<p>12:3 <i>Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors shall be proclaimed upon the housetops</i>- The reference to &ldquo;closets&rdquo; (AV) takes us back to Mt. 6:6, where He uses the same word to speak of how we should pray in closets and then we will be openly rewarded by the Father. The &lsquo;open reward&rsquo; is clearly in the Kingdom (Mt. 6:4,18; Lk. 8:17; 1 Cor. 3:13). Could this not be saying, then, that in the Kingdom, the answers to the prayers we are <i>now </i>making will be openly proclaimed to all from the housetops? Hence there is an awesome connection between our feeble words of prayer now, and the nature of our eternal existence in the Kingdom.<br />&quot;God shall judge the righteous and the wicked (at the second coming): for there is a time there for <i>every</i> purpose and for <i>every</i> work... for God shall bring <i>every</i> work into judgment, with <i>every</i> secret thing, whether it be good or bad&quot; (Ecc. 3:17; 12:14). Note the emphasis on &quot;<i>every</i>&quot;. Even what we have spoken in the ear will be shouted out (Lk. 12:3) -implying others will somehow observe our judgment, cp. Mt. 12:41. If the judgment is merely a yes/no statement which has been worked out taking our whole life into consideration, then this emphasis on every work having a time for consideration and judgment &quot;there&quot; is pointless. However, these verses must be considered in conjunction with those which speak of God's 'forgetting' of bad deeds on account of how people later chose to live. However, this need not mean that they are erased from God's infinite knowledge; all too often we perceive God's memory as a vast memory bank which can have our sins erased from it. But His knowledge knows no such bounds of human perception; yet He is willing not to hold those things against us, and to therefore count us as having never committed them.</p><p>Ultimately, nothing remains secret; at the day of judgment, what we spoke in darkness (i.e. In our own minds) will be heard in the light of God&rsquo;s Kingdom (Lk. 12:3). Note how Paul read the Lord&rsquo;s words here in this way &ndash; for he surely alludes here when he speaks of how &ldquo;the hidden things of darkness&rdquo; are &ldquo;the counsels of the hearts&rdquo; which will be revealed at His return (1 Cor. 4:5). The implications of this are awesome. The thoughts and intents of our hearts in this life will be eternally open and manifest in the eternal light of God&rsquo;s Kingdom. In that day, our brethren will see every one of our hidden thoughts. To live now according to the principle &lsquo;I can think what I like, but I won&rsquo;t act like it, for the sake of appearances to others&rsquo; is therefore foolish. Who we are now in our hearts is whom we shall ultimately be revealed to be. So we may as well get on and act according to how we really think; for throughout eternity, what we think now will be manifest to everyone, seeing that a man <i>is</i> as he thinks in his heart.</p>