Today we're going to take a posture of peace by dwelling in the secret place.
Posture is a short audible fist bump to remind you God is with you in everything.
Together we're going to be emboldened to take a daily posture of perfect peace.
It's no secret that you and I have been invited into the same relationship that the Father and
Jesus share, empowered by the Holy Spirit. It's Jesus' prayer for all believers in John 17,
starting in verse 20. Listen to what Jesus prayed for us. He said,
I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be one
in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And listen to this. And the glory which you
gave me, I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one. I in them and you in me,
that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved
them as you have loved me. Did you know that the Father loves you like he loves Jesus? Did you know
that you are not the initiator of being with God? He initiated our relationship with him from the
very beginning, just like we talked about in yesterday's episode. So there's no place we
have to try to get to in him. That's actually an old mindset that robs us of the relationship with
God that Jesus prayed for and died for. It's an old covenant way of viewing how God is with us,
that he will visit us in a temple or in a particular moment of time when we finally
have proven ourselves worthy. Look, if we could have done it, if we could have pulled it off,
Jesus wouldn't have had to come. We needed Jesus. And in Christ, everything becomes new.
He is the one who makes us worthy. He is the one who opened the door over 2,000 years ago
to the same relationship that he and the Father shared. It was done by his finished work,
his perfect performance, not yours. Because of Jesus, the secret place is now within you.
It's where the Spirit of Christ lives in you, where the oneness and unity of the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit engage you in the victorious life of fullness. So maybe you're wondering,
okay, Psalm 91, how do we dwell? How do we remain in the secret place? First,
we must recognize that in Christ, the who always precedes the how. We talked a little bit about
this in episode 76. Because Christ is in us, we are being empowered to see through the lens of
who he is in us. In every situation, we must make being aware of the who our priority.
So here's a beautiful question to ask God today. God, who are you in me in this situation?
Here's how I used to handle situations. I would be fully focused on the situation,
sometimes obsessed over every detail and how it affected me. And I would take all of that
to the Lord in prayer, totally consumed by the situation and myself. And I'd want God to just
bless it and fix it somehow. So my level of engagement with his presence was always
desperation or exasperation because I was overwhelmed by the current need and not
overwhelmed by who he is. But now here's what I'm practicing, abiding, remaining in the who
of his presence so that I am fully engaged with how his revealed presence is transforming me
and my world. Here's an example. Jesus is my Prince of Peace. That is who he is. I am in a
relationship with the Prince of Peace. I live in peace and peace lives in me. So even in a worrying,
stressful situation, I am engaging with who Jesus is, my Prince of Peace. And that gives me eyes to
see how peace himself is growing me and leading me through the situation. And as I engage with
who he is, I become a display of his peace to the world around me. That the world may believe,
that the world...
may know. I'm responding to him and he's giving me the right response to the
situation as I relate to people, you know, take the necessary steps needed for
resolve or fixing or whatever the situation may be. It's not magic. It's not
some complicated law or formula. It's not a mystery. I used to think it was all of
those things. It's relationship. The secret place is not a secret to you. It's
a secret to your enemy. Satan can't access this place. He remains unaware
while we remain in the secret place by becoming fully aware. Think about Romans
12 to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. When the spirit of truth who
is living in you rises up into your conscious mind, you become fully aware of
his presence. It's not that he's now showing up. It's not that he's finally
arriving from some distant place because he never leaves. It's that we are
finally becoming aware of his presence that is always with us and we are
responding to his presence, not the problem. By living this way, we always
give God preeminence. And by the way, you're not alone in this practice of
becoming aware and staying aware. The Holy Spirit is our helper and he's a
genius. So today, ask for his help. You're never stuck. You're never alone. You're
never powerless. You are in a relationship with God, not a religion. A
relationship that he initiated, not us. It's not our perfect performance God
wants. It's our response to his nature and the relationship that he initiated.
The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26 3. In Hebrew, it is shalom
shalom, meaning complete wholeness, nothing missing, nothing broken. This is
who you are in Jesus because of Jesus. You are a living testimony of Jesus's
ultimate win. With every step you take today, you're putting Jesus's victory on
display and Satan's defeat on replay.