Be a character witness friend of God
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courtesy Africhrist Podcast Feb 2022 Episode 1
Be a character witness friend of God
Let us look at some of the Friends of God who got his witness and what we can learn from their character
It always feels good to know that there’s someone in your life who would stand by you and vouch for you no matter what!
Someone who would stand as your evidential character witness
Now imagine that person to be God Almighty? Can you imagine yourself to be God’s evidential character witness and his friend? The friend he makes reference to? In this episode we look at some Bible examples some of whom God calls his friends, face to face
These are characters for us to freely emulate and become God’s friends as well!
Abraham
Bible references:
Isaiah 41:8,10; 2 Chronicles 20:7; James 2:20-23
In Isaiah 41, we see Israel in God’s courts looking for help. Israel is small and worried about the size and strength of the armies of enemy nations facing it.
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First God reminds them of his power and authority in creation.
Then he recites the bragging and arrogance of the other nations. But ends up reassuring Israel that they are powerless compared to him.
He then reassures Israel of his full power being behind them. He says it’s all because they are descendants of his friend Abraham.
Isaiah 41:8, 10 NLT
“But as for you, Israel my servant, Jacob my chosen one, descended from Abraham my friend, Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.”
In 2 Chronicles 20:7 King Jehoshaphat was in a similar fit at Hazazon -Tamar or Engedi. This time he reminded God of his own witness in regards to Abraham, in other words, King Jehoshaphat was name dropping:
2 Chronicles 20:7 NLT
“O our God, did you not drive out those who lived in this land when your people Israel arrived? And did you not give this land forever to the descendants of your friend Abraham?”
Then James gives testimony of Abraham being righteous, a man who showed his faith in God by his actions. James finishes his testimony by saying that for this Abraham was even called the friend of God. So our walking by faith and working in God’s calling is a prelude to being a friend of God.
Abraham is also known as the father of faith because God told him to leave the place where he grew up and go to another “not knowing” where or the direction but depended on God’s day by day direction. Let God be your daily minute by minute mile by mile GPS.
It’s not just about believing alone but as James said that even demons believe that God exists, but faith without works is dead faith. Maybe it lived once in you, but don’t kill it with no works. Abraham believed and then walked by faith not sight, and is now called the friend of God!
James 2:20-23 NLT
“How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless? Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete. And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” He was even called the friend of God.”
Before we leave Abraham, let us look at one of the best stories of God’s witness to a person.
Remember when Abraham’s son Isaac was ready to marry, it’s Abraham who spoke to God for favor. Abraham gave his servant the mission to go find and get the bride for Isaac. He basically asked him to go by faith not knowing who or where.
Here are some scriptures of faith that show God’s faithfulness that became witness for Abraham.
Have confidence that God Will never leave you nor forsake you or your own
Genesis 24:7 NLT
“For the Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and my native land, solemnly promised to give this land to my descendants. He will send his angel ahead of you, and he will see to it that you find a wife there for my son.”
God’s success and guidance will follow his witness
Genesis 24:12-13 NLT
““O Lord, God of my master, Abraham,” he prayed. “Please give me success today, and show unfailing love to my master, Abraham. See, I am standing here beside this spring, and the young women of the town are coming out to draw water.”
Do what God has called you to do before anything else
Genesis 24:32-33 NLT
“I don’t want to eat until I have told you why I have come.” “All right,” Laban said, “tell us.””
Being in God’s presence meditating and praying will elicit God’s witness for you
Genesis 24:39-40 NLT
““But I said to my master, ‘What if I can’t find a young woman who is willing to go back with me?’ He responded, ‘The Lord, in whose presence I have lived, will send his angel with you and will make your mission successful. Yes, you must find a wife for my son from among my relatives, from my father’s family.”
No one can challenge God’s witness
Genesis 24:50 NLT
“Then Laban and Bethuel replied, “The Lord has obviously brought you here, so there is nothing we can say.”
Moses
Reference scriptures:
Exodus 33:7-16; Deuteronomy 34:10
When God is your friend, he is constantly around you . He promised that in the New Testament that he would never leave us nor forsake us as long as we have faith in him.
We see that with Moses in the Old Testament and it gives us assurance because it’s not new and he has proved it over and over
Exodus 33:7-14 NKJV
“Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp. So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle.
And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door,and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door. So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle. Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.” And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.””
Deuteronomy 34:10-11
“There has never been a prophet in Israel like Moses; the LORD spoke with him face to face. No other prophet has ever done miracles and wonders like those that the LORD sent Moses to perform against the king of Egypt, his officials, and the entire country.”
Deuteronomy 34:10-11 GNBDK
To Moses, God’s presence is in the now. Here God is reassuring his friend that he will never leave him nor forsake him. We can see this presence in Deuteronomy where the name of God used in 34:10 is a verb “To Be” or Yah Veh.
the English translation is all capital letters LORD as opposed to Lord with only “L” in capitals which is translated as Master. For example Sarah Reffered to Abraham as “my Lord” or “my master”
But here God, was addressing Moses as an ever present verb “To Be” or Yah Veh. This is also very similar to Adonai translated as “My Lord” except that Yah Veh is the Biblical revealed Name of God to Moses his friend in the present tense “I Am” face to face.
David
After God’s own heart
Being people after God’s own heart does not make us perfect but rather gives us a goal and the way of Christ to that goal ( Hebrews 5:9).
David was such a person who sought, even with personal struggles, to do what God wanted him to do. God gave witness as shown in Acts of the appositives referring to 1 Samuel chapter 13:14 and chapter 16:7-11
Acts of the Apostles 13:22 NLT
“But God removed Saul and replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.’”
Jesus
Wherever Jesus went as man walking this earth, God’s presence was always around him.
But so was temptation as well. For example, when he went into the wilderness to pray and fast at the beginning of his ministry, the devil was there to tempt him.
When he spoke to the woman at the well, sexual temptation was there because this woman was a professional tempter of men. Five live in men including a sixth she was living with at the time.
Similarly, it is so with us, but
“ the proof of repentance and salvation is not the absence of temptation but the awareness of God and the power to obey his ways”
God will then be your witness as he was for Jesus every time. A good example is when Jesus was being baptized by John the Baptist.
My beloved son
Matthew 3:13-17
“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to do all that God requires” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;”
Our Testimony
Our testimony is not for us to keep or point to us but to God and an opportunity glorify God and lead the hearer to him.
If you do not deny the Lord even by your life character, he will be your characrer witness
Luke 12:8-9 ESV “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.”
Becoming a friend of Jesus
One of the ways of the Lord testifies on your behalf is by being his friend.
So how do you become a friend of Jesus? First he reminds us that he has already put his life on the line as the price for this friendship. He took the sweat out with his own Blood.
John 15:12-15 ESV
““This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 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.”
When we do what the Lord asks us to do we become his friend. He then pours all that God has given him, into our own lives. It then becomes easier for us to walk into the plan he has for our lives that he reminds us of in Jeremiah 29:11
So let us conclude by letting God open our spiritual eyes that we may see the power directed to us as believers. Paul prayed that for the Ephesians, that way his witness will manifest in our lives, Amen!
