Praying in Secret and Doing all things in Spirit to Gain Secret Growth before God

As believers in Christ, we are kingdom people who live in an emptied and humbled spirit and walk in a pure and single heart under the heavenly ruling of the kingdom, and we are praying in secret (thus having our flesh and self killed) and want to have secret growth in life with the Lord.

Amen, Lord Jesus, we love You and we love to spend time with You in secret! We do not want to do things in such a way that others would see us. Oh, Father, You see in secret, You reward us when we come to You, and we just shut our door and pray to our Father who is in secret! We love You, Lord, and we give ourselves to You today to spend time in secret with You! Amen!

This week we continue to enjoy the Lord’s speaking concerning prayer as seen in Matthew 6:5-6 and 14:22-23.

Our focus this week is, The Kingdom People having the Experience of Praying in Private to Contact their Heavenly Father in Secret and have some Secret Enjoyment of Him.

We want to build up a personal, private, and spiritual relationship with the Lord in our daily life. It has to be personal.

We must have personal prayer. We need to have the secret contact with our Father in our daily life, and we need to have secret and hidden enjoyment and experiences of the Father.

May our prayer life, our personal prayer life, be established so that we can have some secret enjoyment of our Father God.

In order for us to live in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens as seen in Matthew five through seven, we need to build up the prayer life, in particular, the personal and private prayer life.

On the one hand, we need to have the proper prayer, which is the prayer that expresses God’s will and prays toward God’s interest.

The proper prayer is to pray ourselves into God. On the other hand, we need to have the prayer life with the Father in secret.

Many of us pray with other saints or in meetings, and we may have coordination meetings, group meetings, and all kinds of times of fellowship, so we pray.

Occasionally, we may encounter some critical matters, we may have some personal problems, and there may be some troubles or health situations, so we pray.

But what about our personal prayer life with the Lord? We all have to admit that it is so easy for us to be involved in doing things for God and in the church life, yet without having a proper prayer life.

We may pay much attention to what we do for the Lord and to being with the saints, but we may not have much hidden, private prayer with the Lord.

We need to have something that only the Lord and us know, something hidden and private, in spirit, for us to have secret growth in life and deal with the flesh and the self, thus going on with the Lord.

Praying in Secret and Doing all things in Spirit to Please our Heavenly Father

In Matthew chapter six, verses five and six, the Lord tells us that, when we pray, we should not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners, so that they may be seen by men.

Such ones had their reward in full, and God will not reward them.

But us, as kingdom people, when we pray, we should enter into our private room and shut our door, and we should pray to our Father who is in secret, and our Father who sees in secret will repay us.

May the Lord save us from being like the hypocrites and doing things like the hypocrites.

As people of the kingdom of the heavens, we need to enter into our private room, shut the door, and pray to our Father who is in secret.

We need to have the experience of praying in our private room and shutting our door. Our heavenly Father is in secret and He sees in secret.

As kingdom people, we are children of our heavenly Father, and we must live in and care for the Father’s secret and hidden presence.

What we care for is not for others to see us and appreciate us; rather, we come to the Lord in secret, we are praying in secret, and we are doing all things in secret in order to please our heavenly Father.

We need to enjoy the hidden Father and His secret presence by spending time in secret and praying in secret with the Lord.

On the one hand, it is easy to understand the truths and enjoy the truths; however, when it comes to the matter of our experience, the application is in the hidden and secret fellowship and prayer with the Father, and this is not that easy.

We may even be eloquent in speaking about things, we may have a lot of knowledge concerning God’s economy and the truth in God’s word, but we may not pray that much, and our prayer may not be in private before our Father. Oh Lord!

Our power in serving the Lord and expressing Christ comes from our personal prayer time with the Lord; we need to be those praying in secret before our Father, seeking to know Him, know His will, and allowing Him to shine on us and speak to us in secret.

To us as kingdom people, God is not only our God but also our Father.

We are not only people created by God in His image and according to His likeness; we are also children of God, for we were regenerated by God to be His many children, and God is our Father (John 1:12-13; Matt. 5:48).

We are learning now to live in an emptied and humbled spirit (Matt. 5:3) and walk in a pure and single heart (v. 8) under the heavenly ruling of the kingdom.

We are learning to live by the divine life in our spirit. The law of the kingdom decreed by the King on the mountain is given to us with the intention that we should keep it not by our fallen human life but by our Father’s eternal, divine life.

We can be pure in heart, poor in spirit, meek, merciful toward others, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, mourning over the situation, and always rejoicing only by the Father’s divine life in our spirit.

As we live by the Father’s life, we will not seek to gain man’s glory but we want to receive the Father’s reward.

In Matthew 6:4, 6, and 18 the Lord used the word secret a lot. He emphasised that we should do our righteous deeds in secret, for our Father is in secret.

He said that we should pray to our Father who is in secret, and He said that the Father who sees in secret will reward us.

We need to be in secret before our Father, praying in secret and seeking the Lord in secret, and we need to do all things in spirit in order to please our heavenly Father. May we be such ones today.

Lord Jesus, we love You and we come to You in secret to spend time with You in prayer. Oh Lord, may we be those praying in secret to our Father, who sees in secret. Save us from praying only outwardly, with people or before people. May we have a secret time, even a secret life, of prayer before our heavenly Father. We want to live in an emptied and humbled spirit and we want to walk in a pure and single heart under the heavenly ruling of the kingdom. Oh Lord, as we live and walk by the divine life of our heavenly Father, we come to You in secret to spend time with You and do all things in spirit to please our Father. Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit and enter into our private room to spend time with You. You are our Father who sees in secret, and You reward us in secret. May we have the experience of praying in our private room and shutting our door. Father, we love You! We live before You. We don’t care for others’ appreciation and praise; we care for our dear Father’s secret and hidden presence! Amen, Father, we love You!

As we Pray to our Heavenly Father in Secret, the flesh and the Self are Killed, and we gain Secret Growth before God

May we come back to the divine revelation in God’s word regarding our prayer life before the Lord and with the Lord. In Matthew six the Lord clearly emphasised that we need to spend time in secret with our Father.

As kingdom people, as children of the heavenly Father, we must live in the presence of our dear Father and care for His presence, and we need to pray to our heavenly Father in secret (Matt. 6:5-6).

And when we do our good deeds, we do them not before others or for others to see them and appreciate them, but in secret, before our Father, for we live before the Father and we seek the Father’s presence and reward.

The effect of our praying in secret is that the flesh and the self are killed.

People today do their righteous deeds before others to make sure they praise them and think they are good. The self likes to display its good deeds before men, and it kills the self if something good is done in secret.

But for us as kingdom people, a basic principle related to our prayer and our righteous deeds is never to make a show of ourselves.

As much as possible, we should hide ourselves and keep ourselves covered, for the Lord said that even our left hand should not know what our right hand is doing (Matt. 6:3).

When we do things in secret before the Lord and when we’re praying in secret, our flesh and our self are exposed and killed.

Actually, if people in society today and even in degraded Christendom are not allowed to make a show of their good deeds, they will not do them.

The self loves to be glorified and the flesh loves to be gazed upon.

The constitution of the kingdom of the heavens exposes and deals with not only our outward behaviour but even more, our very inner being.

In Matthew 5-7 the Lord has a way to expose the intentions of our heart, the things we think of, the secret things we do, and even the desires of our heart and what we want and others don’t even know about. Oh Lord!

He wants us to have prayer in secret before our Father, and He wants us not to display our good deeds.

Our Father is in secret, and He will reward us when we pray in secret and do our righteous deeds before Him, not before men.

When we do this, the flesh and the self are killed, and even more, we gain some secret growth before our God and Father.

The Lord did tell us that He will reward us when we pray in secret and do our good deeds in spirit and in secret, and this reward may occur in this age (2 Cor. 9:10-11) or as a reward in the coming age (Luke 14:14).

But the important thing is not the reward; it is the growth in life.

If we grow openly, if we grow in such a way for others to see that there’s some growth, improvement, and bettering of our behaviour, that is not real growth in life, and this is not healthy.

If we do our righteous deeds before others so that they may see them, but we are not praying in secret nor are we living in spirit to do our good deeds before the Lord, our growth is not healthy.

We need some secret growth in life, some secret experiences of Christ.

We need to pray to the Lord, worship the Lord, contact the Lord, and fellowship with the Lord in a secret way, not just in a way that others would see us.

Not even our spouse should know of our secret time with the Lord and our secret experiences of Him.

Even the ones who are closest to us should not be aware that we have a time with the Lord and that we do righteous deeds.

Such secret experiences of the Lord and secret times of prayer before our Father kill the self and the flesh, and we obtain some secret growth in life before our God.

The self frustrates the growth in life, and the flesh hinders us from expressing the Lord. The self loves to be seen by men and do its righteous deeds before men so that men would praise him. Oh Lord!

So we need to come to the Lord in secret, praying in secret to our Father who is in secret, and we need to gain experiences of Christ in secret, not for others to see or to know.

May we allow the Lord to expose and deal with our flesh and our flesh as we seek Him in secret.

May we all receive some secret growth in life, some secret experiences of Christ, by praying to the Lord, worshipping Him, contacting Him, and fellowshipping with Him in a secret way.

May there be much growth in secret, under the surface, for us to the advance in the Lord and be useful to Him, even for us to be kingdom people in reality today.

Lord Jesus, make us those who are praying in secret to our heavenly Father who sees in secret. We love You, Lord, and we come to You. Save us from doing things before men to be seen by them. Oh Lord, have Your way to expose our flesh and our self, who love to be gazed on and appreciated by others when they do righteous deeds. Oh Lord, we give ourselves to You to gain You, enjoy You, and fellowship with You in secret. May our seeking You in secret and our living in spirit before our Father in secret expose and kill the self and the flesh. Amen, Lord, we want to obtain some secret growth in life and some secret experiences of Christ. May our growth be in You and with You. Keep us in prayer before You, contacting the Lord, worshipping the Lord, and fellowshipping with the Lord often in secret. Lord Jesus, grow in us. Take us on with You. May there be much growth in secret before the Lord as we contact the Lord in secret! Amen!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of Matthew, msg. 21, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crucial Aspects of Matthew 5 through 7 (2025 September ITERO), week 5, The Kingdom People having the Experience of Praying in Private to Contact their Heavenly Father in Secret and have some Secret Enjoyment of Him – day 1.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Take time to behold Him, / Speak oft with Thy Lord, / Abide in Him always, / And feed on His Word. / Wait thou in His presence, / Submissive and meek, / Forgetting in nothing / His blessing to seek. (Hymns #643 stanza 1)
  – Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / Fully opened from within, / With thy face unveiled, beholding, / Single, pure, and genuine. / Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / Seeking Him in confidence; / Learn to touch Him as the Spirit, / Looking up in reverence. (Hymns #784 stanzas 2-3)
  – Praying always in the spirit, / Never in the flesh or mind! / If this secret we will practise, / God’s full presence we will find. / Praying always in the spirit / Is the secret we are told! / In the spirit, God to contact, / Is the secret we must hold! (Hymns #780 stanza 1 and chorus)