Mike Bickle explores the life of David, focusing on his three anointings and the stages of his training through five significant seasons. He emphasizes that David was a man after God's own heart, committed to understanding and obeying God's will, which shaped his identity and leadership. Bickle highlights the importance of faithfulness in small tasks, the challenges of rejection, and the necessity of maintaining one's identity in God amidst promotion and adversity. The sermon encourages believers to recognize their own journeys of preparation and the significance of their relationship with God in defining success. Ultimately, Bickle reassures that no one can thwart God's purpose for those who remain steadfast in their faith.

What you got is the, what do you call that? The list of all the classes that we're going to do. I'm going to change them a little bit. So every now and then they'll be a little different than what you got notice of. Session two, it's David's training. We're going to look at the three times that David was anointed by the, publicly anointed in an official public way. We're going to look at three stages of his calling and training in five seasons, or five cities in the life of David. Because these all apply to God raising up leaders after his own heart. Paragraph one, we'll be very brief on this. But just keep it in mind, is that the very first description that God gave of David, a man after his own heart. That's what God said about this young boy, maybe 12 or 13 years old at the time. We're not sure. A man after God's own heart. That means he was committed to obey the commands of God's heart, to study the emotions of God's heart, to contend for the purpose of God's heart. Above everything, again, David was a student of God's beauty. He looked at the beauty of God in God's heart, the way that David saw himself through the lens of the beauty of God, the way that David saw others, the way he saw God's leadership in his circumstances. Paragraph C, this is again a repeat from the last session. David's primary identity was established in his relationship, who he was in his relationship with God. That is true of all of us, but it's not a natural thing. It's something we cultivate. It's something that we develop and we intentional about it. Because our natural way is to see our value and our identity. We define success by how much we're appreciated or applauded in the eyes of people and how much influence we have with them. And I think those things are important things, but they don't define who we are. They're not the primary sense of our identity. Paragraph D, when I talk about David having his identity and his relationship with God, that consists of who David was before God, but there's two dimensions, as one that God loves and one who loves God. So there's two dimensions, obviously. He loves us, we love him. Those are the two dimensions of our relationship with him. Paragraph E, we talk about in the life of David, but all through any messages related to the grace of God or God's heart, our desire is to see people confident in love. That's a phrase we've used for many years here at IHOP, being confident in love. And that means two things related to the way we relate to God. Number one, confident that he has affection for us, even in our weakness. Beloved, when we have confidence in that, and it's not like there's a magic moment where suddenly we do, but that's something we grow in and the devil attacks it, that we grow in it, we confess it, we speak the word, we meditate on it, we declare it to God, that he actually has affection. He enjoys us, even in our weakness. I'm talking about sincere believers. But there's a second dimension to having confidence in love, confidence that our love is genuine, that he sees it as genuine, even though our love for him is weak. Because the devil tells us we're hopeless hypocrites, but it's not true. Though our love is weak, though what we return, it's still genuine. Weak love is not false. And we can enjoy God enjoying us giving ourselves to him, even while we're growing. It's not just something we, you know, once we're as mature as Paul the apostle, then finally we know that God enjoys the way we love him. A brand new believer can have that dimension in their heart. But when I talk about people being confident in love, and confident in God's affection, I'm not telling them to be content and compromise. Some people think, well, I'm confident in love, and God loves me, he enjoys me, but they're not repenting. This doesn't work in that kind of context. We're not content to live in compromise under the banner of confidence in love. That's a deception. That's a distortion of the truth. We're confident that he enjoys us while we're giving our heart to him, stumbling but always signing back up to go wholehearted obedience. And also know this, important in David's life, this will show up several times, that though God enjoys you and me, that doesn't mean he doesn't discipline us. Some people have the idea that since God enjoys me, I'm confident in love, there will be no discipline for my compromises. The Bible makes it clear that God disciplines us because he delights in us. Proverbs 3, verse 12. So, as we're studying the life of David, we're going to hit these themes over and over. I don't want a distorted view that confidence in love means we just continue to compromise. Hey, God loves us and enjoys us. This is amazing. And there are no consequences for continued compromise. There are consequences. There is the discipline of the Lord because he loves us. He will break into circumstances and wake us up and get our attention because he loves us. It's called his rod, and it's real. And the rod of God operates within the parameters of the love of God and the grace of God without any contradiction whatsoever. So it's not like, hey, he loves me, so I'll let boys be boys. I'll do what I want to do. No, no. This is about people sincere about living under his leadership. Paragraph 3. I mean, paragraph 2. We're going to look at the three times that David was anointed publicly. I'm not talking about three encounters where he felt the Spirit's presence. You may have many of those encounters, but this is an unusual thing. No one in the Bible was anointed in three different settings in a public way. And they each had a different, there was a different purpose in that season of David's life. And I believe that we can find application of it, that we probably won't have a public anointing like this, but there are principles that we can discern and we can identify from these three different times he was anointed. First, he was anointed in Bethlehem. But the assignment of God when David was in Bethlehem, which we'll look at in more detail in a few minutes, was he was to do small tasks. He was to be faithful, doing small things. He wasn't supposed to be king right then, even though he was anointed to be king. He was developing his spiritual identity and his meekness. He was growing in meekness, faithfulness in small tasks, and developing and being more established in his spiritual identity of relating, seeing himself through the lens of his relationship with God, not through the lens of how other people applauded him or responded to him. Well, some years later, maybe 13, 14 years later, when he's age 30, he's anointed in Hebron. And when he was in Hebron, or Hebron, different ways that you might say it, when he was in Hebron, he was anointed to govern God's people. He was anointed as king, but over Judah, only one of the 12 tribes, only a twelfth of what God promised him, but he was anointed to govern. And the idea is that he would govern, but he wouldn't govern, he wouldn't lose his sense of his identity with God. He wouldn't get his identity in being king. He would maintain his identity in his relationship with God while he was king, but only over one of the 12 tribes. Because what happens is so often, God promises somebody a certain place of influence. Well, in David's life, we'll call it being king, but it might be a marketplace assignment, it may be some ministry role, whatever. God promises them a certain influence, a certain favor and impact, etc., and then they begin to get their identity from being king, from that place of favor. That is disaster. That's what the enemy wants to happen, because he can destroy someone's life easy if they get their identity in their promises of blessing, of their public ministry or their public profile, again, in the marketplace or whatever that public profile is in. Number three, when he was 37, seven years after Hebron, he was anointed in Jerusalem. And this was the time where he was going to fulfill all of the promise of God in that season of his life, from age 37 to 70. That was the time where his assignment would come to completion, and he would fully conquer all the enemies of God that he was assigned to conquer. He would fulfill the whole will of God, is the idea. Top of page 2, Psalm 78, was written by Asaph. He was a singer in David's tabernacle, one of the chief singers, one of the main leaders. And it had a prophetic spirit on him as well, and he wrote this about David. And this is towards the end of David's life, and maybe afterwards. I don't know the exact timing, but I know it's towards the end or soon after David's life. Again, he was one of the leaders in the tabernacle of David, that worship ministry that David established in Jerusalem. Here's what he wrote. He says, verse 70, God, notice the three things, he chose David. Number two, God took David from the sheet folds. And number three, God brought David to the throne, is the idea, to shepherd his people Israel. And he shepherded them. Here it is. Now this is towards the end of David's life, or soon after his life. He shepherded them with integrity of heart. Asaph worked very closely to David, and he said, I've watched him for these many years. And David does what he says. And when no one's looking, David set his heart to obey God and to keep his commitments. That's integrity of heart. And he guided the people as king with skillful hands. It just wasn't the anointing, but he actually cultivated his craft as king. I mean, all the skills related. There is an anointing, but there's a human side of cultivating the skills. And there's work and labor and intentionality about doing that. Now notice, he said the three words. Number one, he was chosen. There was a time in Bethlehem when he was first chosen, just as in his teens. Then there was the season where God took him. He says, I'm taking you out of Bethlehem, and I'm putting you into my seminary course. Now you're under my direct leadership, and I'm attending to your training. And then there's a time where God brought him or he put him in Jerusalem on the throne. He was put there by God to walk out his purposes. Paragraph C, the same principle is said in other terminology. I've heard these three things in Paragraph C, this three-fold pattern. I've heard this over the years in various teachers. And I'm just borrowing it from a number of different guys that I heard early in my ministry. That there's, when God calls a man or a woman, there's the birthing of the vision, where the prophetic word comes. And it's exciting. God, yeah, I will do this through you and with you. And yeah, you're so excited, the birthing of the vision. That's fun. Anticipation's high, excitement, it's new. You're waiting full of faith. That happened to David. He's, again, maybe 17. He's in Bethlehem, a very small little town. Now notice that when God called him to be king over all of Israel, let's say age 17, plus or minus a year or so, he's not king until he's 37. For 20 more years, he isn't actually king. Now I don't think David, at age 17, thought that. I don't think he thought, well, in 20 years, I think David would think, wow. I mean, the great prophet Samuel came to my house and anointed me. I bet things pick up quickly. And they did. But then they took a sudden turn the other direction. The birthing of the vision. That's when the Lord calls, gives the prophetic words, establishes there's a great thing coming in your life. Then there's the death of the vision. Again, these are terms that I've heard others over the years use. This is when God takes us into His seminary training of life. I don't mean just a season of learning the Bible, book learning, although I believe in that. That's why we have a Bible school. I believe in that. But the season of training isn't over with that, you know, learning the fundamental principles of the Word of God. The death of the vision. This is when the vision looks like it's never going to happen. It looks like the vision looks impossible. I mean, when you first get the vision, the prophetic words, sure, why not? I mean, wow. But then this next season, it is impossible in the natural. There isn't a chance this is going to happen. It seems like all is lost. That happens many times in the season of training. The vision looks so far away. And then there's the fullness of the vision. The time where God, it says to David, I brought you to shepherd. I put you on the throne is what that meant. There's the time where God puts you in the position where the fullness of the favor happens and the fullness of the authority and impact, the fullness of the resources in that season. But a lot of folks think of step one, the birth, and step three, the fullness. And they don't know there's a time where God takes you into His own hands. He takes you out of the familiar place in Bethlehem. He takes you into uncharted territory, into His own seminary of life. And that's where the, as again some use the term the death of the vision, it looks like the vision is never going to happen. And then it does. And you look back over the years and God has established meekness and gratitude and He's realigned your thinking and your emotions and the way you view yourself, the way you view others. Paragraph Roman number three. Now we're going to look at the five seasons in David's life. And some of these all dovetail together. These seasons and cities and stages of David's life. But these five seasons and these five seasons are, and I identify each season with a city in David's life. And again, I've heard others teach this and they apply it in different ways. But these five cities are pretty prominent in David when you study his life. But I want you to know them on the front end so that when we go through the class, you can have this grid, this kind of road map to look back and go, okay, I know where this storyline is going. Now you may not be in just one, you might be in two of these seasons at one time. It's not like it's a mathematical equation where I'm in this season and next month I'm in the next season. It doesn't always work that way. But the idea is you can see the principles of God's leadership when he's raising up leaders like David. Men or women, old or young. The Bethlehem years. This is David's childhood right up through his teens. This is when God first called him a man after his own heart. He's just, again, 12, 13-year-old boy. Back in chapter 13 of 1 Samuel and then chapter 16 when he gets anointed, he's maybe 17 or 18. In the Bethlehem years, God's commitment to love God, I mean David's commitment to love God is the primary goal of his life. I mean he's tending the sheep. He's got his guitar out there, his little harp. He's writing songs before God. He is not involved in a whole lot. Spending, I think, a lot of time alone. And his goal of life, his primary goal, his identity, I love God, God loves me. Therefore, I'm successful. God loves me, I love God. Therefore, I'm successful. God loves me, I love God. My love is weak, but my love is real. God loves me, I love God. I'm already successful whether I stay with the sheep or whether I go to the throne. My life is already successful in God's eyes. Beloved, when it registers strongly that you're already successful in the ultimate sense, then you can approach circumstances with a whole lot less anxiety and stress. If you approach your position, your assignment in whatever assignment God gives you, if you approach it from a place that you're already successful, God loves you, you love God, you're already successful in the ultimate sense. You have a whole lot less anxiety when all the disappointments and the delays and the mistreatment come, and they come to everybody. Everybody has disappointments, mistreatment, and delays of the promises and the provision. Everybody does. But if I feel successful, I face those very differently. But if I think my success comes by being treated right and getting my promotion and getting the position, then I'm just miserable all the time. The Lord's saying, line your heart up with me. There's so much going on in your life. You're a child of God. You're a son of the kingdom. You have eternal life. You're the bride of Christ. Your sins are forgiven. You've got a resurrected body. The new Jerusalem is yours. Every cup of cold water you get is going to be remembered and rewarded forever. Come on. See the big picture. I know, but they were mean to me in that meeting, and they fired me in that company, and I don't work there no more. The Lord says, I know, but come on. There's so much going on in your life. She broke up with me. It's not worth it anymore. That's not funny if she really did. You know, I've been married. We just had our 38th wedding anniversary yesterday. So it's like, oh, that's silly. Breaking up. No, that's real. I've got some stories. I'm not going to tell them to you all, but that's real. Okay, let's get back to this Bible here. Okay. I didn't mean to trivialize that. Well, David, he was tested in those early years by rejection, and he was tested by being faithful in mundane, routine things. I mean, we imagine that we'll get faithful. I'm just talking about the natural mindset. We'll get faithful when things really pick up and things get big and exciting. Then we'll be faithful. The Lord says, no, no. I want you faithful in the routine and mundane. I want you to keep your word. Make commitments and do what you say. In your family, with the Lord, in the marketplace, at your school, if you say it, do it. Well, they didn't catch me. No, no, do it. Be faithful in your family life. Be faithful in your neighborhood, in the marketplace, at the university, in the ministry, the commitments you make on the team. Just be faithful with nobody chasing you down. That's what David was tested with in the Bethlehem years. And he found his sense of success in his relationship to God. Okay, let's look at number one. David had to overcome rejection. David had a really intense family experience. Some people say, well, you don't know my family. It was really rough. And those stories are real. By no means ever want to minimize a person's traumatic story in their family. It's the most painful place of hurt and neglect and abuses in families. So I think that's really real. But I want you to know David walked in this in a way that we might not pay attention to, we might overlook it. Look at a – I have a number of verses here, and there's several more I could put here. Let's look at the very first one to show the rejection of David. And we'll look at this more next week when we look in session three. We're going to look at chapter 16, the whole context when he was anointed, and it's about age 17. But here it is a little bit ahead of time. Jesse made the seven of his sons come before Samuel, because Samuel comes to Jesse, that's the father, and says, hey, Jesse, one of your sons is going to be anointed. Wow. He goes, anointed, my sons? Yes. He goes, bring your sons. Bring them all. So they bring the seven. But Jesse has eight sons. Not 70, it's eight. David was in such a place of lack of favor in his family that when the most famous man in the nation – I mean, this is like – Samuel would be like Billy Graham and the president coming to your house for dinner in little Bethlehem, little out-of-the-way Bethlehem. I mean, the biggest privilege they've ever had in their family life. And he says, I want your sons. I want to have dinner with them. And they had David out tending the sheep. Tending the sheep would be like mowing the lawn. They could have got anyone to do that at minimum wage minus one. I mean, this was a nothing job. I mean, it's important, but I mean, anybody could have done it. I mean, the president and the most powerful prophet in the nation, because Samuel the prophet was the greatest authority figure in the nation too, in the government at that time. I mean, Saul was, but Samuel was just before Saul. And so he was kind of all this combined in one. And Samuel says to Jesse, he goes, the Lord hasn't chosen these seven. He goes, I'm very perplexed. He goes, aren't all your sons here, verse 11? And Jesse goes, well, I mean, technically no, but I mean, practically yes. There is one more, Davy. He's out there. But look at this. Notice this phrase. There he is. That means David, they're outside having a meal. He's within sight of the family dinner. He points. He goes, there he is. There's that kid right there. Samuel's going, what's he doing over there? What's David doing over there? The most famous man in the nation, and David's mowing the lawn while they're having dinner. Really, that's what's going on. This is not an exaggeration. Look at Psalm 69. David, some years later, says, I've borne reproach for you, God, of my dedication. In my dedication to you, I've become a stranger to my brothers. My brothers have written me off. My seven older brothers. They think I'm fanatical and completely out of touch. I'm an alien to my mother's children. My siblings, they think I'm totally off the wall because of my zeal for you. Now, some of you, you know all about that. Your dedication to the Lord and your decisions cause your own siblings to bring reproach to you. They're against you. They're actually against you. Look what it says here in Psalm 27. David talked about when my mother and my father forsake me. David knew what it meant to be abandoned and neglected and rejected by his mom and dad. Psalm 38. My loved ones, that's family, my friends, they stand aloof. My relatives stand afar. They won't associate with me. They distance themselves. They're criticizing me. Some of you know that. This is what David was facing in his youth. Top of page 3. But David, he was committed. He said, I'm going to be faithful. There's a number of illustrations of this where David was faithful in small things. And then as a king, he was a man of integrity in small things. Not just big things. It's not like you have integrity if you do the two to three big things. You have integrity if you do the little things. Most of life is little decisions. Being faithful in small things is so important to the Lord. Look at here in Matthew 25. It's one of the primary things that Jesus affirms on the last day. I'm at the day where the rewards are given. He points to the faithfulness in little things. You gave your word and you kept it. Well, everybody else, they don't keep their word. They're a little busy. They're doing something. It's not convenient. They're in a bad mood. They're not feeling good. They don't do what they said. The Lord says, I'm going to not rebuke everyone that does that, but I'm going to reward the people that are faithful in small things. That's one of the primary things that are going to be highlighted at the judgment day. Not a rebuke for the lack of it, but the reward for the doing of it. Paragraph B, the second city in David's life, Gibeah. This is about age 18 to 22, right in there. Again, we're plus or minus a year or two. What had happened is that in Gibeah, that's just down the way from his hometown, not far away, but Gibeah is where King Saul lived in Gibeah. That's where the royal court was. That was the Washington, D.C. of that day. It's where the king, the president, the court, all of the government was in Gibeah. Well, what happened? We know the story well. David, after he's anointed in chapter 16, chapter 17, he kills Goliath. There's a crisis in the land. David kills Goliath, 17, 18-year-old young man. He is promoted to move to Washington, D.C. to live in the White House. I mean, he's living in the royal court, a kid from Bethlehem. I mean, this is like, how did this happen? Not only that, like it says here in chapter 18, verse 1, Saul took David that day, and he wouldn't let him go home. He says, you're going to live with me. Not only that, paragraph 1, he married the king's daughter. So he's not only living in the court, he's now part of the royal family. Well, that was a big step from a shepherd boy, a poor shepherd boy, to being a part of the royal family. Married the king's daughter. Look at chapter 18, verse 5. Saul put him in a high position of promotion over the military. He's 18. You don't put an 18-year-old over the other men of war. Well, he did. There was an anointing on him. There was an evidence that was unusual of God's work in him. They put an 18-, 19-, 20-year-old over many of the other soldiers in the army. You think, wow, that would make those soldiers mad, but it was the opposite. He was accepted in the sight of all the people in the court. All the people, I'm sure there are a few exceptions, but the vast majority, he found favor with people around the court. The surroundings around Gibeah. Matter of fact, the women were singing songs about him. They said, Saul, the king, he's a great warrior. He killed 1,000, but young David killed 10,000. David heard it. I mean, top song of the nation. David killed 10 times as much as the king. Das ist nicht gut. That's not good. Verse 8, Saul's very angry. He goes, the ladies in the street are saying he killed, he's 10 times more effective of a warrior that 20-year-old is? Because remember, Saul's looking for who Samuel said, your neighbor who is better than you is going to take over. Saul's been looking for that guy for 5 or 10 years now. Or 5 to 10 years. He's looking for the guy that's going to replace him. He's looking everywhere, and he can't quite locate who he is. This 20-year-old kid saying 10 times more effective of a warrior than I am? Wow. Well, understand this. You do understand it because it's obvious. I have rarely in 40 years of ministry ever seen promotion in ministry, marketplace, anywhere that doesn't create enemies and strong adversaries. I don't know that I've ever seen a promotion anywhere that doesn't create new adversaries. And God uses that conflict to actually protect His servants because He causes His servants to reach to God and cry out to God and interact with God in a way that actually protects the servant in their heart. People think, I want that promotion. No matter what your promotion is, it will be very rare. If you get that promotion, you might have several promotions over 10, 20, 30, 40 years. You probably will. Various spheres of life. You will have adversaries at every promotion if you're like everyone else. There might be an exception here or there, but it's difficult. Promotions don't come without other issues related to them. Paragraph 2, in the early promotion in one's ministry, again, whether marketplace, whether it's in athletics, whether it's in music, whether it's in your ministry, whether it's in the government, in the military, the education, just wherever it's at. Because God has assignments for all of His people in all those areas and many more. Here's what God was doing. It says here, the crucible is for silver, but the human heart is tested by praise. God was testing David's heart by giving him all kinds of praise. But understand this, when promotion comes, there's goodness in the promotion. I'm not making promotion all bad. But what was happening, David had new opportunities. He had new favor. He had a new sense of importance, or at least that's what the enemy wants, to give you a new sense of importance, so your heart gets puffed up. You have new enemies. And the heart of man or woman were tested by praise. And here's a principle I have found. The way you respond to praise is exactly how you respond to criticism. It's almost exactly an indicator of the other. The way you respond to criticism is how you ultimately respond to praise. Somebody says, well, you're wrong. I'm not wrong. How dare you? When someone praises you, though you might not strut openly, in your heart you'll be puffed up. Because if people, if what they say moves your heart in a wrong way, when they say good things, when they say bad things, it will move your heart in a bad way. But if your heart is not primarily moved by what people say, I mean, it's always moved a little bit, of course, but if you're moved by what God thinks, then you'll be stable. And so if you get really pushed the buttons negative with criticism, I assure you, you will get that with praise. You'll go the other direction in pride. Because it means you're taking your signals by what people say. That's the primary read that you're taking for your life value. That's a dangerous place to live. And we're all born with that disposition, but we've got to grow out of it. The crucible is for silver. I mean, you put silver in the crucible, and you put fire to melt it, so you get rid of the dross. I mean, the fiery crucible is for silver, and the human heart is tested. It's like fire. And if they become more important in their own eyes, many people don't understand that a season of promotion, many, I've seen this again for 40 years, they think the promotion they're going to is going to be permanent. Most promotions are not permanent. Almost all promotions are temporary. They may go for some years, they may not. Like I'll meet a young person in ministry, and they've got a big open door, and preaching, writing, singing, and they think this is one string of unbroken big doors following another. I go, no, it never is like that. Don't imagine this is that. Say I'm in Gibeah. It's a temporary promotion, and we'll see what happens next. But don't, don't, I mean, understand you're being tested by a season of praise. Then the next season is a dolem. This is about age 23 to 30. Now, a dolem's out in the wilderness, and it's, you know, because David hid in the cave of a dolem. He actually went to several places, but I'm just using a dolem to signify all the little caves he hid in. But this was one of the main places. It was one of his headquarters in a temporary way. So here he is in Gibeah in Washington, D.C., and everyone's praising him. I mean, everything he touches is turning to gold, and I'm assuming he's thinking it's going to be this way and more for the rest of his life. He does not know the dolem years are coming next. The king gets angry. The king decides to kill him, kill him, murder him. And so David runs. He flees from the palace, from Gibeah, and he hides cave to cave to cave for the next six or seven years. Now, in the year three or four, he's going, Lord, I mean, come on. It's been three, four years. I mean, this is coming to an end. I've had tremendous promises. I've had favor. I've been a national hero. Now I'm living out in the wilderness without, I mean, struggling for food, water, covering, all this stuff. What is this? I'm anointed king. And the Lord says, I'm training you in the dolem years. This is when David's love for God is tested. His identity is tested by adversity. Well, he prays. I thought the praise of Gibeah, the promotion of Gibeah, no, that was temporary. The dolem comes after Gibeah. It doesn't always follow that way every time. It's not like you get a promotion, like, for sure, you're going to get, like, wiped out now. That's not what I'm saying. Because these seasons, these principles overlap in our life. But with promotion does come, again, new opportunities. But there's new adversaries and new testing. And you're being tested about how you respond to praise and how you respond to criticism because it's the same reality. Number one, and I'll use this analogy several times in the course. God was training David to be a great warrior king. Well, I mean, here he is in his 20s. He's going to be the greatest warrior king in Israel's history. Well, if you're a warrior king, what do you have to know? If you're a warrior king in the ancient world, you've got to know the geography of the land. You've got to know the land. So the Lord says, well, David, not really, he didn't say this, but let's make it up. David, I can put you in geography class and teach you the land. Or I could just put you in the land. And for seven years, he ran around, cave to cave. I mean, he was in Ziklag for a little over a year, almost a year and a half of one place. But other than that, he was cave to cave around. And now David's king years later. David's around the presidential cabinet, you know, the military leaders. David says, we can send a thousand men this way. Don't worry. There's water behind there. If you go around, there's a cave. And they go, how do you know the water? He goes, I lived in that cave. I know there's water there. And it's amazing because at a certain time of the day, the sun comes up and there's a reflection. And from that side, the enemy can't see you because of the way the sun is. How do you know this? David goes, I was in the land. I would just rather go to how to be successful school and how to act right school. But God puts you in the land. When he's going to make you a warrior king, guess where he's going to put you? He's going to make you a healer of human hearts. Guess what you're going to experience? The need to get your heart healed. I love the healing, but I don't like the reason I need the healing. Let the reader understand. Paragraph 3, here's the good news. Nobody can stop the will of God in David's life. Nobody can. Saul can't with 3,000 men. The Philistines can't stop David. The devil can't stop David. The only man that can stop David in the will of God is David by quitting and just giving in to compromise. Beloved, nobody can stop you in the will of God. You might be delayed. You might have adversaries, but it's only for a season. If you don't quit and you press in. I don't mean just don't deny the faith. If you don't quit pressing in, and if you won't quit going after it, I promise you the will of God will happen in your life. Nobody can stop it. Let's go to top of page 4. Number 6. I've read different quotes like this. I don't know exactly who said it, but different guys have said the same thing. 10% of our life is determined by what happens to you. 90% of your life is determined by how you respond to it. Many people think it's opposite. They think 90% of their life is what happens to them and the doors that open. No, that's about 10%. The way you respond to it is what determines your life in the 10-, 20-, 30-year picture when you look back. Let's go to paragraph D. Hebron, the city of Hebron or Hebron. He's there from age 30 to 37 for 7 years. This is the time where David is tested, catch this, by the partial fulfillment of the promise that he's been laboring and waiting long for. What do I mean by that? In Hebron, they made David king. He's age 30. Saul died like just some days before that. Saul was killed or some weeks before that. Saul died in battle. David's 30. So now Saul's not chasing him. David's free. So in Hebron, the tribe of Judah, because remember there's 12 tribes, God told David he'd be over all 12. He'd be king over all 12. But only one tribe comes to David. Says, hey, we want you to be king. And David says, well, I've been. I mean, David's men said this. David, he was so grateful. He says, Lord, I just want what you want. My goal isn't to be king. My goal is to be faithful. If you commanded me to be the leader, I'll be the leader and I won't quit. If you didn't command me to be the leader, I don't care. I just want to love you and be loved by you. That's all I want to do. And do the will of God. Beloved, when that's where you're lined up in your identity, your heart is free. So he goes to Hebron and Saul is now dead. His number one adversary, the military is now, the military of Israel is not chasing David anymore. So David, I mean, is wide open. Because not only has Saul died, Saul's sons have died. The heirs to the kingdom have died. Saul has one son who didn't go to war because he didn't like war. But it's a warring time in the nation. So he's no problem. David could totally overpower him in a moment. So David's men, you know, he's got 600 men that have been with him for these 6 or 7 years. He's been going from wilder cave to cave to cave. They go, David, David, this is remarkable. Saul's dead. His sons, all the heirs died. You're the anointed. Everybody knows it. Let's do it. David does exactly the unthinkable. Chapter 2, verse 1. Look at this. David inquired of the Lord. Shall I go up? Because he's still in the wilderness, years. Shall I go up to any of the cities? God says, yeah, go up. He goes, which one? He says, to Hebron. Now what his men wanted David to say, what his men, they didn't want David asking the question, Lord, should I go take a position now? They go, David, of course, you're the king. What do you mean? Don't ask God that. He might say something. David says, should I go up? And they're saying, all the men are going, God's going to tell you, go to Gibeah. Go take over the royal court. I mean, go to Gibeah. The Lord says, no, David, I'm glad that you asked. I want you to go to Hebron. I want you only over one twelfth of what I've promised you. You've endured 7 or 6, 7, 8 years in the wilderness. I mean, suffering. But you know what? I want you to do it my way. I don't want you to have the whole thing. David says, that's good. Because I don't even care what my position is. My identity is you love me, I love you. Therefore, I'm successful. And I'm going to operate in meekness and do the will of God in small things. And I win. His men were very different. They're going, no, go to Gibeah, not Hebron. Not Hebron. That's only a little bit of your inheritance. David says, that's where I'm going. Let's look at paragraph E. The final city, Jerusalem. This is age 37 to 70. 33 years. Now the testing is very different in Jerusalem. Now he's the king. He's over all 12 tribes of Israel. He's over the whole nation. And they move the capital from Gibeah to Jerusalem. Now David's tested by a whole other set of pressures. Now he has all the prominence. He has the authority. He has the fullness of blessing. But as one preacher said, new levels, new devils. New levels of breakthrough. New levels of power. New devils attack you. Francis Frangipane who said that. Paragraph 1. David's season of greatest blessing, listen, was his most dangerous season spiritually. God told Moses in Deuteronomy 8. He said, beware. Beware. When you get the beautiful houses and the gold and the silver and everything starts happening, beware. Because that's the place where you'll be more tempted to draw back from obedience than any other time. You don't have to. But he says, the temptation will be intense. The voices around you will all be into those kind of things. And they'll be coaxing you and wooing you and seducing you into those things. He says, beware. You don't have to yield with multiplication. I believe God wants to bless people in huge ways in His kingdom economically. But He wants to bless them so they use the economics to do the will of God. Not to get comfortable in their wealth and to draw back. And God has many servants through history that didn't draw back. They did it right. And David's one of them. But beloved, under the time of full blessing, understand this. When full blessing comes, meaning the fullness of purpose, doesn't mean the pressures are gone. David had so many pressures and attacks. So many things hitting him in the hour of the full blessing. Some people think full blessing, they're just, you know, they're picturing it. But under the anointing, everyone's happy. The glory of God. The devil's on a leave of absence and just, wow, this is working. No, it doesn't work that way. The devil's roaring, stirring up, attacking. All kinds of people are jealous. Agendas, turns and twists. And the Lord says, I'm with you. I'm with you. I want you, I give you the power to make godly decisions. Power to manifest My presence. I give you power to keep your heart right. But you're going to understand that you're in a time. I've prepared you your whole life for this. The reason David's rigorous preparation in the four cities before Jerusalem. Because he had the greatest challenges and the greatest danger when he got into the Jerusalem season. So those other four cities made more sense then. Amen. Let's stand before the Lord. Well, where are you at right now? Are you in Bethlehem? West Hall? Come on up. No, I mean West Hall. Come on up. Yeah, slow.