Spend Private Time with the Lord in Prayer and Live by the Hidden Life of our Father

We believers in Christ are kingdom people, people of the kingdom of God on this earth, and we need to live by the hidden life of our Father, doing our righteous deeds in secret and not making a display; we need to practice living a hidden life in secret with the Lord so that the Father who sees in secret would repay us. Amen!

As the Lord Jesus was giving the decrees of the kingdom of the heavens in Matthew chapters 5 through 7, He spoke concerning the nature of the kingdom people, which is hidden and concealed.

He told us that we need to do our righteous deeds not in public for others to see but rather, in secret, before our heavenly Father, so that our Father who sees in secret may reward us.

Today, whenever someone does a good deed or donates money, they want everyone to know about it.

Even in the fallen Christianity today, the big donors are well known, their names are clearly printed or inscribed, and there’s a mention of their good deeds.

But we believers in Christ need to return to the pure revelation of God in His word to enjoy our heavenly Father in secret, do things before the Father in secret, and practice living a hidden life in secret.

When we do this, the self is killed and the flesh is wiped out.

The flesh wants to make a display and the self wants everyone to know the good deeds we do.

But we as kingdom people need to live a hidden life, and the righteous deeds we do – such as giving, praying, and fasting – should be something we do in secret, before our heavenly Father, not outwardly before me.

Inwardly, we have an emptied and humbled spirit, being poor in spirit so that we may gain more of God every day.

Also, we have a pure and single heart, not seeking anything or anyone else but our Lord Jesus, who is both our Lord and our Bridegroom; we want to please only Him.

So we live under the heavenly ruling of the kingdom of God, and we do not express the flesh or the self; rather, we do things in the spirit to please God rather than please man. Amen!

The Lord Jesus was in such a way; He did not do things outwardly to please others or gain their praise but rather, He lived one with the Father and did all things to please the Father.

When He made a miracle or had many crowds following Him, He always sent the crowds and the disciples away, and He went secretly to the mountain or in a deserted place to pray.

He treasured the Father’s presence and His oneness with the Father more than anything that others may offer Him or give Him.

This One lives in us today, and when we live by the hidden life of our heavenly Father, we will also live the same kind of life today.

As Kingdom People, we need to spend Private Time with the Lord in Prayer

Our natural being wants to be expressed, and especially when we do something good, we want everyone to know.

But as believers in Christ, we are kingdom people; we have another life and another nature by which we live, and this life and nature are very much different from our natural life and nature.

Today we as kingdom people should pray much yet not let others know how much we pray.

We pray every day, and we pray much before the Lord in secret, but we do not let others know about it, nor do we expose this before them.

If we pray every day without telling others or letting them know about it, it means that we’re healthy and we are growing spiritually.

But if we make a show or a display of the things we do for the Lord, we will not grow in life.

Genuine growth in life involves the cutting off the self; for us to grow in the divine life, the self needs to be terminated.

As the Lord said in Matt. 6:6, when we pray we need to enter into our private room and shut our door, and we should pray to our Father who is in secret; and our Father who sees in secret will repay us.

As kingdom people, we need to have some experience of prayer in our private room, contacting our heavenly Father in secret.

We need to experience some secret enjoyment of the Father and receive some secret answer from the Father.

God not only hears our prayer: He sees our prayer. He observes our prayer.

When we shut the door and spend time secretly with the Lord, the Father sees this.

We need to daily come to the Lord in a personal, secret, and hidden way to spend time with Him. On the one hand, we need to come to Him in the morning to enjoy Him and obtain the daily supply for our living.

On the other hand, we need to spend secret time with Him in our private room, contacting our heavenly Father in secret.

We need to linger with the Lord to get some secret answer from Him.

There are many benefits to spending personal time with the Lord.

First, He enlightens us; He has a way to shine in our inner being to expose the things that have been frustrating Him in us.

He has a way of giving us the supply of grace we need to live Christ.

As we spend secret time with the Lord, opening to Him, we will give Him the ground to go deeper in us.

May we not rush our time with the Lord; may we take time to behold Him and open to Him.

When we linger in the Lord’s presence, He can expose our pride and our personal desires; then, we simply agree with Him, and He has a way to deal with all these things.

As we spend time with the Lord secretly and hiddenly, lingering in His presence, He has a way of exposing how much we damage the Body instead of building up the Body; we will simply groan from within, and in our groaning, the Spirit groans one with us, interceding for us according to God (Rom. 8:26-27)

. Many times we don’t know what to pray for as is fitting, so the Spirit joins in, groaning in us. As we spend time with the Lord in secret, we receive a word from the Lord; He sustains us, the weary ones, with a word (Isa. 50:4).

As we pass through many things, we realize that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28).

As we spend private time with the Lord, He encourages us as we pass through suffering.

As we spend private time with the Lord in prayer, He will give us the hidden manna and will give us a white stone, and on the stone, a new name is written, which no one knows except the one who has received it (Rev. 2:17).

May we be those who spend private time with the Lord in prayer again and again so that He may shine on us, enlighten us, supply us, and encourage us; as we do this, we become a buildable member of the Body of Christ.

He makes us buildable for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ!

Lord Jesus, we love and we love to spend time with You in secret! We want to spend private time with the Lord in prayer, opening to Him and listening to Him! Amen, Lord, may we be those who linger in Your presence as we have a personal time with You. May we not rush our time with You but spend adequate time to be with You in prayer. Have a way to shine on us. Expose anything in us that frustrates You. Grant us the supply of grace we need for today. Oh Lord Jesus, we simply say Amen to what You expose in our being. Deal with our pride and our natural being. Deal with our natural disposition and with our flesh. Oh Lord, we just say Amen, work Yourself into us. We don’t know what to pray for as is fitting, but we groan before You! Oh Lord! We fully open to You! We want to seek You in secret and have a secret experience of You. We want to obtain secret answers from You and be supplied in secret by You. We love You, Lord, and we abhor ourselves! May You increase in us and may we decrease! Increase in us for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ!

Practice Living by the Hidden Life of our Father and Doing things in Secret before the Lord

The universe is wonderful and amazing, and the more we study it, the more amazed we are; however, the universe indicates that God is hidden.

God created the universe with all the things in it, but God hid Himself in the universe, and it is not easy to find Him.

God hid Himself to such an extent that people don’t even think that God created the universe.

How is this possible? This is the nature of God; this is His temperament. God likes to hide Himself.

The universe indicates that God is hidden, that God is secret.

We may see the things done by God, but none of us has seen Him, for He’s always hidden.

God’s life is of such a secret and hidden nature.

We need to practice living by the hidden life of our Father and do things in secret before the Lord.

When we love others by our own love, we want to be appreciated and we want them to love us back, for this is our natural love.

But when we love them with God as love, this love will always remain hidden (Mark 12:30-31; Matt. 22:36-40; Luke 10:27).

Our human life likes to make a display and to be immediately appreciated, recognized and praised, but the hidden life of our Father loves to do things in secret, seeking to please only God and not man.

A hypocrite is one who has an outward manifestation without having any reality within; everything he does is merely an outward show with no inward reality.

This is contrary to God’s nature and His hidden life. God has so much within Him, but only a little is manifested.

If we live by the hidden life of our Father and spend private time with the Lord, we will no longer want to do things merely in an outward way but hiddenly, doing our righteous deeds before God rather than before men.

Any time we exhibit ourselves in our righteous deeds, we are not healthy, for such an exhibition greatly frustrates our growth in life.

We need to realize that our natural human life loves to make a display, a public show, especially when it does something good; however, God’s life is always hidden.

We may exercise our spirit to speak for the Lord in the meetings, as we are exhorted in 1 Cor. 14, but when we do this, we may exhibit ourselves. Oh, Lord Jesus!

May we practice living by the hidden life of our Father so that we do things without displaying ourselves but in secret with the Lord, in the Lord, and for the Lord.

May we realize that we can never practice living a hidden life in secret in our natural life; this is possible only in the divine life, the life that doesn’t enjoy making a show.

If we are serious about being the kingdom people, we must learn to live by the hidden life of our Father.

This is a learning process, it is something we must practice day by day.

Are we serious about living the kingdom life? Are we serious about being kingdom people? We have to live a hidden life.

This doesn’t mean that we do things in a deliberate way by thinking about what we’re doing and holding ourselves back from doing certain things.

Rather, we need to simply turn to our spirit and practice living by the hidden life of our Father so that we do things in the Lord, for the Lord, before the Lord, and with the Lord in secret, not outwardly for others to see us.

Even in loving others, we can love them not with our own natural love but with and by the love of God; this love will always remain hidden and will expect nothing in return.

May we all learn to live by the hidden life of our Father and not by our natural life.

Our natural life always makes a display of itself, but when we’re living by the hidden life of our Father, we will do things without making any public show of them.

Among us in the church life, we have many patterns of saints who may not have a visible function in the church life, leading the church or serving in the church but always ministering life to the saints.

Many times at the memorial meeting of some saints we hear of the things they did in secret to love others, care for them, shepherd them, and bring them on with the Lord.

We hear that, behind the scenes, they ministered to the saints and imparted life to them.

This is the proper way, the right way to live the Christian life.

When the Lord was on the mountain of transfiguration with three disciples, He told them not to tell anyone about this until after He was resurrected (Matt. 17:1-2, 9).

When He healed certain ones, He always told them not to tell anyone but rather, to give glory to God.

Can we stand the test of not displaying our personal, private, intimate experience with God before others?

Can we withstand the temptation of sending a message or email to the other saints concerning what we have enjoyed of the Lord in private? Oh, Lord Jesus!

May we all learn to live by the hidden life of our Father and do things in secret, one with Him, to be seen and rewarded only by Him.

Lord Jesus, we want to practice living a hidden life in secret by living by the hidden life of our Father day by day. We put ourselves aside, Lord, and we come to You to enjoy You and spend time with You. Oh Lord, our human life loves to make a display, a public show, but Your life is always hidden! Save us from being hypocrites, those who have only the outward manifestation but without having anything within! We turn to You and we want to be one with You in all things. Amen, Lord, we want to practice living by the hidden life of our Father so that, whatever we do and say, we would do it in secret before our Father for His satisfaction. We are serious, dear Lord, about being the kingdom people; we want to learn to live by the hidden life of our Father. Keep us coming to You in secret to spend time with You, have secret prayer and fellowship with You, and doing things in secret one with You. Amen, Lord, we love being with You in secret, contacting You, doing things in You and with You, and seeking You to have Your presence and Your smile!

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, Life-study of Matthew, msg. 21, by Witness Lee, 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:
  – Concerning the righteous deeds of the kingdom people, a portion from, Life-Study of Matthew, Chapter 21.
  – Exercising Our Spirit to Contact the Reality of the Bible and to Know Christ Practically, via, Living to Him.
  – 01 – Learn from the Pattern of the Lord Living a Hidden life, a message via, Heavenly Foods.
  – What God Prepared for Those Who Love Him, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Living the Kingdom Life by Living a Hidden Life (2) – Truth Series #14, video sharing via, uni students.
  – Why We Need a Hidden Life with the Lord Jesus, via, Bibles for America Blog.
  – The Ministry Bearing the Mark of Death and Resurrection (2), From chapter seven of The Ministers in the Lord’s Recovery – Genuine Ministers of the New Covenant, The Mark of Death and Resurrection on the Ministry of Brother Nee.
  – Do You Have a Private Time with the Lord? More via, Holding to Truth in love.
  – How to Practice the Private Prayer Described in Matthew 6:6, via, Bibles for Europe Blog.
  – Why We Need a Hidden Life with the Lord Jesus, via, Bibles for Australia blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / Speaking nothing in pretense; / Ask according to the spirit, / Praying by the inner sense. / Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / List’ning earnestly to Him; / Be impressed with His intentions, / Yielding to Him from within. (Hymns #784 stanzas 4-5)
  – Only this I know: I tell Him / All my doubts and griefs and fears; / Oh, how patiently He listens! / And my drooping soul He cheers; / Do you think He ne’er reproves me? / What a false friend He would be, / If He never, never told me / Of the sins which He must see. (Hymns #553 stanza 3)
  – All my sicknesses I bring Him, / And He bears them all away; / All my fears and griefs I tell Him, / All my cares from day to day, / All my strength I draw from Jesus, / By His breath I live and move; / E’en His very mind He gives me, / And His faith, and life, and love. / 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 3 and chorus)