“…When thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” Matthew 6:6
Dear Ones:
The Psalmist speaks of God being our dwelling place, our habitation, that place where we live. The Lord Jesus makes this ever so clear when He speaks of this “place” being the Father’s presence, but which is truly and surely experienced when the believer is alone with Him. In the words of the Lord Jesus, there is the unveiling of that which is of utmost importance to the Father, in regard to the believer’s relationship with Him. It is the personal, individual, aloneness with His child. It is in the cultivation of that relationship, where the believer is “shut up” to the Father, alone with Him, praying solely to Him, that He shows His approval by rewarding him or her openly, clearly. It is as we learn the ways of God with regard to fellowship, and the value and priority of being alone with the Father, that we begin to discover what He desires to be to us. But, practically speaking, how are we to do this, to not only come aside, but to live in His presence?
First of all, we begin with Christ Himself, not only as the One who has given us an example, but the One who has opened up the indestructible, unchanging way, into the presence of the Father. By His example, we discover that Christ was in communion with His Father at all times, whether in a desert place, or in the crowd. He lived in the very presence of God the Father, finding there in Him His habitation or dwelling place. How could He do this? He did so on the basis of truth, the truth that the Father had established, concerning communion with His Son. Jesus knew that the Father always heard Him, because the eternal laws of communion had been established from eternity, and Jesus abided by them perfectly. Where there was the purity of heart without sin, a perfect faith in the faithfulness of the Father, and the quickening Spirit in His fulness, Jesus was always certain that He not only could enter the Father’s presence, but abide there. Out of that communion, upon which God would put His manifest blessing and power, Jesus would derive all from the Father, receiving all from Him to give to those in need. In that communion also, in particular from the time of his ministry, to the last minutes on the cross, Jesus knew the reality of the Father’s presence, power, and provision. However, there would come a moment when, because of His role as the sacrificial Lamb, Jesus would briefly be deprived of the consciousness of the blessed presence and blessing of the Father. His cry of, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me,” would be the expression of His greatest suffering, as the Father would put upon His Son, “…the iniquity of us all.” (Is.53:6) His Son would be judged in our place, and know the depth of sorrow, suffering, and separation, that no created being would ever know. The Father would not leave the Lord Jesus there. The moment that Christ’s work on Calvary was finished, Jesus’ communion with the Father was again known and experienced in its joyful and loving fulness.
Jesus was not only the perfect example of one who lived by the power of the Father, but one who lived consciously in the secret of His presence. How? Again, the experience had its basis in the fact of the presence of God, and the knowledge of His will. Christ could choose to live in the quiet aloneness with the Father because it was the will of God, the Father having provided the fullness of the Spirit to enable Him to do so. For the believer whose grasps the truth of his union with Christ, and the Father, and who trusts in the power of the Spirit, there are wondrous possibilities of fellowship with the Father.
Dear Father, Teach us Thy ways and will, strengthening us to abide in Thee. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad