The Retreat 2021 - Secret Place Prayer, The Wonders Of Fellowshipping With God - Nicole Lee

This series of teachings is recorded live from The Retreat by AeroNova 2021. To find out more about how to attend the annual Retreat visit theretreat.aeronova.org. 
 God desires a friendship with us, not just salvation or obedience and seeking God with all of our heart and soul leads to drawing near to Him in that friendship. In this powerful teaching we discuss the wonders of the secret place and drawing near to God through prayer.

Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):

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​It is such a blessing to be here with you. And it's such an honor to share with you tonight. As we were eating dinner, I was looking out across the room. And there are so many of you who have blessed my life, from the wells of your relationship with Jesus, that it's just a great honor to get to share with you tonight. And I pray that what I have to share will bless you, in the same way that you all have blessed me. As many of you know, I grew up an army brat. And so in the army, or any kind of military, there's this rhythm of constant change, right? Changing houses, changing seasons, changing states. But in the midst of all of the change that we went through, there was one thing that was always the same no matter what our home looked like, no matter who our friends were, no matter what season of life we're in, this was the same I can tell you, I can remember this from being a very small little girl, all the way until when I come home now. And I bring all my babies with me, there's one thing that's the same. And that's the atmosphere of our home early in the morning. Because early in the morning, when I get up, my dad is awake already. And it's long before the sun is up. And I can smell the coffee. And I can hear the whisperings of him praying. And my dad likes to walk and pray. So I can hear his footsteps. And as a little girl, it was very comforting whenever you'd wake up and it's still dark, and you can hear your dad's footsteps. And when I go into the other room, there's my mom. And she's got her Bible, she's got her journal and her coffee. And she's wrapped up in three blankets. Like spring, summer, winter fall, she's called she's an Eskimo wrapped up in her three blankets. And my mom and dad are in the secret place. And they're seeking after the Lord. And they're fellowshipping with God, and they're coming into the king's observatory to search him out. Morning, after morning, after morning after morning, I promise you can ask any of my siblings, and they will tell you the exact same thing. And they never required me or my brothers and sisters to have the same personal prayer time it was not like you must spend spend 10 minutes with the Lord today. But every day they would talk to us about what the Lord was speaking to them every day, they would share with us what God was doing in their hearts. And it was very obvious that the way that they lead our family flowed from this time that they had with him. And there was no doubt in our minds that the epicenter of our family was relationship with Jesus. So not only would it seem unnatural if I did not also have this time with the Lord. But I really wanted to experience God the way that my mom and dad did. I wanted this type of relationship with him. So as a little girl, and then a preteen I start investing time in the secret place. And I just I tell you now almost 30 years old, it has been the very best investment of my time of my heart of my everything. I've titled this talk, secret place prayer, the wonders of fellowshipping with God because of the wonders that I have witnessed, and the fruit that I now have in my life, because of the time that I've taken away, just to be alone with Jesus in prayer. The term the secret place comes from Matthew six, six where Jesus says, But you when you pray, go into your inner room. And when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And I believe that Jesus is referencing not only a physical location where we can pray in private, but also a place in your heart that only he sees a place in your heart where you are building a history in God. The importance of prayer and worship with other believers should never be undermined. But if we neglect To have this time alone with the Lord where we are pressing in to know Him, then we will miss out on his heart we will miss out on one of his greatest desires. today and I have been talking a lot about the high calling of friendship with God. And I believe that this is at the heart of secret place prayer, the high calling of friendship with God. There is an ancient path of a walk of friendship with God, a path of worn in by the feet of those who would not settle to know God just a little bit, who would not settle, to try to just trust and obey him from a distance, but but purposed in their heart to know him as a friend. We read about just a few of these sojourners in Scripture, people who started breaking in the ground of this path, men of faith who came into the Kings observatory. I think of Enoch, you know, before the coming of Christ, and before the prophets, and before Moses and before Abraham, and before even Noah, Enoch was living and walking with God. This is what Genesis says about Enoch. Now Enoch walked with God continually for 300 years after he fathered Methuselah, and he fathered sons and daughters. So all of Enoch stays where 365 years, and Enoch continually walked with God, then He was not there because God took him. So profound was Enoch spur relationship with the Lord, that the writer of Hebrews says, By faith, Enoch was taken so as not to see death, and he was not found because God took him. For before he was taken, he was commended as pleasing to God. Now without faith, it is impossible to please God, for the one who comes to God must believe that He exists, and he is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Can you imagine? What did Enoch and God talk about for 365 years? In this intimate relationship that God had with Enoch, what did God tell him? Because Enochs view of God was not shaped by what a pastor said about God, once a week Enochs view of God was shaped by coming into the Kings observatory, looking up into the heavens, and seeking out the one true God. And I think of Abraham, James said that Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. And he was called God's friend. When the Lord visited Abraham, he brought two men with him, perhaps angels, I don't know the theology behind that. But the Lord turns to these two men. And he says, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? In other words, should I keep this secret? Or should I tell my friend Abraham, the Lord was about to make a huge, consequential act, destroying Sodom and Gomorrah in righteous judgment. And he says, I think I'll tell my friend, Abraham first. Because as Abraham had led his family in this nomadic lifestyle in obedience to the Lord, he was in the Kings observatory, watching for the movements of God. And I think of Moses, I could go on and on, but I'll stick with these three, I think of Moses. Do you know what the Bible says about when Moses saw the burning bush? Moses thought, I will go now and see this great site. Why is the bush not burnt? When the Lord saw that Moses turned to look, he called to him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, when the Lord saw that he turned to look, God was watching, and he was waiting to see what Moses would do. And Moses responded in curiosity to the Almighty God. I am convinced that although we often think of prayer, and seeking God as us just attempting to get God's attention and attempting to come into contact with us, he is already setting up burning bushes in our lives, waiting for our attention. And he is looking down waiting and watching and saying, will he turned to look? Will she respond in curiosity to me and search me out? And you know what the Bible says about Moses relationship. This is years down the road, but it says so the Lord's spoke with Moses face to face. As a man speaks with his friend. Moses did not just say yes to God, he did not just obey God, he came into the Kings observatory, and sought after the god of his father's until he knew him as a friend. Some of these scriptures will haunt you in a holy way. They will haunt you because they will grab a hold of your heart. And you will see that this is for you. And we can't have what my dad often calls, but they were in the Bible syndrome, because the Lord has given us this model to show us that this is for you. This is the longing in his heart. Jesus says, I am no longer calling you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. Now I have called you friends. Because everything I have heard from my father, I have made known to you. This is what is available to us, but not necessarily what we already have. When we are saved, we are immediately a child of God. But we don't get to have a history and God by osmosis. We don't sit and listen to a sermon once a week and put on that praise music every once in a while and just you know, again by osmosis, get a history and God, we develop a friendship by with God by seeking Him day by day and night by night, coming into the king's observatory and saying, the great reward of my life is to know you. Is there a higher calling than to be a friend of God? As we come into the secret place? We need the revelation of the Holy Spirit to see that this is what God desires to have with you. I love what James says about this in the context of the opposing nature of being a friend to God to being a friend of the world. It says or do you think that in vain. The scripture says that He yearns jealously for the spirit, which he made to dwell in us. And just a little further on in the passage, he says, draw nearer to God, and He will draw near to you. And similarly, Moses says in Deuteronomy 429, but from there, you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him when you seek Him with all of your heart, and with all of your soul. And remember, Moses is telling us this with firsthand experience. Isn't it interesting that he doesn't say to seek salvation with all of your heart. And He doesn't say, seek to be an excellent godly worker with all of your heart. Salvation is a gift of insurmountable value. And as we accept the gift, and we walk in it, and we seek to be excellent workers for the kingdom of God, the Lord wants us reaching up higher for the gift of friendship with him, he is looking for communion with you. Eye contact, eye contact. Do you ever say this to your kids? I feel like TJ and I say this 10 times a day, especially to our boys, we have two boys. And you know, they're running this way they're running that way. And even if they're standing in front of us their heads going like this, you know. And so I'll say Look into my eyes, look into my eyes, because then I know there's at least a 5050 chance they'll hear what I have to say. But it's the same with me. The Holy Spirit will say to me, Nicole, I contact because my thoughts are going 100 miles an hour, my emotions are all over the place. And I'll say eye contact, just let everything else fall away for a minute, and Come be with me and look into my eyes. Then revelation 320 Jesus says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him and he with Me. When we realize that the Almighty God desires to have this kind of relationship with us. Divine dissatisfaction has an opportunity in our heart. And divine dissatisfaction will make you very uncomfortable with the things that you fill your heart and mind with that do not lead you closer to him. But hunger and thirst for him will propel you into the secret place. We could talk eternally about the fruits of spending time with the Lord. In fact, I think we will talk eternally about the fruits of spending time with the Lord. But tonight I'll just start About three secret place prayer opens up the lines of communication with the Lord so that we're hearing him more often. And more accurately all throughout the day, when you come into the secret place, and you come to hear the Lord, you're pulling out that antenna, and you're tuning into the frequency of heaven. So the men in our family love ham radio. So a couple of days ago, I go to have dinner at my parents house. And if you've been to my parents house, you know that their backyard faces the main road. And as I'm coming in, I'm like, What in the world is on my dad's deck, there's this huge antenna, that seat that he and my uncle have got, you know, set up and rigged up. And there's so excited coming in telling us that they're talking to people all over the world. It's really awesome. But I thought, Oh, I was just thinking about that. But it is a great word, word picture for what it looks like when we're coming into the secret place. And we're preparing our hearts to hear from the Lord. And we tune into the seat, the frequency of heaven, so that we can start hearing him all throughout the day. And sometimes, when you're not expecting it, he will give you divine direction that could change the course of your entire future. When I was 19, I lived at home and we had just found out that my dad was getting orders to Hawaii. So we were preparing for this summer move. And as we were I felt like the Lord was calling me to come away, and to spend a summer in prayer. And the previous five summers, I had spent really heavily in ministry to kids through camps and VBS, and all that type type of thing. But this summer, I felt like the Lord was calling me to come away and to be in prayer. So immediately, I think, Oh, I get to go to IHOP. You know, I'm going to Kansas City 24 hour prayer room. But the Lord revealed to me that he was calling me to go to Colorado Springs to a little prayer room inside the headquarters of every home for Christ. And at the time, they had no internship. They had no programs. But I knew this was where the Lord was calling me to go. And he opened all the doors for me to go there. Thanks to my sister for letting me live with her and woody for letting me borrow his car. So I come to this little prayer room, they have some Live worship every once in a while. And when they don't have Live worship, they've got a CD playing. And I've committed to the Lord, that I'm going to spend eight hours every weekday in the secret place with him. So I sit down, and I will never forget that first day. I'm thinking okay, our one. You know, although I had had invested time in a sacred place, since I was young, I had never spent longer than two hours with the Lord, that discipline had not yet become a delight. So I was so scared that I was about to have the most boring some of my life. It was the most powerful, glorious summer of my life. The Lord met me in ways that I never imagined. And I found the joy and the fulfillment of walking with God and meeting with God in the secret place. I experienced the shift of spending time with God because it was the right Christian thing to do, and spending time with him. Because there was nothing I would rather do. And I learned to hear his voice very clearly. So when my summer was over, and the hours by the way, went by very, very quickly, every day, it was like, wow, it's been eight hours already. And I just wouldn't want to leave. But when the summer was over, and I went home to Hawaii, I entered this season in Hawaii with my parents and Daniel still lived at home. That was just the most blessed season that the Lord gave me to spend more time in the secret place with him. And as I did, I started to hear the Lord saying it's time to move to Colorado. And if you know me, I'm a very big planner. And since I was in seventh grade, I had a 15 year plan for my life. And Colorado was not in the 15 year plan. But I felt this very much impressed on my heart that he was saying this and it also felt like he was saying that I needed to take this open position at Focus on the Family as a family help specialist. And so I can't tell you the number of people who when I would tell them that would say you're in not getting that job. It was the weirdest thing. I don't know if you might find this if you're walking in faith that there are some very strong naysayers and it seems like odd like, well, how does it affect you? Several times, I would hear that not my mom and dad, they knew they they felt that with me that if it was the Lord, he was going to open the door. So I moved to Colorado, I have no job, I have no car, I'm somewhat sure I've got a place to live. I couldn't live with my sister again, she was moving. So I had a pretty good idea about where I was going to live. But I had no idea why I was even moving there. Within three months, less than three months, really, I got that job easily, and they upgraded it to a full time position. I got a car, I had a secure place to live. And I was dating my future husband, Mr. Tae Yong Li. And if I had not been spending time in the secret place, learning to hear the voice of the Lord, I tell you, I would have completely missed that word, because it was totally left field for me. And because I had been hearing the voice of the Lord, and trusted that voice, I did not miss out on the greatest man on earth. This may seem like a little bit of a bunny trail, but I felt the Lord really putting this on my heart. Often when the Lord speaks to us, He will lead us step by step as we're in communication with him in the secret place. Have you ever wondered why God didn't tell Samuel, that David was to be king. God told Samuel that one of Jesse's sons was to be king. And then David had to go to Jesse's house. And God didn't say, Oh, just don't pay attention to the all any of these guys. It's David. He's in the field. God didn't say that. Instead, Samuel had to go through one by one, as the Lord said, nope, nope, nope. And a lot of times, we get a word from the Lord, and we run with it will feel like the Lord saying to move to another state or another city. And the next thing you know, like people, quit their job, sell their house, uproot their family. And because they did not linger in the secret place to get the next step, they go to the wrong job at the wrong time with the wrong boss and buy the wrong house. So I just encourage us to linger in the secret place and listen for the Lord's timing. Listen for the Lord's guidance. And sometimes he's calling us to take the first step before he will give us the next step. Secret Place prayer gives us a heavenly perspective. As we come into the secret place, and we begin to pray, and we worship, the anxieties, the depression, the lies of the enemy, all begin to dissipate as the Lord realigns our hearts with the truth. Have you ever been gliding? I've been one time in Hawaii with my dad, and I will never forget it. I love to fly. I've been airplanes many times. I love big airplanes, little airplanes. But the thing about airplanes is they're loud, right, because of the engine. But gliders don't have an engine. So they're quiet. So we're in Hawaii, it's a beautiful day, because it's Hawaii. And it's always a beautiful day. And the tow plane takes us up. And as we reach the proper altitude, it releases the tow line. And then it's just us up above the ocean in this peaceful and quiet place, and I looked down, and it was a really a decently windy day for Hawaii. And there were kite surfers all over the beach, and they're all down in the wind. And they're down in the waves. And I thought we're all in the same place. But but me and my dad were up above the wind and the waves. And we have this perspective of glorious beauty. And so often, that is what our secret place time with the Lord is, as we pray, and we worship, it's that toe plane that's taken us up. And it's taken us above the hopelessness. And it's taking us above the deception of the enemy. And it's bringing us up into the heavenly perspective. And remember the heavenly perspective, God's perspective is reality. It is not wishful thinking. We often think that Well, I'm glad you see it that way, Lord, you know, not understanding that we are the ones under deception and he has he is the one who has the real Reality, there is no one who sees clearer than him. And I won't go too far down this road. But in some of the greatest trials of my life, I have had my most intimate moments with the Lord. Because in the battle, and in the weariness, or in the tragedy, he's bringing me up to his perspective. And he's drawing me near. in the secret place, the Lord will give you keys to open doors, this is really important, I'll find that I'll encounter a problem. And I'll be asking the Lord to solve the problem. But instead, he has the keys to open the door of the solution. And he wants me to use those keys. So we often think of the keys of the kingdom, and rightly so that we talk about it this way, as Jesus giving us authority. But I do believe that it's also keys of the kingdom, that he has keys to open the door of solutions. And he wants us to use them. And I'm looking at my brother, because I was talking to him about this last weekend. And I thought he has an amazing example for this. So Dan, if you would come up and share that feels bad to take you away, because you're on fire. Yeah, so I just wanted to share a short testimony of the Lord giving me a key when I was working on my master's degree. So my master's degree was a two year program at Montana State, with some friends here, who also were there at the same time. But the first year of my master's degree was fairly uneventful. It was what you would expect teaching, taking classes, doing some research on the side, being very busy, with two little babies. And it was about the beginning of the second year, my masters that I began to realize that Satan did not want me to finish my master's degree, lord knows why. But it became his number one target in my life. And it began with a dream that I had about my advisor for my master's degree. So the way it works with an advisor is they are your Battlemaster. In every decision that you make towards earning your degree, they help aid you, they show you what you're supposed to do the ropes of how to complete the degree. And in this dream, I saw my advisor sitting in a chair, and he had a book. And in the book, we had all of these mathematic equations, and all these equations were like coming out of the book. And I remember just seeing him like completely absorbed in it. And there was an evil spirit, like an evil presence. And I was very confused by it. And when I woke up, I felt like the Lord said, Satan is going to try and use him to keep you from completing your degree. And I had no basis to believe that except for what the Lord was saying. And then, a little bit later, in that same year, I was going into the men's sabbatical shameless plug. And I had a divine encounter with God, which began with a demonic encounter. And it was the same thing where I was woke, I woke up in the middle of the night, I was not dreaming. And I had a vision of mathematical equations coming at me. And there was an evil spirit that I felt like was trying to imprison me with these equations. Now, if if, if I made that my degree was in electrical engineering, which is a very math heavy degree, and the way that you get a degree in electrical engineering is by solving equations. This is the fleshly path to completing my degree. And I had this encounter where I was seeing these equations, and I was feeling imprisoned by it and feeling locked in. And I was like, Lord, what is going on? And I immediately was like, somebody flipped a switch. And I felt the presence of Jesus so close. And he said, This is not the path to you, completing your degree equations are not the solution. He said, relationships and me are the solution to this. And I cried my eyes out because Lord was there. Trying to keep it together up here. No, and, and so that that was a key for me, the Lord was saying, You're not going to take conventional path to finishing this degree. And I only had six months left. So fast forward a little bit in roughly January of the spring semester that I would finish. I started going to the office to work on some basic accounting. And the Lord said to me, this lady who was the accountant there for the department, he said, You need to talk to her more. And I saw a picture of her son in the back, he's an Air Force pilot, start talking to him about her son, and she just lit up and I started talking to her about her husband who had passed away in her past and her history. And every time I would come in to that office, she wanted to talk to me about whatever was going on, it came to light that she was a Christian, she found out I was a Christian. And after a while, she says, You know, I really don't like your advisor. But I really like you, you're different. And I was like, Well, thanks, I appreciate that. Like, you know, I don't know how to handle that. And roughly, I don't know, what was it like two months before I was supposed to graduate, I got an email that said, hey, all of your research funding is frozen. Something is wrong. We're taking your advisor off your ambassadors committee. And I kind of had a panic moment, because I gotta feed the kids, because that's our income. And I've got to finish my degree, because I've been working my butt off on it. And we had some family prayer time. And the Lord just came with, like, huge power, just saying, you will finish this and it will be on time. And I ended up getting assigned a new advisor. And he said, You know, we've been looking at everything you've been working on. And unfortunately, we can't use it to finish. And but at the same time, he looked back at some previous work identities, he said, you're already done. You don't, you don't need to do any more work, everything you did in the first year of your Masters on this other research project is far more than sufficient to get a degree. And I later found out that there was some fishy business going on with the accounts. But because of that relationship I had with the account, she knew I was free and clear of what was going on with that. And so here I am about to finish my degree thinking it's going to be the path, the traditional path, the thesis, whereas it's actually the relationships, these people who come up and said, look, look what you've already done, look what God has already given you, in my words, right. And so the Lord delivered me from a circumstance where it would have been not finishing and Satan would have had his way but because I was in that heavenly place and responding to what the Lord was showing me as the key to finishing this, I was delivered from that. So praise God. Thanks, Dan, come into the secret place, and receive the keys that the Lord has for you. You know, as we're drawing nearer to the End Times, and we can already see the potential for heavier persecution in our country. And I know the broadcast goes out to many countries, and many people who may be experiencing much heavier persecution than we do. It's vital that we are growing deep roots in our relationship with Jesus, that we are pulling out our antennas, and being constantly in tune to the Holy Spirit, that we are allowing him to show us his perspective and receiving the keys that He has for us to open doors. When we lived in Boston, we lived on an older military base. And because of of its age, there were these old oak trees all over the base. And one night, we got this storm, and had a little heavier winds than usual, I would say was probably 35 to 45 mile per hour winds, nothing compared to what Colorado experiences, but heavier winds than usual. And whenever our family went out for a walk the next day, this huge oak tree had been completely uprooted, completely toppled over and with the roots exposed, you could see that I think it was ants, right? Some kind of ants had just eaten out the roots had eaten out the inside of the oak tree. So although it looked alive on the outside, there were even green leaves on it. All it took was one storm, and it had completely toppled over. And we are coming into I believe a season of storms. And if we don't have these deep roots in the Lord, we could be easily toppled over. It's a great blessing to have a history in God. And I had this revelation a couple years ago as I was approaching 30 And you know, everybody's like, Oh 30 You know, I know of older people in the room are like, Oh, that's nothing. But I had this revelation that I don't mind getting older. As long as with each passing year, my relational proximity to God It's closer than the year before. I don't I don't mind how old I get as long as I'm drawing nearer to the Lord. So when I turn 30, I want to look back and see how much closer I am to the LORD than when I was 20. And the same for 40 and 50, and so on. He truly is, as he said to Abraham, are exceedingly great reward. So when the Lord saw that Moses turned to look and my prayer is that this weekend, the Lord will see each of us turning to look thank you for joining us today. Aaron ova is raising up spiritual leaders in many nations through our spiritual enrichment events, syndicated NetCast international prayer Council network, and numerous international seminary scholarships. Together, we are lighting the fires of revival, fueling prayer movements and raising up friends of Jesus in the nations. We invite you to partner with us in this extraordinary movement. You can sign up as a prayer and financial partner today by going to era nova.org and clicking give. Please include your email address so that we can send you updates. That's era nova.org. Click give and become a monthly partner today. Invest in some of the most fertile spiritual soils on the planet. 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