Excerpts from "Revival of the Secret Place..." by Adam Cates

Posted: 2007-12-30 15:30:52

Excerpts from Revival of the Secret Place…. By Adam Cates, from the Banner (Fall 2007), Pinecrest Publications, Salisbury Center, NY 

In a day when the size and sway of a minister’s public platform is the plumb line with which many measure favor with God, the Secret Place is being revived as part of God’s strategy for turning the spiritual tide in our cities, regions, and nation. There is a hidden army being prepared much the same as David was prepared to meet Goliath. Through the solitary life of a shepherd boy, David learned to be intimate with his Creator. That intimacy became the source of great faith and enabled David to overcome his fear and defeat his enemy. As an institution, the American church is losing its battle against the popular culture. Our evangelical empire is crumbling because we have failed to see that we are waging the wrong war on the wrong battlefield. The voices of prominent ministers have long gone out across the airwaves decrying the moral decay of the nation, but their sound has yet to break the bondages and lead a generation into revival.  

I believe the Lord is raising up new voices with a new sound. The sound I speak of is an attitude of heart and spirit…a broken and contrite heart. These voices are being prepared in the Secret Place of friendship with God. The message will sober a generation to the reality of the bankrupt and meaningless lives they have been leading. The message and its’ anointing will produce a godly sorrow that will lead to true repentance. These are the prophetic messengers of our time, and God is giving them the key of David to open up what man’s wisdom cannot and to close up what man’s strength cannot. Those who give themselves to a secret life with God will be given grace to articulate the feelings of God’s heart to a generation that has been ignorant of their own inner workings and blind to the drama unfolding all around them! 

So who are these hidden warriors? They are the ones who have abandoned the road of self-promotion and have not sought to make a name for themselves. Instead of laboring over public platforms of ministry, they have been diligently constructing a private platform of the heart where there is room for only ONE! In that place of intimacy and friendship with Jesus, they are being blessed with the grace of godly sorrow. This sorrow reaches beyond simple remorse for their faults and sins; it is the result of being yoked to the longings of God’s heart.

The Lord has a day of revealing in store. He will reveal those on whom His favor rests. The religious climate is such that many ministers are so preoccupied with the building of their own ministries that they have forgotten the end purpose of that ministry. The purpose of our ministry is to build up the Bride of Christ into maturity so that she will be ready for he Lord when He comes.

The time of leaders secretly covering their sin and weaknesses for the sake of the ministry is coming to an end. We will see large ministries crumble in the days ahead.  

The Lord had rejected Saul long before David came on the scene. However, it was not until David and Saul began to interact that Saul’s fury erupted into jealousy and hatred for the Lord’s anointed. In Jesus’ day, the Jews were looking for a mighty King much like Saul when the Father sent them a humble Son of David. The Spirit of David is rising again in our day. Even as the Spirit of Goliath taunts and mocks the impotent Church of the West.

Let us be those who take time out to steal away with our Beloved. Let us be faithful to the little things He has placed before us, knowing that they are the stepping stones that lead us further away from our own glory and closer to His heart. Let us be those who revive the Secret Place.