Where is your Ark?
We’ve been talking about Samuel and David and worship and prayer and how this all relates to the end-times. Now it’s time to get the flavor of the height of the ministry of Samuel and David, and how it plays a part in your life today and will be part of our eternal destiny.
The height of the ministry of Samuel and David
Samuel had been training singers and musicians for decades near his home in Ramah. In 1 Sam. 19:18-24 we can see some of the power of God that manifested in those meetings.
However, unlike Samuel, King David had a powerful army, as well as the resources of his entire kingdom to take Samuel’s vision to its earthly fulfillment.
What David did
One of the first things David did after becoming king of Israel was to search for a very secure place for the Ark of God. He chose a place in Israel that had never been captured before in battle. It was called Mt. Zion. Mt. Zion is less than 3,000 feet in elevation and only a few acres in size, but as David says in Psalm 132 God loved Zion more than any other dwelling, and desired it for His dwelling.
For the Lord has chosen Zion,
He has desired it for His dwelling, saying,
“This is My resting place for ever and ever;
here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it.” Psalm 132:13-14
From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth. Psalm 50:2
The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the other dwellings of Jacob. Psalm 87:2
By bringing the ark of God to Zion, David ushered in the ‘Davidic’ kingdom. You can read about David’s conquering of Mt. Zion in 2 Sam. 5:7, moving the Ark to Zion in 2 Sam. 6, and building a 24 hour a day worship movement with singers and musicians that lasted many years into Solomon’s reign in 2 Chron. 5-6.
From an underground movement to Israel’s kingdom identity
We see that David built the priesthood from an underground group led by Samuel into an internationally recognized movement with 38,000 priests, 4,000 musicians and 288 skilled singers (1 Chronicles 16, 23:1-5, 25). This worship movement was David’s extravagant offering to his God, and the reason David was called the ‘man after God’s own heart’.
What David and his priests did on Mt. Zion was celebrated throughout the Psalms, prophesied about by Isaiah over 50 times, lamented by Jeremiah, and described in Hebrews 12 as the heavenly Jerusalem, the City of the living God.
Think of it, God named heaven “Zion”! (Heb. 12:22)
Zion and the age to come
In Revelation 14 we see Jesus leading a team of 144,000 Jewish singers proclaiming a new song from Mt. Zion. This singing in Rev. 14 releases the power of three mighty angels to proclaim God’s final warnings to mankind.
Zion’s place in our lives
Zion is a geographical place, also called the City of David in the Bible and a hill connected to Jerusalem. Zion is used as a curse word by Muslims. They refer to all of Israel as Zion.
Satan never wants to hear praise and worship return to Mt. Zion, because he knows it will usher in the return of Jesus.
For believers around the world Zion is a spiritual place of prayer, the place of encounter, the place churches, families and individuals meet to seek Jesus and call on His name. It is heaven itself. In fact, every time you turn your heart by faith to Jesus you ‘have come to Zion’.
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly…. Hebrews 12:22
We must come to Zion!
As you read Revelation you see that our prayers and intercessions, our groanings, and tears are stored as incense in ‘golden bowls’. (Rev 5:8)
It is when these prayers overflow that God’s judgments are poured out on the earth. Judgments of God are His decisions to act on behalf of His people. They could be manifested in healing, mending a broken relationship, bring revival to a region, or releasing devastation through famine, weather, earthquake, or war.
Zion and our eternal destiny
Is it any wonder your enemy works overtime to keep your spirit dry, pressed down, oppressed, and defeated? Unless you rise up and come to Zion with praise, worship, and prayer, you will miss what God has for you today and tomorrow.
We are living in an hour when we must stand together for God’s will to be manifest on the earth, which actually has very little to do with getting our guy elected, but rather more to do with letting go of our agendas and seeing God’s agenda revealed around us.
For the Lord has chosen Zion,
He has desired it for His dwelling, saying,
“This is My resting place for ever and ever;
here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it.” Psalm 132:13-14
The Lord will reign forever in Zion with His people. Amen!
