“Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the armor of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of bronze, and cut asunder the bars of iron: And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.” (Isa 45:1-3)

Did you know that God has riches hidden in secret places? And these are riches He is eager for you to possess. Am I saying that God wants you rich? I don’t know what God wants for you with respect to tangible riches. I don’t know your character, your calling or your capabilities. What I do know is that there are great riches hidden in secret places and the kind of riches I am speaking of cannot be seen with the eye.

Take for example the rainforest. People with limited vision see only with their natural eye and cut it down to obtain temporal, tangible riches. They sell the timber and create pasture land for cows. But people with great vision who have spent time in the secret place of God know that God made the systems that make the rainforest the most productive and fruitful system on the planet producing tremendous abundance out of relative scarcity.

In spending time with the Father, they learn the systems. They discover the ways of God. They obtain great wealth of wisdom as they inherit His heart for the created order and in the process they can be trusted with the power that wisdom gives them. It is the unseen riches that produce the visible riches. Most folks chase the visible, corruptible, temporal riches. Wise ones chase the unseen eternal riches and in apprehending them, have everything else they need.

“Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the armor of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of bronze, and cut asunder the bars of iron: And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.” (Isa 45:1-3)

To the sons (mature ones) I write. The Lord has great treasures of darkness waiting for you to have eyes that you may see them. What are these treasures buried in the dark places? While it is true that Cyrus found literal treasure hidden in dark places, there surely is a spiritual application. In fact, there are many… The first one that comes to mind is the great treasure that I have gained in my darkest hours. My first born child was born with Down syndrome when I was such a young man. Those first few days were dark for me, but then the light exploded upon the scene and I saw such treasure. I realized that I was more fortunate than my friends. I grew much in wisdom and the ways of God.

Eighteen months later she died, less than a week before Christmas. Darkness came calling again. It envelops you, wants to rob you of any hope for ever seeing the light again. But in that darkness I once again found great treasure — not the tangible kind that decays, but incorruptible treasure that gives life to this day. And those are just the dark places I am willing to write about. There have been others where the darkness is not only void of light, but somehow thick with oppression. But even in that, I learned to see and God brought me out of that place into the glorious light of His dear Son.

Are you in a dark place right now? Ask God to show you the treasure. Ask Him to bring you into the light. Let His word be a candle to your feet and a light to your path. I can say with absolute certainty there is no darkness His light cannot penetrate. There is no heaviness a spirit of praise cannot break. There is no desperation that unbridled worship cannot deliver you from. This is beyond contestation despite the wishes of others who would rather you stay in darkness. I invite you my dear brothers and sisters to the light today. Come.

Should you manage by the numbers and utilize formulas or should you listen to God and build your business through relationships? If you chose either of those answers, you have fallen for the “right/wrong”, “either/or” game. It’s both. And there’s more.

If we rely only on numbers or formulas and we leave God out of the equation, or minimize relationships, then we error indeed. If we leave all the diligence and hard work up to God and just seek Him, expecting Him to deliver the big result, then we also error. It is both. We need to strike a balance.

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Continuing with our theme of emulating God’s ways, we find in Psalms 147 that God not only numbers the stars (no small thing), but He also names them. Do you think He names them randomly? I don’t. Names matter to God. They are not incidental or accidental to Him. If He takes the time to name the stars, there must be some reason for that. I believe the name He chooses reflects some of the purpose of that star, yet to be understood or appreciated.

If you and I are going to name something, we need to discern both the nature of the thing and the purpose it was created for. That requires intentionality, caring and stewardship. When you name it, you own it. When you name it, you give it meaning and purpose. Ask God to show you its full purpose, so you can name it well. Choosing the wrong name can cause it to fall short of its intended glory - to miss out on its potential. There have been many great products misnamed and they were surpassed in the marketplace by products better named, even if they were inferior.

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Want to emulate the ways of God? Consider Psalm 147:2-6. The sixth of seven characteristics of God’s ways described here is: “He calls them all by their names.” We are talking about the stars here and the last count we had was that there were 80 sextillion stars that we know of - so far. That’s ten times the number of grains of sand on all the beaches and deserts on the planet, just to give you some perspective. It’s one thing to know, for example, that you have a herd of cattle numbering 5,000, but to be able to name them, recognize and remember them by name is beyond the scope of reason for us. Yet God not only knows how many stars there are, but has actually given them all names.

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