Chapter One
The Place We've
Always Wanted
In You I take shelter.
Teach me to do Your will,
for You are my God.
Psalm 143:9-10
In the church where my father was a pastor during my boyhood,
a set of stairs behind the sanctuary led upward to some
classrooms. Tucked away beneath those steps was an abandoned
janitor's closet with only one entrance-a narrow
doorway just big enough for my slim body to slip through.
That's where I would go when I wanted to be alone just
to think. That's where I could occupy my mind with the
typical struggles of a nine- or ten-year-old-my budding,
innocent romances, my schoolyard sports career.
Then came the day when one of my friends in the
church died of a childhood disease. Suddenly my secret place
took on a whole new significance. I spent a lot of time there,
pondering my own mortality. The issue consumed me, and
what I remember most is how fearful I was. That little closet
was the only space where I could think through such a terrifying
matter and come away feeling better about it.
Meanwhile my father's church was growing, which
eventually prompted our relocation to a new church facility
that didn't provide me with the hideaway I'd grown
accustomed to. I grew into my teen years still wanting such
a place, but never quite finding one-a suitable location
where I could escape the disturbing everydayness and confusing
choices of adolescence, a place where I could enter
and no one else could, a place of solitude where I could hear
the clear leading of the Lord.
A Place More Real
As manhood dawned on me, I began to wonder if what I
was seeking wasn't a physical location, but something else,
something deeper and more real.
As my "life verse" I had earlier claimed the entire
ninety-first Psalm, which begins, "He who dwells in the
secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow
of the Almighty." As time went by, the fuller meaning of
those words began to grip me more and more. Little by
little I came to see there really was a secret place where God
wanted me to meet with Him-not a closet or room, but a
real place nevertheless, a place of fellowship where I could
go anytime and pour out the questions and hurts of my
heart in the presence of my Father. It was where I could
hear directly from God about my
life's decisions, and He would always
be there to give me all the time and
answers I needed to face the turmoils
and traumas of my life.
Even without fully understanding
this truth, I began to use it.
A close friend and I had decided
to pursue careers as certified public
accountants, and we decided together
on the college we wanted to attend to
get started on this pursuit. But even while we were pushing
forward our plans, in my newly found secret place I sensed
a moving in my spirit; deep in my heart I came to realize
that those plans would never happen. God was preparing
something different for me, though it took a while for me
to discover what this direction would be.
Uniquely Designed
So it was that I learned early to withdraw often to this place
and commune with God. Experiencing the Lord's presence
in the secret place has been a source of refreshment
throughout my Christian life; there, my God and I have
planned His business for me.
I believe from God's Word that He has provided such
a secret place for each of His children to dwell with Him, a
place He uniquely designed for each one in order to communicate
His will to them. It isn't something only for the
spiritual haves, to the exclusion of the have-nots (a demeaning
distinction I don't believe in).
God has a secret place waiting for you
and for every believer-and the
choice whether to meet Him there is
entirely our own.
No one knows your needs better
than your Father in heaven. When
He created you, He knew you would
need a private place to meet Him-a
place where no one else may enter, a
pathway where only you and He can
stroll. He calls it "the secret place" (not just "a" secret place)
because there's only one like it for each of us. And we need
look no further than the Scriptures to determine its location.
Tragically, however, intimacy with God in the secret
place-one of the most powerful spiritual realities our Lord
has given us-remains unknown to many of the very
people He intends to be blessed by it. In fact, some of them
still doubt this place's existence even after being told of it.
But we must not allow the tactics of the evil one to take this
blessing away from us through his deceptive power to convince
us there's no such place.
Connection and Protection
As a pastor, I can't begin to number the times people have
wished aloud in counseling sessions that they somehow had
a clearer connection with God and His guidance. As one
man expressed it, "I just wish God would write down His
instructions for me and send it in a letter."
Others feel discouraged because of a seeming inability
to escape ever-present pressures from the evil one. For
them, "doing business" with God always seems ineffective;
"I just can never seem to get away from Satan's influence,"
they say. They conclude that the devil must be able to read
their every thought, and constant spiritual defeat overshadows
their life as a result. As they're frustrated once more by
an event or circumstance that in hindsight seems to be yet
another example of the enemy's snares, they wonder: "Why
couldn't God have warned me about that without Satan
interfering?"
When I explain to these beleaguered people about the
secret place-about their own private stronghold in the
presence of their God, a place where they can discern His
personal and unique directions for their life through the
promptings of His Spirit, a place that's entirely off-limits to
intrusion by Satan and the demonic forces under his
dominion-a look of relief crosses their face.
May that same sense of relief be yours throughout this
book as we discover more about encountering God in the
secret place.
Chapter Two
Reserved
for two
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
Psalm 42:2
As you weigh the significance of this concept I'm describing,
you may wonder: Is the secret place nothing more than
getting away to think on your own? There doesn't seem to
be anything special about that-even an unbeliever can get
alone with his thoughts.
And that's exactly it! "Alone with his thoughts" is the
situation for the unbeliever; God's children, however, come
to the secret place to be with their Father. The secret place
of the believer always has a reservation for two.
Where Is It?
So what is the secret place? And where is it?
Though it's a real place, it transcends any spatial
dimensions. And it's invisible. It isn't something we ascertain
by any of our five senses. Even if someone could somehow
throw a switch to turn off your eyesight, your hearing,
and your senses of smell and taste and touch, you could still
encounter God in the secret place. He created our five
senses so we might enjoy the beauty of His creation and
operate effectively within its reality,
but He can bypass those senses and
work directly within our spirits to
communicate His certain presence
and everything He wants us to know.
Jesus often said, "He who has
ears to hear, let him hear." I believe
He was speaking of more than physical
ears and physical hearing, and of more than just the specific
words He uttered on those occasions to the particular
people gathered around Him at the time. He was speaking
also of His audible voice to His followers down through the
centuries, and of their ability to distinguish and understand
it through the Holy Spirit's enablement within them.
The secret place isn't some mystical or magical location
where God plays hide-and-seek with us. It is, however, a
spiritual place, far below your skin and muscle and sinew,
deeper than your vital organs, with more life-sustaining
value than your blood vessels and giving you more strength
than your bone structure. It's a place lying in the depths of
your spirit, so deep that no one else but you and God can
get there. The map showing the way is legible to no one
else. No other person, no matter how powerful, and no
matter how cherished he or she may be to you, can visit its
confines-not even your spouse, your children, your closest
friend. You may be able to describe this place to them,
but they cannot make an entrance there to experience it
simultaneously with you.
When Do We Go There?
The kind of devotional time that many believers set aside
each day is only a glimpse of what God offers in the secret
place. He often calls us there at other times to communicate
with us.
His invitations to join Him there often seem to come
in the middle of the night or in the dark hours before dawn.
We sense His wakening call in much the same way the boy
Samuel did in 1 Samuel 3. Anytime I'm awakened for no
apparent reason during the night, I always think first, God,
are You wanting to talk to me in the secret place? Sometimes I
turn over and fall asleep again, but most times I sense a
strong prompting to meet with Him.
This has particularly been true during the past five
years, as the church and the private Christian school I lead
have been building and growing. As decision points and
financial deadlines approached, God has often awakened
me to meet with Him, and in the secret place He has settled
my heart and confirmed His control over the details.
I'm often amused as to why this needs to happen at
such weird hours. Perhaps I'm not as diligent in committing
such matters into His hands during normal hours. Or
maybe He just wants my undivided attention, and that's
the perfect opportunity to get it. You may find Him frequently
doing the same thing with You, especially as you
move into greater intimacy with God in the secret place.
What Happens There?
Although in the Scripture we sometimes see God sending
visions and angels to communicate His will to individuals,
for believers today the word promptings probably best
describes how God's Spirit communicates with us in the
secret place.
Those promptings from the Lord are as real today as
ever. Not long ago, my wife Gail and I set aside an evening
to drop by some homes of the new people who had been
visiting our church. Our intent was to make a brief appearance,
letting the family know how much we enjoyed their
visits to our Sunday services. We were frustrated in our
efforts. No one answered their doors, so we headed home.
Not far from the turnoff to our house, Gail said to me,
"Keith and Dianne have been on my heart all day." These
were friends of ours and former neighbors, but after moving
from their neighborhood we'd lost touch with them.
"The Lord must be prompting me to pray for Dianne,"
Gail said. "Why don't we stop by and see if they're home?"
I turned the car around and
headed for their house.
We walked up the drive to their
front door and rang the bell. Keith
answered the door. His jaw dropped
and he uttered some unintelligible
sound, then invited us in.
As we were sitting down, he
explained his amazement. "Just
twenty minutes ago I knelt beside my
couch and prayed. Today has been almost unbearable. So
tonight I asked God to send someone by to pray with
me . and here you are!"
After prayer together and some uplifting fellowship
with our friends, Gail and I left overwhelmed once again
with how God guides us by means of the secret place.
God's Word Comes Alive
The secret place provides the right environment where
we're most free to sense the genuine promptings of God's
Spirit. But a word of caution is in order, lest you think that
in the secret place God reveals things that go against or
beyond the truths in Holy Scripture.
In the freedom from the world's distractions that we
find in the secret place, God shines His light on His written
Word in our hearts and makes plain how it applies to
our personal circumstances.
Such personal understanding of the Bible is especially
essential in weighing desires or plans we have. In the light
of Scripture, we can determine if these are rising from our
own selfish desires or confirm that they're actually a prompting
from God.
Those are some perspectives relating to basic questions
about the secret place. But to understand it best, let's look
in the pages of Scripture to the passages that speak most
directly about this freeing and wonderful truth. Get ready
for a rich time in exploring God's Word.
(Continues.)
