Smith Wigglesworth’s Insight on the Secret Place and How to Surrender and Enter
Foundational Scriptures
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.’ ”
Matthew 16: 24, 25
“But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.”
1 Corinthians 2: 14, 15
The Secret Place of the Most High is meant to be the permanent dwelling place of every believer. It is the place where we are found “in Him,” or “in Christ,” and we live “in the Spirit” and walk “by the Spirit.”
In the Secret Place, we stand and have fellowship with Him, and we are transformed into His image (2 Corinthians 3: 18).
“For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”
2 Corinthians 4: 11
“And indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
1 John 1: 3
“How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
Hebrews 9: 1
“And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us: for after saying, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them.”
Hebrews 10: 15, 16
There are so many verses we could quote to help you understand the Secret Place. But in this lesson, I want to focus on how do we surrender and enter beyond the veil into the Secret Place?
- By Grace Through Faith
“And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
Hebrews 11: 6
He draws us by His grace. The Holy Spirit causes us to get a glimpse of His love and the awe of Him, and it draws us. Entrance into the Secret Place is built upon the final authority of the Word. It is not based on my opinions or feelings or man’s doctrines, but on my receiving and simply believing the Word.
We must come in faith believing He is! We believe He is the rewarder of those who seek Him, so what reward are we seeking? To know Him and be known by Him. To be apprehended by Him. But everything must be built upon the Word.
“Through faith the eternal Word by the operation of His Spirit brings forth life in our hearts, and we realize we are living in a divine order, where God is manifesting His power and living with us.”
We want to be like Him-
“We must understand nothing less than this, we have to be the epistle of Christ, a living word, a living faith, equipped with the revelation of the plan of the future, all things consist of Him.”
We come because we get a glimpse of Him by the Holy Spirit, and we long for more of Him. We have tasted, and now we thirst for more. In the Secret Place, the precious promises are no longer nice inspirational sayings, but we, by the Spirit, personally possess them. The Holy Spirit opens our eyes, and we see them. A hunger grows in us for the Word, and we yield to all the Word says we are, and we become partakers of His divine nature (2 Peter 1: 4).
The Holy Spirit brings the Word to life, and we can see and hear it. While we may have wonderful experiences, we see that our life must be built upon the wonderful and forever established Word. The Secret Place shouts of the eternal Word and how it is absolute authority!
“On any line or principle of faith you must have something established in you to bring that forth. And there is no establishment outside God’s Word for you. Everything else is sand… If you build on anything else but the Word of God- on imaginations, sentimentality, or any feelings, or any special joy, it will mean nothing without you having a foundation, and the foundation will have to be in the Word of God.”
- A Holy Desperation
There will always be a divine hunger that grows in you in the Secret Place, and like with a natural hunger, we must choose to yield to it. We need to see that we are naked and a wretch, and we need Him. We have to desire Him and to be clothed by Him.
Look at the story of Jacob coming back into the Land of Canaan and knowing he was about to face his brother Esau from whom he had fled all those years ago.
“He knew that no one could deliver him but God. And there alone, lean in soul and impoverished in spirit, he met God. Oh, how we need to get alone with God, to be broken, to be changed, to be transformed! And when we do meet with Him, He interposes, and all care and strife are at an end.”
As we press into the Secret Place, we see the blood of Jesus, and we see ourselves as we truly are. You become broken. Not condemned but wonderfully broken by the Great Physician. In His touch, I see who I was, but I now see who I am in Him if I will surrender. I must choose, and I must first give over the old and then receive the new.
But how can I know it is of God? The Word and the fruit! Everything He does will always align with and honor the Word. Remember, the Father gives good gifts. More on this in part two of this message.
“Get alone with God and receive the revelation of His infinite grace, and of His wonderful purposes and plans for your life.”
In the Secret Place, there is a holy fear. Everything bows to Jesus. Every thought and desire in me must also bow. Every desire is to be found pleasing to Him.
“I pray God that there may be within us a deep hunger and thirst with the penetration which is centered upon the axle of Him, for surely He is all and all.”
- Jesus Crucified
We must first see the finished work of the Cross. We must look and see the blood and that it was the price paid for us! It must be personal. I must see the love He has for me and how much He desires for me to come into the Secret Place that I might know Him. The enemy seeks to hold us captive to our past and tries to convince us we are a slave to our sins. But at the Cross, Jesus made an open triumphant over the enemy and defeated the power of sin. (Colossians 2: 15).
“It is here we get a revelation of a life crucified with Christ, buried with Him, raised with Him, transformed by Christ, and empowered by the Spirit.”
We must become focused on Him and not our past or current issues and cares. We cast them all on Him.
“We are occupied too much with the things of time and sense. We need to spend time alone in the presence of God. We need to give God much time in order to receive new revelations from Him. We need to get past all the thoughts of earthly matters that crowd us in so rapidly.”
“God means to have people who are broken. The divine power can only come when there is an end of our own self-sufficiency. But when we are broken, we must hold fast. If we let go then we shall fall short.”
As long as we can make it happen in life, we will. We are taught to survive, and as long as we can, we will find a way to make it through and survive. But, here in the Secret Place, we come to an end, and all our strength is gone. We are broken. We see and finally understand that anything that is of us or out of our strength fails and produces the wrong result. We realize we can’t do it anymore, and we need Him. Holy desperation comes in. Here we have come to the Cross, and we must unconditionally surrender.
- Don’t Quit
“Sometimes we are tempted to think that He has left us. Oh, no. He has promised never to leave us, and he will not fail. Jacob held on until the blessing came. We can do the same.”
We must hold on and refuse to quit in the Secret Place. Here our lives must now be built upon the authority of the Word and not how we feel. The roller coaster ride must end, and we must come to a place where the Word is our firm foundation.
“Oh, beloved, may God help us to get our eyes off the conditions and symptoms, no matter how bad they may be, and get them fastened on Him. Then we are able to pray, the prayer of faith.”
There must be no turning back, and we must understand that if we don’t get a hold of Him and allow Him to transform us, we are no good for those around, and are unable to meet what lays ahead.
“If God does not help us, we are no good for this world’s need; we are no longer salt, we lose our savor. But as we spend time alone with God, and cry to Him to bless us, He re-salts us, He re-empowers us, but He brings us to brokenness and moves us into the orbit of His own perfect will.”
For too long, we have operated either out of His will or in His permissive will. And as a result, we have suffered the consequence. The blessings and promises of Psalm 91, for example, are not for visitors to the Secret Place but for those who have made it their permanent dwelling place.
“It is those who have seen the face of God and have been broken by Him who can meet the forces of the enemy and break down the bulwarks of Satan’s kingdom.”
It is time to drive the enemy out of our lives, homes, marriages, finances, health, etc. It demands we first come to the Secret Place, and there exchange strengths and now stand on the revealed Word of God which lives in us and is mixed with a now faith.
