A Secret Place - Annie Loup - LionGate Church - Baton Rouge, LA

 Mountains and Gardens.  As we read the gospels, we see Jesus coming apart from the crowds to spend time alone praying…. communing with the Father. He often stated that He only said and did the things that He heard and saw from the Father.  The gospels tell us numerous times that He went “alone into the mountains to pray.” I’ve toured the land of Israel and stood looking upon the Jezreel valley from the precipice from which the angry mob threatened to throw down the Son of Man, stood amazed while gazing out from Mount Carmel, hiked the streams of En Gedi overlooking the Dead Sea. The views from these and other high places throughout the land are spectacular, and from any number of them you get a strange sense that you could see all of Israel laid out before you.  The Promised Land.

I’ve walked along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, imagining myself walking in the footsteps of the greatest Rabbi to ever grace the face of this earth. I’ve reverently stroked the trunks of thousands-and-more year-old olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane where great drops of blood were sweated out in agonized pre-crucifixion prayer.  I’ve also stood in awe at the garden tomb where His expired human body lay while Spirit-breathed life restored unto Resurrection.

“You are a garden spring, a well of fresh water, and flowing springs of Lebanon (Song of Songs 4:15…Awake, north wind, and come wind of the south, make my garden breathe out fragrance (Ch. 4:16a).I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride (Ch. 5:1a).”

There is a garden I go to when I pray.  It’s my own secret place, and I wonder if you can relate.  My prayer garden is very intimate, hidden away in the cleft of a mountain near a clear refreshing pool fed by the River of Life, beautiful fragrant vegetation all around, and a valley of verdant green grass-covered hills in the distance.  As you have probably deduced, it’s not an actual physical place, but within it lies all of the Promises (and more) of that other Promised Land. Jesus bought this little piece of real estate for me at a price I could never pay, and He is always waiting for me there, ready to sit, dance, walk, talk in the cool of the day.  It’s “location” is in my heart where He dwells with all the fullness of the Godhead contained within and it’s mine to dress and to keep.  In this secret intimate place of communion, He is always receiving me with gladness and reminding me of the truth that I am a Daughter of Yahweh and Heir with Him of a Kingdom that is not of this natural world.  And yet within this Kingdom is the natural world contained, groaning for release from the ravages of sin, abuse, and decay, by the Sons of its Creator who know their identity and how to function from within it.

He is teaching me as a Son of His Kingdom how to rule and reign with Him from this place of rest from my own human labors in the light of His finished work.  Our vantage point is high, a heavenly place.  From it We can look within, and He shows me how to root out the “little foxes that spoil the vine.” For it’s here in His Presence that I am changed and refreshed.  From it We can also look out, and He teaches me how to hear and see the Father’s Desire for His Creation. He instructs me on how to decree, declare and release those desires according to His good pleasure. For it’s from this place that We change the world.

A dear old friend who knew me back when I was a timid and foolish sort of child-believer asked me to jot down some thoughts on how prayer has impacted my life.  While I do have other stories to tell on the subject, the Lord directed my thoughts to write in a more intimate vein.  I hope that you have been inspired and encouraged by them.

“God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love for us…made us alive together with Christ…and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…” (Ephesians 2:4-6)

“For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God…. creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:19-20, paraphrased)