God WANTS to be YOUR Friend!

God wants to be your Friend.

God loves you personally and desires to be your friend.  He wants you to walk with Him and talk with Him and live in His presence all of your days.

Exodus 33:11 – And the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.

This is the kind of fellowship God wants with all of us. He paid the price of the blood of Jesus to draw us near and bring us into fellowship with Him.  He is standing at jelly the door of the heart of every Christian knocking so that we might open and enjoy continual fellowship with Him.  If you are not yet a Christian, He wants your to accept what He has provided for you through His Son.

1 Corinthians 1:9 – …by Him you were called into companionship and participation with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Corinthians 13:14 – The grace (favor and spiritual blessing) of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the presence and fellowship in the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen

Message – The amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, the extravagant love of God, the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you.

One of the things we are called into is companionship and fellowship with God. God desires us to enjoy His presence and fellowship.
Notice the prayer isn’t for the Lord to be with them. Since He said He will never leave us for forsake us, we shouldn’t pray contrary to the Word. We should pray scripturally, that the love and presence and fellowship of the Lord be with us, or like the Message Bible says, may the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit be with us all!

Revelation 3:20 – Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.

Ephesians 2:13 – But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

These things are His part. What is our part?

So many times we get the parts mixed up.  We try to do for ourselves what He has already done or what He said He would do for us and ask Him to do for us things He has told us to do.  I’ll cover this at another time.  Concerning closeness with God and walking in His presence, what has He told us to do?

Hebrews 10:19-22 – Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

James 4:8 – Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

“Let US draw near.”   We are to draw near to Him.  The Bible doesn’t say to pray that He will draw us near.  He has done His part and brought us near.   Now we do our part and draw near to Him.

How do we draw near?

God is always the same regardless of feeling.  The Bible says to draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith. Faith has a great deal to do with it. Faith takes God at His Word. Faith treats the Word as true and God as an honest being. Faith doesn’t beg God to do what He has already done. Faith believes He has done it and acts as if it is true.

Matthew 28:20 (Amplified) – Teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you all the days (perpetually, uniformly, and on every occasion), to the [very] close and consummation of the age. Amen (so let it be).

He is with me all my days, perpetually, uniformly and on every occasion. This is true regardless of my feelings, my experience or what anyone else says.

God is always the same and always with me the same, but my perception and my feelings continually change.  How close He is to me never changes, but how close I stay to Him (in my awareness of Him and in my active fellowship with Him) can change based on me.  Truth is not based on my moods or passing emotions or the present circumstances around me but on the eternal realities and on the unchanging nature of God and the eternal Word of God.

2 Chronicles 15:2, 7 – The Lord is with you while are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. But you be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.

He is with me in proportion to how I am with Him. He is as close to me as I am to Him. If I seek Him, I will find Him. If I turn away from Him, He will seem far away though He is always as close as my whispered prayer.

He is right there knocking on the door of my heart to come in and fellowship with me. All I have to do is believe this and let Him in. Faith in this truth opens the door to its reality in my life.

Some think that God hides Himself for some weird spiritual purpose. He may be hidden from your feelings or senses, but He is always in plain view through His word, always the same, never changing. So in actuality, He is not hidden.

He is exactly where He says He is, with me always, never leaving me. To faith what the Word says is more true that what seems to be.

In conclusion, my relationship and closeness with the Lord is up to me not Him. He has taken the first step in drawing me near. He has not only drawn me near, but He is knocking at the door of my heart so that I will let Him in to fellowship with me. This is an eternal scripture that is true every day.   He is ALWAYS knocking on the door of my heart so that He can come in and fellowship with me. This is His desire. This is the reason Jesus came and gave His life to reconcile us to God and draw us near.

It is a waste of time to pray that He will draw me near since He has already more than done this.  I should spend my time and energy rather in responding to Him and drawing near to Him in times of the word and prayer. I should spend time studying and meditating on His Word to seek out and learn about what He has done so that I can live it – not waiting for Him to do for me what He has already done and freely given – that is there for the taking.

As I spend time with the Lord, He is there. He is real. He is present.  When I treat Him like I believe His presence always with me, He presence becomes more and more real to me.  When I honor Him by taking Him at His Word and treating Him as though He is with me, right there always the same, I will find Him present and real just as He has said.