This last Wednesday, I was worshiping Jesus at a little house gathering with some friends, and the song being played was “It is well with my soul.” As we did, I was challenged by the Spirit. The lyrics basically say that it is well with this person’s soul (the song’s author), regardless of what joy or severe trauma he is going through. And the man who wrote the hymn indeed went through a mini-hell on earth (most of his family died and all his finances were ruined), and yet he could actually sing that it was well with his soul!
The Spirit said that this man’s soul was unshakeable. And He said He wanted to make my soul (and the souls all Christians) unshakeable, because great shakings are coming to the earth, and that only that which was of God would survive.
“At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken — that is, created things — so that what cannot be shaken may remain.” (Hebrews 12:26-27)
And He said that this miracle of being made unshakeable mainly happens in the Secret Place, forged in the glorious fire of intimacy.
“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28-29)
In the amazing, delightful, costly place of true intimacy, we are transformed more and more from intangible to tangible, from non-beings to true Be-ings. God calls Himself “I AM”. He IS! The most glorious thing you can do is to truly BE.
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
In the book THE GREAT DIVORCE by C.S. Lewis, the people of hell were intangible and unreal, and the people of heaven were extremely solid, tangible and real. That which is truly real has nothing to fear from the kingdom of the unreal, and when shakings come, only the unreal things of darkness and the natural things crumble.
But He said that His children in America generally treat intimacy with Him too casually and don’t see it as the glorious, life-and-death matter that it is. And He said that life here has been relatively gentle and slow, but that things are heating up and speeding up — and that NOW is the time to press in to the Secret Place to know Him and be transformed by Him — and to receive the necessary Grace needed for things that are coming. The verse He gave me to underscore this is Jeremiah 12:5:
“If you have raced with men on foot
and they have worn you out,
how can you compete with horses?
If you stumble in safe country,
how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?”
But He says that in the midst of these shakings, those whose Tangibleness has been established in the Secret Place will not only survive, but actually flourish and shine brightly — and that many will come to the rising of this light in them:
“Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the LORD rises upon you
and His glory appears over you.
Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.”
(Isaiah 60:1-3)
So, my dear brothers and sisters — I encourage you to run to the Secret Place and make it your home — not a visitation, but a habitation. You will one day be grateful beyond words if you do.
