Walking with God

Begin a more intimate relationship with God today. Sharing from his personal journals and experiences John Eldredge takes you with him through a year of his life, where he lives out many of the principles discussed in his earlier books such as: healing of the heart, the fight for joy, and spiritual warfare. Giving you an example of what intimacy with God can look like, Eldredge asserts that everyone can have conversational intimacy with Christ. And if you don't yet, you can soon.

See below to hear an interview with John Eldredge and Christianbook.com.

"This is a series of stories of what it looks like to walk with God, over the course of about a year."

So begins a remarkable narrative of one man’s journey learning to hear the voice of God. In Walking wtih God by John Eldredge, the details are intimate and personal. The invitation is for us all. What if we could hear from God . . . often? What difference would it make?

All day long we are making choices. It adds up to an enormous amount of decisions in a lifetime. How do we know what to do?

We have two options.

We can trudge through on our own, doing our best to figure it all out.

Or, we can walk with God. As in, learn to hear his voice. Really. We can live life with God. He offers to speak to us and guide us. Every day. It is an incredible offer. To accept that offer is to enter into an adventure filled with joy and risk, transformation and breakthrough. And more clarity than we ever thought possible.

 

“Our deepest and most pressing need is to learn to walk with God. To hear his voice,” says John Eldredge (p. xi). Further he assumes that “an intimate, conversational walk with God is available, and if you don’t find that kind of relationship with God, your spiritual life will be stunted” (p. 7).

In order to aid us in this type of intimate walk with God, Eldredge offers an autobiographical series of stories which take place during a recent calendar year. In reading Walking with God two very positive traits stand out in the author’s life: sincerity and vulnerability. Eldredge’s passionate desire to walk with God and be what God wants him to be is evident throughout. While one can never truly know the heart of another, all signs point to the author’s desire to be a godly man. At the same time his vulnerability is ubiquitous. He opens his heart to reveal hurts, joys, disappointments, comforts, and struggles -- the same kind we face. Eldredge does not preach from an ivory tower; he has not arrived. He stumbles, bleeds, gets discouraged and fails, yet he perseveres in his passion to walk with God.

This is the good news. The rest of the book is deeply concerning. Eldredge’s working thesis is that to walk with God is to hear God speak. His whole life is wrapped around God’s personal messages and instructions. How these messages are delivered he never actually says, although the implication is that he hears inner voices (the voice of God) actually speaking words about even the minutest of details, although usually in code, not complete sentences. His attempt at biblical support for this position is extremely weak and boils down to “if God spoke this way in Scripture, why wouldn’t He do so today?”

But Eldredge is wrong on many levels. Yes, God spoke often in Scripture to numerous people. In light of time and history, however, He spoke very infrequently and to only a handful of people, and even most of them heard from God only once or twice in a lifetime. Eldredge would have us believe that God is speaking to all His children constantly. Also, in Scripture when God spoke it was concerning major issues often related to His redemptive plan. Of the dozens of examples of God communicating to Eldredge that Walking with God supplies, virtually all of them have to do with the mundane and normal things of life, the things for which God gives us minds and freedoms to choose. In one example (one in which he did not ask God enough questions), he asks God whether he should ride his horse. God says, “Yes.” But Eldredge forgets to ask God “where” and as a result he was injured in a fall (pp. 80-83). The lesson: God must speak to us concerning even the smallest detail, and to fail to seek such instruction could result in serious consequences.

Perhaps the most bizarre message from the Lord followed the death of the family dog. Not only does Eldredge hear Scout bark in heaven but Jesus also complains, “He won’t give me the ball” (p. 125). Apparently good dogs go to heaven and play fetch with Jesus.

Eldredge’s insistence on hearing from God, while having the appearance of spirituality, is a spiritually crippling methodology guaranteed to ensure immaturity. Rather than the careful study of Scripture coupled with analytical thinking and wise counsel (all prescribed in Scripture), Eldredge opts for this unbiblical and childish approach. Consider, what parent wants his adult children to call home for instruction on the routine things of life? Isn’t the goal of good parenting to raise children who can function independently, make daily choices, and live wisely and biblically? So our God, not desiring that we live independent of His intimacy and power, has given us resources, beginning with Scripture, to enable us to live mature and godly lives according to His will. Nowhere in Scripture are we taught to run around analyzing our every feeling and thought to discern if we have heard a word from the Lord. We are taught to live according to biblical principles as we make wise choices and always submit our plans to the will of the Lord (James 4:11-16). Another area of major concern is Eldredge’s understanding of spiritual warfare (pp. 54-57, 112-113, 124, 147-153, 170-176, 193, 217). Rather than deriving a spiritual warfare theology from Scripture, he looks to experience and the leaders in the unbiblical spiritual warfare movement. He personally commands demons and declares authority over them. He calls them by name. He prays the blood of Christ and casts out demons from inanimate objects and even commands angels. None of these techniques are biblically taught and his attempts to support his position from examples fall flat because of his mishandling of the text.

Without trying to be mean-spirited and in a spirit of love for both Eldredge and those who would follow him, I believe Eldredge spends far too much time examining his imagination, feelings, and subjective thoughts and far too little examining Scripture. The result is a convoluted form of Christian living that is a poor substitute for the real thing. Walking with God is the musing of a sincere man, I assume, but it is not true to the teaching of Scripture. -- Gary Gilley, www.ChristianBookPreviews.com

For bestselling evangelical author Eldredge (Wild at Heart), Christians are meant to inherit the kind of intimacy that Adam and Eve had with God in the Garden of Eden, but the belief that God only speaks through the Bible hinders a Christian's ability to experience that intimacy. Drawing from a year's worth of journaling about his "walk with God," Eldredge models how talking to God is as easy as checking daily to ask "What are you saying, Lord?" Sometimes when Eldredge queries God, God's response confounds him. For example, when God responds repeatedly with two words, "My love," it takes an accident and a personal epiphany for Eldredge to understand that God wants him to "rebuild [his] personality based on [God's] love." Through everyday life lessons, personal anecdotes, and a lot of scripture, Eldredge shows how Christians can get into direct conversation with God, encouraging readers to ask for answers about anything and everything. Eldredge's story (as opposed to chapter) format is supposed to better help readers "to pause along the way at those points where God is speaking to you," but it results in a lack of real organization and may make it difficult for readers to uncover an overarching theme over the course of a section. (Apr. 15)Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Average Rating:

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Reviewed by Linda Patterson (Yuba City, CA), August 21, 2009

What a wonderful book. I listened to the audio book, which was read by John Eldredge, and I thought it was so powerful. What an example of letting God direct every aspect of our life. I have purchased additional books and plan to give them to family and friends.

Reviewed by Elaine Thompson (Roanoke, VA), August 13, 2009

Wonderful book full of ways to have a closer relationship with God. Exactly what I needed, just when I needed it!

Reviewed by Carol Schmidt (Southbury, CT), August 11, 2009

I ordered the audio book, then had to go back and order the hardcover; because I wanted to have parts of the book at my fingertips in black and white. I even ordered a few additional copies to share with friends and family. Great book. Written in simple everyday language with everyday experiences common to everyone. A intimate relationship with God is within reach for all of us.

Reviewed by Denise Funk (Flagstaff, AZ), June 01, 2009

This book is the greatest...the kind you'll read over and over as you allow God to work in your life. Seriously life changing.

Reviewed by Frank Alloteh (Franklin Park, NJ), February 13, 2009

This book is not for the feeble minded!It is for a child who desires deeply a real relationship with his or her own Father, who happens to be the Almighty God!

Reviewed by Rolin Steinbrecher (Holliston, MA), February 03, 2009

Absolutely fantastic. I believe every Christian should read this book to help develop a closer walk with God.

Reviewed by Rich Fout (Pickerington, OH), December 27, 2008

I am an Eldredge fan. Far and away "wild at Heart" is my favorite. I was a bit disappointed with the follow up "Way of the Wild heart" I find "walking with God" a major hit! I used it as a daily devotional, then read it through. I was amazed at how, on a daily basis I found myself in the midst of similar situations John was sharing that he was going through. There is some truth to misery loving company and to know you are not the only one having dobts, temptations and shortfalls is comforting. John's dry wit and humor was a welcome relief to self pity and doubt. The humor, exuberance and final victorious celebration make this a book to be read over and over to practice and refine our WALK WITH GOD

Reviewed by Paula (California), September 27, 2008

I'm not exactly sure why “Walking with God” struck such a chord with me—but it did. I cried and laughed my way through the pages and reluctantly finished it earlier today. Reading this book didn't make me want to be John Eldredge’s best friend—it made me want to be Jesus’ best friend. “Walking with God” covers the year in a life of speaker and writer John Eldredge. Yet, instead of recounting the grand escapades of a much-sought-after conference speaker and best selling author, it shows the year in a life of a vulnerable and honest husband, father, friend, and ministry leader. Eldredge has a unique way of letting the reader in on his humanity—and in the end you may find (like me) that you learn more from his weaknesses, then from his strengths. Because Eldredge is a “man’s man” your husbands, brothers, and fathers will find his outdoorsy stories engaging—but don’t underestimate this book’s value for women. I think of myself as a pretty girly girl, and I absolutely loved it! “Walking with God” is unique, surprising, relevant, authentic, and offers a fresh perspective on hearing the voice of God. There’s an Ahhhhh feeling of comfort and refreshment in this book—and a delightful (and biblical) thread of God’s love that runs through the entirety of it.

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