Follow the Lord’s Pattern Living a Hidden Life with God, Praying Privately to Him

We need to follow the Lord’s pattern living a hidden life with God, praying privately to Him. As believers in Christ, we need to learn from the pattern of the Lord Jesus living a hidden life in His going up to the mountain privately to pray; we need to often spend time with the Lord in prayer privately, leaving everything and everyone else aside, just to be with Him and have His fresh speaking. Amen!

This week we come to the topic of, Living the Kingdom Life by Living a Hidden Life.

If we were to consider what does it mean for us to live in the reality of the kingdom of God, we may think that a lot of things need to be done, many works for God need to be accomplished, and we need to be under God’s rule; however, we may not think that living the kingdom life is living a hidden life.

In our experience as believers in Christ, we need to live a hidden life with the Lord.

There have to be some outward manifestations of the inner life, but most of our life and living needs to be before the Lord in private, in our personal time with Him.

What we have as Christians today is not just a work for God outwardly or words that we speak as the gospel; we have a living, and when it comes to our living, it has to be spontaneous.

Our daily living comes from what we are inwardly.

What we are dictates the way we live. What we like, dislike, pursue, prefer, and what we are by our disposition comes out in our daily living.

If we are an active person, always on the go, we will behave in such a way in our daily living.

But if we by disposition are more relaxed and chill, this is the way we live.

As believers in Christ, we first need to realize that we are part of the kingdom of God through regeneration to have God’s life and live in the realm of the divine life, even in the realm of the species of God. This is the basis.

We don’t live out our natural life or put on our best behavior to please God; we live by the divine life, seeking to be one spirit with the Lord in all things.

Secondly, after seeing that we are born of God and we should live by the divine life, we need to live a hidden life with the Lord.

Our daily living needs to be in the Lord, with the Lord, and before the Lord.

This is how the Lord Jesus lived His life when He was on earth; He didn’t live merely in an open way for all to see what He does and how great God is, but He lived a private life before the Father.

He did not bask in the glory of the success that He had when healing others or feeding multitudes of people with very little food; rather, He sent the crowds away and went up on the mountain to pray in private to the Father.

He is our pattern. We need to follow the Lord to live a hidden life.

We need to Follow the Lord’s Pattern Living a Hidden Life before God by Praying Privately to God

The Lord Jesus is the King of the kingdom of God, and the kind of life He lived on earth is being repeated in us today.

What kind of life did He live while on the earth?

One of the outstanding features of His life was that He lived a hidden life with the Father and before the Father.

We need to learn from the pattern of the Lord living a hidden life in His going up to the mountain privately to pray (Matt. 14:23; Luke 6:12).

In Matt. 14:14-23 we see how the Lord had just multiplied the fish and the bread to feed thousands of men and women who came to hear Him.

However, even though He performed this miracle, He did not remain in the issue of the miracle with the crowds but rather, He went away from them privately to be with the Father on the mountain in prayer.

Very interesting.

The Lord Jesus did not remain in the aftermath of the miracle of feeding five thousand men, apart from women and children; rather, He sent the crowds away, He sent even His disciples away, and He went up on the mountain privately to pray to the Father.

If it were us and such a miracle happened through us, we would have stayed a bit more, we may have enjoyed the success, and we may even have led others to praise God for such a success.

But not the Lord Jesus; He went up to the mountain privately to pray, and when night fell, He was there alone with the Father.

We need to follow the Lord’s pattern.

We need to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus; the reality and actuality of the life of Jesus as seen in the Gospels needs to be learned subjectively and lived out by us today.

If we read the Gospels, especially Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we notice that the Lord would often disappear, for He would go privately to be with the Father.

In Mark 1 we are even told that they had to hunt for Him, for they could not find Him.

The Lord Jesus was not after merely doing a work or speaking many things; what He treasured and sought after was to be with the Father secretly to pray.

We need to follow His pattern living a hidden life before the Lord and with the Lord.

We need to exercise to be with Him on the mountain to pray.

We may not go to a physical mountain where we would hide from others far away from anything else, but we may find a private place where we can spend time with the Lord in secret.

We need to be those living a hidden life with God in prayer.

May we learn from the Lord’s pattern by exercising to be with Him privately, personally, in prayer.

We may have a success outwardly in our work for the Lord, for someone may get saved or a church may be raised up through our labor in a particular place, but we should not remain in the success of our work but rather, spend time privately before the Lord to pray.

The Lord Jesus even compelled the disciples to leave Him in order that He might have more time to pray privately to the Father.

Why did He have to spend time with the Father?

He needed to pray privately to His Father who was in the heavens so that He might be one with the Father and have the Father with Him in whatever He did on the earth for the establishing of the kingdom of the heavens.

In all things He did on earth, the Lord sought to be one with the Father; for this, He was living a hidden life with God so that He may be one with the Father and do all things in this oneness with God.

Christ was already one with the Father, but He still would go to be with the Father privately to pray.

This is our pattern. This is what we need today.

For us to live the kingdom life, we need to be those living a hidden life with God, spending much time with God in prayer privately.

This is a matter of our daily living and our practice as believers in Christ.

May we bring this matter to the Lord in prayer, telling Him,

Lord Jesus, we want to learn from You and live a hidden life with God daily by spending much time with You privately in prayer. Oh Lord, may we all learn from Your pattern living a hidden life with the Father in Your going up to the mountain privately to pray. Save us from merely doing a work for You outwardly. Save us from merely doing things for You and from performing outward things for You. May we be those who often go into our private room to pray to the Father who sees in secret. Amen, Lord Jesus, may we seek to be with You privately many times during the day so that we may be one with You. We want to be one with You in everything we do and say throughout the day. May we leave other people and put aside all things just to be with the Lord privately, living a hidden life with God! May we live the kingdom life today by living a hidden life with the Lord! Amen, Lord Jesus, make us the same as You are in this matter. Even as You spent much time privately with the Father, so we want to forsake anything else and just be with You in prayer!

Pray to the Father Privately in Secret to have Intimate Fellowship with Him and have His Speaking

As believers in Christ who love the Lord and seek to be with Him, even to be one with Him in all things, we need to be those living a hidden life with God and before God.

Like the Lord Jesus, we need to treasure being with our heavenly Father in secret, in our private room, and in prayer.

We love being with our Lord, spending time with Him in secret to receive His speaking and to open to Him concerning all things.

To be with others and pray with them is good, but often we need to pray by ourselves; we cannot replace our personal, private, intimate time with the Lord with the time of prayer with others.

We enjoy the Lord when we pray with others, but we enjoy Him even more deeply when we pray to Him privately.

The Lord Jesus told us in Matt. 6:6 that, when we pray, we should enter into our private room and shut our door and pray to the Father who sees in secret.

When we spend time in secret with our Father, we will have the sensation of how intimate He is to us and how close we are to Him.

He has a way to shine on us and expose anything in us that He disagrees with, and we can confess any sins before Him.

May we learn to leave the crowds, our family, our friends, and the saints in the church to go on a higher level on a “high mountain” with the Lord in prayer.

We need to be separated from the crowd and from any earthly things to be with our heavenly Father privately and secretly so that we may have intimate fellowship with Him.

Many times we may be quite busy with the Lord’s work and our service in the church, which is so good and positive; however, the basis of our service should be our private time with the Lord.

We should not be merely serving the Lord outwardly and doing things for Him in the church but even more, we need to be those living a hidden life with the Lord in prayer.

Many times we have to put aside even the work in order to spend time with the Lord.

This is a struggle that we daily have. Each and every day we need to set time aside to be with the Lord privately to pray.

Things come our way, things demand our attention, and persons contact us to ask for help or to be with us; we need to learn above all to be with the Lord privately to pray.

Why do we need to be with the Lord privately to pray? Why should we be those living a hidden life with God, always seeking to spend private time with Him in prayer?

It is because we work not for the food that perishes but for the food which abides unto eternal life, which Christ gives to us in our personal time with Him (John 6:27).

We need to come to the Lord personally in our time with Him and be nourished by Him; we need to touch Him in spirit in a personal and private way so that we may receive the food which abides unto eternal life.

He is the bread out of heaven, the bread of life, and the words He speaks to us are spirit and are life (John 6:63).

The Lord is the One who speaks the word and gives the Spirit not by measure (John 3:34).

On our side, we need to spend time with the Lord personally and privately, even treasure our time in prayer privately with the Lord so that we may receive His speaking.

For us to know the Lord requires revelation, and the only way we can have a subjective knowledge of the Lord is by spending time with Him in prayer.

When we look at the Lord’s life and the many times He spent time with the Father secretly on the mountain in prayer, we do not know what He prayed for, what He asked the Father, or what the Father told Him, but we can see that He was one with the Father, He spoke the words He heard from the Father, and He did the works that the Father gave Him to do.

When we are living a hidden life with God by spending time in prayer with Him, we will have words from Him, He will give us certain works to do, and we will be one with Him in doing what He gives us to do.

We will have the revelation of His person, we will know what He desires to do, and we will be one with Him in doing this.

When we shut our door privately and pray to the Father who is in secret, the Father who sees in secret will reward us and we will have His speaking.

We will have the sensation of how intimate He is to us and how close we are to Him.

May we be before the Lord concerning this matter and honestly tell Him,

Dear Lord Jesus, draw us day by day to spend time with You personally and intimately. We treasure our time with You. We want to take time to behold You. We treasure our time with the Lord in secret and in prayer. We want to be those living a hidden life with the Lord in prayer day by day. May this be our habit, Lord, that we would often take time to pray privately before the Lord. May we learn to leave the crowds, our family, our friends, and even the saints in the church to go to a higher level on a high mountain to be with the Lord privately in prayer. Amen, Lord, may we get to a higher level, separated from the crowd and the earthly things to be with the Father privately and secretly to have intimate fellowship with Him! Oh Lord Jesus, we love You! We want to see You face to face in our personal and private time with You! We shut the door to all other things and other people and just want to spend time with You. We want to remain in the sensation of being intimate with You, close to You, to receive Your revelation and the daily supply. Speak to us. Infuse us. We just want to abide here, in fellowship with You!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ricky Acosta in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The God-man Living,” ch. 14, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living in the Reality of the Kingdom of God (2024 October ITERO), week 2, Living the Kingdom Life by Living a Hidden Life.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Do You Have a Private Time with the Lord? More via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – The purity of the children of the kingdom in their good deeds, a portion from, The Kingdom, Chapter 43, by Witness Lee.
  – How to Practice the Private Prayer Described in Matthew 6:6, via, Bibles for Europe blog.
  – Living the Kingdom Life by Living a Hidden Life (2) – Truth Series #14, via, Uni Students.
  – The need for a private time of prayer, a portion from, Life Messages, Vol. 1 (#1-41), Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
  – Why We Need a Hidden Life with the Lord Jesus, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – 01 – Learn from the Pattern of the Lord Living a Hidden life, via, Heavenly Foods.
  – How to Enjoy the Hidden Christ in Your Spirit, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Life-study of Ephesians, Message 7: The Mystery of God’s Will, message by brother Lee via, LSM Youtube.
  – Not having enough earth, a portion from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 1) Vol. 11: The Present Testimony (4), Chapter 14, by Watchman Nee.
  – Why We Need a Hidden Life with the Lord Jesus, via, Bibles for Australia blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – In the secret of His presence / How my soul delights to hide! / Oh, how precious are the lessons / Which I learn at Jesus’ side! / Earthly cares can never vex me, / Neither trials lay me low; / For when Satan comes to tempt me, / To the secret place I go. (Hymns #553 stanza 1)
  – Take time to behold Him, / Speak oft with Thy Lord, / Abide in Him always, / And feed on His Word. / Wait thou in His presence, / Submissive and meek, / Forgetting in nothing / His blessing to seek. / Take time to behold Him, / The world rushes on; / Spend much time in secret / With Jesus alone. / By looking to Jesus / Like Him thou shalt be; / Thy friends, in thy conduct, / His likeness shall see. (Hymns #643 stanzas 1-2)
  – I have learned the wondrous secret / Of abiding in the Lord; / I have tasted life’s pure fountain, / I am drinking of His word; / I have found the strength and sweetness / Of abiding ’neath the blood; / I have lost myself in Jesus, / I am sinking into God. / I’m abiding in the Lord / And confiding in His word; / I am hiding in the bosom of His love. / Yes, abiding in the Lord / And confiding in His word, / I am hiding in the bosom of His love. (Hymns #564 stanza 1 and chorus)