If you’ve been following along the past few weeks—bless you, my friend. 😄
We’ve been sitting in Numbers 13–14 with the children of Israel, and I’m over here like…
“Wait… why did they do that??”
Seriously. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. LOL!
But the other night—middle of the night, because apparently that’s when my brain wants to have Bible study 😄— not kidding! LOL!
I landed in Hebrews 11.
And I couldn’t get past one word.
Pleases.
So grab your favorite cup of joy and let’s head over to Hebrews 11:5–6:
“It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying—‘he disappeared, because God took him.’ For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”
Okay… let’s stop right there for a second.
That word.
Pleases.
Have you ever stopped and truly asked yourself, what does that actually mean?
Because clearly… Enoch understood something that we’re missing.
I mean, let’s just be real—this isn’t your everyday Bible story. The Lord doesn’t just go around taking people straight to heaven without dying. There was something about his life… something about the way he walked with God… that made him stand out.
He wasn’t known for building something.
He wasn’t known for leading something.
He was known for this:
He pleased God.
So here I was sitting there in the middle of the night thinking…
What does that kind of faith look like?
Because it goes on to say—right after that—
Without faith, it is impossible to please God.
Impossible. That’s a huge word.
So let’s lean in for a second.
That word “pleases” in the Greek is euaresteō.
It paints a picture of a life that is in sync with God.
Like when something just clicks - no tension, no resistance….it’s aligned.
It means:
a life that agrees with Him
a life that walks in step with Him
a life that actually brings Him joy
It’s living life that actually brings delight to God.
And here’s the nugget that might shift everything just a little…
When our lives are aligned with Him—
when we’re walking with Him, agreeing with Him—
what we desire starts to reflect His heart.
So it’s not this transactional thing like,
“I please God, so He gives me what I want…”
(It’s not Amazon Prime for your prayer life 😄)
It’s so much deeper than that.
I walk with Him… and somewhere along the way,
my heart starts beating in rhythm with His.
Now go back to verse 6 with that in mind:
“Without faith it is impossible to please God…”
The deeper view here is this:
Without faith… we’re not just a little off track—
we’re out of sync.
And when we’re out of sync,
we can’t fully live in agreement with Him,
we can’t walk in step with Him,
and we miss that place where our lives actually bring Him delight.
And this is where it gets even more real.
Because the word “faith” here—pistis—
isn’t just “yes, I believe in God.”
It’s not about head knowledge or having a casual agreement.
It’s a settled knowing—and I just love that.
The kind that doesn’t wobble the moment life does.
pistis is being so convinced of who God is…
that it actually repositions how you live, think, talk, breathe…..
Your thoughts start lining up.
Your words start shifting.
Your decisions start flowing from that place.
It’s not something you turn on when you need it…
it’s something you’re rooted in.
So this isn’t:
“I believe God exists.”
This is:
“I know who He is…
and I’m living like that’s true.”
Isn’t that good?!
Now let’s bring this full circle.
Back to the book of Numbers. Because this is where it all connects.
Think about the Israelites.
It’s not like they didn’t know God.
They had seen crazy amazing miracles.
They had heard His voice.
They had watched Him show up again and again.
So this wasn’t an awareness issue.
It was an unbelief issue.
Because when it came time to actually stand on what God said—which is activating faith to believe what He has spoken—
“I am giving you this land…”
They didn’t stay there.
They shifted.
And what came out instead?
“We are like grasshoppers…”
Why would they hear God say one thing….and then turn around and say something completely different?
Unbelief.
But not the way we usually think of it.
Unbelief isn’t just doubting God’s ability.
It’s allowing fear…
what we see…
and how we perceive ourselves…
to overrule His voice.
And that’s why this story hits so hard.
They didn’t simply say, “The land is hard.”
They said, in effect:
“What God said is not enough to steady me here.”
That was the tragedy.
Faith that pleases God is not pretending the giants are small.
It’s refusing to make them bigger than God’s Word.
It’s interesting to take a look back at Hebrews 3. It says that wilderness generation had “an evil, unbelieving heart,”…. and ties it to hardening themselves against God’s voice. Which means it wasn’t just fear in the emotional sense. It was fear that allowed itself to harden into resistance, where their hearts stopped yielding to what God had already made clear.
Okay…
let’s just sit with that for a second.
So the difference between this wilderness generation….. and Enoch?
Do you see it?
Enoch walked in agreement with God…
and it pleased Him.
Israel spoke in agreement with fear…
and it cost them.
And here’s where this gets personal for all of us…
Because we may not be standing at the edge of the Promised Land—
but we are standing in moments every single day of our life
where we choose what we’re going to agree with.
Faith that pleases God isn’t about knowing what He said.
It’s about agreeing with it—
until it becomes the way you live.
So maybe the question we need to ask ourselves isn’t, “Do I have faith—the kind that pleases God?”. And instead, ask ourselves, “What am I actually agreeing with?”
Because what you agree with…
you’ll start to believe.
What you believe…
you’ll start to speak.
And what you speak…
will shape the direction of your life.
At the end of the day…..
They saw giants
and called themselves grasshoppers.
Enoch walked with God
and it brought Him delight.
One was rooted in relationship.
The other was ruled by what they saw.
One walked in agreement with God.
The other spoke in agreement with fear.
One lived from connection.
The other reacted from perception.
Same God.
Different posture.
Different outcome.
And that same choice?
It’s sitting right in front of us today.