A similar deception marks many of our lives and our congregations today. The heart question in this generation is the same heart question as in the days of Jeremiah. What are you confident in? Are you confident in your gifting, your ability, your resources, your contacts, your affiliations and your finances? Or are you confident in your God? Are you confident that you understand what is going on in the heart of God for your generation?

“Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth, for in these I delight,” says the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

God is crying out, “Who understands Me? Who knows what is going on in My heart? Who feels what I feel as I prepare to send judgment? Who has a clue about the tenderness in My heart?”

We are called not only to know God, but to teach others to know God. Jeremiah prophesied that God would give His people shepherds who would feed them with the knowledge and understanding of Him (Jeremiah 3:15). I believe God is in the process of raising up friends who know Him deeply and intimately, who will walk with Him and carry His heart, and who will share His heart with others. I really believe that God is causing the body of Christ to transition from having a servant mentality to having a friendship mentality. Jesus said, “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go out and bear fruit, and that your fruit shall remain” (John 15:15-16).

Knowing God is about more than having information. It is about who can and who cannot be trusted with the deep things of God’s heart. The Lord rocked my paradigm about four years ago concerning what it means to be a friend of God. I have always longed to be one of those intercessors who stayed up all day and all night in intercession, like David Brainerd. The problem was that I never could wake up in the middle of the night. A burglar could have come in and robbed the whole house, and I would have slept through it.

My big night eventually came, though. The Lord woke me up supernaturally at 3am. My eyes popped open and I heard the Lord say, “Get up. I want you to be with Me.” I wanted to get up, but I told Him I was tired and went back to sleep. Five minutes later, He woke me up again, and I responded the same way. Five minutes after that, the Lord spoke to me a third time and asked, “Can you not tarry with me on hour?”

I said, “Okay, I’ll get up! I’ll get up!” You can’t go back to sleep after hearing that verse (Mark 14:37).

I went into another room and waited. I was sure I was going to hear some supernatural revelation that would impact the nations. It seemed to me that if God had awakened me, the intercessor, He must have something important to say. There must be something big going on. I sat in that room for fifteen minutes, waiting with my notepad in hand, but nothing happened. I began to doze. In time I went back to sleep.

I woke up the next morning frustrated and angry. My big chance had come and I had messed up. I went to the International House of Prayer and spent the first hour in the prayer room being upset with myself. Eventually I decided to share what had happened with one of my good friends and asked if she had any advice.

After I told my friend what happened, she looked at me and said, “Don’t you know what He wanted from you, Corey? All He wanted was for you to be with Him. He didn’t need you to do anything or to pray anything. He wanted you to be with Him because He counts you as His friend.”

Those few phrases shook my whole concept of God and of how He sees me. I realized that I have value to Him and that I bring comfort to His heart. That realization is massive. And it’s a hammer blow to the spirit of religion that defines us by what we do, rather than by who we are. That encounter led me into the understanding that God wants me, not because of what I do for Him, but because of who I am to Him. He who inhabits eternity values us because we are His friends.