2

Enoch and Elijah

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours… (James 5:17a).

Enoch and Elijah were two prophets, people with natures

like ours, that never tasted death but by faith they were
taken away so that they did not see death. They were not
found among the sons of men, because God had taken
them. Before Enoch was taken, and I believe also Elijah, he
had this testimony, that he pleased God. This was a
testimony of sonship. This was the same testimony that
Jesus had received when John baptized Him and the
Father declared Him Son with a testimony that the Father
was well pleased with Him. Only after they have received
these testimonies, that they were pleasing to God, they
were taken to heaven. First came God’s testimony
concerning them that they were pleasing Him then came
the glorification of their bodies with the glory which Jesus
had before the world was created. The only other person,
besides Enoch and Elijah whose bodies never saw
corruption and was taken to heaven in bodily form was
Jesus after His resurrection from the dead (Acts 1:9).

Christ was foreordained since the foundation of the earth

to be sacrificed as a ransom for many and He was also
made the firstborn Son of many brothers to follow. Enoch
and Elijah conformed to the sonship of Christ before His
manifestation in the flesh as His provision was established
in the Spirit since the foundation of the earth (Revelation
13:8; Peter 1:20). Christ’s sacrifice was no afterthought, not
something God decided as a result of Adam’s
transgression.
In the beginning God created all things, in Him, one with
Him and in total harmony with Him and with all that is
His. In Him, Adam lived and moved and had his being
because he was in Him, one with Him. God made Adam
head of Eve and all the earth from which he was taken. He
gave him authority to rule over his domain or anointed
area, which was the Garden of Eden. He needed no
testimony that he was pleasing to God because he was
created to bring God joy and fulfillment. Adam was God’s
joy and fulfillment, His beloved son in whom He was well
pleased.

The transgression of Adam placed man outside of God’s

inside, which caused separation from Him resulting in
man’s death, as he was a branch severed from the Vine. Sin
separated man from the joyful and peaceful atmosphere of
God’s presence inside of Him and threw him into a broken
universe covered with a cloud of doubt and fear. Since
that time man had to present God with blood sacrifices for
the atonement of sin. Men also began to call on the name of
the Lord in prayer to seek His favor. For the first time men,
through faith, had to breakthrough the cloud of doubt and
fear to please God. Without faith it is impossible to please
Him. For the first time, apart from love, faith and hope
came into play to have a relationship with God. Fallen man
had to present him to the Lord in faith as if he was perfect,
in Him and one with Him, in hope for the redemption of
the whole man. Faith changes things in the books of God.
Though you may not have attained to the resurrection
from the dead and is not made perfect, faith is the
substance of hope to attain to resurrection life and
perfection. When God looks at man He sees man as he
thinks in his heart he is, for so He sees him (Proverbs 23:7).
Moreover, what you think in your heart, good or evil, you
have already committed (Matthew 5:28). This is the

2
righteousness of God through faith. Enoch (without the
law) and Elijah (under the law) are living proof that since
the transgression man could attain to resurrection life and
perfection if he or she believed God for it.

Adam was 687 years when Enoch was born. Enoch was 243
years old when Adam died at the age of 930 years (Genesis
5). Enoch must have learned first hand from Adam what
he had in the garden and then lost it through his foolish
arrogance. Enoch yearned for the Father-son relationship
Adam had with God and also to walk with Him in the
garden as Adam did. Through faith he discovered the
fountain of Life, the source of Light, the epitome of Truth,
which is the Creator of heaven and earth. He walked with
God and He began to teach him like He did Adam. Enoch
was a preacher of righteousness emphasizing that men
should watch over their souls; hold on to the fear of the
Lord and service to Him, and to serve Him in
righteousness, innocence and justice in humility and
purity. He also prophesied of the mighty ones who are
soon to be released on the earth (Jude 14). He believed God
so much he began to experience the joy and strength that
man knew before the fall. He started to live in the
penetrating light of God that filled all the earth but cannot
be confined in anyplace or anything or by anyone. Life
became so great in him that he would have still remain on
earth if God had not taken him to dwell with Him in
heaven. He was too full of life to die, so God took him
bodily into heaven so that he did not see death and could
not be found among the sons of men. Before God took him
he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Without faith it
is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:5-6).

Many years after Enoch, God established a covenant of

works with His people, the nation of Israel. The terms of

3
the covenant of the Law were that if the Israelites kept the
covenant they would be a special treasure to God above all
people and they shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy
nation to Him. If they diligently obey the voice of the Lord
to observe all His commandments the Lord will set them
high above all the nations of the earth and all His blessings
shall come upon them and overtake them. If they violated
the covenant, they would be cursed (Deuteronomy 28). The
obligation was with man to keep the covenant. Because the
law is spiritual and perfect the righteous requirement of
the law could only be fulfilled in those who do not walk
according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans
8:4). Through the flesh (power and might) the righteous
requirements of the Law could never have been fulfilled
but only through faith. Faith is the doorway to the Spirit
where God dwells. The covenant of works utterly failed
because it could never be fulfilled in the flesh. To be
outside of God’s inside (His body) is death for you can do
nothing without Christ in you the hope of glory. The
excellence of the power is from God and not man.

Elijah, the Tishbite, a mighty prophet of God, which lived

in times when wicked kings ruled Judah and Israel, had a
different spirit in him and he followed God fully. Through
faith he fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law. He
had the testimony that he constantly stood before the Lord,
which is to live in His presence (1 Kings 17:1). He lived his
life above the cloud of doubt and fear by positioning
himself in the presence of God, which is in the realm of the
Spirit. The presence of God is where the Spirit of God
prevails, where the burden of suffering and shame of
imperfect flesh is broken. It is where the glory of the
character and power of Christ was revealed in him (1 Peter
1:11). He was uncompromising in his spirit yet saturated
with joy and love of the Spirit of God in him. Elijah was a

4
man with a nature like ours. When he succumbed to the
flesh, where doubt and fear rule, he fled for his life before
Jezebel and prayed the Lord to take his life. The Lord
asked Elijah what he was doing in the cave (past) spending
the night (bad times) in that place (thinking about the bad
of the past). He was meditating on how Jezebel was killing
the prophets of God in the past and that she was busy to
hunt him down. He was supposed to be positioned in the
place of his anointing (his garden), the presence of God.
After that episode he walked with God and he obtained
the testimony that in his walk with God his fire never
dimmed. Then God took him. Elijah was a prophet of fire.

Enoch, which is a picture of the Lamb of God, and Elijah

that came in the spirit of the Lion of Judah are the
witnesses that God was blameless in His dealings with
man before and during Old Testament times to conform to
the glorious image of His Son. His Son was revealed from
the foundation of the earth (Revelation 13:8).

God eventually took away the first covenant, the ministry

of condemnation that He might establish the second, the
ministry of righteousness. It was brought in much greater
glory, even in the glory of His Son. We are completed in
Christ, yet God predestined the heirs of salvation to be
conformed to the image of His Son, indicating a growing
process. Through suffering on the cross the Lord Jesus
Christ completed the work necessary for our salvation and
sonship. There is nothing more to be done from the Lord’s
side to complete our perfection. We only need to grow, like
newborn babes, in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in
maturity into the full measure of the stature of the Son of
God. Spiritual growth is the same as natural growth; you
are born a baby then started to mature toward adulthood.

5
When you are reading the word of God, praying or waiting
on the Lord you should only drink living water, enjoying
God. You should not be concerned about not bearing fruit
out of season because your relationship with Him is a
natural process of growth. If you abide in the Vine you will
bear fruit in the time of your season.

Though Enoch and Elijah seem to be the ultimate examples

to attain to resurrection life and to be made perfect it is
Jesus who is the plumb line. He is our vision and the
pattern that points the way toward sonship. To study the
life of the pattern Son is to interpret the prophecy
concerning our lives. Why? He is the first among many
brethren and the sons to follow will have to follow along
the same way that He has paved. There are three major
phases in Jesus’ live that needs to be studied to follow the
course of events that will follow our lives. These are His
birth and maturing process, His baptism and Sonship and
His glorification on the cross. In this chapter we will only
consider the first phase.

Jesus’ natural birth placed Him in the kingdom of God for

His own Spirit is the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9). Though
Jesus is God He came into this world, as one of us, a mortal
being yet without sin. Coming as a perfect man into the
world He said He could do nothing of Himself but
confessed His utter dependence on His Father. The Father
who sent Him was in Him and He in the Father so that the
excellence of the glory and power was from God in Him.
Though Herod sought to destroy Him, He survived the
onslaught on His life and kept Himself busy with the
things of God, His Father’s business. In this He grew up
and become strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the
grace of God was upon Him. He increased in wisdom and
stature, and in favor with God and man.

6
The parallel to the birth of Jesus is to be born again. If
anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His
(Romans 8:9). You cannot see the kingdom of God unless
you are born again. If you believe in God and in His Son,
Jesus Christ, God will place you in His Son and you will be
delivered from your sin and guilt and you will be justified
in His sight. You will be joined to the Lord Jesus Christ and
become one Spirit with Him. It is not a mixture of your
spirit with His but you become one spirit with the Spirit of
Christ. A mixture of spirits means a mixture of your fleshly
glory with the divine glory of Jesus Christ. God shares His
glory with no man. One spirit with Him means there is
only one glory, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Father has given us only one glory, Christ in us the hope
of glory. This glory is the image of His Son, the only image
He gave us to grow into by faith.

If you are born again you are in Him (in His body) and He
is in you (one Spirit with you) so that the excellence of the
power and glory is from Him who lives in you. You relate
to God with your spirit because it is that part of your being
which is alive to Him and one Spirit with Christ. The
kingdom of God is all about relationships. It implies that
you should have an intimate relationship with God, to
manifest His mercy and grace to your neighbor and to love
and respect the earth. Relationships that are not in Christ
are dead because it is severed from the Vine. Many will say
to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your
name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders
in Your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew
you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matthew
7:22-23). Works outside of God is from the flesh, which
counts for nothing. It is Christ’s relationship that you share
with Him that minister love, trust and fulfillment to God.

7
Love and trust do not develop outside of a relationship.
The bottom line is whether He knows you and whether
you know Him. It is all about the substance of love you
have become in Christ, to God.

It is what you have become in oneness with Him, to Him

and what He is to you that matter. Not everyone who says to
Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who
does the will of My Father in heaven (Matthew 7:21). The will
of God does not consist of do and don’ts but it is a state of
your spirit (faith) that causes the anointing to flow. Faith is
a state of your spirit. God has called you into sonship,
which means to live and relate to God with that part of you
which is alive to Him and one with Christ, so that Christ
may be revealed in your whole being. If you are a son of
God you are to be led by the Spirit of God. Naturally this is
a gradual growing process. This is to allow God to be your
Father and you to be a son to Him. Sonship is a full or
mature revelation of the Son in you. The question is what
you have become to God or will He not recognize you. The
Father wants you to be a son and a worshipper to Him.
The Son wants you to be brother and friend to Him, as He
is one with you, in you, and desires to be made manifested
in you. The Holy Spirit wants to be your friend, comforter
and leader and to guide you into all truth, which is Christ.

Your faith-love relationship in oneness with Christ is the

substance that ministers love, trust and fulfillment toward
God and all that is His. Acts without a relationship toward
God is hypocrisy, acting or stage-play even if your
intentions are good because it is without Spirit and life and
thus without fulfillment, which is joy, peace and delight in
the Holy Spirit. That was why Jesus called the Pharisees
hypocrites. The word hypocrite in the Greek means actor
or stage-player. They were performers without having a

8
relationship with God. Acting is works or performance
without a relationship. Remind you of a harlot, doesn’t it?

Man can only relate to God through faith, hope and love in
His word. As we live no longer but Christ lives in us, it is
His faith, hope and love in operation. Our ability, which
flows forth from that part in us that is dead to God, which
is our flesh, cannot please Him. That which is dead to God
indicates a separation and independence from Him, which
is of necessity death. The flesh is the tree of the knowledge
of good (law or legalism) and evil (lawlessness). Good is
better than evil but it is still death. It is one thing to have
knowledge about the goodness of God but another thing to
know God as Good through a deep relationship with Him.
I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes
see you. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes
(Job 42:5-6). Knowledge of good and evil puffs up,
produces the fruit of arrogance and renders you vulnerable
to the ignorance of futility and bareness. Faith, hope and
love edify and yield the fruit of righteousness, humility
and wisdom, and harvest joy and fulfillment in God.

The first divine grace in a relationship with God is faith.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is the substance of
your world or reality that you live in, which is based on the
word of God. So faith is based on hope, which is filled with
divine vision or revelation. The difference between hope
and fantasy is that hope is based on the word of God and
fantasy on the futile imagination of man’s heart. Hope is a
constant focus on God that believes with great expectation
He will bring to pass the vision of His Word which He has
burned into your heart about His will for your life. Faith is
to convert the promise, vision or revelation into substance
by living your expectation right now as if it is fulfilled

9
though you cannot see its fulfillment. Expressing faith is
the evidence or proof of the unseen hope, revelation or
vision. Without divine vision, revelation or hope people
perishes. Hopelessness is void of faith, which is sin.
Without faith you cannot please God.

We cannot live by feelings but by faith. Faith is life in the

Spirit but feelings belong to the realm of soul, which is sin
and death. Man experiences feelings all the time. Impulses
flow from his internal and external environments making
impressions in his body, emotions, thoughts, memories
and spirit. Most of it comes from the twisted heart of
carnal flesh pumping his doubts, fears and lusts into an
already broken and polluted atmosphere. Occasionally
some feelings are from heaven. Some feelings are
important, serving as barometers to life systems in your
body, give you guidance or alert you of pending danger,
etc. However, most feelings can be dangerous in your walk
with God because it relates to doubts, fears and lusts. It is
important to train your spirit to ignore or resist some
feelings. For example, if you only want to pray when you
feel like it, you will pray very seldom. When you do not
feel like praying recognize that feeling as a barrier that
needs to be resisted and rejected. What is revealed by the
light is judged by the light. The more you practice it, the
easier it become. This way you will live above the cloud of
doubts and fears. If you feel like praying, thank God for
His grace because mostly you do not feel like praying.
Normally you do not feel like praying because your body
is dead to God because of sin and therefore enmity with
Him. That is why you present your body of death to God
through faith a living sacrifice (as if it is alive to Him) to
serve and worship Him alone. However, it is something
different when your body is exhausted. Then you must
rest. This principle applies to all areas in your life. It is fun

10
to walk by faith. Some say it is hard. I do not deny it but I
believe it depends on how much you hunger after the
reward of the higher calling of God in Christ Jesus. To walk
by faith is a onetime opportunity and privilege in all
eternity that God granted to all men during their stay on
earth. So do not waste your opportunity for it is your one
and only chance to obtain a witness that you please God.
The witness of pleasing God has nothing to do with your
righteousness before God – the sacrifice of Jesus was
sufficient. It is a freewill offering you bring Him because
you love Him. It is to bring Him joy and fulfillment.

The flesh is by nature an unbeliever and is enmity against

God. How do you start out? By faith you present your
mind that is enmity against God a living sacrifice as if it is
alive to God by bringing every thought into captivity to the
obedience of Christ, in hope that all disobedience will be
punished when your obedience is fulfilled. You do it by
meditating only on things that are true, noble, just, pure,
lovely, of good report, virtues and praiseworthy that you
may be renewed in the spirit of your mind. The focus of
your heart is not on you growing up into sonship but on
Him being glorified in you. Growing up in Him will
automatically be taken care of as you pursue Christ. Which
of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? (Matthew
6:27). Revelation is never complete unless you see God
exalted in His works and ways or where He is revealed as
wisdom in any issue of concern. For you to live is Christ.

Through faith you present your dead body as being alive

from the dead and the members of your body though
dead, as instruments of righteousness to God. Therefore,
by faith you should live your life on earth as if you are in
heaven.

11
Paul reached into Christ through faith that he may know
Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship
of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any
means He may attain to the resurrection from the dead
(Philippians 3:9-11). Life is not seated in formulae or some
steps of conformation but in knowing Christ, which
emphasizes the relationship. Eternal life in spirit, soul and
body is in knowing God and Jesus Christ whom He has
sent. In knowing Him, the fountain of life, Paul pressed on
to conform to His death and resurrection in hope that he
may attain to the resurrection from the dead. He presented
that which was dead to God as if his whole man was alive
to Him. Not that he has attained or was already made
perfect, but in faith he pressed on as if he has attained and
was made perfect. He laid hold of Christ in the same
manner as Christ has laid hold of him.

With this quality of faith Enoch and Elijah have not seen
death but received a witness that they were pleasing to
God before they were taken. Their faith demanded that in
their world of reality they were alive to God, spirit, soul
and body and in their world the spirit and natural realms
have become one. Their faith brought substance to a world
where heaven and earth is united in the one world of
Christ. In their world the will of God has being done on
earth as it is in heaven. As far as they were concerned the
New Jerusalem has come down and heaven and earth has
become one. They had so much life in them that God had
to take them.

The second grace of the Spirit is hope. True hope is a

steadfast focus on the Lord with an expectation that He
will fulfill the vision or revelation of His promises
according to the will of God for your life. Hope is an
expression of trust in God’s goodness and faithfulness. It is

12
waiting with confidence and patience for the fulfillment of
God’s promise in the future. In the Spirit there is no time
barriers. When Enoch and Elijah, by revelation, saw the
end from the beginning they immediately start walking in
that hope by faith as if they have attained to resurrection
life and perfection. In God’s books faith is the substance of
His promises even if you have not received it. It will be
accounted to you as if you have received it, which is the
evidence of unseen realities. This is the type of faith that
the Enoch-generation, the mighty ones to come, will
manifest. The Enoch-generation will always regard the end
from the beginning as the present.

The greatest of all graces is love. If you love God, He

knows you. Love is the anointed substance of joy and
fulfillment you have become to Him through faith and
what He is to you in your relationship with Him. It is the
relationship that brings fulfillment. The relationship of the
Holy Trinity with each other is one of fulfillment. The
evidence of a deep relationship with God is fulfillment,
which is joy, peace and delight. You find fulfillment in God
and God finds fulfillment in you. When I am missing
fulfillment in God, my prayer is always, “God fill the
empty spaces; water the dry places.” Afterward it leaves
you with a greater hunger and thirst after God.

In following Christ you have become all things to all men,

loving them with the love of Christ. To the widow you
have become a husband, to the orphan a father and to the
simple, wisdom. In your relationship to the earth you have
become a steward of excellence to God in Christ Jesus our
Lord. In all these things you find fulfillment in God.

13
14