Friendship with God: Is It Really Possible?

Talk about having friends in high places. Imagine having a friendship with the Creator of the universe. It’s actually possible.

The Bible tells us about someone who knew God in a personal way, someone who was friends with God. His name was Moses, and we find this amazing statement about him in the Old Testament: “So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Exodus 33:11 NKJV).

One day as they were in deep conversation, Moses asked God for the most audacious thing, something unprecedented. He said, “Please, show me Your glory” (verse 18 NKJV). In other words, “I want to see You, God. I love talking with You. I love our conversations. But I actually would like to see You.”

It’s a good thing to want to see God. I love what commentator A. B. Simpson wrote: “Once it was the blessing, now it is the Lord; once it was the feeling, now it is His Word. Once His gifts I wanted, now the Giver own; once I sought for healing, now Himself alone.”

Also, Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8 NKJV).

Friends can ask friends for favors, and God wasn’t offended by this request. However, if Moses saw God, he would have died on the spot, because God said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live” (Exodus 33:20 NKJV).

So God told Moses, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh, before you. . . . Look, stand near me on this rock. As my glorious presence passes by, I will hide you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and let you see me from behind. But my face will not be seen” (verses 19, 21–23 NLT).

God was saying, “You’re My friend, Moses, and I’m going let you do something that no one has ever done before.”

I can’t even imagine what Moses saw that day. When the apostle Paul went to Heaven and came back to Earth again, he said, “I was caught up to paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell” (2 Corinthians 12:4 NLT).

In other words, what Paul heard and saw was indescribable. He couldn’t even put it into words.

We’re in awe of such a relationship. But here’s something that might surprise you: A Christian’s friendship with God is even closer than the friendship that Moses had with God. That’s because when Jesus died, a new covenant was established. Jesus fulfilled all the Old Testament sacrifices and types in Himself. He was the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world.

After the resurrection, Jesus said to Mary Magdalene, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God'” (John 20:17 NKJV).

Jesus was saying, “Listen, now He’s your God, and now He’s your Father. You can call on Him.”

Therefore, we can have friendship with God. Jesus said, “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15 NKJV).

Moses saw God, and we can see God, too.

We find an example of this in the story of Stephen, who became the first martyr of the church. He was a courageous young man who would not back down from his faith. He stood before the religious rulers of that day, known as the Sanhedrin, and proclaimed the gospel to them. And they rewarded him by taking his life through stoning.

As his life was draining from him, Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into Heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the place of honor at God’s right hand (see Acts 7:55–56).

Stephen saw God’s glory. Moses saw God’s glory. And those of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ will one day see His glory as well.

Do you have a Christian loved one who has died? They’re seeing God’s glory in Heaven. And one day, if you’re a follower of Christ, you will see it, too. But until that day, we need to walk in friendship with God.

Are you a friend of God? If you’re not, then by default you’re an enemy of God. The Bible says that before we become believers, we are enemies who need to be reconciled to God (see Romans 5:10–11). And the Bible describes people who don’t believe as enemies of the cross (see Philippians 3:18).

The Bible also tells us that a person who loves this world is not a friend of God but the enemy of God.

Before I became a Christian, there was one statement that hit my heart like a lightning bolt from Heaven: “Jesus said, ‘You’re either for Me or against Me.'” The preacher on my high school campus that day was saying, “You are either God’s friend or God’s enemy.”

I looked around at the Christians who were there and thought, “They are the friends of God. They have a relationship with God. They know the Lord. They are for Him. I’m not one of them. Does that mean I’m against God?”

The last thing I wanted was to be against God. So that was the day I believed.

If you haven’t put your faith in Christ, maybe this will be the day you believe. You can come into a relationship with God. You can have your sin forgiven and can go to Heaven when you die.

Just as Moses stood in the gap for the people of Israel, Jesus stood in the gap for you and died in your place. With one hand Jesus took hold of a holy God, and with the other hand He took hold of sinful humanity. If you’ll turn from your sin and believe in Him, you can be forgiven and know without any doubt that you will go to Heaven when you die.

You, too, can see the glory of God. And you, too, can have friendship with God from this moment forward.

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Learn more about Pastor Greg Laurie.

This article was originally published at WND.com.