Our God is a God who hides Himself; His disposition is a hidden one, and He doesn’t like outward manifestation but loves to work in secret and do things hiddenly, not openly.
This is why we as kingdom people need to spend time in secret with our God, for He sees in secret and He rewards those who seek Him in secret. We may want God to do many things openly and outwardly for us, and many think that our God is real only when He manifests His power and authority to do things in the environment for us.
But our God prefers to be hidden and secret; the entire universe indicates that God is hidden, He is secret, and if we seek God, we need to seek Him in secret.
Can we see God openly in the universe? No. Can we sense God with our physical senses? No, we can’t. Our God is a God who hides Himself; He is a God who looks not at the outward thing about at the heart, in secret.
But we by nature want to have something outward, something manifested; we think that, if we believe into God and follow Him, He must do some supernatural things for us, and we may even seek to see some miracles from Him.
He may perform some miracles for us – and we don’t deny that God can do such things, but at the same time He wants us to practice living a hidden life with Him.
If all we have is the open, outward, and seen growth in life, then our growth in the divine life is not that real. It is not healthy for us to exhibit ourselves in our righteous deeds; if we do such a thing, we are not healthy, and our growth in life is greatly frustrated.
Whether we are together with the saints or with our spouse, whether in big or small meetings, it is good not to expose or exhibit what we have experienced of Christ, and it is good not to exhibit ourselves in our righteous deeds.
The Lord Jesus condemned the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the scribes, who would stand on the street corner when they pray so that everyone would see them. When we pray for others to see, our prayers may be heard by them and appreciated by them, but the Father may not answer them.
As kingdom people we need to live by the hidden life of our heavenly Father, and we need to have much time in secret with the Lord.
We may even have to set some times throughout the day to be alone with the Lord; we need to have set times of prayer and fellowship with Him in secret.
Our God is not only Almighty, Righteous, and Gracious, but also a God who Hides Himself
Isaiah uttered a very interesting and deep statement in Isa. 45:15 when he said, Surely You are a God who hides Himself, / O God of Israel, the Savior. This is an emphatic statement; he was not talking empty words or something that he imagined, but rather, based upon the facts that he has seen, he came to this conclusion.
Isaiah has seen what the Lord has done for His people; he saw what happened to Israel under the hand of God, and he beheld the experiences of God’s people. His conclusion after seeing the facts and observing what God is doing with and in His people was that God is a God who hides Himself.
God did countless things in the midst of the children of Israel, and He also did countless things in their personal lives, yet He was not outward or open but He concealed Himself. God was ceaselessly working in and among His people, yet He was always hidden.
The people of Israel saw and appreciated God’s outward works, but they were utterly ignorant of God as One who hides Himself.
It is the same with us in our Christian life. We may know God as the almighty One, the sovereign One, the righteous One, and the One who is full of grace and compassion, but we may not know Him as the God who hides Himself.
In the Bible there is one book – the book of Esther – that not mention the name of God not even one time. In this book God is a hidden God; He does many things and uses many people and situations, but He hides Himself.
The very God who chose Israel as His elect becomes a hidden God to them to take care of them secretly and save them openly while acting in secrecy during the captivity among the Gentile nations.
In this book we see how God is hidden – though He created all things and can be seen in the creation, and though He is gracious and almighty, He loves to hide Himself as He cares for His people secretly.
We need to know God as the God who hides Himself.
Believers may know God as the almighty One, as the righteous One, as the One full of grace and compassion, but as the One who hides Himself, He is unknown to them.
We may want God to come in and change this situation or remove that thing from our environment, or we may want Him to come and heal us, give us this or that, care for us, and do things outwardly for us.
But what about knowing Him as the God who hides Himself? Do we realise that even in our own life God took care of us, He shepherded us, and He supplied us, yet He never manifested Himself as He did this?
Do we realise that God is at work in our life, and He does many things to care for us, supply us, shepherd us, and bring us on with Him, yet He does not manifest Himself openly as He does this? May we learn to open to the Lord and turn our whole being to Him as we pray,
Lord, we want to know You not only as the almighty God, the righteous and gracious God, and the God of compassions, but also as the God who hides Himself. Save us from seeking outward signs and miracles from You, and bring us into a deeper, personal, and intimate knowledge of who You are and what You do in secret. Lord, may we learn to spend much time in private with You to know You as the God who hides Himself. May we learn to appreciate You and all that You do for us and in us as the One who doesn’t manifest Himself!
God does Countless things among us and for us, yet He Conceals Himself
We all have to admit that, when we look at our history and experience, God has done a lot of things for us – both individually and for our family, the church, the society, the country, and the whole world; yet He conceals Himself.
God does countless things in the midst of His people, and He does countless things in their personal life, but He is a God who hides Himself, for He conceals Himself. God likes concealment, but we like display; God doesn’t crave outward manifestations, but we cannot be content without them.
It’s almost as if our personalities – man’s personality and God’s personality – are diametrically opposed. The divine disposition – which is one of concealment, hiding, and secret – constitutes a great trial and test to us.
A good example of this is Elijah, who was a man of like feeling with us (James 5:17), but who could not stand the test of God being One who hides Himself.
When he was on mount Carmel and God sent fire from heaven to consume the offering, he was clear that God was with him, but when he was being persecuted and sought after to be killed for being a prophet of God, and God did not manifest Himself, Elijah could not bear it (see 1 Kings 1-10).
He went into a cave and cried out to God; God came to him and asked him, What are you doing here, Elijah? Elijah thought that he was very jealous for Jehovah, but the children of Israel have forsaken His covenant, thrown down His altars, and slain His prophets with the sword, and only he, Elijah, was left, and they all seek to take his life.
God knew Elijah’s difficulty, and He knew that Elijah wanted God to manifest Himself, but He wanted him to know Him as the God who hides Himself.
So God gave him a demonstration: a great, strong wind arose, but God was not in it; then an earthquake came, but God was not in it; then a fire came, and God was still not in it. Finally, after the fire came a gentle, quiet voice, and the Lord was in that (v. 12).
God is not in the great and miraculous things – He is in a gentle and quiet voice; especially in the New Testament age, God speaks to His people not by the thundering and fire but gently and quietly by the inner anointing (1 John 2:27).
God speaks to us and leads us through the moving, working, operating, and saturating of the indwelling compound Spirit in in our spirit, who is saturating our soul to give us a direct sense of God and of His ruling in us.
Elijah told God that he was the only faithful one left, but God very gently answered Elijah by saying that He had reserved for Himself seven thousand men who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kings 19:18; cf. Rom. 11:2-5).
Elijah had reckoned the situation only with what he could see, but God is a God who hides Himself, and He had secretly reserved for Himself seven thousand overcomers who had not bowed the knee to Baal.
God’s activity was so hidden that not even the prophet Elijah knew anything about it.
God does many things in secret, and He may not reveal to us what He does hiddenly; we need to know Him as the God who hides Himself.
Lord Jesus, may we know You as the One who not only does things outwardly for us but who likes to hide Himself and not make a display of what He does. Thank You Lord, You do not crave outward manifestations or display, but You want to dwell in our heart and speak to us inwardly as the inner anointing. Thank You for the countless things that You do among us and in us; You are a God who conceals Himself, yet You constantly work and do things in us and for us. May we know You and trust You as the God who hides Himself.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, A God Who Hides Himself, pp. 3-11 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Development of the Kingdom of God in the Church Life and the Christian Life (2019 spring ITERO), week 2, Living the Kingdom Life by Living a Hidden Life.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Thou hidden love of God, whose height, / Whose depth unfathomed no man knows, / I see from far Thy beauteous light, / Inly I sigh for Thy repose; / My heart is pained, nor can it be / At rest, till it finds rest in Thee. (Hymns #423)
# God moves in a mysterious way / His wonders to perform: / He plants His footsteps in the sea, / And rides upon the storm. / Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, / But trust Him for His grace; / Behind a frowning providence / He hides a smiling face. (Hymns #675)
# In the secret of His presence / How my soul delights to hide! / Oh, how precious are the lessons / Which I learn at Jesus’ side! / Earthly cares can never vex me, / Neither trials lay me low; / For when Satan comes to tempt me, / To the secret place I go. (Hymns #553)
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