The Secret Place | Pastor Brian Bullock

Let's go to the book of Psalm, chapter 91.

Psalms 91 · chapter mention

Let's go to verses 1 through 2.

Psalms 91.

Let's look at verse 1 through 2.

Ken, if you could try to get him seat as fast as possible and get a man and sit down.

We're going to get right into this word.

Let's go to the book of Psalm, chapter 91, verse 1 to 2.

Psalms 91:1–2

Y'all ready to get into the word?

All right, man, hill, let's make it do what it do.

Let's go old school.

We're going to read it together in the Psalm 91, verse 1 and 2.

Psalms 91:1

Y'all ready?

Let's go read.

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Verse 2.

I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, and Him will I will trust.

The title of my message today is The Secret Place.

The secret place.

Let your voice be louder than mine.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Everybody say.

Everybody say.

Amen.

Can you slap the person in front of you and say the secret place?

Can you slap them in here?

Just slap them.

No, slap the person in front of you.

Slap the person in front of you.

Can you slap the person in front of you and say the secret place?

If you slap him, he ain't gonna do nothing.

Trust me, Luther's not gonna help.

Luther's one of the teddy bears.

He's a teddy bear, trust him.

Growing up, we played what I consider real games.

Uh, who's here 13 and under?

Who where are my 13-year-olds?

13 and under.

How old are you, man?

You 10?

Back in my day.

We used to play real games.

Okay?

We play games like Duck Duck Goose.

You remember Duck Duck Goose?

Duck the Goose.

And then you run around in a circle and because they try to catch you.

We used to play stuff like freeze tag.

Tag your head.

Red light, green light, green light, red light, green light, red light.

Red.

We used to play Mother May I.

We we used to play Red Rover, Red Rover.

Send Johnny on over.

And we used to grab hands and Johnny trying to break through and can't break this wall.

Come on now.

We used to play Simon says.

Anyone remember Simon says?

You ever heard of Simon says?

There you go.

That's you got it.

You got a good pair.

Simon says, You ever heard of Simon says?

Come on, man.

Simon says, do this.

Simon says, do this.

Simon says, do this.

Do this.

I gotcha.

I don't be making me quote stuff.

That's like that's Freddie Krueger coming out of the dot.

No, I don't.

I ain't about to just start saying stuff.

We played real games.

One of the games we played was hide and go seek.

And the cool part about hide and go seek is if you were good, if you were good and you had a really good hiding place, it was just funny.

The best hiding places were the one where you could see people trying to find you and they can't.

And they're just looking around, trying to see where you are, and nobody can find you.

It's it's amazing that you can be in a hiding place.

And and people are calling your name, but they can't see you.

You're you're in a hiding place, and people are are trying to find you, and there's chaos all around you, and noise everywhere, but can't nobody find you because you are somewhere in your hiding place.

I came to preach to you today because prayer is a hiding place.

Come on, say prayer is a hiding place.

Prayer is where I step away from the noise of life and hide myself in the presence of God.

When you pray, it's as if you are in a hidden place from the world and everything else that is going on.

No, no, prayer is not just religious activity, prayer is not just a church thing we do, prayer is not just a cultural thing we do sometimes.

Prayer is a hiding place, it is where God places you and something we call the secret place.

Pastor, what is the secret place?

The secret place is the intentional space where I withdraw from the noise, turn my attention toward God, and allow his presence, word, and voice to strengthen my soul.

That's all good.

What is the secret place?

The secret place is the intentional space where I withdraw from the noise, turn my attention toward God and allow his presence, word, and voice to strengthen my soul.

The secret place is not where I go to hide from my responsibilities, it's where I go to get strength to face my responsibilities.

And so you gotta find the secret place.

Some of you, you don't need another vacation, you are vacationed out.

You don't been on every trip, you don't, you know, you don't been on your girl trip, guys' trip, bachelor trip, bachelorette trip, just got a job trip, just lost my job trip, got a new man trip, broke up trip.

You got them all.

So some of you, you don't need another vacation, you need the secret place.

Everybody in here, many heel, hear me when I say this.

Everybody in here got some type of vice you use as an escape.

All of us have a vice, okay?

Some of you are not eating food, you're escaping some pain.

Oh, some of us in here, let's keep it 100.

I know my church, I know the people in here, some of y'all vape.

Everybody at the hookah lounge ain't there having a fun, they're there to escape.

Push your neighbor, say, What is that?

I never heard of hook a day in my life.

What is hook?

What is hook?

Come on now.

Some people use relationships, uh uh, uh, different partners, different people, some some type of vice, alcohol, right?

Success, uh, uh, uh, uh, overworking, some type of vice to escape reality.

And the truth is, if you ever find the secret place, you wouldn't have to rely on vices to bring you somewhere that God has already taken care of in your life.

Part of the reason why you run into these temporary reliefs is because you have not spent time in the secret place.

But if you ever get into the secret place, he don't just numb you from pain, he gives you strength to confront the things that are happening in your life, and things start to change and shift when you are in the secret place.

You want to know what's so crazy about the secret place?

You can be sitting in your car and be in the secret place.

You can be at your cubicle with your crazy co-workers sitting in the secret place, you can be at a chair in your house in the secret place, at the kitchen table in the secret place.

You can be somewhere at a desk and sitting in the secret place.

There is something about when you tap into prayer and tap into the presence of God.

You can be sitting in public, but sitting in a secret place.

That's why there's some people that come to church and you daydream.

I'm not judging you, I still want you to come to church, but I'm just giving an example.

There's some people you come to church and you daydream and you ain't got your head, your head in the sky, eyes up, and then there's somebody sitting right next to you crying, feeling like they are just in a whole different world.

Why?

Because there's sometimes you sit next to somebody who's discovered the secret place, and when they come into an atmosphere where God is, they know how to go in there, even when there's chaos around them.

I want you to find the secret place.

Psalm chapter 91.

Psalms 91 · chapter mention

Many hill, lean in right here.

Psalm 91.

He said, He who dwells in the secret place of the most high.

Notice it says dwells.

The word dwell means to sit in, to abide, to continue in.

Prayer may begin as a physical place, but it becomes a dwelling, it's a it's a spiritual posture.

Prayer isn't just a quick five minutes, and I'm not against five-minute prayer.

I do five-minute prayer.

But when I talk about the secret place, sometimes it's just this dwelling, this sitting, this residing, this abiding.

It's a place you dwell in, and this is what we see in the life of Jesus.

The life of Jesus, Jesus models this over and over.

He models going to the secret place.

Read your Bible.

You will be shocked how many times you see Jesus finding time to get away and go to the secret place.

Mark chapter 1, verse 35.

Mark 1:35

It says this.

It says very early in the morning, Pastor, why y'all pray?

6 a.m.

It'd be so dark.

You know why?

I got Bible very early in the morning while it was still dark.

Jesus got up, left the house.

Now come on now.

It's so funny because we leave the house to be alone with Jesus.

Jesus left the house too.

To be alone with me.

You know what I'm saying?

He left the house, went off to a solitary place where he did what?

Where he prayed.

Look at Luke chapter 5, verse 15, 16.

Luke 5:15

Many he'll I hope you're listening.

Luke chapter 5, verse 15, 16.

Luke 5:15

It says, Yet the news about him spread all the more.

Crowds of people came to hear him and be healed of their sickness.

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to do what?

Pray.

When Jesus did miracles, he didn't stay there and collect praise.

He said, All right, y'all, let me get up out of here.

It's getting a lot.

When crowds came, he didn't just sit there like, Yo, look at these crowds following me.

After he ministered to a crowd, he got away by himself and go somewhere because Jesus knew I can't be your savior and be depleted at the same time.

And here's what's crazy.

Some of y'all think you're better than Jesus.

Because you about to you trying to be everybody's savior.

Who's saving you?

I mean, you save everybody, you save every every room you in, you a savior.

You save the kids, you saved the spouse, you saved people at the job, you say, I ain't gonna fry, I ain't gonna lie, some of you are dream teamers are you saved?

Our dream team anytime.

See, you don't have to say, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's so hard.

You know what I'm saying?

He was like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've done that, I've done that, I've done that.

Everywhere you go, you are a savior, but you never go to the secret place.

You never get away, you never get replenished, you never get recovered.

And and and hear me, if you're trying to save the world, but you don't get replenished, you're gonna kill yourself.

Let me show you what you look like.

Many hill, let me show you what you look like.

Y'all got that for me?

If y'all can bring that out here, I'm gonna show you a picture of what many of us look like every day.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Let me get this.

Yeah, let me get this.

Give me this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This this is what you look like every day.

You go to work looking like this, you trying to date looking like this.

You you try to come to church and worship like this and wonder why I can't lift my hands.

See, this is why we gotta over-sing to get you to lift your hands because we're trying to work through all the stuff you carrying.

This is why you need an hour.

I need an hour, 10 minutes is too late.

Yeah, I know why 10 minutes is too little.

Because you carrying so much, it took the 10 minutes just to get you to realize you carrying stuff.

Can I offend you real quick?

I I want to offend some people, and I'm not doing it because I'm trying to be funny.

I'm doing it because I I gotta paint this picture.

Some of you should just go ahead and change your name to baggage clean.

Because you are a baggage man, you the bag man, you you you you you the bag lady.

You collect more baggage than Charlotte Airport.

You, you, and and here's this, and here's the crazy part, man.

Hill, half this stuff ain't even yours.

This ain't your stuff.

You let people drop baggage in your soul.

You let people on social media, you let people in your life, you let people they come to your house to drop off baggage, and they leave free.

And you walking around carrying all this stuff, Pastor.

You you you you you supposed to grab that one.

No, sometimes you carry so much stuff, you got baggage behind you that you don't even know that you have because you can't even fit all the baggage that's in your life.

And here's why you need the secret place.

Because when you go to let me tell you something, smoke all the weeds you want, you ain't getting rid of none of these bags.

Go ahead and drink yourself until you pass out.

You ain't getting rid of none of these bags.

Go to every party you can find, go to every concert you can go to.

You are not getting rid of these bags.

But when you walk into the secret place of the most high and abide under the shadow of the almighty, what ends up happening is I start letting some stuff go.

I wish I had somebody that can see this prophetically.

Push your neighbor, say it's time to let some of that stuff go.

You got mama's bag and kids' bag and everybody's bag, but God says, Come to the secret place and let some of that stuff go.

That's why everybody who comes to prayer in the morning, you leave a little bit lighter than you felt when you walked in.

And you try to figure out what happened while you were sitting there in prayer, while you were sitting there talking to God, while you were sitting there in the moment with God, he was removing bags off of your life, he was taking some stuff off of your shoulders.

Pastor, back that up with some scripture, first Peter chapter 5, verse 7.

1 Peter 5:7

It says, Give manhill, listen to me.

It says, give all your worries and cares to who?

Leave that scripture up, give it to God because he cares about you.

I say leave the scripture up, put the scripture back, put that scripture back.

I want you to see that because people ask me sometimes, Pastor, how come you don't you don't vent on social media?

How come you don't let everybody know what's going on with you?

And because he didn't ask me to take my worries to social, he said take it to God.

And many of us have been trained.

The first thing that happens to us when we get in some pain or we get some worries, let me take it to social.

But hear me, you anything if you are posting about stuff you have not taken to your prayer closet, you are not leaving free.

You are actually adding more bags to your life.

Don't take nothing to a post that you ain't taking to God in prayer.

God should not have to be updated with what's worrying you from your social media feed.

By the way, he says, Cast it to me because I care for you.

Your feed don't care for you.

All those people in those comments, they don't care for you.

I'll tell you how much they don't care.

Stop feeding them tea.

If you ever stop bleeding, they'll stop commenting.

And so hear me.

He says, Bring it to me because I care for you.

Alcohol don't care for you, vaping don't care for you.

Hookah don't care for you.

God says, I care for you.

So bring that worry to me because I can break that stronghold off of your life.

But you will only experience it many heal in the secret place.

Push your neighbor, say, get to the secret place.

God is inviting all of us into the secret place.

And so here's a question we have to answer.

What does God do in me when I consistently get alone with him?

Okay, right there.

What do I consistently?

What does God do in me when I consistently get along with him?

There are three things that happen when you do.

I'm gonna give you all three men here.

It says this.

Number one, you get connection.

You get connection.

You get connection.

You get connection.

In the secret place, you find connection with God.

I'm talking about you start to build this strong relationship with the Lord.

You start to build a connection with God that changes your life.

You start to get a sense of his presence.

You you start to you start to feel the weight of his glory.

Let me talk to some people who are new to church.

I know sometimes you see somebody laying hands on somebody and people falling back.

There are some times where there's just some folks who just fall back.

It's just a thing.

It is what it is.

But often what it is, it's not that the person's hand made me fall back.

It's the weight of God's glory.

I was standing up and my knees gave out because I'm trying my best to stand, but I can sense the weight of his glory.

And when the hand was laid on me, I was trying to stand up, but the presence of God was so overwhelming that it made me just fall back and let myself go.

Hear me, y'all, y'all, y'all, what's that?

SWV.

Don't y'all be singing a song?

He made me weak in my knees.

So you're trying to tell me a cute boy can make you weak in the knees, but God's glory can't?

No, God's glory is greater than a cute little boy.

God's glory when it comes into a room, it can be so weighted.

It's like being drunk.

I'm trying to be sober, I'm trying to gather myself, but all of a sudden I feel the glory of the Lord in this place, and it'll make you bow, it'll make you fall, it'll make you cry.

You didn't even feel like crying.

He wasn't even trying to cry.

You ever been sitting there one Sunday watching these hosts with the tissue?

And you're like, I wonder why they do that.

I don't know who needs tissue, or I don't feel and then one Sunday, you're just sitting there, you trying your best, and you're like, oh every man in here, you be fighting, we fight.

We don't want to cry, and we just be sitting there like what happened.

What happened was you got into the secret place, and the glory of the Lord started to fall on your life, and I promise you, it'll change your life.

I'm gonna step out on a limb and say this.

I'm not I'm not trying to make you emotional.

I'm not trying to ask you to be an emotional person.

I know all of us are not emotional creatures, I know all of us are not emotional beings, but when is the last time you cried in worship?

Whether publicly or alone, when was the last time you sat in worship long enough to feel a tear just break out your eye?

You know what that is?

That's the secret place where I just felt the presence of God, where I just felt his glory in a room where where he was just all over me.

In fact, in fact, if you really get good at the secret place, you start to recognize when he's in a room.

Because I've been around him long enough to know when he's there.

I know that feeling.

I know it ain't it's not a it's not a feeling like like emotion.

My spirit is alert and aware.

Oh, he's in the room.

You ever have somebody with a strong cologne, a strong perfume, and before you even see them, you know they're in the room because you can smell their fragrance.

God got a fragrance, and you can smell it when he's the scent of his glory is here, which is why sometimes, let me be petty for a second.

Sometimes I get a little offended by people who will say, Well, I just don't believe God is in there, and and and and I just didn't feel anything during worship.

How would you know you never been to the secret place?

You letting people who ain't never been to the secret place tell you that the presence of God is not what you ain't never been here, you have no opinion about whether he was in a room or not.

Because people who've been to the secret place, see, you know where you've been, you've been to gospel concerts.

So you're used to a big voice, loud singer, many runs, big band.

You you need us to there it goes.

That's that feeling.

No, that ain't what it is, that ain't what it is.

Talent can move you, skill can move you, but the spirit of God will transform your life.

And I promise you, people who are anointed, they know the anointing when they hear it, they know the order when they feel it.

Because I've been in the secret place and we're here.

In fact, sometimes I don't even like them singing so much because sometimes we get distracted by voices and we start relying on voices instead of his spirit.

Are y'all catching what I'm saying?

I'm trying to get you to get to the secret place where you start to hear his voice.

My fear and concern for this generation is you let people counsel you who've never been to the secret place.

You let people lead you who've never been to the secret place.

I'm sorry, but I need some people around me who have been to the secret place.

Who've been around God who don't just sit in a coffee shop arguing about God, but who've experienced being in the secret place.

That's why you better be careful throwing away these seasoned saints.

Don't let no seasoned saints, don't let us.

I know we're a young church.

They think we're the young fly church, and all we do is hip hop all day.

But I'm telling you, we we need you here because if you were smart, you would get around one of these seasoned saints who've been in a secret place.

Because I'm telling you, they got an oil that you desperately, my wife and I, we were believing God for children.

And uh, and uh we were we were, it took us years to have a child, and and we were going to the infantility clinic, and it got to the point where one time my wife, we thought she was pregnant, she took the pregnancy test, it said she was pregnant.

We went to the hospital, took the blood test, and it said it was a negative test.

And uh, and I felt like it was just it was every time we got our hopes up, just crushed every single time.

And uh, I remember us going on this trip, and uh, we hung out with some of our mentors who were older than us, and uh my wife woke up, we were staying in the house.

My wife woke up one morning, she came downstairs, she was like, Man, my stomach's hurting.

And the and the and the wife in the house, she said, Oh, you're pregnant.

And uh, and my wife was like, No, no, no, no, we, you know, it's nothing like that.

It's just I think I had a little stomach.

She was like, girl, you're pregnant.

And uh, and she was like, No, no, no, no.

And the woman came, she said, Sweetie, she said, she said, daughter, she said, you're pregnant.

She said, I know what I'm talking about.

So just receive it and stop doubting.

We took a pregnancy test, she was good and pregnant, but it took somebody who's been in a secret place to say, I can tell the difference between a messed up stomach and God trying to move.

And you need somebody who's been in a secret place to say, no, that ain't that ain't that ain't that warfare right there.

No, no, no, that's God right there.

You need somebody who's been around God to say, I know what I'm looking at.

That ain't a regular situation.

I know his voice, I know what he looks like, I know when I'm around, and that's a God thing right there.

You can't get that from no book.

I'm not against seminary, but they don't teach you how to do that at seminary.

That comes from the secret place of the most high, where you abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

You gotta get into the to the secret place.

John chapter 5, verse 4.

John 5:4

Y'all getting something out of what I'm saying?

John chapter 5, verse 4 says, Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

John 5:4

God is trying to get you away from everything else.

Hear me, everybody should not get the best of you while God gets what's left of you.

Everybody should not get the best of you.

Come on, man, here, while God gets what's left of you.

No, part of the reason why I start my day with God, I'm trying to give him the best.

I'm trying to give him the best part.

Now hear me.

If you're an early morning person, you give him the best.

If you if nighttime is where you shine, go ahead, give, take, find your best moment and give it to God.

Number one, you get connection.

Number two, you get direction.

Everybody's here right now.

I don't know any person, including your pastor, who's in this room who don't need direction right now.

I don't know a person in this room in here who don't need some direction.

I promise you, in the secret place, there's direction.

In the secret place, God gives you guidance and wisdom.

He will give you answers, real answers, to some of the things in your life.

Prayer is not just you talking to God.

Prayer is God talking to you.

Which is why when you pray, you should always have a journal, you should always have a notebook, you should always have a pen.

You should always have, have, have, if you use your phone, that's fine.

Put it on do not disturb.

But if he highlights something, emphasizes something, or says something to you, you gotta write that thing down because God will give you direction, God will give you wisdom.

I love me some Fred Hammond.

Anybody love Fred Hammond?

Man, I love some Fred Hammond boy Van Hill.

I'm trying to tell you, boy, when Fred Hammond starts going, I can listen to Fred Hammond all day.

Anything I just did.

That's your problem.

You want God to yell over the noise in your life.

And you're trying to say that I can't hear God.

The reason why you can't hear God is not because he's not speaking, it's because there's too much stuff that you love so much that's playing way louder than his voice.

Stop asking God to yell louder.

He's asking you to make your life quieter.

You are accusing God of not speaking when he spoke, but you wasn't quiet enough to hear him.

And you want God to yell above the noise in your life.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You got to get close enough.

We see this in 1 Kings chapter 19, verse 11 through 13.

1 Kings 19:11–13

Uh it says what Elijah says, then he said, Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, and behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains, broke the rocks and pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.

After the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

After the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

After the fire, there was a still small voice.

So it was when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave, and suddenly a voice came to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah?

God is not always in the noise, sometimes he's in the whisper.

And God will sometimes speak out of volume that you gotta be close to catch it.

This is why I get uh uh frustrated by people who only associate the Holy Spirit with noise and chaos.

It's like God moved.

Did you see?

He was crazy.

He was crazy, as if God don't move in silence.

Sometimes when you come in here to union, I'm gonna preach my brains out.

We we will have the music, I will run around here, I scream, I rip my jacket, it's crazy.

But then there's sometimes you come in here, take out your notebook, write down, and sometimes God will make it quiet enough for you to hear what he's trying to say.

And sometimes you gotta slow life down enough for you to hear or whisper.

How many things have you missed because you never got quiet enough?

Sometimes remember the demoniac man, the Bible says a man in the Bible had a legion of demons.

You know what the demons was doing?

Screaming, screeching, screeching, cutting himself, going crazy.

They could hear him yelling in the in the in the city, they could hear him in the tombs yelling and screaming.

But when Jesus cast the demons out of him, what happened?

The Bible says that he sat down, he was clothed, and he was in his right mind, and he was quiet.

No more screaming, no more screeching, because loud don't mean Holy Spirit.

Just because it was loud and we was ah, that does not mean God.

Sometimes it's the still small voice that you need.

You gotta get quiet enough sometime to hear from God.

All right, okay, okay.

There are different ways to hear from God.

Let me give you the different ways to hear from God.

There's there's many ways to hear from God.

Let me just give you a couple that I know uh personally uh to hear from God.

Uh, number one, you hear from God through scripture, through scripture.

So if the Lord highlights or emphasizes scripture to you, manhill, that means that God is trying to speak to you.

The other day, I was doing something and the Lord brought Psalm 23 to me.

I I read Psalm 23 my whole life, but there was something the Lord told me to go read.

I went, looked at Psalm 23, and there was something in Psalm 23 that I needed to confess over my life for the specific situation I was in right there.

God will talk to you through scripture, which is why you should always have your Bible when you are in the secret place, because if he gives you a scripture, you need to be able to go to it and see it.

Okay?

He will speak to you through the Holy Spirit's convicting, conviction and prompting.

Oftentimes this feels like uh an abundance of peace, and sometimes it feels like a lack of peace.

So sometimes you can be in a stormy situation and feel peace, and it's the Holy Spirit convicting you, saying, This is where I need you to be.

And then sometimes you can be in the sweetest, cutest place, but Holy Spirit, you don't have no peace.

And you're saying, I gotta remove myself from this.

Okay.

By the way, when the Holy Spirit gives you a convicting, a conviction, and a prompting, he's giving it to you, not the world.

So be careful when you where you take everything Holy Spirit told you and now make it a law for everybody around you.

The Lord said, You can't listen to Al Green.

He didn't tell me nothing about Al Green, he said that to you.

Al Green triggers you, not me.

The Lord said, Stay away from Al Green.

No, he told you, stay away from Al Green.

People are like, who's Al Green?

Who's that?

Who's the Lord told you you can't go to the beach.

Oh, the God said he doesn't want us to be.

No, he told you, because he knows you.

You can't handle bikini.

You can't do that.

That's you.

There are plenty of people who can go to the beach and still be saved.

You can't.

Pushing them and say, he's talking to one of us, but I don't know who.

But whoever it is, close your eyes.

Come on now.

He told you to stop eating chicken.

He didn't tell all of us that.

No, no, how was the Holy Spirit convicting you?

Chicken's killing you.

It's protein for me.

You're gonna have to be eating chicken.

You know what I'm saying?

I'm just I'm I'm I'm just saying, be careful sometimes.

You gotta know the difference between what the Lord is saying to me personally.

Can y'all throw that list back up there?

Why y'all take that list down?

Throw that list up there.

Why y'all do that?

Take that, yeah.

Keep that.

I'm still talking.

Keep that list right there.

Keep that list right there.

Don't move that.

Okay.

Through prayerful wisdom.

Come on, man, here.

Prayerful wisdom.

The Lord starts giving you instructions, wisdom, uh, through godly counsel.

The Lord will speak to you through godly counsel.

Unfortunately, this generation, uh, you have thrown godly counsel away.

Because this whole idea, I don't trust no man, don't trust nobody.

He'll, if the Lord wants me to know, he'll tell me directly.

No, sometimes God often will talk to you through godly counsel, through spiritual authority.

And hear me when I say this.

Can I just keep that up?

Let me pastor you real quick.

There is godly counsel in our church.

There's godly counsel in our church.

And if you are a person that can only receive counsel from the pastor, but you can't receive it from anybody else who don't have a title, that's called spiritual immaturity.

If if if I only go to a church where I can touch the pastor, he can directly tell me, You're gonna kill that pastor.

But but but Jesus had disciples.

Okay, and so you gotta have godly counsel means that sometimes God puts somebody in your group to help you.

Sometimes you're serving on a dream team, and the leader on your dream team is talking to you, and they're like, Hey, I don't think you should do that.

Well, unless uh who do you think you are to tell me, hey man, I'm just trying to give you some wisdom.

I'm not stupid.

In fact, sometimes God puts people in your life to see your blind spots, and the reason why it offends you so much is because they see something that you don't see.

That's why it's a blind spot.

So before you reject every godly counsel, maybe you need to pause and sit back and say, maybe this is something that somebody sees that I don't know.

Okay, he will speak to you through circumstances and confirmation, and then at times he'll speak to you through dreams, visions, okay, and an audible voice.

Be careful.

I say at times dreams.

All you people who live off dreams, I don't, I don't, I don't ascribe you do that.

Some dreams are literally, it was pizza, crispy cream, root beer mixed together.

That's all it was.

And some of you, it's a God dream, okay?

Now, by the way, majority of the dreams God give you are about you.

So just because you saw my face, don't mean it's a dream for me.

When see often when you see someone's face in a dream, it's who that person represents to you that you need to figure out.

But just because you saw somebody's face, God showed me you last night, He showed you you tripping downstairs.

Watch out where you go.

No, God was showing you something about you in your life.

And so be careful when every dream that you see somebody else, you make it their word.

That don't mean it's a word for them.

Usually God's trying to talk to you about you.

Look at you, mad at me, mad at me.

It's like, no, God's talking to you about you.

I put here audible voice, I'm just gonna keep it 100 with you.

I I don't, I can't say I've heard the audible voice of God.

I have, I have, I have had clear moments in my life where I have sensed the voice of God, heard the voice of God.

I cannot say God audibly spoke to me.

Uh, but I have enough pastors, enough mentors, enough people in my life who have heard an audible voice of God that I said sometimes it happens, so I'm not gonna knock out just because I didn't experience it, don't mean that God would never do it.

Um, but I'm just keeping at 100 with you.

Uh, I've never felt like I've heard the audible voice of God.

Uh, and in fact, I don't know if I want, I don't know if I wanted.

Brian.

God, if you want to, if you want to, God, if you want to, if you want to, I'll take it.

I'm just saying, you know how I feel.

You are, you know, you know my heart.

Okay, musician play.

Get me out of here.

All right.

You get you get you get uh uh uh connection, you get direction.

Here's the last one.

We're gonna pray.

Uh you get restoration in the secret place.

God gets to work on you.

He gets to work on your heart, he gets to work on the broken areas of your life.

Okay, what is restoration?

Restoration is the act of returning something to its original, former or normal condition.

What is restoration?

Restoration is something, it's the act of returning something to its original former or normal condition.

Restoration is God gets where is where God gets to repair the damaged areas of your life.

Let's just keep it 100 men here.

Life been dinging at you.

I mean, chipping away at you, disappointment, divorce, abuse, job loss, waiting for a promise, betrayal, persecution.

I mean, just life will just, I mean, just keep, just keep cutting you, keep hitting you.

And and I'm not against therapy.

I I agree with therapists, I agree with medication at times when they say that it's necessary.

I don't have any problem with uh friends.

I believe in groups, obviously, in community, but I'm just telling you, there is some level of restoration that happens in the secret place that don't happen nowhere else.

It's like areas of your heart that were bruised somewhere in the secret place, God starts touching areas and and and putting things back together, which is why when you come out of prayer, you feel a little bit more whole and a little bit more at peace.

What happened when you got into the secret place?

He started to restore your soul, he started to restore your life.

Matthew chapter 11, verse 28.

Matthew 11:28

He says, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Exhausted, come to the secret place, confused, come to the secret place.

Not sure how you're gonna make it, come to the secret place.

Let me ask you a question.

Menhill, when your phone is on two percent, do you throw it away?

When your phone's on two percent, do you be like this dumb phone?

This is why I hate these phones, and do you throw it away?

When your phone is on two percent, what do you do?

You charge it.

And some of you are on two percent, and you're not damaged, you're depleted.

And when you get into the secret place, we charge you.

And the secret place will give you life that you didn't have before.

Pastor is the last thing I'm gonna show you.

How do I get to the secret place?

How do I find it?

It's on the screen.

Keep that up for me, guys.

How do I find a secret place?

Number one, choose a place.

I don't care if it's your couch, a chair in the house, a pillow.

You don't need a 10-bedroom.

All you need is just a designated place.

For some of you, it's a walk in the morning.

When you walk, that's your prayer place, that's your secret place.

Some of you, it's the car, wherever it's at, just someplace, designate, side of the bed, find a place, then choose a time, okay?

Uh, six, the way we 21 days of prayer works is that we're trying to get you in the habit for 21 days so that on day 22, day 23, day 24, I've already been in a habit of waking up early and spending some time with God.

We want you to keep that going, even when we're finished.

As a church, just keep that going.

You're building the habit.

Okay, if you if late is your thing, do it.

I know for me, if I pray at 10, ha ha ha ha, who knows what I'm gonna say.

It's gonna be, I can say anything, it's gonna be crazy.

Uh uh, silence the noise.

Put your phone on, do not disturb.

Tell your family I'm praying for a little bit.

Uh uh uh turn off the TV.

Uh sometimes silence the noise.

I put on soaking music when I pray.

Typically, I like to have a little background soaking music that's on Apple music and all that.

Uh for uh begin with worship.

Don't begin with complaining, many hill, don't begin with just being upset and all that stuff.

Spend some time worshiping God and saying something to him.

You have a prayer guide, it will give you the words to say during worship.

Open the word.

I always have my Bible when I pray, and I always have a highlighter and a pen.

Okay, I always I mark my Bible.

You should have a Bible that you mark up, that you write in.

There's revelation that God gives you.

You should have a physical Bible that you actually have highlighted, stuff that God said, underlined, because one day when you're praying, you're gonna be praying and you're gonna be reading your Bible, and you're gonna be like, Oh, I remember when the Lord spoke that to me.

By the way, this is what I did for my son and my daughter.

But I remember doing this for my son this last school year.

If you want it, take it.

I bought my son a Bible into Barnes and Nobles, I bought him a Bible, and I highlighted every one of my favorite scriptures in that Bible.

I thought of as many scriptures as I could, and I gave it to my son.

And I said, son, anytime you want to know what daddy thinks about God, or anytime you want to know how daddy feels about the Lord, you open up this Bible, I'm gonna tell you exactly the scriptures that daddy knows, that daddy quotes, that daddy lives by.

And he cried.

My son cried as I handled him this Bible.

And some of you need to grab a Bible, highlight it, mark it up, give it to your children.

When you read the Bible, you know this is what I'm thinking, this is where I'm at, this is what I'm feeling.

Y'all get that?

Uh, number six, talk honestly with God.

Don't just go in there with your uh uh uh social media podcast self.

Go in there with your real self.

I I talk to God about the stuff that's giving me problems.

I talk about the stuff that's on my mind that's heavy, that is weighted.

I tell God my junk, I tell God my mistakes, I tell God my mess ups.

God knows my stuff.

He knows my stuff.

He I tell him straight up what's going on with me.

Uh number seven, listen and write.

Okay?

You should have a pen.

If the Lord says something to you, start writing it down and start speaking it over your life.

And then eight, obey what God says.

Sometimes you don't know the weight of God's words until you put it into practice.

All right.

Every head bow, every eye closed.

Father, in the name of Jesus, there are people in this room who want to be in the secret place.

Come on, man, hell, bow your heads.

Father, I pray that, Lord, we would be a church that lives and dwells in the secret place.

If you're in this room and you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, I want you to go to the secret place, but I want you to meet the God of the secret place first.

Today, you can make a decision before you walk out that door that you're gonna make him the Lord of your life.

I don't want anybody to leave here without knowing for a fact that Jesus Christ is your Lord.

Man, heal, you're sitting in that room and you're saying, Man, I think today is the day that I need to surrender my heart to the Lord.

You're gonna do that now.

The Bible says if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart, you shall be saved.

So I need everybody to pray this prayer with me.

Matter of fact, before you do that, every head by every eye closed.

If you want to give your life to Jesus today and make him the Lord of your life, don't worry about nobody next to you.

Can't nobody see but me and just a few others.

Can you do me a favor?

If you want to be saved today and the Lord's talking to you, can you throw your hand up and put it back down?

Let me see that hand.

Come on, throw your hand up, put it back down.

I see your hand, brother.

I see your hand, sister, I see your hand, daughter, I see your hand.

Come on, Minhill.

Minhill, if you want to give your life to the Lord right now, I need you to throw your hand up and put it back down.

Throw your hand up, put it back down.

Throw your hand up, put it back down.

I see that hand.

I see that hand, I see that hand, I see that hand.

Come on, let me lead you in a prayer of salvation right now.

Everybody repeat up to me.

Say, Father, thank you for loving me.

Thank you for sending your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die for me.

Today, I surrender my life.

Come into my heart.

Save me now.

My old life is behind me.

My old ways are behind me.

Today, I'm starting again.

Make me new.

I am saved.

I am yours and you are mine.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Come on, man, heal everybody.

Shout amen.