David’s Key - The Glorious Answer to the Trouble!
Below is one of the most sobering passages regarding judgment touching God's people. This prophecy has a dual fulfillment: the immediate fulfillment that Isaiah warned of and Jeremiah saw, but the fullness of this passage comes in the last seven years leading up to the return of Jesus.
Isaiah 22:1-14 The burden against the Valley of Vision. What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops, You who are full of noise, A tumultuous city, a joyous city? Your slain men are not slain with the sword, Nor dead in battle. All your rulers have fled together; They are captured by the archers. All who are found in you are bound together; They have fled from afar. Therefore I said, “Look away from me, I will weep bitterly; Do not labor to comfort me Because of the plundering of the daughter of my people.” For it is a day of trouble and treading down and perplexity By the Lord God of hosts In the Valley of Vision— Breaking down the walls And of crying to the mountain. Elam bore the quiver With chariots of men and horsemen, And Kir uncovered the shield. It shall come to pass that your choicest valleys Shall be full of chariots, And the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate. He removed the protection of Judah. You looked in that day to the armor of the House of the Forest; You also saw the damage to the city of David, That it was great; And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool. You numbered the houses of Jerusalem, And the houses you broke down To fortify the wall. You also made a reservoir between the two walls For the water of the old pool. But you did not look to its Maker, Nor did you have respect for Him who fashioned it long ago. And in that day the Lord God of hosts Called for weeping and for mourning, For baldness and for girding with sackcloth. But instead, joy and gladness, Slaying oxen and killing sheep, Eating meat and drinking wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” Then it was revealed in my hearing by the Lord of hosts, “Surely for this iniquity there will be no atonement for you, Even to your death,” says the Lord God of hosts
This passage is describing the response of the people of God when they see trouble on the horizon. These are the two groups described: 1. Those who claim to be God's people, but look to man's strength to address the trouble and 2. The true response of loyalty to God.
God says the leaders, particularly in this passage a guy named Shebna, who is over the House of Israel, have completely rebelled against God by turning to man-based strength instead of God's plan for a time of trouble. God's plan for a time of trouble was first given to His people in Leviticus 26, then confirmed by God after Solomon dedicated the Temple, the permanent location of David's night and day prayer movement:
II Chronicles 7:13-17 When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 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. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.’
Rather than humble themselves before God in Isaiah 22, the people of God cast off His plan and looked to human strength, which then led them to cast off restraint, which made the promised judgment WORSE. We hear that famous passage "let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die." This is what God promised there would be no atonement for...casting off agreement with Him at exactly the WRONG time.
Repentance is simply agreeing with God that His leadership is good. God says that He has a plan to bring the whole earth into agreement with His leadership…His government. His plan is a PROCESS.
God has been working out the process for nearly 6,000 years, first prophesying the process to Eve, then from one of her offspring, saving mankind's dominion of earth through Noah, who by faith built an ark for a time of trouble. The story goes one and progressively builds through each generation leading up to Jesus by identifying the family that would bear the Messiah….through Abraham, who moved by faith into the unknown land, through Isaac, through Jacob, the one who wrestled with God for the blessing...this is a process of partnering with God, responding to the time we see like He tells us to, rather than what makes sense to our limited logic. Jesus, the promised Messiah, came to redeem mankind and creation as a man correctly exercising dominion submitted fully to the Father’s leadership. Jesus didn’t just come to redeem the earth for man, but rather to redeem the earth WITH all of mankind who would respond to Him. Because God gave US dominion on earth, we have a huge part to play in extending Jesus government all over the earth, and it starts in night and day prayer! Jesus gave the great commission, but said first “tarry in the city”…Jesus was giving those disciples “David’s Key” that would open heaven over them, so they could go out and manifest God’s government:
Luke 24:46-49 Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, (47) and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (48) And you are witnesses of these things. (49) Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high."
This is David’s Key: night and day worship in ONE ACCORD for a geographic region:
1 Chronicles 9:33 These are the singers, heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites, who lodged in the chambers, and were free from other duties; for they were employed in that work day and night.
1 Chronicles 23:5 four thousand were gatekeepers, and four thousand praised the LORD with musical instruments, "which I made," said David, "for giving praise."
Night and day prayer to music is earth agreeing with what happens in heaven night and day. This key opens the heavens and pours out power on the people who are agreeing with it. This is what Jesus told His disciples to do, starting in an upper room in the geographic region called “Jerusalem.” He promised it WILL go to the ends of the earth. It starts with night and day prayer, but it doesn’t end there. It ends with the manifestation of Jesus’ government over all the earth!
Revelation 11:15-17 Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!" (16) And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, (17) saying: "We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, The One who is and who was and who is to come, Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.
The elders are part of the heavenly worship. The final manifestation of Jesus’ government is all about worship on earth agreeing with heaven. We, Jesus’ BODY on earth, have a huge role to play!
Many in our generation imagine that because the world is getting so dark, at some point Jesus will get so tired of the darkness that He will rise up off His thrown wave His hand and magically fix the earth while we all watch and/or get snatched up. This is an anti-Biblical idea. Jesus has a very specific plan and process for fixing the earth and we are in the middle of it. It will get more intense, and that intensity will cause mans response to speed up, but it will not suddenly change. Through partnership with His BODY (me and you) Jesus is going to make all the governments of the earth HIS. This happens, according to the Bible, in violent revolution (called Tribulation) using heavenly weapons, not swords, guns, or tanks. Our weapons of prayer and worship are much more powerful than guns or tanks:
II Corinthians 10:3-4 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
The war is physical, but the weapons are supernatural. That is why weeping and mourning, baldness and sackcloth...this means corporate prayer and fasting...are the weapons. But Isaiah was told by God that many of God’s people...while watching destruction approach…would choose man-based solutions like fixing physical walls and building reservoirs and calming themselves with false sense of “joy and gladness.” Going through the motions with God “slaying oxen and sheep, eating meat and drinking wine!" These have the forms of agreeing with God, but lack the power. They had spent the time fortifying the wall, making a reservoir, repairing the holes in their defenses of the land, but they "did not look to its Maker, nor did they have respect for Him who fashioned it long ago." Paul promised the “falling away” of God’s people would look the same way. They might even go to church, but they will lack the key of power…David’s Key:
2 Timothy 3:1-9 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: (2) For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, (3) unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, (4) traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, (5) having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (6) For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, (7) always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (8) Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; (9) but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.
The folly of this way…having a form of godliness but denying the power from on high…the power obtained first by “tarrying” in one accord, then, when the power comes and the Holy Spirit, going out into the street to evangelize in power, manifesting Jesus’ government… is sure to be seen. This folly is the most popular answer to the trouble right now. Even in the church, this is the most popular answer: fix the economy, fix the earthly government, fix the roads, fix the schools, get better policy, shore up the defenses...but these are all the WRONG answer. We have enough earthly government and certainly it needs to be redeemed, but where is the power going to come from to actually redeem it? What we lack is the manifestation of heaven’s government in power from on high. There is only one right answer, out of which the healing of the land flows:
Joel 2:1-2, 11-18 Blow the trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the Lord is coming, For it is at hand: A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong (this is the antichrist army), The like of whom has never been; Nor will there ever be any such after them, Even for many successive generations.... The Lord gives voice before His army, For His camp is very great; For strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; Who can endure it? “Now (right now, "while there is time" some translations say) , therefore,” says the Lord , “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent, And leave a blessing behind Him— A grain offering and a drink offering For the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the people, Sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and nursing babes; Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, And the bride from her dressing room. Let the priests, who minister to the Lord , Weep between the porch and the altar; Let them say, “Spare Your people, O Lord , And do not give Your heritage to reproach, That the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ” Then the Lord will be zealous for His land, And pity His people.
But healing the land isn’t the end of the promise, it is just the beginning. The end is the full manifestation of God’s leadership on earth:
Joel 2:28-32 "And it shall come to pass afterward (after the prayer and fasting and the healing of geographic regions that respond like Jacob) That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. (29) And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. (30) "And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. (31) The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. (this happens at the sixth seal in Revelation 6) (32) And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, As the LORD has said, Among the remnant whom the LORD calls.
This has ALWAYS been the plan. This is the only plan for a time of trouble for God’s people. In the Isaiah 22 passage, after God says how angry He is with Israel's leaders for shoring up the mess with human logic and then putting on joy and gladness when it is supposed to be prayer and fasting, He then pronounces a replacement of leadership for His House...the Temple. Shebna, the guy who was in charge, is getting replaced by Eliakim, who will restore the worship of God as the answer...this is David's key that opened heaven over the earth:
Isaiah 22:20-22 ‘Then it shall be in that day, That I will call My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah; I will clothe him with your robe And strengthen him with your belt; I will commit your responsibility into his hand. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem And to the house of Judah. The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder; So he shall open, and no one shall shut; And he shall shut, and no one shall open.
Saying trouble is not coming is the wrong answer. The right answer is meeting the trouble with David’s Key…in David's Tabernacle. Now. While there is time. This was what Amos prophesied over our generation. We can see the sifting (also called shaking), and the tabernacle building in this hour, if we will look:
Amos 9:9-12 "For surely I will command, And will sift the house of Israel among all nations, As grain is sifted in a sieve; Yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground. (10) All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, Who say, 'The calamity shall not overtake nor confront us.' (11) "On that day I will raise up The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, And repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, And rebuild it as in the days of old; (12) That they may possess the remnant of Edom, And all the Gentiles who are called by My name," Says the LORD who does this thing.
God's people saying the trouble is not coming is a RECIPE for death, according to Amos. This lie keeps the people from RESPONDING to the trouble in a Biblical way. The irony is that there is joy and gladness IN the repentance. God is the source of joy. True joy comes with His presence! True comfort comes in meeting the trouble head on, with the key of David. The geographic church that responds to the trouble will be kept from the coming time of testing in a unique way. Many of “God’s people” will talk ill of those who build David’s Tabernacle as the answer, but their folly will be seen when they worship at the feet of those who say yes now, while there is time:
Revelation 3:7-12 "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, 'These things says He who is holy, He who is true, "HE WHO HAS THE KEY OF DAVID, HE WHO OPENS AND NO ONE SHUTS, AND SHUTS AND NO ONE OPENS": (8) "I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. (9) Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. (10) Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. (11) Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. (12) He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.
To be kept from the hour of trial isn’t about being taken off the earth, it is about being kept safe in the geographic region that is experiencing the manifestation of God’s government in advance of the return of Jesus! This is what Jesus promised His disciples. Now is the time to take Him seriously about being one with them!
John 17:14-16 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. (15) I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. (16) They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
The word keep used in John 17:15 is the same word used in Revelation 3:10, which is tereo. Here is the Strong’s definition of this word:
tēreō (tay-reh'-o) From τηρός teros (a watch; perhaps akin to G2334); to guard (from loss or injury, properly by keeping the eye upon; and thus differing from G5442, which is properly to prevent escaping; and from G2892, which implies a fortress or full military lines of apparatus), that is, to note (a prophecy; figuratively to fulfil a command); by implication to detain (in custody; figuratively to maintain); by extension to withhold (for personal ends; figuratively to keep unmarried): - hold fast, keep (-er), (ob-, pre-, re) serve, watch.
There is an answer to the trouble: it is to unlock heaven and manifest God’s government in your geographic region with David’s Key in ADVANCE of the governments of the earth uniting like Babel and rising up in defiance of God. This will make your location a fortress of worship and praise that releases manifest power from heaven and will bring everyone who calls on the name into God’s leadership forever. Now is the time.
Isaiah 22:1-14 The burden against the Valley of Vision. What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops, You who are full of noise, A tumultuous city, a joyous city? Your slain men are not slain with the sword, Nor dead in battle. All your rulers have fled together; They are captured by the archers. All who are found in you are bound together; They have fled from afar. Therefore I said, “Look away from me, I will weep bitterly; Do not labor to comfort me Because of the plundering of the daughter of my people.” For it is a day of trouble and treading down and perplexity By the Lord God of hosts In the Valley of Vision— Breaking down the walls And of crying to the mountain. Elam bore the quiver With chariots of men and horsemen, And Kir uncovered the shield. It shall come to pass that your choicest valleys Shall be full of chariots, And the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate. He removed the protection of Judah. You looked in that day to the armor of the House of the Forest; You also saw the damage to the city of David, That it was great; And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool. You numbered the houses of Jerusalem, And the houses you broke down To fortify the wall. You also made a reservoir between the two walls For the water of the old pool. But you did not look to its Maker, Nor did you have respect for Him who fashioned it long ago. And in that day the Lord God of hosts Called for weeping and for mourning, For baldness and for girding with sackcloth. But instead, joy and gladness, Slaying oxen and killing sheep, Eating meat and drinking wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” Then it was revealed in my hearing by the Lord of hosts, “Surely for this iniquity there will be no atonement for you, Even to your death,” says the Lord God of hosts
This passage is describing the response of the people of God when they see trouble on the horizon. These are the two groups described: 1. Those who claim to be God's people, but look to man's strength to address the trouble and 2. The true response of loyalty to God.
God says the leaders, particularly in this passage a guy named Shebna, who is over the House of Israel, have completely rebelled against God by turning to man-based strength instead of God's plan for a time of trouble. God's plan for a time of trouble was first given to His people in Leviticus 26, then confirmed by God after Solomon dedicated the Temple, the permanent location of David's night and day prayer movement:
II Chronicles 7:13-17 When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 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. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.’
Rather than humble themselves before God in Isaiah 22, the people of God cast off His plan and looked to human strength, which then led them to cast off restraint, which made the promised judgment WORSE. We hear that famous passage "let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die." This is what God promised there would be no atonement for...casting off agreement with Him at exactly the WRONG time.
Repentance is simply agreeing with God that His leadership is good. God says that He has a plan to bring the whole earth into agreement with His leadership…His government. His plan is a PROCESS.
God has been working out the process for nearly 6,000 years, first prophesying the process to Eve, then from one of her offspring, saving mankind's dominion of earth through Noah, who by faith built an ark for a time of trouble. The story goes one and progressively builds through each generation leading up to Jesus by identifying the family that would bear the Messiah….through Abraham, who moved by faith into the unknown land, through Isaac, through Jacob, the one who wrestled with God for the blessing...this is a process of partnering with God, responding to the time we see like He tells us to, rather than what makes sense to our limited logic. Jesus, the promised Messiah, came to redeem mankind and creation as a man correctly exercising dominion submitted fully to the Father’s leadership. Jesus didn’t just come to redeem the earth for man, but rather to redeem the earth WITH all of mankind who would respond to Him. Because God gave US dominion on earth, we have a huge part to play in extending Jesus government all over the earth, and it starts in night and day prayer! Jesus gave the great commission, but said first “tarry in the city”…Jesus was giving those disciples “David’s Key” that would open heaven over them, so they could go out and manifest God’s government:
Luke 24:46-49 Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, (47) and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (48) And you are witnesses of these things. (49) Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high."
This is David’s Key: night and day worship in ONE ACCORD for a geographic region:
1 Chronicles 9:33 These are the singers, heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites, who lodged in the chambers, and were free from other duties; for they were employed in that work day and night.
1 Chronicles 23:5 four thousand were gatekeepers, and four thousand praised the LORD with musical instruments, "which I made," said David, "for giving praise."
Night and day prayer to music is earth agreeing with what happens in heaven night and day. This key opens the heavens and pours out power on the people who are agreeing with it. This is what Jesus told His disciples to do, starting in an upper room in the geographic region called “Jerusalem.” He promised it WILL go to the ends of the earth. It starts with night and day prayer, but it doesn’t end there. It ends with the manifestation of Jesus’ government over all the earth!
Revelation 11:15-17 Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!" (16) And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, (17) saying: "We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, The One who is and who was and who is to come, Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.
The elders are part of the heavenly worship. The final manifestation of Jesus’ government is all about worship on earth agreeing with heaven. We, Jesus’ BODY on earth, have a huge role to play!
Many in our generation imagine that because the world is getting so dark, at some point Jesus will get so tired of the darkness that He will rise up off His thrown wave His hand and magically fix the earth while we all watch and/or get snatched up. This is an anti-Biblical idea. Jesus has a very specific plan and process for fixing the earth and we are in the middle of it. It will get more intense, and that intensity will cause mans response to speed up, but it will not suddenly change. Through partnership with His BODY (me and you) Jesus is going to make all the governments of the earth HIS. This happens, according to the Bible, in violent revolution (called Tribulation) using heavenly weapons, not swords, guns, or tanks. Our weapons of prayer and worship are much more powerful than guns or tanks:
II Corinthians 10:3-4 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
The war is physical, but the weapons are supernatural. That is why weeping and mourning, baldness and sackcloth...this means corporate prayer and fasting...are the weapons. But Isaiah was told by God that many of God’s people...while watching destruction approach…would choose man-based solutions like fixing physical walls and building reservoirs and calming themselves with false sense of “joy and gladness.” Going through the motions with God “slaying oxen and sheep, eating meat and drinking wine!" These have the forms of agreeing with God, but lack the power. They had spent the time fortifying the wall, making a reservoir, repairing the holes in their defenses of the land, but they "did not look to its Maker, nor did they have respect for Him who fashioned it long ago." Paul promised the “falling away” of God’s people would look the same way. They might even go to church, but they will lack the key of power…David’s Key:
2 Timothy 3:1-9 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: (2) For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, (3) unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, (4) traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, (5) having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (6) For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, (7) always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (8) Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; (9) but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.
The folly of this way…having a form of godliness but denying the power from on high…the power obtained first by “tarrying” in one accord, then, when the power comes and the Holy Spirit, going out into the street to evangelize in power, manifesting Jesus’ government… is sure to be seen. This folly is the most popular answer to the trouble right now. Even in the church, this is the most popular answer: fix the economy, fix the earthly government, fix the roads, fix the schools, get better policy, shore up the defenses...but these are all the WRONG answer. We have enough earthly government and certainly it needs to be redeemed, but where is the power going to come from to actually redeem it? What we lack is the manifestation of heaven’s government in power from on high. There is only one right answer, out of which the healing of the land flows:
Joel 2:1-2, 11-18 Blow the trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the Lord is coming, For it is at hand: A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong (this is the antichrist army), The like of whom has never been; Nor will there ever be any such after them, Even for many successive generations.... The Lord gives voice before His army, For His camp is very great; For strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; Who can endure it? “Now (right now, "while there is time" some translations say) , therefore,” says the Lord , “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent, And leave a blessing behind Him— A grain offering and a drink offering For the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the people, Sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and nursing babes; Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, And the bride from her dressing room. Let the priests, who minister to the Lord , Weep between the porch and the altar; Let them say, “Spare Your people, O Lord , And do not give Your heritage to reproach, That the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ” Then the Lord will be zealous for His land, And pity His people.
But healing the land isn’t the end of the promise, it is just the beginning. The end is the full manifestation of God’s leadership on earth:
Joel 2:28-32 "And it shall come to pass afterward (after the prayer and fasting and the healing of geographic regions that respond like Jacob) That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. (29) And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. (30) "And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. (31) The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. (this happens at the sixth seal in Revelation 6) (32) And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, As the LORD has said, Among the remnant whom the LORD calls.
This has ALWAYS been the plan. This is the only plan for a time of trouble for God’s people. In the Isaiah 22 passage, after God says how angry He is with Israel's leaders for shoring up the mess with human logic and then putting on joy and gladness when it is supposed to be prayer and fasting, He then pronounces a replacement of leadership for His House...the Temple. Shebna, the guy who was in charge, is getting replaced by Eliakim, who will restore the worship of God as the answer...this is David's key that opened heaven over the earth:
Isaiah 22:20-22 ‘Then it shall be in that day, That I will call My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah; I will clothe him with your robe And strengthen him with your belt; I will commit your responsibility into his hand. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem And to the house of Judah. The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder; So he shall open, and no one shall shut; And he shall shut, and no one shall open.
Saying trouble is not coming is the wrong answer. The right answer is meeting the trouble with David’s Key…in David's Tabernacle. Now. While there is time. This was what Amos prophesied over our generation. We can see the sifting (also called shaking), and the tabernacle building in this hour, if we will look:
Amos 9:9-12 "For surely I will command, And will sift the house of Israel among all nations, As grain is sifted in a sieve; Yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground. (10) All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, Who say, 'The calamity shall not overtake nor confront us.' (11) "On that day I will raise up The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, And repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, And rebuild it as in the days of old; (12) That they may possess the remnant of Edom, And all the Gentiles who are called by My name," Says the LORD who does this thing.
God's people saying the trouble is not coming is a RECIPE for death, according to Amos. This lie keeps the people from RESPONDING to the trouble in a Biblical way. The irony is that there is joy and gladness IN the repentance. God is the source of joy. True joy comes with His presence! True comfort comes in meeting the trouble head on, with the key of David. The geographic church that responds to the trouble will be kept from the coming time of testing in a unique way. Many of “God’s people” will talk ill of those who build David’s Tabernacle as the answer, but their folly will be seen when they worship at the feet of those who say yes now, while there is time:
Revelation 3:7-12 "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, 'These things says He who is holy, He who is true, "HE WHO HAS THE KEY OF DAVID, HE WHO OPENS AND NO ONE SHUTS, AND SHUTS AND NO ONE OPENS": (8) "I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. (9) Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. (10) Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. (11) Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. (12) He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.
To be kept from the hour of trial isn’t about being taken off the earth, it is about being kept safe in the geographic region that is experiencing the manifestation of God’s government in advance of the return of Jesus! This is what Jesus promised His disciples. Now is the time to take Him seriously about being one with them!
John 17:14-16 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. (15) I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. (16) They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
The word keep used in John 17:15 is the same word used in Revelation 3:10, which is tereo. Here is the Strong’s definition of this word:
tēreō (tay-reh'-o) From τηρός teros (a watch; perhaps akin to G2334); to guard (from loss or injury, properly by keeping the eye upon; and thus differing from G5442, which is properly to prevent escaping; and from G2892, which implies a fortress or full military lines of apparatus), that is, to note (a prophecy; figuratively to fulfil a command); by implication to detain (in custody; figuratively to maintain); by extension to withhold (for personal ends; figuratively to keep unmarried): - hold fast, keep (-er), (ob-, pre-, re) serve, watch.
There is an answer to the trouble: it is to unlock heaven and manifest God’s government in your geographic region with David’s Key in ADVANCE of the governments of the earth uniting like Babel and rising up in defiance of God. This will make your location a fortress of worship and praise that releases manifest power from heaven and will bring everyone who calls on the name into God’s leadership forever. Now is the time.
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