THE SECRET PLACE
“He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” (Psalm 91:1)

PART 3

BEHIND THE VEIL

We see a very interesting and encouraging story found in II Kings chapter six. Syria and Israel were at war and the king of Syria was troubled because whenever he attempted a military strategy, he would discover that Israel was always one-step ahead of him. He had a meeting and asked his servants if they had any information about a traitor in their midst but they said they had heard about a prophet of God named Elisha that had the ability to see the future and help the king of Israel. So, he sent a large company of soldiers and chariots by night and surrounded the city of Dothan to kidnap Elisha and thus eliminate the gifted “spy”. Very early the next morning the servant of Elisha noticed the entire city was about to be attacked at any moment. He asked Elisha, what can we do? Elisha answered in verse 16, “Fear not: for they that are with us are more than they that are with them”. I am sure the servant was confused (just as we would have been) about this statement in a crisis that looked hopeless. In fact, how many times have we faced a critical situation and used our human reasoning and logical thinking to find a practical solution to our problem? If we only look to what is available to us in our “brain”, we are destined for defeat because we do not wrestle with flesh and blood but our warfare and victory is in the Spirit.

As we keep reading in verse 17, Elisha prayed and asked God to allow the servant to have a “glimpse” into the next world. We talk about the eyes of our understanding being opened and how we ask the Lord to “open the eyes of our heart”, but what does that really mean? I believe it is a sincere prayer that is asking God to allow us to see what He sees – and the wisdom to know how He feels about it. In this example, the servant’s understanding of truth went from imagination to literal and this spiritual enlightenment allowed him to KNOW divine reality the way God sees it. “And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha”. Seeing the truth was much more thrilling and faith building than the veiled truth. Revelation transforms the veiled truth into a tangible substance that is real to our spirit. It is a privilege to peek behind the curtain into the next dimension and see the mysteries of the spiritual realm. This is not to say that we should not believe in the things we cannot see because faith is knowing, “without seeing.” However, God is saying, it is similar to many things we take for granted and then later discover how much work and how many people were involved to produce the finished product. When we can witness something from the idea phase all the way to the demonstration, we can have a greater appreciation as we know what was involved to make it happen. The lesson that is being revealed here is for God’s people to understand there is another world at work all around us and to be sensitive of good and evil at all times. Behind the veil of mortal reality, there is an entire world of spiritual reality and since we are spiritual beings living in a natural world, we must use this higher discernment to live by God’s thoughts and wisdom. The encouraging news to us who straddle these two realms is that He has complete authority and control over both.

In this story, we also have a clear picture that angels are constantly fighting battles for us behind this “curtain”. As John 10:10 say’s, “The thief (Satan) has come to steal, kill and destroy” so we can be assured that demons are all around us and have been assigned to destroy us. The second part of that scripture is very encouraging as Jesus reminds us that, “He has come that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly.” How many times have we avoided “accidents” and never realized we were in serious danger? When demonic creatures have pointed their arrows at us and swords have been drawn, how many times have angels intervened on our behalf and delivered us from certain defeat? Let us always remember there are many more servants of The Lord willing to help us – than enemies who are against us. Walking in this holy knowledge gives us confidence in knowing that situations are NOT always the way they seem. The devil uses ignorance of God’s word against the saints and “bluffs” them into fear which leads to surrender and ultimately to defeat. Fear binds our faith because we have either never learned about the next dimension or we refuse to believe it is true. Selah. Let us who are children of the light praise and worship our Lord for providing our constant protection and security. Transformation and being renewed comes with seeing behind the curtain of revelation. We can learn as much about God as we desire, and be as close to Him as want to be. It depends on how important it is for Him to be our Lord and how seriously we believe what He says.