

1. “but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your CONDUCT, 16. because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
   1 Peter 1:15,16 (NKJV)

• It is when you walk with God in holiness that He cuts, establishes, a covenant with you.
• God told Abraham in verse 2 of that chapter 17 of Genesis:“And I will make My covenant between Me and you and will multiply you exceedingly.”
• God was telling Abraham, If He walked with Him in holiness, He would cut a covenant with him.

• Walking with God in holiness precedes the making of covenant of multiplication.

• God wanted to bless Abraham, multiply him, bless the whole world through him; but he had to walk with God in holiness—he should be blameless in his walk with God (Genesis 17:1-8)
• If God would give you a lasting blessing, if He would cut a covenant with you; you must serve Him faithfully and live a blameless life.

• Your depth in God, in your fellowship with Him, determines the wealth, blessing, He commits to your hands.

• And it also determines the measure of His anointing on your life, or the revelation of Him you have—if you are called into a particular ministry, or an assignment is given to you.
• The person whom God approves; He gives revelation of Himself.

“He made known His ways to Moses, His Acts to the children of Israel.”
Psalm 103:7 (NKJV)

• God wanted to show the Israelites, the person He approves as the priest, to represent the people before Him. Meanwhile, some had been rebelling against the authority of Moses and Aaron (Numbers 16:1-3).

• God instructed them, leaders of each tribe, to bring a rod each; the person whom the rod budded is the one approved by God (Numbers 17:1-11).
• The person whom God gives revelation, whom He speaks to, is the one He approved (Numbers 12:1-8).
• For God to approve you, establish a covenant with you; you need to walk with Him in holiness.

“Pursue peace with all people, and HOLINESS, without which no one will SEE the LORD.”
Hebrews 12:14 (NKJV)

• We are saved by grace; however, grace is not a license to live in sin.
WE are saved to live right, walk in holiness with Him (Romans 6:1,2,15; 2 Corinthians 5:15; Ephesians 2:8-10; 4:21-24; Titus 2:11,12).

• Your relevance in God's Kingdom on earth, even as a believer, may be minimal: If you are not living right, that is, if you are not walking in holiness.
• God uses clean vessels, and to be a clean vessel, you have to walk in agreement with the Holy Spirit; you allow Him to work on your life—to change your life.

1. “But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor.
   21.Therefore if anyone CLEANSES himself from the latter, he will be a VESSEL OF HONOUR, sanctified [set apart] and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.”
   2 Timothy 2:20,21 (NKJV)

• If you are not walking with God in holiness, you may not amount to much in His Kingdom on earth.

• You may limit your usefulness in His Kingdom on earth If you are living in sin (2Timothy 2:19).
• Also, by walking in the flesh, living in sin, you may not be able to fulfil the reason why you were sent to the planet earth (Jeremiah 1:4,5; Galatians 1:15,16).

• You are not here on earth by accident, you are here for a purpose; ordained, appointed, before you were formed in your mother's womb (Isaiah 49:1,5; Jeremiah 1:4,5; Acts 9:15).

• For you not to miss God's plan for your life, walk with Him and be blameless (Genesis 17:1).
• For you not to truncate His programme for your life, walk with Him in holiness—live a blameless life.
• What you have received or learned in God's Word, the Bible: on how to walk with Him and how to please Him, abound in it—be steadfast and consistent in it.

1. "And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled
2. in the body of His flesh through death, to present you HOLY, and BLAMELESS, and ABOVE REPROACH in His sight—
3. IF INDEED YOU CONTINUE IN THE FAITH, GROUNDED AND STEADFAST, AND ARE NOT MOVE AWAY FROM THE HOPE OF THE GOSPEL WHICH YOU HEARD, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister."
   Colossians 1:21-23 (NKJV)

• You will not fail in Jesus' name.
Peace!