EXTRACT

SPEAKING TO GOD IN SECRET

No one will ever understand speaking to God in the assembly until he understands speaking to God in his closet. I believe the closet is less understood than the holiest, at least mentally. The first thing is the closet, that is to say, the door shut to all others save God and yourself; you speak to God in secret. No doubt Moses had been accustomed to do that; he could never have become the man he was in the service of God had he not been accustomed to speak to God in secret. His brother Aaron too could never have had the place he had as priest in Israel save that he had been accustomed to speak to God in secret. God says, “I know him”, one of the finest things that could be said of any of us by God. If any man love God the same is known of God, and we become known to God as we, as it were, knock at His door. As we seek access, He opens it; the door is opened, as I have been saying, and as you enter your closet and shut your door and turn to God in the light in which He has drawn near to you in your circumstances; you will soon find the holiest, and you will soon find that your closet has become the holiest. The holiest is the presence of God, but in Jesus; it is what Jesus is before God. It is as if God would say to you, ‘These are the things that engage Me, and Christ is the centre’, and you take a place there. You are not the centre; the more you draw near, the more you see that Christ is the centre and all around is holy. Like the holy vessels of the sanctuary, all were anointed and all were in perfect keeping within; they stood in relation to the ark. So that it was no new thing for Moses to speak to God; he was accustomed to do it. Nor can any serve God or be honoured of God save one who speaks to Him, who makes everything a matter of speaking to God.

J. Taylor (Vol. 99, p.150)

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