 Hello David Diga Hernandez here and you are watching an episode of eTV interviews and on this edition of eTV interviews I have with me my good friend. He's actually been on our YouTube channel before His name is Michael Lombardo and he is here to talk to us today about intimacy with God before we get into that Welcome to the broadcast my friend. Thank you for having you back. Oh, I believe you did spirit church with us last time Yeah, and you taught and so but you're here today You just released a book called immersed in his glory. We'll talk more about the book later But let's get into some of the content. Yeah, and I really do love the idea behind this book breaking every barrier To experiencing God's presence people are hungry for his presence, but they feel like they hit those those walls Yeah, yeah, so I believe many can find you on one of our channels And so let's just get right into the teaching Talk to me about those barriers Intimacy with God and focus in on what you think is the most common one That's really good question. And I think in this book I touch on various because it's it's multifaceted all of our struggles Aren't the same, you know, so I talk about I hit it from a lot of different angles in my book immersed in his glory But for me, I think one of the greatest barriers has been self condemnation and guilt because when you get saved And now you're born again. The Spirit of God lives in the inside of you He takes out your all your old heart of stone and it gives you a heart of flesh You have a heart now that loves righteousness and hates wickedness. So all you want to do is please the Lord So I believe that pure hearted believers the propensity that we need to learn to overcome is Self-condemnation and the reason why I call it self-condemnation is it cuz it doesn't come from God it comes from us What does that look like self-condemnation when someone's trying to pray? How do they know what self-condemnation is describe it? Well, you feel like you're not worthy to come into the presence of the Lord you feel like you're dirty You're always thinking about your sins. You're very sin conscious sin focused if condemnation is declaring somebody guilty for something and then you know Punishment comes after that self-condemnation is saying I'm guilty and I deserve to be punished or I'm unworthy And I can't come into the presence of holiness. I can't come into the presence of God Really self-condemnation is a fruit of a lack of revelation of the gospel what Christ accomplished and his love and his heart for us as believers But it's pure hearted believers. This is some something that we stumble upon And I believe that it's one of the greatest killers of intimacy divine union in the body of Christ You know the devil he wants us to have condemnation He wants us to be bogged down because listen if let's say I thought that you were angry with me Disappointed, you know not not pleased with me for something I wouldn't be able to approach you confidently. I wouldn't just say hey David How you do and shake your hand give you a hug? I wouldn't be able to do that because I feel like he's upset with me He's he's displeased in some way But the Bible says that we could come boldly before the throne of God that we have bold access To God through Christ and what he did for us so when I know that God loves me and Nothing I could ever do will ever change that when I know what he did for me that he shed his blood for me to Make me clean that now he became my sin so that I could be the righteousness of God in Christ So when we learn these truths we get a revelation of these things then we can come to God for the forgiveness We need for the for the embrace for the comfort for the joy for whatever we need we can come boldly before him I love what you said that Self condemnation is the fruit of a lack of a revelation Talk to me a little bit about that revelation and how it broke self condemnation in your life because I know this was an area Where God gave you breakthrough. Yeah, so for me. I was born again. I encountered the presence of a Lord I shared that in the last show I was on with you And I just so hungry for God now it devour books and materials about walking in the power of God and going deeper with The Lord and fasting and prayer and I dedicated myself to these things and it's important to have a prayer life fasting tongues Evangelism intercession all these things are important and I dedicated myself to these things But at the same time I had a performance orientation. I felt like as I was doing these things I was earning God's love for me or I was I was constantly Striving to turn God's heart towards me or to make him happy in some way I believe that God loved me, but I didn't believe he liked me And I was so focused on what I can do for God my hunger for him my pursuit of him And I was like a roller coaster if I was getting up in the morning I was praying if I was doing all my spiritual disciplines then you know, I was up here. I was encountering God I was happy I was in peace, but if I didn't wake up or I didn't evangelize at Walmart like I thought I should have I didn't meet this high standard that I placed over my life Then I was beating myself up constantly and I was just up and down up and down And the Lord began to give me this revelation of his love It says in 2nd Corinthians 13 14 may the grace of Christ may the love of God and may the fellowship of the Spirit be with you All and these three revelations changed my life the unconditional love of God the grace that was poured out through Jesus Christ and this intimate fellowship that is possible with the Holy Spirit and so Man, I would mess up. I would you know be angry with somebody or I wouldn't get up at this You know pray as long as I should have and the Holy Spirit would just keep whispering to me. I love you I'm pleased with you. I'd begin to actually read through the song of songs and the gospel of John and 1st John It would just come wildly alive to me I began to get a revelation of not only my passion for him that I should be passionate for him But his passion for me that he's hungry for my attention that on that cross when he said I thirst He wasn't just talking about a natural drink. He was thirsting for sons and daughters He was thirsting for us to come before him and to have fellowship with him. That's what he paid for He paid for sons and daughters. He paid for us to have the same access that Jesus has to his throne That's what he paid for that access Jesus has we now have because of the finished work So I began to see his passion for me his hunger for me his seeking of me And when I began to step into that revelation it changed my life forever I began to realize that he tore the veil from top to bottom he tore the veil everything separated me from my heavenly father Jesus in his body in his finished work He brought me near I was once far off and he brought me near through his finished work It changed my life. What was your prayer life like before you learned that? Some days it was real dry some days It was I felt like God was light years away and there were sometimes I was encountering the Lord I was having visions. I was dreaming dreams still in that time frame. I was encountering the Lord I was feeling his nearness. I was feeling it was off and on you're saying it was off and on there were some days I was confident in my relationship with him and there was other days I wasn't confident because I wasn't measuring up to the self-inflicted standard that I put on myself and Sometimes it would take hours to get into this place of real Vibrancy in my prayer life in my devotional time But when I began to realize this that it's not works that that that bring me into the presence of the Lord All those things are great fasting all that stuff is great when there's faith attached to it When faith is the heart behind the fasting behind the intercession behind the prayer I began to realize that faith is my access. So now I just wake up and say Jesus There he is I love you Lord. Thank you that you're here Thank you that you live on the inside of me. Thank you that you love me and you never stop loving me. It's my heart Trusting and believing in what he said what he did his word My heart is now angered in the Word of God and what he did for me and then there's a beautiful manifestation of the presence of God So some may say I hear you I get what you're saying That revelation I they may even they may even have possibly heard those things you're talking about those truths about the grace of Jesus the love of the father the fellowship of the spirit, but they can't Make that connection. They can't get from what they're feeling to experiencing what you're experiencing help them make that connection We get so focused on our feelings Am I feeling the presence of God? Am I not feeling the presence of God? We become so feelings oriented and experience oriented and experience driven The Word of God needs to be the foundation of everything We need to trust the Word of God more than our feelings and more than our experiences You need to what we need to do is we need to have this foundation of the word Like it says in Romans 10 17 it says faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God and I wake up every morning I just declare the Word of God over my heart and as I'm speaking the word I'm hearing the word come out of my mouth and it's actually building faith on the inside of me I'm the righteousness of God in Christ. He loves me. I'm accepted in the beloved I'm his son and whom he's well pleased as I'm speaking this over myself Faith is growing in the inside of me and faith connects me to the manifestation of God's presence So yeah, people you know, they they they they try the Word of God for a day You know, they speak the Word of God and then they get discouraged and get disappointed We need to trust the Word of God remain in the Word of God speak the Word of God devour the Word of God And as our heart is anchored in the truth, you will begin to experience a manifestation, but faith comes before the manifestation and faith comes before the feelings Every single time and I wish I can give a five-step This is exactly this is gonna work for everybody formulas and so many people try to pump out formulas Try to tell you just do this and just do that But the gospel is all about this amazing God who poured out his love who who is more accessible Then then then we get ever imagined. He's not far away. He's not withholding himself It's this beautiful God that we have no access to through faith. It's so simple It's so simple and so beautiful. I love what you're talking about here faith and confidence versus Cowering and second guessing talk to me about that confidence He said that we could have confidence man. He's a holy God, but he has also made us holy by his blood He's a God who removed all of our sin. He doesn't count our sins against us We could be confident to enter into his presence and the beautiful thing is, you know The Holy Spirit something amazing about the Holy Spirit as he comes and he heals our hearts There's something I really would love to touch on he comes and he heals our hearts So many we have a skewed vision of who father God is Because of our dad, maybe the absence of our dad Maybe the abuse of our father or mother, but the Holy Spirit comes and he shows us who the father is And when he shows us who the father is He's a good papa that he loves us that he adores us that he's smiling over us when the Holy Spirit reveals the father Our hearts are healed. It's amazing when the Holy Spirit reveals the truth of God to our hearts He actually pulls up the lies that we've believed and these lies hold us back From entering to the presence of God and being bold before God like we should for me. It was also shame I had a deep sense of shame because I came from drugs. I came from perversion I came from doubt and unbelief and so the Holy Spirit had to do some serious work on my heart He's the master at working on our hearts. He's so beautiful and for me I actually was in a relationship where I got a girl pregnant before I encountered Christ before I got saved and I I wasn't born again I didn't have the mind of Christ and the girl she she she wanted to have an abortion And I said, you know, I had the money at the time. I said, okay, I paid for the abortion I get saved, you know months later, maybe six to nine months later. I get saved and now Jesus is in my life I'm encountering him, but I still I'm not a fan of church yet I'm not a fan of church my sister. She calls me up and she says just come to church come to church So I said, you know what God? I love you. I'm not really big on church, but I'll go today But please just remove one burden just one burden from my back just speak to me father And I get to church and nothing happens in the church service nothing at all happens and I'm like, thanks God And so I go to the restroom the pastor's doing an altar call and because it was a mega church I heard in the speakers the pastor was you know He was given words of knowledge and all this stuff and I heard him say There's somebody here that had an abortion and the Lord wants to heal you from shame and I knew it was me So I ran out of the bathroom and I tried to get into the doors But there were 16 doors was a mega church and all them were locked except the middle ones I had no clue so I ran back to the bathroom and I got into a stall and God'll meet you and unusual places David I got in that stall and I just opened my heart to the Lord and I just felt his forgiveness His acceptance pour into me his love. I was a murderer. I'm not gonna sugarcoat it abortion is murder But he loved on me and he forgave me and he accepted me Months later months later. It was Father's Day and the pastor I was at church and the pastor says all the fathers stand up Everyone's clapping for the fathers and I didn't stand up not a dad yet, right? I didn't meet my wife yet. No kids and I heard the Holy Spirit say happy Father's Day Happy Father's Day, man. I just began to weep like a baby, but that's what the Holy Spirit does He knows the shame that we hold on to he knows the self-condemnation that we're always inflicting upon ourselves He knows the hurts that we have he knows the deception that's crept into our lives He knows the lack of revelation that we have about the gospel We've been taught legalistic things formulas and methods that are anti gospel anti Christ He knows these things what the Holy Spirit does he comes in and he pulls up the weeds that the lies in our heart And he implants truth and when he puts that truth in us He heals us he heals us and we get to come before God confidently because now we have a whole heart It's a wonderful ministry of the Holy Spirit. He's not just the healer of our physical body, but he's the healer of our heart He's the one that renews our mind and shows us who God is shows us who Jesus is It's amazing. So how does somebody position themselves to allow the Holy Spirit to do that work? I think simply You just ask him You just ask him with sincerity. It says draw near and with full assurance of faith and sincerity of heart It says in Hebrews 10 So it's just saying Holy Spirit. I know that there's hurts in me. I know that there's things that I'm that I'm believing that are lies I know that I'm a work in progress, but come nothing is off limits Nothing is off limits touch what you need to touch speak into what you need to speak into whether it's encouraging whether it's corrective Holy Spirit have your way. I yield my heart to you. I yield my life to you He's your best friend and he's your truth-telling best friend. He's gonna tell you how it is He's gonna encourage. He's gonna come for you. He's gonna teach you He's gonna be all that to you, but he wants an invitation come Holy Spirit and minister to my heart Show me this truth and it's amazing when you ask him and you give him that accessibility to your heart He's gonna come and he's gonna reveal to you. Maybe you need a revelation of God as your papa Maybe you need a revelation of the finished work of Christ to set you free from self condemnation and striving Maybe you've had trauma from your childhood, you know abuse or neglect whatever it may be He's gonna come and he's gonna heal your heart because if you can get to your heart And nothing will be able to stop you from jumping into your papa's arms Nothing is gonna stop you from laying down your life to bring the gospel Wherever he calls you to bring it You know this self condemnation this guilt this shame It's one of the barriers as you talk about in your book. It's one of the barriers to intimacy with God Yeah, would you look into the camera? Yeah, and minister to that one watching Who's battling heavily self condemnation and guilt and shame and because of it They're having trouble connecting with the Lord in prayer. Would you minister? I? Want to say something to you that the Lord said to me. He said stop beating yourself up I'm like, what do you mean? He's like he's like he said take the boxing gloves off I'm like, what do you mean? And he said stop beating yourself up the more you beat yourself up the more bruised you become The more bruised you are the weaker you are the weaker you are the more you you're susceptible to fall into sin or to go to other Things that are trying to allure and trying to tempt you if we're not receiving our comfort from the Holy Spirit We're gonna go to the false pleasures of sin the false comforts of sin especially those things that are most familiar to us if You can't come to the Holy Spirit confidently you're gonna go to other things So I say that to you take the boxing gloves off stop beating yourself up. He's your papa. He's your comforter He's a lover of your soul. He's your redeemer your healer in every way, and I just want to pray over you right now Holy Spirit, I pray that you would manifest your beautiful presence. I Just sense right now. He's breaking off self condemnation. I literally see chains in the spirit I see chains falling off of you right now, and it's like they're invisible chains They were they were never real from God's perspective, but you put these chains on yourself I see the chains falling off, and if that's you just raise your hand and freedom It's it's it's an act of faith you raise your hand and just say I will not be bound anymore I will not suffer with self condemnation. I will not suffer with guilt and shame and Maybe you had an abortion. Maybe you had a miscarriage Maybe you did something it caused some kind of damage physically to yourself or somebody else The Lord does not want you suffering with shame. He died for you to live a shame-free life He died for you to be confident and bold before him and for you to walk in a wholeness and health and freedom So in the mighty name of Jesus, I just thank you, Holy Spirit for healing the deepest parts of their hearts You are the gardener of our soul pull up the weeds pull up the lies the deception cast out the foxes that try to They try to steal our fruitfulness and just plant kingdom truth in their hearts right now in the mighty name of Jesus I just welcome you Holy Spirit. We just thank you for your ministry Consume them immerse them in your beautiful glory your personality who you are the multi-faceted God reveal yourself to them In Jesus Thank you so much for sharing what you shared I really do believe that it was Timely and I think that there are some watching right now Would this message has come just in time for them, but you know you talked about Guilt and shame, but that's not the only barrier to experiencing God's presence Just just for a few seconds or so Could you just tell me some of the barriers that you talk about in this book that keep people from experiencing God's presence? Yeah, so I talk about spiritual hunger in the book and the necessity of spiritual hunger It's it's that that chapter really changed my life. What are the barriers? Yeah, yeah the barriers Okay, I'll talk about self-condemnation. Obviously it's about guilt and shame and all that I talk about interhealing in the book I talk about doubt and unbelief. I talk about fear It's it's amazing It's like the book really could be several books in one because there's all these different facets to it in each chapter I just I dive deeply into it give tons of scripture tons of practical tools for them to overcome the barriers that I speak about in The book and so how do we how do we find this book online? Is there a website your ministry has? Yeah, they can go to www.lifeportoutintl short for international Org they go to Amazon they get it on Kindle anywhere books are sold they can get it even in other countries And if they want more information on your ministry to go to the same website you just mentioned They go to the same website so people can ask you to minister and their church is there and as I say with the guests that we bring Look, I don't just bring you guests sporadically and the people I bring to you because I believe in their ministry I know Michael has a love for the Holy Spirit So there are many facets of his ministry that I appreciate so I just want to say go and support his ministry Get behind him check out what he's doing take a look at this book Be sure to pick up your copy of immersed in his glory. Well, thank you so much for joining my friend I appreciate you and your ministry. Well, that is it for this edition of eTV interviews until next time remember Nothing is impossible with God Thank you for watching encounter TV. Don't forget to subscribe Also, help me win souls by spreading the gospel through events and media Make a one-time donation or become a monthly supporter by clicking on the donate link now