Transcription
I'll share this morning on how to recognize your God-sent friends and destiny helpers. We begin by taking a look at Psalm 106, verse 46, from the Amplified Bible Classic Edition. It says, "He also caused Israel to find same party, same party among those who had carried them captive."
One of those things that the Lord would do from time to time is to influence the hearts of men and women towards you. And they become favorably disposed and begin to do to you and do for you certain things that you don't even deserve. This is going to play out in the entire course of your life, here or not. These scriptures are showing to you something happening behind the scene. So, behind the positive disposition of certain people towards you is the hidden influence of the Almighty God. He will deliberately cause certain people to be kind to you in the process of your life here on earth. God would from time to time influence people to treat you with kindness, treat your children with kindness, and sometimes they will, people will treat your loved ones, someone identified with you, with favor and kindness, having you in mind.
And then in Proverbs chapter 21, verse 1, Proverbs 21, verse 1, Good News Bible, he says, "The Lord controls the mind. The Lord controls the mind of a king as easily as he directs the course of his dream." The Lord controls the mind of a king. No matter how highly placed, no matter how powerful or influential anyone could be, they are subject to the influence of the Almighty. So please have it in mind that God has the ability to influence the heart or the mind of any person. God can influence their decision to become favorable to you. God can influence their choice. God can influence their affection, their disposition.
In Job chapter 42, verse 10, you see how God influenced the hearts of people to become well disposed towards Job, and that was how his great restoration began. God can influence the behavior of certain people, particularly towards you. And that is why you see someone who may have a particular kind of behavior towards most people would act differently with a few people or just one person. And normally, when things like this begin to happen consistently, people would conclude that such a man or a woman has a soft spot for that person, that it treats differently, but positively. So God can influence the attitude of people towards you. The most difficult people can be influenced by God to agree with you, to make things easy for you. God can influence the preferences of people. They can influence the loyalty of people. You can influence their commitment, all of these in your favor.
When the occasion arises, God, on the other realm of mercy, can influence the hearts and the mind of people to show you mercy, forgiveness, pardon, or even genuine reconciliation. God can influence the response of people to your offense, as we saw the Lord do with, uh, Jacob towards the, um, in the eyes of his brothers, Esau. He's, Esau was certainly going to become very offensive with him, but he prayed and prevailed with God in the place of prayer. And in response, the Lord influenced the heart of Esau to become merciful towards his brother Jacob. And what would have turned to being a big fight turned to be a time of sincere reconciliation.
God can influence the response of people to your needs. You can influence the response of people to your request. And at the time, the Lord could give a blanket instruction to all the Jews and Israelites to ask the Egyptian masters for gold and silver. And God, having let them to do that, moved supernaturally and influenced the hearts of all these Egyptian masters to urgently and generously release their treasures of God to the Israelites.
One of those gifts that God can give you in life is a gift of true friends, a gift of true friends. I pray that the Lord will bless you with long life. But I would encourage you sometimes to reflect on the experiences of widows and widowers, and some of the stories and experiences they've had, which they will share. The husband and the wife that departed had impacted so much, so much. Some of them even empowered so much, some assisted to be in high positions and have now become well established. Some of these people, we are nowhere to be found when the man or the woman departed. And then you begin to hear some of these widows tell you that, surprisingly, surprisingly, there is this friend, there is this man that was not even afraid of my husband, that has now turned out to be the most supportive to have the children. This is something you see continue to play out. It's a very regular pattern in life, and it applies in so many other circumstances and situations.
In the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 19, verse 4, the Bible says, "What else makes many friends? The world attracts many friends, but the poor is separated from his friend." This has nothing to do with any particular person. It's a regular life pattern. It's a regular life pattern.
And then in Proverbs 17, verse 17, Proverbs 17, verse 17, he says, "A true friend loves at all times. At all times." It's not a fair-weather friend. He's not a good-time friend. It's not a friend that is around you when you are in a privileged position. A true friend loves at all times. And it's never too late because starting from today, God is going to begin to usher into your life men and women that will be true friends indeed. If you are one of those, the Lord is releasing this grace unto, let your amen be loud.
And then in Proverbs chapter 18, verse 24, Proverbs 18, verse 24, the Bible says, "There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother." After David had finished talking with King Saul in 1 Samuel chapter 18, verse 1, Saul's son Jonathan was there. They became instantly, they began instantly a very deep bond of love, flowing first from Jonathan to, uh, David, and then of course, it was reciprocated from David towards him. There is a type of relationship that is worthy of recognition and emulation. It is a relationship that is stronger and more reliable than blood relationship. There is a friend that's sticked closer than a brother. There will always be men like these. There would always be women like this in the journey and process of life.
Relationship with this kind of true friends is based and sustained on sincere love, sincere love, sincere love. And not, it's not by compulsion or the factors such as biological relationship, tribal relationship, or racial sentiments. It's based on sincere love. Such relationships are not based on particular circumstances or situations. Although a particular circumstance or situation could have led to the, you know, conception of such a relationship, such relationships are not based on selfish reasons. They are not based on hidden personal expectations, opportunism, or deception. No, this is not what we are talking about here. This kind of true relationships are born and sustained by the spirit of true love.
Now, there are some biblical examples of individuals who demonstrated the attributes of a true friend. One of them was a woman called Ruth towards Naomi, her mother-in-law, deep sincere love. Another example was Jonathan towards David. Another example was Peter, our Lord, towards our Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing could separate these people from the one they loved. At the point in time, Ruth could tell Naomi that, "Wherever you go, I go. In fact, where you die, yeah, I would die."
In 1 Samuel chapter 18, verse 1, 1 Samuel chapter 18, verse 1, the Bible says, "The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David." Now, take note, this, this is not the negative dimension of soul tie. This is having a soft spot for a particular person. Jonathan just loved. He loved David. He loved David. His soul was knit with the soul of David. And he said, "And Jonathan loved him as his own soul."
When you begin to have not one, not two, not three, you begin to have up to three of this kind of friends, you would, many things will be stabilized around your life because you will discover that in life, and if you, in scriptures, you see a pattern of people having certain people having an inner cycle. And to show you how strong this pattern is, even our Lord Jesus Christ himself had an inner cycle of three: Peter, James, and John. Peter, James, and John. And these people, these three men loved him with all their heart. And it's quite instructive that even when Jesus was through with his assignment and was taken up to heaven, Peter took up the mantle of leadership of the church that Jesus left behind. John was the man that Jesus personally handed over his biological mother, Mary, to to look after, and he did it excellently. James was there as committed as he was in his lifetime, so was he after Jesus was gone. But these three men in his inner cycle had very deep, sincere love for him. So anytime you are privileged to have an inner cycle of very close friends, and each of these friends are true friends, each of these friends have a soft spot for you, a lot of things will be stabilized. A storm that could have brought you down in life, that storm would not, because help will come. And these things I'm saying are all scriptural.
In Ecclesiastes chapter 4, verse 7 through 10, the Bible tells us about the power of close unity. Say, "Two is better than one." Say, "For if one falls, the other shall help him up. If one is down, the other shall help him up." Anything can happen. Sometimes, no, people can suffer a major setback in life. Me, just sit back and they just lose everything. Someone that was doing so well financially, just becomes it, instantly becomes a debtor as a result of a very bad incident that happened. But we have seen how a few friends will just rally around that person. We have seen somehow, someone who is not even afraid. And I want you to take note of another group of people that are described as well-wishers. Well-wishers. So you observe most of the time when something, there is a major event in the life of any man, you know, you hear announcements and calls like, "Friends and well-wishers." There are people that love you, but they will never be close to you. They will just love you. They are your well-wishers. And sometimes, you know, something could have some other kind of relationship with you. Some of them will be far above you. So be far above you. But in their heart, they have a very soft spot for you. They have deep, unconditional, sincere love. And when the storms of life comes, you'll see that it's this same, oftentimes, it's this same set of people that willingly and gladly rally around to do the needful, to build out, or to support that person that they sincerely love.
There are already some around you, but I'm praying this morning that God will open your eyes to recognize them, so that you won't lose them, so that you won't lose them. Because most of the time, you can, you know, the people, there are people that will really love you, but you know, they, it's sincere. So they don't, they don't do anything unusual. There is nothing like eye-serving. There is nothing like pretense. You know, they don't do any of these things to get your attention. So if you are not careful, the people that are going out of their way to position themselves around you, sometimes, especially when there is something to benefit from you, may not really be the people that deeply love you. And this is what happens eventually. When you lose this point of attraction, the pretenders will be gone, and only those who have always sincerely loved you will still be there. So you, God needs to help you to recognize them, so that at least, if you are not close friends, you could begin to also appreciate them intentionally, intentionally.
So quickly, what are the attributes of these God-sent friends and destiny helpers? One, genuine care and concern. Genuine care and concern. They will love you as themselves. And this is not something that is proven in a year. It is assessed and proven over a long period of time and through their continuous sincere actions in your interest and well-being. They will always carry your interest at heart. Whatever they do, they can do for themselves, they will willingly do the same for you. Your success gives them joy. Your success gives them joy.
Number two, unconditional friendship. Unconditional friendship. They are sincerely attracted to you. Sincerely. It's not based that you know, it's not based primarily on anything. They are sincerely attracted to you. And their love for you will overwhelm offense. Take note of this. The true depth of someone's friendship or goodwill towards you will be tested in the midst of an offense. Be careful to call anybody your close friend when you have never offended him. Be careful about calling anybody your very, very strong ally when you have never disappointed him. Everything he has desired from you, you always favored him and gave him. Be careful about running into such a conclusion.
And number three, availability. Availability. True friends will always readily make themselves available. This may not apply to all in the category of well-wishers, but it's something demanded from close friends. They would always be available and supportive in times of need, times of grief, times of trouble, times of affliction. When you are in a critical condition and they receive a distress call, not necessarily from you, because if it's a real emergency, you may not be the one to call, but if they receive a distress call concerning you, they will leave whatever they are doing and come as quickly as possible. Watch out for these indicators.
Number four, friendship beyond boundaries. Friendship beyond boundaries. This is another major indicator. Their friendship with you has no geographical boundaries, not at all. Talk less of structural boundaries that maybe you were both working in the same organization for so many years and that was where the friendship came up, and now you are gone elsewhere and the friendship is over. No way. Now, even when it comes to distant geographical locations, that can never be a barrier to their friendship with you. So even after you have relocated to a very far location or a different country, they will still keep in touch with you regularly. The true depth of friendship is recognized when there is nothing officially binding the two of you together.
Number five, they are protective. They are protective of your life. They are protective of your health. They are protective of your interest. If they happen to hear anything that could affect your interest, they are the ones that, they won't even mind, they won't mind, you know, breaking protocol and quickly informing you, quickly informing you. So they are very, very protective of your health, your interest.
Fortunate to have someone very close to you that has all of these attributes we mentioned, then it implies that the journey of life will be smoother and better. And if it is otherwise, a lot of things that could have gone well will go in the wrong direction. So, in closing, this implies that we should also be very, very sensitive to appreciate these kind of people that God brings our way. I told you earlier, some of them would not be friends, they will just have goodwill towards you. Some of these people will be far above you, and you may not ever relate closely, but you would observe that every time the opportunity arises, they are ready to use their influence, use something they have in your favor. And eventually, not just you, but in favor of your children. Praise hear the Lord.