Influencers Weekly Devotional

The Secret of the Secret Heart by

Rocky Fleming

“Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. (Psalm 51:6 ESV)

I think there may be three “hearers” of what I am about to say to you. There will be those who will say, “I understand, for what you are sharing is true in my life.” Then there will be those at the other extreme who will be skeptical, for these people rarely consider things beyond the obvious of touch, smell, sight and sound. Even though they believe in Christ, and claim to know Him, theirs is a restricted world much like Thomas who said he would not believe unless he put his finger in Christ’s side. Sadly, this believer’s mantra is, only seeing or understanding allows me to believe. But then there is the middle group. This group represents the majority of Christians. They realize there is something stirring in them hidden from the world that watches, but they don’t know how to describe it, or understand it. I’m not sure I can explain it either, but it is becoming clearer to me that there is something more, something better, and surely something needed that most Christians seem to be missing, and it is a big thing to find. It is a secret. It is well hidden. Like hidden treasure, it takes time and effort to find it. Most Christians dip into it in a small way at some time in their life, and get a little taste, but find it to be elusive, a moving target, a phantom of sorts. After a while, they give up in frustration with trying to find it. They know there is a spiritual meal, a real feast out there, but they only had their appetites awakened to what they do not have, and it frustrates them to see something alive in a few Christians, but dead in themselves. What am I talking about? What is this spiritual feast we are invited to, but few partake of? It is this: It is a secret, intimate, private place where communion with Christ is the rule, not the exception. I repeat. It is the rule, not the exception, the climate, not the weather, the way it should be, rather than how it is, and it empowers a believer with insight and wisdom as nothing else can. Are you interested in going to this place and finding what is missing in your life? I must ask first, do you want to live there or simply visit this place? If it’s simply to visit and get a little variety in your spiritual life, then don’t bother going, for you won’t get there with that attitude. I have it on good authority that God calls this attitude “half-hearted, lukewarm, double-minded,” and He is appalled by this lack of real effort. However, if you have had it with the emptiness of “religious stuff,” and willing to change your half-hearted attempts to go deeper with Christ, then you have the right perspective for finding the feast and digging into it. So, let’s talk about the feast. I mentioned a “secret place.” Have you ever felt that there is a person living within you that is not necessarily connected to your physical body? I know it is sometimes a stretch for a young, healthy human being to separate the inner man from his physical body, for we live in a physical world, with a lot of effort to gratify our physical body. That is why our self-esteem, good or bad, is often tied with our physical body, especially when we are younger. However, eventually, through aging or illness or injury, we begin to understand that our mind, spirit, and soul are a separate entity from our physical body. As an example, although our physical body becomes worn out or injured, our inner man can still have a zeal for life, for adventure and for fulfillment. Although there may be a physical limitation, this person is often able to have greater personal insight, for he has developed a deeper way of processing life within his inner man. There is a reason these people are called “deep thinkers.” They process life at a deeper place within their inner man. Now, all humans have an inner life within us hidden from the rest of the world, and some use it more than others. But only true believers in Christ have an additional Occupant living within their inner man. It is the Holy Spirit. It is true. In Ezekiel 36:26-27, the Lord says to the House of Israel, “I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my ways,” as God made a distinction with His people from the rest of the world. In I Corinthians 3:16, the Apostle Paul exhorts the Christians in Corinth with a question to them about Who lives within them, “Do you not know your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.” It is basic Christianity to understand that the Holy Spirit lives within the life of a true believer, and we need to understand it as a dual occupancy within our inner man. But, the big question to each believer is whether the Holy Spirit reigns the life that He occupies? The answer to this question either opens the buffet line for the feast He’s laid out for you, or it shows you why you have only made it to the appetizer section. You see there is only one God in that place called your “Inner Man,” and it is not you. Until He becomes your Lord, you will never engage the Secret Heart David speaks of in the passage I have listed above. Unfortunately, we compete for the Lordship of our life, and it is up to us to determine who wins. When we begin to understand that the Holy Spirit lives within us and that He must reign over us as our Lord, we then begin a process of taking our next step in engaging our intimate connection with Him. However, it cannot stop with mere recognition of a biblical fact. It requires effort on our part to get to know Him. We do this through a consistent intake of His word. We make it a priority to know His heart and perspective found in His word, for in doing so we get to know His likes and dislikes. Next requires obedience. Just because we intellectually know these likes and dislikes of His, we must take action to surrender those things in our life that He is opposed to. These things are not only the obvious outside behavior issues on our part, but also the way we think and process our choices. You see, God looks at the heart of the man as His greatest evaluation of the man. He is not impressed with things we do for show, but He is most impressed with the heart of why we do things. That’s the area that works its way to the surface of our life, and it is where the wisdom of God is heard and is able to lead us. In our journey to this Secret Place with the Holy Spirit, we will find that one of the biggest hindrances to our going there is our pride. It is a hard thing to give up. But, it is also the thing that most often stands in the way of a right place with God. Like King David found, because of our pride we will often find ourselves in a place we would have never imagined, for our pride doesn’t allow critical self-evaluation when we make some critical choices. It is often after the fact and when we have shattered our life because of our choices that we come to our senses and experience brokenness. Take a look at the entirety of Psalms 51 for an example. In this chapter you will note the chapter is entitled “Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God.” Why is this? It is because David had sinned with Bathsheba and he expressed his grief because of it in this chapter of Psalms. David had literally had one of his most loyal men killed in order to protect the knowledge of his adultery against this man and his wife Bathsheba. David had understood that he had betrayed them all, but worst of all, he was broken hearted because he had betrayed God. In this chapter, we see his heart of repentance displayed. This was a broken man ... broken of his pride. He was grieved, for he knew that the greatest privilege he had ever been given was his intimate connection with God, and it had been damaged by his pride and choices. David was broken hearted before the Lord. But, his Redeemer put his shattered life back together, because God helps a truly broken man, by leading him to a place that is close to God’s heart. It is the same with you and me. If we want to enter into this secret place with the Holy Spirit and abide with Him as Jesus called it, it requires our surrender and brokenness from our pride. I mentioned that there is a secret, intimate, private place where communion with Christ is the rule, not the exception. The place I speak of, and always speak of, is the abiding relationship that Christ invites all true believers to come to and experience. I also mentioned that if your attitude is to simply visit this place and make little effort or priority to go there and live there, to not even bother. The reason I say this is because “abiding” is also translated as “remain in – dwell in – live in,” for Jesus indicated that it is a permanent condition and not a place to simply visit. It requires a total, no looking back commitment on our part. But, this permanency also allows consistence and stability, and a source of wisdom for living our life, as no other source provides. It is this place that our Secret Heart is engaged, and the deeper intimacy with God that we deep down long for is found. It is a spiritual feast and I’ll say it like my grandmother said when she called the children to one of her fabulous meals … Come and get it!!! Download file