This message was released by Apostle Kathryn Krick Lead Pastor/ Apostle of 5F Church in Los Angeles, CA on November 3, 2024. Below is a word for word translation of the message as if Apostle Kathryn is writing this to you. To watch the full message scroll to the bottom of this post. We pray this teaching blesses you and equips you to walk as a powerful vessel of God. 

This sermon is going to teach you how to be a friend of God & how to have true intimacy with God. 

Probably half of you, or most of you, or all of you are currently, or in the past, have struggled to know how to have a real relationship with God. Anybody relate? Just now knowing. You hear this language “relationship” “intimacy” but you are left not knowing what that means, or how to have that. I know that was the case for me & I ended up feeling very insecure about that, years ago. I would hear other people, I would look at other people, even just people preaching about it “have a relationship with God”, just preaching those words & feeling like I was missing something, there was something wrong with me, I wasn’t a good enough Christian. I would sit & be quiet & wait for God to speak & many times it just remained quiet. I kept feeling shame & condemnation, what am I doing wrong? I heard this language and I didn’t know what does it mean though to have a relationship with God? How do I did this!? I want to do this, but how?  

I’m going to teach you today, I’m going to teach you today & how I’m going to teach you is through the word of God. It actually teaches you in the word of God HOW to have a friendship with God. It actually teaches you, did you know that? It really does. 

Many people have struggled with this insecurity, not knowing how to have a relationship with God because God is a spirit. God is a spirit, He does not come physically as a human, like He did in the times when Jesus first walked the earth. Our relationship with God is IN THE SPIRIT. Honestly, many of you, & this was the case for me, the only relationship you’ve ever known is with a person, a physical person, & so you don’t know how to have a relationship with God. Because honestly, a physical person, your relationships that you have with people, a lot of it, it’s pretty much based on the physical. Not spiritual. It’s based on sight, sound, touch, like if a person does not smile at you, probably you won’t decide to be friends with them. Right? But when you (Hallelujah let there be light & let it stay on), but what makes you have intimacy and grow closer & know that someone loves you & you love them back, is they smile at you. They show warmth & love in the sound of their voice. Their eyes light up when they see you. They run to hug you in a physical embrace. You share laughs together & the words that you speak, you hear physically. You hear. You hear audibly. So if you really think about it, your relationships are based on the physical, right? So this is a big reason why people struggle in knowing how to have a relationship with God, because they’re projecting their relationships with people upon God & that can’t work because your relationship with God is not based on the physical, it’s based on the spirit. Based in the spiritual realm. Amen?  

So the first thing I want to share with you is: you’re going to keep feeling insecure about your relationship with God if you keep measuring your relationship with God with your relationship with people, since you're projecting it. It’s REALLY different. And you got to accept that, otherwise you’ll feel condemned, you’ll feel disappointed, you’ll feel like you’re never measuring up. 

 This is Jesus speaking to Thomas & this is at a time when Thomas was doubting that Jesus had returned after to the earth. After He had been crucified & resurrected, He came back upon the earth & he was doubting when the disciples were saying “Jesus, He’s here, among us” & even Jesus came in the flesh & Thomas could see Him but he was still having trouble believing! 

“Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe! “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed. Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.””

‭‭John‬ ‭20‬:‭27-‭29‬ ‭NLT‬‬

BLESSED are those who believe, without seeing me. 

So this scripture is actually, Jesus is saying, it’s easy to believe when you experience me with your physical senses on a regular basis, but do you know that you can’t please God without faith? It’s the only time it’s talking about pleasing God directly in the Bible. It says this. So the way that you’re going to be the most powerful vessel of God, & be able to do all that God has called you to do is based on your faith. The stronger your faith, the more you can do for God & His kingdom. The more you will be in His will. So faith is the most important thing to God, that you have faith. Even your relationship with God, your relationship with God is based upon faith. Amen? Even your relationship with God, the reason why- you know Jesus could keep appearing physically, He could come in your room as a physical person, appearing physically, just like He did in the scripture with Thomas & the disciples- He could, He’s God! He could absolutely, easily appear to you, appear to every single person in human form, physically. There could be an appointment for an hour per day or something, where Jesus did that & you heard His audible voice & you could hug Him physically. You could see His eyes physically looking at you. He could do that. Why doesn’t He do that?! It would be so much easier for us to have relationship with God, right? It’s because He WANTS YOUR FAITH TO GROW. Even He uses your relationship with Him, as a way to make your faith grow. 

That’s the reason that Jesus says Blessed are you who believe without seeing. Who believe without touching my hand. How many of you would want to touch Jesus’s hands right now physically & be like Thomas. We all would love that but Jesus says we’re more blessed if we don’t. If we don’t do what Thomas did. Why are we more blessed? Because our faith will grow more, the more that we choose faith instead of our feelings. Like God says I want my relationship with you to be based on faith. You know sometimes you don’t hear my voice & I’m using this moment to stretch your faith. It’s not that I’m not speaking, I already spoke & I actually want you to renew your mind with what I spoke- I’m still speaking it. I want you to go in the spirit, I want you to be more spiritual to have intimacy with me. That’s what I’m doing when it seems like I’m quiet. 

That’s choosing faith. God wants you to choose faith so that you can be more spiritual. So that you can be more transformed into God’s image so that He can use you more powerfully. Amen?! 

God gave me this revelation one time because sometimes I think people feel insecure when they haven’t had a vision, heard God’s audible voice, had this wild encounter. They hear stories from other people that they’re experiencing God like this. And because we’re stuck on physical things, like if a person hugs you rather than not hugging you, if you feel them physically rather than not, you feel closer. You feel like the person loves you more. If the person says, “I LOVE YOU!” with this voice & you hear their voice, you feel like the person loves you more than if a person says “I love you” in a whisper or you don’t hear it. So we project that upon God. We hear people that are having many visions apparently & a lot of people, it’s actually the angel of light so I’m not saying every time somebody says something, it doesn’t mean that that’s true. Like every time they're saying “I’m having a vision” “I heard an audible voice” - angel of light is definitely there sometimes because…. God wants your faith to grow & have your relationship be based on faith. You have the choice to say yes to God in that. You can say no to God, you have that free will choice. That’s disobedience to God. You can instead try to have a relationship with God in your own way. You can instead try to hear God’s voice in your own way. You can instead be stubborn & be like “I need a vision!” “I need to hear God’s audible voice” “I need to have a dream tonight” “This makes me feel closer to God when I have the dream, the vision, the audible voice so therefore, I’m praying & praying & praying & praying that I have this!” rather than praying simply to hear God’s voice, however He wants to speak. So, you know, even if it seems spiritual, it can be manipulating when you understand God’s ways. So you’re being forceful to hear God in your own way, when you do that- it’s disobedience. It’s out of God’s will. And whenever we disobey, we step out of God’s will, we open up the door to the enemy. So that’s one of the ways that the devil masquerades himself as an angel of light. If you are being so forceful about hearing God your own way, like through visions, through dreams, through audible voice, through some sort of encounter where you can “feel” something, where you have a physical, tangible feeling- it opens up a door for the angel of light, the devil masquerading himself as an angel of light. Which those of you who don’t know what that means, it’s in the word, it says this, where sometimes the devil can sound like God but it’s not God speaking. It sounds spiritual but it’s not & you know it’s not when you have wisdom. Like the Pharisees, they were apparently “hearing” from God that Jesus was a false prophet. And apparently they were “hearing” from God to persecute Him, get Him arrested, & crucify Him. They were not hearing from God, they were hearing from the devil sounding spiritual, kind of, not really though. You know what I’m saying. Hallelujah. So the devil comes masquerading himself as an angel of light in a way that’s not pure. In a way that’s disregarding wisdom & God’s ways. Right? 

So anyways, back to what I was saying, I was saying how you can hear people say “I had this wild encounter” “I had this vision” & the next week you hear again “I had this vision” & then “God told me this, God told me this, God told me this” & you can feel insecure like, “why aren’t I having those experiences?” But today, we are going to the word of God to understand what a relationship with God is supposed to look like. And so we are starting with this scripture, blessed are you. Now this is new covenant, New Testament. This is after Jesus was crucified and resurrected. He’s speaking this. So He’s speaking this to you, blessed are you who believe without seeing. So those of you that haven’t had visions, audible voice, it could indicate that God CAN TRUST YOU. He couldn’t trust Thomas. He’s oh Thomas is going to be led astray if I don’t let touch me. Right? It could be that God sees that you are more spiritual. You are spiritual enough to have a relationship with Him based on faith without NEEDING to have all these physical/tangible experiences. That’s not to say that when a person, if those of you here have had visions, have heard the audible voice, that’s not to say that you’re less spiritual, no, no, no, no! It depends, it depends- but I do know that God’s not going to be speaking every single day a vision, audible voice. It’s going to be more rare. But what I am saying to encourage those of you who have never had a vision, who don’t have that many spiritual dreams, who haven’t had this wild, physical, tangible experience several times with God- it could be actually that God can trust you with more. That you are choosing, you are not manipulating Him to hear Him in your own way, you’re not being forceful about it, you are not doubting; though it’s uncomfortable sometimes when it feels quiet for example, but you are choosing to obey Him. You are choosing to trust Him. You are choosing to keep your faith in Him, that He’s truly with you & hears you & is guiding you in His perfect will. You chose to believe that day by day. So God sees He doesn’t have to show you His hands and have you put your hands at His side. Blessed are you. BLESSED are YOU. So here, if your relationship with God is based upon faith, and most of the time you’re not having these physical, tangible experiences, but it’s more of this knowing that God is with me & loves me & you’re hearing Him but not in these wild ways but a still, small voice. You are blessed! Blessed are you. You’re on track. There’s nothing to worry about, nothing to feel insecure about. You should have a Godly confidence actually about your relationship with God. Amen!? Hallelujah! 

1 Kings 19:11-12 NIV

This story speaks of Elijah, that God was going to appear to Elijah & (turns & looks at screen with verse) oh there it is, “The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper." - 1 Kings‬ ‭19‬:‭11‬-‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So, it’s like, God literally wasn’t in those things. So you can change this to “then a great powerful wind of a vision came, and then there came in the fire an audible voice, but it was the angel of light, or a strong thought in the mind but it was the angel of light” You know? But the Lord was not in that. He was not in the dream, He was not in the vision, He was not in the audible voice. He was in a gentle whisper, a still small voice. So what we generally, just being of the flesh, we want to, we’d rather have the earthquake, wind, and fire. It makes us feel like we’re closer to God, that’s just natural. We kind of equate it to God’s passion for us too, wrongly. Like earthquake, wind, fire is like, like if I’m God (shouting) “I LOVE YOU” “I LOOOVE YOU” “I LOVE YOU!!”- we want to hear that when God’s (whispering) saying “I love you”. So is the whisper less than God? It’s just as much God as if He were to come in the earthquake, wind, and fire. Just as much God. That’s where He was, not in the other things. 

Matthew 17:1-5 ESV 

Before we go to this scripture, before we go to this scripture, God wants all of His children to have a Mount of Transfiguration experience. A experience where it’s such a powerful, spiritual experience that it transcends to even the physical as a foundation to lay your faith in God. To make this strong, faith, this KNOWING in God. 

I remember for me, the baptism of the Holy Spirit & prophetic words many years ago, like around the time where I first met my spiritual father & receiving the prophetic word from my spiritual father, Prophet Dr. GeorDavie. These were like Mount of Transfiguration experiences. It was so powerful how God released His fire & (momentarily speaking in tongues) my tongue was overtaken. It was just so supernatural to experience that, supernatural experience that transcended even to the physical, made my faith grow MASSIVELY. It’s like I had faith in God my whole life, ever since I was a believer age 4; I had faith but it was like I had 10% faith in God & then when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, it was like 100% faith in God. And receiving prophetic words, that supernatural experience was even, was more than 100%. And I don’t forget those moments. Those moments have changed me, have shaped me, have- it’s like your faith grows & it stays there, as long as you protect what you have received & treasure it. So that one experience, my faith shot up! And as I did the spiritual disciplines, the spiritual principles of renewing mind & remembering that & pondering like Mary did, pondering her wild, supernatural experience with meeting the angel, the angel speaking to her. Right? And then the Shepherds appearing out of nowhere  “God sent us to worship Jesus”. The Bible says she pondered these things. So, she didn’t need to keep on having an angel appear to her every day or once a week or once a year, no, in order for her faith to remain the same, high! Just one time. But she needed to ponder, renew her mind, meditate on the moment where her faith shot up, her eyes opened up & this spiritual encounter she had with Jesus was so powerful that it transcended even to the physical. Amen? So God wants us to have these experiences, it’s very important because that’s what leads to surrender, when we have these burning bush moments, baptism of the Holy Spirit moments, deliverance, healing, powerful touch of God’s power where you fall back, fall to the ground, angel appearing to you experience, Mount of Transfiguration experience. God wants to bring this encounter with His power that is so mighty to build this great foundation of your faith. But He doesn’t want you to need to have this again & again & again & again. The purpose of Him coming in this mighty way is to build your faith. It’s not having to do with relationship, it’s to build your faith. Your relationship is based upon faith. Amen? So we’re going to the word of God today to see how to have a relationship with God. 

So now we’re going to go to Matthew 17:1 and what I want you to see here is that this is the story of the Mount of Transfiguration. 

“And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭17‬:‭1‬-‭5‬ ‭ESV‬‬

(The voice from the cloud was an audible voice) 

This Mount of Transfiguration is like a wind, earthquake, fire experience or like angel appearing to Mary experience. But, do we read in scripture, them having the Mount of Transfiguration experience once a year, once a month, once a week, daily, nope! It was one time. 

Acts 10:9-11 ESV 

 “The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth.”- Acts‬ ‭10‬:‭9‬-‭11‬ ‭ESV‬‬

So here is an example where we see Peter having a vision. But what’s interesting is, for both, for him & all the disciples, we are not reading in Bible about people having visions yearly, weekly, monthly, daily. Really! When you read the word of God, this is telling us that if it was important for us to have visions all the time, we would see it in the word. This vision was based on, the purpose of this vision, the vision had a purpose is what I want to say first of all, the vision has a purpose! And the purpose was for God’s assignment to be done through Peter. He was specifically speaking to him that he was needing to go to someone who needed to be saved and baptized and prophesied to. So this vision had a purpose. This vision wasn’t about relationship with God. Does that make sense? And I say that to you because God is delivering you from insecurity of your relationship with God today. God wants you to get this out of you because you’re not having these, this wrong doctrine you have in your head, because you’re not having all these physical wind, fire, earthquake experiences that means that God doesn’t love you as much as other people or you're not a good enough Christian, you’re not doing  good enough. God wants to take that out of you today. Amen? Hallelujah!  

Also we see that John had a vision & that’s how he wrote revelation. A vision of the heavens, a vision of end times. Amen? But once again, this vision had a purpose for this assignment that this apostle had to do, this 5 fold minister had to do, this very important assignment. It wasn’t about relationship with God. Amen? By that, I mean it wasn’t necessary like, I’m giving you this revelation for our relationship. I’m giving you this vision, for our relationship. God doesn’t want you to think you have to have these things happen anymore to be close to Him, to have intimacy with Him. Amen? 

So what we find in the word of God is that a relationship, the relationship with God should be based upon faith. That’s what I shared in this first scripture, John 20:27 with Thomas, blessed are those who believe without seeing me & He’s talking about seeing physically & experiencing physically. So we see there, that relationship with God should be based on faith through this scripture. We also see it in James 2:23. 

“And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and this [faith] was credited to him [by God] as righteousness and as conformity to His will,” and he was called the friend of God. [Gen 15:6; 2 Chr 20:7; Is 41:8]”

‭‭James‬ ‭2‬:‭23‬ ‭AMP‬‬

Remember today we’re going into the word to find how we can be friends of God. Here we go. Abraham was called the friend of God because why? He believed God. And God saw this faith made him righteous, the Bible says. His faith was credited to him by God as righteousness & as conformity to His will. So God saw that him choosing to believe in God, believe what God was saying, not doubt, not complain when he has to wait through the valleys, but simply believe, respect God’s word & simply just believe it! God took that as conformity to God’s will. And so therefore, he was a friend of God because he believed God, he was a friend of God. I want you to know today, having a relationship with God is not difficult. God didn’t make it to be difficult. If you can simply believe that Jesus is Lord, you can have intimacy, relationship with Jesus EVERY day. No matter what age you are. No matter how much Bible school you’ve taken or how much of the Bible you’ve read. No matter what your IQ is. Every one of you can have a relationship with Jesus, it’s not hard. This is the biggest part right here, believe. How to be a friend of God? Believe. Believe that words that He speaks, stop doubting. Stop, when the promise hasn’t come to pass yet, just keep believing. Don’t doubt. Don’t meditate in your mind the doubt. Don’t speak the words “why hasn’t this happened yet?” “Where is God?” “This shoulda happened by now” “I’m sick of waiting” - don’t speak those words! That’s not counted as faith. You can feel those feelings, but don’t speak those feelings. You can feel those feelings & immediately meditate on God's truth. And that’s what God, God sees your heart and He counts it as faith & He calls you a friend. Hallelujah! 

“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.’”- Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭13‬:‭22‬ ‭NLT‬‬

So these words are powerful. God is saying David is a man after my own heart. When you hear those words, that sounds like friend of God, yeah? That sounds like best friends with God. That's what intimacy and relationship is, is when you are not selfishly being a friend that's just using your friend. Right? But that you are after their heart. You want to touch their heart. You think about what would bless them and you do it. You be a servant, have a servant heart, put them first. That's when there becomes intimacy. That's when it becomes a real friendship. Rather than you using them, and that person's not feeling any love; they don't even consider you a friend. So being a man or woman after God's heart is how to experience intimacy also, and friendship. God is defining this, what does it mean to be a man after my own heart? It's defined by doing everything that God wants you to do. It's defined by obedience. I say this that, I like to say this, God gave me this revelation- that obedience is God's love language. Now this is different from what a lot of you might've been taught by christian culture today, by religion, by old wine. What most people think of relationship with God, is they are thinking more about religious rituals. They're thinking more about praying for a certain amount of time, doing it as a ritual & praying in these words that sound fancy but aren't your, the way that you speak. You know, speaking in KJV language, praying in that kind of way, praying in a way you would never speak. But it's like your heart is focused on the ritual, doing what I need to do to check off the box "I'm being a good enough christian" so I can have righteousness and God can bless me and I can go to heaven, That's religion. But being after God's heart, is really looking at what is actually pleasing Him, what is actually touching Him. Looking at God as a person, not as some like, just a figure that doesn't have a heart or a brain. God made us. He made us. He made us in HIs image. So, He has a brain, He has a heart. And so it's quite silly to be talking to God in a way that's like talking to someone who's not a person. The most intimacy you experience with friends, are, & your spouse if you have one, or family members, is by being real, amen? Speaking from the heart, not being fake. So if you want to experience intimacy with God, that's how it has to be as well; that you would speak from the heart when you pray. But above all, that you would be after His heart. That you would make obedience to God the most important thing in your life, not religious rituals, not praying for a certain amount of time, a certain way that sounds spiritual. But obedience would be the greatest part of your, the most important part of your life, amen? Hallelujah.  

The reason why, the reason why obedience is God's love language, so important to Him is because we are here for a reason. He could've just created us and put us in heaven & that was that. But he created us and put us here. Why did He put us here? To do a job. We are here every day to do a job, to be on assignment for God & that assignment is to release His power, His love to the world, to reach the lost, to testify & speak that He is alive, to spread the good news that He is alive, that He is our Savior & King & Lord of Lords & He's also Healer & Deliverer, amen? So we are here to advance God's kingdom by doing these things and destroy the devil's works. And that's God's heart. God's whole heart is for His people. His whole heart is for you, is for all of His people. It's different than maybe your hearts currently or how your hearts were in the past & the hearts of the friends around you. Your heart may be divided or the relationships you're used to having, maybe their hearts are divided. Partly for God, partly for selfish ambition, dreams. Partly for things that will satisfy the flesh. Partly for this tv show. Partly for partying. Partly for looking really good. The heart is divided & then there's a part that's for God & so, many of your relationships are based on divided hearts. And so you shop with your friends, you watch tv with your friends, you gossip with your friends & then you go to church once a week. That's what your relationships look like. Is your relationship with God going to look like that? So, to be a friend of God, we need to be after His heart. God's calling us to be really looking, where is His heart? His heart is not on all those things. And okay, you can have, you can have hobbies and things & He cares about those things, don't get me wrong but His heart is SO PASSIONATELY for His people. THAT'S HIS WHOLE HEART. And so if you want to experience intimacy with God, you gotta come up to His level, get in alignment with Him. 

Billy Graham Example

God gave me this example, this example to help bring this understanding to you today, okay? Imagine, imagine you know Billy Graham, right? Okay, imagine Billy Graham's life. I recently went to his museum so it's on my mind, like his life was serving God all the time. I mean he was ministering here, there, everywhere, stadium events to millions of people at one time, sometimes. He was on tv shows. Thank you Jesus. Praise God. Hallelujah, let’s focus, amen? Amen? Hallelujah. He was on tv shows. He was on radio shows. He was for Jesus. He was so active, so busy for the kingdom. He didn't, I don't believe he had much of a social life. I believe he made a great sacrifice in his life for the kingdom. And he had a wife but I'm sure, I know she had to go through a lot of sacrifice. He was traveling a lot. Like their relationship had great intimacy I believe. I don't know from experience, I'm just saying I believe. I mean I didn't talk to them or hear from them, I'm just saying I believe they had great intimacy & love & relationship. It's not like he was just always doing his own thing, no, they had intimacy. But, it looked way different than a lot of your marriages. Or how you dreamed of your marriages to look like. Some of you have in your mind what your relationship, what intimacy with your spouse will look like, like if you're not married yet. You have this fantasy, this dream & it probably looks like at least 3 to 6 hours per day looking in each other's eyes & cuddling & holding hands & walking & going for walks. Right?! You have in your mind, ya know, & vacations all the time & just a lot of time; but I bet that Billy Graham's wife had to make a sacrifice & not have that kind of life like that, right? But, but look, that was God's will for Billy Graham, that was God's will for his wife, right? And they still experienced beautiful intimacy but it looked different, both of their passions, their passions were to serve God and advance the kingdom. And so, imagine, this is little bit funny example but I just want you to just imagine this. Imagine someone “like” Billy Graham, "like", male version, female version; God was calling you to marry them. Just imagine that. Male or female version, “like” him. That was their life. What would you have to do? You would have to compromise. You would have to come up to their level. If you really want to experience intimacy with that spouse, you can't stay where you're at. You can't be whining because they're not binging Netflix shows with you every night, cuddling. Right? If you're whining about that & you're complaining, & you're like down because your marriage doesn't look like you expected it to look, guess what, you're not going to be experiencing intimacy with that person. And that person is gonna, is not gonna, they can love you, but it won’t be the kind of love that they would have if you were after their heart. It wouldn’t be real intimacy. So what do you need to do to experience intimacy? You need to come to their level, not try to bring them down to your level. You need to MATURE. And the scripture we just said, that I just read, David was a man after God’s heart. He conformed to God’s will, it says. He conformed to God’s will. It says, he’s a man after my own heart, conforming, conforming to my will and

purposes. Conforming. You’d would have to conform, come UP, to the spouses level in order to experience intimacy. So if you want to experience intimacy with God, I’m not to tell you- go pray this amount. I’m telling you, conform to God’s will. 

It says in Matthew 15:8-9 ESV 

“This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”  

The religious commandments of men … “this is how you have a relationship with God, this is how you please God, pray this amount, do this, do all these rituals” 

So that’s what it’s like, that’s why my message to you is, some of you are looking for that... what is the exact amount of time I need to pray? What’s the exact amount of times I need to fast? You’re looking all there & you’re going down the religious route, down the wrong path, where God could be, end up saying to you this same thing. They're not close to me in heart though they honor me with their lips, it’s a lie, it’s not real. And this is what we see in parable of the tax collector, of the Pharisee & the tax collector. There’s this story in the Bible where a Pharisee says he’s praying these lofty prayers, “ohhhh Lord, I praise you, you help me to be obedient, like I tithe always, & I fast this many times. Ooohhhh yes”. He’s praying this kind of way. “And I am not, oh thank you that you help me to be obedient to do these rituals so that I am not like this tax collector, sinner”. Self righteous. But the Bible actually says that the tax collector, he actually went after God’s heart, to summarize what happened. He actually spoke from the heart, not these lofty prayers, not these self righteous prayers. Not praying in a ritual way and living in a ritual way, but honestly from the heart, he repents to God. “Have mercy on me for I’m a sinner Lord”. He just speaks honest, from the heart. He comes after God’s heart & conforms to His will. And the Bible says that the tax collector was the one who was justified, NOT the Pharisee. So this is common in the church today. This is what God is trying to bring you out of, out of that old wine, of this Pharisee way. Pharisee way of having a relationship with God. Pharisee way of praying & doing the commands. Because we are called to pray, we’re called to fast at times when the Holy Spirit leads but so many people are just doing these things to check off the box, doing them as rituals rather than first being after God’s heart. When you’re after God’s heart then you can hear the Holy Spirit leading you how to do these things; how to pray, how to fast, the amount of time to pray, when to pray. Amen? Hallelujah. 

So going back to “friend of God equals obedience” ~

Friend of God #1 equals faith, believing God

#2, friend of God equals obedience 

So I’m gonna read a couple more scriptures that show that being a friend of God equals obedience. 

 By the way, I read the NLT version first of Acts 13:22 where it says “he will do everything I want him to do” & then I read the amplified version for your notes. I read the second part of Acts 13:22 amplified version, says “I found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart” in parenthesis (conforming to my will & purposes, who will do all my will). Amen! 

Now we’re going to read, there it is, now we’re going to read: John 15:14-15 AMP 

 It says, so Jesus is saying this: you are my friends. Let’s hear Jesus speak this to you right now, amen. Read this as if Jesus is speaking this to you directly. 

“You are my friends if you keep on doing what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you [My] friends, because I have revealed to you everything that I have heard from My Father.”

‭‭John‬ ‭15‬:‭14‬-‭15‬ ‭AMP‬‬

When you do what God is commanding you to do, when you are after His heart, confirming to His will; God can trust you & reveal His revelations to you, reveal more things in the spirit to you. Remember the disciples when they came back from casting out demons for the first time, Jesus says to the Father, I praise you Father for you’ve hidden these things, these revelations of the spiritual realm, the revelations of your authority & what makes demons to go & how to access the anointing & how to adequately walk in the authority & anointing; you’ve hidden it to those who are wise & proud & you've not revealed it to those who are humble & childlike. So, a big part of humility & being childlike means conforming to God’s will, means being obedient, amen? So when you’re obedient, now God can reveal to you deeper things of the spirit, revelation. Because you have come up to God’s level, He can now be more intimate with you & speak more things. Amen? 

 John 14:21 NLT 

“Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”‬‬

 So God judges love. He judges, do they really love me? Are they after my heart? Are they being intimate with me? He judges it by those who accept my commands and obey them. This is New Testament. This is the book of John. Notice He's not saying because they do all of these rituals, they love me. Because they do all of these rituals, once or twice or three times a week, but then do other things they love me, no, He says who accept my commands and obey them are the ones who love me. And because the love me, my Father will love them. So this is describing intimacy. This is describing relationship, relationship is when, is God loving you & you loving Him back, and Him loving you back, & you loving Him back, & Him loving you back, continuously. That's a relationship is, that's what intimacy is. True love. Love from the heart. Love not in just words, but action. Amen?   

You know, God loves everybody. God LOVES EVERYONE on this earth, more than any human can ever love anybody. EVERYBODY. Whether you're a sinner, whether you're remaining in sin, He loves you. But, there are those who touch His heart & He pours more love upon, more favor upon, more affection upon. Right? This is the meaning of this here. “Because they love me, my Father will love them”. Now, God loved us first. So this is a different, this is the revelation I'm giving you of the scripture. It's not we love first, then God loves, but that scripture sounds like that. It's because the scripture is talking about the intimacy kind of love, the friendship type of love. Not everyone is called friends of God in the Bible. So God loves everybody but not everybody is loving back & that & there won't be intimacy if you're not loving back. It's one sided. And He keeps pursuing, until you come & then there's relationship. 

Okay so, this is, this is how we went in the word to find what friend of God means, it means obedience to God. Then we will be a friend of God.  

Now we're going to go to Genesis 6:8-9 ESV  

“But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.”

And another translation says that Noah walked in close fellowship with God. So because he chose to be obedient & be pure, (“let there be light”), because he chose to be obedient by being pure, by denying his flesh, by allowing God to transform him & make him pure, he then walked with God. Hallelujah!  

So how to have intimacy with God is being pure. Being obedient in all ways. Being obedient to allow God to transform your heart; get rid of all those, the dark things, the evil things, the dirty things, the selfish ambition, the jealousy, the pride. Reject those things, get rid of those things so God can transform you & your heart can be pure. Then you will walk with God, be intimate with God. I’m not saying you have to be transformed before you can be intimate with God, I’m saying every day take the step & you will experience intimacy. Every day be intentional to purify your heart, to come with clean hands & a pure heart & you will experience intimacy & walk with God. Amen!? 

Psalms 25:14 NLT 

“The Lord is a friend to those who fear him. He teaches them his covenant.”

Do you see? Do you see how the word of God teaches us how to be friends with God? Isn’t this powerful? There’s so many scriptures in the Bible that teach us how to be friends. So the Lord is a friend to those who fear Him, to those who have reverence, have respect, have the fear of God. 

Another translation, ESV says: 

 “The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.”

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭25‬:‭14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

So what also makes you to have intimacy with God, be friend of God is having respect. Respect. When you have a great respect for God, reverence for God, that’s what gives you the ability to be obedient always. When it would crush you, it would hurt you to disrespect Him. To dishonor Him by disobedience. When that’s your heart, you will have the strength, you will have the mental awareness, quickness, to obey, obey, obey, whenever God is asking you to. That’s the key to being obedient & to being in God’s will; to have the fear of God. And that doesn’t always come naturally. All of these characteristics, fruits of the Holy Spirit, that we’re talking about today: faith, obedience, the fear of God, pure in heart- it’s all up to you, it’s a choice. How that comes is by renewing your mind with the word of God. Resisting the devil, rejecting all of his lies, all the funky feelings you have that are not these things of God- REJECT THEM. CLOSE THE DOORS that’s influencing you in this ungodly way. Mediate on God & His word & the things of God. Meditate on the fact that it’s so important, more than anything that you are obedient to God. You never want to disappoint Him, to step outside of His will, let Him down, you know? You want to stay right on track & touch His heart every day. Meditate on that, make the intention every day to mediate on that truth. Choose to have that kind of heart by choosing to think about these things & renewing your mind, amen? Hallelujah.  

Alright, so I was just talking about a little earlier how the more we are pure, we have the fear of God, we respect God, were obedient; now He can see that we are trustworthy. Now we become friends & so now He reveals more revelations to us. He gets more intimate with us. And so it says here, & He makes known to them His covenant. He makes promises with them. He makes promises with you. He gives you beautiful promises for your future, amen! 

James 4:8 ESV 

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

So this scripture is answering the question, How do we become closer to God? How do we become intimate with God?” Draw near. Also, as you draw near, as you seek Him, make sure you’re coming with clean hands & a pure heart. Don't draw near in the religious, ritual way, where your words are honoring but not your heart. Clean your heart & draw near. Seek God. Amen? Hallelujah. 

So how you draw near to God, one of the big ways, one of the big ways is seeking Him in His word. His written word, the Bible, & the Rhema word. Rhema means present tense word of God, spoken word of God. So today, you are receiving the Rhema, present tense word of God. You’re receiving the prophetic word of God. It’s says in Ephesians 4:11 that Jesus, when He poured out His spirit, he gave gifts to the body of Christ; Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, & Teachers. And to summarize, Ephesians 4:11-16, He gave these gifts to equip the body, to equip the believers, to mature you. In other words, to open your spiritual eyes, to give you revelation, this is what the word of God is saying. This is the Holy Spirit’s true revelation of the word of God. You have old wine. You have religious doctrine, you’re interpreting the Bible wrong. This is what God means when He speaks this. You see? Like that what’s happening today. There’s a cleaning happening in your mind. There’s a removal or wrong doctrine. A removal of wrong thinking. A removal of the work of the enemy who’s come in the angel of light. A removal of the work of the enemy that has brought shame, condemnation, all of these schemes to try to keep you from having intimacy with God. This word that’s been brought forth, is getting rid of that religious doctrine that many of you had about what it means to have a relationship with God & you could never obtain the relationship with God, you could never obtain intimacy. You did ritual after ritual & you felt further & further from God. And you found no transformation. And you found yourself still lukewarm, disobedient. So today I’m teaching you, this is what God means. I’m teaching you. You’ve probably never heard a teaching like this but this is the word of God. You see? This is what it means to be a friend of God. It’s in the word. Hallelujah! 

And so, you have drawn near to God today. You have seeked Him, the Bible also says when you seek Him & you seek Him with all your heart then you WILL FIND HIM. So you’re finding intimacy, closeness, going deeper with Him when you seek Him. So by you coming here today, you are seeking Him, you are drawing near to Him, you are hearing His voice. He’s been speaking today, a lot today & He’s still speaking! This is intimacy. And this is important, you know. Ephesians 4:11-16, this is speaking that God have the church, that God have 5fold ministry, 5fold ministers to bring the equipping; you can’t survive without this. The Bible speaks we NEED this equipping. If we want to be mature, we NEED this teaching, this equipping. So this is one of the BIG ways you hear God’s voice, so that you can be transformed, so that you can, you’re eyes can be opened up so that when you go into the word of God yourself, in your private alone time with God, you can actually hear Him, rather then the angel of light. Like how the angel of light spoke to the Pharisees when they read the word of God. You can now hear God’s voice because of the equipping you’ve received coming in the church. So it’s just as important, just as important as reading the Bible on your own time regularly. It’s just as important that you receive the teaching of how to read the Bible, of how to hear God’s voice in the Bible. And that’s what happens every time you come here, your spiritual eyes are opened up & this revelation I’m giving you now, it’s like, I see prophetically like your eyes are opening up now to see God’s heart. Before, maybe you saw Him as like condemning you, like you’re not doing enough, you’re not praying enough. You know maybe you saw Him that kind of way. But now, through this word, your perspective has changed. You see that God’s not that way at all. You can see that God hasn’t made it complicated or difficult to have intimacy with Him, but He’s rather made it very simple & you can do it right now. It’s attainable for you. And this is life changing. From today, from this word you received today, you’ll read the Bible differently from today. You’ll experience intimacy like never before after today. That condemning voice will be gone from today or you’ll reject it if it comes because you know the truth now & you’re set free. Hallelujah! So how you come draw near to God; reading the word, hearing the word. So never miss out on church on Sundays. Never miss out on the teaching that’s being released weekly. If for some reason  on the week you’re in different time zones, you missed the livestream, make sure you watch the replay. This is the action of drawing near to God. This is the action of intimacy. Intimacy not just in that moment, it’s not like okay I’m coming to church, or okay I’m reading my Bible today & these are the times I have intimacy, no, this is what helps you have intimacy always. This is what makes you more spiritual. 

I have, I’ve shared this, some of you have heard this before, some of you probably haven’t, but when you speak words of death, when you speak words of death, the devil can hear. Not because he’s omnipotent, but because in the spiritual realm, it’s as if you’re speaking on the devils frequency. I mean, it’s the action of agreeing with the enemy & giving authority to the enemy. So, it’s like, it’s like you are opening the door like come on in, in the spiritual realm. And the devils able to come & bring oppression when we open up doors. The Bible says do not give a foothold to the devil. If we do, that’s how oppression comes. So when we speak words of death, it’s like you’re going on the frequency of the devil, like how the devil speaks, where he’s speaking, his world. Like a radio station, you’re on that frequency. But, also, when you become more spiritual with your meditation, what you’re meditating on, & what your speaking & your actions, you are coming more into God’s frequency. By that, I just mean, it becomes easier to hear God's voice. It becomes easier to discern God’s voice between other voices. You experience MORE INTIMACY the more spiritual you become. So this is why I say coming to church is so important, hearing the messages all the time is so important & renewing your mind with them & meditating on them, listening to them again. Putting them into practice is so important. This is how you become more spiritual. That example I gave you of having to come up to the level of the spouses spiritual maturity level, what about God’s spiritual maturity level?! What about His spiritual maturity level? You have to come up there. You come up there by becoming more spiritual, by being transformed, more into God's image by drawing near. By hearing the word & applying the word, amen? Hallelujah. Hallelujah, thank you Jesus. Praise God. Praise God. 

“So we need to stay in the new wine & don’t wander into the religion land”.

 We need to come up to God’s level. By the way, remember, so I’m teaching you how to have intimacy with God. So the more you’re aligned with God’s heart, the more intimacy you’ll experience. The more of a friend of God you’ll be. God’s whole heart is for His people to know Him. So the more you put your heart there, the more intimacy you’ll experience. That’s why obedience is such a big deal to God. Like that example I gave of someone like Billy Graham. Like that was Billy Grahams heart, right?- was God’s people. And so the spouse, for the spouse to come up to that level that would be touching his heart so much, the most, right? That’s how it is with God but so much more. He’s God, not a human, God! And so, God gave me this picture, this visual yesterday so that you could understand God’s heart so that you could be after it. Okay, many of you have been oppressed and you’ve been set free, amen? There are a lot of people in this world that are oppressed. They have a demon that’s tormenting them daily. It is worse than living in a physical jail, prison. And so, God knows because God has His principles & laws & rules & ways that he moves, so God CHOOSES to use people! To deliver them. To preach the gospel to them. To release His love, to be a vessel so He releases His power & love to them to open their eyes to His love so that they can be saved & come into the kingdom. Be freed from the devils torment now & forever & have eternal life with Jesus & live in heaven with Jesus. He chooses to use people. 

Parent example 

So imagine, those of you that are parents; imagine if (and if you aren’t, just imagine with me), imagine if you’re child was kidnapped, unjustly in jail, wrongly convicted or very sick, in the hospital. Where is your heart as the parent? Your friend comes along “let’s go watch Netflix together”. “Let’s gossip over some coffee”. “Let’s go do these things ...” How are you going to feel like? Are you going to feel intimate with that friend? But what about a friend who comes up & says “I want to do everything I can to help you. To help you get your kid healthy, out of prison, found” Right!? Okay, the way that a parent’s heart is feeling for that child in those circumstances, God’s heart is even GREATER. GREATER, PASSIONATE, SERIOUS. Because those types of situations, it’s serious. So God’s just not like (care-freely) “I love my children”; He’s loving fiercely. He’s loving fiercely. And so like literally every single day, God sees, I feel the fire of God, God sees, I feel His heart, God sees millions of people who don’t know Him yet. Who are oppressed with demons! And a God’s eyes are on them! Not on watching Netflix! Not on having a coffee date! God heart is on them! And God knows He has the power to heal them, deliver, save them; it’s not like “oh this is just how it is, so… might as well go have the coffee date”, or whatever thing, you know? But He knows he can rescue them & deliver them! But He has a way that He does it, and it’s through YOU! So it’s like, this is God’s heart every day. His heart is like this. And His heart is upon you every day because He’s omnipotent. His heart can be so many places in one time. So His heart is pouring love upon you. I love you so much my son, my daughter! I’m proud of you! I have such great plans for you! I can’t wait to give you the desires of your heart because you delighted in me! I have so many blessings I’m ready to pour out upon your life! I love how I created you, you are so beautiful inside & outside! I formed you in your mother’s womb & I DELIGHT in you! EVERY SINGLE DAY! Every detail of you! I love you my son, my daughter! He’s doing that every day! He has the capacity to do that.

But, sometimes we’re trying to pull God down, to our level. And we’re wondering why we don’t experience intimacy, when He’s wanting us to come up to His level. When He wants us to see His heart rightly, how He’s loving with a fierce love. His eyes are on all His lost people & He’s wanting you to come along side Him like how a spouse comes alongside their partner. How can I help you? How can I help you reach the lost, deliver the oppressed, heal the sick? And so He’s looking for, His want, His eyes are on these people all over the world that don’t know Him & He’s wanting you to run and say “send me, let’s do this together Lord, I’ll be a vessel for you!” And when you run to Him & link arms with Him, that’s the greatest intimacy there ever is. You’re close to Him. Your hearts are united. Your eyes are on the same thing, on people who need Him. You’re united! Your hearts are aligned. And you’re doing work together. The most beautiful, powerful, life changing work in the world. But if you’re like, “I wanna gossip, I wanna watch Netflix, I wanna have a coffee date, we’ve got God, come on” - I’m not saying we can’t do these things, we do these things that’s fine, nothing wrong with a coffee date, nothing wrong with Netflix as long as it’s not something that’s immoral, amen!? There’s a lot of it on there so gotta to be careful. So I’m not saying, what I’m trying to say is we are missing God’s heart! And we’re trying to pull Him in all these things & we’re missing His heart completely. And so we’re not going to experience intimacy. Amen? Hallelujah. And so, as I shared this revelation with you, now you can see why these aspects of what it means to be a friend of God why God is saying “this is my friend” “this one who’s obedient, he’s my friend” “this one who’s after my heart & he’ll do everything that I want him to do, he’s my friend” “this one who’s pure in heart, is not fake, he/she is my friend” “this one who respects me, who has the fear of God, who reveres me, this is my friend”. It’s because God’s heart is for His people to know Him & all of those things, doing all of those things, are the only thing that allows you to come link arms with God & lose your life, lose all of these other passions that you put above God & above serving Him. But you come, you draw near to Him & He can use you powerfully. So, you know, God taught me this whenever I’m serving Him, whenever I’m, like right now I’m talking to you, I’m not talking to God, but I’m talking to you right now. But God’s moving through me so we’re doing it together. I’m not here doing this on my own & He’s somewhere else & then at home tonight, I go to my room & then I meet with Him; He’s here with me right now! And together we’re doing what he cares about the most! So I’m experiencing intimacy with God right now. You are experiencing intimacy with God right now. You are being obedient. You are hearing His voice, you are listening, He’s talking directly to you! So whenever you’re in obedience, God wants you to renew your mind & see that this is the greatest intimacy there is. So whether the obedience is your personal prayer time & reading the word alone in your room, or whether it’s taking care of your kids, whether it’s doing the laundry, whether it’s cleaning the house, whether it’s loving on a friend, whether it’s serving at the church, whether it’s sitting here & being a good listener of the word, whether it’s renewing your mind, meditating on the word, & applying it; all these different things God is asking you to do at different times on the days, every day. But every time you’re doing that, your experiencing an intimacy with God! You’re experiencing friendship with God! And God wants you to renew your mind to that, otherwise you’re missing out on that intimacy that’s right there. Amen!? Hallelujah! Hallelujah.

 Hallelujah, thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. I could go on. I could go on & on about this, but God wanted me to release this to you as a foundation. Like this that you have received, you’ll be able to carry with you & know how to pray, & know how to read the word, & know how to have relationship & intimacy daily. Amen? Hallelujah! Hallelujah. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Praise God. Praise God.