ABIDE || Secret Place
SECRET PLACE | Five More Minutes
When we set apart time and space to meet with God, Holy Spirit responds to our expectancy with His presence. When we make the secret place our priority, we become the place where Heaven touches Earth.
Psalm 91:1:
He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
DWELLS:
Inhabits, sits, abides, remains, tarries, continues, sets…
SECRET PLACE
H5643 Say-ther
Covering, shelter, hiding place, secrecy
ABIDE
Lodge, remain, tarry, continue, endure
SHADOW
Shade as in protection
He who inhabits the covering of the most high God will live under His shade of protection.
Two important things to note:
In order to be under someone’s covering there must be a nearness to them.
In order to be found under someone’s shadow you must be in proximity to them.
To be in the secret place means that you are where God is. So, where is God found?
“Jesus is found in the places of lowliness and humiliation, self-denial, sacrifice, and suffering.”
When we choose to go low, we find Him. When we humble ourselves we find Him. When we deny ourselves, we find Him. When we choose to die to ourselves and sacrifice, we find Him. When we take up our cross and embrace suffering with Christ we find Him.
When we are poor in spirit, we find Him. When we mourn, we find Him. When we are meek, we find Him. When we are hungry and thirst for righteousness, we find Him. When we are merciful, we find Him. When we are pure in heart, we find Him. When we are peacemakers, we find Him. When we are persecuted for righteousness sake, we find Him.
My greatest encounters with the Lord have been in moments of poverty of spirit. In those moments of coming to Him emotionally, mentally and spiritually bankrupt, I find myself under His wings and can feel the shadow and weight of His protection or covering.
The goal then is to remain there. To abide in the secret place, under His covering.
“We cannot keep affirming our love for Jesus, our heavenly Bridegroom and not want to be with Him.”
How do we learn to abide in the secret place?
Love must be our motivator
Set our love on Him
Psalm 91:14-16
14 “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. 15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.”
Because He has chosen to…DWELL: Inhabit, sit, abide, remain, tarry, continue, set…in love with God he will remain in under my covering!
There is a blessing for us when out of love for Jesus we choose to abide in the Secret Place. The blessing is His shadow of protection. This is the year of blessing. If we want it, it begins by learning to abide in the Secret Place.
Evidence your love has been set upon Him:
You are Lovesick for Him
“If the bride tells her bridegroom that she loves him, she proves her love by wanting to be where He is”
It’s the cry of the Shulamite Woman
Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you— if you find my beloved, what will you tell him? Tell him I am faint with love. Song of Songs 5:8
Ask yourself:
What do you do in your free time?
What do you do when you're bored?
What entertains you?
You desire to be Near Him
You just want to be where He is (under His shadow)
You love the Secret Place because He is there.
You love His presence
Willingness to embrace His will
His timing
His plans
It’s the cry of Ruth
16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” Ruth 1:16-17
You love to gaze upon His beauty
Ask yourself:
When’s the last time you showed up to the secret place just to gaze upon him? Just to tell him you love him.
It’s the cry of David
One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple. Psalm 27:4
Ministry Moment:
Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm,
for love is strong as death,
jealousy is fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
the very flame of the Lord.
Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it.
If a man offered for love
all the wealth of his house,
he would be utterly despised.
Song of Solomon 8:6-7
