Song of Songs 2:14 TPT For you are my dove, hidden in the cleft of the and rock. It was I who took you and hid you up high in the secret place of the steep pathway. Let me see your radiant face and hear your sweet voice. How beautiful your eyes of worship and lovely your voice in prayer.
Ephesians 2:6 AMP And He raised us up together with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, [because we are] in Christ Jesus,
Colossians 3:1 NASB Therefore since you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
I often hear Christians say that they want to be closer to God, and I understand what they mean, but the truth is, if you want to get as close to God as you possibly can, you can go ahead and check that box, for Jesus has already accomplished that on your behalf in his finished work at the cross. The old man, the person that you used to be before you came to Christ, was crucified with Jesus and was buried because you were in Christ at the Cross, and the new creation that was raised up in Christ was and is seated in heavenly places, and sharing in Jesus’ relationship with the Father. You were born spiritually into the secret place of intimacy that Jesus shares with the Father and the Holy Spirit. You will not go to heaven for the 1st time when you die because you went there in Christ 2000 years ago in his ascension. It is true that we can certainly grow in our consciousness of the presence of God as we keep seeking those things above where we are, seated in Christ, at the right hand of God; therefore, getting as close to God as you possibly can is not something can be accomplished by anything you do. Jesus already got you there. This is a glorious truth to understand because it will set you free to celebrate his presence, even those moments when you might not be conscious of his presence, because you are in Christ, and you can’t get closer to God than that. You and I both know that our emotions are still affected by the law of sin and our members, and sometimes our emotions can check in and check out, but if you understand that you are spiritually born into perfect union with Christ, already seated in the heavenly places at the right hand of the Father, then you can be confident of his presence and his intimacy. It’s the truth that sets us free, not our feelings, and one of the spiritual dynamics I have discovered over the decades is that if I will just celebrate the truth of His intimate presence, no matter what I might think or feel, or what the devil might be trying to tell me, my emotions and my acute awareness of Him always comes around. There is never a time when I am not close to God. My times of prayer are not met to create greater intimacy, but instead, my prayer life is when I hit the pause button to all of the distractions so that I can sit in solitude and interact with the Lover of my soul, and in that place of solitude and interaction, I discover, and in my discovery I worship, and my mind becomes more set than ever before on things above, and not on the things of the earth. When I walk out of my prayer time back into the public arena, I carry with me the Secret Place that’s mine in Christ, and I continue to pray without ceasing, as one who lives in the heavenlies, awake or asleep. Someone asked the great missionary Hudson Taylor if there was ever a time when he was not conscious of abiding in Christ. His answer was that he was never conscious of not abiding in Christ.