Mike Bickle discusses the significance of David's prophetic anointing and the contrasting spirit of distress that afflicted Saul. He emphasizes that David was anointed three times, each time adding new dimensions to his anointing, while Saul lost his anointing due to disobedience, leading to a tormenting spirit as divine discipline. Bickle highlights the importance of humility and reliance on the Holy Spirit, warning against the presumptuousness that can lead to losing God's favor. The sermon illustrates how David's anointing empowered him to bring God's presence, while Saul's rejection of God's ways resulted in his downfall. Ultimately, Bickle encourages believers to seek the anointing of the Holy Spirit to fulfill their God-given purposes.

However, equally important to this theme of the way the anointing operated in David's life in this early days, because David was anointed three times. First in Bethlehem, and then about 13-14 years later he was anointed in Hebron, and then seven years after that he was anointed in Jerusalem, three different times. And each one of those anointings of the Holy Spirit added a new dimension. It didn't take away anything he had, but it created, it caused an addition, a multiplication of that which he had. So what, the grace that comes on David when he's 17 years old, approximately 17, that grace operates on him till the end. But something more is added when he's 30 than another one when he's 37, and there's a spiritual principle even in that. But though my focus is on the anointing that was on David, there's another very, very important part of this passage of 1 Samuel chapter 16 that I'm not highlighting in the title, but it's a very important part. It was how, no, it was the conditions that Saul experienced in losing the anointing. And so 1 Samuel 16, we always think of it about David receiving it, but 1 Samuel 16 is also about the, not how to lose it, he lost it through disobedience, Saul did. 1 Samuel 13 and 1 Samuel 15, we've looked at that story a little bit, but it was the distressing spirit, the tormenting spirit that came upon him as a former anointed of the Lord who operated presumptuously with the anointing of the Holy Spirit and ended up with possibly an equal measure of torment and distress. I don't know that it was equal, but I believe it's reasonable that the measure that he was operating in on the positive side, when he opened the doors of darkness, he had an unusual measure of distress on him on the negative side. And that's a very important part of this testimony as well, not just how David had the good dimension, but how Saul had the bad dimension. Okay, Roman numeral 1, Samuel anoints David as the new king of Israel. I'm going to read verse 12 to 14. So he, Jesse, David's father, sent and brought David in because the question, and most of you have been staying with the course here, the question David is, I mean, the prophet Samuel has anointed the seven older brothers, and then he says, the Lord tells me none of these sons are the anointed of the Lord. Is there another? And Jesse points to David down the way. He goes, there he is. And Jesse said, we're not going to proceed. I mean, the prophet Samuel said, we're not going to proceed, Jesse, until you bring that youngest son here. And so he sent and brought David in, and everybody's waiting at the dinner with the famous prophet, with the anointed of the Lord. This was such a dramatic event in David's, in Jesse's house. Jesse's the father. Now, David was ruddy, with bright eyes, and he was good-looking. And the Lord said, whispers to Samuel the prophet, arise, anoint him, this is the one. He's about 17 years old. This is the one. Verse 13, then Samuel took the horn of oil, and he anointed David in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. There was a supernatural operation of the grace of God that started, and it increased in his life as the days went on. And that's how the anointing of the Holy Spirit is. There's a beginning. Again, he's 17 years old. When he's 30, and he brought, there's a new dimension added. Then when he's 37 at Jerusalem, there's another dimension added. But even the anointing he's operating in here now, I believe it increased as David learned to flow with it. But it began, and it did not depart from David all the days of his life. And Samuel rose and went to Ramah, which was his home. But, very dramatic part of the story, the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul. The anointing of the Holy Spirit left Saul. And it didn't just leave a vacuum. A distressing spirit sent from God as a part of divine discipline to bring Saul to repentance. And then it ends up a divine judgment because he won't repent. This thing operates on several levels. We'll take a few minutes to talk about it. I hope we don't spend too much time on it because it's a very interesting subject, and a very important subject. Because this subject is only important to the degree, I mean, a person does, this doesn't happen to someone unless they operate in the Holy Spirit in the first place. This is a judgment that takes place because there was the favor of God that was shunned, that was treated presumptuously. The favor of God that was taken for granted, like, big deal. So I'm anointed. I'm going to stay out and I'm going to continue just to do what I want to do. The Lord's favor is on me anyway. And many, many of God's servants do that. They end up in a very difficult place and they can't figure it out. And it's really here. It's this story right here. They end up with a distressing spirit upon them. A. Let's look at Romans, I mean, letter A. Now look at just some of the phrases from this passage. The Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. Now David was empowered with new qualities. Now these were not just, and it's described in verse 18 and 19. We'll look at that in a few minutes. David was empowered with new qualities that he did not have beforehand. And these qualities were given to equip him to be a king. We are praying for a breakthrough of the Holy Spirit because we need to be equipped to operate in spiritual authority in our positions. And the Lord will give us abilities that are not just our personalities with a little bit of blessing on it. It's actually qualities we do not possess in our natural personalities. Isaiah the prophet called it the Spirit of Might. You'll see right there at Isaiah chapter 11 verse 2, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of counsel and the Spirit of Might. This is called the Spirit of Might. It's distinct qualities, powers David to do special tasks in the will of God. Okay, let's go to B. The Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward, and it was an abiding grace. It means it was an anointing that stayed with him. It don't mean that every day, all day long, he could just operate in miracles at will. That's not what it means. But it was a grace that rested on him. It was an abiding grace. It wasn't just something that came on him occasionally. Again, it was giving him abilities to do what was impossible for him to do beforehand. Now, the reason that's important, because that's kind of pretty obvious, but a lot of people don't really walk that out in a real practical way, because that reality should keep us, keep us humble, keep us hungry as well. Because if that grace lifts, and we're in a certain role, a soul is in this role that only works if he has this grace on him. Now he's in the role, but he doesn't have the grace. And many a man over the years has been anointed, and they end up in a certain position in ministry, and they live in a way after that, and the Spirit of God is grieved and gone, but they have this big machine they got to keep going. It's a real dilemma, because they haven't really thought through how supernatural even the gathering of the people and the sustaining of the ministry was. It's truly life and death. If that spirit of grace is lifted, there cannot be the sustaining of that which a person is built in ministry, or in business even. We think, well, I'm good a business guy. No, there's invisible elements when the anointing of the Lord is operating. Now, a lot of folks say that, but they don't live as though they believe it, because they act presumptuously with the anointing, and they lose it. They've got a situation they cannot maintain without that invisible element of the Lord's working. And it keeps you humble. It keeps you saying thank you in your spirit, because it just keeps unfolding. More and more it keeps happening. You say, Lord, I know that I couldn't have arranged those events. I couldn't have moved the people in that kind of way. See, I have an example of the Spirit of the Lord coming upon the craftsman in the building of the tabernacle of Moses. He was anointed with divine ideas in the construction team, and he received revelation and received understanding from heaven. Beloved, we can get the anointing of the Spirit, whether it's leading a ministry in the admin part, the preaching part, the miracle part, the prayer line part, whether it's running a marketplace, a Bible study, anything. We need the operation of the Holy Spirit, and it's given in many ways. This is not just for a king. D. Now, before David received this specific anointing of the Spirit, he was described only in terms of his natural endowments. Here in verse 12 when it says that he was ruddy, bright eyes, and good-looking, it means that before the Holy Spirit came on David, he was a good-looking kid, but he didn't have anything that could have produced the impact of what David's life, I mean what David's life achieved. And that's part of the point of this. The writer of Samuel, of this book, is letting us know that David was blessed to the Lord, but they were not supernatural qualities. He was ruddy, which means that he had reddish complexion, reddish hair. That was unusual, that was an outstanding characteristic, because most of the Jewish boys didn't have red hair. They had black hair and a dark complexion, and David, he stuck out a little bit in that regard, and this is a compliment of his good-looking. So everyone has red hair, turn to look at him, say, you're really good-looking, you're just like David. Bright eyes and good-looking. Again, none of these natural attributes, as winsome as they are, could have produced the power that David needed for Israel, and that's the point we're supposed to get, because in verse 18 and 19, we're gonna have supernatural qualities in contrast to these natural ones. Okay, E. The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul. Now this signaled a shift in God's purpose. There was a radical governmental change in the Spirit happen. Now David couldn't have possibly been aware of what happened in the spirit realm, and as the Lord anoints his purpose and releases many of you into various things, there is a shift in the Spirit. There's a governmental shift that happens on some occasions, and that's what's going on here. Now when the Spirit of God left Saul, my guess is Saul didn't even know it. It's what it says about Samuel, I mean Samson. I have there Judges 16 verse 20. Samson didn't even know the Spirit of God left him, and he went out to do the same old same-o, and it didn't work. Now Samuel, I always say Samuel and Saul backwards, so King Saul continued as king for over 15 more years, probably about 18. The Spirit's off of him, but he stays in the position another 15 to 18 years. Now someone might say, well I thought God rejected him, then how come he stayed in the office? Because we're thinking that being in the office is the cool part. Being in the office without the grace is a pressure, and it is actually an act of judgment. The Lord allows a number of people to stay in their roles, and He takes the grace off, and that is their judgment. It's not the whole of it, but it's certainly a part of it. Now number one, Saul had been rejected spiritually, number one, he had been rejected spiritually from his position as king back in chapter 15 verse 28. David was about 15 years old then, Saul was about 50, and I have there in the notes, Saul was 40 years older, so we're however old you figure out, because sometimes the record will tell us how old Saul is, well minus 40 years, that's how old David is. Or they'll give us an idea of how old David is, well then plus 40 years, that's how old Saul is. And I find it interesting to get a sense of their age in the development of this incredible drama. Number two, I've already said it, but I'll say it again, Saul stayed in his position for another 15, probably 18 years, with no anointing on him, no anointing on him at all. No, I said it wrong, not 18 years, it's not three more than 15, it'd actually be two or three less than 15, and so 12 to 15 years, not that it really matters that much, but with no grace upon him, and being in a leadership position, even a quite small one compared to many ministries in the world, to have, to be in a leadership role without that invisible help, pulling things together, it would be just giving divine direction, motivating people, unfolding a plan where things fall into place, it would just be impossible to pull off a ministry. This, this, I get troubled for Saul. I go, Saul, this is a horrible position to be in. F, we're gonna look at the phrase, David was anointed in the midst of his brothers. Now, what a lot of people imagine is the, the most exciting thing they can think of is, you know, the great prophet calling them out and saying in front of everybody, yay, you are the one, and they're like, oh, no, no, and they even deny it, but, and the Lord says, no, no, really, you are the one, you say, okay, if I must, and I mean, I always dream of it, but first, I'm humble first and refuse it, and then the Lord makes it come back again, and it's like, oh, I know that story, but, but being in the, anointed in the midst of our brothers, that's not all that it's made up to be. Number one, it's a public anointing, and so when the minute Saul finds out about this event, David's life is in jeopardy. When he, when David, it's a little while before Saul figures it out, but David's brothers are not happy with David after this event. The little guy that tend the sheep that was mowing the lawn, all of a sudden, they, it's interesting that you can see some animosity in a number of verses, and we're not going to go there right now, but the fact that none of David's brothers were in his royal cabinet, his court, after David was king, when they were all in the army, but they were not, or most of them were, they were not in his court, he did not choose them, there was something that was amiss in this, and none of them went in the wilderness years with him over, you know, in the cave of Adolam and the Ziklag years, they all stayed with Saul on the other team. So, anointed in the midst of your brothers, I have G, the next leadership, I mean, the leadership lesson. When you receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the more public it is, and our flesh loves it more public, but the bigger it is publicly, the announcement, the more animosity will come towards our flesh. We dream of the honor with no trouble, but the very honor is what makes people go, you know, he always has been a I've watched this for years, when a brother or sister, the Lord sets them apart, even in a little way, all kinds of strange dynamics happen, and the Lord ends up protecting his anointed from pride by simply making their anointing known publicly, and it shocks them, because the person who receives this promise, or even the release, is never imagining the public domain is the place of their crucifixion, they're thinking the public domain is the place of their honor, and they're, I don't want to say they, as though it's some distant thing, and our very flesh that longs for it is the flesh that's barbecued. I call it the great Kansas City barbecue. Burning flesh, the smell of burning flesh. Oh, we want to be anointed, and there's a barbecue on the other end of that. I have the verse there in Joseph, he had a dream, in Genesis 37 verse 5, Joseph had a dream, he told it to his brothers, and they hated him. I wrote in my Bible, Joseph had a dream to his brothers, I put, bad. Years ago, I mean, I just saw from an old Bible, I laughed when I saw that, bad. Don't tell your brothers. Well, what good is a dream if I can't, you know, accidentally let it out, and brag about it a little bit, and Joseph's brothers hated him for it. Okay, let's go to Roman numeral two. The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the Lord troubled him, and Saul's servants, I mean, imagine this scenario, Saul's servants said, surely a distressing spirit from God is on you. I mean, there's a lot of implications, I don't want to spend too much time on that, but, I mean, his court, his staff, this isn't just sympathy, like, you know, you're really having a good day, surely God is distressing you, is what they're saying. I just can't imagine how they got away with that sentence, with the kind of personality Saul had. A, a distressing spirit, this is a kind of a confusing idea to people, that a distressing spirit from God could come, but God, this is one of the examples of God honoring the free will, because Saul has been operating in witchcraft. He's been operating in a, in an evil spirit. It says in 1 Samuel chapter 15, we got the verse right there, a little bit lower than a, 1 Samuel 15, that Samuel had a, it says there that he, verse 23, for rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft, and the prophet told him, he says, you've been operating in witchcraft, and so, because he was operating in witchcraft, the Lord saying, I'm gonna let you have the spirit you've chosen, I gave you the anointing, you, you don't want to live in the spirit of light, so you want the spirit of darkness, so I'm gonna give you what you want. Now, what he really wanted was the favor of God in his circumstances, but to live in darkness at the heart level, but that doesn't work. What we choose at the heart level is what we get in circumstances, and many, many a man would love to move in darkness inside, but have God's favor on the outside. The Lord says, no, no, if you want darkness, I will, if you want the spirit of witchcraft, if you want a dark spirit, I will allow that dark spirit to be yours then. And the point of it is, is to discipline David. I mean, to discipline Saul. B, now here's a principle, for an anointed vessel to become defiant, he's, Saul is not immature, he is defiant. David was immature. Saul was deliberate, he was purposefully disobeying God. It was, his heart was set in this direction. So don't read this and go, oh no, in my immaturity, I'm gonna get a distressing spirit from the Lord, that's not what's happening. What is happening is there's a defiance, there's an intentionality in Saul's life to operate in darkness. He is planning his sin, he's not slipping, he's not stumbling, and he's actually planning it the week and the month before. See, David sinned a lot of times, but David would not camp out in his sin. When David sinned, he rose up and declared war on the sin he just did. David's heart was against it, he set his heart against it. Saul camped out and planned more of it, and so the Lord says, I will give you the spirit for which you have chosen. Let's go to C. God's discipline is designed to bring us to repentance. Now this discipline actually is the gift of God for people, for believers who refuse to repent. And Saul was a believer, he's a picture of, he's in the covenant nation of Israel, but he's refusing to repent. Now in Job chapter 1 verse 9, Satan complained. Job chapter 1 verse 9, he said, he had a complaint, he said, well no reason Job fears you, you have a hedge around him. He goes, any man would fear you and worship you as long as everything they touch turned to gold. He goes, he doesn't really like you, Satan's telling God. Job only, he's only in it because circumstances work well. He said, you take that hedge down, you let me have a shot at him and he'll curse you. The Lord says, no he won't, I'll take the hedge down. But the point I'm pointing out here is the Lord has a hedge around his people, and when people, and it's like, it's like Satan is like a roaming the earth like a lion and demons, but God has us in a hedge, and when we get into sin, not only do we give the enemy, we give him keys, we open the door ourself. We actually open the door. Satan can only move and he can only attack us at certain levels apart from our permission, but if we open the door, then he has a whole another legal access to us, but there's more than this going on. The Lord removes the hedge and the enemy is more than desirous to destroy. King Saul. So the Lord, the Lord lifts his hand away, that's in the sense of which he sends it, because the enemy is descending on Saul like a roaring lion, but God's held him back and God moves his hand and he lets Saul have the spirit that Saul has chosen. Look at this, this is really graphic in 1st Corinthians chapter 5, talking about a believer. Paul the Apostle said, now because this guy, he was into immorality, and he refused to repent of his immorality, and Paul said, you can't have a believer living in immorality. I mean it's one thing for somebody to stumble in immorality, rise up and say, this is horrifying that I just did this, but for a person who just makes peace with immorality and lives in it, that is an impossible situation for a believer. Now in our culture it seems very normal, but I think that a lot of people are going to be greatly shocked when they find out God didn't buy into any of it, and a whole lot of that which is masqueraded as Christian is not Christian at all, even if they go to the Bible school. They can go to conferences, be on the IHOP staff, they live in immorality, that is not, I'm not saying that that minute that they're not a Christian, but they're certainly positioning themselves for darkness and for destruction. Well, you know, nobody makes a big deal about it, it must be okay. Well, Paul the Apostle told them here, he said, next time you gather, you can read the whole verse on your own, 1st Corinthians 5, he said, next time you gather in the name of the Lord Jesus, that brother living in immorality who's in the church, deliver him over to Satan, that his flesh would be destroyed. So his spirit would be saved when he dies. Here's what they do, they get together in a little prayer meeting, next time they gather together, he says, get up, you know, in our context, we get on the microphone, take, you know, brother what's his name, and say in the name of Jesus, we lift the protection and we move the hedge, and then it's what happened to Saul, and the distressing spirit would come, he says it would destroy his flesh, it will cause great, to destroy his flesh means that he would get some life-threatening disease or some horrible thing that would happen to him. His flesh would be in peril, near death if not death, and Paul said, if you do that, pray that Satan would be able to come up and, you know, and take a hit at him to wake him up, and if he wakes up, he ends up saved, if he doesn't wake up, he loses his standing before God. I realize that's not very, a very, a Western culture sensitive, but it's totally biblical, and that's what Saul was operating in, was this dynamic of the hedge lifted, the hedge lifted. KD, 1st Samuel 28, because Saul refuses this discipline, he goes deeper into witchcraft, he goes deeper into witchcraft, and then in the next, in the next 13 or 14 years, he goes deeper to where he goes into full-scale witchcraft, and so we know that the seeds that were, well it was more than seeds, he was already operating it already, but he went deeper involved, and so this discipline didn't work in Saul's life. E, I'll skip E. F, here's the principles. I take this phrase from Francis Frangipane, I just, it was so, I just, I've said it just a thousand times in 20 years we've been friends, he's, I remember the first time he said it, it was somewhere in the 80s, he said, new levels, new devils. I said, what on earth does that mean? He goes, if you operate in new levels of the anointing, new devils attack you, but if you operate in new levels of the anointing, you get new levels of divine discipline, you get new levels of satanic rage, you get new levels of trouble if you operate in new levels of the anointing. There's a, there's something proportionate in the justice of God to all of this. So the guy goes, oh no, I sinned last week, I may have the spirit come on Saul, that was on Saul come on me. I go, don't worry about it, you're not anointed enough to get in that dilemma right now. And so they're kind of a little insulted, but somewhat comforted, and they go, oh good, that's, that's good to know. I go, you have to be at a certain level in the, in the power of God before that kind of level is going to come on you. But the reason we care about this, there is such a presumptuous spirit. What I mean by presumptuous spirit, related to the anointing, people want, they just are so hungry for the anointing to make a show of how awesome they are. And they have no idea the perils of getting into a deeper level in the spirit, in terms of power and ministry, but not living proportionate to it at the heart level. And certainly, I haven't seen it all, but in the 30 years I've been in ministry, I've seen a good number, I mean a large number, of anointed men and women, mostly men, on platforms, TV ministries, people that were household names in the 70s, and many of them were not internationally known, but they had power in ministries. They certainly had large followings in their region, and they ended up in incredible, incredible what's the word I'm looking at, callousness of heart towards God, with demonic strongholds in their life. And they were leading large meetings with power in them for years. I've seen that, I mean, just too many times. It's real. Because, and young people might just see the anointing on the platform, and if there is not an anointing on the heart, that's commensurate, that is proportionate to it. It is trouble, it is really trouble. Okay, I think we've spent enough on that. I got several more paragraphs, but I'm gonna skip them. I just got a lot of passion on this point. Okay, let's go to Roman numeral 3. A couple pages down, keep going. There you go, Roman numeral 3. Good. God's threefold purpose in releasing this distressing spirit on Saul. Number one purpose, he releases this distressing spirit on Saul, which basically, he lifts the hedge off and lets demonic torment come on him. And Saul is paranoid. Saul has terror and rage and paranoia come on him. And again, I believe that something like this, that the measure of power he had, and he had real power in his life, was the measure of the torment that was opened up to him. And I don't know if it's an exact equal measure, there would be no point in trying to overdo this and saying it's exact, but I believe it is parallel. Number one reason for releasing this spirit on Saul was to judge him, was to release God's judgment on him. It says in Hosea 13 verse 11, he says this very interesting thing, he goes, I gave you a king in my anger and I took him away in my wrath. God took Saul away in wrath. And the verse right underneath it, 1 Chronicles 10 verse 14, God killed Saul. God did. It wasn't the Philistines, it was the Philistines that he was at battle with, and to the natural mind, it looked like the Philistines killed Saul, because it was at war with him, but God tells, you know, the one who wrote the first Chronicles, but I'm sure others knew it as well, he made it known he killed Saul. But then the logic comes, well if you killed him, if you're about killing kings, if that's some of what you do, and it is, he does kill kings. He really does. Then the logic is, if you kill kings, why didn't you kill him earlier? You know, I thought you didn't kill Saul because you didn't kill kings, you know, David might have said, because why did you let him do this to me for so many years? And the answer would have been, I killed him at the right hour, because you were not ready yet. Because I didn't want you to be like him, so I kept you under his tutelage. He was your seminary in the Spirit, so you would not be like him. I mean, when you have a long trouble, and then you find out that God took care of the trouble, you know, because you were thinking there for a while that it would just take care of itself without a divine intervention, but when God comes along and kills Saul, then David figures out he could have killed him a whole lot earlier than he did. Well, Lord, you certainly didn't seem like you were in a hurry. Well, David, I was in a hurry. I was in a hurry to get you ready. That's what I was in a hurry. You were the one that I was waiting on, not Saul. So all of you young Davids, men and women, the Lord will move the Saul's when He wants to, when we're ready. B. Now, he was not just judging Saul, he was judging Israel through Saul. It says that in his anger, he gave them a king. He was mad at Israel when he gave them Saul. They said, we want a king, because first Samuel 8 says they refuse God. They go, we don't want your leadership in essence. We want a king like another nation. And God tells us here in Hosea 13, He was angry when He gave them a rebellious man as their king, and then it escalated. The rebellious man became a tormented man under this distress. Can you imagine how many national policies were set by this man under a tormenting spirit? And those national policies affected everyone in the land. You know, God still gives kings and presidents to nations in His anger. It says that God appoints all the kings. He does, but that's only half the story. Romans 13, God sets them in place. There's many places where God sets kings in place, but here it tells us God sets them in place. He puts kings in place sometimes because He's angry at a nation. He gives them a king after their own heart, not a king after His own heart. The worst thing that could happen to America is that we get a king after our own heart as a nation. When the Lord gives a king after the heart of a nation, and the nation is not a righteous nation, and America is not a righteous nation, though there are deeds of righteousness that are done, and there are some very glorious strands of glory in our history and that are present even now, and they're glorious, and they're the gift of God, but God does give kings in His anger. Just remember that, because in our, I mean, I don't remember that, I don't mean to you personally, like that's a warning to you, but I'm just saying in our understanding of His leadership over the nations, that is part of what He's doing. He's gonna give the Antichrist as king to the earth in His anger. He's going to give a king to the earth that's after their own heart, and that king will have a tormenting spirit on him, just like Saul, but far more, and he will torment the earth, just like Saul did Israel. But He also tormented Saul, see, to train David, because God's judgment on Saul was David's training time. It was free seminary. Okay, let's go to Romans number 4. David, the anointed musician, joins Saul's court, and I know we spent a lot of time on Saul, but this part about 1st Samuel 16, it always makes me, I just feel the fear of God when I read about Saul. I just, this is terrifying, these verses about Saul. We almost always focus on David, and we got to remember Saul's, the story of Saul is a pretty intense story as well. Here, let's read this. Let your servants seek out a man who's a skillful player on the harp, and it shall be that he'll play with his hand when the distressing spirit from God is upon you, and you'll be well. And Saul said, well then, go provide me this man who can play well. And one of the servants of Saul said, look, I have seen the son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, and this young man, he's about 17 years old, he is skillful in playing the harp, and the Lord's with him. The anointing of the Holy Spirit's on him, the favor of God's on him. And whenever, verse 23, we're skipping a few verses, whenever the spirit from God, and the scripture is emphasizing, it was a judgment of God that took the protection away for this demonic spirit to hit Saul. The scriptures is not shy about that. Again, we're shy about it, but the scriptures not. And that, but verse 23, I love the word whenever. Whenever this tormenting spirit would come on Saul, and it would only come on him for seasons, where he would again feel paranoia, or fear, or rage, or torment, or terror. I'm sure it had many different manifestations. A tormenting spirit has many different feelings to it, where it's this heightened energy of darkness that comes on the mind. And that which is false seems so real. When a demon is breathing its hot, dragon, fiery breath upon a person's spirit, that temptation, that reality seems so real, though it is a deception, when it's breathing on us. And the attack of the enemy comes. It's temporary. And David would flow under the anointing, this minstrel, prophetic musician anointing. And the refreshing would come, and the distressing spirit would depart. Beloved God's raising up right now, all over the earth. He's raising up young Davids, men and women, who are going to have an anointing of power upon their singing and playing. And the kings of the earth are going to invite them in to their courts, to find the refreshing and peace of God from them. It's going to happen. But it's not just the kings of the earth that's going to happen. The peoples of the earth, as the darkness breaks forth out of the pit, the place of repose, the place of relief, even for unbelievers, is going to be in the houses of prayer with the Davidic spirit in the place of worship. It doesn't have to be corporate, but it's going to be the 16-year-old anointed lovesick violinist or guitar player in the neighborhood. They're going to go, I don't believe in your Jesus, but this thing has got a hold of me. And when you play, I feel so comfortable. I feel so at peace inside. One of God's great gifts is the end-time prayer movement. It's going to be the place of comfort, even to unbelievers before they get saved. And some of them, like Saul, won't even get saved. I mean, they won't follow on to a know the Lord. I'll say it that way. But it will be a gift of God. God's raising up this David ministry, even now, will be the only thing that will stop the torment going on. One of the great things about the house of prayer is that, especially as it develops in the anointing, and I'm talking about the house of prayer, I'm talking about it in the earth, I'm not talking about our version of it. I'm talking about that God's building the house of prayer in the earth. There's two great houses in conflict, the house of Islam and the house of prayer. There's two houses of prayer that are in conflict. One has got the name of Jesus and the other has the name of Allah. And those two houses of prayer sum up the end-time conflict. It really does. There's two houses of prayer. It's not even ideologies and political governments. There's two houses of prayer at war with each other. And God's going to use the house of prayer in the earth to bring this spirit of refreshing to His people in a major way. Okay, A. David is a picture of what God wants to release by the Holy Spirit on the end time, what I call David generation. You could call it the Joel generation, the Joseph, the David. There's so many dimensions, but there is no man in the Bible in the Old Testament, I mean only Jesus, would be of a more clear picture of the end-time church than David. David is clearly number two. Now we're going to look for New Testament counterparts upon David's anointing. There's new, you know, he's got seven different dimensions of the spirit that's on him here, and we're going to look at the New Testament counterparts to it. But God makes it clear in Isaiah 55, Isaiah 55, let's look at that. Isaiah 55. Go down an inch. Mic to the sound tech. Okay, we're stuck there. Okay, Isaiah 55, it says this, that God says that He is making, He is making David a witness to all the peoples. He is making a witness to them. David is a model. David is a picture. Did we get it? I guess we're in trouble up there. Okay, let's go to number one underneath that. Okay, a manifestation, a manifestation of the Holy Spirit on David's life. The first manifestation of the Holy Spirit on David's life is this anointing as to bring the presence of God. The anointing to bring the presence of God to others. And that's what God's doing right now all over the earth. He's raising up these Davids. They're prophetic singers, but it's not just, they don't just do it through music, although music is one of the primary ways God's doing it. I mean, it's a brilliant strategy. You want to operate in the Davidic anointing, the anointing of David. The most emphasized feature of David's early anointing, this is in his Bethlehem years before he goes to the thing increases, but he operates in it all of his life. It's through the song of the Lord. And God has so many young Davids, they're an IHOP. Forget who's in the room. It doesn't matter if there's ten in the room or a thousand in the room or conference. It doesn't matter. It's before God because it's before God that David gets anointed. That's where David gets anointed is in the presence of the Lord. And the first, the first grace of God that's on David is prophetic music, prophetic worship. Now, prophetic worship, it's to release the presence of God. We're at number one here. Okay. Let's go on down to number one and two. There you go. Thank you. Number one, David is the first picture of the potential of the prophetic singer in changing the course of a nation. Number two, prophetic music is more than good music. Prophetic music has a supernatural element to it. You know, at the bottom of that paragraph, too, I like good musical jam sessions. You know, when we get musical kind of going, that's good. That's good even if the Spirit's not on it, meaning people enjoy it. But without the Holy Spirit on it, I don't care how good the jam session is, what we want, we're not content with good music, good songs, good lyrics, good jamming together. We want authority on it where demons leave people because that's where God's taking this thing. And the key, the key to this whole thing, especially in our context here, is for people to interact with God in the process. See, it's so easy at a place like IHOP to get lost on the fact that we're just doing the set and we forget to encounter God. But it was David in the fields, it was David with the sheep that was developing this place in God. And if you can just, I'm talking to the singers and musicians, just forget the conferences, forget the breakthrough tomorrow. Just be in the presence of God. Say, I may only have sheep all the days of my life. That is how David gets raised up, by getting lost in God in the midst of just the sheep, of the out-of-the-way context where there is no honor, there is no fanfare, just lost in God. And that's the kind of man and woman, young person, that's going to cause other people to get lost in God. I think it's a very powerful reality that King David, the most emphasized feature of David's early anointing was the ability to release the presence of God. Now, we've got people like me, and a lot of you out there, we're not singers or musicians. And every time I try to be, I get encouraged promptly that, you know, that's not really your calling. Let the reader understand. And so what do we do? What do we do? It's a presence of, it's releasing the presence of God. We do it in the prayer lines. We do it laying hands on one another. Because it's not just music, although that's what's emphasized here in David's, it's the ability to release the presence of God. And I don't mean just on a big platform. I'm talking about one-on-one. That's where we, that's where this thing is developed. One-on-one, singing with only one person in the audience, or you're laying hands on people and there's only one person, two people there. Bringing the spirit of power and refreshing. It's a supernatural reality. And we want to contend for that place, not just to have a breakthrough preaching anointing. We want to be, we want to go to the prayer lines every time we have the prayer line ministry, and we lay hands on people. And when it seems as though nothing happens, that needs to trouble us in our life to go get something. So we're not laying empty hands on empty heads, but we're actually laying our hands on, and there's an element of power, because it doesn't matter how old you are, it's a Holy Spirit authority issue. And that's one of the great things I like about the prayer line, that when it doesn't happen, it confronts us with what God is willing to give us if we'll break through. I want to encourage all of you, if you're a singer or musician, say, Lord, when I play that instrument, I don't want just a nice jam session. I want demons to lift off of people, whether I say words or not. Maybe you're just playing, you know, the electric guitar. I want demons to leave, and I want to watch and see if demons start leaving when I play. I'm gonna play my instrument, and I may be one of 15 people on the platform. I'm gonna see if demons, if a person, if the power of God hits someone in the congregation, I'm gonna start watching. That's what I'm contending for, like David did. Say, well, I don't play an instrument. Well, then do it in the prayer line then. See, we got opportunity day after day after day. Lay hands, nothing happens. Then be troubled that nothing happened. Be sick in your spirit. Say, no, that's not okay. I need a breakthrough when I lay hands on people. Well, I'm only 20. Well, the Holy Spirit's a billion years old, way older than that. It's not how old you are, it's how old the Holy Spirit is. He's the one that's doing it. He doesn't need to be 40, or you don't need to be 40 for the Holy Spirit to operate. The Lord's willing to give authority to His people. Now, what strikes me is how David's, how Saul's court heard about David. It's maybe a year after he's been anointed, and he's got this new life and this new grace on him. How did the king's court, how does a guy in the king's court, he's the presidential aide in Washington, D.C., how does he know that David sings with power and demons come off? I've often wondered that. I don't really know the answer. David, how did he know this? David was singing out there and gathered a bunch of young people out there, and his father's, you know, with the sheep, and one guy told the other guy, and all of a sudden they started gathering around, saying, hey, David, sing that song again. Can we bring our friends? I don't know how that happened. But somewhere in Washington, D.C., which was Gibeah in David's day, which was the national headquarters, where the presidential suite was, or palace, if you will, they know about a 17-year-old guitar player out in the hills of Bethlehem in Nowheresville. How does this happen? Beloved, I want to tell you one thing. You don't have to advertise a fire. One of the main reasons that we send brochures out for conferences, because we have to, because we don't have a fire, because nobody would come if we didn't. Jesus never called a meeting. He showed up. He never, ever announced a meeting, nowhere in the Bible. He just walked in town. The fire was there, and the crowds were everywhere. You don't have to advertise a fire. The reason we have to spend so much time advertising, and I'm all for it in all the various ways we do it, we don't call most of it advertising, but it is, is because we don't have a fire. But when the fire hits in the king's palace, they know about the guitar player out in the hills of Bethlehem. And the crisis that's coming to our nation is going to create the opportunity for the fire of God to be seen in its fullness. I have E here. I've already mentioned it, but I'm going to say it again. As Saul sought for someone to play to help him, so will the kings in the end times. The same thing is going to happen. G, David understood that worship released the power of God's throne. One of the great statements of David, one of his greatest revelations, is the verse underneath that, Psalm 22, verse 3. David said, You are holy. You are enthroned in praise. It means when praise goes forth, the authority of your throne is manifest. For God to be enthroned in praise means God moves in power when 17 year-old guitar players play. Beloved God is enthroned in praise. David wrote that. David understood that like no man in the Old Testament. He said, When I play and lead the congregation, that's the place where the throne of God is manifest in power. The next verse down, 2 Chronicles 20, this is Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat is surrounded by all the armies and they began to sing and praise and the Lord set an ambush against the hostile armies. The choir goes forward. They sing and the power hits. Look at the next verse. That when the musicians play, I mean, the king comes to Elisha in 2 Kings 3, verse 15. The king comes to Elisha and says, Bring me a musician. He says, Prophesy. And Elisha said, Bring me a musician first. And the king goes, What? He goes, Bring me a musician first. He goes, No, I need you to prophesy. I'm the king and I need a direction for the nation. He goes, Bring me a musician. And when the musician played, the authority of God came on Elisha. I'm going to say the hand of God, but you can put the word, the authority of God came on. The prophetic anointing happened. This is the revelation of what we're doing in IHOP. We don't have a lot of authority of it yet. We're still in those David, in the Bethlehem years, but I tell you, the reason David has the tabernacle of David in Jerusalem is because he sang to God with an audience, before an audience of one in Bethlehem for years. Beloved, we're developing our history in God. Okay, let's go to Roman numeral 5. Roman numeral 5. I have, I'm not going to tell you, I'm not going to go through these because we're going to be done in a moment here. The place of prophetic music at the end of the age, I'll say this, having studied it pretty energetically, it is central. The end of the age place of power is centrally linked to singers and musicians. It is remarkable how central singers are to the end of the age drama. Isaiah 42, I said I wouldn't read them, I'm kind of slipping into it here. Isaiah 42, verse 10, it says, sing to the Lord a new song from the ends of the earth. Look what it says in verse 13. When the people sing from the ends of the earth, we're talking about in all the nations, we're talking about all the worship ministries in the earth, this is right before the second coming. Verse 13 is the second coming. The Lord will stir up his zeal like a man of war. He will cry, he will shout aloud, and he will prevail against the enemies when they're singing in the ends of the earth. Jesus, it's the second coming it's describing. He comes like a man of war filled with zeal in answer to the worship ministries in the ends of the earth. That's when he comes. Beloved, don't, and I know many of you are not, don't be distracted by, oh when do I get a big audience. David sang before an audience of one in the hills of Bethlehem, and his father and his brothers just ignored him completely. When the prophet came to town, he goes, I'll just sing to God. He was developing a history in God, and the hour comes when the anointing of God comes, and now it's time to stand for a king. He changes the whole course of Israel just by bringing the depressing spirit, getting it off his soul. I mean here's a, even before he is the king, he's changing Israel by changing the king through his music. But it is not enough to have clever words and clever tunes. There has to, there's nothing wrong with that. I like clever words and clever tunes, but that's not enough. We need to have power on it. It's not the music, it's the authority that's on it, and that comes by the life that's lived before God, before the audience of one. Well, I'm gonna leave the rest of the notes with you. There's quite a few more, but with this new kind of method we have here, we got, put them up here, and again we're working it out. We don't have to take a week or two, but all those taking the class, I mean you can download them, I think, even tonight, but they're gonna end up working to where the, they're gonna make it easy and get some special ways for the people taking the class to get it. They got a couple different options. I don't understand technology that much to understand it all. Well, I have, I didn't get to the seven-fold anointing, did I? It's all right there in the notes, though. What I really care about is this anointing of the releasing the presence of God, because all the other things flow in its place. We get that right, the other ones fall, fall in line. Amen. Let's stand.