We as believers are meant to be avoiding any kind of friendship with the world. Your friends should not be unbelievers in this world. Your friends should be from the Body of Christ. James is very clear on this. In James 4:4 he says:

You adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship of the world is opposed to God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Can you imagine how my wife would feel if I brought home a woman that I had picked up out there and made friends with and said,

"Well you know I feel that she could benefit us, and so I've brought her home. She's a friend of mine, so I would like you to step aside tonight, because I want to spend the evening with her."

In the natural it seems stupid. But we are trying to do that in the spiritual and we are expecting our heavenly Bridegroom to step aside and say,

"Sure why not? Enjoy yourself."

We are putting Him aside and shoving Him away, so that we can entertain friendship with those who are the children of darkness. A believer should not have close friends that are unsaved. I am sure that this is blowing your mind isn't it?

You say, "Are you telling me that I am not meant to be friendly with people?"

No, I didn't say that. I said,

"You are not meant to have friends that are unsaved."

Why is this? It is because anybody who is not a believer is of the world. That person is under Satan's control. They are outside of Christ and they are not part of the family of God. So what are you doing hanging around with them? They are not part of your family.

You say, "But he's such a good guy. He has such good principles and he is so moral. He gives to charity all the time. He lives a good clean life.

"I've never heard a curse word out of him yet. And he always only speaks well of people. I have never even heard him criticize anybody yet. He's a good man and he makes a good friend. He really stands with me, and has committed himself to me and supported me."

"He is of the world."

"Yes, but you know if I could just make friends with him, I know that it will be very easy for me to sway him over to becoming a Christian."

No it won't. What does he want to become a Christian for? He has already attained his own moral standard. He doesn't need Christ.

His boast is in his own strength; in his own moral code and the moral principles that he stands for. What does he need Christ for? Those are the most difficult people to get saved.

Not as it Looks

Do you know how often I have seen people who will tremble in the sight of a great, big ogre-type of person? He has a big, loud filthy mouth and acts like the Devil, walks around with t-shirts with demons on and has long hair? You know the kind of person I'm talking about.

You say, "It'll take a miracle to get him saved."

You hang around with this little nerdy type of guy who never pushes himself and seems a total push-over. He is not very assertive, very meek and quiet and doesn't talk much.

He doesn't raise his voice and he seems a nice guy. You'd like to hang around with him.

Who do you think gets saved the easiest? The ogre does. I can tell you that one from experience. He has a reason to get saved. He has tried the whole world and found out it doesn't work. The other guy thinks he is so smug in his self-righteousness, what does he need God for?

It is the same trouble Jesus had with the Pharisees. What did they need Him for? They had it all together. But it was the sinners, the prostitutes and the tax collectors who came to Jesus.

Change the way you view it. Don't think that the nice guy who seems to have such good principles is somebody that you should have on your side. He is not on your side. He is on Satan's side.

There are very moral people in the world, but Paul says,

In the last days, men will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, forbidding to marry and abstaining from certain foods.

You may say, "He's really spiritual you know. He lives a celibate life. He doesn't drink tea or coffee and he doesn't eat pork. He's a very religious man; very committed to God."

Yes, but he goes to the monastery and chants every second day, and walks around with his bald head. He is not a child of God. It is Satan's counterfeit. Don't you believe it. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. Don't touch it.

Bad Associations Rub Off

Do you know that your associations affect your behavior patterns? Do you know how easy it is to find yourself talking like the person you hang around with, without even realizing it?

Just go to the World System. Go to any group of young people in School or college or anywhere, and you will find out what the latest slang is. You get an old fuddy-duddy like me who comes along and tries to listen to these young people, and they sound like they are talking a foreign language. But they know exactly what they are saying to each other because they are in on the latest.

You say, "But I'm a Christian. I don't get involved in that."

Yes you do, without even realizing it. If you hang around with those guys long enough you will be using the same expressions. You will be talking just like them, to fit in and understand them, and to get them to understand you.

There is a Scripture that addresses this quite clearly. In 1 Corinthians 15:33 and 34 Paul says:

Do not be deceived: evil companionship corrupts good behavior.
Wake up to what is right and do not sin; for some do not know God: I speak [this] to your shame.

You become like the crowd you hang around with. And it is so deceptive because it happens unconsciously. So what are you doing hanging around with the wrong crowd?

You say, "But I'm not sinning. I'm just hanging around with them, because hey it's a lonely life. And you know I don't have any Christian friends.

"I have to have some friends out there, and these guys are my friends. We talk about things. We share things, and they listen to me and they care about me."

What Friendship Involves

Oh yes? Let me tell you what friendship involves. I will give you some of the qualities of friendship.

Firstly, friendship involves a commitment to somebody else. And secondly, friendship involves a unity of soul with somebody else.

I have spoken elsewhere of how when two people come together they can become united together in their spirits, in their souls and in their bodies. Of course in the marriage relationship this becomes a complete unity in spirit, soul and body.

When you come into contact with somebody else, you can receive a contamination from their spirit and pick up their curse. When you come into a friendship with somebody else, you can also open your soul to theirs, and there comes a communication from soul to soul.

You have probably heard the term 'soul tie'. What is a soul tie? It is a friendship.

What you might find interesting, is that the Greek word which is translated friend in the New Testament is philos. It is the same root as the Greek word phileo which speaks of human soulish love; the love of the emotions.

Friendship is soul unity. What are you doing tying your soul to somebody who is not born again? You can have acquaintances and business relationships.

You can be involved with people and you don't have to be arrogant and unfriendly, but friendship involves a commitment. It involves opening your heart to somebody and receiving from their hearts. A child of God cannot afford to do that where the unsaved are concerned.

Setting The Pace

Now you as a Joshua apostle will be preaching this message. This is your mandate; to take the world out of the church. It is to displace the world from the church; to take worldly ideas and worldly influences out of the hearts of God's people.

How are you going to accomplish this? Joshua set the pace. What he decided the elders followed suit and copied. And what the elders set as the standard became what the people automatically did, and they fell in line.

Of course when everything started to go wrong the people started to rear up and condemn the elders and say,

"Look what you did. You got us into trouble here. Didn't you guys think, man?"

The trouble is they followed like sheep to the slaughter. And the world out there and the church at large out there are mostly sheep. They are looking for shepherds. They will follow you, and if you lead them to the slaughter they will follow you to the slaughter.

It is up to you to set the pace. It is up to you to make the right image that other people will follow and adhere to, because if you fail don't blame them.

Don't say, "You miserable rotten bunch of sheep. When are you people going to serve God?"

They are just being what they see in you. It is like a parent trying to tell the child not to do something and the child sees the parent doing it.

An Example to Others

They are just going to become what you are. Believers in the Body of Christ are exactly the same. You are top of the pile. They will become what you are. You are responsible before God for the state of the church.

Firstly, you must be separated from the world. Secondly, you must be a model of what they are to be. And thirdly, you need to be careful not to cause others to stumble.

You say, "But I see nothing wrong with some of these things. They don't affect me. I can be in the world and not be contaminated by it. I can partake of some of these things as part of my ministry and not be affected by it."

Yes, but other people can't. And if they see you doing it they will do the same.

You say, "But I don't see what's wrong with going to a movie."

Maybe you don't, but if a lower level Christian as it were, or an ordinary believer sees you there, they will think it is okay to absorb the garbage that is coming off that screen. They will think that it is their standard of life, because you find it acceptable.

Perhaps you went to learn something from it. I know that every time I have ever watched worldly entertainment, I have made sure that I transmute it into something spiritual. In this way I can even use as an illustration in ministering.

I can do that. But there are times that I need to avoid doing that for the sake of those who will stumble. Paul makes it very clear in the New Testament when he says,

If eating meat makes my brother stumble, I stop eating meat.

You may say, "So what's wrong with eating meat? I like meat."

There is nothing wrong with eating meat, but somebody else is being affected spiritually by it. So if you are going to eat meat, just make sure you eat it on your own.

Of course the danger is somebody may walk in while you are eating. So sometimes maybe it is better that you give it up just for the sake of conscience.

A Price to Pay

You say, "Do you mean I have to become paranoid just because I'm an apostle?"

Do you want God to lift you up? Do you want to be a standard to the Body of Christ? Do you want to be a leader that is going to lead God's church into victory? Well are you prepared to pay the price?

If you are not prepared to pay the price, forget about being a Joshua. You won't hack it. Just go and be an ordinary shepherd, an ordinary pastor, elder or deacon of a local church and forget about rising up and aspiring to the level of leadership that God is calling you to in the apostolic.

I know what I am talking about. The Lord has dealt with me about these things personally. You have to make a choice. You have to decide whether it is worth it or not.

Do you want to move in the power of God? Do you want to know His glory and His anointing, and the authority of the Spirit that comes to an apostle? If so then you had better be prepared to pay the price no matter what the cost.

We have to be separated not only from the world, but from the entire World System. In Romans 12:1 and 2 Paul speaks these words. He says:

I am urging you therefore brothers, by the mercies of God, that you are to present [as a specific act] your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, [which is] your logical service.
And do not [continually] follow the pattern of this world: but [continually] change [metamorphoo] by renewing your mind, that you may recognize [dokimazo] what the will of God is, that good and pleasing and perfect will.

The moment Joshua allowed himself to get hooked up with the World System, he came into confrontation with all the powers of this world. And five great kings rose up against him.

Five strong leaders banded together and came to attack Gibeon. They actually wanted to attack Joshua, but seeing as Joshua was with Gibeon, that was the best place to get him.

They were going to cut the link. They were five kings over five cities or five regions. They were mighty men that covered the whole area and they came against Joshua.