CTN TV Episode 16 The Secret Place of Prayer

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. Goes into the hearts of the people, doesn't return void, it produces results. Welcome to my broadcast. My name is Margie Florent and I'm your host. Today we're gonna do something a little different in our teaching. I prepared last night and a good part of the day yesterday for what I was going to share with you. And the Holy Spirit interrupted me this morning and he highlighted. two scriptures that he wants me to share with you and that's where we're going to go today. This is going to be more of what I would call prophetic teaching.

0:51 So we're just going to open up our hearts and we're just going to hear what the Spirit of the Lord has to say to us in this moment and in this time. So about 12 years ago I was speaking in a prayer event in New Jersey and to be honest The atmosphere in the room was one of staleness. There was static in teaching and preaching, meaning the anointing wasn't flowing like it should. And my subject matter was closet prayer, intimacy with God in the secret place of prayer. And as I was teaching, suddenly the Holy Spirit came upon me. with a prophetic mantle and I began to operate in the spirit of seeing and knowing.

1:43 Now, remember, this was 12 years ago. And as I was operating in the spirit, I saw the body of Christ and I saw the body of Christ being bullied and taunted and told to shut up and being abused. And the Lord said, There is coming a time and there is coming a day when my church is going to suffer persecution at the hands of the enemy that is going to operate through people, not just through people, but also the demonic warfare that was going to be manifested in the atmosphere. And the Spirit of God said to me, and he said to the people that were in attendance, he said, it is very important for my people, my church, In order for them to survive in the days and in the seasons that we are moving into, he said it's very important that my people know me. He said, if my people don't know me intimately and don't understand my heart, don't know my word, don't have a connection with me in the place of prayer, he said, they are not going to survive in the times and the seasons that is coming upon the earth. Now, you know as well as I do that within those 12 years, we could no longer say Merry Christmas. It was Happy Holidays.

3:11 And God forbid you were a Christian. God forbid you talked about your faith. You know, we were starting to get muffled, silenced. There was a lot of warfare against the body of Christ. And we did enter into a season of a lot of bullying. People made fun of us. They mocked us. And it has been a very... time I believe for the body of Christ but when I woke up this morning and the Holy Spirit interrupted me and my teaching he's he highlighted two scriptures to me and the first scripture comes from Exodus 33 and it speaks of the children of Israel and then it also speaks about Moses but it says here in the scripture wherefore met Moses went out to the tent and all the people would rise up and each would stand at his tent door and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of the cloud of the glory would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent and the Lord would speak to Moses. Now all the people, they saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent and all the people would rise up and worship. each at his tent door but moses the bible says used to speak to god face to face as a man speaks to his friends so

4:43 the spirit of god was highlighting to me and he wants me to share with you that there are believers in the church that are standing outside the tent door so to speak And they are afraid to look at God. They are afraid to enter into the presence of God. They are distracted. They don't want to enter into the secret place of prayer. They are distracted by the noise of the enemy. They are distracted because of the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches. the lusts of other things entering in, and it's choking their walk with me. It's choking their relationship with me. And again, the Spirit of God said to me, and if they are going to survive in the times and the seasons that are upon the earth today, they have got to know me intimately. They've got to understand the wonders of my heart. They've got to understand the principles of my word.

5:41 They have got to know me in order to survive. the times and the seasons that we live in. So my friends, it's not a time for us to stand outside the tent door. It's a time for us to enter in and get to know God for ourselves. It is imperative that we get to know God for ourselves. Now we see in this scripture. That Moses was a leader and Moses was a man of God and he had intimacy with God. He understood God's heart. Now, it wasn't always like that in the beginning, because in the beginning, when God first came to him, Moses was afraid to look at God. But as Moses got to know God through experience, through his character, through God's keeping his word by spending time in the presence of God. Now, Moses is his. His relationship with God changed in that he was no longer afraid. He trusted God.

6:42 He was intimate with God. And he eventually had a relationship with God face to face as a man speaks to his friends. So we thank God for Moses. We thank God that he had this relationship with him. But I want to speak to those of you who are leaders. And maybe some of you who are up and coming, what I would call budding leaders. It's important that, yes, the body of Christ, the people we minister to know God for themselves. But it's also important for leadership. Those of you that are in leadership and those of you that are like the Joshua's, you're being trained, you're being groomed for leadership. It's important that you and I in our leadership positions. Know God for ourselves. And some of you may say, well, how is that even possible? If my leader or my pastor or this prophet or that prophet, if they're in leadership, they must know God for themselves.

7:44 And I'm going to say this very boldly. I'm a traveling minister. I've been in ministry for 45 years. Not all leaders have the edge. of knowing God intimately for themselves. And I'm not condemning anybody. We've all been there. Ministry is a lot. And the Bible even talks about the apostle Paul said, at times the care of the ministry would come upon me. And yes, there's times when the cares of the ministry come upon us, the cares of, you know, working for God. and just doing so many things and the cares of we have so much responsibility. But we as leaders have to choose the first works. The very first thing that we should be doing is maintaining our walk with God, maintaining our intimacy with him, because all true ministry is born out of intimacy with God. And as leaders, if we don't have. intimacy with him. We are what the Bible calls cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. And we are ministering out of our reserve. We are not ministering out of our overflow. Which brings me to the second scripture I heard this morning to share with you. It's Jeremiah 2 .13. God said, now this is the heart of God. For my people have

9:17 committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Now, who is God speaking to? In context, God is speaking to the prophets, those who were falsely claiming to speak for him, the priests. Those who had abandoned true worship, the kings and leaders who made political deals instead of relying on God. And he was also speaking. To the people as a whole. Who follow their lead.

10:00 So he said. My people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me. The fountain of living waters. And they have become cisterns. Broken cisterns. That can hold no water. Now let's back this up in scripture. Where did it say that Margie? It said that in Jeremiah 2 .8. Just a few verses before verse 13. It says in the scripture. The priest said not. Where is the Lord? And they that handle the law knew me not. The pastors also transgressed against me. And the prophets prophesied by Baal and walked after things that do not prophesy. So this verse specifically calls out the spiritual leadership. Now, the priests ignored God's presence. And you know what that reminds me of? And this all came to me today.

10:55 of our seeker friendly churches. We don't want any tongues. We don't want any interpretation of tongues. We don't want the Holy Spirit moving and operating in our churches. We don't want to offend anybody. Well, you know what? The Holy Spirit is alive and well, and he desires to demonstrate himself. The apostle Paul said, and my speech and my preaching. was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in what? In demonstration of the spirit and of power, so that your faith won't be in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. And so often as leaders, we speak very...

11:41 you know, just very eloquently. And we have all our outlines. We have everything under control. And we're not allowing the Holy Spirit to move in our midst. My friends, if we're going to survive in the times and the seasons that are upon the earth, we have got to allow the Holy Spirit to have his way in our meetings. So the priests were ignoring God's presence. And then it says that also the law. Those experts of the law, the scribes and the teachers, honestly, the scripture says that they truly didn't know him. Now, I could tell you from experience that I have a gift. I have a gift of teaching. And it's pretty easy once you crafted your gift. to flow and to operate in your gift, to put an outline together and just to teach the Bible, not only because of your gift, but because the word of God is anointed. It doesn't return void. It goes forth.

12:40 It produces what God desires to do, whether the leader has intimacy with God or not. So God is speaking. to those scribes and those Pharisees, he's talking to them as well. So we can have a teaching gift, but truly not know him. And I don't know about you, but I don't want that. I've had people have so many invitations for all these different things. And I tell people, I cannot take this or I can't do that because I don't want it to take away from my relationship, my intimacy with God, because everything else will be wood. hay and stubble okay who else was he talking to the pastors and the shepherds likely referring to kings and leaders who were sinning openly now he also spoke in this verse to prophets and it says here in the scripture the prophets spoke in the name of baal a false god and the holy spirit said to me it's very important if you're called to be a prophet a true prophet like a real one not just operating in a prophetic anointing every once in a while i'm talking about a true prophet five -fold ministry gift ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 through 18. you are called to be a true prophet it is important that we as prophets Spend time in the presence of God.

14:04 Get the word of the Lord from the presence of God, from the heart of God by spending time with him and then ultimately minister again out of our overflow. I've seen people who are called in prophetic ministry and suddenly there's all this pressure on them. pressure on them to perform, pressure on them to have a word, pressure on them to lay hands and have a word. You could feel the human nature of people pulling on the man and not God. And I've seen it happen where they feel the pressure and they start to yield over onto false spirits or the wrong spirit and they get into trouble. That's why it's important.

14:48 that if you're called into a five -fold leadership position, not just the prophets, that you spend time in the secret place with God and you walk with him and you spend time with him and everything else. should flow up out of that. I saw Kenneth E. Hagin. He was a true prophet of God, like the real deal. And I saw him at Ramah when I went to Bible college there. There would be times people were just wanting him to prophesy or wanting him to have some kind of spectacular manifestation of the Holy Spirit. And you know what? I can remember times he'd walk off. He'd teach the Bible. And then he'd walk off. He was not going to give into the pressure from the people. He refused to operate in any kind of spirit, but the Holy Spirit. So what does this mean? He said, my people have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. God was saying to them, listen, I'm the source of life. I'm the source of purity. I'm the source of refreshment. Everything that you need. He said, and you walked away from me. Is it possible? Absolutely possible. And then he says, and what's the result? Your cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. A cistern is a container that holds water that feeds a whole city. And he says, what's happened now is, he says, you're leaving. And you're not ministering

16:19 out of your overflow. And that's why many of you are tired. You're weary. You're getting burned out because you have neglected your first love. And what God is saying is, I want you to come back to me. He says in Jeremiah 2, I did this for you. I did that for you. But what did I do for you to pull away? from me and whenever I've read Jeremiah chapter 2 I've always felt and I didn't really understand it until the last couple of weeks I always felt the emotion of god the heart of god and he was like what did i do i did all these things for you but now here we are now you've forsaken me the fountain of living waters i want you to return to me i want you to come back to me all you that labor and a heavy laden i want to anoint you with fresh oil and i want to give you rest there's emotion In this scripture, and it reminds me of what we shared last week, where God said to Adam and Eve, where are you? And that term, where are you, highlighted, you know, it was a, there was emotion connected to it. It was the word that we shared, A -Y -Y -E -K -A. And according to the commentators, this word. is as a divine lament

17:49 expressing sorrow, not confusion. So God was saying to Adam and Eve, and he was saying to these leaders, where are you? We used to walk together. We used to call labor together. And listen, I am calling you back to my heart, because if you and I are going to survive in the times and the seasons that we are upon the earth today, we have got to know God first. for ourselves. Okay. We're going to take a break here and I'm going to come back and I'm going to read to you a prophetic dream by a man of God by the name of Jeremiah Johnson. My book Contend, Stewarding the Hearts and Destinies of Our Children Through Prayer, is one of my most favorite projects thus far. In this book, I teach the reader how to pray effectively for their children, their grandchildren.

18:48 and the rising generations that are in the earth today. Make no mistake about it. There is war over the hearts and the destinies of our children. And this book will equip you as to how to pray effectively for those young people. In this book, I teach you about the power and the purpose of praying in tongues. I show you what a prayer alert looks like. There are sample prayers. Not only that, there are outlines at the end of each chapter. So if you run a Bible study, you can use this book as a springboard to teach others how to pray for their children. Go to my website at margieflorent .org and pick up your own copy.

19:40 So let's continue in what I feel strongly in my heart. The spirit of God wants to say to us today. So God is calling us back to his heart. He is calling us to return to our first love. He's calling the believers. He's calling the church of Jesus Christ, the body of Christ. And he's also calling the leaders back to his heart. And if you and I. have already walked with him. We have already spent time with him. We already know him. I just want to share with you that there are degrees of knowing God. You know, we, while we are here on this earth, we are continually going to be changed from glory to glory to glory.

20:28 So what does that mean right now? It means he's calling you. He's calling me into a higher level of commitment with him. in the secret place and everything else will flow out of that intimacy with him okay now i said i wanted to read to you a prophecy that came forth from jeremiah johnson and this prophecy came out on 9 22 25 and jeremiah received this uh word in a prophetic dream and he called it the title of it is the future presidency of Charlie Kirk and the coming prophetic showdown and you're going to see that what the Holy Spirit gave me this morning goes right along with what the Holy Spirit said to Jeremiah Johnson Jeremiah said in my dream last night I was walking on a path and talking with the Holy Spirit about the profound and unusual sense of grief in the earth concerning the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Isn't that true? Didn't you feel like you got hit in the stomach? Like there was such a grieving and it was all of us felt it. And so he goes on to say, I asked him, asked the Holy Spirit, why does Charlie's death carry such a measurable weight of sadness and grief about it? God said to him, because people are

22:01 grieving the death of a future president of the United States and don't even know it. They are experiencing the totality of lost over future decades, not just what happened the day of the assassination or even what Charlie accomplished in 31 years of his life. And he goes on to say Jeremiah goes on to say when I heard these incredibly difficult words I dropped to my knees on the path and began to sob. It was like a divine mystery had suddenly been solved. I immediately understood why Charlie's death impacted millions globally both who knew him and who had never met him.

22:48 It was because of his life and future calling as president of the United States was going to touch the nations of the earth and shift America. People were experiencing the depth of the loss of one of God's sons and champions. As I wept and wept, Jeremiah said, I heard demons laughing and hissing loudly. I knew they were claiming victory and mocking God. The peace of Jesus suddenly overcame me. I stopped crying and remembered 1 Corinthians 2 .8, and it says, and it's one of my favorite scriptures, none of the rulers of this age understood. For if they had, they would have never crucified the Lord of glory.

23:36 And we know the outcome of what happened in Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection. Jeremiah said, I stood to my feet and I prophesied. The devil has not won. He is a fool to claim victory. For the death of one man, even in... Even his future as president does not compare to the millions of souls that will be born into the kingdom of God in the coming decades. Yes, a seed has fallen to the ground, but now a harvest of revival is coming like never before. I turned to my left and I saw Erica Kirk walking toward me in the distance. I turned to my right and I saw a dark woman walking toward me in the distance. Erica Kirk was dressed in a stunning white dress with a sharp sword in her hand. A lion like I have never seen before was walking beside her. His mane was incredible and there was fire in his eyes. The dark woman was dressed in all black and she wore a hood. She carried a book called Confusion written all over the cover and a hyena Walked next to her, but it constantly went in circles like it was deranged. God said to me, Jeremiah, in the midst of the global harvest that is here and coming, Moshe Kei, you will

25:10 see the false prophetic and the true prophetic emerge simultaneously. A John the Baptist generation will arise clothed in humility. purity, and a mandate to prepare the way for my second coming. They are firebrands and have a Malachi 3 written on their hearts. A false prophetic generation will also rise clothed in witchcraft, rebellion, and confusion. Like a hyena, they are greedy, opportunistic, and hunt in packs. They will attack and prey on the wounded and use them for their own gain. these false ones will have a dizzying effect on those who give ear to them as they will continue to circle the same lies over and over and over again Jeremiah said I woke up from the dream and heard God say tell your generation to weep no longer for the season of reaping is at hand they must distance themselves from false prophets and align themselves with with the true prophetic clarity over confusion purity over performance prayer over preying on others worship over witchcraft repentance over rebellion and

26:42 Jeremiah closes by saying may God help the bride navigate these extraordinary times and seasons that we are living. So my friends, it's very important that you know God for yourself and you know what the word of God has to say. So father, I just bring those that are listening to this broadcast before your throne of grace. And I pray that you would draw them in by your spirit into the place of intimacy with you by revelation. I pray that you would anoint them with fresh oil. And I also pray that you would anoint the prayer movement with fresh oil so that we will flow and know your heart in a greater measure. God bless you. 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. How to Hear the Voice of God, which is important when you're making decisions. If you go to my website at margieflaurent .org, you will see that this book is available to you.

28:32 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.