The year after I had graduated from college, my father decided he’d go back to college. He chose the same school I had attended. One day a friend of mine saw him from a distance on campus and knew it was him “by the way he walked” she said. Evidently, he had a unique way of picking up and putting down his feet. She recognized who he was from a distance by the outward manifestation of his steps.
What does the outward manifestation of your steps, your walk, show about the true identity of who you are? What does your life center around based on the way you conduct (step out) your life?
In Ephesians 4, Paul strongly urges Christians to walk out their life in a way that shows others their life is centered around the acceptance of the invitation they have received from God. This is the passage:
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4:1-3
The urge from Paul is communicating to his listeners that they had been invited to be reconciled with God. They had the opportunity to be at peace with God to conduct their life with Him at their center.
It reminds me of when the Bible says in Genesis, God walked in the Garden. (Genesis 3:8) Because Adam and Eve sinned and were no longer in “agreement” with God, they could not walk with Him, but instead they hid from Him.
It is a known fact as well as documented in the Bible, unless two be agreed, they cannot walk together. When Adam and Eve took of the forbidden fruit, they lost their “agreement” with God. They could no longer walk with Him. They were banished from His presence.
God desired for Adam and Eve and all His creation to walk in agreement with Him. God invited all mankind to be reconciled (come back into agreement) to Him in Genesis 3:15 when he declared he would bruise the head (ruler) of the one who generated the hostility between God and man.
This is the invitation for us to walk in agreement with God – to have a center (axis) that is perfect, complete, and lacking nothing. God sent this invitation by His own word “to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son.” (Hebrews 1:1-2)
God is calling the whole world to hear this invitation. The voice of God has gone out into all the world by the way of His creation. There is not a language that doesn’t hear the glory of God spoken by His creation with invitation for them to be reconciled to Him. (Psalm 19)
For God so loved the world, John 3:16 tells us, that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes (hears & accepts/receives) Him would not perish (fail to walk in agreement) but would have everlasting life (always walk reconciled with God). To the one who believes, God gives the power (ability/might) to be called (invited/reconciled) a child of God (to walk in His likeness/agreement). (John 12:1)
God didn’t send His own Son into the world to condemn or judge the world because that had already been done. Instead, God sent His own Son into the world to show us the rescue plan. He invited us to walk in agreement with His own Son and be saved from destruction. Believing the invitation by hearing and receiving affords the gaining of wholeness/agreement with God also known as peace. (John 3:17-18; Romans 5:10)
It is with this invitation from God we approach Ephesians 4:1-3. This invitation from God determines the way we center our life. It gives resolve to the core of how we live and move and have our being. Our life’s behavior and conduct are displayed based on the degree we cherish the invitation from God. The extent the invitation is heard and received/accepted is the extent we are pursuing peace with God also known as harmony with God.
You display the degree of value you have for the invitation from God to be reconciled to Him by the conduct of your life. Your behavior speaks louder than the scripture verses you have memorized or the prayers you fervently pray or the number of church services you attend. Does identity tell others you are “walking with God”?
When others see you from a distance, do they see who you are “by the way you walk”? Do others recognize God at the core of your being? Do the people who know you well or from a distance perceive God is at the center of everything you do and that your life revolves around Him?
THREE QUESTIONS TO SEARCH OUT FOR YOURSELF
- Are my life systems directed by God’s Word and not my own thoughts or ideas?
- Is the strength of my life focused on God’s power and not my own self achievement?
- Does my stability at the core, in my mind, and the whole of who I am depend on God and the staying-power He provides and not my own fortitude?
Paul teaches we get along with others without falling down because we continue to move with God at the core of our life systems, strength, and stability. We focus on loving God and others. Therefore, no matter what life or others throw at us, we remain steadfast in walking in love with others and being in agreement with all God’s Word has spoken. This keeps us bound to peace with God both now and forever walking in agreement with Him.
In other words, we are always displaying confidence (the ability to stand no matter what others think, say, or do) because we love God as our primary affection and we love others as a secondary affection. We are always wanting to guard the agreement we have received from God in the person of Christ Jesus. It is this agreement with God that enables us to walk in agreement with God. This is our walk of peace based on our alignment with the Word of God.
We walk in close likeness (identity) which produces harmony, displays unity/agreement with God’s Word, and dedication ties us to the principles of God as established in His Word.
Do others recognize your identity as likeness of God by “the way you walk”? If not, repent/turn from all the error of your way (self-life) and allow the core of your life to be in agreement/peace with God. He’s made every provision for you in the person and work of Christ Jesus. Believe His path of reconciling you to Himself and walk in agreement with Him both now and forevermore. Others will begin recognizing who you are just “by the way you walk”.
Written By: Anne Gurley
