How many of us struggle in life trying to walk out the call and make God’s promise happen? How many of us spend years frustrated and discouraged because we always seem to fall short and never truly enjoy all the Lord has for us? It seems we spend much of our time trying to be the perfect Christian and live a life of victory and joy, and we always fall short. What are we missing?
What made Abraham abandon everything, live with his family and friends, and, in simple obedience, move towards a land the Lord would show him? If we read carefully, we see that the Lord promised to bless him.
Esau sold his birthright to Jacob, and then we are told he despised it. But this was not the case with the blessing. Most of us would focus on the birthright because it has tangible things tied to it but they understood the blessing was greater and more powerful. Jacob would steal the blessing that his father could not take back, but he still struggled. Jacob had the earthly blessing, which is powerful but not the Heavenly one. Finally, as he is told to return to Canaan, he finds for the first time in his life he can’t face tomorrow or his brother. Jacob ends up alone wrestling with the Lord until daybreak when the Lord knocks out his hip, and suddenly, Jacob can go on no more. But in this place of weakness, Jacob continues to cling, refusing to let the Lord go until He blesses him.
“And He said, ‘Let me go, for the day breaks.’ But he said, ‘I will not let You go unless You bless me.”
Genesis 33: 26
Finally, Jacob understood. It all starts when we get a revelation of the greatness of our God and what He can do. Smith Wigglesworth said:
“God has drawn us together and He has something to give us. He is not ordinary, but extraordinary, not measured, but immeasurable, abounding in everything. There is nothing small about our God, and when we understand God we will find out that there ought not be anything small about us.”
But this is not by our doing! As we abide in the Secret Place, we learn to hear His voice, and His voice has life and power in it. When he speaks and we receive it, His words penetrate our heart and begin to lift and transform us.
“Now it shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God: Blessed shall you be…”
Deuteronomy 28: 1,2 a
We must learn to hear by hearing His voice. If you think about a couple, the moments where they really communicate and hear each other are critical to their relationship. It is not the number of words spoken. It is how deep they penetrate and impact our hearts. These words mark our hearts, and we never forget them. These words are precious and carry great weight and meaning to us.
Smith explained:
We must have an enlargement of our conception of God, then we will know that we have come to a place where all things are possible, for our God is an omnipotent God for impossible positions.”
Smith added:
“But there must be a revolution if we would have almighty God living and controlling our mortal flesh. We must conclude that there is no good thing in the flesh, and then we must know that God can come in the flesh and subject it till every mighty thing can be manifested through the human order.”
Listen carefully to this verse:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the HEAVENLY PLACES in Christ, just as He chose us in Him…”
Ephesians 1: 3, 4a
The Lord wants us to step out of the natural realm and to press into the Heavenly realm in Him. This is all about abiding in the Secret Place. Smith explained:
Oh, to dwell in the secret place, His PRESENCE! What will this PRESENCE do? It will dare us to believe all God says; assisting us to lay hold of the promises. We will have God so indwelling us that we will become a force, a power of God’s abiding until the time death is swallowed up in victory!
Here in the Secret Place, we walk with a holy desperation to know Him. A critical part of a successful relationship is times of real fellowship and talking. There must be real communication and a heart-to-heart connection. There is so much on the line; we know we must hear and say words that let our Beloved know we love and need them. It is a holy moment. It is a historical moment in which the words spoken are life. It is here, as we come into His Presence, because we must have His Presence and must hear His words. Smith said:
The secret place of the Lord is with those who fear Him in a second way: with respect and honor. Moses knew something about it. He feared God and said to Him, “If thy PRESENCE goes not with me, carry us not up hence” – Exodus 33:15.
It is here where He speaks the blessing over our lives, and we are lifted out of the natural and our natural abilities into His supernatural abilities. It is no longer us, but Him and His might. Here in His Presence, as we receive His Word, we receive the blessing, the gift of His grace, and the release of His favor into and upon our lives.
Jacob had struggled to make himself successful, but after the blessing, God’s favor caused things to work for Jacob. The Lord would move on the hearts of people so that His purpose would be accomplished in Jacob’s life. The Lord would have the right people at the right time and at the right place. Angels were on assignment, and Heaven was moving to ensure Jacob’s success in the Lord’s purpose.
Smith said:
“Now, beloved, have you come for a blessing?”
The Father desires that we walk blessed, and He has, in Christ, blessed us with ALL spiritual blessings. The blessing is the divine life working in our lives, lifting us into His glorious treasury. But we must, like Jacob, come to the end of us and our natural strength and our natural desires.
Smith said:
Yes, there is a power, a blessings, an assurance, a rest in the PRESENCE of the Holy Ghost. You can feel His PRESENCE and know that you know He is with you. You need not spend an hour without this inner knowledge of His holy PRESENCE. With His power upon you there can be no failure. You are operating far above the natural realm at all the time.
His Presence lifts us just as it lifted the Children of Israel, taking them from being the least and making them the greatest. The blessing on our lives lifts us from the rejected, the defeated, the neglected, the forsaken, the accepted, the head, the one who is above, to the one who prospers in all things.
“And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord God…”
Deuteronomy 28: 2
The blessing is the pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing measure from Heaven that overtakes you. In the Secret Place we obey not religiously or legalistically, but out of absolute love of Him. Our obedience is the outflow and confirmation of our love. The blessings He pours out on us affirm our obedience in love.
“The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.”
Deuteronomy 28: 12
We no longer struggle and compete, but we walk with the advantage of Heaven. Smith explained:
“Dare to believe that the cloud is upon you, and it will break with an exceeding reward of blessing. Don’t be afraid of clouds- they are all earthly. Never be afraid of an earthly thing. You belong to a higher order, a divine order, a spiritual order. Believe that God wants you to soar high this day.”
We must recognize our poverty or our inability to make it happen. We can’t do it in our strength, might, or wisdom. Smith said:
“It is only the Holy Spirit who can bring us to the place of realization of our poverty; but, every time He does it, He opens the windows of Heaven, and the showers of blessings fall.”
When we find ourselves against a wall, unable to overcome, and pressed in on every side, as we yield, He pours out the blessing that lifts us into the realm of the Spirit. He is the Almighty God, unlimited in ability and unrestricted in resources and He is more than able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond anything we can imagine.
“There is no dry place in God, but all good things come out of hard times. The harder the place you are in, the more blessing can come out of it as you yield to His place. Oh, if only I had known God’s plan in its fullness, I might never have had a tear in my life. God is so abundant, so full of love and mercy; there is no lack to those who trust in Him. I pray that God will give us a touch of reality, so that we may be able to trust Him all the way.”
In the Secret Place of His Presence, as we truly hear His voice, He speaks His love and the greatness of His plan toward us. He begins to show us who we are and the greatness of His mercy towards us. We know that He is ours and we are His, and now the banner over our lives is not a grey cloud but His love, favor, and mercy.
