How to Have a Closer Walk with God

The breathings of the Christian’s soul are, “Oh, for a closer walk with God!” This is no evidence of emptiness, stagnation, or aching void. It is evidence of thrift, growth, health, and appetite. Every spiritual child of God desires to cling yet more lovingly to Jesus’ hand and to lean more affectionately upon His breast. The children of this world are in a rush after the fashions, the wealth, the show, and the pleasures of the world, but the Christian is following hard after God; he is seeking those things which are above. The children of the world obtain because they seek. If the child of heaven will seek after the things of heaven as earnestly as the child of earth seeks after the things of earth, he will surely find. “Seek, and ye shall find.”* (Matthew 7:7; Luke 11:9)

The children of this world do not go among the children of the kingdom of God in search of worldly treasures, but they seek for those things among those who are of their own spirit. Oh, may the children of light be as wise as the children of darkness! Do you desire a closer walk with God? Are you seeking after more and more of heavenly things? Do not go in search of these treasures among those who are of a worldly spirit. Seek for heavenly things among those who have heavenly things to give. Jesus has heavenly things to bestow upon you. He will give you grace, He will increase your love and faith and give you more meekness, humility, gentleness, etc.; therefore seek His companionship. As the gentle night emits the soft siftings of dew upon the flower, so from the presence of the Lord is emitted the siftings of the heavenly graces. These will fall upon your soul if you but linger in His presence. As the fragrance of the flower perfumes the air and leaves its scent upon our clothing, so the fragrance from the sweet life of Christ will perfume our souls.

Also, those who walk with God have heavenly things to bestow upon others. As the heavenly graces shine upon them from the presence of the Lord, they are reflected by them upon others. Seek therefore for heavenly things among the children of God. I love to be in the company of those who love the Lord and are walking near Him. I love to be with those whose souls are full of grace and whose hearts are reaching out after God. I would a thousand times rather be in the backwoods man’s humble hut conversing with his God-fearing family about the things above than to be in the court of kings.

A sister, poor in this world’s goods but rich in grace, came into my home a few mornings since. I made inquiry concerning her spiritual prosperity. She told me that the Lord was very precious to her soul and that He was dealing most graciously with her. I asked her to tell us of some of the Lord’s gracious dealings, that we might see some of the manifestations of His love to His children and that our hearts might be encouraged. She then related several instances wherein God had answered her prayers. One of these instances I will relate. Her provisions were daily growing more scanty. The flour was almost gone. She went again and again in prayer to God. One morning she baked the last of the flour and knew not where bread for her and her children’s dinner was to be had, only her trust was in the God that miraculously fed Elijah. Before noon a boy brought her a bag of wheat. This was taken to the mill and exchanged for flour, and thus God supplied their needs. As she related this simple story of God’s love and goodness to her, He became dearer and more precious to our hearts and we were reminded again how blessed it is to trust Him. Such sweet stories of God’s gracious dealings with His trusting children lift our souls heavenward until we feel more as if we were in heaven than on earth.

One autumn day I went to baptize a sister who had been converted at our campmeeting two months before and whom I had not seen since the meeting. She met me at the door with a hearty, “Praise the Lord!” There was heavenly music in her voice. When we were seated, she began to tell me of God’s goodness to her since her conversion. Her soul had been full of joy; day and night she had sung praises to God. She had made her wrongs right. Among her wrongs to make right was a small sum of money she owed to a jewelry firm. But she could in no way obtain their address, as some years had gone by since the jewelry had been sent her from some firm in a distant city. Being unable to obtain the address, she sent the money to a minister to help in the work of God. Once she longed to go to a certain meeting; but her husband said if it rained that day so he could not get a certain piece of work done, he could not take her to the meeting the next day. Although it looked very rainy, her faith staggered not. She told God of her love to Him and of her love to His people; she told Him how she longed to go to meeting. She then asked God to disperse the clouds and to stay the rain so that her husband might get his work done. In a few moments the sun was shining out clear and bright, and it did not rain.

At this juncture a tramp peddler came to the door. She invited him to a seat and went on at once telling me of the goodness of God to her. She said she prayed three times every day for her husband’s salvation. At one time he was away from home for a few days upon the sea. On Sunday morning at ten o’clock she asked God to convict him of his sins, to make him uneasy, and to give him a deep concern for his soul. When he came home, she asked him whether he had had any concern about his soul while he was gone. He replied that he had, and especially on Sunday morning. All this time the peddler sat there listening to the story of God’s goodness to her, he seeing no opportunity to show his goods.

As I saw her simplicity, innocency, and childlike confidence in God, I thought, “I would rather have her humble station in life and her knowledge of God than to be the president of our nation.” Oh, how we delight to be in the company of those who have hearts full of love to God and never weary in talking of His righteousness! Such conversation bears our souls upward and onward and makes us more like God. This world fades farther and farther away, and we approach nearer and nearer the gates of glory.

If you desire a closer walk with God, seek the companionship of those who are spiritually minded and who live where the heavenly breezes blow and where the fragrance of Christian graces perfume the air. Oh, that I could help the reader to feel in his soul the importance of keeping his heart and mind turned heavenward! Oh, that I could help him to see the deep truth contained in the following words! As tobacco-users and whiskey drinkers so deaden their sense of taste that they become unable to tell by it whether the meat they are eating is beef or mutton or whether the jelly is apple or peach, so they whose minds are stayed on earthly things and whose conversation is of the things of the world so benumb their souls that they lose the spiritual sense of taste or that delicacy of moral perception which enables those who walk with God to have such sweet tastes of His love. I have seen those who would sit and sleep while someone talked of how God hears and answers prayers and of how real He is in all the common affairs of everyday life, but who as soon as a conversation was begun about earthly things were wide awake and ready to join in the conversation. Shame on such a professed Christianity!

God has the sweets that tempt the Christian’s soul. He has those things that delight us and lead us on to follow Him. He has the word of eternal life; He has rest; He has peace; He has love; He has all for which our souls pant or hunger. Oh, how the Christian’s soul clings to God! He is the fountain of life. He has the sweet viands that delight it and satisfy all its longings. Nothing satisfies the Christian’s heart but God. As the child shrinks back from the poisonous reptile, so the Spirit-filled soul shrinks back from the world. As your little child clings tightly to your hand while you walk near the cage of wild beasts, so the Christian clings closely to God as he sees the allurements of this world.

It is the sweet life of Jesus that fills us with such ecstatic joys, such unspeakable glory. A thousand deaths would be preferable to separation from Christ. The martyr at the stake freely gives up life; he will not part with Christ. Christ is more than life. The martyr’s whole soul is aflame with the love of God and the flame is burning with such intensity and the waters of rest are flowing so deeply through his soul that he hardly feels the flames that are devouring his physical being. The glory of God filling the soul counteracts pain and makes death bearable. I am persuaded that Stephen, who saw the heavens open, felt but little of the pains of death by stoning. One bitter cold night your humble servant had fifteen miles to go after preaching. The glory of God so filled his soul that he felt not the cold; otherwise he would have suffered greatly. This was a precious lesson and gave valuable knowledge of God.

He who has tasted of salvation and those graces that flow out from God looks over all earth, heaven, and hell and says: “These contain nothing that can separate me from the object of my heart’s fond love. The world has its trials and tribulations and may pour them out with a vengeance upon my head; they shall not separate me from God. The distresses, the persecutions, the famines, the nakedness, the perils, the sword—though these be brought upon me to the limit of their power, they cannot move me. Hell, with all its threatening horrors, cannot alarm me. Evil spirits cannot seduce nor discourage my soul. I am lost in the love of God. Should the love of angels be turned to jealousy, I will cling to Jesus. Nothing in life, nothing in death, the height of heaven, nor the depth of hell, with all the creatures they contain, shall be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.” Thus sings the soul that is drinking at the fountain of heaven’s eternal love.

The fervent in spirit are fully satisfied with their close walk with God today, but they want a closer walk with Him tomorrow. As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pant their soul after God. This is not the experience of one seeking after salvation. It is the experience of the saint all along his Christian way. I find two classes of religious people that are satisfied, or seem to be. Those who are rich in the grace of God and full of spiritual life are satisfied. They desire more of God; their souls have appetite for God and for His word, but they are never dissatisfied. It is not hungering for bread that makes man dissatisfied. It is blessed to become hungry, because it makes the eating enjoyable. The man that has no appetite is the one who does the complaining. He is not satisfied with the most delicious foods. The hungry man eats with a relish and thanks God for a good appetite. Do you not often feel your soul thirstirig after God? Do you not feel heart-hunger for prayer and the Word? Do you not feel an eagerness to meet with the saints of God? Do you not hunger and thirst after righteousness? This good appetite is indicative of good spiritual health. No appetite for these things is unmistakable evidence of spiritual disease. Another class of religious people who are seemingly satisfied are those who are poor and naked and blind but who think they are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. They are like the small boy that danced for joy because he imagined himself taking sweetmeats from his empty pocket and eating them. Some people imagine themselves rich in the grace of God and are happy in their imagination.

The true Christian’s life is one of constant growth in grace. True followers of Christ are ever becoming more spiritual. They are drawing nearer to God. “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”* (Proverbs 4:18) The Spirit of God in the heart of man is represented by a fruit-bearing tree. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, gentleness, longsuffering, goodness, meekness, temperance, faith, etc. Can these fruits be increased in our hearts and life? There is but one answer: they can. All along our Christian journey we are to abound more and more in love; we are to grow stronger in faith; our joy is to increase; we are to become more meek and humble and to have more patience and be more gentle. The horticulturist increases the fruit of the trees of his orchard by cultivating and developing the tree. He cultivates, not the fruit, but the tree. The tree in our hearts is the Spirit of God. To increase the fruits of the Spirit, we must develop the tree. The true and successful Christian life is one of constant progress.

Some people seem to experience some alarm when we begin to talk about growth in grace or gaining a closer walk with God. They fear we will become fanatical. No one is more opposed to fanaticism than the ardent advocates of Christian development, for nothing is a greater hindrance to such development. But facts are facts. We cannot but acknowledge that the true and proper Christian life is one of constant growth.

Causes produce effects. To become more spiritual is the effect of a cause. There is a law of growth and development in all life. There is also a law governing the law of growth and development, or in other words, growth is but the effect, or the result, of complying with certain causes. This is true in both the physical and the spiritual life. In order for the child to develop its physical life and powers, it must eat, drink, exercise, sleep, breathe, etc. It is not enough for the child to know and say, “I must eat and drink, that I may live and grow”; but it must put in actual practice what it knows. It is true—and how good God is to have made us so!—that the child is given an instinct that inclines it to eat and to exercise.

We meet the law of growth naturally and without taking thought because God has given us appetites and desires that lead us to the performance of the things requisite to growth. I said we naturally and without taking thought meet the requirements for growth because God has given us appetites that incline us to these things; but God has given us intelligence and will-power by which He expects us to control the appetite to the best good of the physical development. Small children do not have this intelligence, but the intelligence of the parents should answer for the child. The very thing God has given us for our development may prove the most disastrous to it if it is not kept in proper bounds. He who sits down to his table and eats for the mere purpose of satisfying his appetite acts brutishly.

The laws respecting the physical life find an analogy in the spiritual life. There is a law of growth and development in the spiritual world. There is also a law which governs the law of growth, or in other words, our growth in grace is but the result of our complying with certain requisites. Cause produces effect. It is folly to expect developments in animal life if the law governing that development is not observed. It is as great folly to expect growth in grace if the law governing the growth in grace is not observed.

“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.”* (1 Peter 2:2) The Greek adds “unto salvation.” Growth unto eternal salvation is the consequence of living upon the sincere milk of the word. Here is cause and effect. Do not expect the effect without the cause. It is at this point that some experience alarm. They fear an over-exertion. No amount of worry, anxiety, or trying will promote growth. The child does not grow by trying. It does not worry about its growing. But it does eat. I am saying nothing more than this here: if you grow in grace you must eat. An established law declares you must. Some teach that we have nothing to do with our spiritual development. To prove their assertion they refer us to the beautiful lesson of the growing of the lily, which neither toils nor spins. In the lesson of the lily Christ is teaching us, not about our spiritual development, but about the care God has for our temporal life and its needs. There is something to do. You must eat.

“But if we are saved, do we not naturally desire the sincere milk of the word?”

I have said nothing to the contrary. I have only said that we must desire the sincere milk of the word, that we may grow thereby.

“But is it not true that we sometimes may have a keener appetite for the sincere word than at others and a greater relish for prayer?”

Encourage your appetite by eating. Select some delicious foods, such as these: “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.”* (Hebrews 13:5) “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”* (1 Peter 5:7) “[He] is able to keep you from falling.”* (Jude 1:24) “No man is able to pluck [you] out of my Father’s hand.”* (John 10:29) Such foods will revive you and whet up your appetite if you are not dead. If you have spiritual life, pray even though you may have no relish for prayer. During the warm months of one summer I was accustomed to arise at midnight for prayer. One night there was a dull, morbid feeling upon me. I wrestled with God for some time, but lay down without getting any apparent blessing. When I awakened in the morning, heaven’s glory was streaming into my soul. I was then reaping the blessing of my midnight prayer. We may pray ofttimes and apparently receive very little benefit; but it benefits us more than we are aware. It is our life. If we cease praying, we shall die. Many a time I have gone to prayer without any inspiration for prayer, but soon the inspiration would be given. I have gone into the pulpit likewise.

Regard not the feeling. Keep up the faith and do your duty. Make it a business to serve God. If you would have a closer walk with God, keep aloof from the world; “abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul”* (1 Peter 2:11); avoid the company of the foolish talker; stay your thoughts on God; meditate on His law; pray much and live on the word; “refuse profane and old wives’ fables”* (1 Timothy 4:7); give no heed to the signs, the superstitions, and the foolish saying of the worldly-minded; have no mind for such things; take no interest and have no part in the neighborhood gossip, but “exercise thyself rather unto godliness”* (1 Timothy 4:7); attend to the things that will make you more godly; have a conversation and have meditations that are edifying; think upon the life of Christ; search therein for the excellencies and the beautiful; see the purity of His love and the tenderness of His care for you until the affections of your soul, like the magnetized needles, tremble with life and turn toward their object. The words of a learned writer are appropriate here:

It is an admitted principle that protracted and close attention always fixes the fact attended to, deeply in the memory; and the longer and more intensely the mind attends to any subject, other subjects proportionally lose their power to interest. The same is true in relation to the affections. The longer and more intensely we contemplate an object in that relation which is adapted to draw out the affections, the more deeply will the impression be made upon the heart as well as the memory. The most favorable circumstances possible to fix an impression deeply upon the heart and memory are—first, that there should be protracted and earnest attention; and second, that at the same time the impression is made, the emotions of the soul should be alive with excitement. Without these, an impression made upon the heart and the memory would be slight and easily effaced; while on the contrary, an impression made during intense attention and excited feeling will be engraved, as with pen of steel upon the tablets of the soul.

On this I give a brief comment. The more attention we give to heavenly things and the more intently and eagerly we seek those things above, the more our affections are drawn out to them, and the things of earth proportionably lose their power to attract us. The longer and more deeply we meditate upon God’s law and the beauty of His holiness, the more deeply the impression will be made upon us and the more we shall be like Him. The more earnest attention we give in contemplating the love of God to us in adopting us as sons; the more our heart is touched by the scenes on Calvary; the more vivid and real this is made to us—the deeper will be the impression made upon the tablets of our soul. O beloved, stand before the cross of Calvary and behold the love of Jesus for you—dying, dying for you; hear the groans of His agony; see the deliverance from hell He has wrought for you through His death and unfathomable love. Stand and behold until all the emotions of your soul are alive with excitement. Stand and behold until the fleshly tables of your heart are made so soft and tender that God by His Spirit can imprint His love and image there. A worldly conversation and worldly thoughts and the minding of earthly things harden the heart and cast a morbid feeling over the soul, making it incapable of receiving any imprint from heavenly things.

Fellow pilgrim to a heavenly home, if you desire the faith once delivered to the saints, you must “earnestly contend”* (Jude 1:3) for it. If you desire a crown of life, you must “lay hold”* (1 Timothy 6:12,19) upon it. If you desire to run the Christian race successfully, you must “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [you].”* (Hebrews 12:1) If you desire to obtain an incorruptible crown, you must “So run that ye may obtain.”* (1 Corinthians 9:24) Do you desire a closer walk with God? Then “Draw nigh to God.”* (James 4:8) Do you desire to gain heaven? Then have a heart full of purpose and determination. The apostle said: “This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”* (Philippians 3:13-14) Let us who are in the Christian race “be thus minded.”* (Philippians 3:15)

Make it a business to serve God. In Him live and move and have your being. Make Him the center. Everything in life should center in God. Whatever you do, do to His glory. Live in His presence. “Pray without ceasing”* (1 Thessalonians 5:17); guard against all attacks of the world; keep a tender conscience toward God; walk in the light of His countenance; drink of the fountain of life daily; cultivate feelings of reverence, devotion, and thanksgiving; give no place to anything that will dull the finer sensibilities of your soul—do these things, and you will be rewarded with a closer walk with God.