God Meets You Behind Closed Doors | Mornings with Mico

Good people, what's going on? My name is Miko, and thanks for joining me this morning for my one-on-one time with God. This week, we've been talking about surrender, particularly the path to surrender, and our walk with God. And today, I want to speak from this thought of intimacy is built in the hidden place. And we'll be talking from this passage in Matthew, starting in this chapter 6, verse 5 and 6. I'll read it really quick. And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your father who is unseen. Then your father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And here, this is where Jesus is actually talking to his disciples and just giving them instructions regarding prayer. But very simply, he's just really directing us to something simple, and that is speaking to the intimacy that should be at the center of this relationship, even our outward expressions. He's not condemning an outward expression altogether, but he's making it very clear that if that's all, you know, your walk is, if it's all this outward expression, if that's your prayer life or your worship, it's always just this outward expression without this core, this hidden place. One way that I always put it is, whatever God speaks to me about in private, then is made public. But without that private side of it, and it's all public, your relationship with him is all public, he's saying that's going to be the reward, the extent of it. However people view you in your walk, or he's this super spiritual person, or she's this prayer warrior in front of everybody. He's like, okay, without this centerpiece, without this core, this intimacy there, then that's going to be the extent of your reward for that. God, Jesus tells us to go where no one else sees us. The hidden places where you're not performing, you're not distracted, you're not managing an image. It's just you and God. God meets you at the level of your honesty, not your image. And that's one for not just simply the individual who's only, who's always performing, right? I think that's one of those things for us to really, for us to really be mindful of, because we can even find ourselves slipping into performance mode, or slipping into just the image that we're trying to uphold. I think that goes for all of us. That's not a, maybe just a preacher, or just that very extroverted, outward-facing individual. But all of us, all of us can find ourselves in spaces where, or in seasons, or slipping just

to this performance, or maintaining an image, sort of dip into our walk. I think that when we can acknowledge that, and we wrestle with that tension, we bring that to the table, like, hey, Lord, like, reveal to me, like, is there any part of me that's just, you know, showing up, and just doing the things, or going through the motions, or, you know, just being extra, whatever the case may be, right? And revealing it, like presenting it to God for Him to either affirm or rebuke that man. I think that's where, that's where surrender becomes real. It's not in just what you say publicly, but in how you show up privately. It's so, this intimacy, this oneness with God and the hidden place, like, that is so key to your walk. A lot of times, you'll have people in ministry who may, you know, sing on a worship team, or they're leading a prayer team, or, you know, you may see just that person who's, you know, just running up and down the aisles in church doing worship, whatever the case may be. It's like, to be clear, like, Jesus is not rebuking that in and of itself, but when we don't have that intimate relationship with Him, it's kind of like the voice popped in my head, like, when Lil Wayne was like, who that boy? I don't know that boy. You know that boy? I don't know that boy. It's like, that's how Jesus is looking at us in that moment. Like, you doing all this screaming and hollering, or whatever the case, on my behalf, and we don't even have a personal relationship. We don't even talk regularly, right? Like, whenever my name is brought up, you out there, you know, mentioning my name and talking like we best friends, or you doing all of this, and at the end of the day, I don't have, I don't have you on my call at all. We don't even share a one-on-one text thread. You and I, when nobody else is, you know, around. I don't know if maybe you experienced that, right? Where like, you may have people who, when your name is brought up, like in the world, they're like, oh yeah, man, that's, you know, that's my guy. Oh yeah, that's, that's sis. Meanwhile, you like, you ain't wrote me and I don't know how long, I ain't heard from you. You know what I'm saying? It's like, that's the same way Jesus feels in, in, in, in this, where he's like, no, like whatever you do outwardly, it needs to stem from this hidden, this intimate relationship that you and I share. I think over time, what's built in secret actually becomes strength in every other area of our life. What we built with God in, in those hidden seasons, in those seasons where we're unseen in those, in those spaces where it's just he and I in the prayer closet, like that's, that's when

you see, you know, you know, a person, whether they're delivering a message or whether they're showing up in a way that's reflecting God, it's, it's, it's, that's not in and of itself, the relationship that's going to stem from those seasons that, that, that, that, that rhythm, that discipline of closed doors, no cameras, no audience, just you and God. And so I encourage you in that. I encourage you in that if that, if that convicts you, if that, if that encourages you, if that's, if that challenges you lean into that, right? Don't be so quick to just point the finger at that person who, you know, does that thing. Look, hold the mirror up to yourself. Lord, where am I, where am I lacking in, um, honoring and, and, and, and embracing, engaging with you and, and, and just this intimate one-on-one space? Is there room for growth there? Which chances are the answer is going to be yes, right? We could all grow closer to God in that way. Like all of us could like, you know, it would serve as well to spend more one-on-one time with God, but even then it's not out of obligation. It's not out of guilt. It's, um, Lord grow, grow me in my desire and help me to be disciplined in my rhythms of just spending one-on-one time with you, man. Um, when no one else is watching, I want to leave you with these three things as you reflect on this today, as you're, um, spending your one-on-one time with God, um, today, what does your private time with God currently look like? Be real, be honest, place that before God, Lord, what does this look like? Right. Um, are you showing up honestly, or just going through the motions? Are you simply just checking off the, the, the, the list of I read my daily scripture today, and then, you know, or are you showing up honest? Like, Lord, you know what? Like I need this to not just be something I'm reading. How was this impact in my heart? How was this impact in the way that I show up in the next conversation? How was this impact in the way that I deal with the fence? How was this impact in the way that I grow in forgiveness? How was this impact in the way that, you know, um, I deal with authority, you know what I mean? Deal with authority. That's not even honorable. How do I show, how does our one-on-one time show up in the way that I deal with these other situations? What would it look like to create consistent intentional space with God daily? Like it's not, we don't drift into that. We have to be intentional about that to carve out time. Maybe I shut my TV off at this time, or I don't turn my TV on or whatever the case on until this time, because this block right here is going to be concentrated and set apart for me to spend my time with God and whatever that looks like. Um, but yeah, that's, that's, that's what, um, that's

what I wanted to, I felt led to just share with you all today. Um, hope this encourages you, hope it challenges you and hope it, um, actually maybe gives you some, some, some, some, like put some fire behind you to actually step into, you know, what God's calling us to do, because he wants more than everything else. He wants this intimacy with us, this, he and I, this you and him. Um, and he wants that when no one else is around. He wants that, that, that, that in the hidden place, he wants to meet you there. All right. Hope this blesses y'all. Y'all have a blessing. See you tomorrow.