CTN TV Episode 15 You Don't Have To Hide From God Part 2

0:00 You pray it and he can answer it. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. God will put the prayer in your heart to pray so that he can answer it. It goes into the hearts of the people, doesn't return void, it produces results. I want to welcome you to my broadcast. I'm your host, Margie Florent. We're going to continue on the subject of you don't have to hide from God. But by way of review, we're going to go ahead and dive into Genesis chapter 3, verse 6 through 13. where we see in these verses of Scripture that God approached Adam and Eve, and then Adam and Eve did something whereby they hid themselves from the presence of God. And in this teaching, I'm going to teach you how to approach God confidently, that you don't have to hide from God, that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, that you are a new creation, and you don't have to hide from God. it there let's go ahead and by way of review read Genesis chapter 3 it says here so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desired to make one wise she took of it Of the fruit and she ate it. Now we know that God told Adam and Eve, you are not to touch this particular tree, this particular fruit. But here we see her disobeying God, disobeying

1:32 the commandment of the Lord. She went ahead and she did it anyway. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the cool of the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called Adam and he said to Adam, where are you? And so he said, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And God said, who So in our last broadcast, we specifically honed in on the words.

2:47 Where are you? When after they had fallen, after they had sinned, God comes down and he wants to have fellowship with them, meet with them. And all of a sudden something has changed. The dynamic has changed, not physically, so to speak, but relationally. And so he says to Adam and he says to Eve. Where are you? Now, that Hebrew word is a very unique and powerful word, especially in this context. And it is the only time this Hebrew word is used. And he's the word means it carries a deep emotional weight. especially in context. While the word itself is grammatically a simple question, we find that many Jewish and Christian interpreters through the centuries have understood this word where to express much more of a request than a location. So we find in this verse, again, this is a review. This is an invitation. not condemnation, okay? Rather than confronting Adam and Eve and saying with anger, where are you? What is going on? This Hebrew word denotes a gentle question that reflects God's mercy, God's love, God's compassion. It reflects his desire for reconciliation. Again,

4:18 he's not angry. He's not mad. He's saying, where are you? It's a chance for Adam to come forward and confess. He's giving him an open door. I'm here. Where are you? What happened? Now, we note that in this verse, these verses, it's the first recorded divine human dialogue after the fall. So this is the law of first mention. So in my opinion, this adds gravity to God's first words to humanity. And these first words are, where are you? Not how dare you? OK, but where are you? Which opens our hearts for space, for reflection and return. So where are you? So God says to Adam and Eve. Where are you? And what was their response? Their response was, I was afraid. I was naked. And I hid myself from your presence where they once had beautiful fellowship time together. You know, a connection. It has now been severed. So as we look into this teaching, I want to talk to you about your prayer life and my prayer life. And the question is, do we?

5:37 Have the mindset of Adam and Eve whereby we are afraid of the presence of God. We fear going before him. We feel like we have to cover ourselves and hide from him. Or are we open and honest with our heavenly father? This brings me to the subject of sin consciousness versus a righteousness consciousness. Adam and Eve, they had a sin consciousness. Something had changed. They knew something had changed. And now all of a sudden they have a what I call sin consciousness. What is a sin consciousness? They covered themselves. They hid themselves, like I said, from the presence of God. And they were afraid. Their faith in God and their trust in God has turned into fear.

6:29 Why? Because they were naked. They needed a covering and therefore they had to hide themselves. So that's sin consciousness. We're afraid of God. We are afraid to approach him. We don't want him to see everything about us. Whereas my friends, he knows everything about us anyway. He considers our frame. He remembers that we are dust. He knows that we're human. So instead of hiding from him, we need to just be open and honest with God. Okay, that's how I like to approach my relationship with him. He knows everything anyway. He knows how many hairs I have on my head. The Bible says he discerns my thoughts from afar. He knows our attitudes. He knows everything.

7:10 So instead of running and hiding from him. We need to have confidence that our father said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I'm with you always. You don't have to run from me. As a matter of fact, when you sin, I would encourage you to run to Jesus, run to the presence of God. Don't run away from him because he said, when you run to my throne, I'll give you the grace and the mercy you need in your time of trouble. As a matter of fact, if you have a prevailing habit or sin, in your life that you can't get free from, instead of running from God, go to him, run to him, run to the presence of God, because he's the one that can help you. The Bible says there's no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God said, I am faithful.

8:03 I will, with that temptation, provide for you a way of escape. And I'm hearing in my spirit right now, I will also strengthen you with might. By my spirit in your inner man, I'll give you the strength to stand against that sin. I'll give you the strength that you need to overcome it. Just come to me. Okay? So we're going to get into our righteousness consciousness after this break. The Lord spoke to me one day. He said, Margie, many of my people desire to be intimate with me. They desire to spend time with me. They desire to have a vibrant prayer life, but they just don't know where to begin. They just don't know how to start. So I wrote this book with that in mind. Encountering God through prayer. Simple strategies to develop a powerful prayer life. I take the reader from the very basics. Begin where you are. Begin with 15 minutes.

9:07 Find a quiet place in your house. Go into a closet if you have to. Shut the door. Just begin where you are. And I teach the reader about the heart of the father. Because if you don't know who God is, you're not going to understand his character and his nature. And you'll be afraid of him. So I go into the heart of the father. Who is the father? What's his character? What's his nature? And then I take the reader all the way up. to what I call contemplative prayer. So if you would like a wonderful resource on how to begin your prayer life, I encourage you to get this book, Encountering God Through Prayer. Go to my website at margieflaurent .org. Okay, let's talk about righteousness consciousness. How must we approach him? Well, first of all, if you've never given Jesus Christ and made him the Lord of your life, given him access into your heart, I would just encourage you today to come to Jesus.

10:19 The Bible says, when you come to me, I will in no wise cast you out. So if you've never accepted him as your personal Lord and Savior, you can come to him right now. And when you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, say that with a heart of faith. you will be saved. So first of all, we've got to come back to the heart of our father through accepting Jesus and confessing him as Lord and savior, because in Adam, all fell short of the glory of God. All have sinned through Adam, but through Jesus Christ, we are reconciled unto him. How should we approach Him in our righteousness consciousness? Number one, come back to the heart of the Father. Number two, believe that He is. Hebrews 11 .6 says, Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe. that he is and he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him so we must believe that he is well who is he Well, the way we get to know him is through studying the word of God, looking into the word of God, finding out what his character is. What does the word of God say about our heavenly father?

11:46 And when you know who he is, it builds confidence. It builds relationship with him. It builds an understanding of his heart. And when you know him and you understand his heart and you have that confidence, you know that you can go boldly to his throne. And you don't have to hide from him. So get to know him through the study of the word of God and even through prayer. Okay. So how should we approach him? With a righteousness consciousness. Second Corinthians 5, 17 through 21 says, if therefore, if anyone is in Christ.

12:26 He is a new creation. So when you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, something changes. You are translated out of the kingdom of darkness and you were translated into the kingdom of light, into the kingdom of his dear son. And if anyone is in Christ, the Bible says you become a new creation. Old things pass away. The old nature is gone and all things have become new. And it goes on to say, for now, all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. That is. that God was in Christ.

13:11 He was reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. And it goes on to say that we're ambassadors for Jesus Christ. And verse 21 says, for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. What and why that we may be the righteousness of God. In him. So when we approach God. We approach him in Christ. We approach him because we're washed in the blood of Jesus. We approach him because we're in him, in Christ, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin. So when we go to the throne of God, we're going to the throne of God with a different mindset.

14:02 We don't have to hide from him. We don't have to cover ourselves up because we're no longer naked. We're covered with robes of righteousness, and therefore we can stand boldly before our Father, and the fellowship that was lost in Adam is now restored in Jesus. Okay? Now, what happens if you sin? Well, how many of you know we all sin? OK, daily, I think every single one of us have fallen short and we do or we say something we shouldn't say or do. So what do we do? Do we do we just lose our righteousness and our fellowship with God or our relationship with God is broken and that's it? No. The Bible says we can go boldly to the throne of grace. The Bible says in First John one nine that if you sin. The Bible says if you sin. You can confess your sin to him and he is what? Faithful and just and faithful to forgive you of your sin and cleanse you. from all unrighteousness. Now I'm going to read one of my favorite scriptures found in Psalms 103. So when the devil comes at my mind and he says, well, you confess the sin, but God is still mad at you and God doesn't like you and you did that sin and it's never going to go away. Well, I just go to the Bible and I fight that condemnation and I fight that

15:34 unbelief and I fight the devil with the scriptures just like Jesus did. it is written and it says right here in psalms 103 because the devil does not want you to walk with god The devil knows that when you walk with God, your weakness becomes a strength. Your strength is made perfect in your weakness. He knows that when you walk with God, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. He knows when you walk with God, things will work together and you're going to fulfill your purpose and you're going to fulfill your destiny. He is jealous of your relationship with God. So he doesn't want you. to to understand and know that when you confess your sin it's over and it's done with you can just move on and continue to walk with him so psalms 103 verse 10 this is what i say to the enemy and if you have to say it right out of your mouth speak it right out of your mouth if the bible says he has not dealt with us according to our sins nor punished us according to our iniquities right Why? Because in Jesus, it was all dealt with.

16:47 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy to those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, devil, so far he has removed our transgressions from us. This is the word of the Lord. This is what God says about our right standing with him. This is what God says about our righteousness in Christ Jesus. This is the fact. You can stand on the promises of God. They are all yes and amen. As far as the east is from the west, that's how far our transgression is removed from us. And I like this. As a father pities his children.

17:32 So the Lord pities his children. So the Lord pities those who fear him. He knows our frame. He remembers that we're dust. We're here in a fallen world. And that's why we need Jesus. And we stand in Jesus in our righteousness. And then we have Romans 8, 1. There is therefore now no condemnation. to those that are in Christ Jesus. So after you've confessed your sin, he's faithful and just to forgive you of your sin, cleanse you from all unrighteousness. And therefore, right now, there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. So now you can pray. You could go boldly to the throne of God. You don't have to hide and you don't have to be afraid.

18:19 We're going to conclude this teaching when I come back. There are several prayers spoken of in the Word of God. The prayer of intercession is just one of those prayers spoken of in Ephesians 6 .18. And this particular book, Marked for Intercession, teaches the reader how to pray for your family, how to pray for your friends, how to stand in the gap for a nation, how to pray for leadership, and it goes on and on and on. I would encourage you to get this book and dive in deep so that you can be that man, you could be that woman that would stand in the gap and put up the hedge and be the love of God expressed in the earth.

19:01 You can go to my website at margieflaurent .org and not only will you find my book, but I also have a workbook that goes with the subject of marked for intercession. Okay, let's continue in our teaching. We're talking about righteousness consciousness. How must we approach him? First, we come back to Jesus if we're not saved. Believe that he is. We come to him with a righteousness consciousness. No condemnation to them that are in Christ. I'm going to stop here for just a minute. I want to again remind you. that your mind is the battleground. So your heart can be right before God. You've confessed your sin.

19:47 You've confessed that which you desire to confess before the throne of God. But remember, you have an enemy, John 10, 10, and it is the enemy who wants to kill, steal, and destroy your relationship with your heavenly father. So once the slate is clean, once you're, washed by the blood, the enemy may try to come in and speak to your mind and say, did God really say that you are forgiven? Well, that's where you go to the word of God. The word of God says, as far as the East is from the West. Yes, my sins are forgiven. And just rebuke the devil and walk on and walk with God with clean hands and a pure heart, because that's really what you have. Clean hands and a pure heart. So remember that you have an enemy and it's his desire to try to keep you from having.

20:48 Confidence with your heavenly father and keep you from standing in the gap and praying for your families and praying for your loved ones and praying for your region and praying for the things that God has laid on your heart. Don't let another day go by with you staying in that place of condemnation. I don't know who I'm talking to. It may just be for one person that God has just interrupted my teaching. Stop wellowing or wallowing in doubt. in unbelief rise up and be strong in who you are in Christ Jesus take your place you are clean Jesus said because of the words I have spoken over you. Okay. Okay.

21:33 So how do we approach him? We approach him boldly. The Bible says in Hebrews 4, 16, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. Now that word boldly means the Greek is P -A -R -R. H -E -S -I -A. And it means the absence of fear in speaking boldly. Now, remember, Adam said, I was afraid and I hid myself from the presence of God. Well, under the new covenant as a new creation in Christ, we can go boldly with an absence of fear in speaking boldly. And it means confidence. And I love this. with cheerful courage. So you can go boldly to the throne of grace. You can go cheerfully before the throne of grace, joyfully before the throne room of grace, not with your head down, but with your head up. Okay. Webster says that that word fearless means to take liberties or in taking liberties, it means shameless. You can go shamelessly before the throne room of grace, boldly before the throne room of grace. Lastly, how do we approach him?

23:07 Know that when you approach God, know that he loves you. 1 John 4, 8 says, there is no fear in love. There is. No fear in love. There is no fear in God. God is love. And there is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. So when you approach God, know that he loves you with an everlasting love. And know that when you approach him, he says, no good thing will I withhold from you because you walk uprightly before me. You stand in my presence with clean hands and a pure heart.

24:10 Know that I love you with an everlasting love. There is no fear in me. So when you approach him. Know that he loves you. So I want to ask you a question. Today, God's asking you, where are you? Are you too busy for him? Are you still afraid of him? Do you feel like you can't pray about the little things? Do you feel like you should only pray for the big things? Let me just tell you, whatever you pray, the Bible says, You ask, believe that you receive it, and you will have it, whether it's big or little. Some people say to me, well, I don't want to bother God with these little things. You can talk to God about anything and everything, both big and small. But again, where are you in your walk with him? I just want to encourage you to build your faith concerning his character. Build your faith concerning who you are in Christ. When you know who you are, it affects your relationship with him. I have a book I'd like to actually promote today. It's a book by my friend David Giuseppe. And in this book, he has all the in him scriptures all typed out for you, all ready to go. You don't even have to look them up. When

25:41 you find out who you are in Christ, through Christ, in whom, it builds confidence in your prayer life so that you don't have to hide from him. And lastly, I just want to encourage you, if you sense a prompting in your spirit, that's the Holy Spirit drawing you into the presence of God. Just respond to him. Now I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to close with a prayer. So I just want you to open up your hearts and open up your minds to receive this prayer that I'm going to pray for you today. So Heavenly Father, I thank you for this word. I thank you, Lord God, that this word does not return void, but it goes out and it accomplishes and produces.

26:33 that which you desire it to produce. And that is for your people to have closeness and intimacy with you and to stop running, stop hiding, stop being in condemnation. So Father, I pray for my listeners. I pray that the entrance of this word would bring light. I pray that they would come out of that place of despair and walk into the light of the truth of who you are and who they are in you. I pray for them, Lord, that the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of you would be granted to them. That the eyes of their understanding would be opened and enlightened in the name of Jesus. And by the way, I take authority over you, devil. In Jesus' name, and I rebuke the spirit of condemnation and shame and guilt off of my friends. In Jesus' name, amen. This is my book, Decision Time. Everyone should read this book, especially those of you who are at a crossroads in your life. You don't know what to do. You don't know how God is leading you. This is the book where you reach a place where you say, Lord, not my will, your will be done in my life. I also include in this book.

27:59 How to Hear the Voice of God, which is important when you're making decisions. If you go to my website at margiefleurant .org, you will see that this book is available to you. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's podcast. It has been such a joy sharing this time with you. For more inspiration and resources on today's topic, please visit our website at margiefloran .org.