Mike Bickle explores the five significant seasons in King David's life, emphasizing how each season presented unique tests that shaped his character and relationship with God. Despite facing rejection, mundane tasks, sudden fame, and prolonged adversity, David consistently returned to his primary vision of loving God wholeheartedly. Bickle highlights that God's search for a heart devoted to Him continues through generations, and David's resilience in the face of trials serves as a model for believers today. The sermon underscores that true success lies in our relationship with God, rather than our achievements or status. Ultimately, Bickle encourages listeners to remain steadfast in their love for God, regardless of the circumstances they face.

Five different seasons in the life of King David because David is called by God the man after God's own heart and you can identify five cities in his life that relate to five very specific seasons and each one of these seasons had particular tests that David was to respond to God in the right way in the midst of those tests and he did and what I mean he responded in the right way David had many failures that are recorded in the Bible so I'm not talking about a person who never had flaws or temptations or struggles or failures but the fact that he kept coming back to full dedication when he would stumble he would rise back up he would repent of his failure and stand in with confidence in the presence of the Lord and God called him the man after God's own heart paragraph B it says that 1st Samuel 13 verse 14 for the Lord sought for himself the Lord was searching for David and we know that the eyes of the Lord search across the whole world and God still searching for his David now David was only a teenager in 1st Samuel 13 when God called him a man after his own heart and when God called him he was just a teenage boy which means God was taking the dedication and commitment of a teenager very very seriously and sometimes we think God doesn't take our dedication seriously because we have weakness and we have failure and we have immaturity in our life but the Lord does take that very seriously and the Lord named him this from the beginning knowing that David would participate with him to sustain that grace of God operating in his life for decade after decade I mean it's one thing in the early days of our spiritual life to make these radical commitments it's another thing to sustain those commitments through the grace of God but doing our part to participate in it and David God knew he would sustain it by participating in the grace of God doing his part and so the Lord at the beginning of his journey named him that I mean what a what a powerful name that from the lips of God over a person that was still they were alive on the earth and isn't something God said after he died it's while he was still living now if I had to give you what I believe to be the core definition of what it means to be a man or a woman after God's own heart it would be that the primary vision of our life for the primary dream of our heart would be to walk out the first commandment to love God with all of our heart and I believe that David in his youth he determined that he was going to receive the love of God and return his love back to God and the primary vision of David's heart the primary dream the thing that preoccupied him I believe in his inner life with God I wanna walk in the grace of God in this arena I want to love you with all of my heart it was Jesus that would later say after David a thousand years after David Jesus called loving God the first commandment and he called it the great commandment so Jesus added those two words the first and the great so we know loving God is the premium thing that God's after I have three points here with that loving the being a man after God's own heart includes David obeyed the commands of God's heart David studied the emotions of God's heart and David contended I mean he was contending for the full purpose of God in his generation and so I believe that having this vision to love God has these other components to it the David searched out God's emotions and we find insight into God's heart all through the book of Psalms from the pen of David he understood God delights in his people he saw the joy that's in God's personality he saw the gladness he saw the love the affection the tenderness of God's emotion and David was a student of God's emotions let's look at paragraph C well a hundred years after David died the Lord was still searching his eyes were searching to and fro across the earth for people who would have loyal love to God says it here in 2nd Chronicles 16 that it wasn't just a one-time deal when God sought for David or he sought for a man and he found David but God has been all through the generations of the human race searching and looking for people that have that kind of heart response to him where the primary dream of their heart is that they would walk in the grace of God to give their strength and all of their heart all of their love to the Lord in relationship and they would receive God's love back I mean it would start by receiving God's love and then responding by giving our love back to him paragraph D and Isaiah 55 the prophet Isaiah this is 300 years after David died God still has the same opinion about David and 300 years later through the prophet Isaiah the Lord says I've given David as a witness as a model as a picture of how I want my people to respond I mean could you imagine God declaring you to be a picture that he wanted multitudes of people to see to see how it is that God wanted people to respond and that's a pretty bold and big statement particularly because David's weaknesses are recorded in the Bible as well so we're not talking about a man who did not have failures we're talking about a man who was resilient to return to that place of seeking to live in that dimension of the grace of God in his life and again he sustained it for decades he faced his failures he faced betrayal of friends he faced disappointing circumstances adversaries he faced prosperity promotion and favor because that can distract you from the love of God like other things can as well or from your cultivating your walk with God just for just favor itself often gets in the way where people get captured by the favor and they don't spend the quality time they had developing and increasing the relationship with the Lord like they did in the early days of their spiritual life well again I in this short teaching I've identified five cities that relate to five seasons in David's life and each one of these seasons have a test or actually a series of tests and I just mentioned a little bit on each season just kind of a just a quick review or an overview and every one of these tests were different and they would test would David stay true to the vision of his early days with the Lord that he would be that man after God's own heart that the first commandment would stay in first place that Jesus called it the first commandment and the great commandment that David would see that even as a priority over his assignment in God his assignment was to be king but the dream of his heart was to be a lover of God and to give himself to God in relationship in a way that deeply moved God and again throughout the generations God has been searching for David's male and female young and old those that would respond in loyal love to him well let's begin in first Samuel 16 which is the first scene or episode of David's life that is in the Bible David's in his teen years he lives in the city of Bethlehem and the context is that the famous prophet Samuel Samuel the prophet God tells him go to Bethlehem this little rural town that nothing ever exciting happened in Bethlehem I mean it was just a little rural town where it was a sleepy town undoubtedly probably a few hundred people in the little village God tells the the famous prophet the great prophet Samuel I mean the greatest prophet in the earth in his generation go to that little town go to Jesse's house and pray for one of his sons and anoint him to be king of Israel so Jesse has eight sons and Samuel the prophet is told by the Lord to go to Jesse's house I assume he doesn't even know who Jesse is so Samuel comes to the town the great prophet and the elders of Bethlehem and again you can read the details in first Samuel 16 on your own the elders of Bethlehem that they're afraid this is their trembling they oh my goodness this must be trouble I mean when the great prophet comes to your town and you did not invite him but he came because God sent him there must be trouble brewing here somewhere and so the elder said is everything okay did we do something wrong he goes well yeah everything is okay he says who's Jesse you know tell me where he lives well he lives over the side over there and and he has some sons right they go oh yeah he's got a whole lot of sons and so Samuel goes and calls Jesse and says I want to have a meal I want to have a time with your family and I'm gonna pray for your children bring them all together bring all your sons together in verse 10 we pick up on this said Jesse he made the seven of his sons pass before Samuel well the problem is that Jesse had eight sons but he only has seven of the sons come to the dinner I mean this is the greatest event that ever happened to Bethlehem back in the Old Testament days was the visit of Samuel to the house of Jesse it's the most dynamic event that ever happened in Jesse's family and yet when he says call your sons he leaves the youngest the eighth one little Davey out in the field to tend the sheep he doesn't even invite him to the family dinner at the most critical I mean not critical but the most dynamic moment in their family's history well in the little town of Bethlehem this little rural town David is going to be tested by how he responds to rejection another thing David is going to be tested by and and what I mean by tested is his primary vision to be to read to receive the love of God and respond in loving God with all of his heart is his primary vision going to stay focused on that in in the midst of rejection or is he going to allow rejection to change the whole way that it carries his heart on the inside and what happens people get so consumed by their rejection people even who love Jesus they get captured by the person that's against them in terms of their thinking and their imagination but David we find out he stayed locked he locked into the primary vision of his heart even in the midst of rejection he did not get off course and then and the other thing that's happening in this season of David's life in the Bethlehem years I call the Bethlehem years is that David's being tested is he going to be faithful in the midst of the mundane and the routine will the mundane in the routine just that doing menial tasks will that take him away from his primary life vision which is to be one that loves God with all of his heart and all of his strength and all of his mind there's a lot of believers the sheer boredom and the routine and mundaneness of life sets in and it actually affects the relationship with the Lord and they just can't find anything that excites them so they just kind of start they go into the coasting mode and they just because their life seems a bit boring their relationship with God sets into a tone of boredom and they don't press in anymore they're waiting for a great revival or a great miracle or something exciting or a big assignment in God that draws a lot of attention or that seems real important and they're waiting and waiting for something exciting and big to happen and their walk with God actually it settles into a place of spiritual dullness well we find out that David in the midst of those two testings had several others in the Bethlehem years but he stayed true to what his life vision was now a lot of people they're not really aware that David had rejected he was rejected but the spirit of rejection did not get into his emotions he had many reject him but he stayed preoccupied with the Lord and he managed the rejection in a way and he stewarded it and responded in a way where he actually grew in his walk with God instead of the rejection from people becoming a root of bitterness and preoccupying him on the inside of his life well the thing that might surprise some of you David had rejection in his youth from his family from his brothers he had rejection all through his 20s his 30s his 40s there was never a season in his life a prolonged season where he did not have people unjustly attacking him criticizing him betraying him I mean when you read the book of Psalms it happens all through his life it wasn't a you know one rough summer you know in his teen years where you know it was a tough time I mean all the way through and the miracle of David's life and heart I mean one of the miracles is how that that didn't get into his internal conversation with God in a way where it shifted it because I believe that rejection is probably the most painful human emotion I'd say failure in our walk with God and rejection from people those would be emotions most painful feeling that but David somehow use that those kind of pressures and he actually strengthened himself in his dialogue with the Lord I mean the pain of the rejection instead of wallowing in it he the only place he could get comfort was by talking to the Lord and Lord you love me and I love you and my life vision is to love you to be consumed with who you are and giving myself to you and God loves me I love God therefore I'm already successful beloved the fact that God loves you and the fact that you've set your heart to love him back in the primary sense of the word you're already successful in life in the primary way from God's point of view now there are the secondary ways we want to be successful in our life and in the in our circumstances in our assignment in the Lord we want to be successful but those are secondary from God's point of view the very fact that the God of Genesis 1 loves you and that the grace of God has touched you and you've responded to love him back with all of your strength beloved that already set you in a category I mean there's there's about a billion believers you know through history and on the earth today that live that way but they are the successful ones of the human race from God's point of view now again that's not to devalue the secondary arenas of our life our assignment in God or other areas we want success and but that's not the primary success of our life we can have setbacks in those secondary areas but still have primary have success in our life and that's what David knew and that's what David was captured by in verse 10 here let's go ahead look at it again so Jesse brings the seven of his sons and he makes them all pass before Samuel and Samuel the prophets going to pray for him one by one and Samuel says to Jesse as he's looked at each one of them the Lord whispers this isn't the one that I've chosen to be king so he goes through all seven you know the oldest one he's not it second oldest he's not it third oldest he's not it he goes through all seven and he says to the David's father Jesse he goes none of these are the chosen one I came to pray over and prophesy over verse 11 the prophet Samuel said to Jesse are all of your sons here I mean what is somebody not here and they go well technically there is still one the youngest and he says there he is now notice the phrase there he is meaning that where they were having this meal together they could see David taking care of the sheep just trying to write down the way now they go whistle hey David come here I mean he was within the visual I mean within the sight of the family there David's watching them have the great meal and he's left to tend the sheep now the tending of the sheep is something that any teenage boy could have done it was a menial task in our context today was like mowing the lawn when the greatest prophet in the earth is visiting having dinner at your house and he wants to prophesy over the family but the family doesn't invite you at all they said would you mow the lawn while the great prophet is having dinner with us I mean hey dad can I mow the lawn tomorrow can can we get one of the neighbors to tend the sheep just for an hour or two no no you just stay locked in you stay focused and we'll talk to the prophet well they finally bring David up and and God says to Samuel the prophet that's the man there but I don't want you just to see the anointing that happens on David on this day but I want you to see that David was actually tested by the rejection of his family and there's a half a dozen verses that make this really clear in other places I mean he was really rejected by his family on a number of occasions and by his friends and leaders throughout his life I don't mean all of them but plenty of them I mean that it was really an issue that he had to talk to God about the reason I say that is that probably every one of us in this room is is tested by that at times in our life in very painful ways by those that are near and dear to us or or those that we want to include us in something but they don't want to and we know that feeling and the enemy wants that feeling that pain to turn into a root of bitterness and he wants us to be consumed by that so we're not staying locked in to what our primary vision is to be a lover of God to love him with all of our heart and with all of our strength let's go to page two well after as David is in the Bethlehem season after this time of anointing David still in his teen years probably 17 18 19 years old something like that and there's a great crisis that happens in the land and it's the Goliath crisis we all know the story of David and Goliath well in 1st Samuel 17 David still again lives in Bethlehem and the news is out that there's a war the Philistines which is the nation right next to them is attacking Israel and David's father Jesse David's still a boy at home he says or a young man he says I would like you to run an errand and bring some food to your brothers who are in the military there's a battle down the way and they're drawing up the battle lines and that battle may go on for a while you know they wouldn't know for sure would you bring him some supplies and some food from home and tell tell your brothers that dad loves them and so David he's he's running an errand for his dad he goes to the to the camp of Israel the military camp and he and he sees across the valley one side of the valley is Israel's army the other side of the valley is the Philistines and the Philistines as you know they're champion Goliath he's about almost 10 feet tall comes down to the middle of the valley and he challenges Israel and he says Israel I defy your God I defy the God of Israel send your champion down here and let me go to war with him and whoever wins it's like winner take all the two champions would would would have a fight to the death and the one that stands their armies victorious and the other army is defeated now that's a little bit odd to us because we think two guys fight to the death well you know where the other armies are our spectators but the the unspoken idea is the God that exerts his power on behalf of the champion is the God that's going to defeat the army of the one that lost in that in that duel and so the the Philistines thought if our God shows himself in power and I defeat the champion of Israel then that means the God of the Philistines will triumph over the armies of Israel but if the champion of Israel beats our champion that means the God of Israel is exerting his power so we better flee we better get out of here so it's a you know it's a different view of a battle than we would have today in modern times so David goes to the battle and he hears as you know the the challenge and so David goes down there and he kills Goliath and in a moment's time this teenage boy 18 19 possibly 20 years old when this happens this teenage boy he's the most spoken about person in all of Israel he's on the cover of every magazine it is on the front page of every newspaper in the nation now Gibeah is the city where the King Saul lived it was his it was the place for his military headquarters was there it was his political capital Gibeah and so David kills Goliath and Saul says well here's here's the new arrangement because you killed the enemy number one you will marry my daughter so you are now my son in law number two you will move to the capital to Gibeah you'll live in the royal court with me as my son-in-law I'll make you a commander the army I'll put you in the government I mean in one day so much changed in one day I mean the whole nation was talking about this man this young man so in this second city season in this city of Gibeah he's now in which is the capital the political and the military capital where the King Saul lives David now lives in the capital I mean he moved from little Bethlehem to Washington DC and he now lives in the White House not only that the whole nation is talking about him singing his praise I mean in one day things shifted from mundane routine rejected David little town of Bethlehem here he is in the nation's capital and he's a military hero and everybody's singing his praise he was accepted by everyone now what was happening is God was testing David with early with favor in his life and what God was testing would this promotion and this favor and this new popularity this increase of prominence would it pull you away from your primary life vision would you get so distracted by all the new opportunities you would no longer have the time to make your relationship with God the priority it was that you committed in the early days of your spiritual life well we find out that just by the life of David that in the midst of this instant increase of favor David maintains his relationship with the Lord beloved you you can love the Lord and in the season of favor your relationship with the Lord though you love him and though you value him your actual relationship with him can go into second place too busy the blessing of God is increasing a lot of folks are looking my way a lot of open doors a lot of folks want my involvement in things and it's the blessing of God and it was the blessing of God but it was still a test to see if that blessing would shift him from his primary life vision says here in Proverbs 27 that man is tested by the praise that he receives that when you receive praise or you receive favor you receive increase will you leave your vision the primary vision that you established in those early days of your spiritual life will you leave it because you're so preoccupied by the favor and all the new opportunities well the problem is that favor always brings attention I mean a lot of undue attention it brings more enemies with it as well now we know just from history and it's obvious that popularity it only is temporary I mean you you could see the what happens in the great athletes the great movie stars the great politicians the great reformers they're popular for a season they may be well known all their life but they're only in popularity in favor for a season and then that season passes sometimes it's months sometimes it's years but it always does pass and when people have a season of favor often they imagine it's the new way it will be the rest of their life and though it is the blessing of God the favor is there is a test in the midst of the blessing will you be more preoccupied be more focused and preoccupied on the favor and your walk with God become secondary well in the Gibeah years I believe David proved himself faithful even in the unusual national prominence now it's not that you have to have national prominence and live in the White House for this test to be real maybe it's a very small promotion but in context of your life it's a big one maybe nobody else knows about it but now you're there the leader of the group or you're promoted to a new place in the in in in the marketplace or a new place of favor on the team or whatever it is with that favor comes responsibility and with that comes pressures and temptations for our relationship with God that time we had for Jesus to be lost and tucked away and we love him but we don't have the same dialogue with him that we had at earlier times well let's go to Roman Numeral 4 the third city that I want to highlight Adolam David now is moving suddenly his national favor and everything going right suddenly turns I mean overnight and the powerful King Saul that is his father-in-law that is his boss I mean he works in the government he works in the army with his father-in-law he eats at the table with him every day his father-in-law now is enraged with jealousy towards him because so much favors on him and he gets angry and jealous and he determines that it's best for the nation to kill his young son-in-law he tries to kill him because you know David's gonna have an uprising and it's not going to be good for the nation I'm I imagine that Saul's rationalized it some way like that well this thing escalates and then Saul the king he gets 3,000 soldiers 3,000 who are dedicated to searching out David because David escapes when he sees this he goes oh that's dangerous so he leaves Gibeah and he escapes and it says here in in 1st Samuel chapter 22 he escaped to the cave of Adolam Adolam is a city that had a cave over you know you know kind of a hideaway place so he escapes now escaping is a new idea to David I mean he's used to favor but now he's escaping he's he's he loses his wife by this leaving Gibeah the the capital he loses his job he loses his friends he loses his status in the nation the reports out there he has a treacherous heart against the king he wants to take the king's role and he wants to usurp the king's position suddenly David overnight is a fugitive he's a criminal of the state now this Adolam season he's not always in the cave of Adolam but there's many caves that he's hiding in as these 3,000 soldiers are chasing him from cave to cave to cave to cave and this season goes on almost I mean approximately seven years we don't know exactly the amount six seven eight years it meaning it's not a summer or a semester where you know if some people get mad at him I mean this goes on for six seven years so David is about age 23 to about age 30 in this season he's got these amazing promises he's to be king over the nation but he's a fugitive and a criminal of the state and the whole reputation of David in the nation has now shifted because the king is undoubtedly put the word out that he's wanting to usurp and divide the government and take over and this is treachery I mean this is this is a very very evil and dangerous thing to happen to our precious nation of Israel so David's running cave to cave for seven years 3,000 men chasing him now he doesn't have 3,000 blogs against him he has 3,000 soldiers with weapons what I mean is some folks say man we're really being attacked they would say I'm really being hit by this or attacked by that in the marketplace or in their ministry people are even on Facebook against me and I'm like David I mean this is so hard to bear I go well you know I understand rejections I mean it never feels good to be maligned but I said I wouldn't exactly put you in the David category exactly just yet with a few blogs against you I says I think it's a little more intense I mean when they start bringing knives and guns in their pursuit of you and not just words and and emails I think the thing is going to escalate to another level now the big picture of what's happening in David's life God has called David to be the great warrior king of Israel now as a warrior king he has to know the land right because as the great warrior king he was the greatest warrior king in Israel's history if he's going to fight the other armies that attack them he needs to know the geography of the land so years later after David becomes king he's sitting around you know the the military high command and they got the maps on the wall and so the Philistines are coming this way David says ah he goes here's what we'll do we'll go right then we'll go left we'll go over here because I know there's a water source in that cave and there's a little valley you could very you can't hardly find it it's really small we can escape this way and the way the Sun rises it will be blinding if we're in this position and the enemies in that position and and the his commanders are going how do you know all this he goes oh I hid in that cave I know how that Sun works and I know of where where the water is and I know where the food is and I know where the animals are I live there for seven years cave to cave here's the point when God's raising up a great warrior king in Israel he could put David in geography class or he could put David in the land and he says I think I'll put you in the land David you're gonna you're gonna the reason you'll know where the caves are you're gonna live in them and it's I'm gonna train you at the heart level but I'm also gonna give you insight and skill as a warrior of how to do this so God's raising you up as a warrior he could send you to warrior class or the warrior conference but you know what he's gonna do he's gonna put you in the land is what he's gonna do and you're gonna find out how to defeat the enemy by actually doing it and he's gonna train your hands for war not just in a classroom but actually in the land itself that's what God does now it's all always interesting to me that when God is raising up a David he uses the seminary of Saul to raise up David's I mean Saul is a demonized King I want to be a David oh I hear young people say that I love it I want him to say it I go but you do realize David was not only raised up in favor and blessed circumstances and everybody liking him and everything going well he was raised up in the seminary of a demonized King who chased him for seven years oh I don't think I want to be that kind of David I want to be I don't want to be like powerful anointed everybody like me in a few little you know a few little challenges but I don't want too many I just want to be David the other version of David the one that's not in the Bible well suddenly David King Saul dies David's 30 years old and suddenly now the season shifts again King Saul dies and David then moves to the city of Hebron instead of running from cave to cave he's now living in Hebron now this is a very interesting test and I'll just spend a minute or two on this one and then a minute or two on the on the final one this Hebron is very important because David in Hebron is tested in a very different way he's being tested by only receiving the partial fulfillment of what God promised him now what do I mean by that God promised David he would be have authority over all 12 tribes of Israel 12 tribes but when he goes to Hebron he ends up only over one tribe the tribe of Judah so when he goes to Hebron and he lives there instead of going to Gibeah the capital he goes to Hebron because the Lord told him to he's only gonna be over one twelfth of the tribes that God promised him one twelfth of the authority is what he's gonna walk in for the next seven years from age 30 to 37 now the reason this is so remarkable to me this test that he passes it so well we can well let's just read read it here in 2nd Samuel chapter 2 David inquires of the Lord which means he prays he asked the question because Saul just died I mean like just you know real recently died there's no king in in the path to be in Gibeah to take over the nation everybody knows David's the man nothing's in the way and it's obvious David you go from cave to cave now you just go actually he's living in Ziklag but that doesn't matter right now but he you know just go to Gibeah move into the White House go to Washington DC don't go move to Chicago or some other city go to Washington DC but David says okay God all the obstacles are gone and everything that would hinder me is out of the way shall I go up to any of the cities of Judah now the normal thing should have been should I just go to Gibeah should I go to Washington DC and move into the White House that would be the normal question that we would ask he goes is there another city you want and I can imagine David's buddies the guys that have been with him out in the don't ask a question like that David that's redundant of course God wants you to go to Gibeah totally does why would he not want you to go to Gibeah he already told you you're gonna be the king over all 12 tribes David says yeah I might that I mean I know I will be but what if that's in 10 years from now I mean what if it's not now they go what do you mean what if it's not now the evil Kings dead you're the next in line what are you talking about so David says Lord where shall I go up but God says just go to Hebron which means only be over one of the 12 tribes for now and David says that works for me because see the the dream of David's heart was to love God with all of his strength and to obey him with loyal love David's dream wasn't to be king that was his assignment he never cared about the kingship he cared about his relationship with the Lord most and he was king because it was pleasing to God now his man had a little different story that I just don't think they like this how about David you go talk to God on your own I mean come on you know because our jobs are related to your promotion let's get with it well for seven years he is content to worship God or obey him over 112 of the sphere of authority that God promised him I mean that's a remarkable reality a lot of folks don't think of this I mean they love God but every good opportunity isn't an opportunity that is God's best for your life even though the Lord allows the opportunity the Lord says I'm testing you will you maintain me as your number one goal in your life or will this opportunity make me second in your in terms of the way you carry your heart then final I'll end with this just just one minute on this because not too many are in the Jerusalem season of their life this is when the fullness of the promises are taking place in his life where's your team good coming up the the Jerusalem years this is what everything that God promised all begins to happen in David's life now here's the paradox of the Jerusalem years because everybody wants to be in the Jerusalem years I want to be with everything that's promised happens well the the blessing does come but the Jerusalem years actually that's the most spiritually dangerous time in David's life because with the increase of favor and responsibility the attack of the enemy is greater is like one preacher said new levels new devils new levels of favor new devils attacking you the temptations are greater the pressures are greater the enemies are greater I mean there's much more danger in the place of full blessing a lot of folks don't really do the math on that and when you read the life of David actually his greatest failures were during the Jerusalem years and you say well if he had failures in Jerusalem then why those other four seasons because I think his failures in Jerusalem would have been tenfold if he had not been trained and prepared to those seasons of testing I believe his failures in Jerusalem were minimal compared to what they would have been if God would not have strategically held his hand and tested him and each season tested him with rejection tested him with mud with mundane this tested him with temporary early favor in success tested him with adversity tested him with partial promises and in each one of those seasons as God holds his hand and is with him David is realigning himself to be the lover of God with all of his heart so that in the Jerusalem hour though we did have some stumbling but I believe it would have been tenfold if he would not have had those years of preparation so different ones of you are in different seasons some of you says well I think I'm in Bethlehem I know I'm in a Dolem maybe I got one toe in Hebron you know I'm maybe one twelfth of my I don't know where I'm at I'm in a couple cities at one time that's okay it doesn't overly matter that you can define which of these seasons you're in because you might be in a couple seasons at the same time what matters is you understand the test you understand God's agenda for you in that season is to keep the vision to be the wholehearted lover of God with all of your strength and all of your mind that stays primary and your assignment your blessing or even your pressure is secondary if that's what the test is all about amen and amen let's stand