FRIENDSHIP
WITH GOD; GOD: HIS PRESENCE

After all, what higher privilege and experience is granted to mankind on earth than to be admitted into the circle of the friends of God?…

It is well for us to remember that Divine-human friendship originated with God. Had God not first said “You are My friends,” it would be inexcusably brash for any man to say, “I am a friend of God.” But since God claims us for His friends, it is an act of unbelief to deny the offer of such a relationship.…

The spiritual giants of old were those who at some time became acutely conscious of the presence of God. They maintained that consciousness for the rest of their lives.…

The essential point is this: These were men who met and experienced God! How otherwise can the saints and prophets be explained? How otherwise can we account for the amazing power for good they have exercised over countless generations?

Is it not that indeed they had become friends of God? Is it not that they walked in conscious communion with the real Presence and addressed their prayers to God with the artless conviction that they were truly addressing Someone actually there?

John 15:14–16; Hebrews 11

Men Who Met God, 13, 14.