CAN YOU HONESTLY SAY YOU ARE A FRIEND OF GOD?

Do you have many real friends in your life, a person/s who you can totally trust at all times, and will be always there for you when you need them? Sadly, we have lots of acquaintances, but few who fall into this very unique category.

We read in John 15:14-15 NKJV You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. ¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you FRIENDS, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

AMP.N.T. You are My FRIEND if you keep on doing the things which I command you to do.
¹⁵ I do not call you servants (slaves) any longer, for the servant does not know what his master is doing (working out). But I have called you My FRIENDS, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from My Father. I have revealed to you everything that I have learned from Him.

MESSAGE You are my FRIEND when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you FRIENDS because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.

PASSION You show that you are my INTIMATE FRIENDS when you obey all that I command you. ¹⁵ I have never called you ‘servants,’ because a master doesn’t confide in his servants, and servants don’t always understand what the master is doing. But I call you MY MOST INTIMATE FRIENDS.

I wonder what the disciples thought when Jesus call them FRIENDS. The Greek and the Hebrew express a friend as a COMPANION, an ASSOCIATE, a LOVER.

What a privilege to be called A FRIEND OF GOD, Jesus in V.14 tells us the key to being a friend of God is to walk in OBEDIENCE, this is the truth that we see so clearly over and over again in the Epistles, we must learn to continually SURRENDER TO THE WILL OF GOD. We must have the constant attitude that Jesus had in the Garden of Gethsemane “NOT MY WILL BUT THINE BE DONE”.

Between friends there are NO SECRETS, as Jesus says in v.15, everything the Father told Him, he shared with His disciples.

The challenge is for us is that we must learn to live the SURRENDERED LIFE, and enjoy being an “associate”, “companion”, and “lover” of the Lord.

Let remind you, that PRAYER IS THE INTIMATE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN TWO LOVERS, and we must start our praying with “clearing the decks” of any unforgiven sin in our life, and then RE-AFFIRMING THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST OVER OUR LIVES. And then simply enjoy your friendship with the Lord, and let it ever deepen day by day.

Solomon known as the wisest man in all the world declares in Prov.18:24 NKJV there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. His name is Jesus, what a privilege to know Him as our Lord and Saviour, and to discover it is yet another awesome aspect of God’s so great Salvation to His people.

Let us not treat this awesome truth glibly, but embrace it, co-operate with the Lord and His Word and experience this intimacy daily.

Israel Houghton wrote a song, these are the words.

“Who am I that you are mindful of me, that You hear me when I call, Is it true You are thinking of me, how you love me it’s amazing.

I am a friend of God, I am a friend of God, I am a friend of God, He calls me friend.

God Almighty, Lord of Glory, You have called me friend”.

I encourage myself as I write this blog, let us all truly be a FRIEND OF GOD. amen