The Secret of Friendship with God Part 1

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. Does it return void? It produces results. It's a beautiful day. When they were talking about, or someone maybe Michael was talking about all the green, what came to my mind was all the pollen. I had to spray off of my deck last night. How do you know what I'm talking about? But you don't know how long it's gonna last, but I am thankful for spring and summer and the seasons.

0:47 You know, the Bible says even in our own lives, everything there is a time and a purpose and a season under heaven. And I think every one of us are in a season of new beginnings. So we're just gonna go with the flow. We're just gonna be where we need to be. God's lining things up. He's aligning your lives. He's aligning your hearts. He's setting people up for success. Thank you, Jesus. He's putting people together for the purposes of building his kingdom. And I'm just really excited about living in the times that we live in today.

1:28 I am a part of Crossroads Worship Center. My name is Margie and welcome to everybody who's online. I would like to invite you to visit my website. I have tons and tons of books that we really need to get out of my storage. And with a pandemic and everything going on, we just haven't been promoting the books. But I'm gonna be speaking to you today about the secrets to friendship with Jesus. And I actually have a book called Encounter God Through Prayer that I would encourage you to purchase off of my website, MargieFlorantMinistriesIthink.org.

2:09 So I'm just going to highlight some things today. And I really enjoy sharing my heart with you on this subject because it's something that I have used in my own life and that's why I'm able to teach it. And I have not arrived, we're all developing in our walk with God, we're all developing friendship with Jesus, we're all learning the ways to communicate with Him and the ways He communicates back to us. But I really feel in my heart, like I have the heart of a mother, even for those of you that are listening online, that the Lord is calling His people unto Himself.

2:53 And the Bible says, draw near to God and He will draw near to you. But what I have found by experience and just by talking to people that oftentimes people don't know how to draw near to Him. They view God as a God who is distant, He's far away, He's up in the sky somewhere. Well, He's actually very reachable. And He longs for fellowship and intimacy with each and every one of you. There's just secrets to getting there. So I'm just going to share with you this morning a very simple message, the ways that I've learned to connect with Jesus.

3:38 And when we talk about the secrets to friendship with Jesus, we're not talking about going to church. We're not talking about, you know, a religion or a religious way of approaching God. We're talking about a real God who really wants to be intimate with His people. We're going to read out of Genesis at some point, but when God created Adam and Eve, He created them because He longed for friendship. And intimacy and community and family. And so He's still looking for that today.

4:19 You know, the Bible says that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro the whole earth to show Himself strong on the behalf of those whose hearts are perfect towards Him. Now, the beauty of God is that He's not looking for perfect human beings. You know, the Bible says He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. So none of us are perfect. As a matter of fact, the Bible says there is none righteous. No, not one. We all have shortcomings. We all have issues. We all say and do things we normally wouldn't say and do. I could testify to that. And so could my friends. So I had a very hard year last year and I just was not totally myself.

5:04 And so what? You know, God does not expect us to be perfect. But what He wants from us is a perfect heart towards Him, meaning He wants us to have a desire to know Him, to understand His heart. And when we draw near to Him, we will be changed from glory to glory to glory. And the things that used to be a problem in your life will start to just eventually just disappear or go away or whatever you want to call it. Because the Lord is the strength of our lives. Whom shall we fear? We need Jesus.

5:46 So I want to talk to you today about the secrets of friendship with Jesus. And my opening verse is actually going to come from Ephesians chapter three. And again, I really am going to really enjoy sharing this with you. I've been wanting to do a Facebook live on this subject and I'm still going to do it. That I have this message burning in my heart for people to know and understand. Because oftentimes we think that, and I will get into this maybe, that we have to go into a closet, we have to shut a door, we have to have this whole thing going on. And that's part of intimacy with Jesus. But there's other ways to stay connected to Him.

6:26 Are you listening? So let's look here at Ephesians chapter, or Philippians chapter three. Paul is speaking. And at the end of his life, we find in verse eight or seven, you know, first of all, Paul was in the natural, like from a work standpoint, he was perfect. He said, I did everything right. I even persecuted the church, trying to do what was right, even though it was, we know he was doing the devil's work. But at the very end of his life, Paul found his purpose. And you know, we think about that purpose driven life by Rick Warren, is that who wrote that book, Diane?

7:07 You know, that book sold, I don't know, it was one of the top, top, top selling books, because everybody's looking for their purpose. We all wanna find the meaning of life, and we wanna know why we were born. And what I love about the verses that we're gonna read today is that at the end of Paul's life, he found his purpose. Okay, he found his purpose. And it wasn't writing two thirds of the New Testament, it wasn't all these outward things, it was something that was hidden in his heart that only he could have with his savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, you are as close to God as you want to be.

7:51 There are heights and depths and breaths and lengths of intimacy with God. And I truly believe that one day we'll all stand before God and we know that. And I know that when that day comes, we will still have more to know about who Jesus is in his heart. As a matter of fact, one of my prayers, you know, this is actually a prayer that I made up. It's like three pages. But one of the things that I pray in this prayer is Lord, I wanna know your heart. Show me your heart. You know, Moses prayed, show me your glory.

8:31 And I don't really totally understand what that means when somebody says show me your glory, even though I teach, I preach, and we've talked about the glory and the glory of this. But I just wanna know God's heart. And the interesting thing about Moses, if you go into, I think it's Exodus three, we find that Moses, when God first appeared to him in that burning bush scene, how many remember that? Are you listening online? How many remember that? You know, he was afraid of God. He was afraid to look at God. He was terrified, okay? But when you go all the way into Exodus 33, and you see the journey of how he developed friendship with God, I said to the Lord, what changed from Exodus three to Exodus 33?

9:22 And I really felt like the Lord said to me, he got to know my heart. He became deeply and intimately acquainted with me. He understood who I was. He understood my character. He saw how I love the people. And I think that that's what you and I need. That's why it's very important to study the scriptures. You know, the Bible says, study to show yourselves approved unto God, workmen that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Why? Because if we really want to know God, we want to know his heart, we've got to find him in the word of God.

10:07 That he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's not up and down. He's not schizophrenic. He's very consistent. He's very trustworthy. He's very loving. He's very patient. He's very kind. He doesn't boil over with jealousy. He is not rude. You know, he is a good God. And I think that that's what happened to Moses. And all the fear, and all the shame, and all the terror that he had turned into intimacy with God. To the point where, if you read Exodus 33, the Bible says that Moses knew God face to face as a man would speak to his friend.

10:55 And I have to be honest with you. I can't be anything other than who I am. That is my desire. That is my quest. I want to know God face to face as a man speaks to his friends, his friend. I can remember teaching this. I used to do an extra session when I taught in fits because I wanted to just really emphasize prayer to the ministry leaders that were up and coming. And I remember telling them that, you know, it's one thing to just know the God of, you know, the Bible, and it's another thing, and we want to know him in the Word, it's another thing to also know him in the place of prayer and intimacy. To have that face to face encounter with him.

11:36 To not just know him through the scriptures, but know him by the spirit. And I'm just gonna be honest. That only comes through prayer. And there's different ways to pray, different kinds of prayer. We're gonna get into this. But it only comes through a conscious decision. I am gonna put God first place in my life. What does the scripture about Martha and Mary talk about? Martha was working, working, working, working, working, working, and they got Jesus right in their own house. You know, and you know, to be honest, you have Jesus in your own house. You just can't see him. He's there, and he's waiting for you to come unto him. So many of you are laboring, and you're burdened down.

12:18 He says, you come to me, I'll give you rest. So you think about Martha and Mary, you know, Mary, you know, Martha is working, working, working, and there's nothing wrong with working. But if you've lost touch with Jesus Christ, or you've lost touch with that, I wanna call it a feeling, or a burning, or a knowing, then you gotta get back. And let me tell you, it happens to all of us. I get really busy, and then I'm like, Lord, I don't want this for me. This is not what I want for my life. I wanna be intimate with you. I wanna be like Mary, you know, or I'm sitting at the feet of Jesus, and I'm wanting to hear what you have to say.

13:06 And he wants that from us. Just like he wants it from us, but he wants to be close to us as well. Friendship with Jesus. You know, I wanna be friends with him. Say that with me, I want to be friends with Jesus. So let's read out of Philippians. So Paul, at the end of his life, he said, yet indeed he said, all these things, who I am, how gifted I am, how smart I am, how much money I am, I wrote 2 thirds of the New Testament. Now here at the end of my life, and he didn't even brag about all the visions that he had. You know, so many people brag about all that stuff, makes me wanna, you know, it nauseates me.

13:52 You know what, if you have a real intimate encounter with Jesus Christ, would you really wanna put it all out on the internet? I thought was just free, I had to say that. He said, at the end of my life, everything that I counted, that was gained to me, I've counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord. He said, who've I've suffered the loss of all things? And count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him, this is New King James, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.

14:35 And then he says, verse 10, and then we're gonna read out of the amplified, I'm sure Lorraine put that up for us. He said, that I may know him. And the amplified says that I may become more deeply and intimately acquainted with him perceiving and recognizing the wonders of his person. Now think about it, how many people do you know are bored in church or bored with their walk with God? But here this scripture says, you know, we wanna, there's so much to know about God, we can't even perceive the wonders of his person. There's heights and depths and lengths, like we said prior.

15:19 So this was the quest of the apostle Paul and I love this. And so then he goes on to say, he said, perceiving the wonders of his person more strongly and more clearly, and that I may in the same way come to know the power outflowing from his resurrection, which it exerts over believers, and that I may so share in his sufferings so to be continually transformed in spirit into his likeness into his death. So what keeps us from being close or intimate with Jesus? Now, we're to get into that. And some of these pertain to me in how I was raised, because I was raised thankfully for me as a Catholic girl.

16:05 And I loved God my whole life and I loved being Catholic and I loved going to church every day. As a matter of fact, my first encounter with the presence of God was when I was confirmed. That may be a surprise to you. You had an encounter with God in the Catholic church when you were being confirmed as a child. I absolutely 100% did because I took the scriptures and the things that I was being taught and I took it to heart. I took it deeply. I wanted to be close to Jesus. And so when they said at confirmation, you know that the Holy Spirit's gonna come on you, I don't exactly know what they teach, I forget now, but I just remember going up to be confirmed.

16:53 And I remember like oil being poured all over me. It was the presence of the Holy Spirit. Who says God can't show up in a Catholic church? He showed up on me as a little girl. Who says the children can't have encounters with Jesus Christ? They have. And so I remember like going back to my seat, sitting down and going, he's here with me. And some of the other kids were just playing and laughing and I go, don't they feel this? Don't they have this? That presence stayed on me for three days. I don't know about you, but I wanna know how to maintain the presence of God. And that's what we're talking about, friendship with Jesus.

17:35 Brother Lawrence, if you ever read his book, I haven't, but I have it in my bookshelf. It's supposed to be a good book. But his book is about maintaining the presence of Jesus. And he was so close with Jesus that he carried a presence with him. Now, doesn't the Bible say that we are a fragrance to the world? Do you know that when you pray or you walk closely with Jesus, you have a continual fragrance, Revelations 5.8, that goes up before the throne of God. So how many of you have ever had people say to you, I could sense that you have God in you? My daughter and her husband and I were in a mall in Bridgewater and I just knew the lady was a Christian.

18:24 How did you know? You sense it. How many of you know what I'm talking about? After a long story short, you know how you could kind of wean your way into talking to people about Jesus? Because you know, you gotta be wise when you're trying to win somebody over. But I sensed she was a Christian. So, you know, somehow the subject came up to you, because oh yes, I'm a Christian. She was so excited. I said, well, I could sense it. And she was actually surprised. You know why? Because she condemns herself, puts herself down, lives in shame, lives in fear. She didn't even know that she was a fragrance in that department and that people could actually pick up on it. See, those are the things that keep us down.

19:06 And she said to us, she said, you know, I was so encouraged that you sense that I was a Christian because she was beating herself up. But I'm telling you friends, people are gonna know that we're Christians. But what keeps us from true intimacy with God? I'm only gonna give you three Cs. Number one is we need to have confidence in prayer, or confidence before the throne of God, confidence. Now you look here at Adam and Eve, and I know you know this verse, but there's many people that were raising up in these days that have never heard these verses. And as leaders, I believe we need to get back to some of the basics. Because doesn't the scripture say we ought to give a more earnest heed to the things that we have learned less at any time we want?

19:56 Anybody know how to complete that? We let them slip, and we get back into religion. We get back into how we were raised. So let's look at Adam and Eve, the fall of Adam and Eve, Genesis 3. You know the story, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desired to make one wise, she took the fruit and she ate it. She messed up, didn't she? She disobeyed God. She did exactly what the Lord told her not to do. How many of you have ever done that? Now look at me like you're perfect. She also gave it to her husband with her and he ate, and the eyes of both of them were opened.

20:39 You know I used to think, well what did that mean? I just think that their eyes were opened, they realized their humanity. Whereas before they were divinity. They were created in the image and in the likeness of God. They had 100% dominion over the earth because God gave it to them. They were so smart they named all the animals. That was a good word, I never thought of that. There was a very beautiful anointing in here. You know that, right? Okay. Because Jesus likes this kind of talk, because this is why we were created. We were created to be intimate with him. So the eyes of both of them were open, they knew that they were naked, and they saw their humanity, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings, and then 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 the Lord God among the trees of the garden, and then the Lord called Adam.

21:41 Isn't that interesting? They know that the Lord is calling you. He knows you by name. He knows how many hairs you have on your head. That's, he knows that you're fearfully and wonderfully made. He's so intimate with you. I had some hairs falling on the dresser today, my Lord Jesus, I got a few less hairs on my head, but only you know how many. He said, Adam, where are you? Can you hear the heart of God in this? Where are you? So he said, Adam said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid.

22:22 So the trust and the confidence that he had with the Father turned into fear. I was afraid because I was naked, and then what did he do? He hid himself. And then the God said to him, you know, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree, which I commanded you not to eat? And the man said, oh, the woman you gave me, you know, she gave it to me and I ate. That's a whole other Bible study. And the Lord God said to the woman, what have you done? And the woman admitted her wrongdoing. She said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. This is fear, guilt, and shame, and as a result, they hid themselves from the presence of God.

23:08 How many of you have ever done that? You do something, you say something, you're a certain way, and then you're starting to hide from God. So instead of looking onto Jesus, the author and the finisher of your faith, you look away from him in distraction, and your distraction is fear, worry, guilt, and you're hiding yourself from the presence of God, and God, Jesus is just saying, if you'll just come to me, I'll restore you, I'll heal you of your brokenness, I'll heal you of your disease, come unto me. If you're tired, I'll give you rest. Listen, I say this to people, and especially in the day and the season we live in today in this world, don't run from Jesus.

23:52 If you got stuff going on in your life, run to him. See, but that's where confidence comes in, confidence in the presence of God. When you know that you know that you know that God loves you, he will in no wise cast you out. When you know he loves you, and he's knocking at the door of your heart, and he's saying, would you please stop hiding from me? When you know he loves you, you'll turn back to him in faith, and you'll look at him once again, and then you'll go up and go on your merry way.

24:32 I know people, you know, I think actually I heard Kenneth Copeland say this, he used to like, I think he used to eat like four loaves of bread with two sticks of butter, it's kind of funny to see that now, right, because he's so skinny and fit. But you know, he was bogged down by gills, and so he would be like, well, it may mean about three days, I'll look at Jesus, and I'll have that connection with him once again. And one day the Lord said, and what are you doing? Listen, if you sin, and you confess your sin, he is what, faithful and just to forgive you of your sin, and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. You don't have to wait three days to get rid of all the guilt.

25:14 Just pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and move on. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear. When you know that God loves you, you have nothing to fear. So think about John 3.16, he so loved the world that he gave his son. He would have given his son if it was just for you and you alone. You need to have that mindset, and it'll give you confidence in the presence of God. So we have a righteousness consciousness, and we have a sin consciousness.

25:55 What is sin consciousness? You cover yourself, or Adam covered, and he covered themselves, they were afraid, they were naked, therefore they hid. What is righteousness consciousness? 2 Corinthians 5, 17 through 21 says, if you're in Christ, which we are, we're hidden in him. We're hidden behind the cross. If we are in Christ, what are we? We're a new creation. All things pass away, all things become new. The sin nature is gone. The sin that passed from Adam to humanity is gone. Jesus was the second Adam, correct?

26:37 So that sin nature is gone. So when the father looks at you, he sees his son, and he sees the finished work of the cross. So you could have confidence in him, confidence in his presence, confidence that if you ask anything according to his word, he hears you, and you know that you have the petitions you desire. See, I know that I know that I know that I know that God's got me. And I have little examples all around my life, popping up everywhere. God's got you. He loves you, he's got you, but you've gotta have that righteousness consciousness, and that righteousness consciousness will give you confidence in the presence of God.

27:24 Are you listening? Hebrews 11, six. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. So you think about it like, okay, secrets of friendship with God, it's all by faith. Blessed are those that believe and have never seen him physically. Kenneth E. Hagan had multiple visions of Jesus, but he still had to exercise his faith.