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He Calls Me Friend

by Steve Countryman  
3/17/2012 / Christian Living

John 15:13-15 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

We serve an incomparable God! There is nothing that can compare or even come close to who and what God is! Our problem is that we are always comparing things. We compare ourselves to others, at work, at school, at church and to friends. We compare our experiences to previous experiences. But the one thing that we do that hinders us and God in our daily lives is that we compare God to previous experiences and things in our lives. For things that we lack the experience we ask others, read or listen to advice of others to form our opinion and decisions. Because we live in the natural we limit ourselves and God by comparing Him to the natural. God is supernatural and natural. We limit God, our abilities, His blessings, His work, our obedience, our spiritual growth, our trust and faith in Him and His power in us when we think of God and treat God by the natural.

God is always looking out for our good. He wants us to do better, be better, live better, experience Him better, grow better and improve better in all things. You cannot compare being a friend of God to any other friendships that you have ever had. For God is faithful and totally committed to you. No friend loves you or cares more for you as much as God does. Our problem is that we live in the natural and it is our nature to compare things and experiences to previous ones. What you are required to have in your relationship with the Father is total trust and faith in Him. That will carry you beyond any and all experiences that you have ever had. The Israelites were delivered from captivity in Egypt by Jehovah almighty. God was taking them to the promised land of Canaan. Along the way the Israelites couldn't compare a life without captivity to an abundant and fruitful life that they had never experienced. God required them to have faith and trust in Him. They chose to trust in their past experiences rather than trust in God. By doing so they limited God blessing them, missing out on living a prosperous and abundant life, which brought about their worst fear. To die in the wilderness!

What a blessing, honor and privilege it is to be called a friend of God! Friends share a relationship that acquaintances and even relatives don't share. Knowing things about each other, likes and dislikes, favorite things, what makes each other happy, intimate things and friends share a special love. A close friend that you can trust in, confide in, be transparent, be open and honest with. The world says that you should never be transparent or open with someone for fear of being betrayed or let down. That is why people can't understand a Christian's perspective of having a friendship with the Lord. They can't begin to imagine such a relationship with anyone. In a world that has over a 50% divorce rate, how can the world accept such a relationship? The world is used to friends who are controlling, manipulative, abusive and selfish. All of which Christ is not! Jesus is a friend who accepts you with all of your faults, failures and flaws and loves you in spite of them. In fact He loves and cares about you so much that He won't leave you stuck where you are but He will help you to be a better Christian.

How good it is to spend time with a friend whose main desire is a close relationship with you. Just like anything else in life, you only get out what you put into it. If you desire to have a close walk and relationship with God, then you will get out of the relationship to the degree of what you have put into it. God will not force Himself on you. It is the choices you make that influence the type of relationship you have with Him! You dictate your walk with God the Father by letting the Holy Spirit lead you in it. No one and nothing can direct or tell you how your walk with the Lord is to be like. Not your friends, not your family, not your church, not your pastor and not anyone or anything else. God wants to take you higher, farther and closer in your relationship with Him than you could ever imagine. He wants to share hidden things with you, fresh revelations, wisdom and knowledge. One of the many things that the Holy Spirit's does is to open your eyes and your mind to the Truth and reveal the Word to you in wonderful and powerful ways. To bring you to a higher plain where your sensitivity to Him is clear and powerful. You know His voice and His Word! He calls me friend! What a friend we have in Jesus!!

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