Part 1: Hidden Life
By Ps. Prayudi Widjojo
The greatest thing that matters sometimes becomes our hidden life. Prayer is so powerful that is why the enemy does not want us to pray. The enemy will cause distractions, excuses and interference to keep us away from praying. Today we are blessed with technologies that bring the Bible in the palm of our hands. The Word is not far, it’s right on our fingertips.
Last week we talked about Elisha; how God gave him sensitive ears to hear from God, whom God revealed the enemy’s secret to. He can see and hear what others can’t.
2 Kings 6:16 NIV
16 “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
Today, let’s learn from his mentor Elijah, Hidden life of Elijah. We all read how Elijah performed many miracles. (1 Kings 17:1, 14-16; 1 Kings 17:17,22-24; 1 Kings 18:25-38, 1 Kings 41-45; 2 Kings 1:9-10; 2 Kings 1:11-12; 2 Kings 2:8)
The highlight of Elijah’s life was not the miracles. James 5:17 told us that
“Elijah was a human being, even as we are.”
The Background.
Elijah served probably the worst king of Israel. There has not been one righteous king since the split of Israel and Judah. King Ahab took the bad to ugly to the worst. He married Jezebel and brought idolatry everywhere, He even eliminated all worshippers of Yahweh.
This does not differ from our time today; we know from the Bible that the end times will get worse (Matthew 24) But our God is good and He will work things out because God knows all these and His plan remains and unchanged that His church will rise up and our most powerful weapon is not carnal, but mighty through Christ in Prayers.
1 Kings 19:3-5, 7 NIV
3 "Elijah was afraid[a] and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.
All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”
7 The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.”
Elijah was just a man like us. He can feel down too and exhausted and tired like we do.
1 Kings 19:3-5, 7 HCSB
8 So he got up, ate, and drank. Then on the strength from that food, he walked 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 He entered a cave there and spent the night.
This is the hidden life of Elijah; just him and God. Mount Horeb here is the same as Mount Sinai, where Moses met God face to face. God brought Elijah to a place where His Presence is there. He asked Elijah, “What are you doing here?”
Elijah was honest with God; he told God: “I feel angry, lost, I feel exhausted, I feel everything is falling apart, I don’t know why everyone is blaming me and want to kill me, what did I do wrong? Sometimes God would allow a place and a time where you can’t really do anything so that God can do His full work for us, to restore us and to strengthen us. So when you are restored, you will do greater things.
Common signs that one lost sight of God:
Lack of desire to pray
Lack of desire to read the Word
Isolation
Restoration happens where it’s just us and God, in the quiet place. That’s where God did the greatest miracle in Elijah’s life by taking him off the platform of performing miracles in public and instead God hid him.
1 Kings 19:11-12 HCSB
11 Then He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the Lord’s presence.” At that moment, the Lord passed by. A great and mighty wind was tearing at the mountains and was shattering cliffs before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was a voice, a soft whisper.
God gave Elijah all the noises : the wind, the earthquake, the fire.” All these elements of Miraculous spectacles in Elijah’s ministry but God was not in those elements. You see what matters to God is never the noises of miracles and powers. What matters to God was never the public display but the inside hidden man of Elijah. He hid Elijah to find the sound of sheer silence. God whispers. God speaks in a close relationship.
What matters to God is the hidden life of us, not the public life.
“Be still, and know that I am God."
– Psalms 46:10 NIV
God’s greatest miracle is not in the public setting, but in quiet places. That’s why the Bible says “when you give, don’t let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.” What you’ve done in secret; that’s where your Father sees.
When you pray, don’t pray standing in public places but go to your closet, close the door and that’s where your Father sees. WHen you fast, don’t show off and brag about it.
God seeks the inside transformation, the hidden life. Seek only what matters to God.
In Conclusion, let’s read Psalms 27:4 NIV:
“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire[c] in his temple.”
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