What is said and received in the Secret Place is never meant to stay secret.
The real goal is to become someone who lives from it.
Jesus didn’t just meet with the Father on a mountain—He walked with the Father through cities, in storms, around crowds, and into people’s pain.
The Secret Place wasn’t just where He went—it was who He was. And it’s who he is for us today.
This is the invitation: it’s not just a morning routine, but an abiding rhythm. Not just a quiet room, but a quiet spirit. Not just the practice, but the Person.
The Secret Place is the lifestyle we’ve been given in Him.
It becomes an inner operating system—away of thinking, walking, loving, leading. It shapes how you move through our everyday lives. (My 2nd minibook, “Everyday Presence,” is all about this!)
When cultivated, it gives you spiritual clarity in chaos, deep focus in distraction, and a steady presence with people. This is how we walk like Jesus—not from effort, but from the overflow of being in the light and easy yoke.
The goal of the Secret Place is encounter.You meet with God not just to hide from the world, but to be formed for it.
This was the lifestyle of Jesus. Go up. Come down. Go out. Get away. Repeat.
Luke 5:16 says “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”
He wanted encounter with his Father. He knew it was vital to the strengthening of his heart, to the focus of his mind, to the success of his day.
And Jesus always came back from the lonely places to minister. He came back with whatever his Father told him.
Throughout the Gospel of John he says “I only say whatI hear the Father saying” or “I only do what I see the Father doing.”
He goes in to receive. He comes out to give it away.
The Secret Place sends you back into the world with something to offer.
I trusted in Christ when I was 8 years old. It wasn’t until I was about 31 that I saw the truth in the Bible and the reality of actual experience that God speaks to us through His voice.
Truthfully, my faith environment just never talked about it. I either never saw it, no one ever explained it to me in away that clicked, or I wasn’t around anyone who listened to God’s active voice and shared it with me.
I was in a silo of belief that God is done speaking “because now we have the Bible”.
But listening to God is all throughout the Bible! He desires ongoing communication with us! A great Dad talks to His kids!
[If you’re interested in a brief study, here are a handful of verses: John 10:27, Jeremiah 33:3, Hebrews 1:1–2,Isaiah 30:21, Revelation 3:20, Romans 8:14, Acts 13:2, Psalm85:8. If you’re interested in some more resources, please email me!]
Can you encounter God and not hear Him? I sit here and go back and forth answering that.
But what I do know for certain is that the Secret Place is a place of listening.
And the point is to take what you hear to the people you encounter that day—your family, your spouse, your kids, your roommates, your friends, your neighbors, the stranger at the store, and the people you work with in your day job.
In his incredible book Deep Work, Cal Newport argues that the greatest breakthroughs—creative, intellectual, and professional—don’t come from multitasking or scattered focus. They come from long, focused, undistracted blocks of time.
The Secret Place is our version of deep work. It is a place and lifestyle of deep soul work.
And the core principle is the same: eliminate distraction, embrace stillness, and go deep.
If deep work is how we create great things, then the Secret Place is how we become great people—formed in the quiet, away from noise, anchored in God’s voice.
Newport’s advice is simple: “Create a ritual. Protect it. Repeat it.”
Sounds a lot like the call ofJesus: “Go into your room, shut the door, and pray to your Father in secret…” (Matt. 6:6)
A beautiful, potent truth tucked in this verse is that you will always find your Father in secret.
And when you carry the clarity, peace, and power of the Secret Place into your day job, you don’t just work harder—you work holier.
You lead with wisdom. Create with conviction. Show up with presence.
I don’t know what your workplace culture is like—but imagine sitting at your desk or walking down the hall in a state of listening prayer with God, offering the next meeting to Him, receiving a word or phrase or picture for that meeting or a coworker, and bringing that up when the time is right.
How would that impact your workday? How would that shape your work life? How could listening to the Creator in every moment and meeting affect your company’s mission? The bottomline?
You better believe He cares about that.
The Secret Place doesn’t pull you out of your work—it transforms the way you do it.
I feel like I could probably write an entire book series on leadership and presence—because the deeper I go into leadership, the more I realize this truth:
In the life of Christian leadership, the Secret Place gives spiritual power.
Whether you’re in fast non-profit ministry like me or the slow-grow leadership of church world or a parent who feels like they are grinding in a never-ending, always repeating Groundhog Day style of family life—You don’t first lead like Jesus by trying to imitate Him in public. You first lead like Jesus by seeking Him in private.
Moses is a great example. Before he ever led Israel, he learned to meet with God face-to-face, as a man speaks with a friend.
Leadership, for him, didn’t begin with strategy, plans, or power. It began with friendship.
So, how do we lead from the Secret Place?
We sit with God until we know we have His full attention and He has ours. Then, we go and give that kind of presence to others.
The world doesn’t need more reactive, driven leaders. It needs people who have been quiet enough to hear God’s voice in silence—and present enough to speak with His heart to people.
A lot of people the last 5 years have asked me what Summer 2020 was like. I’ve shared about it many times from stage, on Instagram, in my weekly newsletter, in random conversations.
I never know how to fully answer. I’ve just started to share that “It’s something I may never fully heal from. So, I’m committed to letting it be something that marks me.”
We all had our own experience of that year or so. No, it wasn’t war. But it did come with its own personal leadership trauma for me.
I know that’s a big word, butI do mean it sincerely. I felt trapped with noway out for over 3 months on a moment-to-moment basis. Every call or text or person who walked up to me had the potential to send us into some kind of chaotic shutdown. I didn’t know if or when it would happen.
I was stuck between “Please God, let this end” and “I have a heavenly duty to lead and love these young people with everything I can offer.”
In the end, it was all really hard and God is really good.
As I write this almost 5 years later, that insane season of leadership sent the roots of my soul further and deeper to the water of God’s presence. And the conversations and ministry I’ve had with people who are struggling in their own difficult, dry season are countless.
Your trials are never just for you.
Your wilderness is never just for you.
The Secret Place is never just for you.
Yes, it’s personal. Yes, it’s private. But it’s also deeply missional. Because what God forms in you in secret is meant to overflow into the lives of others.
Your transformation is always for others.
You get alone with God, not just to be changed—but to become someone who carries His presence into every room, every conversation, every assignment.
The more time you spend in the Secret Place, the more you begin to invite others into their own.
Not by preaching at them. Not by pressuring them.
But by the quiet authority of someone who has been marked by Jesus.
Posted May 12, 2026
Categories: Spiritual (Browse all)
Click here to sign up for our Inside the Cove newsletter!
