In this piece, we would be looking at four questions about dwelling in the secret place of God. I would like to begin by asking four fundamental questions. I believe they would build a better background into what the Holy Spirit has inspired me to share. The first is; what does it mean to dwell in the secret place of God? The second is; who are the dwellers of the secret place of God? The third is; what do we do while dwelling in the secret place of God? And the fourth is; what are the benefits of dwelling in the secret place of God?

 

#. What does it mean to dwell in the secret place of God?

To dwell in the secret place of God is to abide, to stay and to wait in His presence. The secret place of God is the place of intimacy and fellowship with the Holy Spirit. In John 15:4, the Bible says, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” When we abide or dwell in the secret place of God, we tend to reflect Christ Jesus until we are made perfect in Him. So, as we desire Him, yearn for Him, draw near to Him and most importantly love Him genuinely; these will draw His love and fellowship towards us.

 

#. Who are the dwellers of the secret place of God?

Psalm 23:4 shows us. It says: “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord, And righteousness from the God of his salvation.”

 

A dweller of the secret place is one who shuns and abhors evil and wickedness. A dweller is one whose heart-desire is to please God. Having a clean hand doesn’t literally mean the neatness of our hands, this talks about one after God’s heart, a person of integrity, and a person who is one with God. This is a person whom doing the will of the Father is his/her priority and nothing else matters.

 

Matthew 5:8 says; “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” A believer who has a pure heart; will see the goodness of God, will see God in His various dimensions and will also be led, taught and guided by the Holy Spirit.

 

A dweller of God’s secret place is a genuine lover of God, one who whole heartedly longs after God. One who is God minded, one who acknowledges that she is helpless of herself and that God is her help; because it is in our reliance on Him that draws us to His presence.

 

A dweller of the secret place of God is one with a broken and a contrite heart: one who fears the Lord; honors and reverence the Lord. A proud heart feels able, but the humble acknowledge his Creator as his source and sustainer. A proud person cannot dwell in the secret place of God; the Bible says that God resists the proud but He gives grace to the humble.

 

A dweller is one who acknowledges the faithfulness of God and His tender mercies. A dweller of the secret place of God is one who hasn’t come to the presence of God with her own wishes, will and opinions, but one whose heart is opened to be corrected, led, instructed, directed, and guided by the Holy Spirit.

 

I would like to share with us a practical life experience to buttress the point that the Holy Spirit can correct, instruct, comfort and align us back to the Father if we invite Him. On a certain day, I received a word from someone and I felt really bad. I thought I did moved-on, that I wasn’t holding anything back; but not knowing the hurt was still there. Normally, whenever I feel that way, I take the matter to God in prayer and before I live the secret place, I feel very much better, full of joy and my spirit man comes alive as the Holy Spirit helps to rejuvenate me.

 

But, concerning this particular matter, I did not speak to the Holy Spirit about it. Not knowing I was still hurt, the next day; the matter came up and I fled up and spoke my mind (how I felt about the matter), but instead, more words were said to me that really hurt me so bad that the devil began to give those words several other meanings beyond what the person meant. For almost a week I was brooding on those words. Until one day, I said Lord why am I feeling this way? What is happening to me? Then I received words of correction, instruction and comfort. He said to me; you never spoke to Me concerning the matter, you handled it your way; which was wrong.

 

I was broken and I realized I never went to seek His face for help, direction and guidance on how to handle the matter. I allowed flesh to take the best of me and not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helped me to see myself in the image of God and brought to my remembrance God’s promises to me and the essence of living a life of Christ. I was renewed, restored, revived and alive once again and was set free from the stronghold of the devil: who was messing with my mind; my spirit man became in charge and in control by the help of the Holy Spirit.

 

I shared this with us, so as to know that the Holy Spirit is willing and ready to help us; if only we invite Him to all the happenings in our life. There is no issue and no challenge are too small or great for Him to handle. He is the perfect Friend and Help in time of need; let’s endeavor to run and call unto Him; He is able and willing to carry us through.    

   

#. What do we do while dwelling in the secret place of God? When we say we are tarrying or waiting in the secret place of God, what exactly am I doing there?

• Studying God’s word: when we study His word, He reveals Himself to us and launch us into a deeper realm of Himself. Let’s look at the several Scriptures that elaborate on studying God’s word. Joshua 1:8, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

 

Jeremiah 15:16, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.”

Studying God’s word transforms us and it launches us to the light of the Scriptures.

 

• We pray in His secret place: When we pray with our heart opened to God without wandering to and fro i.e our heart is stayed on Him; we hear and receive instructions, guidance and direction in the place of prayer. Psalm 65:2 says, “O You who hear prayer, to you all flesh will come.”

 

1 Corinthians 2:9-16 says; “But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”

 

• We render to God our praise and worship.  Psalm 63:3-5 says; “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. Thus, I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.”

 

A dweller of God’s secret place sings His praises. Such a person is full of joy welling up in her spirit.

 

Psalm 67:5-7 says, “Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You.

Then the earth shall yield her increase; God, our own God, shall bless us.
God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.”

 

There are two (2) major sacrifices a dweller of God’s secret place lays at the feet of the Master (Jesus Christ), they are; a broken heart and an adequate time. Having a genuine relationship of intimacy and fellowship with the Holy Spirit requires time; this is not about spending 5mins-10mins and then you are out. You are required to give adequate time if you desire to see Him or hear Him speak to you and also to fellowship and relate with you.

 

#. What are the benefits of dwelling in the secret place of God?

• We enjoy a deeper level of fellowship with Him. i.e. We become His friends. We get to know Him more in a deeper dimension. i.e. we have a deeper relationship with Him, that He tells us all that He desires and require us to know. Genesis 18:17 says; “And the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing.”

 

Also, John 15:14-15 says; “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.”

 

2 Chronicles 20:7 says; “Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever?”

When we relate with God in a deep level, He carries us along with what He wants to do; be it in our lives, family, community or territory; this depending on our level of intimacy and fellowship with Him i.e how well we dwell in His secret place.

 

• He reveals His secrets to us i.e the mysteries to His words.

 “The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.” (Psalm 25:14) Isaiah 45:3, “I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by your name,
Am the God of Israel.”

 

Proverbs 25:2, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”

 

• Access to change and divine transformation.

Romans 12:1-2 says; “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

 

• Access to spiritual wisdom and revelational knowledge.

1 Corinthians 2:6-8 says; “However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

 

The Bible says in Colossians 1:9-11; “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy”.

 

• Access to divine protection and safety.  Psalm 91:1 says; “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most-High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”

 

• Access to companionship, confidence, counsel and comfort by the help of the Holy Spirit. This applies to our everyday life.  “For the Lord will be your confidence, and will keep your foot from being caught.” (Proverbs 3:26)

 

• We become carriers of His presence; because a dweller of the secret place of God is a carrier of His divine presence.

 

In Zephaniah 3:14-17, the Bible says; “Sing, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away your judgments, He has cast out your enemy. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; You shall see disaster no more. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Do not fear; Zion, let not your hands be weak. The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”

 

His glory is seen in and through our lives and we shine as light. Psalm 36:9^B, “For in His light, we see light”. When you are filled and immersed with the Spirit of God; He will through you do the impossible. It is important for everyone to dwell in the secret place of God because that is where we are being changed and transformed. May we receive grace today and always, to dwell (abide, wait and stay) in the secret place of God. Amen!

 

 

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Bolaji Ajayi!

Feel free to share your thoughts or testimony in the comment box below. I promise to respond to them as soon as possible!