DAY 15 OF 90 WATCHING WITH THE LORD
The Place of His Manifested Presence
Matthew 6:6 But when you pray, go into your room, shut the door, and pray to your Father who is in the secret place; your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
Yesterday I shared about the power of the Eternal Altar (the Cross) and my testimony of the miraculous divine exchange that I received on 12/12/1990. I was baptized in the fiery love of God and instantly delivered from tormenting demons. For almost a year after my salvation, the LORD placed me in what I can only describe as a supernatural bubble, like a biosphere chamber of His Presence.
There was no religious labor in that place, just worship and prayer in the spirit, completely free from spiritual striving. It was a place of pure ecstasy, what I describe as holy intoxication on the beauty of Jesus.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF RECOVERY
I know this type of encounter is not normal for ex-drug addicts, and the length of time I spent with the Lord is not practical for most people’s work schedules and the demands of life. But the Lord gave me an extended season of His manifested presence that became a spiritual detox recovery program, necessary to restore my brain cells and my body from the toxicity of the drugs. I know many who have entered six-month and one-year programs; mine was in my mother’s home, where she took me back in, and my family, who were all on fire for the Lord, were my support system.
During that season, I spent hours each day soaking in His presence by beholding Him in worship, singing, and praying in the Spirit. There was no warfare in that place. I went from being a man with alcoholism, a drug addict, a person strung out on crack cocaine, to being a man literally intoxicated by the beauty of Jesus. I literally became strung out on God’s presence, no exaggeration, just like a drug addict strung out on crack cocaine.
There is a downside to encountering the tangible glory realm: after that, nothing in the natural world will ever satisfy your soul's longing. Once you taste and see that realm, there’s no vacation, no beach, no golf course, no football game, no relationship, no vehicle, no home, no property. Nothing compares to the place of God’s manifest presence and glory.
FROM THE CHAMBER TO THE FRONTLINES
That supernatural season lasted almost a year. Then, all of a sudden, He popped the bubble. The Lord brought me out of the protective supernatural chamber, and I began to experience normal life, being thrown into the frontlines of a raging war for humanity. I began to encounter major moments of spiritual warfare, demonic opposition, mental assault, temptation, and many distractions.
I then understood why the Lord let me taste that realm of His glory, and I made the secret place of encounter a priority in my daily schedule. The secret place of His presence became a daily priority, equipping me with the weapons of warfare to defeat the enemy.
A FOUNDATION FOR THE WHOLE BODY
That initial supernatural season of holy consecration laid a foundation strong enough to bear the weight of what He wanted to build in the future. Everything I would eventually carry into ministry, including the prophetic words spoken over regions, the prayer meetings that shifted atmospheric conditions, and the encounters that changed someone else’s life, was rooted in what had been formed during that first year of unbroken communion in the secret place.
Even more, that season gave me a foretaste of a future glory, the Body of Christ’s destiny, the latter glory coming to His house (Hag. 2:9; Eph. 5:25–31; 2 Cor. 3:18). The glory realm truly ruined me for the ordinary, so I wouldn’t be satisfied with platforms, stages, notoriety, charismatic popularity, or religious success, but would fix my eyes on His eyes of fire and hear His voice say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
What the Lord was establishing in me was never meant to be about me or to stop with me; it was a foundation of healing and encounter being laid for the whole Body of Christ. Places of His presence, places of holy habitation, where lives are transformed suddenly in a 12/12.
THE SECRET PLACE IS A RELATIONSHIP
The secret place is a relationship, not a discipline, and that relationship becomes the foundation for everything else. You cannot release what you have not received, nor can you receive what you will not contend for. The secret place of His Presence is available to every believer as the normal, expected reality of a life genuinely surrendered to Him, not as an exceptional experience reserved for full-time ministers and the spiritual elite.
The question is whether we will shut the door and make His presence our top priority on our list!
THE SUMMONS TO COME AWAY
I know my initial experience, as I described it, isn’t normal because of the time constraints of everyday life, but we make time for what we value.
We all have jobs, duties, and many responsibilities. Some become overwhelming, and in those moments I always find myself looking for something to comfort me.
This season, the Lord has been showing me places where I look for comfort, self-comfort, that aren’t Him. They’re not sinful, they’re not even bad; they’re simply not Him. Remember, the Holy Spirit is called the Comforter (John 16:7).
The Lord’s been wooing me to turn aside, to come away. He’s been saying, “Come away, my beloved. You’re about to transition the age, and I need to bring you back into the supernatural chamber of My presence.”
If we answer the summons and come away, I sense the Lord is forging something for the transition ahead. That chamber of His manifested presence will be vital and will become the foundation of what I have termed a new apostolic prayer movement, fully equipped to release the government of the kingdom of God in the fullness of time, or at the climax of a 6,000-year war for redemption.
Hear the voice of the Lord. Come away, my beloved. Come away.
REFLECTION
Name the places you run to for comfort: the shows, the scrolling, the busyness, even the ministry itself. Have any of them become substitutes for the chamber of His Presence? If the Lord said, “Come away; I need to bring you back into the chamber,” what would you have to close the door on to obey Him?
PRAYER
Father, forgive me for every substitute I have reached for when I was hungry for You. Shut the door behind me, and let the chamber of Your manifested Presence become my priority again, not a place I visit only when desperate, but the place from which I live. Make me part of the apostolic company You are forming for the transition ahead, hidden with You in the secret place. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
DECLARATION
I was not created for a religious performance; I was created to live within the chamber of God’s manifested Presence, and I refuse every lesser comfort that has tried to take His place. I am part of the apostolic generation the Lord is forming for this transition, carrying His government into the earth because I have been undone by His glory behind the shut door. The chamber is not behind me; it is before me, and I am going back in.
Ed Watts · Zion Gate Ministries · Altars of the Voice of the LORD