Transcription
Most believers know they are supposed to have a secret place. They have heard the sermons. They have read Matthew 6:6. They know prayer matters. They know time with God is important.
But when they actually sit down to do it, they discover a problem nobody prepared them for. They do not know what to do when they get there. So they do what feels natural. They bring their list. They tell God what they need. They ask for help with what is broken. They request intervention in what is difficult. And after 10 or 15 minutes of presenting their needs, they run out of things to say. And they sit in an awkward silence wondering if they are doing it wrong. And then they leave. And the secret place becomes something they feel guilty about rather than something they are drawn to because it feels empty. It feels one-sided. It feels like they are talking to a wall.
And the reason it feels that way is not because God is absent. It is because nobody ever showed them what the secret place is actually designed to be, what is supposed to happen there, what they are supposed to bring, what they are supposed to do, what they are supposed to receive, the mechanics, the order, the full picture of what Kenyon called visiting with the father. WW Kenyon spent years in his presence unpacking exactly this. Not why you should pray. Not vague encouragement to spend more time with God. Specific, practical, ordered instruction on what the secret place actually is and what is supposed to happen when you enter it. And what he discovered is both simpler and richer than anything most believers have ever been shown.
The secret place is not a religious duty. It is not a spiritual performance. It is not a one-sided transaction where you present your needs and wait for God to respond. It is a visit, a real two-way spirit-to-spirit encounter between a son and a father who is hungry for his company. And like every real visit between people who love each other, it has a natural shape, a flow, a series of things that happen when two people who belong together finally sit down in the same room.
Today we are going to show you that shape, that flow, what you bring, what you do, what you receive, what changes in you when you do this consistently. Not theory, the actual practical mechanics of the secret place that Kenyon laid out in his presence and the hidden man of the heart and that most believers have never been taught. Six specific things that are supposed to happen in the secret place. Six elements that together produce the encounter most believers have been longing for but never quite experiencing. And by the time this teaching is finished, you will never again sit down in the secret place and not know what to do. Because the father has been waiting for this visit, not reluctantly, eagerly, hungrily, with a longing for your company that Kenyon said is the very reason God created man in the first place. The secret place is not where you go to perform for God. It is where you go to be with him. And those are two completely different things.
Now before we go into the six elements, I want you to sit with something that will reframe everything about how you approach the secret place. Kenyan writes in his presence that the father heart is hungry for the companionship of his children. His heart hunger is the reason for man, the reason for creation, the reason for redemption. God did not create man because he needed servants. He did not redeem you because he needed religious activity. He created you and redeemed you because he wanted a companion, someone to walk with, someone to talk with, someone to share his heart with, someone whose company he could enjoy. And every time you enter the secret place, every time you sit down and turn your attention toward him, you are giving God what he has always wanted from you. Your presence, not your performance, not your perfect prayer language, not your theological knowledge or your spiritual consistency. Your presence, your company, the simple genuine act of showing up and being with him. That changes everything about what the secret place is and what you do when you get there because you are not going there to impress God. You are not going there to earn something. You are not going there to discharge a religious obligation. You are going there to give the father what his heart has been longing for. And that visit, that simple daily act of companionship is the most important thing you will do all day.
Before we get to the six elements, we need to dismantle the single biggest misconception that makes the secret place feel empty for most believers. The misconception that prayer is primarily about need. Kenyan addresses this directly in his presence. He writes, "Prayer should not be the child of need. It should be based on a spiritual fellowship with the father and with the master so that our needs are his needs. Because we are not our own, we are a part of him." Prayer should not be the child of need. That one sentence dismantles the entire framework most believers operate from. They come to the secret place because they need something. They stay until they have presented everything they need and they leave. And the secret place becomes a need-dispensing transaction rather than a fellowship-building visit. And God who designed the secret place for companionship ends up receiving nothing from the encounter but a list.
Kenyon goes further. He writes that prayer is simply talking it over with him, getting his views, his will, his plans and our carrying out those plans with his grace, ability and wisdom. That is a completely different orientation. Not what do I need from God today, but what is God thinking about my life, my situation, my calling, what are his plans? What does he see that I do not? What does he want to say to me in this secret place that I will miss entirely if I spend the whole time talking? And then Kenyon writes something that reframes the secret place permanently. He writes that prayer is a visit with our father. We should think of it as a rare opportunity, not a duty, not a discipline, not a spiritual obligation, a rare opportunity, the opportunity to sit in the presence of the creator of the universe, who is also your father and who is hungry for your company.
Now, with that foundation in place, here is the first element of what the secret place is actually supposed to look like.
Element one, enter as a son. Kenyon writes in his presence that prayer means coming boldly into the throne room and standing in his presence. He anchors this in Hebrews 4:16. Come boldly to the throne of grace. And he explains what boldly means. It means coming with freedom, coming as sons and daughters, taking your place, not earning your place, not hoping for your place, taking it. Most believers enter the secret place apologetically. They come with a vague sense that they have not been faithful enough, consistent enough, spiritual enough to deserve a real encounter. And that sense of unworthiness colors everything that follows. The prayers come out tentative. The requests come out uncertain. The whole time in God's presence feels conditional. But Kenyon writes that the new creation man can stand in the father's presence as though sin had never been without guilt without condemnation without inferiority because of what Jesus did. Not because of your performance, because of his. So the first practical thing that happens when you enter the secret place is that you remind yourself of that reality. You say out loud, I am a son. I have been made righteous. I have every right to be here. I come boldly to the throne of grace, not as a beggar, as a son. That declaration sets the entire tone for everything that follows. Because a son who knows he belongs there prays differently from a beggar hoping to be heard. He comes with confidence. He speaks with authority. He listens with expectation. He receives with gratitude. Everything changes when you enter the secret place from your correct position.
Element two, bring the fruit of your lips. Kenyon writes one of the most striking passages in his presence about this. He says, "We come with thanksgiving, we come with worship, we come with love, we bring the fruit of lips." And then he says something that stops most believers cold. He says, "How it does touch our hearts to think that he drinks of the fruit of our lips." He drinks of the fruit of your lips. Your worship, your thanksgiving, your words of love and honor are received by God as fruit, as nourishment, as something he actually receives from you. Most believers have never thought about the secret place as a place where they give something to God rather than only receive something from him. But Kenyon is explicit. The fruit of your lips, your praise, your worship, your gratitude, your declarations of who he is, these are your offering. This is what you bring into the secret place that blesses the father, that touches his heart, that fulfills the fellowship he created you for.
Element three, make your demands boldly. This is where most believers spend all their time, but from entirely the wrong position. Kenyon writes in his presence that prayer means going into the presence of the father and Jesus in an executive meeting, laying needs before them, and making requisitions for ability, for grace, healing for someone, victory for someone, financial needs. Whatever the need may be, we are making a demand upon him. Making a demand, not begging, not pleading, not hoping, demanding, not because you are arrogant, because you know what belongs to you. You know what he promised. You know what redemption provided. And you come into the secret place as a son who knows his legal rights and makes his demands on that basis. Kenyon points to the woman who pressed through the crowd to touch Jesus. When virtue went out of him, Jesus said, "Someone has made a demand upon my ability." That is the picture of bold, faith-filled petition in the secret place, not a shy request from a distance, a confident demand from someone who knows what Jesus provided and is simply claiming it. So when you bring your needs into the secret place, you do not bring them apologetically. You bring them as a son standing on the word. Father, your word says by his stripes I was healed. I am making a demand for healing in this body right now in Jesus' name. Father, your word says my God shall supply all my need. I am making a demand for provision in this situation right now in Jesus' name. Father, your word says greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. I am making a demand for victory in this battle right now in Jesus' name. That is not presumption. That is the prayer of a son who knows his father's word and holds it up to him like a mirror. Kenyon writes that prayer is holding his word up to him. He sees himself in his word. He said it. You are asking him to do it. He promised. And God and his word are one.
Now element four, listen and fellowship. This is the part most believers skip entirely. And skipping it is why the secret place feels one-sided. Kenyan writes that prayer is talking it over with him, getting his views, his will, his plans. That implies conversation. Two directions. You speak and then you listen. You share and then you receive. You bring your heart and then you hear his. What does listening look like practically in the secret place? You stop talking. You become still. You turn your attention to your inner man. You pay attention to what your recreated spirit is receiving from the indwelling one. Is there a peace settling over something you brought as a concern? Is there a direction forming in your spirit about something you have been seeking guidance on? Is there a scripture rising in your inner man that speaks directly to what you just brought before the father? Is there a quiet knowing about a relationship, a decision, a next step? That is the fellowship Kenyon describes. Not one-sided petition followed by silence, but actual two-way communion. You speak, you listen, you give, you receive, you bring your heart, and you hear his. And the believer who has learned to do this consistently, who has developed the patience to sit in the secret place long enough to actually listen, discovers something that transforms their entire relationship with God. They discover that God has been wanting to say things to them for years, that he has direction and wisdom and comfort and instruction that he has been waiting to communicate. And all that was required was a believer who was willing to stop talking long enough to hear. This is what distinguishes the secret place from a prayer list. A prayer list is one-directional. You speak, you leave. The secret place is a visit. And in a real visit, both parties speak. Kenyon writes about a mother who one morning told her children she had forgotten to visit the master that morning. And so she lacked his quietness and his strength. She knew the difference not just in what she received from the encounter, but in what she brought back with her into the rest of her day. That is the fruit of the listening. That settledness. That peace that does not depend on circumstances. That quiet knowing about what to do next. That sense of being accompanied rather than alone. It does not come from talking at God. It comes from sitting with him long enough to hear what he is saying back. The secret place is a conversation, not a monologue. And the most important thing you can do after you have spoken is stop and listen.
Element five, meditate on the word. Kenyon writes in his presence, "Give yourself to meditation, prayer, and study of the word." And in the hidden man of the heart, he is specific about what meditation actually is. He says, "Shut yourself in alone with your own spirit where the clamor of the world is shut out." Take one verse, stay with it. Let it drop from the head into the spirit. Let it become a reality in the inner man rather than just a fact in the mind. The secret place is not complete without the word because the word is the primary way the father speaks objective truth into the spirit and meditation is the process by which that truth moves from information you know to reality you live in. Most believers read the Bible. Few meditate on it. And there is a difference as vast as the difference between looking at a meal and eating it. Reading gives you information. Meditation gives you transformation. When you take one verse in the secret place and you chew on it, personalize it, speak it out loud, ask it questions, let it settle into your inner man, something happens that no amount of petition or worship alone can produce. The word becomes alive. It stops being ink on paper and starts being a living reality in your spirit. And you carry that living reality out of the secret place into your day with you. Kenyon said, "The word of God must become flesh in you. Not information about God, not facts you can recite. The word becoming a present lived governing reality in your spirit through the sustained deliberate practice of meditating on it until it drops from the head into the heart." So in the secret place, you take one verse, one specific truth that speaks to something you are believing God for, something you need to become more real in your spirit than it currently is. And you stay with it. You speak it aloud. You pray it back to the father. You personalize it. You let it dwell richly in your inner man. You give it time to move from the surface of your thinking into the governing center of your spirit. That is meditation. And the secret place without it is incomplete.
Element six, pray in the spirit. Jude verse 20. "Building up yourselves on your most holy faith. Praying in the Holy Ghost." Building up. Every time you pray in the spirit in the secret place, you are adding another layer of strength to the inner man, another layer of sensitivity to the voice of God, another layer of capacity to receive from the indwelling one. You are doing construction work on the hidden man of the heart. And that construction work done consistently in the secret place produces an inner man that grows stronger and more developed every single day. The hidden man of the heart is the real you. And the real you needs to be built up, nourished, developed, strengthened just as your physical body needs food and exercise. Praying in the spirit is how that building happens at the deepest level. It bypasses the reasoning faculties. It goes directly from your spirit to the father and in the process it strengthens the very channel through which God leads, guides and communicates with you. The believer who prays in the spirit consistently in the secret place develops a sensitivity and a strength in their inner man that no other discipline can produce. The still small voice becomes clearer. The inward witness becomes more reliable. The leading of the Holy Spirit becomes more distinct because the inner man, the real receiver, has been built up. 1 Corinthians 14:14. "For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful." Your spirit prays the real you, the inner man, in direct communion with God in a language that bypasses the limitations of your natural mind. And the things accomplished in that communion, the intercessory work, the spiritual edification, the deepening of the channel cannot be produced any other way.
Six elements. Enter as a son. Bring the fruit of your lips. Make your demands boldly. Listen and fellowship. Meditate on the word. Pray in the spirit. That is the secret place. That is what you are supposed to do when you get there.
Now, let me show you what the secret place looks like when all six of these elements come together in one consistent daily practice. Not performed in rigid order, not executed as a checklist, but flowing naturally the way a real visit between people who love each other flows. You enter as a son. You remind yourself who you are and whose you are. You take your place boldly at the throne of grace, not because you earned it, but because Jesus provided it. You begin to worship. You bring the fruit of your lips, gratitude, honor, love. You give to the father what only you can give him. Your specific personal genuine words of thanksgiving for what he has done in your specific life. Then you make your demands on the word boldly as a son, not begging, standing. You bring every need before the father and you hold his word up to him as the basis of your request. Then you stop. You become still. You listen. You pay attention to what your spirit is receiving. You take one verse and you stay with it until it becomes alive in your inner man. And then you yield to the Holy Spirit. And you pray in the spirit, building up the hidden man, strengthening the inner man, keeping the channel open for everything the indwelling one wants to deposit in you. That is the secret place.
And here is what Kenyon says happens when a believer practices this consistently. He writes that "one cannot spend an hour in conscious communion with the father, the son, the spirit and the word without carrying away from that time a fragrance that fills the atmosphere." A fragrance, something that transfers from the secret place into every other area of your life. That peace, that settledness, that quiet authority, that joy that does not depend on circumstances, that wisdom that flows into decisions and relationships and challenges without striving. It does not come from activity. It comes from having been in the presence of the father long enough for something of him to settle on you and stay. Most believers are trying to produce in their daily lives what can only be received in the secret place. They are trying to manufacture peace by managing their circumstances, trying to produce wisdom by gathering more information, trying to generate strength by pushing harder. But Kenyon says all of it, the peace, the strength, the wisdom, the authority, the fragrance comes from one place, the secret place, from the daily consistent practice of visiting with the father. And here is what I want you to notice about the believers in your life who carry that fragrance. The ones who have a settledness that circumstances cannot shake. The ones who walk in a quiet authority that does not come from personality or gifting. The ones who seem to have access to wisdom and direction that others do not. They are not special. They are not more gifted. They have not received a supernatural impartation that was denied to you. They have simply learned to spend time in the secret place consistently daily with all six elements in place. And the fragrance of that encounter has accumulated in them over time until it is no longer something they carry occasionally. It is who they are. That is available to you starting today, not someday. Not when your schedule clears. Not when you feel spiritually ready. Today.
Now, let me address something that most believers feel when they hear teaching like this. They feel the gap between what is being described and what their actual experience of the secret place has been. And that gap produces a familiar shame. The sense that they have been doing it wrong. That they have wasted years of missed encounters. That they are too far behind to catch up. Hear this clearly. You are not behind. You are not disqualified. The Father has not been keeping score of the mornings you did not show up or the visits that were shallow or the times you ran out of things to say and left early. He has been waiting patiently, consistently with the same hunger for your company today that he had the first morning you ever sat down with him. And the moment you return, the moment you sit down and enter as a son and bring the fruit of your lips and make your demands and listen and meditate and pray in the spirit, the encounter that was always available resumes. No penalty, no waiting period, no spiritual rehabilitation required. Just a son coming home to a father who has been there the entire time.
So here is your challenge starting today. Stop approaching the secret place as an empty religious duty you check off the list. Start treating it as the rare opportunity Kenyon says it is. The opportunity to sit with the father who is hungry for your company. Here is what your secret place looks like from this day forward. You enter as a son. You remind yourself you belong there not because of your performance but because of what Jesus provided. You bring the fruit of your lips, gratitude, worship, honor. You give the father what only you can give him. You make your demands on the word boldly, specifically standing on what redemption provided. You stop and listen. You pay attention to what your spirit is receiving. You take one verse and let it become alive in your inner man. And you pray in the spirit, building up the hidden man, deepening the channel, strengthening the inner man for everything the day will bring. That is 30 minutes at minimum. Not 5, not 10, 30. Because Kenyon says you cannot spend an hour in conscious communion without carrying away the fragrance. And the fragrance is what changes everything. The peace that follows you into every meeting. The wisdom that rises in your spirit before your mind has had time to panic. The authority that flows naturally from a man or woman who has been with the father that is not produced by activity. It is not manufactured by effort. It accumulates quietly, consistently, invisibly in the inner man of the believer who keeps showing up in the secret place day after day until the day comes when people around you begin to notice something they cannot explain. A settledness, a peace, a quiet authority, a fragrance. And the only explanation is the one Kenyon gave for every believer who carried it. They spent time in the secret place.
Now I want to speak directly to the believer who has tried to be consistent in the secret place and failed. Who started with good intentions, kept a routine for 2 weeks, and then life interrupted and the habit broke. Who carries a quiet guilt about the inconsistency. Hear this. Consistency in the secret place is not built overnight. It is built the same way any habit is built. One decision at a time, one morning at a time. And the mornings you missed do not cancel the mornings you kept. They do not reset the inner man to zero. Every time you have ever been in the secret place, every word of worship, every demand made on the word, every moment of listening, every verse meditated on, every prayer in the spirit has deposited something in your hidden man that is still there. You do not start over. You simply resume. And the father who was there every morning you showed up is still there. The same hunger, the same welcome, the same desire for your company. Start again today, not Monday, not after the current season settles, today.
Now, here is something I want to add before we close because this teaching does not end here. We are currently working on a 90-day Bible reading plan designed to enrich your growth in the word. A structured daily plan that will take you deep into scripture in a way that feeds the inner man, develops sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and builds the kind of word-saturated spirit that makes the secret place increasingly rich and powerful over time. The details are in our community post. Check it now. Link in the community tab. We want you to be part of it from day one because the secret place and the word belong together. And a believer who is consistent in both, who is daily in the secret place and daily in the word is a believer who is building something in their inner man that circumstances cannot shake and the enemy cannot stop. Type one, enter the secret place daily in the comments right now. Not as a wish, as a declaration, as the commitment of a believer who now knows what the secret place is, what is supposed to happen there, and has chosen from this day forward to show up and do it. The father is there. He has always been there, hungry for your company, waiting for the visit. Now go.