WHO IS A FRIEND OF GOD?

Jn 15:15 (NKJV)  No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 

You are a friend of God if you know what God is doing. 

• How can you know what God is doing? 

Only if God Himself tells you or shows you.

• How can you be sure of hearing the voice of God?

Jn 15:14 (NKJV)  You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 

God speaks to you because He loves you and He wants to be in an intimate relationship with you. 

But God also wants to help you to live a heavenly life. 

• You can only know how to live the life of Heaven on Earth if you are listening to the direction of the King of Heaven AND you are willing to follow His direction. 

Why do we often have difficulties hearing from God? 

• It may be because we have not fully believed the last thing God said to us. 

How do you know if you have really believed? 

• Only if you ACT on the last thing God said to you.

The great English preacher Smith Wigglesworth was a man of faith. We know about his faith because of his radiant holy life and the continuous stream of healings and miracles in his ministry. 

• Smith Wigglesworth said: "The Acts of the Apostles was written because the Apostles acted!" 

Jesus speaks to a lot of people but many do not hear His voice because they are confused by doubt or they do not want to believe and obey what God says to them. 

You can know what God is doing if you walk through life in His presence.

Amos 3:3 (NKJV) Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?

You cannot walk together with God unless you agree with His truth, unless your thinking is dominated by Bible truth. 

• However, there are many who are full of the Bible who are not at all in agreement with the heart of the Heavenly Father.

Jesus said to religious Jews:

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 

But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. John 5:39-40 (NKJV)

Do you think this only applies to Jews? I don’t think so. 

• How many Christians study the Bible so they can attack and condemn other Christians who disagree with them? 

• How many Christians use dogmas and Bible texts to bully other Christians? 

• Church members bully pastors and pastors bully church members. It makes God sick and it also makes non-Christians sick, so that many don’t want to believe in Jesus. 

Amos 3:3 (NKJV) Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?

The Hebrew word for AGREED also means MEET TOGETHER. 

• It is not enough to agree with Bible texts. It is not enough to memorise and declare Bible truths.
• We must have personal encounters with the God who speaks in the Bible. We must KNOW HIM.

Jesus said:

• I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. Jn 10:14 (NKJV)  
• My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 
• And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. John 10:27-28 (NKJV)

I thank God for good pastors but I have had to learn that JESUS is my Pastor.

If the pastor of your local church controls your life, you are in deep trouble. 

I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. Jn 10:14 (NKJV) 

The words SHEPHERD and PASTOR mean exactly the same thing. 

Church pastors have the high calling of helping people to become friends of THE GOOD SHEPHERD, so that each believer is personally directed by JESUS.