The Secret of the Shut Door!

To be set on fire, you must get close to God. When you feel cold, distant, and "out of it" spiritually, it's time to retreat to the closet, place yourself before the fireplace of His word, and allow the intensity of His face to restore your fervency.”

― Bob Sorge,

His Word

⁵ And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. ⁶ But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Matthew 6:5-6

From my heart to yours

I really love Psalm 91 and the blessed assurance that accompanies dwelling in the secret place of the Lord; The guarantee of those who make the Lord their habitation to enjoy the protection of abiding under the shelter of His tabernacle. The Lord has been teaching me on the secrets of dwelling in His presence to behold His splendor, Beauty and Majestic glory.  He taught me about the blessedness of the shut door! The place of communion with the Father with everything else shut out. No TV, phone, Instagram, Facebook…etc. Just a simple girl, with my Bible, journal, highlighter, and the Lord who abides in the secret place. Occasionally the Lord through His Spirit will beckon me to go to His secret place because He has missed me. I would be still, sometimes standing amd ministering to the Lord, listen, pray, cry, meditate etc.

In here, the Lord teaches us on the blessedness and joy of cultivating a secret life of communion with Him. It is in the secret place that we can experience Him simply yet powerfully. The sheer delight of being tucked away in a nook, your door shut, you are curled up in a comfortable position, quiet, the word of God laid bare before thine eyes, Jesus present, the Holy Spirit gently washing your heart and the love of God is awakened in those silent moments of meditation of His amazing grace. At that place, your spirit is ignited and your mind renewed. You become aware of the presence of the Father. Here, you talk to your Father and He talks to you in an intimate language of laugh. He makes you laugh in the Holy Ghost-I love when this happens a lot!

Jesus teaches about the secret place of the Lord and when we shut ourselves off the world and lock our doors(figuratively), we automatically enter into  the presence of the Lord and the Father is already in the secret place. It is His habitation. Matthew 6:18… but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

When you shut your door, you enter the presence of your father regardless of how you feel. At the secret place, you experience the taste of Heaven. When you know that you are in His presence and don’t even feel it, the knowledge of His presence will cause your soul to be inclined to the presence of the Lord.

You need to shut that door!

Journal

·         Have you ever desired to experience a taste of Heaven?

·         Have you ever experienced God in His secret place?

·         You need to shut that door! Retreat somewhere and shut off the world and have communion with your Father. He is already at the secret place waiting for you darling.

Let’s Pray

Father, I choose to dwell in Your secret place this day and I pray for grace to say no the world and shut the door of distractions to seek You. Lord because I have made the choice to abide in the secret place of the Most High and make these declarations with my mouth, I am not afraid of  terror of the night nor the arrows of the wicked that flies by day.  I have no fear or dread or worry of the pestilence that stalks in the darkness.  I am not at all fearful of the destruction and sudden death that surprise and lay waste at noonday. A thousand of my enemies may fall at my side and ten thousand at my right hand but it never comes near me but with mine eyes will thine see the reward of the wicked. 

Because Lord You are my Refuge and the Most High my dwelling place no evil shall befall me nor any plague or calamity come near my house. Thank you that You will command  Your angels special charge over me to accompany me and to defend me and to preserve me in all my ways of obedience and service. The angels assigned to me will bear me up on their hands lest I should dash my foot against a stone.  I will tread upon the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent will I trample underfoot.  I am always above and never beneath. Amen, and because I have set my love upon the Lord, He will deliver me, the Lord will set me on high, because I know His name and massive will be  the overflow of His mercy, love and kindness.  With a long, happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous life He is satisfying me and showing me His salvation. Amen

Daughter of the Covenant (Chiddy)

#35

What is in a Name? Everything!

The Name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18:10You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. David.

His Word

³⁵ …“And the name of the city from that time on will be:the Lord is there.” Ezekiel 48:35 b
 ¹⁵ He said: “Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the Lord says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s. 2 Chronicles 20:15
¹³ Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. ¹⁴ The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:13-14
¹⁸ That men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the most high over all the earth. Psalm 83:18
 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord Our Righteousness. Jeremiah 23:6

From my heart to yours

For a while, I have been researching the meaning of my maiden name Adisa in our local dialect. Unfortunately, I have never been lucky to find the exact meaning even from grandma. My name originates from Yoruba. The meaning of Adisa in Yoruba, Nigeria is One who makes himself clear. Elizabeth on the other hand means the Lord has Redeemed.—turned my life around and gave me double honor instead of shame. Not long ago, I was found in a dangerous place that saw me have an experience with my Maker and had to be baptized with a new name Chidimma because of the testament of the experience. Chidimma means God is good. Well, let’s switch from my names escapade and go to what’s important naming remains a significant thing.

What is there in a name? You ask, Everything. Absolutely everything! When Moses is sent to Pharaoh, he asks…And whom shall I say has sent me? The Lord responded and said, it is I, The Great  I AM THAT I AM. I have been thinking about God and all His names and I must say there is something about Nigerian culture that I love. They have a name for God for everything the Bible says about Him. They call Him names like:
Olugbala -(Our saviour)
Olorun ajinde-(The resurrected Lord)
Olugbega-(The lifter of our head
Awamaridi-(Unsearchable God)
Olowogbogboro-(God whose hand is long enough to reach at any length) and I found that to be really powerful.

From the readings shared, the psalmist makes a prayer to God concerning the enemies of Israel and he says, Lord, confound them in their wickedness that they (enemies of Israel) may know thy Name; that thou art Jehovah! There is something about knowing the Name of God and experiencing the power behind the name of God that means absolutely everything. Jehovah was known in Israel as the Incommunicable inexplicable, the Self-existing One, the I AM, Immortal, Invisible and Unsearchable God.

When Abraham was about to sacrifice his son and Gods providence met him, he called Him Jehovah Jire, the Lord will provide.
Moses with the Israelites when they realized God was fighting for them like He did later with Jehoshaphat, he called Him Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our banner.
Gideon, when they were up against the Midianites and the Lord gave them peace; he called Him Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our Peace.
Jeremiah too had to remind the Israelites about a name of the Lord they had forgotten. That actually, we only have access to the LORD because of Christ.  He called Him Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our righteousness.
Ezekiel also called Him, Jehovah Shammah, the Lord who is already there!
Yes, there is everything in a name and especially the Name of the Lord.

Journal

• Do you know God by His Names?
• Do you just know thousands of God’s Names and have never experienced the power of the very Names?

There is everything in the Name. God wants us to not only know His Names but experience His Names. That when we call Him Alagbada Ina, the one whose clothed with fire, then we can sing the song Consuming Fire by D Psalmist with a revelation that actually, it is not vain words we are repeating. We are calling Him for who He is and He is arising to consume evil works.
Let’s Pray
Father, this week we pray that we will not only know Your Name Lord but we will experience You in the power of Your Name. Allow us to experience You Father as we seek you in Your Word and in Communion. Let Your daughters testify that we have seen the Lord. Amen

Daughter of the Covenant (Chiddy)
#34

A Faith like No Other:Tested through the Fire

When we learn how to battle with the sword of the Spirit, with its two edges of the Word and God’s Holy Spirit, the enemy will flee before us.”
― Linda Evans Shepherd,

His Word

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11: 1,6
 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. ³² But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:31


From my heart to yours
A while back, I was doing a study of Luke and when I got to chapter 22, there were profound lessons I drew; and a major one to strengthen my spiritual walk from a conversation Jesus has with Peter before His arrest. This is the same Simon who was given a new name Peter which means rock. Simon means weakness. At this time before he betrays Jesus, Jesus calls him two times, Simon, Simon- weakness, weakness and what does Jesus say, Satan our adversary has desired to sift Simon like wheat but the Lord Jesus prayed that he’d be strengthen and that his faith fails not so that after that, Simon will be His ambassador and be used to strengthen others.

Literally speaking, the process of wheat sifting is not easy, you first have to cut down the wheat, tie it down and crush and shake it off. Such a painful sifting process that the enemy has desired to work on not only to Peter but to all believers. The biggest encouragement though was that Jesus has already prayed that we be strengthen when we go through this fire so that we can testify and strengthen others with the testimony of our victory in the name of the Lord. In winning such kind of battles, faith becomes a critical component of our armor.

In letter to Ephesians, Paul admonishes the believers to put on the full armor of God and that shield of faith is to be used to extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one that flies by day. Ephesians 6:10-18, Psalms 91:5-8. The past few months have been a time of refinery for me and sifting but in all this I have continued to see the strong arm of the Lord contending with my contenders, Psalms 35. Faith then helps us to see and behold that which is not as if it is because we know whom we have believeth and are persuaded that His Word is true and is spirit and life to us who believe.
Faith does not see, it just believes before seeing the tangible. It believes in God and takes Him at His Word.
It is such faith that conquers battles, withstands adversity, it’s not ordinary, transforms people, its irresistible, it resists Satan, it’s not staggering, unwavering, it’s a faith that thrives through rough seasons, it’s a winning faith that travels with confidence and trust on the Lord  through a route it has never treaded before. It’s an Elijah kind of faith that commands the heaven and calls fire from heaven. It is that faith that pleases God. It is the apostolic faith that quenches the fiery darts of evil. God wants such faith in His Solders!

Journal

Has your faith ever been tried through fire?
What lessons did you draw during that season and how has it built your faith in the Lord?
Faith believes God when the physical eyes can’t see. Faiths comes by hearing the Word of God, are you taking time to study, practice and teach the Word of God like Ezra devoted himself so that your faith is unshaken?

Let’s Pray
Father, this week we ask for one thing, help us build our faith in You and the power in Your Word. Release Your grace of faith that cannot fizzle out in the midst of adversity Lord upon Your Daughters; That we will have unquenchable fire of the Lord in our lives to quench the arrows of enemy and resist him in Jesus Name. And if there be any unbelief in us, Lord help our unbelief. Amen.

Daughter of the Covenant

#33