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Governmental Keys from the Life of David
(from the CD double - “Is the Master in Your Midst?”)
by Jill Austin
Behind the Veil: Heaven Touching Earth in Worship and II Samuel 6
An Invasion of the Glory of the Lord
The Ark of the Covenant
The Cry of the Lord’s Heart
400 Years without the Word of the Lord
David: The Braveheart
David’s Big Surprise
A Living Ark with the Shekinah Glory
Being Vulnerable with Jesus
God Wants YOU to Carry the Ark of His Covenant
Behind the Veil: Heaven Touching Earth in Worship
Rev 4:1 - After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’
My goal in worship is to get behind the veil. My passion is His presence. His presence is manna that must be sought after and received every single day or it becomes stale. There is one thing that God cannot deny - hunger for Him.
How hungry are you? Are you willing to passionately press through into His presence? Beloved, He must first deal with your heart. One key to unlock worship is first asking the Lord if there is anything hindering us in our heart. As I work through stripping off all sin and self before the Lord, it is as though I trade in my rags for His robes of righteousness. Then, He can begin to give you His heart, His purposes, His love for you and His people.
During worship there is so much activity happening in the supernatural. It is when the creative presence of the Lord God touches His people. Some people see pictures, hear Scriptures, get a word of knowledge, or hear His voice. All of it is valid, real and scriptural. But, what does worship really do?
Worship moves the very heart of God and changes the very heart of man. It takes only a few seconds of a face-to-face encounter with the manifest presence of God to change the course of human history for you, your city, or your nation.
In the Old Testament, His presence was often referred to as the Shekinah glory, the fire of divine visitation. God would literally come to visit His people. In II Chronicles 5:14 the glory of God filled Solomon’s Temple and the Priests could not stand to minister. The thick weight of the presence of God would settle in so heavily that people would have to lay flat on the floor, prostrate before Him. Never underestimate the power of worship.
Worship is encountering Him. It is an invitation to the place where angels cannot go, beyond the very boundary lines in heaven where God will whisper to you the secrets of His burning heart. You will hear the love songs of God’s heart and return them back as songs to Him.
It’s so easy to breeze through a familiar passage but I hope you will pause and really take time to read these verses, asking the Lord for fresh revelation. What is God really saying by telling this story?
II Samuel 6:
“Again David gathered all the choice men of Israel, thirty thousand. And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baal Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, whose name is called by the Name, the Lord of Hosts, who dwells between the cherubim.
So they set the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart.
And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill, accompanying the ark of God; and Ahio went before the ark.
Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the Lord on all kinds of instruments of fir wood, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on sistrums, and on cymbals.
And when they came to Nachon’s threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled.
Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by the ark of God.
And David became angry because of the Lord’s outbreak against Uzzah; and he called the name of the place Perez Uzzah (“the breaking forth upon Uzzah”) to this day.
David was afraid of the Lord that day; and he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?”
So David would not move the ark of the Lord with him into the City of David; but David took it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.
The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite three months. And the Lord blessed Obed-Edom and all his household.
Now it was told King David, saying, “The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.”
So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom the City of David with gladness.
And so it was, when those bearing the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, that he sacrificed Oxen and fatted sheep.
Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod.
So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.
Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.
So they brought the ark of the Lord, and set it in its place in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it. The David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.
And when David had finished offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts.
Then he distributed among all the people, among the whole multitude of Israel, both the women and the men, to everyone a loaf of bread, a piece of meat, and a cake of raisins. So all the people departed, everyone to his own house.
Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, “How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!”
So David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me instead of your father and all of his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore I will play music before the Lord.
And I will be even more undignified that this, and will be humble in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honor.”
Therefore Michal, the daughter of Saul, had no children to the day of her death.”
An Invasion of the Glory of the Lord
What has been on my heart is the glory of the Lord, that we could have more of His presence and more of Him in our midst. II Corinthians 4 tells us that we are earthenware vessels but the treasure - the glory - inside of us is the Lord!
Everyone is running for the gold! Nations prepare for the Olympics and they don’t want the silver or the bronze, they want the gold. I feel that the individual cry of our hearts is: “Oh Lord, we want the gold!” We want His glory, to know Him better. Lord, let your presence and your fire dwell within us.
When we speak of prophetic evangelism we are talking about being living vessels with the fire, the glory of the Lord, moving around us everywhere we go. It isn’t enough to only have His glory in our church, home or renewal meetings. The Lord wants to invade our very lives and the lives of everyone around us so we can literally begin to be His hands, His eyes and His feet to a hurting and dying world.
The glory of the Lord is such a burden on my heart. Do you want a visitation? How much fire, how much of the anointing, how much of the presence of the living God do you want in your life?
We are moving in a level of renewal right now as the Lord, the Captain of the Hosts, is moving all over the nations. For example, we’ve all heard about some 7,000 churches moving in renewal in England. It’s a miracle that the living Christ, the King of glory, is moving across all the denominational barriers between all the different races, colors and tribes.
I look back at times where it wasn’t just the laughing and the sweet gentle touches of the Lord that we so often see in renewal meetings. It wasn’t the foam at the beginning of a wave, but glimpses of the deep swells of the anointing and the presence of the Lord moving in our midst.
When we look back at what God has done in our midst, it ruins us for life. We can never again live only in the shallow end. We have seen people healed and His presence move powerfully in our midst. How can go back or settle for less? We are talking about renewal; about how the Lord is moving in most of the nations and cities. Our cry is that God will bring us revival.
There have been conferences in the past that were so wonderful. The people had a high faith level; people were healed, delivered, and radically touched causing us to go a second or third week in that same city. When we would walk into a meeting, the whole atmosphere would be charged with the holiness of God. It wasn’t the normal conference “safe level” where we believed God would simply meet us, but we knew Jesus was in the atmosphere. It was like “walking under water” when we entered the room because of the depth and heavy weight of the glory of God.
The manifestations often offend people but as earthenware vessels, we shake and tremble when we touch the Throne of God. We have found that as it goes from renewal to revival, there is less shaking. It is like the verse that says, “Be still and know that I am God.” When you feel the heavy weight and glory of the Lord, and it begins to move on people, there is stillness. The glory gets saturated into the depths of who we are. It is incredible!
There is a cry in my heart for us to want more of Him. Even though there are seven thousand renewal churches right now in England, it could easily become a dime a dozen to us. It could become “seeker friendly renewal meetings”. In other words, the message can become an invitation to “Come and we won’t shake too much. Come, we don’t want you to be threatened. The Lord is moving in our midst.” But there needs to be that cry in us for the Lord to invade the very places where we live.
The Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament is where the raw fire, the raw presence of God, dwelt. It was a wooden box. What was inside the ark? The pot of manna was inside the Ark, representing Jesus being the Bread of Life. His bread will satisfy us. There was also Aaron’s rod, which was wood and budded, representing the resurrection anointing. Also there were the stone tablets representing the Law. We could never make it through the Law that’s why we have the blood of Jesus Christ.
The chest was made of wood, signifying Christ’s humanity. It was covered with gold, representing the divinity. They never were contaminated; they never came together, showing Jesus being God and man at the same time.
The cover of the chest is called the Mercy Seat. We need the mercy of God in our lives. Facing each other were the Cherubims, angels facing each other over the Mercy Seat. The Priests would come in one day a year and throw the blood on the Ark, which was the Atonement.
Let our prayer be, “Lord, bring the Ark of the Covenant and have it dwell and live right where we are.” We all signed up to see the Manifest Presence of the Lord everywhere we go so eyes would be opened, the lame would walk, and God would give us valuable words of life that would bring souls in. He wants to give each of us nets that are filled with the Shekinah glory of the Lord so that when we throw those fishing nets out in our homes, neighborhoods or work, that we would catch fish. He has made us to be fisherman and we should never be satisfied unless the Lord gives us more fish.
The Cry of the Lord’s Heart
I feel the Lord is crying out for us to be MORE hungry for Him. It’s so easy to get into programs and meetings. Even during the time of Moses, it was very easy for them to fall in a form of religion without having a hunger and a fire for the presence of the living God.
There is a cry in each one of us to not be an empty shell. We so need His fire in the depths of who we are!! We need our bones to burn because we love Him so much. We need our blood to boil, so to speak. We need a divine hunger put into the depths of who we are. We need the Lord to grab hold of us and shake off apathy and complacency until there is a fresh love for Jesus Christ our Lord.
We can never hear enough about returning to our first love. We can never hear enough the voice of the Bridegroom and that He is coming. Do you remember when you first met Him? Do you remember that passion you had? Do you remember when He would barely whisper and you quickly responded? Will you let Him ignite a burning passion of first love in the depths of your heart once again?
Is there a void and emptiness in you, even though you know how to pray for people, even though you move in leadership and know how to train and equip people? Will you come back to Him, to first love? Is the fire inside of you like the Shekinah glory of the living God? Is there a resurrection anointing and the fire of Jesus touching you?
I feel the Lord is constantly saying, “I want you to want Me more. I want you to be more hungry for Me.” As soon as you start feeling that you have arrived, you start to lose your cutting edge. We somehow begin to be satisfied with the shallow end and there is no longer those deep cries and remembrances of when the gold came, when the Shekinah glory and heavy weight was in our meetings. We forget about the healed minds and healed bodies. Lord, help us not to forget your Presence!
His heartbeat was not just to have His Shekinah glory in the Ark of the Covenant. You see, when He died on the Cross, it rent the veil that we would be living temples with the Ark of the Covenant, the Shekinah glory, inside of us. We can take out Aaron’s rod and proclaim that yes, we are made out of wood, but because of the resurrection anointing our lives have budded and flowered.
You may have gone from religion to religion trying to fill that empty place inside of you, but now that you have the bread of life, the Word of God with fire and revelation on it, so you are full. The Lord is asking if you remember who He is.
There have been meetings when the heavy weight of the Lord was there and eyes would be opened and people would begin to see in the eternal realm and weep as they saw souls literally going to hell. They would see Jesus walking as a living fire in a room and touching people.
All I know is that when we get touched by the Lord, when we get glimpses of eternity, it ruins us for life. There is that cry that says we have to have more of Him!
400 Years without the Word of the Lord
During the time of Eli, they had four hundred years where they did not hear the word of the Lord. God wants to ignite fresh passion in our hearts. He wants to birth in us that burning, fiery heart like David. The heart of David, who went running to get the Ark to bring it back to Jerusalem. There has to be a fire in us to have His presence in the depths of who we are.
Have you been ruined for life? Have you seen too much already? Can you go back to just meetings without the Manifest Presence of Jesus being in our midst? Is there a cry in us to not be “seeker friendly” or apathetic? Do we remember why we even came forward as a prophetic people? Is there a cry in us that says, “Yes Lord, bring revival. Start to set us on fire in the depths of who we are.”
At the time of Eli, the Philistines went to attack Israel and, of course, the Israelites immediately charged to war, but four thousand men died. What did they do? The rest of the Israeli army came back and took the Ark of the Covenant. You see, the Ark of the Covenant was the raw presence of God. They took the Ark of the Covenant and went into battle. Thirty three thousand men died because they stole the Ark.
Many times we get to the place where we assume we have His presence. We can assume that miracles will happen and demons will be cast out. We have a God who gives fresh strategies. He wants us to go to Him to hear His voice for what He wants us to do.
David: The Braveheart
Let’s go back to David in II Samuel. David was an amazing man. I see David as a Braveheart. He was so radical, so daring. I want to have that kind of fire, that kind of anointing. He was a man after God’s own heart.
What was David’s plan when he went to Jerusalem? What was he ambitious for? He was King over Jerusalem, but how would he set up his reign? As he went before his God, and as his heart was burning with passion, he prayed that if the Ark of the Covenant, the Shekinah glory, could go to Jerusalem, then Jerusalem would be a city where the whole world would worship at His feet.
In other words, he was looking just to have the Ark of the Covenant to be in a tent or tabernacle, his cry was to have the raw presence of God, the raw glory of the Lord. He was a governmental man and as a governmental man, he knew he needed the glory. He knew he needed the raw presence of the living Christ. God has put government on many of you, but you need to have the Shekinah glory, the raw presence of God, and the fire of God burned deep into the depths of who you are.
Just five miles away from David in another town was the old tent of Moses. It was five hundred years old at that time. The Levitical priests were sacrificing and worshipping in that tent. David could have easily put the worship center over in Gideon, but his passion was for it to be in Jerusalem, the city of David. His cry was for Jerusalem to be a worship city.
He was a Braveheart in the sense that he came against, and completely changed, five hundred years of tradition. He moved from the tent of Moses because He knew that if he could get the Ark, the raw presence of the living Christ in his city, then people would come and worship God. He knew the Ark would give them authority and power. David was a mighty warrior and a wise King.
Do we have that kind of wisdom? Do we just walk a nice walk with the Lord and only deep sometimes? Or do we have that cry of David where we are burning with desire?
When David was in the cedar palace, he said, “God, here I am in a house of cedar. But Lord, you were only in a tent. My heart breaks that I would be in a house of cedar and that you would be in a tent.” It was that relationship, that intimacy with the living Christ, which came about from the years of living in the caves while running from Saul. He was labeled an outlaw and endured heavy persecution and shame when people came against him and wanted to kill him.
During those times of great affliction, great suffering and great pain, God worked a deep intimacy and relationship with Him. That is part of the way he wrote his hymnal of Song - it was during his times of great afflictions and great suffering. During those times of great brokenness, a relationship happened with David and God that he took with him when he came to rule and reign. He knew he couldn’t do it without the living God.
During your times of affliction and great brokenness, are you one that cries out to the Lord and sings of His greatness? Do you open up your heart, knowing that no one understands you, but you still shout about how much you love your God? David wrote the Psalms out of great brokenness.
David’s Big Surprise
What was David’s greatest accomplishment? Was it that he was a great King? Was it that he was a shepherd boy who loved to sing? I feel part of the greatest accomplishment David ever had was that he had a revelation to make Jerusalem the Capitol of the known world where they would pray and worship the living God. He saw it so big; he had such a vision. There was such a cry in him. He knew he would die unless the Lord was with him. In the midst of your circumstances, is the living Christ with you like He was with David?
David understood that he had to bring the Ark there, so he gathered thirty thousand men and went to the Ark. They put it on the new cart, just like the Philistines had done, and were cheering, dancing, clapping and shouting. There was one problem though. David had not gone to God and asked Him how he should bring in God’s presence.
You see, the Lord was never meant for it to be brought in on a new cart, or a new model. The Ark was to be carried on the shoulders of the Levites. “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” We need that cry in our hearts to know Him, to see Him. The Levites would go through times of cleansing and repenting before they would pick up the Ark on the poles. There was a holy fear of the Lord in them.
As you know, one of the men tried to steady the ark and he was killed. David was immediately afraid. There was that cry in him that said, “How do I bring the ark of the Lord to Jerusalem?” How are you going to bring the Shekinah glory to dwell with more fire and unction in the depths of who you are?
There are times I cry out, “Oh, God, if only more of You would come. Lord, if only more of You would give me revelation in everyday life.” There needs to be a cry to know the living Christ.
A Living Ark with the Shekinah Glory
The next time David went out, he went back and the Levites took the Ark in. Isn’t that prophetic evangelism? Isn’t prophetic evangelism the living Ark with the Shekinah glory going through a whole city? Isn’t it the raw presence of God moving in our midst? The Jews wanted to rebuild the Temple because they don’t want an empty temple; they want to find the Ark of the Covenant. They want the raw fire of God to move in it.
We don’t want ministers that are simply empty shells. We don’t want to have home meetings that only offer a nice time. Will you let the living Christ, that gold glory to be in the depths of who you are? Will you let Him take off the lid of the Ark and let His fire start to consume you?
David brought the Ark into the city of Jerusalem. How much of His glory do you want? Are you willing to be a Braveheart? David was radical! He did something that had never been done before. He broke tradition because he loved the living God with all of his heart. Lord, we want more of You!!!
David was not able to build the Temple because he was a man of war. But God gave him divine blueprint plans, and he took those plans and gave them to his son, Solomon. What is the spiritual blessing you are passing on to your children? Is it that passion, that fire, the presence of Jesus? What a legacy that is for your offspring!!!
I feel the Lord is asking you what is keeping you from climbing the mountain of the Lord to meet with Him face-to-face? You can’t send another person in your place. He doesn’t want you to be an echo; He wants you to be a voice. He is asking you to be a voice.
I keep feeling the Lord saying that there are people tied to many of your backs. Some of you have ministries or traditions tied to your back. What is keeping you from climbing the mountain of the Lord to seek His face? I keep seeing an altar and I feel the Lord is asking for you to let Him cut the chord of those who are chained to you. Are you willing to say yes and put those people on the altar?
Let there be a cry inside of you saying, “Yes, Lord, break the chains that bind me!” Don’t you understand that you will die if you try to carry other people that are broken? Only Jesus, the Messiah, can carry other souls. Go before the Lord and lay those dear people down. Lay your methods down. Let go!!!
The Lord says …
“Give it all to me. Lay it down at My feet.
You cannot carry them, but you must release them to Me.
I am Messiah! I died for them too. Give them to Me.
Lay them down and run after Me. Let Me carry them.
I know how much you love them, but I love them even more.
I am the only One who can bear the weight of another soul.
Lay down, even your secret desires, even your agendas, and lay it at My feet.
Humble yourself under My hand and I will exalt you in due time.
Trust Me to carry you. I will bear your burden, if you give them to Me.
I will carry you.”
Being Vulnerable with Jesus
I pray that the Lord will show you if you have a new cart or if you have tried to carry His glory in your ministry, your home meetings or in your family. “Lord, we ask you to take down the walls of self-protection.” We have learned how to build our walls, even in the House of the Lord, but we cry out for a vulnerability to allow the Lord to show us our own brokenness and humanity so we can see how big God is in the midst of it.
He doesn’t want us to assume that we should build a ministry and then God will come and fill it. We need to build our lives around the anointing that is in the depths of who we are. We need more of His presence. We also need to cry out for our ears to be opened to hear what the Spirit is saying and that God will give us fresh revelation. We need to ask the Lord to take away spiritual deafness where we’ve assumed and taken blueprint plans of man without going to God for fresh fire and unction.
We need to ask God for a cleansing where our ears have heard profanity, gossip and slander. We must cry out that God will start to convict us of things that we hear that are illegal in the Spirit. We have heard different people even being assassinated in our midst. May God forgive us for listening and doing nothing or chiming in on the verbal assaults of other people.
We need to watch our eyes (eye gate), which are a window to the soul. God has called us to be a prophetic people who hear and speak the Lord’s heart, to be seers who see in the Spirit, to be prophetic intercessors and watchmen. What we have seen puts “scales” of rebellion and independence over our eyes so many see with dim vision. We must repent of seeing movies that are filled with violence, murder and sexual perversion. We need to repent of every single thing that would cloud our ability to see with clarity and purity.
We also have to deal with our mouths and ask God to make us fiery preachers with a prophetic unction in our homes, at work and in our neighborhoods. Ask the Lord to put a coal of fire on our mouths and start to cleanse our mouths of where we have “killed” people and ministries instead of bringing life and encouragement through our words.
We must also give Jesus our hands. Let His fire start to fall on our hands for an anointing of healing and miracles and deliverance. Let there be a purifying fire so that as we stand as Levites before the Lord, we once again let there be a cleansing fire of His presence.
The Lord says …
“Let Me purify your heart, let Me touch you by My Son.
Let me make you clean so you’re a vessel that My glory can flow through.
Submit to My fire and I will cause you to walk in purity.
Receive My fire, let it burn you clean.
Let Me restore the innocence of childhood to you.
Let My fire come, let it burn you clean,
So that you may be the vessel of honor to Me.”
I feel that the Lord wants those of you who feel you’ve been in the “killing fields” of the church, your family, or work to come to Jesus with your deep pain and betrayals. It’s like seeing heavy boots coming against you and I feel there has been a type of spiritual abuse that has come against many of you to keep you from moving in the prophetic and who you are in God.
God says He has given you birthright, He has called you. I break the lies that have come against you. I break the fear of man off of you. I break even the words of others questioning whether or not you hear God.
For the women, I break the fear of man off of your heads and the words from those who say you can’t move in the anointing as a woman of God. Some of you have felt like you have had spears in your heart so I break the power of those word curses against you that right now.
I also break the lid off the heads where people are moving at half of their potential, functioning at only 30% or 40%. I break the lie of the enemy off of their heads that would have them operating at their bare minimum!
Some of you need to forgive people because it is your unforgiveness that is holding you back from flying like eagles. I’m asking the Lord to start to show each of you if there are people you need to forgive and let go of. Show them where there is unfinished business. We have to forgive at the foot of the Cross. As you forgive and release them, let the Lord take you deeper.
God Wants YOU to Carry the Ark of His Covenant
He has called you to have His Shekinah gold inside of you. He breaks the lies that say you can’t be a prophetic man or woman of destiny and birthright. I break the enslavement of the enemy to take them down.
The Lord says …
“I have called you as a prophetic people, full of birthright and destiny.
I have called you as high flyers, as eagles.
Once you would shout and rend the heavens, ones who would be warriors.
I have called you to be a people of destiny.
Don’t settle for less.”
Let the Lord start to release the vision that you are eagles. May you love Him enough that you want to fly to the heights, to take flights as eagles, as you keep your eyes on Jesus, the Son of the living God.
The Lord says …
“Do you love Me enough to risk again?
Do you love Me enough to take another chance?
Do you love Me enough to be willing to fly?
Do you love Me enough to soar above your circumstances?
Do you love Me enough, though it may cost your very life?
I am calling you to soar into the heavens.
I have not desired that you be earth bound.
Let Me break the chains that are holding you down.
Let Me loose you from your bondage.
Let Me teach you how to catch the wind.
My child, come and soar again.
Take the jump. I will catch you. I won’t let you fall if you trust Me.
Take the jump. I will catch you. I won’t let you fall.”
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