Walking With God

The story of Noah, found in the Bible in Genesis chapters 6 through 8, tells us that because Noah “walked with God,” he found favor with and was chosen by God as the progenitor of the human race.  God spoke to Noah and instructed him to build an ark.  Thus, God saved Noah and his family from the destruction of creation by the flood. 

For many of us, this story has traditionally been viewed as a morality tale:  Those who walk with God and do as God instructs will be rewarded, while those who do not will surely die.  When I was a child and heard this story, I was certainly frightened enough to want to be “good.”  Even though later in the story God makes a covenant with Noah to never again destroy creation by flood, I was always told that God does not promise to not destroy creation by some other horrific means.  The lesson was, “Behave or else.”

In Unity, we do not believe in a deity that judges and punishes. We do not view the story of Noah as a morality tale.  We seek the deeper meanings and applications for our lives in the twenty-first century.  The metaphysical messages and meanings in the story of Noah are rich and varied.  For example, what does it mean for us to “walk with God” and “talk with God?”

There is no deity external to our being with whom we converse.   We “talk” with God by removing our attention from the external world, including our thinking mind, and consciously refocusing our awareness in the secret place of the Most High which abides at the center of our being – the heart.

Connected in the heart, we are able to “be still and know that I AM God” (Psalms 46:10).  In the heart, we perceive the flow of Life (God) as our own life.  We listen, not with the ears for an audible voice, but with the feeling nature that senses the vibration of Truth beyond and before any thought.  Charles Fillmore, the co-founder of Unity, tells us that “Truth cannot be imparted; it must be individually experienced.”  We experience Truth in the heart.

We have all heard the adage, “Walk the talk.”  Although typically meant as an admonition to act in accordance with what one says, this phrase can perhaps have a renewed meaning for us today.  Our “walk with God” is a demonstration of our “talk with God.”  As we move through our daily activities, we can make the choice every moment of every day to do so with the consciousness awareness of the Presence (God) as our present reality.  When we “know that I Am God” and maintain a conscious awareness of that Truth throughout the day, we “walk with God.”  It is not as though we are walking along side an “other.”  We walk in the recognition that there is only God and there is no “other.”

I offer the following as an affirmation for the twenty-first century Unity understanding of “talking” and “walking” with God.

I talk with God in the silence of my heart, and I walk in the awareness of God as my ever-present reality.