So we saw that these were some of the impacts of shame. We want to pick this up and take it on a little bit further now, and what I want you to pick up first of all in Genesis 3, Verse 21, it says for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. So we see Adam and Eve had covered themselves. When shame is around your life, you just are terrified someone will get to know you. That's why people who are covered with shame will always avoid the prophetic. They don't want to be around anyone who's prophetic, because they feel immediately, that prophetic person is looking right into their life, and can see what they're really like, so they avoid them. The other kind of people that people with shame hate is people who move in deliverance, for exactly the same reason. They fear that you can look into their life and will see what they're really like, and so they avoid you.
One of the experiences I've had over many years of ministry is, ministries avoid me, because once they hear I work in deliverance immediately they don't want to know me. And some, because I work in prophecy, the same reason - they will immediately avoid me. They'll just take a step back, and I know as a result of that that there is shame in their life. There are things covered and hidden they don't want me to see, and the only way to get out of that is to withdraw from that person. Now you notice also this, that when Adam heard the voice of the Lord, so even though he had sinned, he could still hear the voice of the Lord. When he heard the voice of the Lord, he ran away and hid. Now one of the things that I've found that happens is when people have got things in our lives that we're ashamed of, we want to hide from God, so we stop coming to fellowship. One of the first signs there's shame on a person's life, if they've been a Christian walking with God, and something's gone wrong, they will immediately withdraw, because the presence of God brings to mind this painful condition.
So when you come into church for example, if things are going wrong in your life, how many people would say this: you feel like everyone can see right into you, and see what's going on in your mess? Is that true? Yeah and you don't want to be there, so you try and find a place to hide in the middle or hide in the back, or just don't come or go get busy doing something. That's true, it's what people do. It hasn't changed a bit. When people feel ashamed, we hide. We just find ways, clever ways, sophisticated ways of hiding and covering what we're really like. Some become over-cocky, some get over-confident and arrogant, some people tell lots of jokes, some people withdraw and hide. Some people get very busy and work, some people show off the stuff they've got, but all of it's fig leaves and hiding, all of it. It all stops them connecting authentically, and God wants us to be helped.
So you notice here in this scripture here that God helped them. The first thing that God did, after confronting the condition and laying out the consequences of it, the next thing He did was this: He actually made provision for Adam and Eve to have a covering, and it was actually a temporary covering until the day of Jesus Christ, when we could receive what He really wanted us to have back. So we see that it says: He made skins, He made clothes for them out of skins, so some innocent animal had to die, shed its blood in order that Adam and Eve could be covered, so right there in Genesis, you see a picture for us of the path out of shame. We have to actually come out of our place of hiding. We need to let go the coverings we've covered ourself, and receive God's provision, God's covering.
I'll say it again, it's very simple. We need to come out of the place of hiding, out of the trees, so maybe you've been hiding in business, hiding in family, hiding in your hobbies, hiding in this, hiding in that. God calls us to come out of the place of hiding, to a loving God who cares about us. He calls us to come to a place where we can then remove what has covered us, and receive from Him what He's provided for us, and when you have God's covering around your life, security comes. You're not worried if anyone finds you anymore. You're not worried if anyone finds out what's going on anymore - there's nothing to be found out. There's something has changed on the inside. We're clothed with something that God has provided, so we're going to move that way and end up there today. I want to just have a look and start to just open up some areas of how shame comes into our life.