Prayer is a place. A secret place in the Spirit. There, our relationship with God is established; and from there, everything we ask according to His will is given to us. When Jesus was on earth, He would often pray alone in the desert, but we can choose any place and dedicate it specifically for prayer. In the natural, we all need a physical place to represent the spiritual place where we meet daily with God.
However, in order to fully experience the presence of God, we must recognize that the atmosphere of that place is more important than the place itself. There is nowhere on earth (or in the universe) where the presence of God is absent, no matter how hidden it may be. Nevertheless, although the Lord is everywhere, He does not manifest His presence everywhere. His presence manifests only where He is worshipped “in spirit and truth” (John 4:24b).
Jesus taught that when we pray, we should go into our “room” (place of prayer), shut ourselves in with God and speak to Him with faith and trust, as a little child speaks to their father. Our heavenly Father will always be waiting for us there. When we have learned to pray in the secret place, we will find that nothing and no one else is more important to us than God. In that place, we are alone with our Creator—the King of kings, the Almighty, the omniscient one who knows everything, including the state of each person’s heart. (See, for example, 1 John 3:20; Acts 1:24.) There we are submerged in such sweet communion with the Lord that we don’t want to leave that place. We are passionate about being alone with our heavenly Father, and that pleases Him. Being in the presence of God is so wonderful that we no longer worry about other people or about our problems, fears and doubts; not even the thought of gaining riches or fame interests us. If, while we are praying, we are thinking about other things, we are not truly in God’s presence because there, He becomes our complete reality.
Enter the Secret Place
The secret place of prayer is where man meets his Creator and is transformed. God expects us to daily enter His presence—the place where spiritual power and activity are released—to know His heart and to receive His authority. He longs for us to enter the place of submission and suffering, where the keys of the kingdom are found, where we gain territories, and where we receive His favor.
The church of Jesus Christ needs to go back to that secret place, so that the Father who sees in secret will reward the church in public. And what is that reward? An eternal, close relationship with the Lord that makes us continual carriers of His supernatural presence. Let us enter that secret place! I assure you that when we do, we will be ready to be God’s faithful remnant—the bride of Christ who ministers in His name to the world and awaits His second coming. Let us embrace the life of God and become one with the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Outside of that, nothing else matters.
Activation
Dear reader, if you recognize that your prayer life is not what it should be; if you know you have been praying in a religious way without being conscious of the presence of God, without power or spiritual activity in your daily life, I invite you to say the following prayer out loud:
Beloved God, I thank You for bringing this revelation of the secret place of prayer to my life. I ask for forgiveness if, due to ignorance or a lack of passion, I have not known how to seek a relationship with You that leads me to be in Your presence. Today, I commit to walk in communion with You.
I am conscious of being in Your presence, and I know that You are my greater and absolute reality. When I’m in Your presence, nothing else matters. I access Your presence and I become its carrier. I declare that in Your presence, I receive power, and that miracles are manifested among Your people.
I declare that I participate in Your spiritual activity on earth, creating heavenly atmospheres for Your presence to come and minister to others, and I receive spiritual authority to destroy the works of the devil.
I remain in submission to the lordship of Christ, just as Jesus walked in submission to the Father while He was on earth. I participate in Christ’s sufferings in order to manifest the power of His resurrection. I declare that my prayers activate the keys of the kingdom, to legally bind and loose the will of God on earth. I also declare that, as I keep growing in prayer, my territories and domains will expand. I proclaim that I am fully conscious of God’s presence, of His fellowship, and of the power and authority our relationship releases. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus, in the now. Amen! {eoa}
Excerpt from Breakthrough Prayer, © 2018 by Guillermo Maldonado, published by Whitaker House. Used with permission.
Apostle Guillermo Maldonado is the founder of Ministerio Internacional El Rey Jesús (King Jesus International Ministry)—one of the fastest-growing multicultural churches in the United States—which has been recognized for its development of kingdom leaders and for visible manifestations of God’s supernatural power. He is a spiritual father to a growing network of over 300 churches, the New Wine Apostolic Network, which he founded. Apostle Maldonado resides in Miami, Florida, with his wife and partner in ministry, Ana, and their two sons, Bryan and Ronald.
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