The Secret Chambers of God

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Psa 91:1-4
"Thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons" (2Ki_4:4)​
The Hiding Place of God

​They were to be alone with God, for they were not dealing with the laws of nature, nor human government, nor the church, nor the priesthood, nor even with the great prophet of God, but they must needs be isolated from all creatures, from all leaning circumstances, from all props of human reason, and swung off, as it were, into the vast blue inter-stellar space, hanging on God alone, in touch with the fountain of miracles.

Here is a part in the program of God’s dealings, a secret chamber of isolation in prayer and faith which every soul must enter that is very fruitful.

There are times and places where God will form a mysterious wall around us, and cut away all props, and all the ordinary ways of doing things, and shut us up to something Divine, which is utterly new and unexpected, something that old circumstances do not fit into, where we do not know just what will happen, where God is cutting the cloth of our lives on a new pattern, where He makes us look to Himself. Our meditation on Him becomes companionship, our hearts, and spirits are His dwelling place.

Most religious people live in a sort of treadmill life, where they can calculate almost everything that will happen, but the souls that God leads out into immediate and special dealings, He shuts in where all they know is that God has hold of them, and is dealing with them, and their expectation is from Him alone.

Like this widow, we must be detached from outward things and attached inwardly to the Lord alone in order to see His wonders. -- Soul Food
​
In the sorest trials God often makes the sweetest discoveries of Himself. -- Gems
(Streams in the Desert)

​"God sometimes shuts the door and shuts us in,
That He may speak, perchance through grief or pain,
And softly, heart to heart, above the din,
May tell some precious thought to us again."
​Anonymous

God’s Secret and Shadow
The place we are to enter and to abide in the secret of God

God’s Word has its secret. There are some who read through these verses, who have a large amount of superficial biblical knowledge, but who know comparatively nothing of its grand, glorious, momentous secrets. There are others who so read them, and their spirits are drawn into the truth of what God holds for them, they grasp the real meaning, the grand spiritual realities that underlie its utterances; they so read it that they catch the very spirit of its Divine Author, so that the views formed and the feelings kindled towards the subject of which it treats, are the same as God’s. Such may be said to enter into the secret of God, or into “the secret place of the Most High.” This form of meditation becomes union, and communion-we are drawn as a magnet, into His Presence.
Communion with God has its secret. There are some who say their prayers very regularly and very devoutly. So far as outward decorum and forms of speech are concerned, they are faultless. But communion with God there is none. There are others whose communion with Heaven is a sublime reality. The very presence of the Heavenly Father is consciously enjoyed. There may be dialogue, there may be a great silence, and an enveloping of the Holy Spirit-where conversation comes by Spirit-to spirit. In this place God many times will reveal secrets regarding things on His Mind, that He doesn't share with everyone, this develops, as our relationship grows, and deepens.
The love of God has its secret. There are some, and we fear professing Christians too, whose feelings towards God are those of polite reserve. They know nothing of living in the love of God. But there are others who get into His very heart. They are children, who cry Abba Father.
The purpose of God has its secret. There are some who feel little or no interest in that which lies close to God’s heart, engages His profoundest sympathies, and employs His untiring energies. They have never entered into that purpose, never felt its vital importance, never conceived its glorious design. Never seriously considered whether by their lives and actions they were co-operating with God, or opposing Him. But there are others who have so closely identified themselves with God’s purpose that it is the great center to which every line of thought, of feeling, of intention, and of sympathy converges. In this realm, we come to find, God is not concerned with the dignities of being perfect in our grammar, or our interactions with Him, He's interested in what's really inside our hearts and souls. He searches us, and reveals ourselves to us-as much as we can take at the moment. In this place, many times, our hearts are pierced with grief, and remorse for a sin we've allowed to go unconfessed, a wrong we've done to someone, that we need to repent of, a change we need to make in our own lives, that has hindered us in ways we could not see. Now, God in His mercy has brought us to the place where we can handle the truth of what He shows, us, so we can be forgiven, cleansed, and transformed more perfectly into His image. This process goes on throughout our lives, if we let Him deal with us in this way. The more we allow Him to reveal our hidden sins to ourselves, the closer we get to Him, and the greater He can use us, in the capacity He's called us to.
The attitude. “He that dwelleth.” To dwell means a fixed, settled, habitual mode of life. It must be so with our conduct in reference to God’s Word, God’s friendship, God’s love, and God’s purpose. We must dwell in them, live in them. We must ask for no holiday, no leave of absence, there must be no departure. When we set out minds on this path, expect attacks from every quarter. Satan hates those who will not compromise, and will target you, it will be a continuous ongoing spiritual battle. But, in those who remain in the secret place of the Most High, as God promises-will keep us save, under His wings.
How attained. How can we reach and take up our abode in this the very heart of God? Christ supplies the answer, “I am the way,”.
II. The blessing enjoyed.
1. We have indicated what it is to dwell in the secret place of God’s Word. With minds thus furnished and filled we are under their protection. The world’s thoughts, and ideas, and principles of things may assail us, but they cannot do much with us; we know better; we have received a higher education, our minds are fortified with God’s thoughts, guarded with God’s ideas, protected with God’s principles.
2. We have indicated what it is to dwell in the secret place of God’s communion. In that position we get our whole nature animated with holy impulses, sympathies, tastes, and dispositions. We get our whole nature magnetized with the nature of God. With our whole nature thus infused, fired, animated, and magnetized with the very impulses and inspirations of God’s nature, we are under their protection. We are lifted into a higher sphere of life.
3. We have indicated what it is to dwell in the secret place of God’s love. In that position we get our best, strongest, and supreme affections formed with the love of God. We live under its shadow and protection. By its high and holy and potent influence we are preserved from the love of low, base, temporal, inferior things.
4. We have indicated what it is to dwell in the secret place of God’s purpose. In that position our energies, our sympathies, our interests, our intentions, and our pursuits are all enlisted and engaged in co-operating with God in bringing about the desire of His heart and the great pleasure of His will. In our labors and toils, our efforts and struggles to put away sin and to establish holiness, whether it be in our own hearts, in the lives and conduct of our children, or in the spirit and practice of the world, we are under the protection and shadow of the Most High, because we are identified with God’s purpose.
(B. Pierce.)

Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Treasury of David

“He that dwelleth, in the secret place of the most High.” The blessings here promised are not for all believers, but for those who live in close fellowship with God. Every child of God looks towards the inner sanctuary and the mercy-seat, yet all do not dwell in the most holy place; they run to it at times, and enjoy occasional approaches, but they do not habitually reside in the mysterious presence. Those who through rich grace obtain unusual and continuous communion with God, so as to abide in Christ and Christ in them, become possessors of rare and special benefits, which are missed by those who follow afar off, and grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Into the secret place those only come who know the love of God in Christ Jesus, and those only dwell there to whom to live is Christ. To them the veil is rent, the mercy-seat is revealed, the covering cherubs are manifest, and the awful glory of the Most High is apparent: these, like Simeon, have the Holy Ghost upon them, and like Anna they depart not from the temple; they are the courtiers of the Great King, the valiant men who keep watch around the bed of Solomon, the virgin souls who follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. Elect out of the elect, they have “attained unto the first three,” and shall walk with their Lord in white, for they are worthy. Sitting down in the august presence-chamber where shines the mystic light of the Sheckinah, they know what it is to be raised up together, and to be made to sit together with Christ in the heavenlies, and of them it is truly said that their conversation is in heaven. Special grace like theirs brings with it special immunity. Outer court worshippers little know what belongs to the inner sanctuary, or surely they would press on until the place of nearness and divine familiarity became theirs. Those who are the Lord's constant guests shall find that he will never suffer any to be injured within his gates; he has eaten the covenant salt with them, and is pledged for their protection.
“Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” The Omnipotent Lord will shield all those who dwell with him, they shall remain under his care as guests under the protection of their host. In the most holy place the wings of the cherubim were the most conspicuous objects, and they probably suggested to the Psalmist the expression here employed. Those who commune with God are safe with him, no evil can reach them, for the outstretched wings of his power and love cover them from all harm. This protection is constant - they abide under it, and it is all-sufficient, for it is the shadow of the Almighty, whose omnipotence will surely screen them from all attack. No shelter can be imagined at all comparable to the protection of Jehovah's own shadow. The Almighty himself is where his shadow is, and hence those who dwell in his secret place are shielded by himself. What a shade in the day of noxious heat! What a refuge in the hour of deadly storm! Communion with God is safety. The more closely we cling to our Almighty Father the more confident may we be.

“I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress.” To take up a general truth and make it our own by personal faith is the highest wisdom. It is but poor comfort to say 'the Lord is a refuge,' but to say he is my refuge, is the essence of consolation. Those who believe should also speak - “I will say,” for such bold avowals honour God and lead others to seek the same confidence. Men are apt enough to proclaim their doubts, and even to boast of them, indeed there is a party nowadays of the most audacious pretenders to culture and thought, who glory in casting suspicion upon everything; hence it becomes the duty of all true believers to speak out and testify with calm courage to their own well-grounded reliance upon their God. Let others say what they will, be it ours to say of the Lord, “he is our refuge.” But what we say we must prove by our actions, we must fly to the Lord for shelter, and not to an arm of flesh. The bird flies away to the thicket, and the fox hastens to its hole, every creature uses its refuge in the hour of danger, and even so in all peril or fear of peril let us flee unto Jehovah, the Eternal Protector of his own. Let us, when we are secure in the Lord, rejoice that our position is unassailable, for he is our fortress as well as our refuge. No moat, portcullis, drawbridge, wall, battlement and donjon, could make us so secure as we are when the attributes of the Lord of Hosts environ us around. Behold this day the Lord is to us instead of walls and bulwarks! Our ramparts defy the leaguered hosts of hell. Foes in flesh, and foes in ghostly guise are alike baulked of their prey when the Lord of Hosts stands between us and their fury, and all other evil forces are turned aside. Walls cannot keep out the pestilence, but the Lord can.
As if it were not enough to call the Lord his refuge and fortress, he adds, “My God I in him will I trust.” Now he can say no more; “my God” means all, and more than all, that heart can conceive by way of security. It was most meet that he should say “in him will I trust,” since to deny faith to such a one were willful wickedness and wanton insult. He who dwells in an impenetrable fortress, naturally trusts in it; and shall not he who dwells in God feel himself well at ease, and repose his soul in safety? O that we more fully carried out the Psalmist's resolve! We have trusted in God let us trust him still. He has never failed us, why then should we suspect him? To trust in man is natural to fallen nature, to trust in God should be as natural to regenerated nature. Where there is every reason and warrant for faith, we ought to place our confidence without hesitancy or wavering.
​Dear reader, pray for grace to say, “In him will I trust.”