He who dwells in the shelter
of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. (Psalms 91:1)
In these tumultuous times
abiding in the shelter or the secret place of the Most High is a key survival
strategy for personal and ministry effectiveness. In the secret place, the hidden place we
learn to abide in His shadow.
If we remember that it was in
Peter’s shadow that miracles occurred.
So that they [even] kept carrying out the sick into the streets and placing
them on couches and sleeping pads, [in
the hope] that as Peter passed by, at least his shadow might fall on
some of them. And the people gathered also from the towns and hamlets around
Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those troubled with foul spirits, and they
were all cured. (Acts 5:15-16)
The shadow is the place of
miracles, the place of protection. The
key is to dwell in the secret place.
What exactly is the secret place?
The key is to look back a few
verses in the book of acts to see what attracted the shadow.
In Acts 4, Peter and John had
been arrested for preaching in Yeshua’s name.
After their release and prayer God’s glory manifested. This is so important t. Let’s read it:
And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered
together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of
God with boldness. And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart
and soul; and not one of
them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things
were common property to them. And with great power the apostles were giving
testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon
them all. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners
of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay
them at the apostles' feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had
need. Now Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by
the apostles (which translated means Son of Encouragement), and who owned a
tract of land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.
(Acts 4:31-37)
Out of
this came the shadow, the secret place.
You might say, I don’t see the connection. Well I think the connection strikes right at
the heart of what this gospel is truly all about, covenant community. You see, we live in a time when Yeshua warned
of anti-messiah, antichrist and that the spirit of the age would be marked by
lawlessness and coldness of love.
"Because lawlessness is
increased, most people's love will grow cold. (Matthew 24:12).
Now,
let’s ask what is lawlessness? It is a
disregard for standards, for God’s ways.
In this age God becomes trivial, passé.
But even more insidious is the result, love growing cold. Now, we say my love isn’t growing cold! Well, let’s look at it a bit and see the
connection to lawlessness and then to the secret place. What is the center point of love?
Love is
sacrifice. God so loved the world that
He sacrificed His son. Love is always
marked by a sacrifice of our will for a greater love. Love has to include Law, Torah. What do I mean by that?? I mean that in order for love to exist, it
has to exist inside order, boundaries.
Love exists inside of covenant.
God gave His Son, sacrificed Him to the brutality of man’s lawlessness,
sin, to honor covenant. It was the
boundary of Law, or Torah, that demanded sacrifice.
We don’t
like that. We don’t want to
sacrifice. We don’t want to commit. We prefer to live in the fringes of all
possibilities; ready to bolt the minute we feel any kind of threat to our ego.
You see
what was released in the book of acts was something I believe that was a
foreshadow. You see the Spirit came in power and what was formed was sacrifice
and covenant community.
Now,
today we have 2 forces in the body that are in opposition, One is the
corporation. This is the business
church model. The second is a reaction
to the first, which is the individualized prayer life, where it is about God
and me. Both of these will keep us out
of the secret place. The corporation is
all about works and productivity. It is about belonging to a large impersonal
thing with its own identity and in that a pride of identity becomes very apparent. I have heard the corporation speak brand
awareness, like Pepsi. Complete with
coffee mugs and t-shirt and cute program names, the corporation keeps believers
in a form of slick godliness with no real power. Why?
No sacrifice except maybe a little money and time.
What is
never a part of the corporation is transparency and risk of being known. In fact the main reason it works so well is
it avoids transparency and being known at all costs. Instead we know each other as good Christian
brothers members of the big company.
The
other ditch is the God and me. This is
the counterfeit secret place of my own solitary relationship with God. Again what is not present is any kind of
transparency and certainly no accountability.
Many tears may be shed but what is missing is God’s power and life.
These
are reserved for the lovers, those who will sacrifice. Sacrifice what?? Everything. All was sacrificed in the book of acts. The result was the shadow.
Why am I
saying all of this? Because we want to
have revival, we want to be known by the Lord.
How will He know us??
By our
love. But it is by sacrificial love,
covenant love.
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For additional study about abiding in His love in the times we live in, obtain and read the book "Love versus Law, or BOTH!" by David Mitts.One New Man ministry is committed to causes of healing the sick, setting the captives free, binding up the broken hearted and bringing the good news of the Kingdom of God. Please partner with us.
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