WHO ARE MY FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS?

March 5, 2025

“The World Waits For Who You Were Created To Be”

My wife, Dr. Adeline (Addie) Barber, recently spoke at the Women’s Tea that was held at our church. As I read her message it resonated with my “Come Follow Me” discipleship theme. She highlighted the true essence of friendship, which goes beyond proximity. A friend is someone you want to converse with, share with, discuss issues, and future life concerns with.

In Biblical New Testament times, a "neighbor or friend" often referred to someone living in the same or nearby town. A neighbor could in essence be a friend that you don't personally know yet. For Jews, like many today, they excluded groups like the Gentiles and Samaritans from being considered neighbors or friends. Similarly, in our present-day society people often make racial and cultural exceptions about who qualifies as a neighbor or friend, but we were created by God to be different yet appreciated and accepted regardless of our diversity.

Dr. Addie started her talk with a statement that came from a good friend of hers. Her friend gave her a plaque that read,

“The world waits for who you were created to be”

The word "created" indicates that humans were shaped, fashioned, and formed by God the Father. Gen.1:27 states that humanity was made in God's image for a purpose to help establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Both the Old and New Testaments emphasize this spiritual human uniqueness. Despite our many differences, it is suggested that there is a divine plan and purpose for all individuals. John 3:16a mentions, "For God so loved the world…" The word WORLD means (Kosmos) meaning everybody everywhere which highlights the belief that all creation is waiting for the revelation of who we were called to be.

In the Old Testament The Passion Translation states how God knew who we were before we were conceived in our mother’s wombs, as the author and finisher of our lives,

You saw who you created me to be before I became me (Ps. 139:16, TPT).

The ESV says this passage even more plainly, 

Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every

one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. (Psalm139:16 ESV).

In the New Testament Dr. Addie gives the similar insight as well. God knew us, even before we were born. He created us specifically to fulfill a destiny and purpose that only He shaped.

Even before we were born God planned in advance our destiny and the good works, we would do to fulfill them. (Eph. 2:10, TPT)

She continues to reiterate that God knew how the Holy Spirit would guide you based on His plan for your existence. We were created to aid Him for the purpose in establishing the kingdom of God “…on earth as it in Heaven.” (Mat. 6:10) 

I grew up in India, where women were not acknowledged, and children were to be seen but not heard, I however succeeded. As the third, exuberant and brash girl, I often found myself in trouble, which sometimes made me wonder if I was a mistake. I came to realize and discovered that I was not a mistake as I received knowledge from Biblical teaching, love from friends who cared about my future, and from the study of the Scripture. Over time I received my gifts and talents from the Spirit and my knowledge, wisdom, and understanding have evolved. I have come to recognize that my capacities for love, joy, and peace are talents instilled in me as Spiritual gifts from God. They were intended to be used today, now in the current time period, especially among believers from different cultures and languages. (Rev 7:9-17.)

Time has made me see, “The world is waiting for who we all were created to be.” This message has to be shared with the body of Christ first because God is calling an army of men and women for end time harvest. It is imperative that we:

• Know our identity in Christ.

• Know what gifts/talents God placed in us.

• Know the deposit of the Holy Spirit within us.

• Know the voice and leading of the Holy Spirit.

Dr. Barber concludes that, the Holy Spirit is calling us in this hour to be bold, to share our testimony, make friends of those in a world that are in desperate need of Jesus Christ as their savior and use our Spiritual Gifts to triumph over the enemy through any situation, persecution, threat or ridicule with the Spirits help. The Church should contemplate what Revelation 12 says:

They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. (Rev. 12:11, NIV)

The Spirit gives every one of us a unique witness, like fingerprints, no two people have the exact same evidence of the spirits intervention, yet every testimony speaks about the faithfulness of God and His involvement into our lives. Can we make friends of the people who are in the world? It is obvious that all of creation formed by God’s hands is alive and is in essence crying out to have a revelation of us as God’s sons and daughters.

The entire universe is standing on tiptoe, yearning to see the unveiling of God’s glorious sons and daughters! (Rom 8:19, TPT)

Never stop believing what my friend said, “The world is waiting for who you were created to be!” let’s become what we were created to be and go make friends and harvest the world.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

Agree/disagree, and explain your answer:

1. As long as I don’t know who my neighbor is, I have no responsibility to them to approach them as friends. 

2. The Spirit is calling us in this hour to be bold, to share our testimony, to be a light and make friends in a broken and dark world.

3. Answer the following,

   • What have you come to know regarding your identity in Christ?

   • What Holy Spirit gifts/talents did God place in you?

   • How do you discern the guidance of the Holy Spirit?