28th March, 2021
Text: Proverbs 17:9
Minister: Pastor Seyi Osanyinbi
There will come many opportunities that can make us go back from believing in God. It could be tribulations, trials, unanswered prayers and many more. We must daily seek the grace and encouragement not to go back.
Has Jesus become a friend to you? Have you come to a place of intimacy with Him? You cannot have intimacy with Him without Him being your friend. Likewise, He cannot become your friend without having revelation of His being.
There are different levels of intimacy with Jesus that we must discover. Most of our problems are fundamentals and most of us have refused to embrace positive change, we choose to hold on to our dysfunctional foundational teachings. To embrace change does not mean we should totally neglect all we have been taught because some of those things will still be needed in building intimacy with Jesus. One of these levels of intimacy is Friendship.
Proverbs 17:9,17
To evaluate your friends;
- check the way they handle offenses
- check their disposition to you in times of trouble (Proverbs 17:17)
- How well can they tell you the bitter truth (Proverbs 27:6)
It takes a lot of social skills to maintain or keep friendship, therefore, we must be careful with the way we handle friendship because we do not know how or when we will be needing them.
There were certain people in the Bible that God called friends. This shows that this level of relationship is not for all.
Exodus 23:11
Mariam and Aaron got into trouble because they do not understand how God relates with him. It is also important to note the consequence of their conspiracy against Moses, Miriam was judged the most. This is one of the reasons why it is important not to conspire or join multitudes to do evil.
Luke 11:5-6, 1 Samuel 18:1
There are things that will not be given except we come into the level of friendship. And it takes patience and consistency to build friendship.
John 15:13-15
If you want Jesus to be your friend, there are commissions. He does not just make anyone to be His friend. There are levels of communion that it takes only friendship to speak there. The proof of our commitment will be tested, heaven must find us to be trustworthy. To be a true friend, we must have been found worthy, consistently obeying every of His commands.
John 15:15-17
One of the critical things of friendship is access to information. You can not be in the dark if truly you have become a friend of Christ.
John 15:17
The genuity of our friendship is tested by our love for one another. This love talks about a deep covenant of friendship.
Isaiah 54:10
God is committed to building a friend-relationship with us. But the problem is our personal commitment to the relationship