Smith Wigglesworth- The Deep Waters of the Secret Place- Marked by the Master
As believers, we are called to come and know Him as we abide in the Secret Place of His Presence. Many claim to walk in the realms of His glory and the deep waters of His Presence, but we are to be known by His fruit in our lives. Our hunger for Him must grow daily so that every fiber of our being desires to be consumed by Him. But if we are to draw closer and know Him, we must be transformed to become more like Him.
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
Ephesians 2: 13
Not only did the blood buy our redemption, reconcile us to the Lord God, and cleanse us from all sin, but it also brought us near Him. Smith Wigglesworth put it his way:
“The blood has never lost its power. As we get in touch with Jesus, wonderful things will take place. And what else? We will get nearer and nearer to Him.”
Now listen to this:
“For is the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to SERVE the living God?”
Hebrews 9: 13-14
You may have heard that they have been seeking pure red heifers to perform a cleansing ceremony before beginning construction on the Third Temple. These red heifers must be carefully inspected to ensure they meet the conditions to be declared pure.
Smith explained:
“When we can come into the Presence of God with clear conscience and genuine faith, our hearts not condemning us, then we have confidence toward God ‘and whatever we ask we receive from Him.”
But the truth is nothing on this earth is pure. Only Jesus was perfect, and He offered the only true offering without a spot. The writer of Hebrews explained that through His perfect offering, His blood can cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. I have never heard someone preach on the power and importance of the blood to serve the living God, so let’s seek Heaven regarding this verse.
Smith added:
“Sugarcoating won’t do. We must have reality, the real working of our God. We must know God. We must be able to go in and converse with God. We must also know the mind of God toward us, so that all our petitions are always in line with His will.”
The Lord wants us to abide in the Secret Place of His presence and to know Him.
The Lord declared:
“By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; and before all the people I must be glorified.”
Leviticus 10: 3
So, a true ministry that meets the exacting demands of the Lord must regard Him as holy. The Hebrew word for holy here is “qadash,” meaning consecrated, sanctifying, hallowed, separated, and holy. A real ministry that God regards as good before Him recognizes Him as separate from this world and holy, and it must bring Him glory. Further, the real carries the seal and mark of Heaven on it and is seen through it.
Smith explained:
“One thing that can hinder our faith is a conscience that is seared. In contrast, there is a conscience that is so open to the Presence of God that the smallest thing in the world will drive it to God.”
Many today ask where God’s power is and why are we not seeing revival? But the Lord asks and demands:
“Tomorrow morning the Lord will show who is His and who is holy, and will cause him to come near to Him. That one whom He chooses He will cause to come near Him.”
Numbers 16: 5b
We can draw as close to the Lord as we want, but if we desire to come closer, holiness is a price to be paid. The Lord longs for us to come and press deeper, but we must understand the need to walk sanctified and holy unto the Lord.
“Blessed is the man You choose, and cause to approach You, that he may dwell in Your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, of Your holy temple.”
Psalm 65: 4
We are called to be a royal priesthood, every single believer and not just the ministers. We are all called to serve the living God. But how can we serve Him as a royal priesthood and truly honor Him? Thank God for the blood. The priests in the Old Testament had to present themselves and be anointed with the blood. The application of the blood was critical for them to bring true worship. So, real worship that ministers to the Lord is worship that has had the blood applied to the vessel bringing the worship.
Smith explained:
“Wherever Jesus came, sin was revealed, and men don’t like sin to be revealed. Sin separates us from God forever. You are in a good place when you weep before God, repenting over the least thing. If you have spoken unkindly you realized it was not like the Lord. Your keen conscience has taken you to prayer. It is wonderful thing to have a sensitive conscience. When everything is wrong you cry to the Lord. It is when we are close to God that our hearts are revealed. God intends for us to live in purity, seeing Him all the time.”
The Secret Place is the Holiest of all, so we must walk holy to abide there. His Presence and His holiness must convict us. If we look at Isaiah chapter six, Isaiah is taken into the throne room of the Most High, and as he looks upon the Lord, he is undone. We are then told the angel took a coal from the altar, touched Isaiah’s tongue, and declared:
“Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, your sin is purged.”
Isaiah 6: 7
The Hebrew word for purged is “kaphar,” which means atoned or reconciled.
There are several things we must understand, and first, that we are those who have been redeemed by His blood. So, we are precious in His sight, and for those who seek to serve or minister in any way, we must recognize the honor and walk in holy fear. The Lord has blessed us to minister to His sheep that He personally purchased with His blood. That should be humbling and overwhelming. How can I truly minister to the Lord and His people? I need a revelation of the cleansing and qualifying of the blood.
As we stand in His Presence and are transformed, a deep work occurs in us and as our hearts are wonderfully broken and restored, we seek to follow Him. Smith said:
“Oh, believer, will it ever pass through your lips or your mind for a moment that you will not desire to serve Christ? Can you, under any circumstances, stoop to take up your cross fully, to be in the place of ridicule, to surrender anything for the Man who said He desired to eat the Passover with His disciples, knowing what it meant? It can only come out of the depths of love we have for Him that we can say right now, ‘Lord Jesus, I will follow You.”
When we encounter the Master, He consumes our hearts, and we must seek after Him. But there must be a leaving behind, and coming out from, and a forgetting what lies behind. When we see the blood and the price He paid for us, we must, in like manner, lay it all on the altar. The blood was the ultimate confirmation that He came as One who served. Smit said:
“There was strife among them as to who should be greatest, but He said, ‘He who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves’ (Luke 22: 26). Then He, the Master, said, ‘I am among as the One who serves’ (v. 27). He, the noblest, the purest, was the servant of all! Exercising lordship over another is not of God. We must learn in our hearts that fellowship, true righteousness, loving one another, and preferring one another, must come into the Church. Pentecost must outreach everything that ever has been, and we know it will if we are willing.”
If we truly dwell in the deep waters of the Secret Place, then we must bear the seal of the Master so that we walk like Him. Smith said:
“I believe God wants to so sanctify us, so separate us, that we will have the perfection of love that will not speak ill of a brother, that we will not slander a fellow believer whether true or not.”
If we dwell in His Presence, we must undergo radical change. The closer we come to Him, the more we must change so that our motivation and actions align with His heart, and everything we do glorifies Him.
Smith explained:
“We can never be filled with the Holy Spirit as long as there is any human craving for our own wills. Selfishness must be destroyed. Jesus was perfect, the end of everything, and God will bring us all there. It is giving that pays; it is helping that pays; it is living that pays; it is putting yourself out for another that pays.”
Smith also said:
“And when we come to a place where we serve for pure love’s sake, because it is the divine hand of the Master upon us, we will find out that we will never fail. Love never fails when it is divinely appointed in us. However, the so-called love in our human nature does fail and has failed from the beginning.”
Today, we focus on polished performances and believe we know best. We treat the Lord as if we are on equal levels and that we have arrived. How many leaders in the Body can preach an incredible message but are rude, self-serving, and sadly, many walk in sin? How can this be? How can worship leaders write such powerful songs and then claim they no longer believe in the Lord? We have had outer court and occasional inner court Christianity for too long. It is time for those who dwell in the Secret Place.
Smith said:
“God is longing for us to come into such a fruitful position as the children of God, with the marks of Heaven upon us and with His divinity bursting through our humanity, that He can express Himself through our lips of clay. He can take clay lips and weak humanity and make an oracle for Himself of such things. He can take frail human nature and by His divine power make our bodies suitable to be His holy temple, washing our hearts whiter than snow.”
The real questions we must ask ourselves are, first, are we longing for the same things that the Master longs for? And secondly, do we understand that we are the clay, and He is the Potter? Some people today blaspheme God, claiming He made only organic things, yet many have made nothing new under the sun. We build based on what is found around us, and all of our creations are imperfect and fail to share the infinite complexity of God’s Creation that operates fine-tuned, and all serve His great purpose.
