What Friends of God Know

"The Lord said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation?"" — Genesis 18:17-18 Imagine a senior leader preparing a major organizational change.

Before the announcement is made publicly, they call one person into their office — not the most powerful person, not the most strategically useful, but the person they most trust, the one closest to them, the one whose counsel they value and whose reaction matters to them.

They tell that person first. Not because they need permission, but because that's what friends do: they don't keep secrets from each other. Three visitors came to Abraham's tent in the heat of the day.

Abraham received them with urgent, generous hospitality — running to meet them, bowing, urging them to stay, preparing a feast. What followed was the announcement that a son would be born to Sarah within the year — and Sarah, listening from the tent, laughed.

But before the visitors departed toward Sodom, God paused and asked Himself a question: shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? And the answer was no. Not because Abraham had earned the disclosure, but because God had called Abraham His friend, and friends do not keep their plans secret.

What followed was one of the boldest conversations in Scripture: Abraham standing before God and interceding for Sodom — pressing through six rounds of negotiation, each time asking if mercy could be extended further.

He was not asking for himself. He was asking for a city that had done him no favors. But the access he had to God — the standing of a friend — he used not for his own benefit but for the benefit of others.

Access given to a friend is always tested by what the friend does with it.

Jesus echoes the logic of Genesis 18 in John 15:15: "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."

Friendship with God is marked by disclosure. The servant receives orders; the friend receives reasons and intentions. Abraham's intercessory access to God — standing before Him, pressing Him with questions — is a picture of what prayer at its deepest level looks like for those who are in Christ.

Hebrews 4:16 invites: "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace." The confidence is not our own worthiness. It is the standing of a friend, granted by God Himself. "The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant."

— Psalm 25:14 🪞 Reflect on this: • Do you relate to God primarily as a servant who receives orders, or as a friend who is being let in on what God is doing? What would it look like to move toward the latter?

• Abraham used his access to God not for his own benefit but to intercede for others. Who are you interceding for — pressing God's mercy toward — with the same boldness Abraham showed? • God said He would not hide His plans from Abraham.

Are you positioned to receive what God is disclosing — through prayer, Scripture, and the Spirit — about what He is doing in your season? 👣 Take a Step Action: Use Your Access Spend time this week in bold, specific intercession for someone else — not general prayers, but Abraham-style pressing: asking God to show mercy in a specific situation, for a specific person, with specific requests.

Bring your access to God and use it for someone who needs it. Say: "Lord, I receive the standing of friendship You have given me through Christ. I use that access today — not for myself, but for those I am standing before You for.

Let Your mercy extend as far as grace allows.