Certainly, we have all marveled in amazement at magicians who made things appear from nowhere and made other things disappear into thin air. Is it demonic power (?), illusion (?), a trick (?), sleight of hand (?), science (?), what (?). The best answer is that these men have secrets. They know how to do something that the rest of us do not know how to do. It may be as simple as having a concealed pocket from which they can pull their hidden objects, or it may be an elaborate scheme involving lighting, a team of assistants, trap doors, and hours of practice; but no matter what it is — great or small — these men all have a secret.
The same is true of our Christian lives: if we want to do what others cannot do and be what others will not be, we must have a secret in our spiritual lives. The magicians’ secrets may be up their sleeves, but a Christian’s secrets are inside their hearts. It is the heart of man that contains his key for success or his warrant for defeat.
Heart Secrets
Let’s think back to the time when the prophet Samuel was called to Jesse’s house to anoint the next king of Israel. Certainly, you remember the story of how the prophet wanted to choose Jesse’s first son because he was so tall, handsome, and strong. However, God said, “No.” God continued to veto each decision the prophet desired to make as he called the next son and then the next and then the next until he had seen all seven of the brothers who had been called to the feast. At that point, the prophet questioned the father if there were any remaining sons. Of course, David — the lad who was so unlikely for the throne that he hadn’t even been beckoned to the interview — was the one whom the Lord selected. God reprimanded His servant Samuel with the admonition that he had been looking on the outward appearance while God was looking on the heart.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addressed this truth when He told His listeners that they should not give their alms in public with a lot of fanfare to draw men’s attention to their gifts. He said that this kind of action would rob them of any benefit from God and that the alms should be given in secret because the God who sees in secret is the One who will openly reward the gift. You see, He isn’t looking at the gift; rather He is looking at the giver, searching for sincerity in his heart. Jesus applied the same principle to our prayer lives as He instructed us to emphasize our private prayer lives rather than the occasions we have to offer public prayer. He furthered the teaching to include fasting as well by telling the multitude that they were not to put on a show for men to see when they were fasting, but to let the fasting be a private act of separation and consecration to the Lord. His whole point was that if we want to gain rewards in our spiritual lives, we must have some secrets “up our sleeves.”
When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, He demonstrated that He had some secrets that He kept hidden from the public. You might imagine that restoring life to a corpse that had already started to deteriorate after four days of interment would have called for a long intense prayer. A headache may have only needed a cryptic prayer, and a stomachache would require only a short intercession; but certainly to raise a dead man would demand an all-out demonstration of spiritual agonizing. But Jesus’ prayer for Lazarus was short and to the point, “Lazarus, come forth!” It was, however, preceded by a simple word of thanks to the Father that His prayers had already been heard. In other words, Jesus prayed in secret, and the Father heard Him in secret and rewarded Him in public. Because Jesus had done something in secret that others do not do, He was able to get results in public that others do not get. It was not magic, it was simply the success of His secret prayer life.
The Flipside of the Coin
We have all heard the expression that every coin has two sides. It’s true about spiritual things as well as with pocket change. If we can have good secrets that produce success in our lives, we can also have bad secrets that yield disastrous results. Let’s look at a couple of examples from the Bible. First, let’s go back to the time of Joshua’s invasion into the Promised Land. His first stop was the city of Jericho, which God miraculously delivered into his hand with one restriction — that nothing be taken from the city; the people were to be destroyed, the cattle were to be slaughtered, and the goods of the city were to be burned. The next port of call was the tiny town of Ai, which — even though it seemed to be a weak and fairly defenseless city — proved to be a formidable foe that would not yield to Joshua’s army. When the general cried out to the Lord concerning his defeat at the hands of the forces of Ai, God responded that there was secret sin in Israel’s camp. When the people were brought before the Lord for examination, one lone soldier named Achan was pointed out as the culprit. He had taken some gold and other goods from the city and buried them inside his tent. It was a secret hidden from the eyes of all the people around him, but not from the x-ray vision of God that sees even further than through locked doors — right into the secret place of the heart.
The rebel Achan was exposed and judged publicly. Just as a secret good deed and a good heart secret are rewarded publicly, the evil hidden in the recesses of the heart is judged publicly. Luke 12:2-3 assures us that there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. Good or bad, it will eventually come to the surface. Numbers 32:23 warns us that our sins will find us out.
In the early days of the New Testament church, a couple named Ananias and Sapphira discovered that the exposure of sin was not just an Old Testament principle that passed away as the calendar turned from BC to AD. They sold a piece of property and pretended to give the total proceeds to the church while they had actually kept part of the money for themselves. Peter explained to them that the property and the money were theirs to do with as they wished and that God was not judging them for keeping part of the money. Rather, the Lord called them into question because they allowed Satan to fill their hearts to lie to the Holy Ghost. The issue wasn’t the dollars in their pocket, but the deception in their hearts.
Sins of the Heart
We began this chapter with the selection of David as the new king of Israel. Maybe it would be good to revisit this gentleman — whom God proclaimed to be a man after His own heart — a few years into his reign and see how well he is doing. The one day I would like to choose to visit him would be the day when all the other kings had gone out to war but he had stayed behind in Jerusalem. That evening, he wound up taking a walk on his roof and watching his neighbor’s wife as she bathed. Soon, he wound up calling her to the royal palace where they committed adultery. Eventually, her pregnancy led to the intrigue that precipitated the murder of her husband. David invited her into his secret bedchamber and tried to deal with all the issues in secret through secret communications; yet, his deeds were ultimately brought into public display by the prophet Nathan. It is astounding that when David dealt with his wrongdoing in the fifty-first Psalm, he never mentioned sinning against Bathsheba even though he violated her sexually, nor did he mention sinning against her husband even though he took his wife and eventually his life. Rather, David prayed, “Against You — and You only — have I sinned.” It is also eye opening to note that David never prayed about the blood on his hands or the dishonor in his body. Rather, he prayed, “Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me.” David must have realized what Ananias and Sapphira came to know as they were crumpling to the ground: men may look on the outward deeds of the body, but God judges the heart attitude.
In Matthew 5:8, Jesus pronounced a blessing upon the pure in heart; and in John 7:38, He taught that living water can flow out of the heart of a believer. However, in Matthew 15:18, He described the kind of evil actions that would manifest in the lives of those who are corrupt in their hearts. It is obvious that David had allowed himself to shift from the pure heart that had characterized him at the time of his call to an evil heart that dominated him during the encounter with the bathing beauty next door. He knew that if the problem was in the heart that its solution would also have to be in the heart. Perhaps that is the reason he wrote in another context that he had hidden the Word of God in his heart so that he would not sin against God (Psalm 119:11) and prayed that the Lord would search his heart to see if there was any evil way in it (Psalm 139:23). His son Solomon followed with his own admonition concerning the importance of the heart when he said in Proverbs 4:23, “Keep (guard) thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”
Discerning the Heart
We are repeatedly instructed that God searches the hearts of men (I Kings 8:39, Psalm 44:21, Psalm 139:1-2, Acts 1:24, Romans 2:16, Hebrews 4:13 — to list only a few); yet we are faced with a real problem in that the heart is sometimes such a secret to us individually that we don’t even know our own hearts. Jeremiah instructed us concerning this inherent danger of the heart when he said that it is so deceitful that it may even fool the individual himself. (Jeremiah 17:9) But the Apostle Paul offered us a word of consolation that through the human spirit enlightened by the Holy Spirit, we can have a true knowledge of our hearts. (I Corinthians 2:11, Romans 8:27) David gave us an example of how to pray for our hearts in Psalm 19:14 when he said, “Let the words of our hearts and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.” At this point, it is apparent that there is a real connection between the words of our mouth and the thoughts of our heart — a truth confirmed by Jesus’ declaration in Matthew 15:18 that those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart.
Actually, one of the best ways to really know our hearts is to listen carefully to the words that come out of our mouths before we have time to contrive a response — when we hit our thumbs with the hammer, when someone pulls in front of us in traffic, or when someone offers us an interesting bit of gossip. An excellent illustration of this principle occurred on national television a few years ago when a contestant on a game show was awarded a brand new car. Before she had time to offer a prepared response, out of her mouth erupted the words, “I can’t take that car! I work for their competitor!” Of course, everyone on the show was stunned — even the winning contestant. After a few seconds, the host gained enough composure to carry on with the show and questioned the lady about what she had said. It was true, she was turning down a prize worth thousands of dollars because inside her was loyalty to her employer. It wasn’t her brain that made the response; it was her heart. As Christians, we must have our hearts so full of the truth of God and the life of God that we will automatically respond with God’s Word and nature from the heart.
In the admonition that we have already cited, Solomon mentioned the importance of our eyes, ears, and mouth in our quest to guard our hearts. I often think of these as the holes in our heads that connect directly to our hearts. Just as a thermostat is used to control the temperature of a room, our eyes and ears empty into the heart to determine what will be inside it. As a thermometer reports what the temperature is, the mouth empties out of the heart to reveal what is in it. In II Kings 4:18-37, we read a story about the raising of the son of the Shunammite woman. While her son lay dead in her home, the woman repeatedly answered each question with the same response: “It is well.” There was something inside her heart that refused to believe anything negative concerning her son even though his corpse was stretched across the bed in the upper chamber. My guess is that she had followed the commandment of Deuteronomy 6:6-9 to keep the Word of God constantly before her eyes and perpetually in her ears to the point that it filled her heart and automatically flowed out of her mouth.
If the secret that made the Shunammite woman able to get results unlike anyone else was getting was her faith-filled words produced from a faith-filled heart, we should also fill our hearts with the Word of God so that we will have a secret that will cause us to live like no one else is living.
The Secret Place God Desires
It was high noon on a hot, dusty day; Jesus and His disciples had traveled far and were tired. So when they came to Jacob’s well on the outskirts of Samaria, they stopped for a rest. Jesus sent His disciples ahead to find something for lunch while He rested beside the well. Soon, He was joined by a woman from the town. I can imagine that she avoided making eye contact since it was not customary for women to have any interaction with men outside their immediate family circle — and especially with this man since He was Jewish and she was Samaritan, and great animosity existed between these two ethnic groups. In addition, she had learned to avoid eye contact in general since she was an outcast from society, having been divorced five times and finally ending up in a common-law marriage. To her amazement, Jesus spoke courteously to her and even asked a favor of her. She was astonished and questioned how a Jew would dare to defile himself by drinking water drawn by a Samaritan, but Jesus quickly changed the focus of attention by offering her a drink. Now she was even more perplexed as to how He thought that He could draw water without a rope and pitcher. His explanation was that He was offering water that came not from the springs deep within the earth, but from the springs deep within the heart of man. As soon as she saw that the conversation was turning to spiritual matters, she raised a question that had been a point of contention between the Samaritians and Jews for years: whether it is necessary to worship in Jerusalem or if it is permissible to worship in the Samaritan’s mountain sanctuary. Jesus shocked her with the response that neither one pleased God because He was looking for people who worshipped Him from their spirits — that secret place from which, as we have already learned, the issues of life flow and from which, as He has just revealed, can flow rivers of living water.
To understand what the spirit of man really is, we must go all the way back to the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve enjoyed the unique privilege of personally walking and talking with God in the cool of each evening. During one of these times of intimate fellowship, the heavenly Father pointed out the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and instructed Adam that he should not eat of it because he would die the very day he tasted of its fruit. Well, we all know the story of how the serpent enticed them into transgression and the human race entered into sin. We expected them to die as soon as they sank their teeth into the luscious fruit, but the story of Adam and Eve goes on for another nine hundred years before we see them overtaken by death. Why? How? The answer lies in the fact that man is not a single unit but consists of three parts: body, soul, and spirit. It was only Adam and Eve’s bodies and souls that continued through most of that first millennium; the thing that died on that tragic day was their spirits — the part of them that had intimate fellowship and communion with God. This truth is so obvious in their reaction to God’s next visit in the Garden when the fig-leaf-clad humans huddled behind bushes to hide from God rather than running to meet Him as they must have done on all His previous visits. The thing inside them that related to God had just died, and there was no longer any part of them that felt comfortable in His presence.
Since that fateful day in the Garden, man has tried to find an acceptable way of meeting with God through building altars, high places, shrines, sanctuaries, tabernacles, and temples. Yet there was still one place — the one place — where God really desired to meet men in intimacy, the spirit of man. Here, beside a well in Samaria, Jesus added to the revelation He had given Nicomenus in the previous chapter — that it was now possible for man’s spirit to be reborn — by saying that this reborn spirit can become the secret meeting place for man and God.
In reality, we are as close to God as we choose to be. He always desires to have fellowship with us and is constantly extending an invitation to us to draw close to Him. The choice to accept that invitation is ours. When the Lord appeared on the top of Mount. Sinai, the Israelites approached His presence on the mountain but segregated themselves into different segments. The outer circle approached the mount but not ascend it. (Exodus 19:11-12) The second circle, consisting of Aaron Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel who saw the magnificence of the Lord yet still turned to calf worship. (Exodus 24:9-11) The third circle — Joshua — went at least part way up the mountain. (Exodus 24:13-14) But the Inner circle — the singular worshipper Moses — ascended the mountain, penetrated the glory cloud, and came into the very presence of the Almighty God where he uniquely experienced the glory of God and personally heard His divine directives. (Exodus 24:15-17, 33:11; Numbers 12:8) Jesus also had had circles of nearness — the multitudes (John 6:2); the seventy (Luke 10:1); the twelve (Matthew 10:2-4); His inner circle of Peter, James, and John (Mark 13:3); and His intimate friend, John the Beloved (John 19:26).
Those closest to the Lord had the unique privilege of witnessing and being part of such powerful experiences as being invited into the bedchamber to experience the raising of Jairus’ daughter (Luke 8:51), ascending the Mount of Transfiguration to encounter the visitation of Moses and Elijah and to witness the Lord’s supernatural transformation (Matthew 17:1), and even being drawn close to the Master during those last fateful hours in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:33). John’s intimacy birthed a relationship of ultimate affection and a special visitation form the Lord years after His ascension (Revelation 1:9-18). Others certainly could have been included in Jesus’ inner circle, but they apparently didn’t take advantage of that opportunity, choosing rather to worry about their positions on the corporate ladder of the kingdom rather than their individual relationships with the King. (Mark 9:33-34) Even Jesus’ brothers were not automatically in His inner circle. (Mark 3:35)
Entering into the Secret Place
In the one hundredth Psalm, the inspired hymnist analyzed how the tabernacle construction and ceremony were symbolic of the kind of worship God desires. He began by saying that we could enter His gates with thanksgiving. The gates were the entrance through which anyone could enter to the outer courtyard. The act of thanksgiving is the least personal level of interaction mentioned in this passage. We often say thank you to total strangers who extend some kindness or polite gesture toward us.
The psalmist then took us to the next level of interaction by saying that we enter His courts with praise. The courts were open to only the priests, so we see that we have dramatically narrowed down the ones who are allowed to enter. Those who do enter will do so with praise that is a bit more intimate level of fellowship; unlike thanksgiving, we cannot offer praise to a total stranger. We must know something about the one we praise, even if we do not personally know him. For example, even though I have never met the President of the United States and I do not personally know him, I could praise him if I knew enough about what he has done and what he stands for to feel free in expressing a positive opinion about him.
The ultimate level of interaction mentioned in this section is entering into God’s presence with singing that means worship. The location of the presence of God was between the cherubim that flanked the Mercy Seat atop the Ark of the Covenant inside the Holy of Holies. Here, we see the absolute apex of intimacy in that the Holy of Holies was the most restricted area on Planet Earth — with only one person, the high priest, allowed access, and that was only once a year when he entered reverently under fear of dying in the awesome presence of God. To enter into true worship is to go into the secret place of your spirit man and experience genuine intimacy with God. As Jesus said about the kingdom of God that is entered through the narrow gate at the end of the strait road, few there be who will enter in there. Few — that is until the Passover of AD 33 — because on that day the veil in the temple that barred entrance into the Holy of Holies was ripped in two, granting man full and free access to the presence of God. This is why Jesus could offer the woman at the well — and you and me — the new definition of God’s desire to be worshipped in our reborn spirits rather than in a man-made sanctuary.
This place of fellowship and act of worshipping God must become a literal obsession with us. Psalm 42:1 compares the believer’s craving for fellowship with God to the panting of a deer exhausted from running through the forest looking for a stream of water. Jesus called for us to hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God like a starving man does for food and drink.
Since we have been talking about the secrets in a Christian’s life that will allow him to be someone that no one else can be and to do something that no one else can do, it would be appropriate to note that Ezekiel 7:22 specifically denotes the Holy of Holies as God’s secret place. One of the major keys to success in the Christian life is to have a lifestyle of worship issuing out of the spirit man in the secret place of your heart that will bring you into God’s secret place for intimate fellowship with Him like the relationship that Adam and Eve lost when their spirits died. Anything short of that is not truly knowing God in an intimate relationship and may result in our being barred from the kingdom of God as the prophets and exorcists of Matthew 7:23-23 who were told to depart because Jesus had never known them (in intimate relationship). These prophets and exorcists may have been among the masses whose level of fellowship with God was limited to thanksgiving, or they may have been included with the more restricted group who were able to praise God, but they had fallen short of making it into the select ones who really knew God and were known of Him in worship. Just as we have seen earlier in our study that having our hearts filled with the Word of God is a key to victory, now we see that having our hearts filled with worship is another victory key. This is why Paul admonished us in Ephesians 5:19 to live our lives characterized by speaking to ourselves in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs while singing with melody to the Lord in our hearts.
Guarding the Secret Place
The life that is truly a life in the spirit is the life that is protected from the sin and failure of normal carnal life. In Romans 8:6, Paul encouraged us that we can make a choice between being carnally minded and spiritually minded and that this choice is the determining factor between life and peace or death. To get a full understanding of this passage, we should make another visit with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. We see in the closing verse of the second chapter of Genesis that they were naked but unashamed. It was only after they had tasted of the forbidden fruit and gained the knowledge of good and evil that their nakedness became a problem. As long as they were walking in their spirit man, they were — as Paul points out in the introductory verse of Romans chapter eight — without condemnation. However, at the instant that their spirit man died, they became carnally minded and began to be aware of the nakedness of their bodies. This illustration is not to imply that Christians who live in their spirits are free to go around naked or to live in sin; rather it is to remind us that before God’s x-ray vision, we’re always naked and uncovered (Hebrews 4:13) — but we are peaceful and unashamed if we are truly living in the spirit. In the natural world, we all have our secret places (bathrooms and bedrooms) where we are unashamed to be naked. The Lord even promises that He will ensure that everything works out for the best for those who are willing to come into that intimate place where they allow the Holy Spirit to search their naked secrets and intercede for them with prayers that often come out in languages that are mysteries and secrets to the believer. (Romans 8:26-28) We must protect those places of privacy; otherwise, we can open ourselves to sin as Bathsheba did when she failed to guard her privacy. It is only when we abandon the Spirit-led life that we succumb to the sinful nature of the flesh and begin to produce its works.
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:16-25)
What we do in private will produce results that a visible and openly tangible. (Matthew 6:6) For example, a couple has intimacy in private, but when they give birth it becomes a matter of public record. People know what the couple did in order to produce that baby and can even calculate when they did it, but they were not invited in. If the couple did these private acts publicly, it would be pornography. They have a different way to show love their love for one another in public from what they do in private. The same is true of the Christian, we must have a personal relationship with the Lord that is much more intense than anything that can be publicly demonstrated. As Dr. Yonggi Cho would say, we must go into our prayer closets and get pregnant with the things that will be birthed in our lives through the Spirit.
From these passages, it is easy to realize that the Spirit-led life cannot be considered an option, nor should we ever think of the secret place of God as a stop along life’s journey to visit occasionally. According to the psalmist, who had learned a hard lesson from his illicit experience with Bathsheba and deadly dealings with Uriah, the secret place is to become our dwelling place where we live permanently. (Psalm 91:1) If we determine to stay there perpetually, God determines to keep His shield of protection around us, deflecting all physical and spiritual attacks against us. To paraphrase what we learned in Matthew chapter six: if we protect the secret place of our hearts, God will protect our public lives.
Once when walking the streets of Rome, Italy, my friend and I were barraged by a band of street urchins who plagued the area as pickpockets. When we finally shook loose from them, my companion discovered that he was penniless. I, on the other hand, had lost nothing because I had hidden my wallet in a secret place inside my clothing. We must similarly learn to diligently protect our spiritual treasures just as diligently.
Our Secret Treasures
In our consideration of various concepts concerning the secret place of our hearts, one area that we have looked at several times is the fact that we must diligently guard our secret place because if we protect it God will protect us in His secret place.
For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret place of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me upon a rock. (Psalm 27:5)
At this point, I would like to take a look at the concept of the treasures that we store in our secret place because they are the litmus test as to what is valuable in our lives and how we really regard our secret place. In Isaiah 45:3, we see that even God stores His treasures in secret places. In Luke 12:34, Jesus taught us that our treasures and our hearts always wind up in the same place. In other words, whatever has a real priority in your life will be the thing in which you invest your treasures. Because the two most important commodities in modern society are time and money, it has been said that if we can take a look at a person’s check book and his daily planner we can know exactly what is important to that person. If we see that he has written numerous checks to his church and to ministry organizations, we know that his faith has a high priority in life; however, if country club fees and sporting goods stores dominate his expenditures, we know that something else is at the top of his list. If we see that he has blocked out plenty of time in his schedule for regular church activities and volunteer service, we know where his priorities lie; however, if his tee-off times and his business lunches are the most prominent entries on his calendar, we can rethink his commitments.
The other valuable commodity we store in our secret place is our thoughts. Just as money and time can be employed to help us produce desired results, our thoughts can be inestimable resources of change — sometimes positive and sometimes detrimental. The thoughts that we allow to abide in the secret place of our hearts can be our most valuable assets, or they can become our most formidable foe. Jesus expressed this idea in the Sermon on the Mount when He brought the Ten Commandments to their fullest implications. In what seems to be an extrapolation of the sixth and seventh commandments based on the implications of the eighth and tenth commandments, He showed us that the heart inclination toward a sin is just as serious as the act itself. If coveting (the heart inclination) deserves a commandment on the same level as actually stealing (the physical act), then heart inclinations of lust and hatred must be seen on an equal plane as the physical acts of adultery and murder. Paul, who professed to being blameless in terms of keeping the actions of the law in Philippians 3:6, readily confessed to having a struggle with the heart attitude of covetousness in Romans 7:7 and hinted at the problem in Acts 20:33. David warned us in Psalm 10:8-9 that the enemy waits in the secret place, which verse eleven shows to be the heart, to snare and destroy his prey. It is his desire, as with Ananias and Sapphira, to fill our hearts with vanity, lies, and negative thoughts because he knows the scriptural truth that a man becomes exactly like what he thinks about in his heart. (Proverbs 23:7)
Several years ago, a dear friend of mine was diagnosed as having an advanced case of one of the most aggressive kinds of cancer. In fact, when the doctor gave her the report, he advised her to go straight from his office to the airport and catch a plane to a special cancer clinic in Texas. He insisted that there was no time to delay — even to stop by her house and pack a suitcase for the trip. As believers, my friend and her husband determined that they would first have prayer before going for the specialized treatment. Their pastor called all the elders of the church together for a special prayer meeting and laid hands on my friend; however, she could sense doubt behind their prayer “of faith.” She told her husband that she could hear what they were saying with their lips but could also read what they were thinking by looking at their eyes, faces, and body language — and the two did not agree. She told him, “These people are not going to heal me; they are going to kill me! Please get me to a place where people really believe what they say!” When he promised to take her anywhere an airplane could fly, she asked to go to Indiana to be with my wife and me. I arranged for special prayer by two great apostles — our pastor, Dr. Lester Sumrall, and the pastor the church that was at that time the world’s largest congregation, Dr. Yonggi Cho; then she spent the next three days in our home and received a constant diet of faith-filled words that came with confidence out of our hearts, not just words out of our heads. When she did check in at the cancer clinic, the doctor refused to admit her with the explanation that theirs was a specialized facility and only people with cancer could be treated there! For my friend — and for each of us — the treasure that is stored in the secret place of the heart was the difference between life and death. In Mark 11:23, Jesus emphasized that not doubting in the heart coupled with the positive confession is the key to a successful faith life. Paul also spoke of the power of coupling heart belief and the oral confession in Romans 10:10, while James 1:8 described the futility of having a heart and mouth that were not in agreement and Isaiah 29:13 concluded that such disagreement is abominable to God.
Three Secret Places
There are three powerful secret places in each of our lives: one is the inner secret place of our heart, another is the secret place of God’s intimate presence, and third is the private physical place of separation that draws the first two together. Paul found that secret place in the desert of Arabia where he went for three years to seek the face of God concerning the perplexing situation he found himself in after his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. He had to somehow reconcile himself with this revelation that he had been so certain was contrary to all the Old Testament and Jewish tradition he had always honored. (Galatians 1:18) He returned with an unshakable revelation that propelled him throughout the then-known world and gave birth to the gentile church and a major portion of the New Testament writings. Jesus found His secret place in the desert where He fasted for forty days and then faced Satan head-on in cosmic conflict. (Luke 4:14) He came out of there in the power of the Holy Ghost to minister healing, deliverance, miracles, and salvation. David found it on the hillsides of Bethlehem where he not only wrote psalms of worship to his God but fought lions and bears in preparation for fighting giants. (I Samuel 17:36) He came back from there to become the warrior known for slaying his tens of thousands, the king who unified the twelve loose tribes of Israel into a formidable nation, and a man after God’s own heart. Suzanna Wesley found her secret place every time she pulled her apron over her head to block out the clamber of her house full of children. She came out from there with the inspiration and ability to plant the passion for ministry in the hearts of her sons who would eventually become two of the most important figures in modern church history — Charles and John Wesley. You may find your secret place in your car as you crank up the worship CD while commuting to work, along the jogging trail as you pray in tongues while doing your morning exercise, at a retreat where you have gone to separate yourself in fasting and prayer, beside your bed when you kneel in intercession and worship, at the church altar as you bow before the majesty of the Almighty, in your favorite arm chair as you pore over the pages of God’s precious written Word, or in the sanctuary as you drink in the anointed proclaimed Word of God. Regardless of where it is and how it happens, you must find and sanctify that secret place where you meet and have intimate fellowship with God. It is the key to your success as a Christian. It is the thing that you have that the rest of the world doesn’t have that lets you be someone the rest of the world can’t be and do something that the rest of the world can’t do. It is your secret to victory. It is a matter of spiritual — and sometimes physical — life or death!
Your Secret Victory is Your Victory Secret
I’d like to conclude our thoughts with a play on words: your victory secret is your secret victory. In other words, the key or secret to a victorious life is the secret or private victory we win over our personal and internal struggles. Jesus addressed this issue when He taught us about giving, praying, and fasting in Matthew chapter six:
Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into Thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly…Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
His message was that those who try to wear their religion “on their sleeves” will have no rewards, but those who have their sincere faith and devotion as a private matter inside themselves will be rewarded publicly with God’s approval upon their lives.
In meditating on the areas that we must conquer privately, my attention focused on several topics that I have arranged so as to spell out the words “secret victory.”
Sin: Psalm 66:18 tells us, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” Obviously, secret sins separate us from God’s favor, and they will eventually be exposed and prove to be our undoing.
Emotions: We must take control of our emotions. If we don’t control them, they take control of us. Such unrestrained emotions will cripple our faith and rob us of victory. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (II Timothy 1:7)
Cash: It has been said that it is not what we have but what has us that matters. God wants His children to be blessed with sufficient and abundant finances, but He wants us to be in control of those resources rather than to be controlled by them. It is not how much money we have but our inner attitude toward finances that determines our real wealth. Dr. Lester Sumrall often said that you can sin over a quarter. One of the first men to gain millionaire status in America was once asked how much money was enough; his reply was a sheepish, “Just a little more.” The Bible, on the other hand, teaches us that godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (I Timothy 6:6-10)
Remembering: In Philippians 4:8, Paul tells us, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” We can choose the memories that we allow to dominate our thought life. Good thoughts will lead to good actions and victorious living. Negative thoughts will lead to our eventual destruction. Remember that negatives are developed in dark rooms. There are some things that must be forgotten and some things of which we should constantly remind ourselves.
Earnestness: In Romans 12:11, we are instructed to be “not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.” Our inner attitude toward our work — that it is really God whom we are serving — is the key to the success of our outer performance. Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. (Ephesians 6:6)
Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: And whatsoever ye do, do heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men. (Colossians 3:22-23)
Temptations: It has been said that you can’t keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair. We must drive temptations away before they have a chance to establish a beachhead in our lives. The Apostle James taught us, “Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” (verse 1:14-15) Paul followed up with the practical application, “Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” (II Timothy 2:22)
Vocabulary: When the psalmist prayed in Psalm 19:14, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer,” he must have had an awareness of what Jesus later proclaimed, “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” (Matthew 12:36)
Imagination: Proverbs 23:7 makes it plain and simple, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Then Jesus gave us explicit illustrations and applications, “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart, and whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.” (Matthew 5:28, 22) However, Jeremiah added one more sobering reality to the discussion when he said in verse nine of chapter seventeen in his prophecy, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Only God can reveal the inner thoughts and motivations of our hearts, that is why we must constantly join the psalmist in his prayer, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24)
Carnality: At this point, I am not thinking of carnality in the sense of sinfulness but in the area of just having our focus on the things of this life rather than the things that pertain to godliness. I have already mentioned what the author of Hebrews told us about getting rid of not only sins but also of weights that are not necessarily sinful in themselves but can slow us down in our spiritual endeavors, but it certainly is worth repeating again at this point, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” (Hebrews 12:2)
Time Management: In Mark 1:35, we get a glimpse into the secret life of Jesus, “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” Here we see that He used His private time wisely to renew His inner man through fellowship with the Father. Time is the only commodity that we cannot renew. Once it is gone, it is gone forever. We must learn to use all our time — especially when no one is supervising us — wisely.
Outlook: If we begin to develop an outlook or a worldview that it is what is inside that is important, we will begin to manifest an outward demeanor of success. We need to begin to think as we are taught in Luke 17:21 that the very kingdom of God is inside us. We can see this point illustrated in the story of David’s selection above his brothers; his inner qualities [“I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.” (Acts 13:24)], not his outward shortcomings, was key to success. “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” (I Samuel 16:7) David’s key to having such an acceptable heart attitude came when he made the decision recorded in Psalm 119:11, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Of course, there is always the other side of the coin for those who do regard iniquity in their hearts. Jesus summed up their lives in Matthew 15:19, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.”
Relationships: Relationships and priorities must be established privately so that our strengths can be demonstrated publicly. Paul instructed us to have a different focal point from the rest of the world, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Colossians 3:1-2) That shift in our mental focus makes the difference between life and death.
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. (Romans 8:5-8)
Yieldedness: In Luke 22:41-42, we read the story of Jesus’ private prayer in which He yielded Himself ultimately to the Father’s will, “And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” In that He withdrew Himself from the disciples to pray this deepest of prayers, we learn that true yielding to God is the secret action of the heart, not a public display. First Peter 5:6 promises a public victory after such a private struggle, “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.” We need never fear to humble ourselves under the hand of God because the hand that molds the clay is marked with nail scares. (Isaiah 64:8)
Slaying Giants
In concluding this section, let’s think one last time about David. Did you ever realize that no one was watching when he slew the lion and the bear, but the whole world watched when he killed Goliath? While the rest of the army of Israel trembled for forty days without even trying to fight, David “stepped up to the plate” and did something no one else could do. David was able to slay the giant in public because he had slain the lion and the bear in secret. His secret victory over the wild beasts was the secret to his victory over the giant!
Even though David knew and demonstrated the power of winning battles in the secret place with God so that his victories could be manifest openly before men, he had one secret moment in which he forfeited this intimacy with God for intimacy with Bathsheba when he brought her into the secret place where he lost the personal battle of integrity. The ultimate result was not only public exposure but also a scourge that was never lifted from his family. (II Samuel 12:10) His public giants wouldn’t fall because he had failed to subdue the private lion of greed and the secret bear of lust.
The Ten Commandments fall into two major categories: offences against man, which are public; and sins against God, which are private. These two distinct categories evoke two significantly different responses. Public repentance is usually because we are caught in our exposed actions against men; private repentance may actually be because we are sorry that we have sinned against God in the secret place of our heart. Again, we can turn to the life of David to see implications of these two levels of repentance. David originally tried to avoid public repentance by hiding his wrongdoings against Uriah and Bathsheba. However, when Nathan exposed David’s sin and elaborate cover-up scheme, the king went further than a simple public repentance; he made a private penitence in which he acknowledged that his sin was not simply against the innocent couple but ultimately against God Himself. (Psalm 51:4) Why? Because he knew that he must go back and deal with his private failures against his lions and bears in the secret place (Lamentations 3:10) if he ever hoped to again have public victories against the giants that awaited him.
In Matthew chapter six where Jesus addressed the necessity of developing a strong secret life, He actually showed how the secret place has to do with our total personality. He first spoke of our giving — representing our physical personality (the body). He then spoke of fasting, which although it has to do with our bodies is actually a soulical function in that the Bible speaks of fasting as afflicting the soul. (Isaiah 58:5) Finally, He turned to our spiritual man when He spoke of prayer in that this is our communication with God Himself. In each one of these dimensions, the Lord showed us that there are battles that must be won in private in order for there to be victories manifest in the open. If even non-Christian philosophers can acknowledge that character is who we are behind closed doors, how much more must we as believers realize that our destinies are determined in the secret place. If we want to slay giants in public, we must contend with the lions and bears in our private lives.
The tenth commandment, which spoke to the hidden heart attitude of covetousness, was essentially a sneak preview to the New Testament connection between the secrets of the heart and their public manifestations. (Matthew 5:27-28, II Peter 2:14) Just as lust hidden in the secret place of the heart is as destructive as open physical sin of adultery, so is covert covetousness to the overt sin of stealing. This “stealth attack” of the inner man was apparently the sin that Paul personally struggled with (Acts 20:33, Romans 7:7); yet, he apparently dealt with it and won a victory so that it never hampered his public ministry (Acts 23:1, 24:16; Romans 9:1; I Timothy 1:5, 1:19, 3:9; II Timothy 1:3).
We can also see the power of secret victories when we observe that people with strong private prayer lives get big results with very short prayers. Jesus needed only three words to bring a man back form the dead after four days of interment; yet, He prefaced this short prayer with the acknowledgment that He had laid the foundation in His undisclosed private payer time. (John 11:41-42) Elijah needed only two sentences to call fire down from heaven, but we also know that his personal life was characterized by a lifestyle of intercession. (I Kings 18:36-37, James 5:17)
From these lives, we can learn that our secret victories are indeed our victory secrets.
