Father in Heaven, Take us to Your Secret Place!

Father in Heaven, Take us to Your Secret Place!

by Chis Sitter

For thousands of years, God has had the desire to bring (and to keep) those who diligently seek and fear and obey Him – into a very special place of peace and safety from evil.  This is a place of communion with Him.

This is evident as early as Genesis 1, when God placed Adam (and later Eve) into a beautiful garden, where there every need was met and where they walked and communed with Him.

One short Old Testament passage illustrates this very special place:

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26:3

May God help us all – to dwell in such a beautiful state!  Think About that for a moment:  “PERFECT PEACE”.  Wow.

But our Adversary who has come to steal from us, to kill us, and to destroy us (John 10:10) is throwing multiplied thousands of messages and images at us (every month) – with the goal that we will NEVER have our mind “stayed on thee”, and never enjoy this place of mental and emotional rest.  Fortunately, we can – by God’s grace, shut those messages out, and choose to fill our mind with God’s Word, prayer, praise music, good preaching, and times of fellowship with Christian friends and family – and other beautiful and pure stuff.

Later in Isaiah – we see a different illustration of this special place – that God has for His remnant who walk on what the Holy Spirit inspired the prophet Isaiah to call “the way of holiness”.

Isaiah 35:8-10

8  And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

9  No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:

10  And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

The famous Psalm 91 provides us yet another beautiful picture of this special place, of protection, health and also spiritual power.  In this example – it is called “The Secret Place of the Most High”.

As I just took a fresh look at the beautiful Psalm 91, I tried to figure out how I should “rightly divide” that passage, so I could not make this post too long.  I just wanted to highlight the beautiful aspects of this “secret place”, but after looking it over, the blessings of this special place just keep going – until the whole psalm is over!  So, I feel I must post this wonderful psalm, in its entirety.

Psalm 91 

¹ He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

² I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

³ Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

⁴ He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

⁵ Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

⁶ Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

⁷ A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

⁸ Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

⁹ Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;

¹⁰ There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

¹¹ For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

¹² They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

¹³ Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

¹⁴ Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath 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 honour him.

¹⁶ With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

It is important to note the 3 Conditions in Psalm 91 (maybe you can find more than that – but here are the ones I see).

Condition #1) Psalm 91:1 – you must dwell in the “secret place” of the Most High.  Where is that, you might ask.  Psalm 25:14 provides us that answer:  “The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him”.  But how can we check and see if we actually fear Him. 

While we could make a large sermon (filled with scripture) on that subject – Psalm 34 provides us a fairly short and direct answer:

¹¹ Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.¹² What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?¹³ Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.

¹⁴ Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.¹⁵ The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.

¹⁶ The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. ¹⁷ The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.

¹⁸ The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. ¹⁹ Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. ²⁰ He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken. ²¹ Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. ²² The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

I don’t know where to actually cut that passage either, because of not only all the beautiful promises for the righteous, but also – all the scary warnings to the wicked.  Both of those types of passages help us to learn the Fear of the Lord.  The precious promises DRAW us to desire to be in that special place of wholehearted worship and obedience to The Lord and fellowship with all that He is.  And the scary warnings are there to scare the hell (fleshly ways) out of us – so we will resist temptation, confess our sins and “choose life”.

I call these two things (the precious promises and the warnings) the “Double Motivator” – which God so lovingly provides us throughout His Word.  Beware of preachers who only utilize the precious promises but avoid the scary warnings.  God knows how wicked and deceitful our unregenerated hearts are – and HE KNOWS we need them both.

Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

Just read through ANY BOOK of the Bible, (it’s probably most evident in Proverbs) and you will see how God uses this double motivator – in his Great Love – over and over – to bring us to His “secret place”/”Highway of holiness”.

This special place has other names – throughout His Word.

Psalm 32:7 calls it our “Hiding Place”

⁷ Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.

Jesus Christ shared his longing to bring his people in Jerusalem to this place of refuge as “a hen gathers her chicks under her wings” – but they would not!  Here His cry along these lines – in the book of Matthew:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”  Matthew 23:37

Eventually, God will bring His people who love and fear and seek and obey Him into a very special place indeed…a New Heavens and a New Earth – wherein dwelleth righteousness.  Woohoo!  Oh, how I want to live there forever…with all of you!!!!! (Now that would be a fun message – to try and find all the passages on that fantastic subject)

“Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Peter 3:13

Oh dear saints, let us seek to enter into this special place that God has desired for His people to abide – from the beginning of time to the end of time.  Notice the 2 qualifications listed in the following passage (Rev. 14) – which is just 8 chapters from the end of the Bible.  See how God has had this special place set aside – from the Garden of Eden, to The Last Day & then on into Eternity!

Revelation 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Another 2 passages which are coming to mind – also illustrate this beautiful and holy truth:

1^st John 5:18b  …he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.

The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.  Proverbs 18:10

Grace, Mercy, Peace and Victory to all reading this.  May The Lord forgive us where we have missed His holy mark, and wash us in his precious blood, and cleanse us from all iniquity, and pull us out of any miry clay we may have gotten ourselves into, and set our feet on rock.  May He also put a new song in our mouth and establish our goings. (from Psalm 40)  May our God, whose tender mercies are over all his works (Psalm 145:9) and who would that none should perish (2 Peter 3:9) help us all to forsake anything that our adversary has brought into our lives and hearts – that would keep us from abiding steadfastly in this special and holy place with our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May we all be filled with His Spirit and walking by Faith – throughout each day that He has made and given us.

¹⁸ And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; ¹⁹ Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; ²⁰ Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ  (Ephesians 5:18-20)

Praise His Holy Name.  Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Our Redeemer is plenteous in mercy (psalm 103:8) and ready to forgive!

^“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. Psalm 103:8

^5”For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.” Psalm 86:5

“I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.” Psalm 32:5

^“Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!”  Psalm 31:19

Oh my dear brethren (and sistren), how The Lord does long for us to abide in this place. May we give ourselves to the goal of dwelling and abiding in His secret place, and to helping our struggling brethren – and the lost…to find it.  In Jesus name. Any Amens?

2 Corinthians 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

^“ One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.  ⁵ For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.” Psalm 27:4-5

Sorry this “post” turned into a whole article.  These beautiful truths are very special to me, and I still have much more to learn on this subject.  I have not always dwelt in this beautiful place of communion with our precious Lord.  My flesh and my adversary have won far too many battles during the past 30+ years since I was born again.  Those things pulled me away from this place of precious communion with my Lord who died a horrible death and shed His own blood so I could get and stay there.  You will also find that EVERYTHING the devil can throw at you (temptations of every kind, distractions, false security doctrines – which allow you to “be righteous” while you clearly are not, etc.) will try to keep you from arriving at, and staying in this beautiful place of God’s refuge. Great success to you, in Jesus name – as you fight this great fight.  Dive into God’s Holy Word, and let its light shine on every part of your life.  Don’t hold anything back.  Remember the first command: To love the Lord with ALL your heart, ALL your soul, All your mind and All your strength & PLEASE, I beg you – do NOT be deceived (as I have been) that giving him “Most” or “almost all” will do.  It will not.  He is holy. If you are having trouble fearing God as you would like to, I exhort you to read Matthew 7:21-23 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 in the KJV about 20 times a day for 2 days, and really think about that passage.  And if those 2 are not quite enough, add Galatians 5:19-21.

As The Lord – through His Word – exposes areas of sin, then immediately thank Him for that understanding, and bring what you find to Calvary and to our merciful Lord, and find forgiveness, restoration, joy and eventually…Steadfastness with The NEW HEART of FLESH that only HE can give us, which will “love righteousness and hate wickedness”.

This is actually a very short presentation of this wonderful subject.  You will find this longing from God, and His prophets and his Apostles – to bring God’s people to this special place of true fellowship with God – throughout the whole Bible.  My guess is that multiple other saints have written entire books – filled with scripture – on this subject.  Please feel free to share with us, your favorite passages – related to God’s special place which He has for His people.

⁹ But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.  ¹⁰ But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.  1 Corinthians 2:9-10

Grace, mercy and peace…in Jesus Wonderful Name!

May each and every one of you reading this – both find, and dwell steadfastly in, the Secret Place of The Most High.  May you all live daily in a faith-filled, Holy Spirit led, joyful and fruitful walk with our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and with the dear saints that He has so kindly brought into your life.  In Jesus Name!

Thy Word is Truth!  John 17:17b

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