Dwelling in the Secret Place

An extract from Geoffrey Bull’s ‘The Anguish in the Grass’,
Hodder and Stoughton, 1975. ISBN 0340 19733

God marks His hidden priests. He knows them well. Their names renowned in heaven, are feared in hell. He loves to name them. He names Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among those saints who call upon His Name, Ps. 99. 6; Jer. 15. 1. ‘Noah, Daniel and Job; these three men…,’ says the Lord as He singles out their nearness to Himself, Ezek. 14. 14, 20. It is the same with Enoch. He walked with God and had this testimony, that. he pleased Him. Such intimate fellowship leaves its stamp upon a man. Elisha, like Elijah, loved to use the expression ‘As the Lord liveth before whom I stand.’ Little wonder the Shunamite remarked to her husband, ‘I perceive this is a holy man of God that passeth by us continually.’ And to think of it, he only walked down the street. Men who stand habitually before God can stand anywhere before men, and confront the devil, too. But hypocrisy will deceive no one. What did the evil spirit say to that impostor Sceva and his sons, ‘Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you?’ As the Psalmist says, ‘He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.’ or as one Arabic version puts it, ‘ He that chooses as his permanent abode the secret place of the Most High shall always be in touch with the Almightiness of God.’ Such can stand before kings and not be afraid of their faces. God put it very simply to Moses, ‘There is a place by Me’, but it takes an act of will to seek it and to grow in stature there.

Reprinted with permission. Hodder & Stoughton