Introduction

Hello, everyone. Today, we continue with our series on imitating the great men of faith. This is the second message: Imitating the Great Men of Faith—Enoch. The great man of faith I am sharing about today, Enoch, is recorded in only a few sentences in the Bible. There is very little written about him. Just a few sentences, a brief mention. How do you preach from that? It is difficult. But never mind. We know these few sentences are a highly condensed summary of Enoch’s life. So we shall take them apart, examine them closely, and understand how we may imitate Enoch.

Enoch was an extraordinary man. He walked with God for three hundred years. He did not die; God took him away. How wonderful it would be to imitate such a man! I like to imitate. Some people may say, “Take a good look at yourself. Are you really made of that kind of material?” I know I am not. But is that not precisely what imitation is? Are not all things learned? It was written in the Bible for us to learn from, was it not?

Moses wrote Genesis. How could he possibly have known how long Enoch lived? How could he have known these things? He could not have known. God told him. It is likely that Genesis chapters one through eleven were dictated by God and recorded by Moses. On Mount Sinai, God spoke to Moses for forty days and forty nights, and told him everything from Genesis chapter one to chapter eleven.

How, then, were the accounts after Abraham written? They were passed down orally among the Israelites. Everyone knew Abraham’s story. But the stories from the era before Abraham could hardly have been transmitted orally. It would have been very difficult. So the account of Enoch was written by God! What, then, did God want to tell us? He wanted to tell us one thing: walk with God, and then be taken to God.

My goodness, is that not our dream? God, I too want to imitate Enoch! Can I afford not to imitate Enoch? If, in this life, I cannot be taken to God, my goodness, that would be a great loss! If you can be taken to God, and meanwhile walk with God for three hundred years on earth—well, you may say, “Not three hundred years. Perhaps I can walk with Him for thirty.” Whether three hundred years or thirty years, walking with God is exceedingly good! So today, we shall take this story apart, examine it piece by piece, and receive from it together.

There is one thing in this world that we must understand: the choices we make today will have a profound impact on our future. Let me give you an example. When I was young, suppose I chose to lie flat. If I lay flat from age ten to twenty, what would happen? I would be little better than a useless person. If I lay flat from twenty to thirty, then I would become a thirty-year-old useless person. At that point, he begins to wonder, “Why are others living so well, while I have become like this?” The choice you made at ten affects your life at twenty; your choice at twenty affects your life at thirty. The choices you make today will also deeply affect your future, will they not? What are you choosing today? Whatever you choose, you will pay a heavy price for it. Today I want to share this with you: can you choose to imitate Enoch? It is a choice. I choose to imitate Enoch. How many Enochs are there? Can I really imitate him? That is the question of unbelief. As long as we believe, we can imitate the great men of faith. Even if we do not resemble them perfectly—if we are thirty percent like them, fifty percent like them—that is still good, is it not? Imitation is no small matter. How do you learn? You take a figure from history—take Enoch.

Enoch, what happened to you? Can you let me imitate you? Tell me, what was it like? How did you believe in those days? He did not say. So today, I shall speak on Enoch’s behalf. Let me tell you where this began. Many years ago, after studying Genesis chapter one, I was very excited. Then I studied chapter two, and I was very excited as well, because it was fresh and illuminating. It was all Chinese Mingding Doctrine—unique, extraordinary, and exciting.

Then the following week, I was to study chapter five. I read it and found nothing but names. Very few were familiar. There was a long list of strange names: Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and so on. I knew none of them. After reading it, I thought, forget it. In the past, I would simply skip over it. What has it to do with me how long they lived? Whether they lived more than nine hundred years or more than eight hundred years, so be it. I did not care. I had to go to work the next day. But if I was to lead a Bible study, I could not simply ignore it. The following week I had to study it with everyone. How could I just leave it aside?

I knelt and prayed. I read it again. Then God’s word came to me: “Have you not understood it?”

I said, “No, I have not.”

“Do you not know that they all died?”

They all died? Yes, they all died. I understood that.

“Only Enoch walked with God, and then God took him away. Have you not understood?”

Sometimes all one needs is a little prompting. For someone with spiritual sensitivity like me, one small prompt is enough, and I understand.

You see, they lived to a certain age, did what people did at that age, got married, and had children. After having children, they lived a certain number of years, had more sons and daughters, and then they died. That is a portrait of a man’s life. You live until the age when you have children, you have children, you live some more years and continue having children, and then you die. What meaning is there in that? Why could I not see the meaning?

People take life so seriously. If you have a good child, that is one thing. But if you give birth to a child who comes to collect debts from you, that can cost you your life. There was once a wealthy couple in my former church. They had a car. At that time, to me, anyone with a car seemed almost like a god. I envied them greatly. Of course, a car is convenient. You drive out in an instant; you drive back in an instant. How nice. They desperately wanted children, so they prayed for children. Because they wanted children so badly, the wife shared in our group about in-vitro fertilisation and such matters. Eventually, they had two children. But the children were weak and sickly. Their medical bills consumed all their money. That was not enough; they had to sell their house. My goodness, what a life! Then I thought: Genesis chapter five says that one begat another, lived so many years, and then died. That is simply living out one’s days.

Rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea; a wife, children, and a warm bed—that is all there is to it. But think about it: is it easy to live well? Will the local bully in your village allow you to live well? No. Will the children in your home, who come to collect debts from you, allow you to live well? No. This is how life is. So do you want to live such a life? If you do, then go ahead.

But once you have children, you must take responsibility for them. Yet even if you take responsibility, you cannot determine their destiny. They will have whatever destiny they have. Brothers and sisters, tell me: who can determine the destiny of his own child? My mother certainly did not determine mine. Later I found that my mother particularly enjoyed attending my parents’ meetings at school. At the meetings, people would say, “Oh, this is so-and-so’s mother.” Then many parents would come to her and ask, “How did you educate your child?”

My mother would say, “Educate him? I often told him not to study so hard. It is too tiring.”

What a subtle display of superiority. Others could not understand it. But my mother knew deeply that she could not determine her child’s destiny. So she simply let it be. Is that not so? You send your child for tutoring in this subject and that subject. You push him hard. After all that, he remains the same. Therefore, a person must make choices in life. What choice should you make? Enoch chose to walk with God. Walking with God is not lying flat, neither is it laziness. To walk with God is to live according to God’s word. Your mind is filled with God’s thoughts and intentions; your hands do the things that concern God. That is it.

Do you think it was easy for Enoch to walk with God for three hundred years? It was not easy. The Bible passes over it in one line, but it was not easy. Why do I know it was not easy? Look at Abraham’s life. Abraham was, in many ways, a replica of Enoch. Their faith was very similar. Their faith belonged to the same system. Brothers and sisters, you must understand this: when I speak about imitating great men of faith, you may say, “Teacher, why does this sound the same as the previous message?” They were indeed the same. Can I make them different merely for the sake of variety?

Enoch’s faith and Abel’s faith belonged to the same system. Can I describe them as different? So I shall repeat it, and you can listen patiently. If you criticise me and say, “Teacher, you are saying the same things,” then put them into practice. What do I hope for? I hope that calluses will grow on your ears. Let your ears grow calluses. Whether you want to listen or not, you must listen. We must imitate these great men of faith.

Did Abraham have many problems? Yes, he did. What shook Abraham? The death of his brother shook him. You may say I invented this story. Do not argue with me. There is logic in the way I have put it together. Why did Enoch walk with God? He must have been deeply stirred by something. Let me speak frankly. Just like the brother who was typing earlier: if you had not suffered from depression, would you have come to seek God? If you had not suffered from insomnia, would you have come to Chinese Mingding Doctrine? If everything in your life had been going well, and you merely had nothing better to do than find a god to worship, I do not quite believe that. If I were not on the verge of jumping off a building, why would I walk into a church? Let me tell you: people are stirred by hardship!

Brothers and sisters, you must understand: Enoch walked with God for three hundred years. How did he become so determined to walk with God? He must have been stirred by something. After he was stirred, he experienced God. After experiencing God, he thought, “Ah, there is such a reality.” As for what exactly stirred Enoch, we cannot investigate it. But this is the only conclusion I can draw. Walking with God for three hundred years was like Abraham travelling from place to place.

When Abraham travelled through many lands, how many local tyrants did he meet? Abraham went to Egypt merely to find food. He wanted to survive, but his wife was taken away. We do not know whether Enoch experienced precisely this, but he must have encountered many similar situations. Why? Because in Enoch’s era, the descendants of Cain were in power. Do you understand? Cain’s descendants were the leading figures in every trade and profession.

Enoch lived in such circumstances. One day, someone stabbed another person to death. The next day, someone robbed another person. Over there, an entire family was murdered. Then a village bully seized a family’s land. After that, one of the young men in that family became unhappy and joined the army. When he returned home for the New Year, he killed the village bully and his entire family. That was the kind of era Enoch lived in.

Suppose Enoch completed a project for someone, and the man refused to pay him. Enoch could not defeat him in a fight. What could he do? Suppose Enoch opened a restaurant and people ate without paying. What could he do? Every hill had its own power; every industry had its own gatekeepers. Let me tell you: whether in Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, or any third-tier or fourth-tier city, try setting up a street stall. If you have no connections in the local government, you will not be able to do it. Do you understand?

So you can see how difficult it was for Enoch to live in that age. There were countless struggles, sorrows, stories, and places where he had to exercise faith. Only those who have gone through such things know that it is not easy. He must have paid a heavy price for his faith.

Brothers and sisters, do you think you can walk with God by wearing slippers, baggy shorts, a sleeveless undershirt, exposing your shoulders, sitting on a reclining chair outside your courtyard gate, and fanning yourself with a large palm-leaf fan? Can you walk with God like that? No, you cannot.

Walking with God is the result of practising faith. When a problem comes, what do you do? What would you do? What did Enoch do when he faced problems? One path is to choose to trust God. The other is to choose the world’s way and file complaints with the authorities. Would you file a complaint with Cain? Could you possibly win such a complaint? No. Let me tell you, the path of practising faith is enormously challenging! Let me boast a little; I trust you understand me. I am a man who practises faith. This road of practising faith—I must say—who does not want to build a church filled with God’s glory? But before you build a church filled with God’s glory, you must have that faith. Can your faith truly believe? Thank God. It is so full of challenges, so full of struggles. In continual hardship, one makes choices of faith. That is what it means to imitate.

Thus, in that chaotic era when violence was rampant and Cain’s descendants dominated every field, Enoch chose to walk with God. If you choose to walk with God, can Cain’s descendants destroy you? They cannot. For example, suppose Cain’s descendants surrounded Enoch’s home and said, “So, you want to trust God!” Do you understand? Cain’s descendants could have enacted a law: whoever trusts God shall be put to death. Could that happen? Yes. That age was not very different from ours.

But when these people surrounded the house, my goodness, they saw angels and heavenly armies all around it, wearing shining armour. These were the most formidable armies. They could not be defeated at all! You may ask, “How do you know?” I am making up a story. Why make up a story? Because I hope everyone can imitate Enoch’s faith. It was not that three hundred years passed in one sentence. No. It was one sentence in the Bible, but within those three hundred years there were many stories.

How do you know? Because Abraham’s story was the same in essence, was it not? There were struggles: should one act according to God’s word, or according to the world’s system of logic? It was difficult—very difficult! How many times did he face the hard choice: should I trust money, or should I trust God? He faced powerful men, an age filled with violence, merchants who cheated and deceived, local tyrants, gangsters, and bandits. His family might have been bullied. All the problems we experience in life, Enoch experienced as well. He chose faith.

When Jacob returned with all his children to Shechem, his daughter was violated. What should he do? You cannot blame God, can you? Later, they found many accursed things among themselves, and Jacob learned a lesson. So when Enoch lived in this world, he saw the tragedies of mankind. Perhaps they did not happen in his own household; perhaps they happened to his neighbours, relatives, or friends.

That generation was full of tragedies. People lived under curses. Enoch began to destroy the hope he had placed in this present life, and he began to seek God. He did not seek God from birth. He lived for sixty-five years. After Methuselah was born, something remarkable happened. After Methuselah was born, he began to walk with God. What had he been doing in the previous sixty-five years? He had been conducting experiments, was he not? Sometimes he trusted himself. But after trusting himself for a while, he discovered that he could not make it. Have we not all come through this? Then he began to seek God, to seek eternal life, and to seek the meaning of human existence. Why do people have so many problems? Because they do not believe. They believe only in the affairs of this present life.

A few days ago, one sister among us gave me great comfort. Her mind had become muddled and confused. At first, there were some minor matters, and we led her in prayer and spiritual warfare. The direction of the prayer was to solve those problems. Yet the more we tried to solve them, the less they could be solved. Why? For example, if I suffer from insomnia and pray only for sleep, it does not work. Later, her whole person began to fail. She became confused, could not go to work, and still wondered why this was happening.

I said only a few words, but they were useful. I said, “Do not take the small matters of this world, the mere business of staying alive, so seriously. See through them. Praying merely for those things is useless. First, we must dismantle the stubborn worldly values within us.” We did not necessarily dismantle everything, but we dismantled some things. After that, she recovered. At least eighty percent better, I would say. It gave me great comfort. Therefore, brothers and sisters, you must know where your problem lies. Your problem is that you take the affairs of living too seriously.

Enoch was the same. He too took the affairs of living too seriously. He spent sixty-five years doing so and discovered that it did not work. It was painful. Whether Enoch suffered from depression, insomnia, or something else, we do not know. But in his first sixty-five years, he discovered that many things did not work. Must a person not have faith in God? Can God not manage these things? Can God not provide our food and drink? Can God not deal with the matters we encounter?

Let me tell you: later, Enoch found God and came to know God. God reigned in his life. Not even one hair fell from his head! Never mind local tyrants; even local dragons would not matter. Not one hair fell from his head. Have you tried this? If you have never tried practising such faith, I encourage you to try. The greatest danger is that you become numb from working every day, become a cursed person, and end up like Esau.

Therefore, Enoch’s faith, Abraham’s faith, Moses’ faith, and later the faith of Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul, all involved seeing through the world and seeing through life. Then they believed in God’s power—that God can govern all things. Let me tell you: those who trust in God shall never be put to shame. Do you understand? Do you understand.

God still governs all things. God is greater than all things; all things were made through His hands. If God is greater than all things, can He not solve the little matters you face? Abraham’s wife was taken away, and perhaps Enoch experienced something similar, but God returned his wife to him. Is that not powerful? It is powerful! Therefore, I tell you that the best choice a person can make in life is to trust God—trust God and trust His word. If God tells us not to discern good and evil, then do not discern good and evil. If God tells us not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then do not eat from it. If God says that doing something brings a curse, then do not do it! If God says that doing something brings blessing, then do it well. In eternity, God has prepared a glorious Mingding for us. Today, enter into this Mingding and live according to God’s will. How good that is! We may struggle. We may be tempted. We may see many things. But our faith in God must never grow weak. Everything else may be weak, but faith must not be weak. See through all the affairs of this world, shall we?

Scripture

By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, and was not found, because God had taken him; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:5–6)

Prayer

God, grant us grace today, that we may understand Enoch’s faith. Let us know what kind of faith Enoch had, and let us know how to imitate this faith of Enoch. God, lead us today to walk the path of Enoch. Perhaps we too may be taken away and return to You. God, let us walk with You throughout our days on earth, until we see Your face. Help us. Give us grace, that we may know how to imitate Enoch’s faith. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!

Background of the Scripture

I have already spoken much about this, but today I shall repeat it briefly. Do you know what the theme of Genesis chapter five is? “They all died.” Only Enoch, who walked with God, returned to God. Enoch did not die. Do you understand? Enoch’s return to God was not called death. How, then, was this matter recorded? Let me read it to you:

Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Enoch. After he begot Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years; and he died. Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.

That is all. Abel’s account was also like this: two brothers spoke in the field, and then one was killed.

Such passages in the Bible are not easy to interpret. Yet they have an advantage. The author of Hebrews wrote that “by faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death,” and that “he was not found.” How much did the author of Hebrews know about Enoch? Only these few sentences. In those days, there was also a book called the Book of Enoch. It was not included in the Bible, but it had circulated for a long time. The Book of Enoch roughly records how Enoch experienced God throughout his life. God often gave Enoch visions and spoke to him. Whether the author of Hebrews knew these things, and how he knew them, we do not know. But I tell you, it still comes back to this brief description in Genesis chapter five. In the generation described there, everyone died. Only Enoch walked with God. This was what the author of Hebrews wanted to convey.

Let me tell you: whether people like it or not, they all die. Some die with tubes inserted into their bodies. Some are killed in car accidents. Others are swept away by tsunamis. There are all kinds of deaths, but in the end, they all die. When this is said, some people are deeply shaken. Yet many remain utterly numb. Why do people become numb? Because they care only about the present. Death is something in the future. “I do not want to know about the future. I do not care.”

Then here is the question: if you choose today to walk with God and be taken by God, have you seen it happen? No, you have not. You may ask me, “Teacher, have you seen it?” I have not seen it either. As for how many go to hell and how many go to heaven, I have not seen it. No one has seen it. Did Enoch see it? Enoch had not seen it either. Yet Enoch chose to walk with God. He simply carried faith within him. That is critical. He had not seen it, but he believed it.

We do not believe in eternal life because we have seen eternal life. We believe in eternal life because we have no hope in this present life. What hope does this life offer? If you have great hope in this life, you are ruined. You will certainly live miserably, because you cannot compete with the powerful. Others are qualified to be second-generation rich or second-generation officials. What second generation are you? If you ask me what second generation I am, I am neither. I am a second-generation child of God. Being a second-generation child of God is better than being any other kind of second generation. Do you not know that? We have not seen these things. What then shall we do? That is faith. What can be seen is not faith.

For example, suppose I hold a ten-cent coin tightly in my hand. You guess that I have a ten-cent coin in my hand. You believe it, but you do not know. But if I open my hand, and you see that it is a ten-cent coin, and then I say, “I believe this is a ten-cent coin,” would that not be foolish? Is there any need to believe? No. Therefore, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. By this faith, the ancients obtained a good testimony.

By faith, none of us saw how God created the world. Did you see it? When God created the worlds, were you there? You were not. Yet God wrote Genesis through Moses. Because we believe, we know that this is so. Is that not the case? If you had seen it, you would not need faith. What is seen is obvious. But here is the issue: once a person believes by faith, what does he believe? He believes in the eternal God. What else does he believe? He believes that this present life is vanity of vanities, utterly without meaning.

Will you still have pressure then? If you take life in this vain existence too seriously, you will certainly have great pressure. But in this vain life, what should you believe? Believe that God reigns forever. If God reigns forever, Enoch must have experienced extraordinary tests. Everyone must understand: walking with God is victory. If you say that you walk with God but have never experienced victory or struggled through difficult choices, then your faith is false. Enoch experienced extraordinary testimonies, and then God took him directly. His testimony was similar to that of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, by faith, was crucified. It was not that others compelled Him to be crucified; He chose to be crucified because He knew that He would rise from the dead on the third day. Did He know that He would rise on the third day? Yes. But could He see it at that moment? No.

Therefore, Enoch was remarkable. Enoch’s faith was the same kind of faith that Jesus Christ had in rising from the dead. Enoch experienced certain extraordinary things that thoroughly destroyed his dreams in this world. Then he had a son called Methuselah. It is said that Methuselah means, “When he dies, judgment will come.” God told Enoch to name his son Methuselah. Why Methuselah? Because when he died, the world would be judged.

When Enoch heard this, he could have said, “What has that to do with me? I will certainly die before my son. I am sixty-five years older than he is. Even if we both live to nine hundred, he will outlive me by sixty-five years. If judgment comes when he dies, what has it to do with me?” But Enoch did not think this way. Enoch’s thinking was remarkable. God was going to judge the world—sentence it to death. Noah’s flood would sweep mankind away. Some have calculated that the year Methuselah died was the year the flood came. He lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years.

In fact, Enoch was Noah’s great-grandfather. That is to say, Methuselah lived precisely until the world was wiped out by the flood. Enoch thought: “My goodness, God is going to judge the world. He is going to judge every person. No, I cannot be wiped out. God, I only want to walk with You. I only want to be taken by You.” He did not say, “This is nine hundred years away. It has nothing to do with me.” The moment he received this message, he chose to walk with God.

This was a great choice. A judgment nine hundred years in the future affected his choice in the present. His faith told him: “No, I choose to walk with God.” At that time, the whole world walked in the way of Cain. Enoch’s other descendants were no different. Apart from Noah’s family of eight, everyone else was swept away by the flood.

Can you imagine it? Enoch chose to walk with God in that generation. It was an exceedingly difficult thing. Can you imagine? Suppose in all of China, you were the only person who believed in the Lord. You could not find a second person with whom to share testimonies of faith. You were the only one. It would be lonely indeed! This is what the author of Hebrews was speaking about.

There was a period when I had Enoch’s faith. I worked hard to build the church. I served wholeheartedly. I served with all my strength. I was busy every day, yet there were only a few people, like a handful of kittens. When I stood on the pulpit to preach, a physical church was different from an online church. In a physical church, there were just a few people scattered across the chairs. Let me tell you, my faith fell straight to the bottom. I can understand pastors of physical churches. When no one is sitting in the chairs, it is rather humiliating.

Do you know? It did not feel good at all. When the wind blew, attendance was halved. When it rained, everyone disappeared. Churches were like that. But thank the Lord. In the early days of building the church, I had this conviction: even if I were the only one left, I would still build God’s glorious church. I learned this from Enoch.

Later, do you know what happened? When the wind blew, attendance did not drop by half. When it rained, attendance did not drop by half either. In Singapore, we used public holidays for fasting and prayer, and one hundred percent attended. Was that impressive? I thought, what kind of church is this? It was outstanding, in that very era! Why? Because even if I were the only one left, I would still do it this way.

More than ten years ago, the brothers and sisters in our church looked down on many churches. One sister was interesting. She went to another church, but later came back. I asked, “Why have you come back?”

She said, “Teacher, that church was terrible. They could not even build a website. They had no ministries at all.”

At that time, we already had a written ministry and many other ministries. That sister was full of drive.

The author of Hebrews wanted to emphasise one thing: even if I am the only one left, I will still follow God. Brothers and sisters, begin to desire such faith. There are many challenges. Many people will mock you. But it does not matter! I will still trust God. Are there testimonies? We are full of testimonies. Are there revelations? We are full of revelations. Therefore, let us begin to imitate this faith today. The day Methuselah died was the day of judgment. Yet he became the longest-living man, living nine hundred and sixty-nine years. God simply did not allow him to die. God waited for people to repent, but they did not. In the end, only Noah’s family remained. Then Methuselah died.

The First Characteristic of Enoch’s Faith: There Is No Hope in Living for This World

If a person still has hope in this world, he is a person of despair. What kind of statement is this? How can a person with hope be in despair? Because after hoping and hoping, all he receives is an urn of ashes. All your love and all your hatred enter the urn with you at the end of your life. And you do not even know which day that will come. A person must know that there is no hope in this life. Where is the hope? Even the greatest person in this world has no hope. Before death, he is deeply hopeless. When a person faces death, he is filled with despair. It is better for you to become disillusioned today than to wait until death comes before you realise your despair. As a pastor, one of the things I see most often is dead people. Weddings involving living people are one thing, but funerals are hard for pastors to avoid. You watch people die with your own eyes.

There was a cancer patient who was about to die. His face was deathly pale. His mother held him in a video call. That day, because I did not want to disturb others, I went all the way to the office. Before this dying man, I prayed desperately with his mother. In the end, he died. Cancer. He was in his thirties.

Later, there was another man, forty years old. We prayed with him—not I personally, but one of our co-workers. We prayed for the healing of his colon cancer. After prayer, all the colon cancer disappeared! He went to the hospital for examination. The scans could no longer detect the tumour. Was that not remarkable? The cancer disappeared, but the man also disappeared.

One month later, all the cancer returned, and he came back to me. Seeing that my co-worker was serving him with great difficulty, I took over. The longest I prayed with him was thirteen hours. Sometimes it was six, seven, or eight hours; sometimes three or four hours. One evening, I prayed with him. He was able to get down from the bed and walk. His strength returned. The next morning, I called him. He was lying on the bed, eyes wide open. He was dead. I said, “Touch him. Is he still breathing?” They checked. He had no breath. He had died. My heart was filled with emotion. He was forty years old.

There was another young woman, eighteen, nineteen, or perhaps twenty years old. She had a large cauliflower-like cancerous growth in her private parts. It discharged pus and toxic fluid, and worms were crawling out. She spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. The cancer grew from the size of a date to the size of an egg, and from the size of an egg to the size of a cauliflower. As we ministered to her, the cancer shrank by half. But after it shrank by half, she began acting foolishly again. On one night when no one prayed with her, she passed away at five in the morning.

Our meeting was at ten o’clock, was it not? At eight, I called her. Her mother answered and said that she had passed away at five. The cancer had already shrunk by half and had dried up. But the devil would not allow her to live—or perhaps God did not allow her to live. These people left the world in despair, even though they were full of hope in remaining alive in this world.

I thought: the best grace I can give you is to make you despair of the affairs of this world today, so that you no longer place hope in them. Enoch looked at the matters of this world, and every family had its own troubles. Enoch’s era was extremely chaotic. It was more chaotic than any corner of today’s world, like cannibalistic tribes on the African plains. Despair! What hope is there for man in this world? At most, you live to a certain age, beget someone, live a few more years, have sons and daughters, and then die. It is little different from animals. If you still have hope in these things, I urge you today: do not place your hope in them. Do not place such deep hope in them. But thank God, I imitate Enoch. I have no hope in this world. I have only one hope: to build God’s glorious church. Perhaps one day, God will take me away. I will return to God’s presence and receive a crown of glory. That is my hope.

The Second Characteristic of Enoch’s Faith: He Began to Seek the Eternal God

Enoch saw people being born and people dying; spring coming and spring going; flowers withering and blooming again. People die and do not return. Spring comes and returns. Flowers wither and bloom again. But when people die, they are gone. Enoch could not accept this at all. Furthermore, when he lived according to the old system of logic, he suffered much. What meaning was there in it? There was none. So he began to seek the eternal God.

Why did God speak to him? Why did God tell him to name his son Methuselah, meaning that the day his son died would be the day of God’s judgment? Because Enoch sought Him. Perhaps on that very day, Enoch developed a heart of reverence and began to seek. If he had not sought, God could not have been found by him. It was because he sought that he found God. If you do not seek, you will not find. Seek and you shall find; knock and the door shall be opened to you. Then God opened for him a door to eternal life, and Enoch walked with God for three hundred years.

Today, we still have many unanswered questions. But these questions must be answered through God’s power. Seeking God and seeking God’s power—this is what we must imitate. We must imitate Enoch in seeking God. Let me tell you: everyone in the Bible who was chosen by God had this quality of seeking. Abraham sought God, and God blessed him. It was that simple. Only things in eternity have meaning. If a person is unwilling simply to live and then die, what should he do? That is easy: seek God.

Seeking God is a choice of faith. It is not saying, “Forget it. That is just how it is. Let us live this way. Whatever happens, happens.” No. It is seeking God. Today, I deeply desire that brothers and sisters would imitate Enoch and become seekers. If you become a seeker, you may have troubles, but your troubles are not greater than God. If you seek God, God will certainly give you answers. If we are stubborn and self-willed, it will be very difficult for us to know God.

The Third Characteristic of Enoch’s Faith: When Revelation Came, He Believed God

God told Enoch, “The day this child dies will be the day the people on earth are judged.” Let me tell you, such a man is beyond my imagination. Is he beyond yours as well? One might say, “What has his death got to do with me? I have to get on with my life. When he dies and judgment comes, that is more than nine hundred years away!” Is that the right response? No. God is a God of judgment! God is a God of judgment—great, awesome, and mighty. He judges! The people of the world will all be judged. If I live in this world, have children, live a certain number of years, and then die, that too is judgment. Judgment is not only when the flood came at Methuselah’s death and swept away that generation. God judges every day. No, I must believe God. Therefore, Enoch walked the path of faith. He began to believe God, fear Him, trust Him, offer sacrifices when sacrifices were required, and do what he ought to do.

Today, brothers and sisters, we must dismantle worldly logic, establish heavenly logic that seeks God, and then begin to believe. Once Enoch believed, it was extraordinary. He walked with God for three hundred years. God took him away so that he did not see death, and people could no longer find him. Think about it: Enoch had many possessions. He was not a poor man. Then one morning, Enoch was gone. His family went to the authorities and reported, “Our Enoch is gone.” Since he was missing, they could not treat it as a death. The house could not simply be transferred as though he had died. The entire family searched everywhere, but could not find him. Even if there was a will, it could not be used. In the end, that was that. Everything came to nothing.

Do you think Enoch said, “I am about to be taken by God. Should I first transfer the title deed of my property?” Probably not. If there was such a transfer, so be it. If not, let it be. Many brothers and sisters among us still struggle greatly over real estate and inheritance. Why? Because these are real assets and real money. They believe they depend on money to live. But Enoch did not think this way. With money, he lived this way; without money, he lived the same way. God sustained him in all things.

Therefore, when revelation came, Enoch knew that God was a God of judgment, and he developed a heart of reverence. What we lack today as believers is this kind of reverence. We do not know that God judges, so we make reckless choices. We do not make choices according to God’s word at all. If your choices are choices of faith, they will produce the fruit of faith. If your choices are choices of unbelief, they will bring deadly curses.

The Fourth Characteristic of Enoch’s Faith: He Walked with God for Three Hundred Years

When you walk with God, you will prove one thing: God can govern all things. This is so profound that, let me tell you, you cannot take it in unless you are a person of faith. If a person is rich, God sustains him. If a person is poor, God still sustains him. There was once an old widow with no means of making a living, yet she gave her only two coins. She lived by trusting God’s power. She walked with God. Though she had nothing, she still believed God.

Over three hundred years, how much faith did Enoch put into practice? Do you see the road that Abraham later walked? It was the same road Abraham walked. In the testing of faith, one still believes. For example, Abraham encountered famine. God told him to go to the land He had promised him, and Abraham went. He brought his household there, only to meet famine. In a famine, a bowl of noodles that once cost fifteen dollars now costs fifty. There is a great difference between fifteen and fifty. You look at the place and say, “We cannot afford to live here. It is too expensive. Let us go to Egypt.” Why did Abraham not say, “God, is this not the promised land?” Enoch must have encountered such things too.

Today, if you want to be a great man of faith and imitate great men of faith, what do you think it requires? You must practise faith. How did the Apostle Paul describe this faith? Is it the sword? Persecution? Hunger? Nothing can separate us from the love of God. You may not understand, because people who carry the death of Jesus Christ in their bodies often experience this. Then faith comes alive. Whenever we are weak, whenever we rely on God, we become strong.

Therefore, it is a tragedy when people do not practise faith. How sad it is for a person to have no opportunity to practise faith! The church must train brothers and sisters to imitate Enoch, Abel, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in practising faith. Is it really so? Look carefully. After Abraham, the stories become exciting. There are many more stories.

Abraham’s faith was refined time and again. Every victory of faith brought God’s blessing upon him. Do you understand? Jacob was the same. If you ask me whether Jacob lived better or Esau lived better, outwardly Esau seemed to live quite well. But how much did Jacob go through? His days were few and difficult. Yet those few and difficult days were days of practising faith. They were excellent!

Do you want to become someone who walks with God? Walking with God is practising faith. That is what it means to walk together. Therefore, those who believe God must believe that He rewards those who seek Him. We receive this reward because we seek Him. In practising faith, in every process of putting faith into practice, we overcome. My goodness, is that not so?

Every time we minister, we transmit faith. Every transmission of faith, every building up of faith, enables people to see God’s power. Today, let me tell you: anything that can kill a person is not really a matter; anything that cannot kill a person is a small matter. Yesterday, one co-worker asked me, “Teacher, you are so impressive. You seem never to have any pressure.” You try it yourself. Without God, would I not have been crushed? I cannot make it by relying on myself, but I rely on God!

Have you learned how to imitate today? Yes, you have learned. Let us conclude: throughout your life, imitate the great men of faith. If the problem is very, very, very large, use very, very, very great faith. If the problem is very, very, very small, use very, very, very small faith. Every problem can be dealt with. Before faith, there is no mountain that cannot be moved! Everything becomes exceedingly small before God’s mighty power.

Amen! May God bless you all!