The Closet, Our Solution

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. (Matthew 6:6)

I have been praying, and wondering how people on fire for God can forget God, especially as God prospers them.

How could Asa forget how God fought for him against a million-strong army to even start living contrary to His laws? How could Solomon forget God who appeared twice to him and live life completely removed from His word and revelation? How could Jeroboam create alternative worship yet God had delivered the kingdom He had prophesied? And how come David did not go that route?

The only reason I can think of is the disappearance of the closet. We become too full of people, things and events that we slowly delegate that essential aspect of our faith to the periphery, and later forget it altogether.

The sad fact is that due to our earlier spiritual potency we might never be found out, in fact we may be able to deceive ourselves that we are fine. We may forget even about reading the scriptures unless as reference for our sermons and not realize it. I have heard pastors misquote favorite verses they claim to have memorized so consistently that you wonder whether they ever read their Bibles.

The closet is the place we see ourselves as God sees us since we are in His presence. We are unable to act up anything since we are speaking to God one on one.

We are in no position to impress anyone as we stand naked before God. As opposed to when we are praying before people or with them, we have no backward glance when we are in the closet. We have nobody to divert any message we receive in the closet to. We cannot tell Him how much we love Him in the closet since He knows it from the depths we can’t even approach. We can never try to demonstrate how much we are committed to Him in the closet.

We see blunders in judgment when the closet is neglected or forgotten.

Uzzah died because David and His team had assumed what God had wanted instead of reading His word concerning the same. King Saul went to a witch because he had neglected the closet for so long that he forgot its direction. Aaron and Miriam became jealous of their brother because they had neglected the closet. Joshua gave a promise to preserve the Gibeonites because he looked at external evidence instead of going to the closet. And the disciples panicked severally because they had forgotten that the closet was present with them.

What am I saying?

The closet is my interaction with God. It is the point at which I fellowship with the King of kings.

And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. (Mark 1:35)

Jesus taught us by example.

My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. (Psalm 5:3)

David also knew the power of the closet. Moses exemplified the closet because we see him asking directions for the most obvious of questions.

If we mess by neglecting the closet in our decisions, what will happen when we make it a habit? What will happen when we do not even realize that we have lost the closet for our busyness, especially in ministry?

The most dangerous thing is assuming that God values us for our performance instead of a relationship with him. We therefore celebrate our actions even as we neglect the small room that we meet with the God we are pouring all our energies to please.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7: 22, 23)

Then we are shocked that He does not seem to appreciate all our effort. Like Saul we wonder why He does not speak to us when we need it most desperately. Saul had forgotten to seek God’s voice for so long that He did not realize that He had ran off His agenda for the longest time.

Ministry is the most dangerous venture in this as we are enjoying His power and manifestation as we follow the motions of what we know He wants us to do even as we neglect getting deeper in our relationship with Him. We are enjoying seeing His power at work in us as we do things that we confuse it with His approval. And we can become so busy in ministry that we forget our personal responsibilities, especially the responsibility to grow our spiritual muscle through a rich relationship with God grown in the closet.

We can read the Bible as a text book we need to perform and teach instead of the word of the King and Lord of our lives. That is why you see preachers who are very eloquent on ancient texts who are unable to deal with sin, probably the first thing the closet draws our attention to. It does that because fallible and sinful man has the audience of a holy God. No one came to God and failed to see His sinfulness.

Psalm 32 tells us of David running away from the closet because of sin.

When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah. (Psalm 32: 3, 4)

He had missed the closet because he had feared the confrontation his sin would have introduced. For the time he was hiding from the confrontation, his physical body was wasting away.

I think it is due to his craving for the closet that God confronted him. Once the barrier for the closet was removed, he gets restored immediately.

His psalms are clear indicators of a man who really enjoyed the closet. Many, if not all of them were direct products of the closet. That explains why they are so rich and illuminating. It is because they were coming out of the throne room of God through a servant enjoying His presence.

Do we have a closet? How often do we visit it? Are we still in the closet or are we making noise in God’s presence? Are we listening or we are treating our voice as the most valuable there?

Be still and know I am God is exemplified in the closet. We are giving Him the chance to show Himself to us as He wills instead of giving Him conditions about our situation.

I will build up on what else is needed in the closet later.

But in closing let me say that we quote ministers (even if it is me) instead of God because we do not spend enough time with God. We are listening to them more than we listen to God, especially in the closet. That we can fight for the statements and doctrines of our super star preachers and prophets is a clear indicator that we really do not know God or spend time with Him.