Friend of God

Friend of God
Our relationship with God takes faith on our part. It also takes patience. Though we try to quiet our hearts, sometimes we wonder if who we hear is really God. Or, is it “us”. Actually, then there’s that other spirit called satan . . . so there are three sources that we might hear from. In listening for the Lord I have found the following to be true;

1. Sometimes God asks us questions to stimulate our thinking - In the Old Testament we read that the Lord asked His prophets “What do you see?” (Amos 7:8; Jer 1:11,13). The Lord will often ask me what I think about something, and then why I think the way I do. He’s asking me how I “see” it. Then He speaks about His view point, and why He thinks the way He does. The result of our question and answer session is that there is a distinct separation between my opinions and reasonings, and God’s.

2. Separate God’s thoughts from your own, then confusion will stop – Paul writes that we should capture our thoughts and make them obedient to Christ (2 Cor 10:3-5). If the Lord isn’t stimulating our thinking by asking us questions, we can still sort out our thoughts into good ones, or “arguments, and pretensions that set themselves up against the knowledge of God”. When we bring our thought-life under submission to Christ, confusion about who is speaking to us goes.

If it seems difficult to silence a good argument going on in our heads, we can fall back on Philippians 4:8 for good advice. It says “Finally brethren, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” Arguments and pretensions don’t fit into the “whatevers.” By putting all our thoughts into submission to God’s word, (Christ is the Word in the flesh), we are unifying our heart to love God.

I have heard many frustrated Christians tell me that it is just too hard to hear God, or that God doesn’t talk to them. It isn’t possible to have a relationship with someone who is silent. God isn’t silent to us: He wants to reveal His heart to us. He wants to show us His nature, and knows that we will be thrilled to know Him. God wants us to know how He feels about us, and to carry His heart towards others in our daily walk.

If we separate our thoughts and feelings from His, we see that He thinks and feels differently from us. When we prefer His ways over our own, then our relationship goes to a deeper level. God trusts us to prefer mercy over revenge, and love over anger. When He awakens us at night to intercede for someone, He knows we will put our heart into it because we care about what He cares about. God shares the unseen or secret things with us little by little to see what we can handle. Will we let offence or pride live in our hearts? Or will we grieve when He grieves and serve Him and not ourselves? If we prefer to have His heart towards others, then He calls us His friend.