I am a friend of God! Woohoo. I LOVE walking in close intimate fellowship with the King of the universe. God no longer calls me a servant because I do what I see the Father doing and I pray what I hear Jesus praying and I desire what the Holy Spirit desires. I do not have to fear that my prayers will not be answered. I have Gods Word on this matter and He is not a man that He should lie. He reveals deep mysteries to me and its an intense and thrilling ride. I have fought through my doubts and fears into a spacious place of grace and power, a new level of glory and supernatural revelation. I am making it through another round of painful pruning and can see and taste the massive fruit that is coming in the next season. I remain in the vine. By the grace and mercy of God I live and breath and soldier on. I beat my body into submission. Christ has conquered death and it will no longer reign in my mortal body. He has anointed my eyes to see heavenly visions and deep and hidden things. He has walked me through the valley of the shadow of death once again. My knees wobbled and my brow sweat, but I clung to the hope of my calling in Christ Jesus and the dark and cloudy skies are clearing; the path beneath my feet is a steady uphill climb out of the valley and up the mountain that is lifting me high above my enemies.
Remain in God even if it hurts. Remain in Him when He leads you into darkness; when you can’t see where He is leading you. Remain in Him when you feel the cut of His knife; He is removing dead weight. Remain in Him and He will remain in you and your joy will grow and grow and grow. His power will be available to you to accomplish everything He calls you to do, and the desires of your heart will be fulfilled His way, His time and for His glory!
‘As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I 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. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.”
-John 15:9-15
-Not sure who this image belongs to but will happily remove it if it infringes on anyones copyright
I read this yesterday morning and meditated on its personal application to me at various times throughout the day. Thanks for sharing. I believe it was a timely parable for me too about some bad attitudes I have in a situation that I am being called to bear fruit in.
I just reread your post and I’m inspired to share recent events with you. It’s spring, a season renowned for new growth. But as the season has unfolded, I noticed that a small pear tree in my yard that produced pears last year did not produce a single leaf. My initial thought was to give it time because it was perhaps a late bloomer. However, after mowing around it for several weeks I noticed something… More on that later. I have another tree that sprouted leaves on one half but not the other. Similarly to the pear tree, I thought that would change in time. But I pulled out my machete on Thursday and did what was long overdue. The season of new growth was also a season of death and pruning. I pushed the pear tree in the four cardinal directions and I heard the dead roots snap as I uprooted it. Then after a few cuts with the machete on the other tree I was able to pull the dead half of the other tree down. That’s when I felt a question deep within regarding why I had been holding on to what the Lord had allowed to die and had made it clear for me to see. In addition, I may have saved the other half of the tree by pruning the dead half. I won’t say too much more, but as I was writing this note I was reminded of how costly it can be to hold on to the wrong things, or even old things when the Lord is trying to do a “new thing”:
‘And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.’ ~ Jesus (Matthew 5:29-30)
Wow, super cool comment and I’m just now reading it for some reason. 😊
Beautiful post. Simply reading the title caused yokes to fall to the ground and shatter.
It is nice you want to call yourself a friend of God. We do hope you may grow in the knowledge of that Eternal God, who is the Divine Creator of everything.
We also hope you come to see clearly who Jesus is so that you would not take him to be your god, but his Heavenly Father, the God of Abraham.
By Christ we are reconciled and have the hope for a better life, but we still have to work at it. for this we should ask for guidance in Christ’s name and read and study God’s Word on a regular basis, trusting in those words more than the human doctrinal teachings.
Good luck on your way with Christ, who is the Way to God.
Amen 🙂