Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

Today, let’s look at the impact of a friend’s faith.

Today’s scripture, Luke 5:18‭-‬20‭, ‬23‭-‬24 (ERV), shares the testimony of the delivering faith of presumed friends…
There was a man who was paralyzed, and some other men were carrying him on a mat. They tried to bring him and put him down before Jesus. But there were so many people that they could not find a way to Jesus. So they went up on the roof and lowered the crippled man down through a hole in the ceiling. They lowered the mat into the room so that the crippled man was lying before Jesus. Jesus saw how much faith they had and said to the sick man, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” The Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. But how can I prove this to you? Maybe you are thinking it was easy for me to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ There’s no proof that it really happened. But what if I say to the man, ‘Stand up and walk’? Then you will be able to see that I really have this power.” So Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, stand up! Take your mat and go home!”

And in John 11:3‭-‬6 (NLT), we see Jesus’ faith response to his friend’s emergency…
So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.” But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days.

Consider…
This week the Holy Spirit helped me with the assignment of sharing the purpose, necessity and effectiveness of intimate friendships. He led me to complete the assignment by diving into the:

• Commonality of friends, which emphasized the importance of having like-minded friends.
• Love of a friend, which should mirror and extend Jesus’ love.
• Proof of friendship, which was modeled by Abraham in his faith and obedience to God.
• Eternal impacts of instant friendships, which stressed the importance of choosing friends who will help you walk in your Divine anointing and appointing.
• And yesterday, love extended to others because of your love for your friend.

Today, the Holy Spirit is leading me to finish the assignment emphasizing the power and importance of a friend’s faith.

In our first scriptural passage, we read about the delivering faith of friends. There are three observations that stand out about a delivering faith…

• It brings our friends to Jesus.
• Bringing friends to Jesus leads to their spiritual deliverance
• And bringing friends to Jesus leads to physical deliverance

The Holy Spirit wants us to see how our determination for our friends’ deliverance simply engages the Divine’s predestined design to deliver us from sin to Him. (Ephesians 1:4-5)

Speaking of the Divine, our second scriptural passage reveals our friend Jesus’ response to his friend’s emergencies. When the messenger told Jesus that his “dear friend”, Lazarus was deathly ill, Jesus responded like Maurette Brown Clark, ‘It ain’t over til God says it’s over’. Jesus is saying the same thing to us, His dear friends too. The Holy Spirit wants us to recognize, that regardless of finite problems, our friend Jesus has infinite power to solve them. God also wants us to understand our physical desperation is part of His spiritual transformation. Jesus wasn’t worried about Lazarus, or us dying, because He is the resurrection (John 11:25)

Our friend Jesus wants us to have ‘even if’ faith in Him…

• ‘Even if’ it doesn’t feel good, it’s for my good (Romans 8:28)
• God is able to deliver, but ‘even if’ He doesn’t we’re ride or die with Him, (Daniel 3:17-18)
• ‘Even if’ I have to suffer for doing right, God will reward me for it (1 Peter 3:14)

When we have an ‘even if’ faith in God, we won’t worry because we know that, ‘it ain’t over til God says it’s over’.

Lastly, the Holy Spirit is telling me to close with James 5:16 (NLT), which says…

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

While this verse doesn’t specify friends, it implies an intimacy and trust that is unique to friends. There’s a popular slogan that ‘friends don’t let friends drive drunk’, which means friends watch out for each other. If I were to rewrite that slogan for Christians, it would say, ‘friends don’t let friends struggle alone’, instead they bring them to the Father’s throne (Hebrews 4:16).

As I wrote that, the Holy Spirit ran me to Romans 8:34 (NLT), which says…
Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

Our friend Jesus is sitting next to God the Father, pleading for us. 🤯

That’s both powerful and important. You see, we acknowledge and celebrate that Jesus died for us because He loved us, but I don’t think we realize that He believes in us as well? If you don’t believe me, just ask Job. (Job 1:8)

Jesus had faith that His friends would choose Him, which is why He chose to die for them. As His friend, the only question is do you have the faith to live for Him (John 15:14)

With that I have turned in my assignment. Hopefully while reading it, we were able to see that a friend’s faith (and love) are…

• Purposeful
• Necessary
• and Effective
  …in helping us to reach the Divine destiny God pre-planned for you and me.

Today’s song is…
Prayin’ 4 You

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)