Seeking Jesus First Oct.30, 2024
The prayer of agreement which The LORD Jesus mentions in Matthew 18:19 is very powerful. However, your faith-full prayers in the secret place are also very powerful.
“And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” (Matthew 6:5–6, NKJV)
Our Lord Jesus speaks of “the secret place” as one who is familiar with it. I think of Psalm 91 when I think of the secret place. I think of a place of rest - a place of refuge - a place prepared by me for the purpose of connecting with Our Father in Heaven. It may be prepared by me, but it is only accessible through the shed blood of Christ Jesus on calvary. The truth is, even if we have a physical secret place, it is only sacred if it merges with the spiritual secret place. AND, THANK GOD, that place is inside of us because of “Christ in us, the hope of glory.”
That secret place in us needs to be prepared by us too. We do our part to “humble ourselves” and to “submit to God.” Holy Spirit prepares that secret place as well by flooding our hearts with the love of The Father. From this place in our hearts, we pray with the spirit and with the understanding and we sing with the spirit and sing with the understanding. Our hearts - spirit and soul - commune with The Father and His Son Jesus. Our spirit does not need to use intelligible words to commune with God because of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, but our soul does use our own language to communicate with God. That is why we pray with the spirit and with the understanding. And, that is why we pray that we may interpret the prayers of the spirit - so that our understanding will be fruitful as we pray.
Corporate prayer is important. However, how powerful can it be if we never spend time praying in the secret place?