Friendship with God

Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing . . . ? —Genesis 18:17

The Delights of His Friendship. Genesis 18 brings out the delight of true friendship with God, as compared with simply feeling His presence occasionally in prayer. This friendship means being so intimately in touch with God that you never even need to ask Him to show you His will. It is evidence of a level of intimacy which confirms that you are nearing the final stage of your discipline in the life of faith. When you have a right-standing relationship with God, you have a life of freedom, liberty, and delight; you are God’s will. And all of your commonsense decisions are actually His will for you, unless you sense a feeling of restraint brought on by a check in your spirit. You are free to make decisions in the light of a perfect and delightful friendship with God, knowing that if your decisions are wrong He will lovingly produce that sense of restraint. Once he does, you must stop immediately.

The Difficulties of His Friendship. Why did Abraham stop praying when he did? He stopped because he still was lacking the level of intimacy in his relationship with God, which would enable him boldly to continue on with the Lord in prayer until his desire was granted. Whenever we stop short of our true desire in prayer and say, “Well, I don’t know, maybe this is not God’s will,” then we still have another level to go. It shows that we are not as intimately acquainted with God as Jesus was, and as Jesus would have us to be— “. . . that they may be one just as We are one . . .” (John 17:22). Think of the last thing you prayed about-were you devoted to your desire or to God? Was your determination to get some gift of the Spirit for yourself or to get to God? “For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8). The reason for asking is so you may get to know God better. “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). We should keep praying to get a perfect understanding of God Himself.

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與神為友

我所要作的事，豈可瞞著亞伯拉罕呢？ （創十八17）

與神為友的快樂。這一章說出與神真正為友的快樂，較之祈禱時偶爾感到他同在是大有不同。若與神親密到一個地步，不需要求他向你指示他的心意。這樣，你的信心生活就進入成長的階段了。與神的關係正常，生命就自由快樂；你就是神的旨意，你一切憑理智所作出的決定，就是他在你身上的旨意，除非他有特別的攔阻。你與神有美好愉快的友誼，便可以決定一切事情，因為就是決定錯了，他總會阻止；他一阻止，就該立刻停止。

與神為友的困難。亞伯拉罕為什麼停止了禱告？他與神的關係還未夠親密，所以在神未答應他的要求之前，便不敢前進。這時他與神的關係，仍有待改進。我們禱告時，若突然中止，說：[唔，我不敢肯定，這也許不是神的旨意。 ]這樣，你還有另一些階段要經歷。我們認識神還未及耶穌的深切，也未達到他要我們應有的認識－－[使他們合而為一，像我們合而為一。 ]試想想你最後禱告的事是什麼？是專注於自己的需求呢？還是神自己？是堅持要得一些聖靈的恩賜？還是要見神的面？ [你們沒有祈求以先，你們所需用的，你們的父早已知道了。 ]所以，祈求的目的是使你更認識神。 [要以耶和華為樂，他就將你心裡所求的賜給你。 ]不住的禱告，使對神有更完全的認識。

祈禱◆噢，主啊，[願祢晝夜看顧這殿。 ]願祢保守和護衛它，遠離所有與祢心意相違的東西，並且使我們每一個都成為祢內心深處所切望的人。