The Secret Place of Underground Power
by Brett Jacobsen
This article is an excerpt from the author's book Heaven's Underground Blueprint which is available here - http://www.christisall.org/hub-book.
The Secret Place of Underground Power
You could go to a new church-growth seminar every week for the rest of your life and learn how to build “your church”. However, you cannot escape the fact that biblical principles (which many of these seminars are virtually void of) not only work, but they glorify God rather than man. It is very clear who God wants in the limelight and, sorry to all the famous preachers and “worship leaders”, it’s not you. We all know the victorious place that Psalm 91 has available to the saints, but have we missed the key that unlocks that victory? It lies in the first verse:
He that dwells in the secret [cether - a cover, hiding place] place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. (Ps 91:1)
As we can see by the Hebrew word cether, this secret place signifies going underground to a state of hidden-ness. This biblical concept goes against most of what is taught throughout Christendom these days, as many organisations and people have chosen to adopt worldly success principles. Jesus shows in the next passage from Matthew’s gospel, that performance spirituality in synagogues (“churches”) and other limelight venues bears very little significant fruit. He commands rather to take on the secret (kruptos- concealed, i.e. private:–hidden) principle from the word so that He can reward openly; or in other words, provide “fruit that remains”:
And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say to you, They have their reward. But you, when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father which is in secret [kruptos]; and your Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly. (Matt 6:5-6)
The picture we are given when we first come to God is one of being “baptised into Christ”. This, according to the Greek word baptizo, has us being submersed in, and swallowed up by, His life. If our life is submersed into His, the emphasis is not on us but is on the one who we should be hidden in and enveloped by. This principle is for the ensuring of God’s pre-eminence and man’s continued obscurity.
“The fact is when a man gets to the place where he really loves obscurity, where he does not care to preach, and where he would rather sit in the backseat than on the platform, then God can lift him up and use him, and not very much before.”
Frank Bartleman (1)
The waiting warriors
While Jerusalem was buzzing with people preparing for the feast of Pentecost, there were two major contrasting church groups. One was the large impressive convergence of Jews and Proselytes at the temple. The other group was the one hundred and twenty called and chosen nobodies assembled in an upper room, waiting for the Lord to move.
It had been hundreds of years since the presence of God and His prophetic voice had been felt and heard at the temple with any significance. Despite this, it had a large following of not only Jews but also God-fearers from other nations. The many temple attendees were enthusiastically going through the motions of religion. Some of these were sincerely searching, whilst others were happy to shirk the responsibility of a real relationship with God. There were also the “whited sepulchres”.
On the other side of town there were the disciples of Jesus. These were an unimpressive lot, who were remaining obedient to the last word of the Lord, or rather “forty days” worth. They were waiting enduringly in “one accord” in “prayer and supplication”. The main stream of church was enjoying great statistical success in attendance and probably finances, yet they lacked God’s presence. God however, was working overtime with the unimposing underground community. They were being prepared in secret to be used in public; a principle all but forgotten in modern Christianity.
We are all too familiar with the fruit of the underground community in Acts chapter two but we seem to think that God has changed His methods and that He opts to run with the popular successful models nowadays:
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:1-4)
Let us not forget that when God moves suddenly it is due to long seasons of waiting in one accord and prayer. This group of hidden nobodies were now thrust into the public eye with no lack of power and presence. Notice that this encounter was for “each of them” as “they were all filled”. Remember that the fullness of Christ is not one person’s power or victory, but rather a collective body being moved by Him, by His power.
As we read on through Acts chapter two it appears that there were many in the dead, yet successful, “church” who were hungry for God’s truth and presence. Many heard the heavenly tempest and were drawn towards the flaming community only to be “pricked in their heart” at the realisation of their current spiritual situation:
And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, (Acts 2:5-6)
Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, (37)
Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added to them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. (41-42)
Of course we never think that it could be us in the dead, yet possibly successful church. The truth is that most of us are there or have been there. The prophetic picture painted here gives only two options for us to be identified with. One is an underground community of people hidden away from the limelight and focusing on God and their love for one another. The other is a temple-centred, successful organisation that is happy with results at the expense of true blessing from God.
At this point I must indicate that this Acts chapters 1-2 example of the true church is only the beginning of their journey. The new wineskin (the structure that carries His presence) had not yet taken on its fuller form; however, the heart of the New Testament church was displayed in its hidden state. Surely, as well as prayer and oneness, there is a key principle to seeing God move suddenly and powerfully: it is enduring in the underground secret place of the most high.
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September 7th, 2007 at 5:07 am
Ah yes, BUT Bretto, will YOU remain there, when the multitudes of “undergrounders” start clamoring “We must have the revelatory meat you can provide us! Let us promote you publicly! This thing can be big!”?
I recently received a newsletter from a brother who is rapidly becoming a “major voice” in the “House Church Movement,” who seems to be impressed with his speaking engagements in the major House Church Movement conferences. He’s soooo excited about what God is doing in this developing House Church Movement, and appears to be equally enthused about his prominent place in the midst of it.
There is no question this brother has received much from the Lord, and his writings are some of the clearest communications of the heart of the Lord for what He is desiring to build in His Church, but, as with almost all men (Paul, the apostle being excepted…) little by little it appears he is being impaled on the spear of man’s need for significance, man’s need for “a cause,” man’s need for “a movement,” etc. In the end, only God knows his motivations, but as I follow this brother closely I’m watching an evolution develop that leaves a sick feeling in the pit of my spiritual stomach for him.
God needs no man or woman to build Him a House Church Movement. He’s not constipated and needing man to help Him out with some form of human constructed laxative. He’s always been happy living outside the camp, hidden in the Father, working and praying in the secret place, building His underground Church. It is men who cannot endure obscurity. It is men who start out well, talk of being hidden in Christ, and letting it be simply all about Jesus, who over time, little by little, allow themselves to become self impressed, feeling the importance of their place in what God is doing, and allowing others to promote them, laud them, and lift them up. Even Jesus, the Lord of Glory, absolutely refused to allow men to do this to Him. At every point where men sought to take Him and promote Him as King, he rebuked them, hid Himself from them, stole away into the wilderness to pray and work with His disciples, leaving them an example that not one of them ever forgot. While great crowds gathered around Him He didn’t seek large crowds or encourage His disciples to promote big meetings. They just happened because He had such glory about Him. It isn’t that large gatherings are necessarily bad, but when men long for them, do anything to create them, enjoy the perks of personal fame and fortune from them, and learn to enjoy such things, SOMETHING is clearly wrong.
We don’t see even one of the first apostles who allowed any kind of House Church Movement to develop around them, as key note speakers. They apparently allowed no one to go ahead of them and promote big meetings for them. While I can’t prove it, I’m certain Paul would not have created a web presence to promote himself and his letters, with the intent to build a large and influential ministry. If he had created a web presence it would have been with the simple intent of lifting Jesus up, and making available the revelation God had given him, and his willingness to serve the body. The difference between a web presence to serve, and a web presence to develop personal ambition is admittedly a delicate balance and not easy to discern, but the heart knows, and it’s in the heart that Jesus is either Lord or our self promoter. They spoke privately, quietly, humbly, and with a huge awareness that allowing even a little of the leaven of self significance to creep into the ministry God had called them to, would lead the people away from Jesus and to themselves. They had a sensitive spiritual sense about these matters. They would have none of it.
In all of early Church history we don’t hear of Timothy or Titus or Epaphroditus promoting thousands to come out to hear Paul, or Peter, or John, in one of their local coliseums, temples, or public arenas. How did they avoid this happening? Was it just the fear of persecution that hindered this happening? I don’t think so. I think I know how they did it. I think God spoke to my heart as to how they avoided this.
I think there came several days and several folks, who approached Paul, and said something like the following, “Brother Paul, look man, there is no question God is with you in a big big way. You hang out in private, with little tiny groups of people, imparting the most exquisite of mysteries ever spoken by man, when, if you would let us, we could build massive rallies, conventions, and seminars, and take your message to huge audiences. You are God’s man for this hour Paul. Let us make this thing happen bro.!” I can just see Paul narrow his eyes at them, look around the room of headnodders, aware that all of Church history pivots around his answer to this question, looks into their eyes, with the room hushed, excited that they are about to hear of their opportunity to hook into this giant of a man and his ministry, finally develop a consistent income, get that new toga they’ve been eyeing at the public market, and trade in their sandals for a new horse. Paul turns and sits down, smiles at these brothers, and gently takes them back over the supremacy of Christ, being hidden in Him, letting all the glory be focused on Him, and in a word tells them “NO!” it just isn’t going to happen. I’m not going to build any movement around my revelation. It isn’t the revelation that has the glory…it is Jesus. Let Him create a movement if He desires. I’m not about to step in front of Him and become the first apostle to lead the people away from Him and to myself. No way! Crestfallen, they look at one another, dumbfounded that he “just doesn’t get it,” and yet they feel the deep resolve he has about the matter, and know they must drop it for now. Paul did not allow this kind of talk to generate around him. He refused it. He recognized it for what it was…a distraction from the True Focus on Christ. He wouldn’t have it.
I recently read back over the biography of a great teacher of Church history, by the name of Sadhu Sundar Singh. He was a humble brother from India, whom Christ gave great revelations and power to. While he remained an obscure figure in His kingdom, touching small gatherings and individuals here and there, he was physically and spiritually healthy, and left a clear fragrance of Christ everywhere he went. But, as the nature of man would be, some Westerners grabbed a hold of him, and convinced him to let them market him. They paid his way around the world, in a worldwide speaking tour. Gatherings of thousands waited to hear from him, and hung on every word he spoke. Previously, he was accustomed to spending great lengths of time in prayer and meditation before the Lord, from Whom the revelations he taught came, but now, driven by the ambitions of man, he humbly succumbed to their pressure to let them promote him, and after a year of this constant rush of ministry, he was exhausted; physically and spiritually sick, and canceled his final meetings and went back to India, and hid himself in obscurity…such obscurity that somebody got word he had died, and it was in all the papers throughout the world. He only emerged from obscurity to let them know he was still alive, but would not allow them to reattach themselves to him and his ministry. His health returned. He continued his quiet and simple sharing of Christ, and died in obscurity. His life tells it all, yet we refuse to learn from him.
Hiddenness is just about the most difficult mountain a powerfully gifted man will face. The inner desire we all share, for significance, is so crafty, so compelling, and so dangerous, that if we do not resist its emergence at every point it will eclipse Jesus and cause men to follow men, instead of following Christ. It cannot be humbly shrugged off, it cannot be delicately sidestepped, it MUST be hit head on, with a resounding NO!!! I will not allow anyone to lift me up and make this thing become about me. I am and always will be a NOBODY, compared to the majesty of Christ. I’m happy being a nobody, I want to be a nobody, I have settled I will always be a nobody, and at even the hint of me being otherwise I will shut it down, go hide out in the mountains for a few years if necessary, until men forget about me again, and only come back out when God says they’ve learned to live without me, and emerge to only reveal Jesus.
Would to God we could find some men today, who have the level of revelation Paul had, and who steadfastly refuse the glory he must have refused. There can be no question, given the nature of man, that such a scenario must have taken place in private. Paul undoubtedly fought this demon many times throughout his ministry. Nobody was allowed to make Paul a big shot. There were no Churches entitled “Saint Paul’s Cathedral,” in Paul’s day. He allowed no movement to develop around him, his revelation, or his personality. For him, it was either going to be all about Jesus or it wasn’t going to be anything at all. GOD GIVE US THESE KIND OF MEN AGAIN!!!
Blessings Brethren…
Tom (Sparko)
September 11th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Hi Tom,
I did a long response to this but I some how deleted it instead of posting it. Here is the short version.
I too have been devastated as I watch this certain house church key note speaker be drawn towards the light.. the lime light that is.
I will stay underground because I have chosen it (He chose me first) and have learned to love it. I will continue in obscurity because I have allowed the Lord to kick the selfish, ambitious stuffing out of me in the desert.
Too many have lunged out from the system withot going through the desert which rids us of ambition and anchors us in Christ. Too many are pragmatically progressing while the Lord is saying “be still then only respond”. Too many are building constructs on their name and fame. Too many are talking the talk yet doing a mini-me of Christendom.
I no longer have the desire to go anywhere or build anything. I will however, lay my foul carcass down for the Lord to build His church with, in what way He sees fit. I will lay Christ foundations under believers who will continue to stay on Christ alone. My desire is for Christ to get the kudos in all things, and I know I must practically set myself in obscurity in order for this to happen. “I know that in me, hat is in my flesh, there dwells no good thing”.
Tom, It is a little crazy how much we think alike. I cannot fathom how so many “reformers” are talking diferently to how they are walking. So many have reverted back to old ways, albeit unwittingly at times, because they just haven’t grasped a fuller picture of the Kingdom.
Let’s continue to dig deep and stay low as the Lord increases His Kingdom.
September 12th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Bretto,
I think it is just as you have described it. Many start out in obscurity, because they aren’t known yet. They preach obscurity as an insulation against their own sense of inadequacy and fear of failure, and because in the recesses of their heart they know it is God’s best for them. Then, as time goes by, and they become “known,” slowly but surely they allow themselves to be drawn away from the “first things” they once believed and preached, regarding obscurity, and allow themselves to become big shots, market intensely, and get full of themselves.
I too appreciate the kindred spirit I find with you Bretto. I believe you fully intend to remain small in your own eyes, and keep your eyes focused on Christ alone and the prize that is in Him.
The internal emotional clamor, that goes on in our brains, for increased significance, can only be tamed by the humility that is in Christ, if we will submit ourselves to Him. I’m convinced it takes something of a hardened militancy of spirit to resist the temptations to self glory. I believe we see such a militancy in Jesus and Paul in such verses as the following:
John 2:24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
John 5:31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not deemed true. 32 There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. 33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. 34 Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.
Galatians 1:10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Both of these men held themselves in a place of tight control over the desires of men to promote them and lift them up, and Paul allowed the Spirit to control his inner desires of the flesh for the praise of men.
Everyone wants the servant of God to be “nice” and “gentle,” and not given to firmness of spirit, but one who is “sensitive” to the desires of the body for the call on his life and the ministry God has given him, but if he is to be the man of God he was called to be he must continually stay on top of the inclination of the flesh to follow the desires of man rather than the desires of Christ. This shouldn’t necessitate meanness of spirit, but it does require a resoluteness seldom seen among men. There must be an attitude of heart that says something like: “Sure, I’d love to be worshiped and adored by people. Of course I’d like to feel significant from the things I do and the perceptions of the masses, but I will not pursue any such things, nor will I allow others to draw me into the pursuit of these things. I am a servant of Christ, tethered tightly to His heart, unwilling to follow my own will or the will of anyone else for me, no matter how tempting and how self glorifying it could become.”
People often wonder why I don’t travel and speak more than I do. They feel I’m wasting the call of God on my life. In their minds I need to be “out there,” feeding the body and building my ministry. On one hand I appreciate their appreciation for the gifts of God evident in my life, but, if I’m to be a true servant of Christ I MUST wait until I have clear marching orders from Him, otherwise I succumb to the very things that take the focus off Christ, and turn myself into a follower of my own significance, while telling myself it is for Christ and His body.
Nothing is more painful than waiting for his clear leading. I find it tremendously painful to have a desire to strengthen the body of Christ at large, with the things God has put in my life, but to do so without a full knowing that it is in His timing and at His direction is simply to add to the stuff of Church history that is needing such reformation. God helping me I won’t do it.
I don’t love obscurity yet. In fact, to be very honest with you, I hate obscurity. I love being needed. I long for the praises of men. It is an exhilarating feeling to preach a message that feels like it came from outside of me, into and through me, and into the hearts of my listeners, and have them be sooo impressed and appreciative. I both love it and fear it. It took Moses 40 years on the backside of the wilderness to overcome his desire for personal greatness. If it takes me a few more years then so be it. It is simply too important that it be “all” about Jesus, for me to mess around with making my ministry happen. I’m learning to enjoy simple acts of ministry. Writing this comment to you, writing a loving email to my daughter, doing some projects around our property that bless my wife, making time for a troubled brother to come over this evening and just pour out his woes to me and spend time praying with him. Being kind to a mortgage client who is “sooo not ready to buy a house yet,” but just needs some simple kindness to help her prepare to purchase in a couple of years. Little things…not the stuff of world shaking ministry, in which people are impressed and I make the big bucks from, but I’m convinced if I can learn to love a simple life of following His gentle leading, and leaving the where’s and when’s to Him, I may not contribute any more to the junk the Church needs to be reformed from, and maybe, just maybe, I’ll go to sleep, become alive in Christ alone, and forget that Tom Sparks ever existed. Woohoo, wouldn’t that be a blessing to the world?
Love you bro! Thanks for the dialogue!
Your brother
Tom
September 12th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Hey Tom,
Well said. I reckon that God does His best works through the mundane and plain. So many have been taken by the “power ministry” lie; it’s no wonder that the majority of believers are at least partially retarded from serving God powerfully. With all the pulpit prancing preachers performing “powerful ministry” while strutting the stage, there is an insidious virus spreading throughout the “common Christian” body which disesteems every day life. We all should be powerfully shining the Kingdom in every day, sometimes boring, nothing flash, common, can be mundane, human existance. That is what most of us do most of the time. While we work, play, eat, and the like, we have the greatest platform for ministry following us around. We have every day life opportunities to engage in real relationships, which opens doors into peoples’ hearts for the gospel of the Kingdom.
This is why true biblical leadership is found flowing around the believers every day lives, equipping them on the job. It’s why a house or a park etc is a better place to gather around the Lord to break bread and the like. Not only is there far better equipping happenning in this scenario, it also ensures obscurity for the leaders/equippers and all the believers. No hype, no limelight, no audiance, no great statistics, no constructed organisation, no passive pew-sitters, no mindless monologues, no kudos to men and their great ministries; just genuine Kingdom increase with Holy Spirit power flowing through the majority instead of the minority.
woohoo, bring that Lord.
September 13th, 2007 at 5:48 am
Amen……………….
September 13th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
Yes. YES. YES!! Thank you Lord.
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Thank you Jesus! Dear bro’s you have spoken my heart. My wife and I have said so many times “where are the like minded Christians?” so that word is true ‘Seek and you will find.” Thank you Jesus for like minded/kindred spirited believers. looking forward to a cuppa. Gaza.