Secret Place

 

    You find your secret place with God.  Every good secret has something to do with Him.  He is the key to the secrets of your life.  All you have to do is dig a little.  You will find the answers in your Bible.  You are not expected to understand everything, but seek wisdom and closeness to God.  You will find what you need.

    Your secret place is where you spend time digging into the Bible, prayer, meditation, and stillness.  It is the place that enriches your life.  If you started studying the Bible today, what do you think you would get out of it?  What is happening in your life that drives you to spend time with God?  Motivation matters, but not as much as actually seeking God.

    Jesus is the light that gives your space and yourself warmth, direction, and clarity in life.  The only way it will work is if see him clearly.  You do that by reading the Gospels where you can hear his voice.  It is where you will find your hope for eternity.  

    After spending time with God you should be motivated to follow Jesus.  It can bring joy to your life unlike anything else.  It is not an easy journey.  Following Jesus will make life harder in many ways, but the rewards outweigh the difficulties.  It brings rewards in life, not just eternal life.  He puts people that make life better in your path.  

    When you go to your secret place, go to seek guidance from the Holy Spirit.  He will direct your study.  He will whisper holy secrets into your heart.  He will guide your prayers and who to seek out that may need something.  This is where you go when you fast to find what your soul really needs.  

    How you approach your secret place will make the difference in how you experience your journey with Jesus each day.  Living life with Jesus instead of for Jesus makes all the difference in your heart and mind.  Every day is a new day to start fresh.  Start it in your secret place, your sanctuary.  

Psalm 26:1-8, Matthew 6:1-18, 10:26-27, Mark 4:21-23, Luke 8:16-17, 11:33, 12:1-3, John 7:1-11, 18:19-21, Romans 2:12-29, 1 Corinthians 4:5, 14:22-25, & 1 Peter 3:3-6

Secret Rewards

 

    The secret reward of following Jesus is the secret place you find to be alone with him.  This is where your fears and shame turn into something of value as you turn them over to Jesus.  It is where you find joy being in your Bible.  It is where the darkness disappears.  You will find wisdom in your secret place.  

    There are good and bad secrets.  Bad secrets lead to death, but bad secrets strengthen your relationship with God.  Your secret place to pray, spend time with God, and see yourself as He sees you is a good secret.  It brings life into your soul as you discover your partnership with Jesus.  There is a difference between doing things for and doing with Jesus.  Your secret place is where you learn that.

    Satan wants you to not find salvation.  If he fails there, then he will go after your joy.  Your secret place is sacred, so he can't find you there with God.  The closer you get to God, the further Satan gets.  However, the people in your life can get close to you and he may use them to cause problems in your life.

    Here is a secret: you can never hide your secrets from God.  If people are making you suffer, then go to God.  If your actions are making you suffer, then go to God.  Tell Him everything.  He wants to help.  It brings Him delight that you choose to go to Him.  He should be the first choice to go to with your secrets. 

    If you want something in life, then keep it a secret between you and God.  Satan can't read your mind, but you make it easy for him when you talk about ideas, dreams, and desires.  The defeat came from your mouth.  God will keep your secrets, so if they are released that means you are the one who let them loose.

    God chose you.  He made you.  He watched you being formed in your mother's womb.  Secrets are like that.  They can form and become something beautiful in the secret place just like you did in your mother's womb.  The womb was the secret place where everything was good, warm, and you discovered love before you were even born.  The secret reward is simple, but beautifully complex at the same time as it is found in utter seclusion.

Psalm 90:3-9, 139:13-16, Jeremiah 1:4-6, Matthew 6:1-18, Luke 7:47-48

Authentic Intimacy

 

    God is the secret place.  He is the concealer or hiding place from those who would like to cause you harm.  He will keep your secrets and help you succeed in your path following Jesus.  Satan will take your secrets and build a fortress for his benefit.  It may look good in the beginning, but eventually he will strip you of everything leaving you alone in the darkness.  Following Jesus is the path to peace and light where you are never alone and defenseless.

    It is impossible to hide from God.  The more you try the more you will fail and feel terrible deep in your soul.  Do not allow the people in your life to lead you astray.  Instead pray for a mentor that will help you find your way.  As you mature as a Christian start praying over who you can mentor.

    True authentic intimacy with God is the goal.  It is based on salvation, trust, faith, and being honest with yourself.  It matters more than you think.  When you have true intimacy with God, then you can start having true intimacy with other people as long as God is in the center of it.  Intimacy requires you leaning on each other like each one of you climbing one side of a ladder in sync to get to the top or it will fall over.

    Each relationship is different.  The only thing that stays the same is God.  If your relationship with Him changes, then it is because you have changed your position.  That is why it requires you being truthful with yourself.  

    Authentic intimacy can't be forced or rushed.  It takes time.  It will happen with God if you allow it, but only a few people in life.  You can be authentic with everyone, but have intimacy with only a few.  It depends on you when your inner self matches your society self.  If they don't match up, then it leaves room for Satan to enter the picture and mess everything up.

    You can live an honest and authentic life without everyone having access to your entire story.  That is not being contradictory.  That is using wisdom that God gives you.  Confess your sins to God, forgive those who hurt you, and remember once God forgives He forgets.  The Holy Spirit will guide you on who is safe and who to be weary about.  

    Authentic intimacy with God is being able to unload on Him knowing He will not abandon you.  He may get angry, but He is slow to anger.  He is quick to forgive and forget if your repentance is genuine.  Unloading is for your benefit.  It allows you to let go of sin, burdens, and knowledge that is heavy.  It releases you from slavery.  It is all up to you.

Deuteronomy 13:6-11, Psalm 10:7-11, 90:10-12, 141:3-4, Proverbs 10:8-9, 12:14-16, Jeremiah 23:23-24, Hosea 14:1-3, & Amos 5:10-13

Authenticity

 

    You find authentic intimacy in your time with God.  You go to your  secret place to tell God your secrets.  He loves hearing from you in good, bad, stressful, peaceful, and all other times.  He values the intimacy that you allow.  

    Authenticity in your relationship with God is what He has always wanted.  True intimacy can't be rushed.  It needs times to grow and develop.  Your creator wants a real relationship with you.  Allow Him to be God and lead the way to the best relationship you will ever have.

    There are good secrets and bad secrets.  Band secrets can destroy lives.  They are put into place by Satan to destroy authenticity.  God wants only good secrets.  His secrets lead to authenticity , transparency, and intimacy.  When your life aligns like that the exterior matches the interior life.

    Bad secrets lead to sin, iniquity, and transgression.  They can be transformed into good secrets through the forgiveness of God.  He covers them with His forgiveness which is eternal, so they will never again be brought up by Him.  

    Find your secret place with God where you can sit and hear His voice, confess sins, and build intimacy.  Genuine confessions with true repentance is putting your sins on the altar.  They are destroyed and the barrier between you and God disappears.  This restores fellowship and joy with God.  You need Him.  You need the salvation that Jesus provided at His resurrection.  

Job 4:12-17, Psalm 32, James 1:22-25, & 1 John 3:18-20

God's Secrecy

 

    Not knowing where you stand with people can be difficult.  Not understanding where you stand with God is impossible.  Uncertainty in life can make everything feel unsure, unsafe, and insecure.  You may need to walk on eggshells with people, but you never do with God.  He gave us the Bible so that we can know where we stand with Him at all times.

    God's secrecy is to hide, conceal, or keep secretly.  He conceals things from the world that only true Christians can comprehend.  He keeps you hidden from the world at times to protect you.  He conceals some truths for when the time is right.

    A secret for you is that God treasures you.  He loves you.  He gave the world His son.  The world did not love Jesus in return.  God always has pursued people first.  He pursues you.  Will you turn to Jesus or be one of the people that still put Jesus on that cross?  

    A secret of God is that you can talk to Him through prayer.  You can ask Him directly what He wants from you.  Use scripture in prayer and you will find wisdom, strength, discernment, and more.  God created you to be thoughtful, creative, and curious.  Use your mind to find and get close to God.  He searches your mind.  Will He see someone following Jesus or someone putting Jesus on the cross?

    God has plans for you.  When you follow Jesus to your planned purpose, you bring God joy.  The plan is a secret from God to be shared with you alone.  You find the joy in seeking Him and fulfilling your purpose.  Find delight in wisdom.

Psalm 27:4-6, 51:1-6, Proverbs 25:2-3, Matthew 6:31-34, Acts 17:24-29

Biblical Secrecy

 

    One of God's secret ways is how He protects you.  It doesn't always feel like protection.  It may feel like rejection, loss, or painful.  When it comes to God rejection is just redirection.  Sometimes he does have to take things and people away to get you where you are safe.  Sometime the process is painful, but you are still alive.

    God sent His son to die for you.  He never promised that you would live forever in this body.  This body will die, but your soul is eternal.  That secret of protection is priceless.  Trust Him and pour your heart out to Him.  You will discover the peace He is trying to give you.  Ask Him for what you think you need, but be ready for His answer.  It could be no, you need something else.

    God loves you.  He wants you to be triumphant and undefeated, but it will only happen on His terms.  If you reject Him and go at life your way, then it will bring shame and stress.  What do you need to embrace and appreciate in life that you may be pushing away?  God is there in the small details.  He is showing you your secret path.  You just need to be paying attention.  

    What clutter in your life do you need to clean out to follow Jesus?  Clutter can be mental distractions, emotional discord, time wasted, or people being a stumbling block.  You have to clean out the problem to the root and kill the roots or it will never really go away.  It will keep returning like a bad infection getting worse every time.  Cleaning out gets you back to knowing God the way He knows you.

    Find your joy and comfort in having a relationship with God.  It goes beyond knowledge to real intimacy with your creator.  It can only be known by those who choose to follow Jesus.  It is a faith leap into the unknown and closed off to unbelievers.  As a Christian, you are in the inner circle.  It can't be earned.  You can only achieve it through faith and obedience.

    It is important to keep what you treasure a secret.  The truth is revealed at the right time.  No one can steal from you what they do not know you have.  Keep your inner peace by telling others about Jesus, but not every detail about your relationship with Him.  Not everyone has a right to your full story.  Some people would twist it or use it in the wrong way.  This is not a lie, but secrecy that is a gift from God.  Seek to understand and wisdom will come.

Psalm 25:11-15, 139:13-16, Isaiah 45:1-3, Matthew 13:1-9, Luke 2:51-52, & Colossians 1:3-6

Biblical Word Study

 

    When you are teaching yourself or the Holy Spirit is guiding you in the how to study the Bible I recommend using a concordance, several versions of the Bible, and look up Hebrew Words.  Find the origin and see how it evolved over the different languages until it got to your language.  Discover for yourself how it was originally used.  Then you are able to understand more clearly how to apply it today.  This type of study takes years, but it is worth it.

    The Hebrew word for Secret in the old testament is סֵתֶר.  It means secret, hiding place, secrecy, stealth, and to cover.  It is a secret place, to separate, or to set apart.  From Hebrew it is seen in Latin as secernere or secretus.  From there it was translated to old French as secret.  From there it evolved to middle English as secrette.  We now use the word secret in modern English.

    Secrets can be wonderful or a source of stress.  How do secrets make you feel?  Do you see how God's secrets are for your benefit?  Do you comprehend how overwhelming it would be if you had all the spiritual world revealed to you at one time would be overwhelming?  Secrecy can be a good thing.  It can help you survive in this world.

    Secrets manifest in the Bible.  God reveals them in a way that you can be absolutely certain that they are real.  You can be confident that He is working in and around your life for your benefit.  He reveals secrets to you about you.  If you ignore His warnings about sin, then He will expose your secrets like a good parent.  

    Secrets can affect you physically.  If they are bad secrets they can affect your heart, mind, and organs.  If it is a good secret then it can bring forth better health and protect you.  If it is a secret you can't tell, then go to God about it in prayer.  He will keep every secret unless it has to come out.  Then He will do it in His way.  It can take the pressure off of you.  It also means you never betrayed anyone's confidence, so you remain trustworthy.

Deuteronomy 27:14-15, Psalm 32:6-7, 91:1-8, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, Hebrews 4:12-13, 1 Peter 5:1-11, & 1 John 2:26-27