THE HIDDEN LIFE

Neh 4:8 And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.

Neh 4:9 Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.

Neh 4:10 And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.

Neh 4:11 And our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease.

Neh 4:12 And it came to pass, that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us ten times, From all places whence ye shall return unto us they will be upon you.

Neh 4:13 Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall, and on the higher places, I even set the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows.

Neh 4:14 And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.

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A FREED MIND

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We Must Simplify Our God-Given Priorities and Make Our Daily Schedule Meet Those Priorities. God's people have cluttered their lives with things that are of no eternal value. examine our priorities. If anything is robbing us of our walk with Christ then it must be forsaken. find some very powerful instruction in II Timothy 2:4, which says, "No man that warreth entangle himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

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Please note what it is really saying here, "No man (meaning absolutely no one) that war (that enters into the spiritual warfare arena) entangleth himself with the affairs of this life (he cannot be affective if he is tangled up with or caught up in things of this life). Why do we have trouble doing what this verse says?

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We have trouble doing this because we are too involved in this world. We are supposed to be pilgrims passing through. We are strangers in this world and need to remember this world is not our home. We must decide to de-clutter our lives from things that distract us from the things of God.

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Jesus gave a parable concerning the sower and the seed to help us understand this principle. He said the seed, which is the Word of God, will go forth. If the cares of the world are in our lives, they will soon choke the things of God out of our lives. Our passions should not be sports, hunting or fishing. Now, there is no sin in these hobbies, but when we as God's people know the score of the football game, but we are not familiar with our Sunday School lesson before entering our classes on Sunday, we are not right with God. If we seem to glory in what we caught or what we shot instead of the people who we win and what we have seen the Lord do, then we are not right with God.

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When the dominating topic of our conversation is not the Cross, the things of God or the passion for a move of God, once again, we are not right with God.

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We do not have a warfare mentality.

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“The Mindset of a Spiritual Warrior Makes the Cross the Preeminent theme of conversation and the things of God the focal point of life”

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You may not agree with me on these issues, but it is the truth and I stand behind it.

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We Must Willingly Reclaim Any "Ground" that We Have Given to Satan in Our Personal Lives. Ephesians 4:27

Ephesians 4:27 KJV 1900

27 Neither give place to the devil.

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tells us that we are not to give place to the Devil. Many of God's people really do not understand this truth. They think they can approach doing what God wants them to do and what God wants them to be with an attitude. They think that He will understand if they do some of what God wants them to do and be some of what God wants them to be. God is looking for men, women, teenagers and children that are yielded to Him. They have examined every area of their lives and have given all to Jesus, to use for His glory. We must clear our conscience of any guilt so we will not hinder the desire and power of God's grace. If we do not, it will shipwreck our faith

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1 Timothy 1:18. 19 says, "This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy; according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; "Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away; concerning faith have made shipwreck:"

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There are so many of God's people operating daily with bitterness, unforgiveness, and having odds against one another. They do not understand that these things hinder the work of God in their personal lives, marriages, home and churches. We must not give an inch to the Enemy; instead, we must reclaim territory controlled by the Enemy.

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Our best from God may be the area of our entertainment life, music life, thought life or som type of relationship. It may be found in the fact that we are harboring unforgiveness, bitterness, anger lust and greed in our hearts. That territory or ground is either in the control of the Enemy or under God's control.

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Many people, whether in full-time Christian service or a layperson, who have had severe struggles in their thought life.

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If we will help others, we must live the victory ourselves. When we go up against the Enemy on behalf of another person, the Enemy will attack us through our own personal failures. He will not move from the controlled ground it our own sins have not been confessed and forsaken: furthermore, He will not move if our own conscience has not been thoroughly cleared of all guilt and condemnation. We lose our authority with him whet we have ground that is not under God's control.

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First, we must pray to God and be transparent with Him. We must let Him know we want to be pure and that we want to make sure that there is nothing between Him and us. Second!! we must claim the blood of Jesus Christ, won on the Cross, for cleansing.

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A PRAYERFUL MIND

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We Must Take Seriously the Development of a Real Personal and Corporate Pray Ministry to Be Successful in Dealing with the Enemy.

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Paul again gives us powerful instruct regarding our prayer life. He writes to young Timothy, "I exhort that, first of all. supplications, prayer, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; "For kings, and for that are in authority..." ( Timothy 2:1-2a)

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Isaiah 56:7 KJV 1900

7 Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, And make them joyful in my house of prayer: Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; For mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.

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When we pray we should expect God to work supernaturally in answering our prayer, especially for of our requests that are following His Word. This even works in the lives of non-Christians: for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 'Who will have all men to be save and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."

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Psalm 2:8a KJV 1900

8 Ask of me, And I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.

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1 Timothy 2:3–4 KJV 1900

3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;

4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

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The powers of darkness are working day and night to blind the eyes of the lost from glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our hearts should be broken over their "lostness" and over hardness of their hearts, that we find ourselves before the Lord begging for the Gospel light to penetrate the darkness, that their eyes would be enlightened to the Gospel.

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Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:5. "That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." Glory to God that there is a power that is of God. it cannot be explained by human wisdom or resources. That power is found in true believing prayer. Notice he says, "That your faith should nor stand in the wisdom of men..." This verse lets us know that if we are making our stand or if our foundation, on which we are standing. is in the wisdom of men, it will not support us. Our stand needs to be founded upon the power of God. The proof or evidence of what we are standing on is proven to God, in and through our prayer life.

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1 Timothy 2:8 says, "I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. " There is no question what this is saying. A five-year-old child could understand this verse. What would happen if men in our churches would take this as a personal call of God to begin every day with their hands lifted in surrender to God, praying everywhere in faith, believing and trusting God and having all of their confidence in the Lord?

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Do you recall the challenge Jesus gave in Matthew 26:40b-41a? It says, "What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.

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" Every time I read this verse, my heart breaks and is smitten. Why can we do so many things that entertain and amuse us, but we cannot spend one hour a day before the Lord? The answer is that we do not believe our time spent with the Lord would be productive. We believe that we can get up and do it ourselves as good and as fast as the Lord. We are "humanistic Christians. We say we trust in the Lord, but we do not pray. There will be no effective warfare taking place if there is no warfare prayer.

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Luke 11:la tells us that Jesus had a certain place in which He went to pray. It says, "And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place....

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" As individuals, we need to establish a definite time and place where we can meet the Lord in prayer. We need a prayer closet. It does not have to be a real closet, but it needs to be a SECRET place in which we can go to in prayer and cry out to God. Matthew 6:6 says,

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"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: "

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It is in that closet that we dress ourselves spiritually. It is in that closet that we put off the old man and put on the new. In that prayer closet, we put on the whole armor of God so that we can stand against all the wiles of the Enemy.

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Be prepared for the Enemy to bring hindrances to keep us from praying because he knows tha his kingdom is in danger when God's people pray. Nothing disturbs the kingdom’s darkness more than praying men and women. The Devil does not know what to do with a praying man. He does not know what to do with a man or woman that is bent down on their knees. They arr untouchable, invincible and too close to Heaven to touch.

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We should begin to combine fasting and prayer when facing impossible circumstances an difficult challenges. Jesus promises that when we fast and pray in seeret, He will reward us openly Some spiritual strongholds are conquered only, "by prayer and fasting." according to Matthew

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17:21. Fasting is, in fact, one of the keys to loosing that which we have been in bondage to. Isaiah 58: says, "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bards of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?"

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In my personal life, I cannot think of anything the Enemy fights more than prayer. I must constantly push myself to the place of prayer. Sometimes it is not so difficult, but we all have tendencies to do and not pray about what we are doing.

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In the Word of God, we hear the instruction of the Lord when John speaks and says, "And thi is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he hearth us:

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And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. " (1 John 5:14-15). According to this verse, if we want our prayers to be answered, we must be praying for God's will and not our will. Jesus taught His disciples to pray, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth." (Luke 11:2) God is looking for men and women who are willing to position themselves in a place where they can hear from God and what His will i and then pray that His will that is fulfilled in Heaven be done on earth. When we do this, we are literally praying for what God has already desired to be done. In return, God can bring what He has already planned in Heaven to earth. Real prayer is letting God give our minds His will; then us praying, His will. The prayer of His saints then returns back to Heaven, so that He can complete what He wanted to in the first place.

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We need personal prayer and corporate prayer. Our churches have organized soul-winning choir practices, Sunday schools, bus routes and music programs, but we do not have organized prayer ministries. We need ladies who do not want to gather together to gossip, sharing things that should not be shared. They should have prayer on their hearts and are motivated to meet in prayer at designated times and places. They should be praying for souls to be delivered, their spiritual authorities and their church families.

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Furthermore, we need spiritual men, desire to see the power of God and the Enemy destroyed. They should be gathering on their knees to bathe their preacher and spiritual leaders in believing prayer, so every need might be met.

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Where are the prayer warriors? God's Word is so plain in II Chronicles 16:9, "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him...

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" God is looking for us to be that man, woman, teenager or child.

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Ezekiel 22:30 says, "And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. " He sought for a man that would stand in the gap and make up the hedge, but he found none. What a sad commentary for God to search for a man and find none.

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Isaiah 59:16 says, " And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor.... He wondered why there was no intercessor. Have you ever wondered why there are no intercessors? I am under so much conviction these days; we have Sunday school rooms, meeting rooms, conference rooms, rest rooms, cating rooms - but no prayer rooms. What would it say to God if we would build a place, a special place, designated just for the practice of prayer?

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God's Word speaks loud and clear to us, we must not ignore it. We have not because we ask not. James tells us that " the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much". Think about it! "The effectual (meaning the effective, impacting, life changing) prayer (crying out to God, lifting our voices to Him) of a righteous man (a man that has confessed up sin, forsaken sin and has, therefore, made no more provision for his sin) availeth much (God will make much available to him)".

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There is so much more of the Lord than what we are experiencing today. There are so many more victories to be won, if we would only take our position in warfare prayer and believe God, taking up the shield of faith and trusting in Him for deliverance.

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A VIGILANT MIND

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We Must See that Everything We Do as Believers Involves Warfare.

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Psalm 18:34a KJV 1900

34 He teacheth my hands to war, So that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.‌‌

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​Luke 10:19 KJV 1900

19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

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says, "He teacheth my hand to war..."

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Psalm 144:1 says, "Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight."

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Spiritual warfare is not just a prayer prayed or a demon rebuked, it is a lifestyle. A soldier is not just a soldier once in a while, he is a soldier at all times. It is a lifestyle. It is not just a once-in-a-while whim we have, but a life lived. Once we develop the mindset that everything involves warfare, we begin to see that everything we do is under attack. If there is any ground to be taken, it must be fought for and reclaimed for the Lord.

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When a preacher preaches, it is warfare. Preachers are not just preaching to people's ears, we are preaching in the face of the forces of darkness. The demonic fowls of the air are doing everything possible to snatch the Word of God right from the hearers. The prince of the power of the air is working to keep the air filled with lies, not truth. Praise be to God! I thank God that the Lord is Master over the prince of the power of the air. When we preach, we should pray the air would be clear from all demonic powers.

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When a person takes up the offering, it is warfare. Every usher should take upon himself a personal responsibility to pray Satan would not hinder the offerings, that the Devil would be bound off of those giving and the resources that God has for His church would be loosed.

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If one plays the piano, sings a special, sings in the choir, teaches a Sunday school class or drives a bus, it is all against the kingdom of darkness. If it is not being done in a warfare mode, to do Satan harm, then we are performing, not battling. Everything we do is warfare.

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I do not know how to express this powerful truth. I pray God would reveal this to hundreds of preachers, laymen, deacons and servants of the Lord. Once we accept this truth, we will see everything done in a position of spiritual warfare.

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Even being a good father, mother, grandfather or grandmother is all spiritual warfare. Being the husband my wife needs, or the ladies being the wives they need to be in the Lord, is spiritual warfare.

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The enemy does not want us to reach our potential in these areas. In these areas, we become a destructive force against the kingdom of sin, darkness and death. Everything we do is warfare!

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A YIELDED MIND

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We Must Willingly Yield Ourselves to be Weapons for God to Use Against the Powers of Darkness. Some time back at a youth camp where I was preaching. I was studying God's Word in th area of Romans 6. This chapter of the Bible has intrigued me more than any other chapter of the Bible There is so much there.

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While at camp, I was looking at Romans 6:11-13, 16. It says, "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12Let not sin reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 16Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servant ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?"

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Notice we are to yield ourselves to God as instruments. He is saying here that in the past we yielded our members as instruments or "weapons" of unrighteousness unto sin, now "with the same zeal, determination and passion,” we must yield ourselves to be a "weapon" for righteousness unto God.

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As we yield our members - our minds, emotions, wills, hands, feet, eyes and legs (our entire being) each member becomes as weapons in the hands of a mighty God to use as He sees fit. God can then take and swing us as swords in any direction He needs to destroy the works of the devil.

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Once we surrender and submit ourselves to Him with the same or even more zeal, dedication and devotion, then what we use to be as weapons of unrighteousness, we become an unstoppable force in the hands of God.

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The Christian that does this will become the Devil's worst nightmare. May many of us cause him much unrest. We need to rise out of this self-centered position of being victims and develop a selfless, spiritual position of victorious warriors. We must move from a defensive position to an offensive position. Matthew 16:18 tells us that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church of Jesus Christ. We take this offensive position against the gates of hell, then put them on a defensive position.

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Matthew 16:18 KJV 1900

18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

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Acts 19:13-15 says, "Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. "And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so.

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15 And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?"

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We have spent so much of our time trying to get earthly fame, when we should spend our time getting our name known in the dark realms. I John 3:8b

1 John 3:8b KJV 1900

8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

says, "..For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." It is through His church that He wants to manifest the victory over the Devil in this world. Jesus destroyed and put the works of the devil to death, but victory is to be appropriated through "soldiers of Jesus Christ."

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Welcome to the warfare mentality! So engage and do battle. For if God be for us, who can be against us? Never forget, greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world. We are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus, thanks be to God who gives us victory through the Lord Jesus Christ.

THE HIDDEN LIFE

In God's Word we find, from cover to cover, the continual exhortation that points us to the hidden life. Many of God's people do not know what this "hidden life is. My prayer is that this chapter will be a fresh revelation to your heart that will take you to your closet and through your hidden life; your public life will then experience the rewards of God.

We are living in a day of performance and show. We have developed, among our ranks, an ability to discipline ourselves to do things, perform, and accomplish much in the energy of our flesh.

But, I tell you, all that we do in the energy of our flesh, all the preaching, singing, teaching, bus-calling, piano-playing, special songs, administrating, parenting, etc., will not count for one ounce at the judgment seat of Christ for eternity

Not one thing at the Bema seat will be left after the fire hits it if it was not accomplished by the power and initiation of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. We read a very convicting portion of Scripture that tells us that some will stand before God one day and remind Him that they did great works in His name. Matthew 7:22-23 says, "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them. I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. " They cast out demons, healed, preached, taught and served in His name, yet Jesus responds to them with these words, "Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. I never knew you."

Many works are being done that are works of iniquity. They were deeds, words, messages, songs, actions, that were good in their intentions, but the leadership of the Spirit of God did not initiate them. We have come to the place in our churches where we do not need God. We know how to talk-the-talk, walk-the-walk and sing-the-songs without the need of Him.

We have learned to lean unto our own understanding. We have trusted in the number we count in attendance. God's Word tells us that we are not to lean unto our own understanding or our own numbers. We are not to gage our success on how many we had, nor compare ourselves with ourselves, We will be judged by what sort of work is accomplished, not by the size of our work.

Check it out with I Corinthians 3:13, "Every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is, "'We are not to look to our training, our own knowledge or ourselves; knowledge puffeth up but revelation impacts lives. God calls us to lift up our eyes unto the hills from whence cometh our help, our help comes from the Lord.

As we read God's Word, we see that God instructed Elijah to hide himself before he showed himself. The apostle Paul realized early that he needed to develop a hidden life before his public life. Moses was hidden for forty years as God prepared him for his forty years of wilderness with the people of God. We should be spending hours before God, for the minutes that we stand before God's people. There should not be the showing without the hiding. We should not stand before men until we have kneeled before our God. Everyday, every believer should go to the Garden Gethsemane and pray, "Father, not my will be done, but Thine be done. I will drink the cup of death to self, the cup of death to accomplish things in the energy of the flesh and the cup of bitter self. denial. I will decrease and allow You to increase. Hide me in You; and show Yourself through today. Let me not show myself, saying it is You."

We should look at the life of Jesus Christ. We should study His life to find a consistent patten of Him hiding Himself before He showed Himself. If the Lord of all Glory, who lived in perfect harmony with the Father, who never sinned and who was in tune with the Father at all times, needed to hide Himself, do we not think that we need to hide ourselves today before we show yourselves?

In Matthew 6:6, Jesus said, "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."

We have men who pray over our offerings in public but did not pray for the offering private. We pray in public like the Pharisees, for show, but we do not pray in private for God blessings in our public life. Our righteousness is like that of the Scribes and the Pharisees, yet Jesus said that our righteousness should exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees.

We have people out door-knocking, begging people to be saved, but they did not knock

Heaven's door first to ask God to use them to get people saved. Did not our Lord tell us, "Knock and shall be opened unto you...?" I am concerned that we have developed a congregation of doers but not hearers. We do hear, but we do not spend time listening to Him. Oh, let this touch your heart.

I am not advocating that we stop door-knocking. but let us start knocking on God's door before we knock on man's door. There is so much public life, without private life; so much in the lights, but not in the night; and too much stage life, without secret life. If we do pray, we tell everyone about it.

It is time for God's people to understand that our Enemy works seven days a week, 24 hours a day and wants no credit for what he does. God's people would do good to take on the same mentality. Work all we can, and we want no credit for it. Let God have the glory.

While the gay agenda, the sodomites, are coming out of the closet, God's men and women need to get back into their closets. If we had been in our closets, the homosexuals would have never come out of their closets. Jesus calls us to two lives - one is the private life and the other is the public life.

But, there is no real eternal success without the private life coming before the public life.

The most significant challenges in my life are in two areas. One is the area of my Bible reading and the second is my prayer time. During the Herbals Revivals, the spirit of revival spread like wildfire. It was reported that the reason the fires spread at such a fast and dominating pace, was that before the revival, the children in the public school had memorized hundreds of Scriptures as a part of their education. Even though the gospel had not been preached, there was so much wood in the stove (that being the Word of God in the hearts of the children and teenagers) that when the fire fell, there was fuel for the fire to burn. And GOD it did!

We, in America, see the fire fall here and there, yet it burns out before we are even out the door of the church house. Why was it not the fire of God? Yes, it was, but there was not enough fuel for the fire to keep going. God's Word says in Proverbs 26:20, "Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out...

The lacking element today is that we are operating on our past knowledge of God's Word, and not fresh, daily revelation from God's Word. We have become satisfied with what we already know. But, if we are ever going to have revival and become effective in spiritual warfare, we must give the Holy Spirit His mightiest weapon, the "Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God."

We must develop an unusual and extraordinary working relationship with the Word of God. For the Spirit to draw the sword out of the sheath, one must spend much time loading the sheath with the Spiritual Sword. When Jesus fought against the Enemy in the wilderness, He used the Word of God.

So it is today. We need the Word of God. We need to know the Old Book inside and out.

Reading one or two chapters daily will never make soldiers out of God's people. It will, at best, help us defend ourselves, but it will never put us on the offensive as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Hours need to be spent in hours Word, not minutes,

The second area that we must get back to is prayer. That's right; prayer is the lost art of the church in America. We do not pray; we play. We do not fast; we feast. We do not watch in prayer, we watch television. Notice that prayer, fasting and giving should all be done privately, yet in reality, they are rarely done in private. When they are done, they are done in public. Again, our righteousness has not exceeded the righteousness of the Pharisees. God help us.

Our prayer closet is our spiritual dressing room. It is there that the armor of God is to be put on daily. It is there that one can equip oneself to do battle. In prayer, one can hear from our Captain and Chief, the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is in prayer that God will speak and give us our marching orders.

It is said that the sun never rose on China without finding Hudson Taylor on his knees. No wonder we read how the China Inland Mission was so wonderfully used of God. If one studies the lives of the men of God who really impacted their generation, we will find that they hid themselves before they ever showed themselves.

There is time for everything else, but there is no time for prayer. We have time to read the USA Today or Newsweek, but we do not have time to talk to God in prayer. There is nothing wrong with God. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. It is God's people who are short. circuited. We must repent.

The forces of darkness do not care if we go door-knocking on every street in our city, as long as we do not knock on Heaven's door first. The Devil cares nothing about our studies and all the Bib! The knowledge that we gain, for knowledge, puffeth up. But he worries when he finds a man, woman, boy or girl on their knees begging God for daily bread and insight.

The Enemy does not care if we sing every note perfectly and professionally. He hopes that we perform, instead of minister from our prayer room. The prayer altars are vacant and because of vacancy, we have vacant church altars. Our offerings are low because God's people refuse to get , low on their knees before they ever take an offering. Our baptisteries are not stirred because our heart are not stirred in prayer. Our songs are dry because our eyes are dry.

If I could tell you from my heart, as I write this chapter, the hidden life is more important then our public life. What I do privacy is more important than what I do in the pulpit. We will have to die to our desire to live publicly before getting life in private. But, in dying, we will experience the resurrected life of Jesus Christ. Doing so will accomplish more in our prayer closet during one hour than we would accomplish for God in 100 hours of labor in our own strength.