When God healed me from major depression and anxiety and I started hearing His voice again, I had no clue it was only the beginning of so much more that God had planned.

See, every time you hear the voice of God it is an invitation to draw near and stay close.

“Every miracle you see is an invitation to an ongoing encounter…Valuing the testimony of what God has done reveals His nature and His heart to do it again, and leads us deeper into knowing and encountering Him.”

— Bill Johnson, Bethel Redding

I didn’t realize the fullness of what God was calling me into, and even now I’m sure that there is so much more ahead. I’m excited.

So in early 2023 I had the random desire to go to a cabin in the mountains. I already love the mountains, but all of a sudden I just really loved log cabins and would look them up on Google all the time and think about how I could go away to one to spend time alone.

At this time I had already been a part of Worship Nights Marietta for a few months; during one night of worship, a friend stood up and said that he had a prophetic word for someone who had a dream of going to a cabin in the mountains.
I was like: “hey, that’s me!”
So I went to hear what the Lord was going to reveal. The person spoke a prophecy over me that I would have the opportunity to go away by myself to a mountain cabin to be alone with the Lord. He told me the first couple days would be tough but to push through.

So I decided to start trying to find a cabin that was cheap to rent.
Hint: they aren’t cheap. At all.
But it turns out God had one planned for me already. One day, I was working at a coffee shop called the Daily Grind while wearing a hat that said Blue Ridge Mountains, and this woman walked up to me and noticed my hat, asking, “you like it up there?”
I replied, “yes I love it; I’m actually currently trying to find a cabin to rent up there.”

She then proceeded to tell me about how she and her husband had just started a ministry where people could go away to be alone with the Lord in their cabin in Cherry Log, Georgia. I realized this was God’s providence, so I ran after her and told her about the prophecy that had been spoken over me.

However, shortly after this, my car broke down and I had no way to drive up there. So for nearly the rest of the year I struggled with saving enough money to buy a new car while I had monthly college payments, that, at the time, left my bank account overdrawn.

During this time of waiting God started pouring into my heart what I would be pursuing during my time at the cabin. It all happened in a moment, actually. I was praying while standing in my garage, and, for less than a nanosecond, I had a vision of Jesus standing in the throne room of Heaven with His hand outstretched to me.

It happened so fast I doubted whether or not I had actually seen it. But now I can look at the fruit and say that it was God calling me deeper into greater intimacy with Him. Because it was in that moment that realized I didn’t know Jesus as much as I could.

It shocked me too much to see Him standing there. It shocked me too much to see that He’s a real person. I realized that I knew more about Him than I knew Him personally. In my spirit, I knew I need to be friends with God. So in that moment a hunger for being God’s friend started burning within my heart, and a seed was planted for what God wanted to do with me at the cabin.

… I mentioned previously that during this time I was struggling financially.

I was out on a morning walk one day, and talking with the Lord a bit and it felt as though He spoke to me, saying, “sometimes My provision means reminding you that I’m enough.” So I was given a peace during that time. I had a joy knowing that whether or not I saw God at work, He has me and I have nothing to fear or be anxious about. I’m so glad God did that for me because it wasn’t a cheap temporary peace due to circumstances changing, it was a lasting peace that I had despite what was going on around me.

Peace in the valley is more expensive than peace on the mountaintop.

Then someone anonymously gave me $500, enough to pay for my college payment that month and keep my account from being overdrawn. Truly a gift from God.

Around that time, also, a missionary from our church was testifying about many of the instances where God had miraculously shown up and provided for her needs.
I asked her to pray for me that I would receive a car and she prayed over me that God would send me one, specifically, in way that glorifies Him.

A couple weeks later I was given a car by some really incredible friends who had been praying and asking God what to do with their old car. Not only was it just what I needed, it was a specific answer to prayer, and a testimony to Who our God is as Jireh; as Provider.

So now with a car I was finally able to drive up to Cherry Log to spend time alone in the cabin. Remember the cabin? I had high expectations because, after all, this had been prophesied earlier that year.

While I was there, God started teaching me about being His friend. I had seen a sermon where the preacher talked about the moment that he knew beyond any doubt that he was friends with the Holy Spirit. I started praying for that moment as well. I needed to know that I’m His friend.

In John 15, Jesus tells His disciples this:

“You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”
‭‭John‬ ‭15‬:‭14‬-‭15‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Something notable about this passage is the context of abiding in Christ and allowing Him prune us, that we would bear fruit. He corrects us as we present ourselves to Him as living sacrifices, and Jesus, the refining fire, purifies us, making us more like Him.

Obedience is essential to friendship with God, and He helps us to get there. It’s fruit of the Spirit rather than the fruit of striving flesh. We present ourselves on the altar as willing and yielded vessels, and Christ prunes us, cutting away dead branches. The cutting can hurt. It may feel like death, but it brings life.

Before Christ is our Friend, He must be our Lord. I’ve heard it said that rather than ceasing to serve Christ to be called friends, it is the context of servitude that allows our friendship with Him. It is the launching point into intimacy with Jesus.

Bill Johnson said it this way:

“…He was my Lord before He was my friend, and my friendship with God can only go where His Lordship has already been. I can’t go in a friendship with God where I haven’t gone in Lordship.”

I only started learning this during my time at the cabin. There wasn’t any kind of crazy experience while I was there, but I knew that something had been planted in me during that time that I would see come to fruition at some point later on.

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Earlier this year, while I was working in my backyard planning renovation with my mother (who used to be a landscaper) for the area I like to pray in, she noticed something remarkable.

A tree that had been dead for eight years had been miraculously resurrected. I even looked up if trees could come back to life. They can’t. It’s not “possible.” It’s kind of funny because that tree is now much younger than the other trees in my backyard.

And while there were multiple lessons that I took away from that miracle that I’ll write on in the future, one of them was about pruning, as I took care of the tree: cutting off the dead branches and clearing the soil around it so that it would remain healthy. God started teaching me about how when we spend time with Him, He prunes us; He matures us. It can feel like death but it brings life and brings us closer to Him.

In John 15, Jesus emphasizes that apart from Him we can do nothing. But the ultimate takeaway from that passage isn’t our inability alone, it’s the need to be connected to Jesus, so that we aren’t apart from Him. And then He goes on to say that He no longer calls us slaves but friends. See, Christ enables us to walk according to His Word as He matures us and actually changes our mind.

Have you ever had a “lightbulb moment” where something finally makes sense to you and your perspective completely shifts to a whole new viewpoint?

That’s a small part of what it means for us to be pruned in the presence of the Lord.

I love it when God speaks wisdom and you can’t help but be in awe of what you know could not have come from you, and the realization hits that you just heard from the Lord. For me it often results in either being giddy like a child, or in having an overwhelming joy where you can’t help but smile and laugh.

One of those times was while I was driving up to Dawsonville Georgia. I had watched a sermon on friendship with God, and then I just spent the entire rest of the drive talking with Him.

There was a lot of wisdom He revealed to me during that car ride, and I’ll write about some of it at a later time, but one of the things He told me was definitely a lightbulb moment. Repentance means to change your mind, and when you abide in the secret place with the Lord, He starts pruning you and shifting your perspective to His own, “changing” your mind. Apart from Christ we can do nothing, but when we abide in Him He enables us to “repent” and start having the mind of Christ.

Well, on that car ride I was talking to the Lord about some of the lies the enemy had been desperately trying to get me to believe and confess.

There is a “scary” verse in Matthew 7 where Jesus says that there will be people coming to Him saying “didn’t we prophesy, do miracles, and cast out demons in Your Name?” And He tells them “depart from Me for I never knew you.”

The enemy knows scripture too, and he’ll try to get your mind to focus on the wrong perspective instead of what Christ is trying to actually communicate. The purpose of this passage isn’t to put terror in you, for He has not given you a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind. (2 Tim. 1:7)

But I was irrationally afraid; terrified for no reason, and the devil was plaguing my mind with lies. I thought to myself “I’ve seen many miracles, seen people healed, had prophetic words and visions, and all that, but if that can all happen without truly knowing the Lord then how do I make sure I actually know Him?

An unholy fear came over me. But, when I started talking with the Lord, abiding in Him, He immediately put my mind to rest, silenced the lies, and replaced them with truth, changing my mind.

He told me that the meaning was not to point out where God is not, but rather to turn our focus to where we know He is. And in a lightbulb moment I realized that one minute in the secret place can have more impact than any number of power encounters.

I mentioned at the beginning that encounters are an invitation to a lifestyle. Every time you see a miracle, or a prophecy, or a healing, or you hear the voice of the Lord, it is God reaching out to bring you closer, for you to spend time with Him; to stay in the Word and in the secret place.

Abiding in Christ.

And as He prunes you and changes your mind, He enables you to walk with His heart in mind. And the result is that you become His friend.

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Funny enough, I kept forgetting to write down all that God had revealed to me during that car ride for about a week or two.

But when I finally got around to it, I went to pray and write in my backyard where the tree had been resurrected. After recording all the wisdom the Lord had poured into me so far I started to talk to Him again and ask Him what He wanted to reveal to me.

And something really special happened. In fact I truly believe it to be the fruit from the cabin that the Lord had called me to. I had prayed for one of these moments.

I was talking with the Lord and I asked Him: “so how does this work? Am I talking to the Holy Spirit, or Jesus, or the Father?” cause remember, people, we worship one God in three Persons, not three gods.

So I asked “How does this work; what do I call You?”

And in His infinite wisdom, He spoke to my heart, saying:

“You can just call Me Friend.”

“The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26)

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in Christ