#13 Living the Kingdom Life by Living a Hidden Life (1)

Brother Reggie Favors shares with us on having a hidden life with the Lord.

Scripture Reading: Matt. 6:6; 14:22-23

I. We need to learn from the pattern of the Lord living a hidden life in His going up to the mountain privately to pray—Matt. 14:23; cf. Luke 6:12:

A. The Lord did not remain in the issue of the miracle with the crowds (the miracle of feeding five thousand men, apart from women and children), but He went away from them privately to be with the Father on the mountain in prayer— Matt. 14:14-23:

1. The Lord compelled the disciples to leave Him in order that He might have more time to pray privately to the Father—vv. 22-23.
2. He needed to pray privately to His Father who was in the heavens so that He might be one with the Father and have the Father with Him in whatever He did on earth for the establishing of the kingdom of the heavens; He did this not in the deserted place but on the mountain, leaving all the people, even His disciples, so that He might be alone to contact the Father.

B. We should treasure three phrases—to be with the Father, on the mountain, and in prayer:

1. To pray with others is good, but often we need to pray by ourselves; when we pray with others, we cannot enjoy the Lord as deeply as when we pray to the Lord privately.
2. Even the Lord Jesus told us that when we pray, we should shut our door privately and pray to the Father who sees in secret (6:6); then we have the sensation of how intimate He is to us and how close we are to Him.
3. We have to learn to leave the crowds, our family, our friends, and the saints in the church to go to a higher level on a “high mountain”; we have to go higher, far away from the earthly things on a lower level; we need to get to a higher level, separated from the crowd, to be with the Father privately and secretly to have intimate fellowship with Him.