Hiding From God: Why We Still Do It

was excellent at hiding at the age of 9. Up until this point, my main inspiration in life was Batman, thanks to Tim Burton and Micheal Keeton. I was sure there was a bat cave underneath my house because my Dad’s middle name was “Wayne.” To help my case, he worked at nights, so he was always out of the house in the evenings. Often, I would secretly watch him go out the door and wait to see if he would change into the bat suit. 

To help my case even further, we had a six-foot time clock (that you could stand in) in the entryway of our house. I was sure that it went to straight underground to the location of the Batcave. On the nights my Dad worked, I would watch him to the door to see if he would ever go into it instead of the front door. 

I have an older sister, so growing up, I tried to beat her in every game that I could. In most of the competitions, she had an unfair advantage because of her age. However, on one glorious occasion, I had the giant upper hand. You see, my parents had hired a baby sitter, and the baby sitter had the bright idea to challenge my sister and me at a game of hide and seek (some kind of baby sitter, right?) 

Because I was such an excellent hider, I knew that I had the upper hand and was sure to win the game. Well, to make a long story short, I won the game but at a pretty huge risk. To win the game, I had to hide in the same spot for over 2 hours. I hid for so long that my sister and baby sister both thought that I had run away. I can still hear my sister screaming, “HE’S GONE!” 

After a few minutes of discussion, a decision was made to call my parents, and within the next 30 minutes, my Dad was standing in the living room. He said, “Kyle! Come out here!” Sure enough, within a few seconds, I was standing with everyone in the living room. 

Not only for me as a young boy but as human beings, we are all excellent hiders. It’s in our nature. Nowadays, most of our hiding is done in plain site. We hide behind our relationships. We hide behind our careers. We hide behind politics. We are all excellent at hiding.

Sin speaks to our spirits an ancient lie that we were born to hide.

Where did we get this ability to hide from? All traces point back to the first couple God ever created. Do you remember the first couple in Genesis 3? 

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You[a] shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,[b] she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves fig leaves.  And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool[c] of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”[d]10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” ” (Genesis 3:1-10)

Sin speaks to our spirits an ancient lie that we were born to hide.

Acting on behalf of their newfound sinful nature, Adam and Eve hid from the very presence of God. This speaks to the nature of sin that the enemy interjected into our spirits at the fall of man. Instead of us showing ourselves fully to the Lord, and having that intimate and open relationship, we hide from the very presence of God that loves us. Sin speaks to our spirits an ancient lie that we were born to hide. How does this happen? 

From Serpent to Dragon 

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals..” (Genesis 3:1)

“The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.” (Revelation 12:9)

In the book of Genesis (the first book of the Bible), Satan began as a serpent. By the time of Revelation (the last book of the Bible), Satan became a Dragon. What started as a little serpent deceiving Adam and Eve ended up becoming a Dragon that deceived the entire world. This illustrates the intentions of the enemy. Mainly, his desire for his voice to become bigger and more prominent in your life. He wants to enter your life as a serpent and grow into a Dragon. 

Whenever we allow the enemy’s voice to grow more prominent in our life, we hide ourselves from the presence of God. Allowing the voice of God to dwindle down is the enemy's mission. 

Remember in our scripture when the little serpent said, “Did He [God] really say you will die? You will not surely die…”

The enemy knows that if he doesn’t have the same power as the voice of God. That is not what he is even after. He doesn’t also want to get into a match with the voice of God. He knows he’d never win. Instead, he wants you to listen to his little tiny whispers over and over again. Pretty soon, if those whispers are the only thing you are listening to over his voice will grow and become bigger than the Lord’s.

Hiding From God is Listening To Our Problems 

Often, the enemy uses the problems in our lives to create a distraction from the voice of God. Again, Satan knows he has no power over the voice of God, so that’s no the game he wants to get into. He desires to use a fabricated situation to rule over God’s voice in your life. As Christians, we will read in the Scripture to “not fear”, only to fear when faced with an impossible situation. What is happening to our spirit’s when we do this? We are listening to the voice of our problems over God’s voice through His Word. 

The funny thing is, it’s not like the enemy isn’t trying to get out attention when we are walking with God. We don’t notice it because our mind is undivided and complete by fixing our mind on the Word of God. You see, when we are walking face to face with God, in full relationship with Him, even though the enemy is still speaking through our problems, we don’t listen. We could be walking in the garden and having a conversation with the Word of God and not even realize that we were inches outside of hell. 

“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of thine enemies.” (Psalms 23:4) 

When God’s voice is greater in your life, you won’t settle into believing the superficial lies of the enemy. You’ll never come into agreement with fear and doubt over your life, even when faced with impossible circumstances. Instead of being afraid, you know your place with Jesus Christ, and you will understand that without His Word clothing, you are naked. God’s Word is what gets out into the open air in a relationship with him. 

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Resources:

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/are-you-hiding-from-gods-voice

https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/CGG/ID/7784/Hiding-from-God.htm

https://www.oneplace.com/ministries/turning-point/read/articles/hideouts-and-hideaways--where-we-hide-out-from-god-14895.html