Weekly Thoughts

2/3/07 – King David and Peace

Hi all,

What do time travel, King David, and the peace of God have in common? That's what I've been thinking on the past couple of weeks. They tie together, but you'll have to read on to understand the way my brain connects things.

I have to start my thoughts back a step before I talk about the peace of God. It involves the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Jesus said in John 16:13 that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, "will not speak of himself, but whatsoever he hears, that will he speak...and show you things to come."

So the Holy Spirit merely repeats what he hears, and in so doing shows us future events...In I Corinthians 2: 9-16 Paul tells us we can't imagine what the Father has prepared for us, but the Holy Spirit searches the Father, and reveals to us what He has prepared for us.

Now flash forward to your own life and any given crisis, stress, or difficulty. When we go to the Father in prayer and worship and receive a peace in our spirit about our situation, the mechanics of why that peace is there is that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth is giving you that peace because in searching the Father, He has discovered the Father has that crisis well in hand, and all is well on the other side.

He may even share with us some basic details about how His provision will all come about...we may sense, feel, see in the Spirit, or otherwise know with our inner 'know-er' how it will come about - at the very least the Holy Spirit gives us peace when the Father wants to tell us all will turn out OK.

If not (if we don't yet have peace in our spirits), we have a need to pray, a burden, a heaviness, and we pray that out until the peace comes that all is (now) well.

This means that by walking in peace you are walking in your future, though that future is not revealed.

By walking in that peace you are seeing the future before it unfolds - not knowing all the details perhaps, but based on the Spirit of Truth's message of peace in your spirit, you walk in peace in the situation before there is peace in that situation.

By walking in peace you are living in your future while still walking out the crisis or difficulty in the natural.

Like a corridor through time with eyes set on the peace within us, and seeing peace at the end of that corridor, we walk today in the peace, while all around us is confusion and stress.

Of course, once I understand these things in the Spirit I look for examples in the Word of other people who have lived in the peace of the future as revealed by the Holy Spirit.

Of course Jesus is the prime example. He sweats blood in Gethsemane, but once his spiritual and emotional struggle was over, "for the joy set before him he endured the cross", and from that point on he was as calm and peaceful as anyone could be throughout his torture and death. He was walking in the future victory and peace of his resurrection, while going through interrogation, torture, and death.

But there is another example, David, who in about 1000 BC walked in New Testament truth while everyone around him didn't have a clue. I'll say it again: David, in his time, was able to live in the truth and peace of events that wouldn't take place for over 1000 years.

When David became king he wanted to bring the ark of the covenant to a part of Jerusalem called Zion, and he did so with much celebration. The ark of the covenant was a gold covered wooden box that had 2 golden (winged) cherubs kneeling, facing one another on top of the box, and it was there that God's presence was manifest. David knew him in II Samuel 6:2 as the "Lord of hosts who lives between the cherubs."

During the procession of bringing the ark to Jerusalem, II Samuel 6:13-14 says they would go 6 steps, then stop, and David would offer sacrifices and he "danced before the Lord with all his might."

It then tells us David had pitched a tent and they put the ark of the covenant in the tent, and David danced and made sacrifices right in front of it.

Now consider what he was doing: The Lord had instructed Moses to follow a very specific ritual before approaching the Ark of the Covenant. In Moses' time this ark of the covenant was place in the "most holy place", or what is called, "The holy of holies", and  only the high priest could see it, and then only once a year. Besides that, before the priest could enter the holy of holies he had to have sacrificial blood sprinkled on himself and then the ark, to cover his sin.

David just set the ark in an open tent and danced before it.

In Moses' time the priest would have to go through, in specific order, the type of the born again event before he could come before the Holy of Holies: 

First have to offer an animal on the Brazen altar, which was a type of the sacrifice of Jesus. Then the priest washed up in the Laver, a pool of water that was a type of the 'washing of water with the Word'. Then he went inside one veil, to where the holy bread, a menorah, and altar of incense were located, representing respectively; the body of Jesus, the Holy Spirit and His gifts, and the prayers of the saints. From there, once a year, the high priest could pass through still another veil into the holy of holies, where the ark of the covenant was, and the manifest presence of God was present.

David pitched a tent, got a bunch of musicians and people together, and worshipped with all his might right in front of the ark of the covenant.

How'd he do that? (without being struck dead)

On the day of Pentecost Peter quotes a Psalm of David, Psalm 16, which included the prophecy 'you will not leave my soul in hell, nor allow your holy one to see corruption.' Peter stated in Acts 2:30-31 that David said this, being a prophet, and "seeing before the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption."

Peter stated David saw the resurrection of Christ - by the Holy Spirit - he witnessed the resurrection while living at around 1000 BC.

But it gets better than that. In Psalm 110 David see the ascension and glorification of Jesus, for he says in verse 1:

"The Lord (Father) said unto my Lord (Jesus), You sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool." and "you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." 

David saw and prophesied of the crucifixion (Psalm 22), resurrection (Psalm 16), and ascension (Psalm 110) of Jesus. Peter said, "Seeing this before..."

The Holy Spirit had shown him what was to come - he had the peace and knowledge of the future - and David lived in that future 1,000 years before it came to pass.

It was for this reason David was able to by-pass the Laws of Moses in how the ark of the covenant was to be set up, and instead dance and worship before it in the open. He was worshipping the risen and glorified Jesus Christ for he had seen Him by the Holy Spirit! In his mind and spirit David was 1000 years down the time line, worshipping the risen King!

The last words of David as recorded in II Samuel 23:2-3 quote him: "The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and his word was in my tongue...the Rock of Israel spoke to me..."

Here's my point - We can do what David did - we can have the Father give us his peace - His knowledge -about our situation and from that, walk in peace and a certain knowledge it will be well - and live now our lives in the future yet to be revealed.

When we receive the peace of God about our situation and then worship the Lord based on that peace, we are doing what David did - in our minds and spirits we are on down the time line to the point the trial is over and peace rules in our situation! We can live in that victory today through the peace of God.

The key then is to receive that peace. Whether you commune with the Lord while driving out in the country, in the bath with Calgon takes you away, or in your living room surrounded by your favorite worship music - get alone with the Lord and let Him give you that peace. Let him give you that assurance and vision of the future where he is, that he may say to you "All is well! I am hear at the end of your trial and you lack nothing, but instead I have provided."

Be a time traveler - walk in your future today - by receiving the peace of God and then living and acting in that future as David did!

Some thoughts for today,

Blessings,

John Fenn

cwowi.org