It's Time to Rest in the Secret Place by Mark Stibbe

Now more than ever, as the world enters uncharted waters and extreme turbulence, we need to find rest in the Father’s love, enjoying his deep serenity in the secret place of prayer.

I wrote Drawing Near to God many years ago to offer all believers, whatever their spiritual or denominational background, a way of praying that was accessible, intimate and memorable.

Taking the structure of the Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of Solomon as our guide, I used the journey and ministries of the Levitical priests as a model of daily prayer involving the following stages:

1)    Preparing for the Journey

One person’s structure is, I appreciate, another person’s straight jacket. The important thing with this model of prayer is to welcome the Holy Spirit, otherwise it is simply a hearth without a fire.

2)    The Gates of Thanksgiving

This stage involves thanking our loving heavenly Abba for all that he’s done in our lives, counting our blessings at every level of existence, from the small to the great, the tangible to the invisible.

As the Jewish people say at Passover:

‘Even if our mouths were filled with songs like the sea, our tongues with joy like its mighty waves, our lips with praise like the breadth of the sky, if our eyes shone like the sun and the moon, and our hands were spread out like the eagles of heaven, if our feet were as swift as the hind, we should still be incapable of thanking you adequately for one thousandth part of all the love You have shown us.’

Amen to that!

3)    The Court of Praise

C. S. Lewis once said that ‘praise is inner health made audible’. There is nothing healthier for our souls than setting our affections on the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit.

There is a sacrifice to this, of course, which is why there is a bronze altar of sacrifice in the Court of Praise to remind us. Worship is love on its knees. If it doesn’t cost us something, it’s not true love.

Let’s bring a sacrifice of praise into the Father’s house.

4)    The Altar of Sacrifice

This same brazen altar reminds us of the importance of daily confession. We must put our sins to death as we enter God’s presence. He is not just an affectionate Papa. He is a holy King.

True confession is about finality not frivolity. It is about turning from everything that grieves the Holy Spirit, putting it to death on the altar. The fear of the Lord is truly the beginning of wisdom.

The good news is that authentic repentance (i.e. confession with change) is met by the promise of God’s forgiveness and cleansing, and the bronze urn of cleansing water is a reminder of this amazing grace.

5)    The Holy Place

As we enter the sanctuary, we are met by the golden Table of Shewbread, which reminds us of the need to petition the Father to intervene in our own lives. ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’

Then, after that, there is the golden Menorah, which reminds us of our utter dependence on the oil of the Holy Spirit and what Richard Rolle called the fire of God’s love.

Finally, before the great and ornate veil, there is the golden altar of incense which calls us to intercession. Led by the Holy Spirit, we join the intercession of the Son before the Father in heaven.

6)    The Most Holy Place

We end our journey in the innermost sanctuary of the Father’s presence, the place of the cherub throne, where we engage in the highest form of adoration, beholding the Lord, enthroned in glory.

Nothing could be more important than this right now, with the world going through such fear and shaking. Here we remind ourselves that even though the globe may be in pain, Jesus reigns.

7)    Practising the Presence

Then comes our re-entry into the world as ambassadors of the Father’s love and carriers of his presence. This means that we not only engage in a structured time of prayer, but in continual communion with God.

In marriage, we not only have set times when we seek to grow deeper in love for one another (‘date nights’). We find room for spontaneity as well as structure, for saying ‘I love you’ on a whim.

The overriding tone of the whole of this journey is accordingly intimacy. Intimate communion with Abba, Father, is achieved through Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

When God said to Moses that he wanted his people to be a kingdom of priests, the word priest is cohan, which means literally ‘one who draws near’. A priest of the Kingdom of God draws near to the Father.

Then, as that person exercises their priesthood in the world, they draw others closer to the Father’s love through the radiance that still lingers from their face-to-face intimacy with him in the secret place.

This mystical, but also deeply biblical, model of prayer offers each one of us an opportunity to go ‘further up and further in’ as C. S. Lewis once put it – further up and into the glorious presence of God.

If you’re looking for a sustainable and Sprit-filled model of daily prayer, then this journey – drawing as it does on the Jewish roots of our faith – will enliven and enrich you in equal measure.

It will offer you a secret place of rest in a stormy world.

Give it a try.

Approach the gates.

They’re open wide for you, just like the Father’s arms.

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This is the latest Lockdown Blog article by one of Darton, Longman and Todd’s amazing authors, offering a personal reflection on our current situation in life. These blogs post are written sometimes in reference to one of the writer’s books, and sometimes about how they are living in response to the coronavirus and our current world situation. We hope it will give you a taste of the depth and diversity of DLT’s list – books for heart, mind and soul that aim to meet the needs and interests of all.

Today’s post is by Mark Stibbe, author of Drawing Near to God, which you can buy here.