John 15:14
(You are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you)
Pleasing God is the number one calling for every Christian. That being the case, we must grow in faith since, “without faith it is impossible to please God,” Hebrews 11:6. Pleasing God means doing what He tells us to do, not what we want to do, it means obedience to His instructions and commands. In fact, the Bible definition of loving God is obeying Him (John 14:15) – from the heart of course.
Very often though, it will not be easy to please God. Times will come when obeying the Father will seem like the end of your life has come. Though God has called us to obey, not to sacrifice, there are moments when obedience will require major sacrifices. When God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, definitely a lot was at stake. Isaac was his only son, and he loved him dearly. Isaac was the child of promise, who had come after much waiting. It was through Isaac that God’s promises to Abraham were all going to be fulfilled. Killing him, therefore, as a sacrifice to God, spelt disaster. On hearing the news that Abraham has killed Isaac, Sarah was going to file for divorce, as the child-sacrifice lunatic of a husband serves life sentence in jail. But more than that, all the promises from God to Abraham were not going to be realized. But against all those odds, Abraham put a knife to Isaac’s throat, figuratively speaking. High level obedience called for a high level sacrifice - Abraham passed that test. His obedience touched the Lord’s heart. That must be the reason why Abraham is the only one in the Bible that God specifically calls “My friend” (see Isaiah 41:8). Obedience is not always easy, very often it comes at a cost, but it is the only way to fulfill the primary calling of every human – pleasing God.
Many years ago, I got to learn from Rick Joyner what faith really is. He said that faith is spelt as R.I.S.K. Any individual who has not learnt that faith is a risk will never please God, for without faith (R.I.S.K) it is impossible to please God, Hebrews 11:6. Do not however take risks for things which God has not commanded you to do, doing so will be presumption, and you will fall flat on your face. Faith (R.I.S.K) comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, Romans 10:16. That means, if you are attempting to do something that has no “thus saith the Lord,” you are deceived, however much you call it faith. But we must not forget that true faith will often mean R.I.S.K. Most Christians fail to walk in faith, giving the excuse that they are being wise. The reality of the matter is they are fearful, they are not risk takers. For that reason, they miss great opportunities to be pleasing to God; worse still, they will never graduate to the status of “My friends.” If we want God to speak of us as His friends, we must look to Abraham our father (Isaiah 51:2), and do his works (John 8:39). He took huge risks as a demonstration of his faith in God, and so should we.
Walk in faith (R.I.S.K), by obeying what God tells you to do, and thereby please Him. When you start doing so, it will not be long before the Angel Gabriel makes announcements in dreams and visions, that you are God’s best friend.
God bless you.