I often think about heaven and spending eternity with God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the angels, and all those who will have been judged righteous on the last day. In doing so, the words of the hymn written by James Rowe, "I Walk With The King" readily come to mind:

"I walk with the King, hallelujah! I walk with the King, praise His name!"

A familiar passage of Scripture conveying this beautiful thought is found in Colossions 2:6-7. It reads, "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding with thanksgiving." "Walk" in the New Testament usually means the way a person lives. This concept is clearly shown in Romans 6:4, Ephesians 2:10, and 1 John 2:6. Christians are to live and walk by the Spirit in like manner as Christ walked while on this earth.

Another way one can walk with God is to keep all of his commandments. "Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess" (Deut. 5:33).

Enoch, the father of Methuselah, was one of two men in the Old Testament who did not taste death (Elijah was the other one) because he "walked with God: and he was not; for God took him" (Gen. 5:24). The ungodly and profane are without God in this world because they have chosen to walk contrary to his teaching. The godly, on the other hand, walk with God, which presupposes reconciliation to God, for two cannot walk together, except they be agreed (Amos 3:3). The Holy Spirit, instead of saying, Enoch lived, says, Enoch "walked with God" for it is the life of a righteous man to walk with God. It was the joy and support of his life coupled with communion with God that was better to him than life itself (Phil. 1:21).

Enoch was removed to a better world in that he did not live like the rest nor did he die like the rest "for God took him." We are told in Hebrews 11:5 that he was translated to heaven. It was the faith and steadfastness of Enoch that pleased God and consequently was removed from mortality without death to immortality. This is the change that shall pass over the living and the dead at the second coming of, Christ (1 Cor. 15:51-54).

Most people today never take the time to seriously think about heaven. Our lives are measured by time. There is a time for us to get out of bed, a time to eat, a time to go to work, and a time to go back to, bed. There is even a time when we shall die. The Hebrew writer said, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Heb. 9:27). The account of the last judgment is given by Jesus- in Matthew 25:3146. All nations will be judged and separated with the sheep on his right hand and the goats on the left (v. 33). The sheep represent the righteous and they are the ones who will inherit the kingdom.

It is a sobering thought, indeed, that each passing day brings us that much closer to our eternal destiny, whether it be eternal life or eternal death. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people because we have already experienced a part of the joy of heaven while living by faith on earth. James reminds us, "draw nigh unto God, and he will draw nigh unto you" (Jas. 4:8). Therefore let us continue to march with unrelenting determination toward the city "whose builder and maker is God" (Heb. 11:10). Then we'll be able to join the hymn writer in saying,

No longer I roam, my soul faces home,

I walk and I talk with the King.

Oh! What a glorious day that will be for you and me.

Guardian of Truth XXXIII: 10, p. 307
May 18, 1989