The following four laws (or spiritual principles) can help to explain how we may become friends of God. (1)
Law 1: God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life–friendship with Him.
Jesus says,
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:13-15 ESV)
“I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him! Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows. (Luke 12:4-7 NASB1995)
Law 2: People and sinful and enemies of God. Therefore we cannot know God as a friend or experience His wonderful plan for our lives.
“You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4 ESV)
Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:4-10 NASB1995)
Law 3: Jesus Christ is God’s only solution for our sin and enmity with Him. Through Him alone we can be reconciled to God as His friends and experience His wonderful plan for our lives.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. (Romans 5:8-11 NASB1995)
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:20-21 NASB1995)
Law 4: To be God’s friend, we must trust Him.
“You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’—and he was called a friend of God.” (James 2:22-23 ESV)
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NASB1995)
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,” (Ephesians 2:13-19 ESV)
The following is a suggested prayer for further conversation with God on this matter. If the words express the desire of your heart to know Him as a Friend and Leader of your entire life, you can pray it aloud to express your commitment to Him:
God, I acknowledge that You are a Father who loves me and desires me to know You intimately. When I don’t trust in You and act foolishly, not submitting to Your leadership and instructions, things fall apart in my life (not because You are mean, but because I act in unhealthy ways and reap the bad crops that I sowed in the first place through the wrong, negative thoughts and lies that I believed about myself, You, and others). Because of my foolish, rebellious attitudes about Your leadership, I have lived as Your enemy.
Whenever I think that my ideas or opinions are better than what You actually say in Your Word, I am not trusting in you as a loving Father who knows the obstacles in my way and wants what is best for me. I thank You for sending Jesus to the earth to show me what You are like. I thank You that Jesus desires intimate friendship with me as I submit myself to His loving leadership, just as He submitted to Your perfect, loving leadership in His life. Jesus trusted You fully even to the point of death on a cross.
Despite whatever obstacles, rejection, gossip, slander, lies, accusation, and hatred people had towards Him, Jesus still trusted and obeyed You, not buckling under that opposition or believing those lies. He loved You perfectly, He received the identity that You spoke over Him, and He loved others perfectly as a result, bringing them freedom and healing. I thank You that Jesus defeated every lie and enemy that separated me from a trust relationship with You. You raised Him from the dead to prove it.
I choose to trust in Jesus, believing in my heart that You raised Jesus from the dead. As I commit myself daily to trust in You, I thank You for how You will teach me, instruct me, and make me more like You–more like Jesus, the kind of person You created me to be.
Amen (So be it!)
For more information on what it means to know God as a friend, see the post “Friendship with the King” here. See also “Which Fiery Furnace Will You Choose?” here.
(1) Based on Would You Like to Know God Personally? A version of The Four Spiritual Laws, written by Bill Bright.
