Friend of God

I want to share an exerpt out of ¨With Christ in the School of Prayer¨, may you be blessed by it as I was.

And He said unto them, which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine is come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him; and he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not, the dor is now shut, and my children are with me in bed, I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. So I say to you, ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you... Luke 11.5-9

The need of perservering importunate prayers appears to some to be at variance with the faith which knows that it has received what it asks (Mark 11.24). One of the mysteries of the Divine life is the harmony between the gradual and the sudden, immediate full possession, and slow imperfect appropriation. And so here perservering prayer appears to be the school in which the soul is stengthened for the boldness of faith. And with the diversity of operations of the Spirit there may be some in whom faith takes more the form of persistent waiting, while to others, triumphant thanksgiving appears the only proper expression of the assurance of having been heard.

In a very remarkable way the need of perserving prayer, and the gradual rising into greater ease in obtaining answer, is illustrated in the life of Blumhardt. Complaints had been lodged against him of neglecting his work as a minister of the gospel, and devoting himself to the healing of the sick, and especially his unauthorized healing of the sick belonging to other congregations. In his defence he writes:

¨I simply ventured to do what becomes one who has the charge of souls, and to pray according to the command of the Lord in James 1.6,7. In no way did I trust to my own power, or imagine that I had an gift that others had not. But this is true, I set myself to the work as a minister of the gospel, who has a right to pray. But I speedily discovered that the gates of heaven were not fully opened to me. Often I was inclined to retire in despair. But the sight of the sick ones, who could find help nowhere, gave me no rest. I thought of the word of the Lord: ask and it shall be given you (Luke 11.9,10). And farther, I thought that if the Church and her ministers had, through unbelief, sloth, and disobedience, lost what was needed for the overcoming of the power of Satan, it was just for such times of leanness and famine that the Lord had spoken the parable of the friend at midnight and his three loaves. I felt that I was not worthy thus at midnight, in a time of great darkness, to appear before God as His friend, and ask for a member of my congregation what he needed. And yet, to leave him uncared for, I could not either. And so I kept knocking, as the parable directs, or, as some have said, with great presumption and tempting God. Be this as it may, I could not leave my guest unprovided. At this time the parable of the widow became very precious to me. I saw that the Church was the widow, and I was a minister of the Church. I had the right to be her mouthpi9ece against the adversary; but for a long time the Lord would not. I asked nothing more than the three loaves; what I needed for my guest. At last the Lord listened to the importunate beggar, and helped me. Was it wrong of me to pray thus? The two parables must surely be applicable somewhere, and where was greater need to be conceived?

And what was the fruit of my prayer? The friend who was at first unwilling, did not say, Go now; I will myself give to your friend what he needs; I do not require you; but gave it to me as His friend, to give to my guest. And so I used the three loaves, and had to spare. But the supply was small, and new guests came; because they saw I had a heart to help them, and that I would take the truoble even at midnight to go to my friend. When I asked for them, too, I got the needful again, and there was again to spare. How could I help that the needy continually came to my house? Was I to harden myself, and say, why did you come to me? there are larger and better homes in the city, go there. Their answer was, dear sir, we cannot go there. We have been there, they were very sorry to send us away so hungry, but they ould not undertake to go and ask a friend for what we wanted. Do go, and get us bread for we suffer great pain. What could I do_ They spoke the truth, and their suffering touched my heart. However much labour it cost me, I went each time again, and got the three loaves. Often I got what I asked much quicker than at first, and also much more abundantly. But all did not care for this bread, and so some left my home hungry. ¨

In his first struggles with the evil spirits, it took him more than eighteen months of much prayer and labour before the final victory was gained. Afterwards he had much ease of access to the throne, and stood in such close communication with the unseen world, that often, when letters came asking prayer for sick people, he could, after just looking upward for a single moment, obtain the answer as to whether they would be healed.



So guys, how do you know if you are a friend of God? The same way you can tell that my best friend in elementary school was Jeremy Cohen: because I was at his house everyday asking if we could play, and vise versa. Friends, lets take our posts at the gates of heaven, that the Lord my build our faith perservering in calling on the Lord, and that we may prove that we really believe God´s Word when he says ¨All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them.¨ Dios te bendiga!