“How to Walk With God”

 

Session Eight, Part A

 

By Nita Johnson

 

NOLA Revival Services July, 2011

 

We are talking about walking with the Lord. I think that is a wonderful subject, what about you? What else do we have to discuss together? We are here on earth and why else do we stay, other than to learn how to walk with Jesus? Someone might say, “Well, I think I could learn to walk with Him much better in heaven.” But the lessons here are so critically important and you really do want to have the rewards and the crowns that you gain through your trials, tribulations and lessons on earth to throw at His feet.

So here we are.

Deuteronomy 32:46-47 (Amplified)

46 He said to them, Set your [minds and] hearts on all the words which I command you this day, that you may command them to your children, that they may be watchful to do all the words of this law. 47 For it is not an empty and worthless trifle for you; it is your [very] life. By it you shall live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess.

 

The Word really is strength to our soul. Studying the Word with the help of the Holy Spirit not only strengthens, but directs the soul. It helps you to understand the God you serve and to recognize Him.

If you ever spent much time meditating on the Word, you would begin to realize that you hear a voice speaking the Word and it does not belong to a woman.  It is a man’s voice. It is very sweet, pure and beautiful and it is His voice. When He comes and talks to me, it is the same voice I hear when I am studying the Word. I do not suppose everyone hears it, but your spirit is hearing whether you hear it with your natural mind or not. He is talking through His Word all the time and if you know in your heart that you want Him to talk to you, then open the Book. If you want to learn to recognize His ways, it takes time in the Word.

Understanding God’s Word comes in layers. When you first start out, salvation means going to heaven. But the closer you walk with the Lord, the more you come to learn and understand the various levels of salvation—the levels of meaning in salvation. You realize salvation is something that incorporates your deliverance on many different fields, in many different areas. While you have the hope of heaven the day you get saved, would you not really and truly like to get rid of a few things you do not really desire in your character or perhaps the love of the things of the world? There is salvation, and then there is the process. We talked about the many chambers of the heart, and there is a process of getting the heart fully redeemed. There is a salvation that is complete in this life if you are willing to pay the price, but you have to be willing to pay the price.

A lot of Christians are not aware that the Word has many levels of meaning. Many Christians probably do not want to be aware of it—they just want to know the basics of Sunday school. But the deeper you walk with the Lord the more you appreciate understanding these deeper levels of meaning of His Word. Imparted, it brings freedom, liberty and strength to your walk.

Now in John 15, Jesus starts out by saying that He is the vine and His Father is the vine dresser. You read it once and meditate on it. The Lord suddenly reveals to you that this is discussing the fruits of the Spirit on your vine. You might read it another time and realize what He is talking about is the fruits of giving and the fruit you will bear in your sacrificial, financial giving. One time He will open the Word to you and it will mean one thing and another time He will open the Word to you and it will mean something else.

Have you ever read the Word and suddenly you read a portion of scripture and it sets inside of you like a honey over your soul? Sometimes you read it and you will think, “Wow, this is a letter to me.” The Spirit personalizes it so much that it is as though He wrote that chapter to speak to you today. It is not something you are thinking in your mind, Oh, I would like that to be for me. It actually becomes like a letter from your son or daughter. The Holy Spirit is imparting it into your heart, it is so real. He does this to strengthen your heart in righteousness and also to direct your feet. Sometimes you just need to know that Jesus is near, right?

Just a short time ago when I was in the Word, whizzing by a scripture, all a sudden I realized—wait a minute, that is for me. But why is it for me? Lord what are you trying to tell me and why do I need this right now? Later, I got an email and I found out why. As I was reading the email, the Lord quickened back that scripture and I realized I had received my directive regarding that email earlier in the morning when I was reading His Word. You have gone through that, right?

I can remember a time when I was going to go into the mountains one particular day.  I was spending time in the Word before we left. In the Word the Lord said, I will make a way in the wilderness, streams in the desert. Do you know that scripture? It came to me in such a very interesting way that I wondered why I needed to know that He was going to make a way in the wilderness. So, we got in a car and were heading up to Yosemite when the rear axle on the car broke and the person with me absolutely fell apart. I said, “No, we should not do this, because earlier God spoke to me that He was going to make a way in the wilderness, and that is where we are.”

What He did through that one incident was not only to make a way for us in the wilderness, (which was before we all had cell phones so He really had to make a way for that) but He did it and two people got saved. It was amazing, all the things that transpired. I will not go through this entire story, although it is like the crème de la crème of stories and is so awesome, but a little lengthy.

To be continued next week

In His Amazing Love,

Nita Johnson

 

 

 

“How to Walk With God”

Session Eight, Part B

By Nita Johnson

NOLA Revival Services July, 2011

 

Several months prior to the trip into the mountains where the rear axle on the car broke, I had done someone a nice favor.  One day as I was inside a Christian bookstore, the Bible House of Jesus, looking intently for something, a girl who worked there went over to a picture hidden in between two display cases. (Now I did not know this girl or about her life, but it turned out that she was kind of running from the Lord.)  She pulled out the picture and said, “Would you like to buy this for the person you are shopping for?” I said, “How did you know that picture was there?” She replied, “Well, I have just wanted it for a long time but cannot afford it, so I just keep hiding it here until I get the money to buy it.” So I said, “Here, let me buy it for you, I would like to do that.” She replied, “What? No, I cannot let you to do that.” And I said, “But the Lord does, and He wants you to have that picture so let me buy it for you.”

Long story short, this sweet girl actually thought I was an angel. It was so cute because back then I wore makeup and she still thought I was an angel. So later, when I was up in the mountains and we were trying to get someone to come up and tow the car with the broken axel, I called the operator for assistance. (Remember, this was before we had cell phones.)  Guess who the operator was? It was her, the girl from the bookstore! What are the chances that is going to happen? How many operators must there be in California? And she could tell by the sound of my voice who I was.

She said, “Are you by chance that lady that bought someone a picture so many months before?” And I said, “How would you know about that?” She said, “I am her!” Can you imagine this? I said, “This is amazing!” (You know, you do not want to tell this story too often because it sounds too unbelievable, but it really is true.)

I asked her what she was up to and she said, “You would not believe it, did you know that I was running from God when I met you in the store?” I said, “No! You wanted that picture of Jesus so badly.” She said, “I know, but I was running from God and I thought you were an angel! I really did until just now, when I realized an angel would not be calling on the phone. When you bought me that picture, I went outside, got in my car, cried and gave myself back to Jesus. I enrolled in college and also started a Bible study in my home and we have a lot of people that attend it now who are all college students.” So I told her, “You are a marvel” and she said, “No, you are a marvel!”

I had to find this out about her when we were up in Yosemite after our car broke down. So, God did more than making a way in the wilderness—He also made streams in the desert. The Word is our comfort right? I did not have time to get upset, frustrated or afraid. The minute that happened, the scripture came back to me and I knew we were now engaged in God’s opportunity. That is what reading His Word is supposed to be to us–spending time in His Word so He can talk to us.

Jesus will talk to you if you will spend time in His Word—I promise. And the more time you spend in His Word, the more time you hunger to spend in His Word. Is that not true? It is like prayer. The more time you spend in prayer, the more you hunger to spend more time in prayer until He begins to consume you with prayer and it begins to consume your mind with the Word.

Why is that important? By it you shall live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess. Deut. 32:47b (Amplified).  Is your hope of possession to own a new house, car or a job? No! You are hungry to possess the land and the land is union with Christ. How? You do so by living by His Word. This is such an important facet of the journey. How can you follow Him if you do not know who He is and what He is like or how He thinks and feels?

 

When I was managing a real estate office, we had one of the largest Red Carpet offices in the country so I managed a lot of sales people. I would train sales people and tell them, “If you want to be successful, one of the things you can do is find someone very successful and model your career after them. This will help you.” When I got saved and was called into the ministry, I realized that that principle was right and if I wanted to be a great Christian, I needed to draw really close to Jesus, to master and learn His ways and make them my ways. I found that it was not easy.

The Bible says His ways and thoughts are way above ours, so it is not an easy process and because of that, you need to spend a lot of time in the Word. I would not even go to the grocery store without the Bible in my hand. Everywhere I went, the Bible had to go because I was so hungry for it that I would stop in the middle of the road, pull over and read from the Bible. I could not stand to be out of it for more than 15-20 minutes at a time. I loved His Word and wanted so badly to learn and understand Him, to figure out what I have to change to walk with Him.

I went through a few trials—have you been through any since getting saved? Through those trials I found that there is no better book in the Bible than Proverbs, because it teaches you about people. You understand the kind of people to draw close to and the kind to stay away from and why. It also teaches you what it means to walk with God.

I was always a seeker of knowledge before I got saved. All my life I craved knowledge. Even in the earlier years of elementary school I would go to the library and check out at least three large books a week and read them. I loved to read and I loved knowledge. As I got older—teenage years and adult years—it continued. I had such a quest for knowledge, but I found in Proverbs that the ideal was to crave wisdom, understanding and prudence. Before Proverbs, I did not even know what prudence was. How do you crave something when you do not even know what it is? I had never heard the word before, but after Proverbs, I craved prudence. Now I craved knowledge of not just anything, but knowledge of God, and it was Proverbs that taught me those things along with the intellectual fear of God.

To be continued next week

In His Amazing Love,

Nita Johnson

 

 

 

“How to Walk With God”

Session Eight, Part C

By Nita Johnson

NOLA Revival Services July, 2011

 

You can learn to walk with God. You need wisdom to walk with God.  You cannot walk with Him without divine wisdom—it is not possible. You cannot live with Him without divine understanding. Again, it is not enough to have an intellectual knowledge about God. You must come into a place where you are experiencing an understanding that is filling your soul about His ways. When you understand His ways, you will not get angry every time something does not go your way. When you understand His ways, you will begin to realize that He might be jostling your ways to teach you His ways.

See? You probably thought Proverbs was just a boring book, but it is not. It is one of the most vital books in the Bible. I spent years in Proverbs. It will help you get through any trial. It gives you so much information about how to walk with God. What does the book of Proverbs say? It says to search for wisdom as for hidden treasures. You need to open it up and dig it out. Dig out the wisdom, the knowledge, understanding and prudence of God. As you are digging, God is doing a work in you to help you receive it.

I love to read the writings of the Jewish sages. You can read the writings and I am telling you, I do not think I have read a theological commentary ever that has the depth of the understanding of God as these Jewish sages who are not even saved, because they meditate on the Word and the gift has been given to them. The gift is given to the Jewish people to be bearers of the precepts of the Lord. So even though the Spirit of God is not in them, He is around them and trying to lead them into His way.  They are still blind in respect to the Messiah, but when they are meditating on the Word hour after hour each day and that gift becomes operative, it teaches them. They just have not been able to step far enough over to realize that Jesus is our Messiah. So, does that make you a little nervous?

When Jesus finally appeared Paul, how did he recognize Him? He recognized Him by the Word that he had been studying—Paul was a trail blazer. The Greek depicts him as a pioneer of his day of the study of the scriptures. He understood so much that when the Lord appeared to him and he laid blind for three days and nights, his heart was bursting with truth. He laid there and truth was just bursting out of the inner parts of his heart as he was comparing scripture with scripture. Though he was unable to read, in his mind he understood the scripture and realized that the Kingdom was different than he had thought.

So then what? He has to go out to the desert because he does not want to be taught by man. He spent all those years at the feet of Gamaliel. He knew how to study the scripture, meditate on it and how to find out every wonderful detail about Messiah. It is a marvel to read. You just want to jump all over some of the words of the Jewish sages. I have experienced the deepest revelation in certain scriptures and when I look into the books by the Jewish sages, sometimes they just do not get it, but when they do, it is like drinking sweet wine—it is so rich. If they can do it, we all can do it.

One of the things that happened to my granddaughter at a very young age were several visitations from the Lord where she was taken to heaven. Somewhere within the midst of all that, it created a hunger for the Word in her. She was reading by the age of four. By the time she was six and seven years old she would read the Bible through every year—I tell you the truth.

One night, Jesus came to her. He climbed into a little area right near her window and knelt down at the head of her bed right next to her. He whispered in her ear and she woke up, looked at Him and surprisingly said, “Jesus.” He whispered to her and said, “I came because I wanted to tell you how proud I am of you because you read the Bible every day. The Bible is My Word and you read it every day and I want you to know how proud I am of you because of that and I want to take you on a trip.”

So He took her to heaven. There were two angels in the room and He came down in a great big basket attached to a hot air balloon and the angels were standing guard over the basket. Remember, he was talking to a child, He said, “I want to take you on a ride. Would you go in My basket with Me?” And she said, “Yes Jesus, I would like that.” So He helped her into the basket and took her to heaven.

The reason I tell you this story is because of this next part. While they were in heaven, He asked her, “May I have your Bible?” (She had taken it up there with her.) She handed it to Him and He said, “I would like to teach you out of the book of Ruth. I want to help you understand why the book of Ruth is in the Bible.” He sat down and taught her the book of Ruth.

After that He took her and showed her some things in heaven then brought her back. He laid her back down in bed and said, “Before I leave I want to tell you one more thing. I am noticing that you are watching a lot of Bible videos and I want you to know that I am so glad you are doing that, because you are filling your heart with My Words by reading it and watching it on children’s videos and I am going to reward you for that.” And then He left.

When she told me this story I asked her, “So what did Jesus tell you about the book of Ruth?” She said, “Grandma, it is in my heart until I need it.”  She was about six years old. God wants us to love His Word. Look what He did for that little six year old who loved His Word enough to spend time in it every day so she could read through it in a year, which was not necessarily the goal—she just wanted to read the Bible and it worked itself out.

If God can build that kind of hunger in a child, how much more should He be able to build it in you and me? We need it more than she did. We need to be eating the meat that causes our spirit to become strong. Someone might say, “I have problems.  I am trying to overcome some stuff and I cannot, and I keep fighting and battling.” Have you gone through that?

Then I would ask, “How much time do you spend in the Word?”  “Uh, well, I am awful busy.” “Well, how much time do you spend in the Word—10, 15 minutes a day?” “Uh, well I have a lot to do.” “How much time do you spend in the Word?” “Well, I do take it to church.” Then I tell them that is why you are not overcoming—you are not spending enough time in the Word.

You do not know that it is strengthening you, but it is.

To be continued next week

In His Amazing Love,

Nita Johnson

 

 

 

“How to Walk With God”

Session Eight, Part D

By Nita Johnson

NOLA Revival Services July, 2011

 

Do you remember that story I told you about the little boy that was taking the bucket with holes in it to and from the water? You may not think the Word is doing anything for you and that you do not understand what you are reading, but if you are reading it, it is cleansing you of the things that keep you from Jesus—the things of the world. It is healing your soul and preparing your soul to submit to your spirit. It heals your spirit and strengthens your spirit man. It is a great way to learn that it is not about you, it is about God and Jesus in everything and in every way.

One time I was in prayer with my dear friend Bonnie and during this prayer time, the Lord took me up to heaven and showed me certain things in heaven. When we were finished with my tour He said, “I want to show you something for Bonnie and I want you to tell her what you see.” He took me to this room where Bonnie was sitting. He left me, walked over and said, “Good morning Bonnie. I brought you here so I could teach you My Word.” Bonnie was so excited and asked, “Lord what are you going to teach me? He said: I am going to teach you today and a lot in the days ahead, so we are going to start…Then He told her where and taught her. I stood in the door way watching Him teach Bonnie from His Word. When He was finished, He came back to me and said: I want you to tell Bonnie that this is what I have in store for her—a personal tutoring time for her with me to learn My Word, if she will press in.
Go wants to be our teacher and make these scriptures life to us. I love this. And He said to them:

 

(Amplified) Deuteronomy 32:

46 He said to them, Set your [minds and] hearts on all the words which I command you this day, that you may command them to your children, that they may be watchful to do all the words of this law. 47 For it is not an empty and worthless trifle for you; it is your [very] life. By it you shall live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess.

 

 

Now, can we be honest with each other? If you do not have a divine love for the Word of God, deep in your heart, you really wonder about its value. At times it even probably seems empty to you. It almost seems like a trifle to you. What value is it anyway? What does it have to do with my life today?

 

But (Amplified) Deut 32:

47 For it is not an empty and worthless trifle for you; it is your [very] life. By it you shall live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess.

 

What is your life? The Word. Is it bread or meat? It is the Word. Is it having a house to live in or a reputation? It is the Word. We have it all wrong. It is not about getting information from your computer on this or that—things not in the world. It is the Word. That is your life and it must become your life. How do I do this Jesus? It is in My Word, search it out. How do I become more like you Jesus? It is in My Word, search it out. How do I figure out this and that? It is in My Word, search it out.

When the angel of the Lord spoke to me about these days twenty years ago, he said they would be treacherous. These words were not spoken by a human being who does not like to suffer. The word treacherous was used by an angelic ambassador and I can promise you that they only say what the Father says they can say. When we are in a treacherous time and the days become so, do you think you will know how to maneuver your way through that easily? I can promise you that you will not know how. It is going to be different than anything an American has ever known before.

If you were in New Orleans before Katrina, did you ever think that: I wonder what the Lord says about this? Or, I wonder what the Word says: How would you survive after this? If so, then shame on you. It is no empty trifle, it is your life and when Katrina hit, all the answers you needed to make it through in strength is right here. The answers to direct your path and your feet, to be made into the image of God through great hardships; it is right here and you did not even think about it. What we have got to come to as a Christian is realizing that God has put one of the most vital tools of the kingdom in our hand.

Now, let me tell you something else. This is coming straight from the throne of God, I saw it in a vision—the kingdom of God is going to be revealed in such a way as never before in the history of man. It will be unprecedented and if your life is not this Word then you are not going to know, understand, recognize or know how to walk in it when it comes. He has not been able to prepare you for its arrival, so that you are going to be strong enough to walk in it.

There was a time when the earth was filled with Baptist theology and that is exactly what the world was ready for. Please understand that this is nothing against the Baptist, , it is just a superficial understanding of the Word and that is what the world was ready for at the time, but in the days ahead what you will need due to the many problems, perplexities and coming of the glorious kingdom is much deeper. You are going to need a spiritual strength that can only happen through life in the Word and if you are not spending time in the Word, asking the spirit of the Lord to make the Word life and real to you, imparting it into your heart, spirit, soul and mind then you may not receive it. When the kingdom comes and difficulties come you are not going to be strong enough to endure them and you will not be strong enough to endure it.

It takes great spiritual strength to live in the higher trues. Jesus did not walk with the Father the way He did because He was not versed in the Word. He was the Word but He was also versed in the Word. He had great spiritual stature when he was very young because of His life in the Word. When the world was tugging at Him the walk to the right He remained true to the Father, because even at the age of eight He knew more about the Word and the Father.

I asked Him one time: How is it that You were able to walk with the Father without sin? How were you able to walk with Him in the depth that You did at such a young age? He said to me: Because I knew the principles that I shared in Matthew 5,6, 7 and I knew them to the depths of my soul and because I knew these things about the Father, I was able to walk with Him. The strength I needed to walk with Him and not with the world was with Me.

Jesus is walking and the world is trying to pull Him into a completely different direction, but because of His knowledge of the Word, Father and kingdom, He had the strength not to be pulled but to go the way of God. He never had to say: Why did I do this or that, because the Word was life to Him. What does this say?

 

(Amplified) Deut 32:

47 For it is not an empty and worthless trifle for you; it is your [very] life. By it you shall live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess.

 

The Word does not become life to you overnight; it takes time, prayer and fasting. Pleading with God to develop that love and intimacy with the Word and the more you find yourself clinging to the Word, the stronger you will become to walk with God. You will then be strong enough to bear the problems in the ways ahead and coming release of the kingdom at a much higher level than we have ever known,.

I was in Bend, Oregon, ministering and all day long every day I would sit at the foot of the bed worshipping the Lord in prayer. Even though it is so beautiful that whenever you go, you just want to go out and see the nature I did not go anywhere because that is not my way. When I go to Niagara Falls to minister, I do not go out and look at the falls, I stay in my room and pray. I am not here to see the world, I am here to see God and this is what I did. When I was not in the pulpit, I was in prayer. One particular day I am getting ready to leave because the services are over and it is time to go to the airport. I am now sitting in a chair by the wall telling the Lord: Thank You for the week You have given me, You have been so wonderful and precious Lord. It has been so awesome to be in Your presence like this all week long. Thank You so much Lord. And He says to me: I have so many things that I want to show you, but you are not yet strong enough to bare it. I cried, but it was also a beautiful lesson, that you must have spiritual strength only He can give in order to drink of the higher trues.

Someone said to me once: Teach me and mentor me, I will learn really fast; six months or a year. I said: You cannot do that, it is not possible. They replied: Yes it is, I will just try very hard. Their heart was so innocent, zealous and desiring and I said: You know, it has taken me X amount of years to get here; you do not get here in a year. They said: Yeah, but I will because I will try very hard. I said: I am not going to do that because you cannot bear what you are asking for; do you understand what I am saying? Your spirit cannot handle it and neither can your soul. You cannot bare it; it is like giving a baby who can only drink milk prime rib. It does not even know how to chew and it has no teeth. Even if it could eat it, its little system could not digest it, which is true of the Word. It takes time to build your spirit and soul up to endure truth. Is that not incredible?

 

(Amplified) Deut 32:

47 For it is not an empty and worthless trifle for you; it is your [very] life. By it you shall live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess.

 

If you want to walk with Jesus then you have got to be a Word person and I do not mean just claiming it. You have to love it and it has to become your life, amen? How wonderful it is to know how the Lord thinks and that He is directing correcting, calling and remaking you.

In His Amazing Love,

Nita Johnson