I put this post together earlier this year and never published it. :)

From the back cover, Bob Sorge writes, “I have written this book with a passion to empower and inspire your secret relationship with God.” This book is full of truths I know I’ll return to again and again. Below are a few passages of note.

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Our devotional life with God is more like the planting of a garden. When we arise from sowing into the secret place, we will not usually be able to point to immediate results or benefits. What we sow today will require an entire season of growth before the results are manifest. The wisest thing you’ll ever do in this life is to draw close to God and to seek Him with all your heart.

He is everything, and as we are joined to Him the poverty of our personal identity is lost in the fullness of His eternal greatness.

We live in a culture that evaluates its priorities based upon immediate results. The voices of the world are demanding that we produce. Now! The race to produce can rob us of investing properly in the secret place. We must not evaluate our spiritual progress based upon how many projects we accomplished or deadlines we met today. Our devotional life with God is more like the planting of a garden. When we arise from sowing into the secret place, we will not usually be able to point to immediate results or benefits. What we sow today will require an entire season of growth before the results are manifest. Sowing is usually extremely mundane, boring, and menial. Rarely are the benefits of sowing seen at the time. Usually, it takes a period of time before the benefits of the sowing start to become self-evident. Authentic spiritual harvest is rarely instantaneous. The wise believer who understands this will devote himself to arduous sowing, knowing that at the right time he will reap if he does not lose heart.

To be set on fire, you must get close to God. When you feel cold, distant, and “out of it” spiritually, it’s time to retreat to the closet, place yourself before the fireplace of His word, and allow the intensity of His face to restore your fervency.

Obedience involves listening attentively with a heart of compliant submission and, then, obeying His word. Implicit obedience starts, for every one of us, not in doing good works but in sitting at His feet and hearing His word.  Devotion to the secret place is the saint’s first great act of obedience. 

The true fulfillment of serving Jesus is discovered when we get first things first: First we sit and listen, and then we go and do.

When you enter your room, and shut your door, you are in the presence of your Father. Instantaneously! It matters not how you feel. Regardless of your soul’s climate at that moment, you know with absolute confidence you have stepped into the chamber of your Father in heaven. The secret place is your portal to the throne, the place where you taste of heaven itself. Receive this word and you have gained one of the greatest secrets to intimacy with God. Because when you know you are in the immediate presence of your Father, your spirit and soul will often respond to that knowledge with heartfelt connectedness. The knowledge of this truth will set your spirit free to soar. When you build your life on the blessed intimacy of a secret place relationship with God, you are building on the rock.

Obedience unlocks eternally abundant life… Obedience incurs the gaze of God… Obedience produces greater intimacy… Obedience builds unshakable foundations.

Furthermore, obedience unlocks the affections of Christ and His self-disclosure to the human heart. There’s nothing more I long for than for Jesus to manifest Himself to me! For the hope of beholding Him I will embrace any and every command of His mouth. I choose to obey Him, not because I am energized by watching my obedience change people’s lives, but because His presence is so sweet when I obey. My heart is enflamed with zeal for His closeness, and obedience only fuels that fire.

lives. It’s safe to assume that apart from God’s grace I am constantly falling short of the excellence of God’s glory. Do I need to repent continually? You bet! Beloved, I pray you might gain the secret of radical, rapid repentance. Ready repentance opens the channels for intimate communion with God. When you’re in the secret place, be quick to confess your unbelief and hardness of heart. Don’t make Him talk you into it. Agree quickly with Him in the way.

As you are in the secret place and meditating in the word, God will use the fire of circumstances mixed with the fire of His word to reveal your hidden faults to you. As you gaze upon His perfection and beauty, you will suddenly see yourself in a whole new light. You will sense His unconditional acceptance despite your weaknesses, but also His firm commitment to conform you into the image of Christ. At that moment you are standing at the threshold of a wonderful opportunity: This is a time to embrace rapid repentance.