Odds-n-Ends . Volume 01 | Issue 12

Havner’s Reflections

The Secret of the Lord

By Vance Havner

“Hast thou heard the secret of God?” Job. 15:8

All of us have our secrets. A dignified congregation on Sunday morning looks very calm and collected but if the minister could begin showing on a screen the secrets of their hearts there would be a reaching for hats and a rush for the front door.

God has a secret. He has manifested Himself in creation as Creator but the saving knowledge of Himself through Christ is a secret and the deeper knowledge of God in Christ (Col. 2:2,9) and Christ in us (Gal. 2:20, Col. 1:26, 27) is hid from the wise and prudent and revealed unto babes (Mt. 11:25). Men have learned many secrets from nature but science cannot enter here. The natural man receives not these things. Not many mighty and noble lay hold upon them. They are not to be bought or learned at school or reached by moral effort. They are open to the simple-hearted-which, mind you, does not mean the simple-headed.

The knowledge of God in Christ begins with conversion but there is a deeper knowledge, a progressive intimacy that comes as we walk in the light and follow on to know the Lord. Comparatively few have moved on into this peace of God and full joy and Canaan rest. But to live in the secret of His tabernacle has been promised us (Ps. 27:5) and it is our glorious privilege to be kept in the secret of His Presence from the pride of man and the strife of tongues-and surely we need to be kept from both today (Ps. 31:20)!

God’s secret is with the righteous (Prov. 3:32). But we are righteous only in Christ Who is made into us righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30), and Who was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). We cannot know God’s secret until we are justified through faith in Christ for our own righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Only, as we are clad in His righteousness are we faultless to stand before His throne.

God’s secret is with them that fear Him (Ps. 25:14). But today there is no fear of God before men’s eyes (Rom. 3:18). We are conscious of the sight of men, and the fear of man becomes a snare, but we are not mindful that we are in God’s Presence. There is not the reverential fear that produces holy living.

Then, if any man will to do God’s will He shall know of the doctrine, not just theoretically but with heart-knowledge. Willingness to obey brings light. God shows His secret truths to those who are willing to do what is revealed. Some never see any deeper truths because they would not obey if they saw, so what is the use showing them? The man who says he cannot “see” tithing or the filling of the Spirit or the separated life is usually the man who would not obey light on these matters if he had it and God will not show His truth to unwilling hearts.

These know the secret of the Lord: the righteous in Christ; those who fear the Lord; the willing-to-obey. “Hast thou heard the secret of God?”

Originally published in the Charlotte Observer, March 21, 1937. Reprinted with permission from The Charlotte Observer. Copyright owned by The Charlotte Observer..