Spiritually speaking, are you walking towards 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

“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” (Romans 6:4).

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 cleaned, 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 everyday 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 doesn’t mean that we never sin because we all do (1 John 1:8-10). But it does mean that we must refrain from living in an ongoing state of sin. When we sin, we are to repent of it, confess it to God and then, continue to do our best to abstain from sin. If we live that kind of life, we are walking towards 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’s examine ourselves so that we might be sure that we are not living a life of sin, but instead, are walking in the newness of life.

We must walk by faith

“For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). John tells us that it is faith in Jesus that gives us victory over the world (1 John 5:4-5). No wonder Paul tells us to walk by faith. How do we walk by faith? Well, 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 doesn’t have much of it. But 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). Obviously, the Spirit is not a physical Being that we can literally 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. To walk by faith, then, is to have an obedient faith, which 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 is to trust in 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 couldn’t see how God would work out His promise, but he trusted in God, and by faith could see God doing what He promised. 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 don’t have to see everything with our physical eyes, for we walk by faith, not by sight and in doing so we are walking towards heaven.

We must walk in love

“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” (Ephesians 5:2).

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 ourselves. 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 2:1-4). 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).
This is actually 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 of 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.

In what direction are you walking? Are you walking towards heaven? Get out a concordance and look up the word walk. You might learn a little something about walking towards heaven.