secret place

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My Hiding Place

I’ve been listening to and singing a song all day today. The song is You Are My Hiding Place. Fortunately, I have many different versions by several artists to listen to 🙂

I’ve been thinking about two lines from that song, You are my hiding place and I will trust in You. Of course I was thinking about this from the point of view that God is love. You are my hiding place. Love is my hiding place. I’m hidden under Your wings in a place of pure love. When I run to You, to Love I am hidden in a secret place.

Psalms 91 speaks of this hiding place, this secret place.

He Who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty [Whose power no foe can withstand]. (Psalm 91:1, Amplified)

A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. (Psalm 91:7, Amplified)

Only a spectator shall you be [yourself inaccessible in the secret place of the Most High]… (Psalm 91:8, Amplified)

I recommend reading all of Psalm 91. It speaks of His protection, His delivering power, His hiding you. It speaks of being hidden from snares, from deadly pestilence, from terror, from evil plots, slanders, destruction and sudden death.

There shall no evil befall you, nor any plague or calamity come near your tent. (Psalm 91:10, Amplified)

Sounds like it covers all the things that might come against us in this world where bad things happen every day. He, God, Love wants to hide you. How do you find this secret place? How do you live in this hidden place?

I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely, and in Him I [confidently] trust! (Psalm 91:2, Amplified)

Yes, call Him Lord. Yes, call Him your Refuge, your Fortress, your God. Then follow through and trust Him. Trust Him to hide you, to keep you, to protect you. Trust Him to deliver you, save you, and to love you.

Trust His instructions, His Word, His guidance. Follow His Word, His leading. Follow Him and He will lead you out of that valley of the shadow of death.

When I traveled to Israel in November 2001 there was a confession I made in the weeks leading up to that trip. (The woman with the issue of blood made a confession, “For she kept saying to herself, If I only touch His garment I shall be restored to health” Matthew 9:21, Amplified. She said it in faith and it came to pass.)

I set my heart, my trust, my faith on Him and I said, “I am going to be exactly where I’m supposed to be November 3rd through November 12th.” I said it with my heart turned towards my King and I put my trust in Him to bring it to pass. I knew I would be where I needed to be, because I was placing myself in His hands.

During that trip, as we walked through the streets of Jerusalem, the police stopped us and instructed us to leave the area. They had found what they believed to be a bomb. For just a moment I felt a flutter of fear try to enter my heart. Then these words came up in my heart. “I am going to be exactly where I am supposed to be November 3rd through November 12th.” In that moment all fear was gone.

God was watching over me and He would see to it that I would be where I needed to be and that meant if there was a bomb on one street, He would see to it that I wouldn’t be on that street.

I enjoyed my entire trip with no fear. A trip that came just two months after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. Our entire group of 300 Christians went to show our support to the Israeli people. We went in love and we went with no fear. We had put our trust in Him.

Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings. (Psalm 17:8, KJV)

For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock. (Psalm 27:5, KJV)

Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. (Psalm 31:20, KJV)

Deliver me, O LORD, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me. (Psalm 143:9, KJV)

Thou [art] my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah. (Psalm 32:7, KJV)

Thou [art] my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word. (Psalm 119:114, KJV)

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Look to Him

If you watch the news today, there will be all kinds of bad news. It’s sad that I can say that with all certainty not even knowing what’s in the news today. There will be reports of violent crimes. There will be reports of investors who have run off after losing other people’s money or stealing other people’s money. There will be news of financial institutions that are failing, businesses that are failing. There will be news of unemployment, talk of recession. There will be news of spreading plagues and the latest food you should avoid. If you are looking to the news for good news, it really might be awhile before you hear anything good and even then it will be far outweighed by the bad.

I read this scripture yesterday in my daily reading and loved it’s simplicity.

…He is a shield for all who look to him for protection. (Psalm 18:30, NLT)

There are so many things trying to grab our attention these days. “Here is your answer in these troubled times” they say. Or many aren’t even giving you a solution, they’re just shouting from the rooftops, “These are troubled times.” My advice to you, is look away from all that and look to Him.

Looking away [from all that will distract] unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. (Hebrews 12:2, KJV & Amplified)

I will lift up my eyes to the hills- from whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2, NKJV)

God wants to help us. He wants to be our Helper, our Deliverer, our Refuge. He wants to be our Strong Tower in these troubled times. He wants to be our Secret Place, “Whose power no foe can withstand” (Psalm 91, Amplified). He wants to keep you so that even if a thousand fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, it will not come near you (Psalm 91:7, Amplified)

We get to decide who or what we put our trust in. We get to decide what to look unto and focus our attention on. Today He is calling you to look unto Him. He is a shield for all who look to Him for protection.

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The Secret Place

He Who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty [Whose power no foe can withstand]. I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely and in Him I [confidently] trust! (Psalms 91:1-2, Amplified)

…Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. [So I went with him, and when we were climbing the rocky steps up the hillside, my beloved shepherd said to me] O my dove, [while you are here] in the seclusion of the clefts in the solid rock, in the sheltered and secret place of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely. (Song of Solomon 2:13-14, Amplified)

If you keep My commandments [if you continue to obey My instructions] you will abide in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commandments and live on in His love. (John 15:10, Amplified)

His commandments to the church are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength and all your soul and to love your neighbor as do yourself. He has placed His love in our hearts and now we get to choose. Do we let our emotions or our flesh dictate our every move, our every word? Or do we live out of our spirit man that is born-again in the image of God Who is love?

We can love like He loves. He made that possible. And as we live our lives loving God and loving others we abide in His love. We abide in Him and He is that secret place. He is my Refuge and my Fortress. My life is hid in Him (Colossians 3:3).

Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him… With long life will I satisfy him and show him My salvation.  (Psalms 91:14, 16; Amplified)