Spiritually speaking, are you walking toward heaven or away from heaven? Some would answer that question by simply saying, “I don’t know.” However, we should all know where we are heading spiritually. Do you go outside and just start walking without any idea of where you are heading? Not too many people walk aimlessly without any destination in mind. Generally speaking, when we walk, we head for a specific place, and we pretty much know how we are going to get there before we leave. Such should be the case with our spiritual walk. Our destination should be heaven, and we should know how we are going to get there.
How do we walk towards heaven? The Bible tells us. Let’s look at what the New Testament says about walking.
We must walk in the newness of life
Romans 6:4 (ESV)
“4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
When we obeyed the gospel of Christ, we became new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). How did we become new creatures? By having our sins removed by the blood of Christ. We were given a new beginning. Our slate was wiped clean, and the old man was crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20; 5:24). We must now continue in this new state of righteousness by striving every day to live according to the gospel of Christ.
We walk in the newness of life by living a life of obedience to God. We used to walk in sin, whether we realized it or not, but now we have a new life, having been set free from sin. Just like Christ experienced a new life when He was raised from the dead, we must demonstrate a new life now that we have been raised from being dead in sin.
To walk in the newness of life does not mean that we never sin. We all sin from time to time (1 John 1:8-10). It means that we refrain from living in an ongoing state of sin. If we are walking in the newness of life, when we sin, we repent of it, confess it to God, and continue to do our best to abstain from sin. If we live that kind of life, we are walking toward heaven. If we get caught in the web of sin and stay stuck in it, we are no longer walking in the newness of life and making progress toward heaven. Let us examine ourselves and make sure that we are walking in the newness of life.
We must walk by faith
2 Corinthians 5:7
“7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). It is faith in Jesus that gives us victory over the world.
1 John 5:4–5 (ESV)
4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
No wonder Paul tells us to walk by faith. How do we walk by faith? The Bible tells us that faith comes by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). The more we listen to God’s Word, the more faith we will have. This is why studying the Bible is a good idea. One cannot walk by faith if he does not have very much of it.
Walking by faith implies something more than just having mental assent. It involves a demonstration of confidence in God and His Son by living by the instructions revealed by the Spirit. To walk by faith is essentially the same thing as walking after the Spirit, which we are also admonished to do (Romans 8:1, 4). The Spirit is not a physical Being that we can follow around. We walk after the Spirit when we make application of His instructions to our lives, which in turn demonstrates our faith in God. The faith we must walk in is an obedient faith, and it is the only kind of faith that saves (James 2:14-26). This obedient walk leads us closer to God and closer to heaven. Those who walk by faith are heading in the right direction.
Walking by faith means trusting God and His Word, even when things seem impossible. When God promised Abraham that He would make him a father of many nations (even though he was an older man at the time of the promise), the Bible says that Abraham “…staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith giving glory to God” (Romans 4:20). Abraham walked by faith as opposed to walking by sight. He could not see how God would work out His promise, but he trusted Him to do it anyway. This is what faith is all about. It is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). It is by faith that we are sure that God is real. It is by faith that we look for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Hebrew 11:10). As Christians, we do not have to see everything with our physical eyes, for we walk by faith, not by sight and in doing so we are walking toward heaven.
We must walk in love
Ephesians 5:2 (ESV)
“And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.”
Jesus has taught us what love is all about. Love involves sacrificing for other people. To love others is to put them and their well-being before our own. Never was this done to such a great extent than when Jesus tasted death on the cross for us. Paul tells us that we should walk in this same kind of love. Love demands that we put others before ourselves and act in their best interest.
Philippians 2:3–4 (ESV)
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Love demands that we not only have good intentions but that we act on those intentions, helping others who are in need.
1 John 3:18 (ESV)
18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
This is one of the most difficult areas of being a Christian. We live in a society that trains us to put ourselves before everyone else. However, that is not the way of Christ or our heavenly Father. God was thinking about others when He sent His Son to become the sacrificial lamb for our sins. Jesus was thinking of others before Himself when he allowed the reproaches of man to fall upon Him (Romans 15:3). God has demonstrated what true love is, and now He says we must emulate that love. It is not enough to demonstrate an occasional act of love; love must be a permanent part of our character. We must walk in love if we want to draw closer to God and make heaven our eternal home.
How are you walking? In what direction are you going? Remember, the wise man once said, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Proverbs 14:12). Let us make sure the way we are walking is taking us toward heaven.