A Heart After God

Greetings, precious Beloved Family!

What a time and celebration we were blessed to experience together this past Sunday. The patriotism… the outreach where hundreds were touched… the pulpit aflame with righteousness… the breaking of bread… the rockets red glare and the bombs busting in air… it was literally one of my favorite Independence Day celebrations ever! Until next year…

I was thinking about where we are on the timeline of seeing the splendor of more manifestation of the Kingdom and THE Great Awakening. I know that our King has desired for His Bride (the church) to be bursting forth in beauty and power in this time because He has declared it through the Finished Work of the Cross. This is the time that we, the remnant church, will rise in strength and authority to slay the lion and the bear of our generation.

That reference is from David’s defining and world altering encounter with Goliath. Prior to this encounter, for all practical purpose, David was just a lowly (insignificant) shepherd with a big heart filled with a Divine Destiny. No resources, no visible proofs of being a world changer, mostly despised by his family, and too young to even be taken seriously. The two things that made him radically different was:

• David had an intimate relationship in authentic love for God based on a genuine revelation of God’s good character
• David was faithful in all areas from tending a few sheep (stewardship), to honoring his parents (humility and obedience), to worshipping God (Psalmist), and, if necessary, slaying a giant and ruling a nation (the big stuff only after the small stuff)

Let us insert ourselves into history for a moment, and I will pick up at the place where David is about to cross the line from obscurity to nation prominence.

1 Samuel 17
32 And David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail on account of this Philistine. Your servant will go and fight him!”

33 But Saul replied, “You cannot go out against this Philistine to fight him. You are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”

34 David replied, “Your servant has been tending his father’s sheep, and whenever a lion or a bear came and carried off a lamb from the flock, 

35 I went after it, struck it down, and delivered the lamb from its mouth. If it reared up against me, I would grab it by its fur, strike it down, and kill it. 

36 Your servant has killed lions and bears; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.”

37 David added, “The LORD, who delivered me from the claws of the lion and the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”

“Go,” said Saul, “and may the LORD be with you.”

What I want to show is that while David was a nobody… insignificant to everyone but God… living in obscurity and stewarding a mundane calling (shepherding), he was purposeful to develop supernatural strength through trusting God and courage, with boldness, which was a prominent expression of his Godly character.

David, with bare hands and resolved heart, pursued at different times a lion who dared to mess with his flock… AND a bear who thought he could just help himself to this weak-looking shepherd’s sheep. The intentions of both the lion and the bear were to kill, steal, and destroy what rightfully belonged to David. Being only a ruddy teenager, those predators were likely emboldened in their terrorist behaviors and arrogantly flaunted their activities in a way to bring fear and insecurity to little ole’ David. BUT… they did not know this tiny teenager was hiding a secret weapon of a big faith in a huge God that he was intimately committed to.

The parallel for us is that we are seeing the giant (Goliath) of media propaganda, the assault on our children in the public school systems, the wicked increasing sexualization of our society, the fraudulent elections leading to a “Helter Skelter” onslaught of government tyranny and overreach, a Titanic lie of fear mongering pandemic narrative… and all the while, the church cowering away with a whimper accepting the label of “non-essential”.

We, Beloved, have already slain the lion and the bear in the quiet places of our heart, so the giant will fall just the same.

David did not just show up in scripture from nowhere and ride onto the scene on a white horse as a massive, muscular knight in shining armor to slay the dragon that was terrorizing the nation. No, he was spending everyday, all day, developing his inner man in the foundations of being a servant of God who could repel any size or type of enemy because, “all things are possible to him that believes.” He slew a lion, with his God. He slew a bear, with his God. He slew them in silence without anyone noticing, but his God. Then, when it was time to slay the national nemesis in public, it was just another day for a Beloved son living the Kingdom life.

David’s greatest biblical commentary was, “he had a heart after God.” How profound and powerful! Yes, it was true that he was a giant-slayer, one of the most influential and successful kings ever, and the third largest biblical figure in human history, next to Jesus and Moses… but how awesome was it to be eternally known for having a heart after God. This is the culture we are desiring here amongst the Beloved Family.

Do I desire, as the cultural architect and senior leader of Beloved, to be influential in America by slaying giants of wickedness and tyranny… YES!

Do I desire that we amass rich resources that give us a chance to see all of the Divine-sized missions and visions come to completion… YES!

Do I desire to see millions of people healed, prospered, delivered, and blessed by our message and lives… YES!

Do I desire that the history books of earth and heaven comment on our unwavering and passionate commitment to love, grace, truth, and righteousness… YES!

Do I desire that RUGGED, SCM, Beloved, and all of our other anointed ministries impact the world through the message of the Finished Work of the Cross… YES!

BUT…

Of all the, “things and stuff,” that I want us ALL (all means all) to be know for our pure hearts towards God in the secret places of our lives moment by moment every day above all these. We cannot give away what we do not have.

Philippians 3:13-14
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Psalm 27:4 (David)
One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.

Just to know Him and to be known by Him.

I love you intensely!
Steve