The Secret Place of Underground Power
You could go to a new church-growth seminar every week for the rest of your life and learn how to build “your church”. However, you cannot escape the fact that biblical principles (which many of these seminars are virtually void of) not only work, but they glorify God rather than man. It is very clear who God wants in the limelight and, sorry to all the famous preachers and “worship leaders”, it’s not you. We all know the victorious place that Psalm 91 has available to the saints, but have we missed the key that unlocks that victory? It lies in the first verse:
He that dwells in the secret [cether - a cover, hiding place] place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. (Ps 91:1)
As we can see by the Hebrew word cether, this secret place signifies going underground to a state of hidden-ness. This biblical concept goes against most of what is taught throughout Christendom these days, as many organisations and people have chosen to adopt worldly success principles. Jesus shows in the next passage from Matthew’s gospel, that performance spirituality in synagogues (“churches”) and other limelight venues bears very little significant fruit. He commands rather to take on the secret (kruptos- concealed, i.e. private:–hidden) principle from the word so that He can reward openly; or in other words, provide “fruit that remains”:
And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say to you, They have their reward. But you, when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father which is in secret [kruptos]; and your Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly. (Matt 6:5-6)
The picture we are given when we first come to God is one of being “baptised into Christ”. This, according to the Greek word baptizo, has us being submersed in, and swallowed up by, His life. If our life is submersed into His, the emphasis is not on us but is on the one who we should be hidden in and enveloped by. This principle is for the ensuring of God’s pre-eminence and man’s continued obscurity.
“The fact is when a man gets to the place where he really loves obscurity, where he does not care to preach, and where he would rather sit in the backseat than on the platform, then God can lift him up and use him, and not very much before.”
Frank Bartleman (1)
The waiting warriors
While Jerusalem was buzzing with people preparing for the feast of Pentecost, there were two major contrasting church groups. One was the large impressive convergence of Jews and Proselytes at the temple. The other group was the one hundred and twenty called and chosen nobodies assembled in an upper room, waiting for the Lord to move.
It had been hundreds of years since the presence of God and His prophetic voice had been felt and heard at the temple with any significance. Despite this, it had a large following of not only Jews but also God-fearers from other nations. The many temple attendees were enthusiastically going through the motions of religion. Some of these were sincerely searching, whilst others were happy to shirk the responsibility of a real relationship with God. There were also the “whited sepulchres”.
On the other side of town there were the disciples of Jesus. These were an unimpressive lot, who were remaining obedient to the last word of the Lord, or rather “forty days” worth. They were waiting enduringly in “one accord” in “prayer and supplication”. The main stream of church was enjoying great statistical success in attendance and probably finances, yet they lacked God’s presence. God however, was working overtime with the unimposing underground community. They were being prepared in secret to be used in public; a principle all but forgotten in modern Christianity.
We are all too familiar with the fruit of the underground community in Acts chapter two but we seem to think that God has changed His methods and that He opts to run with the popular successful models nowadays:
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:1-4)
Let us not forget that when God moves suddenly it is due to long seasons of waiting in one accord and prayer. This group of hidden nobodies were now thrust into the public eye with no lack of power and presence. Notice that this encounter was for “each of them” as “they were all filled”. Remember that the fullness of Christ is not one person’s power or victory, but rather a collective body being moved by Him, by His power.
As we read on through Acts chapter two it appears that there were many in the dead, yet successful, “church” who were hungry for God’s truth and presence. Many heard the heavenly tempest and were drawn towards the flaming community only to be “pricked in their heart” at the realisation of their current spiritual situation:
And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, (Acts 2:5-6)
Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, (37)
Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added to them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. (41-42)
Of course we never think that it could be us in the dead, yet possibly successful church. The truth is that most of us are there or have been there. The prophetic picture painted here gives only two options for us to be identified with. One is an underground community of people hidden away from the limelight and focusing on God and their love for one another. The other is a temple-centered, successful organization that is happy with results at the expense of true blessing from God.
At this point I must indicate that this Acts chapters 1-2 example of the true church is only the beginning of their journey. The new wineskin (the structure that carries His presence) had not yet taken on its fuller form; however, the heart of the New Testament church was displayed in its hidden state. Surely, as well as prayer and oneness, there is a key principle to seeing God move suddenly and powerfully: it is enduring in the underground secret place of the most high.
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