The secret place is the time and place you have set aside to be with the Lord. In the sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter 6 Jesus teaches us how to pray. He says…

“Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace’. Matthew 6:6 (The Message Translation)

This is the essence of the secret place.  It is a quiet, secluded place where you will not be distracted but where you just simply come before the Lord and you give Him your full attention. The Lord longs to spend quiet time alone with each of us where He can build a relationship with us. He is our loving Father and He wants to be connected with us in a father-son or father-daughter type relationship.

We begin to build an intimate relationship with the Lord. Where we are so close to the Lord that we know the sound of His voice and we know what His heart beats for. Our prayer life flows out from that intimate place in God.

In the secret place you will receive a greater revelation of God and His love. You begin to understand His true nature, which is that He is loving, kind, merciful, compassionate, powerful and the list goes on. Not only do you receive a greater revelation of who God is but you also get a greater revelation of who you are in Him. We discover that we are, loved, redeemed, set free and called a child of God.

When I withdraw to be with the Lord I shut myself away in my lounge room. I close the door, lower the lights and put on some worship music. I begin to shift my focus onto God. I enter into His presence with thanksgiving and worship. Here is where my cares, frustrations and disappointments begin to melt away and I just focus on His nature – His unending love, His goodness, His faithfulness.

After I have had a time of worshipping the Lord then I just be still, I put all other thoughts aside and just focus on hearing the voice of the Lord. I bring the thing that is on my heart before God, or the thing that I am struggling with and I ask Him questions, I don’t tell Him what I want Him to do but I listen for what He wants. I ask Him what is happening here, what is it you want to do, what does your plan look like and what do you want me to do?

I listen for the voice of the Lord speaking. He will begin to minister to me and I begin to write out what He is saying to me. He always comes with exactly what I need to hear and with exactly what I need to do. He comes with such mercy and compassion; His words bring healing to my heart and soul.

And then I need to respond to what the Lord is saying to me.

 “In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part. Matthew 6: 14-15 (MSG)

If He has brought conviction then I seek His forgiveness, if He gives me a prophetic word then I deliver them, if He gives me words to pray then I begin to intercede. I carry out the plan He has given me. His thoughts and His ways are higher than mine.

The more time you spend in the secret place the more clearly you hear the voice of the Lord. You will know His voice and then you can carry that into every aspect of your day. I am very busy and do not have time every day to steal away time in the secret place but the Lord is always speaking and He even meets me between the washer and the dryer. I know the sound of His voice so it does not matter what I am doing I can hear Him calling to me.

It has not always been this way for me; it has come from a deep desire to intimately know my Father God and a deep desire to be connected with Him always. There is more to this life of being a Christian and the more comes from that intimate connection with God. The more time I spend in the secret place with the Lord the more our relationship deepens, the more clearly I hear Him and the more I am entrusted with His presence.

So I encourage you to spend time in the secret place, set aside time and space to be with the Lord building an intimation connection with Him. Don’t come with an agenda but rest in His presence and listen for His voice.