Friday 10 March 2017

Begin your day a better you. Here is *_The Secret Place – The place of Training and of Pruning and of Discipline._*

This is a great day for you.

I begin this week’s post by saying without any reservation that the man that will be used by God in His service and the advancement of His counsel and kingdom on the earth must learn how to be alone with God in walk and master all the lessons taught in the secret place. It is important to establish that before God uses anyone as a vessel, the vessel must first be prepared fit for the Master’s use. _In the secret place is the place where kingdom generals are made, where God’s weapon of war are forged._

“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty”. – Psalms 91:1 [KJV]

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:1-5 [ESV]

God schools His vessels by passing them through deep waters, river, wilderness, patched lands, etc. In all these places, God promised to be by our side. He said “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee” – Isaiah 43:2

Below are a few examples of scriptural training processes employed to develop vessels used mightily by God.

*Moses – the hot tempered emancipator.*

We all know how Moses in his zeal to deliver an Israeli who was being oppressed by his Egyptian task-master intervened and killed the Egyptian see Exodus 2:12. To put his crime out of sight, he buried his victim in the sand. This same Moses after his crime were uncovered fled to Midian and immediately fought with shepherds who were bullying helpless damsels. The circumstances surrounding Moses’ life were pointing him in the direction of a deliverer.

Before Moses could be used as a deliverer, God had to work on him and in him in order to make him usable. The first 40 years of Moses’ life in Pharaoh’s house prepared him for leadership, and the second 40 years exposed him to the knowledge of the desert through which he and the Israelites would travel and also to install in him patience.

Irrespective of the nature of assignment, learning to walk intimately with God is an inexcusable requirement. The rash, hot-tempered Moses became ‘a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth” see Numbers 12:3. Moses had his training in the secret place, before the Lord. The details about his assignment were received in the secret place where all his attention has been captured by God. _It is in the separateness, stillness, quietness and calmness of the secret place that we hear and see His call for our life._

*Joshua – The faithful servant of the man of God Moses.*

In Exodus 24:12-18, God called Moses up the mount to receive the tablets of stone on which the commandments were inscribed; when Moses was going up the mountain, he went with Joshua and instructed the ELDERS to wait where they took off from.

The glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it. Moses went into this majestic presence of God, Joshua with him unharmed by the consuming presence of God. Joshua learnt intimacy from his boss Moses, he did not only learn the theories but learnt by practice, he learnt the discerning the voice of God.

No wonder, when there was a vacancy for the leading of the Abraham’s seed into the Promised Land, God chose the man He had worked on in the secret place. The more time Joshua spent in the presence of God hearing and beholding God’s glory, the more qualified to be used of God he became. Hear this: _The silence and perils of learning in the secret place always go before valuable public labours for God._ _Before God can entrust assignment into your hand, you must be trusted by Him from the secret place, you must be armed with knowledge of the price that must be paid in the secret._

*Paul – The man with a wrongly channeled passion and zeal.*

“Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.

Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days” – Gal. 1:17-18

Brother Paul had passion and zeal to carry out religious assignments that he was contravening God’s plan for his life. In order to realign to God’s order for his life, Paul retired away from public’s eye after his encounter with the Lord Jesus on his way to one of his misdirected passionate religious observance. God does not desire us to be people of religion but people of intimate relationship.

Paul’s encounter pushed him into the secret place to learn at the feet of the Jesus he had encountered. Three years he spent in the secret place – God refining his zeal and passions, he left the secret place and was joined to Peter on whom the church would be built.

After spending this time alone with God, his zeal and passion had no option than to be corrected. If you ever desire to be used by God, you must be willing to escape public’s eyes and be alone with God. Man was created from the beginning to work, in order to do the right work, you must have a relationship with the One who created you for work so you can get your correct job description.

*David – the man after God’s heart.*

_Anyone who desire to find his way into God’s heart must ensure he is in an intimate relationship with the Lord._ David enjoy quality alone times with God, he grew into the man after God’s heart. The story of the life of David in the scriptures began with David alone in the wilderness tending sheep and communing with God.

In the secret place with God he learnt leadership, he learnt ways of keeping God smiling through heartfelt praise and worship, he learnt the art of war and the crafting musical instruments, he learnt character and integrity. In the secret place of the cave of Adullam, David while running from king Saul continued his alone time with God, And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him and he became a master over them. Hear this: _your greatest announcement and publicity is spending time with God in the secret place of training._  The secret place is empowered to grow champions out of nobodies, entities out nonentities, significance out of insignificants. _We must come to our own cave of Adullam to be changed from distressed, discontented and discouraged men into God’s mighty men._

Time will fail me to write about Abraham – the man who because of his unflinching confidence and faith and love for God had righteousness accounted unto him, of Daniel – the man whose devotion to the secret place of prayers made him a trans-generational godfather in politics and leadership of Babylon, of Enoch – the man who got translated into the heavenlies by virtue of his intimacy with God, of men and women who wrought great things for the kingdom in our times, of Peter – the man who is conventionally unlearned, but gave a speech that held men convicted, of Hannah – whose private supplicatory prayer life gave birth one of the greatest priest/prophet in Israel; the list goes on, of Jephthah –the man rejected by his family, he lived as an outlaw with his companions who were termed as vain men, of the disciples of Jesus – men whose history is warped, men who had character and moral deficiencies.

You and I are in the state we are today, the church is in the state it is today, because there is no knowledge of a life lived alone with God. We must come to the knowledge that much is hanging on our private, personal alone walk with God. Our intimacy with the Spirit of God is the center of all our service to God. Fulfilling your God given mandate is
rested on your walk with God.

If you’d desire just one thing, it should be that you desire intercourse with the presence of God every day of your life. We must come under the influence of God’s Word, we must submit to His furnace that would forge us into weapons that would not break under pressure, we must yield our members to Him and Him alone to be taught and trained by Him, only then can we be used mightily by Him.

Love.
Abalaka Paul E.

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