Being a friend of God

Has God always been your friend?  

Do you talk to Him?  Do you know Him?  His character?  What He desires from you?  What He desires for you?

God knows you.  He knew you before you were born.  

Jeremiah 1:5 says,

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart."

Are you comfortable with Him?  Do you talk to Him like you would a great friend, a beloved?  Is He someone you can turn to at any time, someone you can discuss your deepest fears and hearts desires with?

Perhaps you knew Him once but you moved away, became "a friend of the world", and therefore "an enemy of God".  (James 4:4)

Or has He always been a figurehead, a domineering master or angry father from whom you would rather hide your face?

Whichever of these applies to you, or even if your relationship with God is entirely inapplicable to the above, do you desire more of Him?  Do you want to be "a friend of God" like Moses and Abraham?  "A man after God's own heart" as David was? (Acts 13:22)

Over the past few weeks, inspired by our Rivers of Joy Ladies Meetings I have been studying David's relationship with God and what the concept of true friendship really means in the bible.

David spent much of his time alone tending sheep and was able to develop a deep friendship with God, which was built on mutual love and trust.  David trusted God to deliver him in times of trouble, in return God trusted David with His Kingdom.  David had faith and courage because the Lord was with him at all times.  This was the kind of friendship that would never fail.  Even when David committed great sins the Lord knew his heart and forgave him.  In his distress David complained bitterly to God, as in Psalm 22:1-6, when he felt that his cry for help was in vain.  However, even at such times of anguish David always would finish by praising the Lord (v. 22-31) and this was a great demonstration of his faith and belief in God as his friend, his comforter, deliverer and provider.

In Proverbs 17:17 it says "a friend loves at all times", which is certainly true of David and his relationship with God, and in Proverbs 18:24 it says "there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother".  

Certainly the friendship between David and Jonathan was something closer than David had experienced with his own brothers.  Son of King Saul, Jonathan was heir apparent to the throne which was then given to David when Saul fell from God's favour.  Despite this, Jonathan's love for his friend only grew and the bond between them was so strong that they never let anything come between them.

In 1 Samuel 19:1-4, "Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David.  But Jonathan warned him, 'My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you.  Go into hiding and stay there.  I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are.  I'll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out.'"  So in this, Jonathan shows a greater loyalty to his friend than to his own father.  

Friends who love us at all times, and whose closeness to us even transcends family relationships, are rare.  True friendship demands a commitment that few of us are willing to take up.  The responsibility necessary to live up to the biblical standard of friendship is vast.

"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends."  John 15:13

Would you lay down your life for a friend?  Would you lay down your life for God?

During His time on earth an essential part of Jesus' message was that God wanted to re-establish His covenant of friendship with man, that had been broken by the fall of Adam and Eve.

In order to understand this I looked at the Old Testament idea of friendship.  In such times when two people wanted to be friends or allies, they established a "covenant of friendship."  Under such a covenant, friendship meant that you would protect the other person, even to the extent of risking your own life.  It meant that all your possessions were at your friend's disposal.  The covenant was sealed by the two people sharing a meal together.  

This is illustrated by David in Psalm 41:9 where he says to God, "Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me."  Thus emphasising the symbolism of sharing a meal with someone as a seal of friendship.

This also helps us to understand the gravitas of Jesus sharing a meal with the tax collectors in Mark 2:15-17, and why it was so frowned upon by the Pharisees.  

"While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and 'sinners' were eating with Him and His disciples, for there were many who followed Him....The teachers of the law who were Pharisees...asked His disciples: 'Why does He eat with tax collectors and "sinners?"  On hearing this, Jesus said to them, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'"

So, having established what friendship looks like from a biblical perspective, how can we apply this to our friendship with God?  Do we invite God to be with us at every meal?  Do we acknowledge Him before others who might scorn us for our faith?

When we talk about David's friendship with God I recall how when David was anointed by Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:13 "the Spirit of the Lord came upon him".  

"Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward".

Without the presence of the Holy Spirit we cannot be in God's presence.  The Holy Spirit is His presence in us, on us, around us.  

Jesus said in John 14:16-17; 

"and I will ask the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever - the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you."

Hence, when we talk about friendship with God we need to understand the friendship with the person of the Holy Spirit.  He is the one that Jesus asked the Father to send to be with us at all times.  When Jesus ascended into heaven to be with the Father, He said "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." John 14:18

By this we understand that Jesus ensured that He will be with us always through the presence of the Holy Spirit.  

When God speaks to us through visions, dreams, his voice and scripture it is the Holy Spirit who is leading us, teaching us and encompassing us with the Father's love.

So if you haven't really acknowledged the Holy Spirit as an ever present being in your life you need to do this before you can even address how to become a friend of God.

God has always known us, He chose us.  If you are reading this then it mean He has called you to be His friend.  

If one of your old friends whom you hadn't really spent much time with, or even an old friend of your parents' or perhaps a friend of a friend, came knocking at your door you would most likely want to make up for this.  Wouldn't you take time to get to know them and let them into your life a little?  

Imagine that this old friend is God, the Holy Spirit.  It says in Revelation 3:20 "Here I am!  I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me." 

Many of us are asking God to hear our prayers, some of us are actively seeking God and a few of us are really knocking on His door.  And yet, somehow we often fail to hear Him knocking on our door.  Are we really listening?  God's word says in Psalm 50:1 that "The mighty one, God, the Lord, speaks and calls the earth from the rising of the sun to it's setting".  If God is speaking to us from dawn to dusk then surely there must be something wrong with our "hearing", if we aren't able to hear His voice.

What if, after an hour of asking, seeking and knocking we go back to our worldly lives and miss out when God returns our call?  In the bible we are called to "pray without ceasing", 1 Thessalonians 5:17, but if you've only given God an hour of your day then how can you make up for this?  If you've spent most of your life ignoring God what can you do?  How can you restore a friendship, or build a friendship, when so much time has passed? 

By including Him in everything.  Inviting Him into every tiny detail of your life, sharing your day with Him, not just putting your prayer time into a box at the beginning and end of the day.

Perhaps we need to refocus.  Shut out the clamours of the world.  Spend time with God, as David did, make up for our absence just as we would with that old friend whom we hadn't seen for so long.  In some ways we have an advantage over David, we are part of a family of believers, so why not spend 24 hours in prayer with other believers?  Why not 100 plus years in corporate prayer as the Moravians did?  For Matthew 18:19-20 says "Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst."

If we really want God to answer our prayers we have to wait for Him to show up!  If you say to Him, okay "I'm not leaving until you heal my friend", "I'm not leaving until my Mum is saved" then what would happen?  Are you prepared to wait for God all day?  All night?  Or is 40 minutes enough for you to bare?

Surely if we knock long and hard God will answer as He promised.

Isaiah 62:7 says "Give Him no rest until He brings Jerusalem to the place of righteousness".

Earlier in the passage (v. 1-3) it says "For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her vindication shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch. The nations will see your vindication, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow. You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God."

The New Living Translation says: "Give the Lord no rest until He completes His work".  

If we are truly friends of God then we will know and understand the best time to pray such a prayer, you will know when God wants you just to worship Him.  

David knew God because He spent time with Him, because God was a part of His everyday life, not just isolated moments in his day and because of this, because God knew David's heart He anointed David with His Holy Spirit.  

God has to trust us before He can give us this anointing.  In order to trust someone, you have to know them, spend time with them, earn their trust.  In order for God to trust us, we have to trust Him.  We have to surrender everything to Him.

Father God,

I love you Lord, my strength.  You are my rock, my fortress and my deliverer.  My God you are my rock in whom I take refuge.  My shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.  

Let nothing stand in the way of my relationship with you Lord.  I ask you to break any strongholds that are preventing me from surrendering everything to you.  Thank you Lord for calling me into your Kingdom, for setting me apart for your purpose.  I pray that you will anoint me and fill me to overflowing with the wonderful presence of your Holy Spirit.  

As a deer pants for the water so my soul longs after you.  Oh my Lord God, I yearn for your presence to be with me by day and by night, for the burning love that I have for our Saviour to ignite every fibre of my being.  Use me for your purpose so that I might become the friend that I never knew until the day I met you.

In Jesus Name I pray,

Amen