This week, here are some “starters” to help you begin your time in the Secret Place.

These
are mini-devotionals from Loving God by Mike Bickle.

Day 1

“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love
lives in God, and God in him.” --1 John 4:16

No one can come face-to-face with what God is like and ever be the same. Seeing the truth
about His personality touches the depths of our emotions, which leads us to spiritual
wholeness and maturity.

Prayer starter: Lord, there is nothing I want more than to experience a growing, ever
more intimate relationship with You. Let me see You as You are so that I may be
transformed in my own life and walk with You. Amen.

Beholding the glory of who He is and what He has done renews our minds, strengthens
us, and transforms us.
 Day 2

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” --John 8:32

In our verse for today, Jesus tells us what we will know te truth, and the truth will set us free. What
truths must we know to be free? First and most important, who is God? What is He like? What kind
of personality does He have?

Prayer Starter: Lord, I want to be set free by Your truth. I want to become more like You. I want to
exhibit the characteristics that I see in Your life. There are characteristics that I recognize in myself
that are not like You. Help me to overcome these flaws as Your truth exposes each one and sets me
free.

The way to our emotions is through our minds.

Day 3

“I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though
you have not acknowledged me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may
know there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other.” --Isaiah 45:5-6

Your ideas about God—who He is and what He is like—come naturally through your relationships with
earthly authority figures. When these are distorted, so are your ideas about God.

Prayer Starter: Father God, I know that there are things about my earthly relationships that hinder
me from understanding who You are. I don't want my ideas about You to be distorted. I commit to
doing all I can to discover exactly what You are like by studying Your Word and by letting Your
Spirit teach me more about You.

To achieve long-term renewal and freedom, we must change our idea about who God is.
 Day 4

“Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit. The Lord sustains the humble but casts the
wicked to the ground.” --Psalm 147:5-6

In your most private thoughts, what do you believe God's personality is like? Your entire spiritual future is related to
how you answer this question in the secret place of your heart, because inaccurate ideas of God will have a negative
emotional impact on you.

Prayer Starter: God, help me to focus on Your awesome personality. Rid my mind of inaccurate ideas of what You are
like. You are my Wonderful Counselor, my Mighty God, my Everlasting Father, and my Prince of Peace.

I believe the greatest problem in the church is that we have an entirely inadequate and distorted idea of God's heart.

Day 5

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what
we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him
as he is. --1 John 3:1-2

God will satisfy your hungry heart when He reveals Himself to you. As you encounter the awesome holiness and power
of His personality, you will have the power to overcome temptation.

Prayer Starter: My heavenly Father, I am so hungry to have more and more revelations of Your wonderful love for
me. Your love overwhelms me and fills my heart with the hope of growing closer and closer to You each day. I
hunger for more and more of You. Fill me to overflowing, Father.

God ignites us to holy, passionate affection for a deeper understanding of the divine excellencies, perfections, and
passions of our Lord Jesus Christ.