READ: Psalm 41:5-13
Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.
Psalm 41:9
Judas was the highest kind of traitor. He paid the ultimate price for allowing himself to be deceived by familiarity. It takes spiritual discipline not to become familiar.
Familiarity means “To know someone or something very well and in such a way as to cause you to lose your admiration, respect and sense of awe. It also connotes a sense of becoming presumptuous, where a person is too confident in a way that shows a lack of respect”.
A young lady was having a problem in her marriage. Her husband said to her, “I am going to report you to the Bishop.”
She retorted, “I don’t care. He also has problems.”
I smiled when I heard this. I knew that it was only familiarity that was rearing its head. Perhaps, I was wrong to have allowed this person to spend a few nights in our home. On another occasion, another relative who had spent a few days with our family was having some problems. After counselling this relative, she thanked me and seemed genuinely blessed.
Unfortunately, she told someone later that I am a man of knowledge and not a man of experience. What she was saying was that I had no experience in the kind of problem she had and my advice was therefore theoretical!
I thought to myself, “I have now become a man of knowledge without experience. It is only because I had allowed this person to relate so closely to my family and I that she had the nerve to make such a comment.”
Sometimes it is better to know someone from afar so that you can continue to receive from his ministry. Remember that familiarity is the best way to kill the anointing. It has the greatest capability of neutralizing the power of God’s gift.