Mike Bickle emphasizes God's desire for a resting place on Earth, drawing inspiration from Psalm 132 and the example of King David. He highlights David's extraordinary dedication to establishing a continuous worship and prayer environment, which he believes is crucial for spiritual warfare and revival. Bickle calls for a renewed commitment to this divine mandate, celebrating the privilege of being part of a community that agrees with God through worship and intercession. He stresses that this agreement not only moves God's heart but also has the power to change history and transform cities. As IHOP celebrates its eight-year anniversary, Bickle encourages the congregation to embrace their sacred trust and the significance of their role in God's plan.

Thank you for Luke Wood. I thank you for his team and how faithful they are before you and even in serving this house. Lord, I ask you as we speak the word of God that there would be a grace of God to hear it and to receive from your heart. In Jesus' name, amen. I want to speak from Psalm 132 tonight and so you can open up your Bible to Psalm 132. I'm preparing for next week as we celebrate our eight-year anniversary of doing IHOP 24 hours a day for eight years now and I want to just posture our heart as we are just coming into this new season in the Lord and I believe we are in a new season of increase and the Lord establishing new things. So I want to remind us of what the Lord has said and I want to hold up David, the man after God's own heart, as a practical example for what we're doing. I mean David was so unique in his dedication. Three thousand years ago, a thousand years BC, David had an extravagance for God with so little of the scripture being given from heaven at that point in time but his dedication and his understanding was so remarkable. We're going to begin with our own story and commission. Next week I'll tell an aspect of our prophetic history in the morning and I'll tell the same testimony in the evening so I'll just share it twice on next Sunday but just to remind us of what God's done in us as he points us forward to the things that he's promised us. It was in May of 1983 during the 21 days of fasting and prayer that we affectionately call the solemn assembly that the Lord spoke audibly and he said that he was going to release 24-hour prayer in the spirit of the tabernacle of David. He gave us this sentence, very significant sentence. The tabernacle of David of course was the worship ministry in David's day. He had a tent or a tabernacle, you can use the word interchangeably, he had a tent in his backyard so to speak and he established this tent. He put the ark of the in the tent. Now the ark of the covenant was a box, really that's all it really was, was a box but the glory of God rested on the box. It was a box about four or five feet by about two feet by about two feet, just a box covered in gold, a little bit more than that but the glory of God rested on this ark and it rested in David's tent or David's tabernacle and in front of this tabernacle or in front of the ark which spoke of the throne of God, David put 4,000 singers, 4,000 musicians I mean and 288 singers and they were full-time on David's staff so to speak. 4,000 musicians and 288 singers and undoubtedly he had a whole training strategy of singers that were being trained. 288 of the most excellent trained prophetic singers in Israel and these 4,000 musicians and 288 singers they sang before the ark in shifts 24 hours a day in David's tent or David's tabernacle so the Lord said I'm going to release 24 hour a day prayer in Kansas in the spirit of the tabernacle of David in other words I understood it would be prayer that would be led by prophetic anointed singers and musicians. Of course that's obvious to us now at least the general idea of what that means. I think the Lord has still many surprises for us as to what He means when He says the tabernacle of David. Now this commission of the Lord to be 24 hours a day before the Lord is a commission to agree with God. Now that's a simple way to say it but we are commissioned to agree with God 24 hours a day that seems so simplistic but this is so dear to God and such an important part of what God reveals that He wants in the Word of God. He wants this kind of agreement before His throne. Now when we agree with who God is we call that worship. We say God is holy. You are holy, you are loving, you are good, you are kind, you are merciful, you are wise, you are powerful. Whenever we agree with who God is we call that worship. Whenever we agree with what God promised to do, release revival, establish uh release your presence in a in an unusual way according to the promises of your Word we call that intercession. So if we agree with who God is we call it worship. If we agree with what He's going to do we call it intercession. Beloved whether it's worship or intercession in its most simplistic understanding it's agreement with God. This is what David understood that God wanted in his day and this is what the Lord was saying in a very simplistic way. I want 24 hour agreement with God from one room in Kansas City. Now it will happen in other rooms but not just the church in general. I want it coming forth. I want the fire to never go out on the altar. I want it to ascend before me from a place. Now we know the Lord spoke to us about having five full-time rooms but my point being that He wanted agreement in these rooms to never ever stop. 24 hours a day. Now I remember back in May 83 I was 27 years old. We'd only been in the city now you know about six months. This was the this was a strange concept to make. I go now why would we do that? Why would we agree with God all day long? He already knows it all so and I agree with Him in my heart. Why why do we need to do this? But the Lord was adamant that He wanted weak and broken people together organized around the clock agreeing with Him on earth like they agree with Him in heaven. Jesus taught us to pray that your will be done on earth like it's done in heaven and we can say your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You can say the word worship. We want to worship on earth in the way they worship in heaven. Now of course we don't have the same revelation, the same power, we don't have the same experience of His presence like we will in heaven but we want to worship night and day on earth like God is worshipped 24 hours a day in heaven. Paragraph C. Now David had revelation of this that agreement with God is the most effective form of spiritual warfare. We want our evangelism to increase in its effectiveness and one of the ways that evangelism in a city will increase in effectiveness is we gather people together it's called prayer and worship and we agree with God day in and day out and and evangelism is more effective. The devil is driven out of people's lives when people agree with God. We can affect the YWAM outreach in Fiji by agreeing with God 24 hours a day here in Kansas City. It's the most effective form of spiritual warfare. It changes the spiritual atmosphere. Now there's many dimensions that are necessary. We have to have somebody proclaim and there are good works and deeds and there's follow-up and there's love and there's kindness but when the prayer goes forth night and day the message that would reach one person now will reach a hundred people because the spiritual atmosphere has changed. The same weakened broken person with the same proclamation will touch thousands when the spiritual atmosphere of a city is changed by agreeing. As simple as it is God says tell me what is true about me. You are holy. You are good. You love me. I love you. You are kind. You are wise. It's all obvious truth but when we say it the spirit of God moves in power when we worship or intercede. Now some people get a little disturbed. They go we we worship too much we need to intercede more. Some people say we intercede too much. We need to worship more. Beloved when it reaches the throne of God it's agreement whether it's agreeing with who he is or what he's going to do. It doesn't really get confused when it reaches the throne of heaven. It ascends in power before the throne of grace. But this agreement with God is not only the most effective form of spiritual warfare. I mean it changes the atmosphere of a city. Thousands of people will get saved when the spiritual atmosphere is changing a city. We're believing God soberly soberly for 300,000 new converts. I don't have a thought any hope whatsoever that can happen just by the work of the church and outreach. I believe that when we marry that outreach with night and day prayer and fasting there'll be a spirit of revival released. But it's important to say that as much as we pray we still have to go speak the word. We have to love the people. We have to do the good deeds. The many other aspects of spiritual warfare they all go together. But again the message that would reach 10 will reach thousands where there's an anointing of power being released. Agreeing with God as simple as it is. It's so simple it's almost offensive. Like God come on you already know you're holy and good and kind and you already know you're going to release revival. Why do we have to say it all day? There's something about agreement that is profoundly powerful. Number two it's not just the most effective form of spiritual warfare driving out darkness because of what Jesus did on the cross. It's the most exalted occupation for those nearest the throne. Did you know those are near the throne they do this 24 hours a day around the throne of God and there is no devil up there and the devil is destined for the lake of fire but they will keep doing it billions of years from now. They will agree with God and worship at intercession 24 hours a day never stopping and the devil will be in the lake of fire. He will be no trouble to anyone but the agreement will not cease. It's not just because of the devil. There's something that's in God's heart that connects our heart to his heart in a very profound way. The living creatures it says they do not rest night or day and the saints and the elders there's many of the angels many many times worship will go forth. I mean everybody won't do it 24 hours a day but it will go forth 24 hours a day around the throne of God. This commission to agree with God you just take it at face value is very dear to God's heart. Now that may be something that has never occurred to you in a really powerful or direct way about IHOP. What we are doing as weak as it is in the natural agreeing with God is very dear to God's heart. This moves his heart in a way that we don't understand except the Holy Spirit gives us revelation. Paragraph D so we come to our eight years of doing 24-7 and I come to it celebrating this commission. I don't mean celebrating the accomplishment of having done it eight years. I think we that's a good thing to celebrate and undoubtedly we will celebrate the fact we've accomplished something in the grace of God together that we could not do separate. We could only do it if we do it together. The accomplishment is wonderful and it needs to be celebrated but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about celebrating the accomplishment. I'm talking about this very moment celebrating the fact that God commissioned us as our primary occupation to agree with him. What a glorious mandate from the throne of God to a group of people. Everybody's not called to do this. Everybody's called to pray. Everybody's called to do a lot of things but not that many people groups are called by the audible voice of God mandated to never cease in their agreement in worship and intercession and I say the commission itself is one of the great privileges God has given us in our life and the us is the real us. I mean I'm not talking about just me. I'm talking about us. What the privilege itself is difficult. I mean the commission is difficult but the privilege is far greater than we understand and when we stand before God we will see how awesome this privilege that he gave this over our lives. It's a remarkable commission. It's not only a privilege it is our safety. Do you know how much darkness we're not we are not encountering in our own lives because we are doing this just by virtue of the schedule. I mean just the weight of the schedule keeps us out of so many other things we cannot even imagine that we've avoided because we're doing this together. The Lord knows how much we've avoided but we don't it's our safety. It's not just a privilege there there are many of us myself included who knows where we would be two and three and four and five years later what we would be doing differently in our heart if we had not invested those hours in IHOP for those two three four five six years whatever however many years you've been involved your soul is different there is a safety that has been released to you that you cannot measure the very love songs that you sing to God he gives them to you and of course many of the love songs he gives them to a member of the worship team and the rest of us as the congregation sing them did you know the very love songs you sing to God are purifying and cleansing your own soul you're singing it to God but it's breaking up the power of darkness in your own heart even though you cannot measure it but the things we are not doing the depression that we've avoided the darkness we've escaped that we don't even know how to measure because we're engaged together in this mandate it's not just a privilege it's our safety so as we celebrate this mandate my purpose in this it's that we see it's the goodness of it it is difficult but it is good and we sign back up in a fresh way and and this is the sort of thing that I do three four five six times a year I re-sign up to the with a freshness to the privilege and the revelation with a new understanding of what I'm doing here at IHOP so I'm asking the Lord to stir us up that we see it and say you know Lord this is good that we're here now I know that some of you are here for a short time by divine design the Lord sent you here for a short season your assignment is somewhere else and I and I and I rejoice in that because that's the Lord's wisdom and that's the Lord's goodness even in your own life but those of us that have been called to be here a year two or three or four or five or longer whatever it's easy for us to lose the celebration it's easy for us to neglect this commission just because of the routine and the over familiarity of doing it all day every day the very fact of doing it all day every day causes a familiarity to rest uh settle into our heart and there's a routineness that is natural it's it's obvious it's it's not a a a criticism or a put down at all but beloved in the midst of the routine it's easy for us to neglect the commission there are people undoubtedly you know the months go by the years go by they they were called by God to do this but the routine of it has dulled them and they look back they go one month two months three months four months six months I haven't really done I hop in the way that I I was assigned by the Lord because the the routine dulls us it dulls me it dulls us it's not something that automatically we overcome we overcome it when we celebrate this mandate and again I'm not talking about celebrating the accomplishment though that is good I'm talking about celebrating the fact the Lord commanded us to do it celebrating the mandate itself well some it's easy I've done all of these things it's easy to complain about the difficulties I hop is difficult there's a rigor about I hop and there's a rigor about many things I don't mean it's more difficult than other all the other things in the world I'm not trying to set us up as martyrs but I know in my 30 years of ministry this is the hardest thing I've ever done is give leadership to I hop and I say this often and I love saying it I tell people it's the hardest thing I've ever done in terms of all the challenges and the energy that's required and all the resistance but if I had to do it over again I would do it over again I love to say that sentence if I had to do it over again I would do it over again because it's a good thing sometimes it's easy to despise the smallness of the manifestation of the promises that we're believing for yes we see growth and we see increase but we want more than increase we want to see 300,000 people meet Jesus and power in the city I will not be content with one soul less than 300,000 new converts in the city and the church as we know it renewed to where the other tens of thousands of believers are renewed to a fresh love for Jesus in the city excuse me now we can't measure what's happening and it's easy to despise the smallness well you know the routine we just get dulled by it so we kind of get too busy to actually do our sacred trust beloved I want to call you to see your sacred trust to sacred not look right look left nobody knows nobody can tell and so you know I got something going I'm going to skip my sacred trust it's easy to neglect the sacredness and the glory of what God's called us to do it takes revelation to see it it's easy to get lost in the difficulty it's easy to despise the smallness of the manifestation of power and to try to measure how much are we really doing here night and day it goes on and on and on are we really affecting the outreach in Fiji we can't measure it and because so much of the body of Christ does not have a revelation of intercession you know that they're right there next to us to to uh continue to discourage us like why are you even doing that it takes a revelation of worship and intercession to sustain this reality in an ongoing way David had that kind of revelation he had a revelation of how dear 24 hour a day agreement was to God beloved it is dear to God and I want to ask the Lord even right now Holy Spirit I ask you for the revelation of how dear this is to you that weak and broken people would agree with you night and day I ask for the revelation of how dear this is to your heart but it's more than dear to God it's effective it changes history and not only moves God's heart it does change history it really does change history it moves God's heart it changes human history and God writes our faithfulness in his book the faithfulness that we show forth in our steady commitment to keep our sacred trust our commitments before the Lord in this they are written in his book it says it several times in scripture you may forget your faithfulness of a year ago or 10 years ago but the Lord has written all the movements of your heart down in his book all the movements of faithfulness I remember being uh 23 uh I mean 25 26 years old and really and the Lord uh stirring me with this with this psalm and I didn't understand the implications of it but I remember when I was uh church planning in St. Louis I preached on this psalm several times it's so I can't captured my attention when I was about 25 years old I want to read it to you this is a psalm that God established as a foundational truth of IHOP and our commission before God I made the very first Sunday that we gathered here 25 years ago I spoke on Psalm 132 our very first Sunday and and and the army of Gideon this is how the reason I'm saying it this is how important this has been to me but I believe it's important to us it's a foundational truth in our in our commission before the Lord and it's David's heart we see his heart in it because as we see David's heart we want to imitate it we want to be inspired by his diligence and his focus and his revelation not just his diligence but he had this focus because he had revelation beloved we can have the same revelation that David had about these things now here's what the psalmist says Psalm 132 and you'll never wear this psalm out you could you could read this every day for years and it would be fresh to you thousands of times Psalm 132 and I want to highlight it to you if it's a new psalm to you this is one of the pillar psalms of this movement the psalmist said Lord remember David the psalmist is an intercession and reminding God of David's commitments to God as a basis of interceding for the breakthrough of God's power in Israel he goes remember David meaning his commitments to you and his vow that that we're going to see outlined in verse two three and four remember David and remember all of his afflictions how he swore to the Lord how he made a vow to the mighty one of Jacob which is another name for the Lord David vowed David swore but David had a revelation that's why he could make a vow and I believe the Lord will give grace to a number of people I don't know the number it's none of my business what the number is grace and revelation to establish this vow in their own heart it's a vow that I made to the Lord about 25 years old many years ago and I've gone back to this over and over again through the years and thinking of coming to our eighth anniversary I can't think of anything more appropriate than renewing this vow before the Lord he swore to the Lord he made a vow verse three surely I will not go into the chamber of my house I will not go to the comfort of my bed surely I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids until something happens until I find a place for the Lord a dwelling place for the mighty one of Jacob the Lord himself and it goes on in verse eight the psalmist then intercedes himself arise oh God to your resting place you in the ark of your strength the dwelling place and the resting place are synonymous the the dwelling place of God in new covenant language is a manifestation of the power of God in a geographic area that's a partial fulfillment of this of this truth there are times through history we call them revival where there's an unusual demonstration of power where the Lord in a geographic area for several years manifests his power in an unusual way we can refer to that as a dwelling place of God a place where God is manifesting his glory openly for all to see now the idea of God having a dwelling place or God having a resting place is synonymous it's more than that but for us at this time of history pre-second coming because this thing takes on a whole other meaning at the time of the second coming we're talking about the what happened in the book of acts in the city of Jerusalem when God broke out in power in the city of Jerusalem and the saints thousands were being saved and the glory of God was resting on them God was establishing a dwelling place in the spirit for his people according to Ephesians chapter 2 verse 20 to 22 it's called a dwelling place in the spirit now in one sense the whole church is a dwelling place of God but there's another dimension of this dwelling place reality where we're contending we are seeking God with a fervency we set our heart to labor in agreement with God until God establishes these unique historic manifestations of his power we call revival and we're believing for one in our own city here we call it a dwelling place a resting place for the Lord now in verse 3 when David said surely I'll not go into the chamber of my house or into the comfort of my bed he didn't mean literally that he would never ever sleep until there was a historic revival what he meant is I won't accept life business as usual as long as there is a lack of a manifestation of the glory of God in my city I am not going to live in the normal way that believers live all over the world and that is even within the boundaries of the grace of God this is a man or a woman that stirred up they're not interested in what they can get away with they're interested in a historic breakthrough in their geographic area yes there is a way in the grace of God we can do less I'm not looking for the grace of God to empower me to do less I'm asking for a manifestation of grace to give myself more I want to see a breakthrough in history in our city and then when it breaks through this in the city we want to send out apostolic companies of young people all over the earth who have a breakthrough experience in the Holy Spirit not only are they operating in a breakthrough of power they have the confidence because they were there laboring for the breakthrough and they know that where they're going the breakthrough could happen again because they've seen it with their own eyes and they're experiencing the power of it in their own ministry see Paul the apostle had a breakthrough of the spirit and everywhere that he went he brought the breakthrough not everywhere in the strictest sense but it was very common that wherever Paul went as a rule the breakthrough that he would lived in it would happen in that geographic area same with Peter James and John the other apostles my vision is to labor for a historic breakthrough in the city and that breakthrough means we will see it's not like the whole 300,000 new converts come in before the breakthrough is acknowledged we're going to see a day we there was uh the lord gave a vision an open vision once in all alexander he said very few of them back in the 80s where he saw a time in kansas city where there will be 7,000 new converts every single week for an extended period of time 7,000 new converts at the lowest number coming in week after week as a wave of glory is crashing in upon the city through the church beloved when we begin to see a breakthrough and blind eyes opening paralytics walking thousands getting saved week after week after week we will begin to send out companies of people 50 100 200 all over the ends of the earth that they will say they will have witnessed this with their own eyes they will have confidence for breakthrough where they're going and they will have the they will have the the testimony of it and the power of it in their own ministry and they will go forth as people with an impartation of the holy spirit now we send out people between now and then but we're not going to be in an aggressive mode until we see a breakthrough but beloved the breakthrough doesn't just come sovereignly one day you know just kind of business as usual and suddenly the book of acts happens the book of acts didn't just happen there was a really fiery intercessor named jesus of nazareth that was crying out an intercession then he went to a cross and there was another fiery intercessor named john the baptist and there was another fiery intercessor named anna and there were a whole company and they were crying out and jesus was leading the way and an explosion in history took place and it didn't happen in a vacuum it happened in response to people on the earth in agreement with god in an extravagant way king david i mean he was a thousand years bc a thousand years before the book of acts he had a vision for breakthrough and david had david and and the overflow in his son's uh generation solomon because what solomon walked in was really the fruit of david's uh ministry i mean solomon was backslidden a good portion of his minister of his uh reign as king but the glory of god touched the land because of what was going on in david's generation it took a generation to show up in its fullness the two greatest breakthroughs in israel's history or jerusalem's history was in the generation of david and then solomon right after and the generation of jesus and the apostles the generation right after those are the two great breakthroughs that happened in the city of jerusalem david had this unusual revelation that god wanted to establish a dwelling place for his glory my goodness a thousand years before the new covenant david saw this it's like david where did you get this revelation he got it from heaven right david is the one that had the revelation of agreement with god 24 hours a day and the two of them go together by the way the revelation of the value of agreeing with god 24 hours a day and the vow to to never draw back until a historic breakthrough happens this is all the fruit of revelation now beloved some people come to ihop they want to spend a few months here to get refreshed and that is valid and that is good other people come to ihop for an hour a day or every couple days and they kind of on their way to where they're going in life they drop in for a little refreshing i love that that's the god's gift that's his kindness to them but i'm not at ihop to get a little bit of refreshing on the way though i do appreciate that i value that i'm an ihop because i have a revelation that god wants us to labor and contend until a dwelling of god breaks forth in the city and if you don't have that revelation then the the demands of this ministry the rigor of it does not make sense if this is about getting a little bit of refreshing and a little bit of lively uh teaching in the bible school in the internships beloved the rigor of this house is not worth that measure of refreshing there's something far bigger on god's agenda and we're here because we have seen and we've heard and we're laboring and we want to be a people that have set our heart not to go to our bed or take the comfort of our legitimate comforts of a normal lifestyle even in the kingdom of god we said lord we want grace to be extravagantly committed we're not looking for grace to do business as usual we're looking for grace to enter into that david kind of accelerated devotion to you because we want to see a breakthrough in our generation a resting place of the lord that's what david wanted paragraph g god strives when his people compromise he strives with his people it says there in genesis 6 that the holy spirit is striving with man when we disobey the lord we live in disobedience any kind of of uh of compromise the holy spirit he loves us but he's striving meaning he's constantly arguing with us in our conscience we can't get him to agree he'll be quiet but he won't agree with us until we we can only agree with him he will be silent after a season and allow us to have the darkness that that we choose i tell you when the holy spirit is quiet on an issue that's not good it's like this testimony of the guy that's living in fornication and saying well i feel good about it with god that's only because he's quenched the holy spirit so successfully quenched the spirit he's been growing accustomed to a dull spirit when the holy spirit quits talking that doesn't mean you're at peace with god it means he's leaving you to your darkness for that season that's a horrible judgment when he quits striving that's horrible that's horrible he strives with us he says stop i'll help you stop i'll help you there's more for you there's better things than this i'm with you and he's striving with this but beloved there's a thing in god's heart to rest with his people when he rests with among the people that means he's not striving with them they've come under his leadership and they're not resisting him i'm talking about a corporate group of people i'm going to be among a people not as though a hundred percent of them will live in full maturity but where a a vast majority of these people have said yes to the holy spirit in a substantial way even in their youth but they've said yes with all their heart and the holy spirit's grace is upon us and god is resting in our midst and there's a manifestation of his glory that is in our midst as he's resting with us let's go to top of page two oh this idea of god resting in a geographic area i have such a vision for that i want kansas city to be a resting place for the lord and i don't mean the whole of the city but i don't have i don't know what i mean just lord somewhere in the city and i don't mean just i'm talking about in the midst of hundreds of congregations of born-again believers that god finds a resting place there's a spirit of revival and those different ministries as well as the ihop ministries we send out apostolic teams to the ends of the earth they will be doing what we're doing with one heart we won't care what the name of the building is beloved there's a historic visitation coming to the city but that visitation is related not only to what we're doing at ihop by any means because god has his people all over the city and he's listening to them when they cry out to him but it matters it matters that we cry out night and day it's not just a commission that's kind of cool it's a necessary commission and it's dear to god's heart and it will affect the history of this city now david had a revelation of the heavenly sanctuary paragraph i he had the revelation of the value of worshiping god in the order he saw the heavenly sanctuary i have a couple verses there you can look at david uh here in first chronicles 28 well i gotta read psalm 119 i love that one david said i've seen the consummation of all perfection what a sentence i have seen the ultimate place of the perfection of wisdom and power and beauty he beloved he was right he had a revelation of the court of god he saw god's court he called it the the consummation of the perfection of wisdom and power and love and light and beauty the consummation of all perfection he saw it with his eyes by the holy spirit gave him an open vision so much of what david wrote about this issue of agreeing with god and these 4 000 musicians 288 singers he got it from his revelation of he saw perfection itself around the throne of god david said here in first chronicles 28 all this said david the lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me the hand of god came upon david and gave him the plans for the service of the house of the lord and how it was to be laid out and how the singers were to do things and the gatekeepers and david received instruction as the anointing of god came on him and david had a number of open visions so much so that in the new testament in the book of acts he's called a prophet david was not just a king he was a prophet he was a man that had open visions of the supernatural realm and of god himself look at what it says in paragraph j nehemiah 12 both the singers and the gatekeepers you could call the gatekeepers all the support ministries all the gatekeepers are are all the other support ministries you could put them in that category and here's what the singers and the gatekeepers did they kept the charge of god meaning they kept their charge in the sanctuary they kept their assignment to keep a sanctuary that's what the lord says over and over to keep the charge of the sanctuary we have that on our wallet from ezekiel 44 verse 15 that the sons of zadok they kept charge of the sanctuary that means they were faithful to be in the presence of the lord crying out night and day before him that's their charge and the singers and the gatekeepers commit their kept their charge and they did it because david commanded them where did david get this instruction to command them he received it in heavenly visitations he saw what was happening in the heavenly symphony paragraph k david's life work beloved your life work many of you now not all of you identify with this but there's a number of you in this room my life work many of you your life work is to relate to god in such a way that he releases a dwelling place somewhere on the earth that you're involved in doesn't have to be this city you want to make this your life where david was king of the nation the president he was the head of the military commander in chief of the army but above that david had a his life work was to see the breaking in of the glory of god in the city that he lived in which was the city of jerusalem now david's vow he said i made this vow it's not recorded in scripture what the vow is in its detail besides psalm 132 but we have indications of that vow in other passages and one of the i mean the passage god launched ihop with back in may of 1983 psalm 27 4 one thing i've desired of the lord that i may dwell in the house of the lord all the days of my life to behold his beauty now typically when we focus on this psalm this verse and it's right that we do we focus mostly on what david did he beheld the beauty but now let's back up a little bit there's that's not all that verse says david said this is the thing i've desired put the phrase i've set my heart to do and i've said it all the days of my life to be what that i may be in the house of prayer he wanted to be in the house not just talking about the house not just serving the he wanted to be in the prayer room using our language of today because i want to be in the house not just i don't want to just be out and about talking about it and telling people how great it is beloved i want to keep my charge i want to keep my sacred trust i want to be in the house now most of my time i'm in the house i'm up in my prayer station up on the platform i can see you you can't see me but i want to be in the prayer room i want to be there in the presence of of god agreeing not just doing email i want to be agreeing with god i do do my email there but i want to do more than that i want to be opening the word and meditating and worshiping and agreeing and saying yes to him i want to be in the house now i'm not trying to get people i'm not on a membership drive right now because beloved i can see the math in the natural we are on a growth curve and just in the months ahead of us in this next 12 or 18 months there's gonna it's gonna be so hard to find space in that building the last thing i'm trying to do is get more people in that building we need a little bit more space but i'm talking at a different level i'm not talking about a membership drive right now i'm talking about keeping a vow to be among the people in the house in agreement with god in worship and intercession i mean it kind of it suits me better if a whole lot of people just do it by internet and just kind of give us a little bit more room to breathe a i mean the summers these 300 teens come in i mean you can't move it i hop in the summer and i just have this little whisper of the holy spirit this is just the beginning i'm thinking surely this isn't how we're gonna live i love it that they're all there but just in the natural i can't move okay i'm cheating i got a prayer station up front i can go up there you know and but i like to go down there and walk as well but i go this is i'm not trying to jam the room out in an uncomfortable level and that's where it's going to be so i'm not trying to get more people just so we can take a picture and we go on a membership drive that's not what i'm after i'm after people understanding the vow that david made and actually walking it out in real time and space and part of it is being in the house now different people have different seasons particularly motherhood and i want to tell the mothers don't uh don't be weighed down by that last three sentences you're a part of the house in your house you're you're connected and i don't want a burden on you from the last three minutes i'm talking to the other ones i mean the mothers in our house are often some of the most dedicated women of god i mean people at ihop and they're not as present but they're connected through the web stream and through other ways as well so i'm not i'm not talking to that one particular group and there's other groups that would be in that category there are exceptions and i don't want to you know i'm not aiming for the hundred i'm aiming for the 90 right now or the 80 king david said in psalm 69 he goes zeal for the house has eaten me up he was well willing to bear the reproaches of his lifestyle you read psalm 69 on your own the reproach that david received was his friends even in the kingdom kingdom friends mocking him because of his commitment to fasting and prayer and his zeal for god's house they said david we love you but you're fanatical he goes thank you i am fanatical about this vow they go yeah he says zeal is eating me up i will fast i will pray i will be in god's presence they go david david grace grace dial down and david said i am not you can reproach me you could write me off i am a man possessed with a vision of god's heart and i'm not going to be calmed down by anybody's version of grace beloved we want the grace of god to bring us to another level to live like david lived and like paul lived just a couple quick things we'll end with this just a couple quick phrases here about david he practically lived this out look at this first chronicles 22 he goes i've taken much trouble to prepare for the house beloved there are a number of you here you have taken real trouble to be a part of this house economically the amount of money that you uh the you used to make fifty thousand dollars a hundred thousand dollars a year many in our midst have made salaries like 60 70 80 thousand dollars many young couples and older couples as well and they came here and they get a 500 work scholarship a few people supporting them you know what they're giving a person that makes a hundred thousand dollars they're giving nearly a hundred thousand dollars to the prayer movement they are troubling themselves economically for the house and the lord writes that in his book there's a number of you that are giving fifty thousand dollars a year to the prayer movement by virtue of what you're not taking because you're doing the prayer movement many of you now granted more in the morning service than in the night service because they're older but there's a number of you in this room as well and others of you it doesn't have to be that number that that's not my point the point is david said i've taken trouble he took trouble on his schedule he took trouble on his finances he took trouble in relationships beloved you're troubled because you've said just to the to the commitment to build the house and the lord says i will write that in my book this is david's own confession he goes i've borne a great burden but i love it i would do it again look what he said in first chronicles 29 a few chapters later for the house of god i've prepared with all of my might and he talked about the money he gave he goes with all of my might i threw myself into this vision for i have a set my affection on the house of my god beloved those that have made this vow and i don't mean it's not about being at ihop i don't care what city you're in obey god and it doesn't have to be even a house of prayer but it's a company of people that are pressing in for the full breakthrough of god or whatever city god sends you to it's about the nations i'm not interested one city verse another because when we get a breakthrough we're gonna start sending them out by the thousands all over the earth look at this i have prepared with all of my might i set my affection on the house of god this is a man with a revelation this is a man that's walking in a vow before god and i'll end with this second chronicle six verse eight dave solomon is dedicating the temple his father's been dead now about seven years well actually he's been dead about 11 years just to be accurate it's about 11 years after david's death and solomon's dedicating the temple and here's what solomon told the people he said the lord said to my father this is what god spoke to david before he died whereas it was in your heart to build a temple for my name you did well that it was in your heart david before he died received the witness from god that the very setting of his heart in this vow because he determined to make this vow to build a house for the lord a physical house but that wasn't what david was all about david wanted far more than a physical house he wanted the shekinah glory of god dwelling on the earth in that house he wanted on earth like it is in heaven he wanted worshipers and singers he wanted the enemies of righteousness to be defeated in the wake of the glory of god in that house it wasn't just a building program david was into david was into the all that went into making all that went into being involved in the glory of god visiting the city of jerusalem and here's what the lord said david you didn't see it all in your lifetime but you did well that you set your heart that you set your affection on my house that you with all of your might gave yourself that you vowed and david made that vow undoubtedly in his youth the lord says to him you did well david and i beloved the same god who said you did well in matthew 25 jesus he said that he will say to the people in the last day well done jesus spoke it to david before anybody else heard it beloved i want to be a man among the people that are doing well in god's sight let's stand in the presence