We are in the process of building a new wineskin.  The truth is, the new wineskin is not really new. It is just new to us.  The new wineskin is an ancient pattern.  The key to taking the Promised Land and the key to David’s kingdom was the Ark of the Covenant.  It was where the presence of God rested.  

The Lord spoke to me some years ago out of Isaiah 4:3-6.   It is about how God will visit Mount Zion with a spirit of judgment and burning so that all who remain in Zion will be called holy.  It goes on to describe how this will be a place of covering and refuge from the storm.  Then this phrase captured my attention in verse 5, “then the Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies…”  That was when I realized that the Church in any city who did what David did could see a tabernacle of David established in their city.

King David was a wise military commander as well as a spiritual architect.  He knew the advantage of taking the high ground.  David knew that the key to success in the seven mountains was to first occupy the mountain of the Lord’s house whose pattern is found on Mount Zion.

Isaiah 2:2-3

Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it.  Many people shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths." for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. NKJV

What occurred on Mount Zion in the tabernacle of David?  David asked the Levites to steward 24/7 prayer, praise and worship.  One of the functions of a king is to establish systems of administration.  Show me a king or a government without an administration and I’ll show you a government that exists only as a fantasy of the mind. 

As a king, David had responsibility for how all of the spheres of society connected and interacted.  I believe the seven mountain concept is like a modern day parable.  It helps us to understand an aspect or a certain view of the kingdom God wants His people to establish.  

The first decision King David made to begin to expand the kingdom was to set up a tent on Mount Zion and he established an administration of teams to ensure that God’s abiding presence was always welcome in his city.  After this was established we see all through 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles that David’s armies saw victory after victory.  They acquired spoil from these victories. 

It is important to understand that King David was also a skillful general.  He had learned the art of war.  This skill is also an aspect of the apostolic gift.  Here are a couple of excerpts from Developing Apostolic Strategy that will shed some light on this aspect of the apostolic gift.

1 Corinthians 3:9-11

For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.  For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. NKJV

Paul the apostle is the one who penned this portion of scripture which provides keen insight into another aspect of the apostolic gift, its role and its order.  He describes himself as a “master builder.”  The Greek word translated “master builder” literally means chief architect.  Architects are the first ones to work on a project and design plans which move a structure from vision into reality.  These plans provide the pattern from which the general contractor and all of the sub-contractors work from. 

This is why in 1 Corinthians 12:28 apostles go first, prophets second and teachers third.  It is an order of function.  God has uniquely designed this gift with revelation and wisdom to build.  This gift working with the prophet lays the foundation for all of the rest of the gifts to successfully build their part while interacting with the rest of the team.

Plans by the Spirit
Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the vestibule, its houses, its treasuries, its upper chambers, its inner chambers, and the place of the mercy seat; and the plans for all that he had by the Spirit, of the courts of the house of the Lord, of all the chambers all around, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries for the dedicated things; NKJV

God gave King David plans by the spirit of God.  The king served as an architect taking the vision for a house or dwelling place for the Lord and turning that into a set of plans from which his son and a very large team of builders could work from.  He built a structure that had never existed and its very design introduces some intriguing questions.

The other day Brenda said "bitterness is like taking the poison and expecting the other person to die."  How true is that!  

The Bible teaches us that bitterness:

Is like poison
Acts 8:23  For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity." 

It can be contagious and hurt others
Hebrews 12:15  looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;  

Last April my Mom had a stroke that affected her ability to communicate.  She needed 24/7 care and in June I took my turn committing to stay with her for two weeks.  She could barely put more than two words together.  Then the Lord prompted me to meditate on the scriptures that had to do with healing. 

Every morning we would get up and we would read through those scriptures repeating them out loud.  It began with me saying the words and Mom attempting to say them as well.  What was the result?  Within 12 days she went from needing 24/7 care to being able to communicate well enough such that she was independent and back on her own again (that's her preference - we would prefer she moved to live with us or near us).    So praise God, He did a miracle for my Mom.  She turns 89 in 3 days and is doing EXCELLENT!  She can talk so well now. 

But there was another benefit I had not expected. 

God Reversed the Curse in my Life
When I was 28 years old a doctor looked at an xray (I'd torn my ligaments playing basket ball.. again!) of my left ankle and told me my sports history.  He was very accurate telling me how I began to sprain my ankle starting at age 14 and wound up saying I had the ankle of an 80 year old woman with arthritis and that I'd never run again.  That almost became true.  I struggled for years after that with one injury after another (all the results of how I'd abused my body in high school and college). 

When I returned home from helping my Mom, I was excited as God did a wonderful miracle.  Then a thought entered my mind.  I need to start running again.  Well I did.  I've been running for a few months now and I just ran 10 miles over the last three days. 

I began meditating on the word to help my Mom.  That's what prompted me to do what the bible teaches us to do.  What would have happened if I'd started meditating on this word years ago?   Its a good thing I chose the believe God's word instead of the doctor.  If you'd like to see the scriptures we meditated upon....

Have you ever suffered defeat and disappointment?  Who hasn't?  I'd like to share a powerful scripture with you that is loaded with hope.  2 Corinthians 4:7-14 says:   "7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed —  10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death is working in us, but life in you. 13 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I believed and therefore I spoke," we also believe and therefore speak, 14 knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you."NKJV

Have you ever been:

• Hard pressed?  It  means you are between a rock and a hard place. You don't feel like you have any where to turn.
  
• Perplexed?  This means you are in doubt, embarrassed, overcome with uncertainty through betrayal or failure.
• Persecuted?  This means people are out to destroy you.
• Struck down?  This means people are trying to kill you.

Well you are in good company!  So was Jesus and thankfully He is the God of resurrection. 

Forgive - Forget & Press On
This morning the Lord gave and Brenda a word of restoration and hope Christ the King Shine Church.  We took a look at some of the great leaders in history (Washington, Lincoln, Churchill and Jesus) and saw how rejection, defeat and failure forged their character such that they were prepared to be God's answer for the nations.  

Washington teaches us a powerful lesson in Valley Forge.  He retreated there on the verge of total defeat and failure.  It was in the midst of his darkest hour than he retreated, rested, restored, re-trained, re-supplied, reformed, and then redeployed.  The key to start that process is to forgive, forget and press on.

Thankfully God sent Jesus with an anointing to comfort, console, heal, bind up broken hearts and to equip those who would be repairers of the breach and restorer of cities to dwell in.  He has given us the "oil of joy" (healing ointment) for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness (that dark cloud of depression that descends upon you).    

Want to be encouraged and ministered to?  Click the MP3 below and discover what God said through His word!

Joel 3:14  -  Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.  NKJV

We've just completed the 5th One Nation Under God Prayer and Worship Rally in Washington State hosted by Light of the World Prayer Center in Bellingham.  We have two left. 

The key scripture that launched this strategy was 2 Chronicles 20:20-22.  This was a serious time as Israel was entering into battle.  The prophet Jahaziel had declared that the battle belonged to God and that they just needed to position themselves to stand and see the salvation of God.  King Jehoshaphat declared  that if we believe God's prophets we would prosper therefore they stationed singers to praise and worship the Lord.  Then, the Lord set ambushes that routed the enemy. 

The assistant director Jason prayed last night for revival and used Joel 2 to call us to fasting, prayer and repentance ending with a great outpouring in verses 28-32.  I marveled at what I saw as I considered the context of the scripture.

What if...

• God's people prayed that God would give us righteous governmental leaders?   
• Proverbs 29:2 - When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. 
• The pattern - a king's policy "made" a nation "sin."  IE. 1 Kings 14:16, 1 Kings 15:26-34,  1 Kings 16:2
  
• 2 Chronicles 7:13-16  -  When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. 

What if....

• God answers our prayer and gives us candidates and leaders like what we asked for?
  
• We respond by saying "he doesn't have enough experience" (IE how much political experience did Joseph have when he was selected to be 2nd in command of Egypt? - Genesis 41:39).  I'm going to vote for the candidate who I think will get the most votes even though he enacts or would enact laws that violate God's principles.  
• We ignore the one God sent but listen to the wisdom of the entrenched religious and political elite who think they know better and who represent the majority of the religious and political system?  In Moses' day only 2 of 12 spies were right and a whole nation died before the two were able to enter the promised land.  In Jesus day, the religious system rejected Him and did not recognize the anointed one God sent.  By 70 AD they lost everything.

Do you remember what Jesus said?  Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, Sadducees and Herod.  What is that?