What a
friend:
It was a very strange and difficult process to unlearn all I
had learned in my previous Church. It got so bad that I ultimately
realised that all I learned was wrong, and I became used to doing and believing
all the opposite things that Church taught me, knowing that it would be
right. There are, of course, righteous people in that Church as well who serve
God with all their might, but it did not work for a rebel like me.
I wanted God as a friend, not as a God, although I did not
know at that stage that God also wanted me as a friend. Having God as a
Supervisor or Policeman shouting at my every act, omission and transgression,
was too much like hostel life to me. I had had enough of that for a lifetime.
My inner being felt that God might just be a God who could understand a human
being and be friends with one - as my grandmother had taught me.
And that happened quite a few years later.
I was serving God in a strictly Pentecostal Church, where I
learned a lot about God and His Holy Spirit, how the Holy Spirit worked, how I
could discern Him, and how I could practise the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It
was a learning school I had never thought existed, but it was excellent and
insightful and I blossomed.
And then one day I had a conversation with God.
Three of us, including the atheist, flew, with my aircraft,
to the Bazaruto Archipelago in Mozambique for business - and then we came upon
Paradise Island unexpectedly. It was the most beautiful Island I had ever seen
and the sand and the aquatic life was phenomenal. We met a local fishing canoe
with very poor indigenous people on board, who asked us for cigarettes and
matches. One of us had the necessary goods, and in return they gave us one of
their freshly caught crayfish.
The crayfish you get in that sea is very large and beautiful
- about two metres long, and it has the most beautiful green, blue and beige
colours. So we chucked it into one corner of our boat.
After about half an hour of snorkeling, I got tired, not
being able to draw enough breath from the restricted orifice of my snorkel, and
I lied down on a bunk of the boat, to dry out, inadvertently with my head
turned towards the crayfish. As I stared at the crayfish, I started to talk to
God and told Him how smart and ingenious and beautiful and pristine he made the
earth, the universe and all the living creatures. And then, suddenly, God
started to speak to me; how, I still cannot fathom. He said that I am right -
what he created was beautiful, but the most wonderful thing for Him was to go
down to Paradise (and Paradise Island - my own thought) every evening to talk
to Adam and Eve.
Suddenly, I came to my full senses again, not knowing that I
was in a sort of reverie for some time. I looked at my watch and saw that
I have been in this reverie for thirty minutes which seemed to me like three
minutes. I also noticed that it was just past ten o'clock on a Sunday morning -
the exact time God usually spoke through His Holy Spirit to us in Church. That
is no coincidence - come what may.
I suddenly realised that God wanted to be my friend - an
almost blasphemous thought according to the conventional wisdom of my old
Church, but I knew that I needed to pursue it - much like Samuel went to Eli to
ask whether he called.
In engineering and scientific terms, I knew exactly how to
deal with this. I would start from first principles and axioms and then work my
way up by way of already proven theorems and physical laws to arrive at a final
solution - and so I set off on a similar route - a process I have used many times
before successfully. I first map the problem to a practical, scientific or
technical basis - or even a practical real life situation, and then apply the
same type of solutions to this spiritual domain. Mine was not a step of faith -
it was an intellectual journey, as I said previously.
I started off with my children as a practical example to
guide me on how I should go about becoming a friend of God.
When my children left high school, I thought that they were
at a stage where they could actually understand what friendship means and
entails. I then decided that I would like to become their friend rather than
their father, and I fortunately also realised that I cannot be both. I needed
to chose between these two.
If I remained being both, I could and I would misuse my
authority as father to influence some outcome of our friendship or misuse our
friendship to consolidate my father role, which, by this time, has already
become marginal due to my children who thought they were very clever. They say
the only person more clever than a second year student is a first year student.
This would be detrimental to both my roles. In the end I
realised that if I wanted to be their friend, I had to give up all my authority
- meaning that they could blame me, fight with me, deride me, criticise me,
reject me, misuse me and so on - everything a friend usually does or may do ...
and I was prepared for that. I fully realised that my authority over them would
be gone forever.
And that was the correct thing to do - today I am their best
friend.
So, why can't I apply this principle to my friendship with
Jesus Christ. The reason is that in this case God has the authority and it
would be up to Him to relinquish that.
I studied scripture and came to the following sobering
thoughts :
1.
God gave up his authority (dominion) over the earth, in order to be friends
with Adam and Eve, regardless of whether they would trade it for an apple or
use it wisely.
2.
Scripture says :
Exo 33:11 And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man
speaketh unto his friend.
Jas 2:23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed
God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the
Friend of God.
Joh 15:14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
3.
I cannot recall of any instance in which God used His authority, or coerced me
into doing something, or prevailed on me, or influenced my thoughts
unilaterally, in my relationship with Him ... Yes ... He was all along prepared
to give off all authority, if I was prepared to become His friend; why
did I never realise this?
4.
When He wanted to come to Earth to save mankind, He did not once use His
authority to let us know that He was the Creator of Heaven and Earth - He
preferred a manger as His mansion.
5.
If God wanted a friend without a free will - one he had authority over- he
could have chosen some from amongst His angels - but He did not - He gave us
free will - so He wanted us to be His friends. In fact, he went so far as to
make us in His image to be ON PAR with Him. Well... that is laying down
authority big time. If you doubt what I say, read : Rev
5:10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign
on the earth.
Obviously he cannot give us the whole tooty and put us in the shoes of one of
His Arch Angels, Lucifer, who tried to become higher than God - we will not
start that over again :
Isa 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O
Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which
didst weaken the nations! v:13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will
ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit
also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: v:14
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
So, today I have this best friend, who has never failed me,
and whom I may at times argue with, or tell Him I am unhappy with what he is
doing. And I am free to do something for Him as well, and listen to Him when He
is unhappy with me - an occurrence which He often has reason to do - but He
does it quietly and diplomatically and lovingly and earnestly - like a very
good friend should.
I can appreciate a true friend and so can you - and this
inspired me to start the internet ministry called 'What a Friend' - which you
can visit here :
I must close this part with the words of that beautiful song
my grandmother taught me, so that it can infiltrate and saturate my whole body,
mind and soul : (it is best if you listen to the version which is being sung by
Larry Ford) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqOA0dcAt9E
P.K. Odendaal
founder of What a Friend
Johan van der Berg:
A few minutes ago I was driving in the main street of our little town. In front of me was a big truck loaded with big building blocks/bricks driving at a very slow speed. I was just starting to overtake it when the Lord spoke to me and warn me not to overtake the truck. There were no obvious reason for such warning because there were not any other traffic around. I OBEY and the next moment the whole load of bricks fall from the truck at exactly the spot were I would have been if I haven't listen. It would have flattened me and my little car. Thank you Lord!
Well friends, I was born again in a prison cell in 1996 while serving time for the possession of firearms. Praise, lots has happened since then and recently i have meet a very special woman in my life and believe she will be a blessing to our God given mission. Myself together with a group of other Christians have just formed a trust Missionary Seed, SEED stand for Support Evangelism and Equip Development, mainly we will be working with the orphans of the Indian nation nursing them into Christianity and so they will one day be native missionary's with a purpose..and that is to save precious lost souls. Amen and to feed these children with love, word, deed and action!!
It is a privilege to share my testimony as I've done recently in India while out there as a missionary while there I was able to share the word of God and got so involved with the Orphans i ended up adopting 21 of them!!! I'm back now,and we are Just about to receive our Trust registration, I believe, God through our Lord Jesus is about to do some awesome things with our new work, will love to share my whole testimony when i have an hour or so to spare, remain blessed to be a blessing, your friend in Christ Jesus. Paul
