To be overwhelmed by God is the core experience in soaking. As we gaze upon His majesty and beauty, we are overwhelmed with His greatness and His goodness. In that place, all the noise and concerns around us, fades.

The moment He comes to reveal Himself more, He lifts the veil of our spiritual eyes and we see clearly who He is to us and who we are in Him. Oh what a joy to be in the presence of God!

Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent. Exodus 33:11

Why didn’t Joshua leave the Tent of Meeting with Moses? I would like to believe that he actually got soaked with the presence of God and he loved it. By watching Moses, he had seen what intimacy with God could do to a man. I believe his desire went deeper than just to have his face shine like Moses’. 

He had tasted the sweetness of His presence, His glory, His nearness and he couldn’t get enough of Him. And so he stayed a little bit longer. He loved His presence and wanted more of Him. This is what compelled him to stay in the presence of God.

Psalm 27:8 When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, O LORD, I shall seek.”

The goal of soaking prayer is communion and intimacy. It is coming to God face to face. The focus is God and not self. We come for God Himself, and not to ask for answers to our needs. Intimacy necessitates deep communion, and communion requires sharing of intimate thoughts and feelings. 

Developing intimacy with God warrants time. It takes time to go deep. Communion is taking the time to search His heart and allowing our hearts to be yielded and open to His inner workings. As we align our hearts to His, we hear His voice and experience Him deeper. 

Jesus calls us His friends. More than obedience, ultimately, it is relationship that He desires from us. When we gaze upon Him, we see the face of a Friend.

In intimacy, He reveals to us His secrets and He gives us keys to the Kingdom of God. As we read through the Bible we begin to see nuggets of wisdom and revelation as if suddenly we have been given a new set of glasses. We can read the same passage again and again and new things are still being revealed. 

This is because our Friend lifts the veil and reveals to us His marvelous secrets. When we gaze upon Him, we see the face of a friend. I want to challenge you to take time with the Lord this week, soaking in His presence. Spend time in His word and let Him reveal Himself to you. I’ll leave you with some questions to consider and to help you to process this idea:

1. Do you have the revelation of how much Father God really loves you? If so, when did you receive that revelation?
2. What lifestyle changes do you need to make to ensure your relationship with God is being nourished through soaking prayer?
3. Are there distractions keeping you from being completely overwhelmed by God? What steps are you going to take towards removing them?
4. What are your goals for soaking prayer? Is it to strengthen your relationship with God? Deeper intimacy?

Meditate on the fathering love of God with this scripture:

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.  Ps 8:3-6

Ask the father to develop in you a heart of intimacy.

Interested in reading more about this topic? Purchase the Soaking in God’s Presence eBook in my shop here.

The Son of God became one of us so that the people who love Him could become like Him. I want to share a few examples with you of how I have seen that play out in my own life. I think they will be helpful pictures of the power of supernatural love. 

Once, while visiting an Islamic university in the Middle East, I met a brilliant Muslim scholar who is very well-known in that world. I was excited when I found out I could meet with him, but I realized I did not have a gift to give him. I wanted to honor him with something tangible. 

I think that is very important, not only because it is appropriate within that culture, but because honor is what love looks like. I had not known ahead of time that I was going to meet with him and had not prepared. I did not have a way to show my affection toward him. I asked my coordinator if he had a copy of one of my books, Seeing Through Heaven’s Eyes. Fortunately, he did. I wrapped it up and gave it to this scholar when we met, and he expressed great appreciation for it. 

About two days later, I was getting ready to leave that country when my coordinator got a call from this man. 

“I don’t know what has happened,” he said. “I started to read the book last night, and then something that feels like waves has been coming over me. I do not normally cry, but I have not been able to stop crying. Every time I open the book, this occurs. What is happening to me?”

I got to meet this scholar again about a year later. He still could not describe what had happened to him over the last year, but I understood. He was being changed from the inside out. This was just a private transformation in his own life. Other imams and clergy around him could see the change that had taken place and were being affected too. I could see a shift in the environment. The spiritual temperature changed. He had accidentally bumped into the baptism of love. 

I had another experience with another influential Muslim leader back in my office in the United States. I had recently returned from a trip to England and then went to Washington, DC, for an event related to the Freedom Act near the end of former President Barack Obama’s second term. This leader was also at the event, and when it ended, he said he wanted to visit my home. 

So, we returned to Atlanta together. We went to a mosque together, and then we met in my office. I had done a little preparation before he came by putting the Quran and the Bible on the highest shelf in my office. While we were seated in my office, he stood up, took the Quran off the shelf, then sat back down in a chair and began reading it in Arabic. I was still jet-lagged and about to fall asleep, but I tried to straighten up and keep my eyes open. 

The next moment, I could feel the presence of Jesus coming into the room. I have to admit that I was thinking, This is not a good time, God. But it got heavier, and I was feeling a little under the influence of the Spirit. I am sure that I must have looked drunk when I was looking at him. And the presence just kept getting thicker and thicker. 

“What are you doing to me?” he asked. 

“What do you mean?”

“What is this tingling? It is going from my head all the way down to my feet, up and down like waves. What is this?”

“Oh,” I said, “That’s just the presence of Jesus. He is pouring His love over you. Can I pray for you?”

I had enough favor to pray for him but not to actually touch him, so I went over to him, put my hand a few inches over his head, and prayed. To me, it felt like heat was going down into his stomach area and making circles like fire and then disappearing. 

The next morning, I went to his hotel to pick him up. I was going to open my car door for him, but he said very firmly, “No, I want you to come in here–up in my room.” He had a beautiful, long beard and warm, brown eyes, but his voice was a little bit strict. This was very unusual. Whenever I have been in the Middle East, I would not go to an imam’s or scholar’s room. Was I in trouble? I did not know what he had in mind. It felt very awkward. 

When I walked into his room, he went over to his laptop where his whole family was on Skype–two wives, children of all ages. “I want you to give them what I received yesterday.” 

So I prayed over Skype, and the presence of Jesus filled that room in the Middle East where his family was gathered. They had encounters with divine love, and those encounters have transformed their lives. 

When the man returned to his home country, he began to notice things he never had before: people living in poverty, beggars, people in pain, women who could not get pregnant. These people had been there all along–he had grown up with this pain all around him–but the common attitude is that Allah is going to do whatever Allah is going to do. He had not noticed these things before he was filled with a heart of love. 

But now, with the heart and the eyes of love, he saw brokenness. I don’t know if he had prayed a salvation prayer yet, but he was being changed by this love from the inside out. He had new lenses on his eyes. He was beginning to see what Jesus sees, feel what Jesus feels, and say what Jesus says without realizing that a seed of love had been planted in him. He had begun to feel love that he had never known before. 

This experience eventually led to a healing meeting in a mosque. He wanted to address the brokenness. But he did not know what to do, so he called me. “Can you help me? I do not know how to pray that way.” So I offered to help. I have actually been to that mosque now to do a healing meeting. It has been amazing to see what has happened in this man’s life. 

The seed of love that brings encounters with love created people who love. We receive love, give love, become love, and release love. If we are going to bring the love of Heaven into this earthly realm, we need to be immersed in that love ourselves. We need to know we have an A-plus on our report card before we go out and complete our assignments. 

We need to look into the darkest places of this world and see them with the eyes of love. Jesus became the incarnation of love so we could become an incarnation of love. The new identity first appears in our homes, families, neighborhoods, and workplaces. But we can live it out anywhere. 

**Interested in resources that develop you as an Ambassador of Love? Sign up for the Blueprint for the Kingdom Identity Masterclass here.

We cannot love others beyond the capacity we have allowed God to love us. You can try if you like, but it isn’t going to work. You may be able to love pretty well, but you will not be able to love supernaturally. You can’t love like Papa God does if you haven’t encountered His love supernaturally. 

If we have not received the Father’s love, we cannot release it. So if we are going to love a hate-filled world, heal the wounded masses, touch the lepers, cherish the widows, protect the orphans, and give life to the dying, we will need to be filled with the love of God ourselves. (Matthew 10: 8) 

I’m not sure if you have noticed what this means. If you are going to love your neighbor as yourself, you are going to have to love yourself. You will have to learn to see you like the Father sees you! 

Think about how this works. If you do not love yourself like Papa God loves you, why would your neighbor want to be loved in the same insufficient way? In fact, you cannot love others with supernatural love if you have this root issue of rejection or self-hatred. Again, you cannot give away what you do not have. Many Christians still need to deal with a root of self-negligence or self-rejection—unhealed wounds that affect every area of life. If you’re walking around with open wounds, the love God pours into you leaks out, and you can never get filled up. Letting yourself be loved by the Father is the only way you can let your love go out to others.

I know this because I would not have the love I have had for people if I had not received it myself. I’ve also never doubted since my baptism of love in 2000 that I am always surrounded by and filled with the love of the Father. So when I stand in a peace conference in one of these regions that the Gospel has never reached, I can give a talk as a son and release the love of Heaven. I know it’s in me, and I know it comes out. The entire atmosphere can be transformed. I have never witnessed the transforming effects of love like I have in some of the darkest places of this world. This is how we follow Jesus when He tells us to love others the way He has loved us! 

Let love be what drives you! 

If you want to read more about this topic, purchase The Love Awakening book by clicking here!

“The greatest farmer the world has ever known is pursuing the greatest harvest the world has ever seen.”

Dutch Sheets

I ministered to a small farming community in southern Illinois some years ago. A few weeks before the event, a local pastor asked if I would pray for the farmers. The drought had been severe that season, and the sun was relentless, nearly ruining all corn and soybeans. A lot of farmers were preparing to lose their harvest. 

I arrived in Illinois and ended up staying with one of the farmers. They drove me through the drought-stricken farmland. I felt sad looking at the withered crops. I asked my friend, “What will happen to the harvest?” He responded, “Leif, we have been praying. It has been a brutal season, and we all thought we would lose the harvest. We prayed for rain whenever we saw a cloud in the sky.” 

My friend shared that when the rain finally came, it fell very hard and fast. They were so worried it would ruin whatever remaining crops they had. However, the farmers didn’t realize that the roots were going deeper into the ground during the drought in a desperate search for water. When the rain fell heavily, the deep roots could get a hold of the water and nutrients. Everything changed! The farmers were preparing for their best harvest yet! The crops looked rough on the outside, but on the inside, they were growing stronger every day. 

I woke up remembering this story during the first week of the New Year. It’s a prophetic picture for the season we’re living in. Especially as I reviewed the last three years and some of the processes we’ve been through–conflict, COVID-19, the political climate, and believers who deconstructed their faith. I realized God is raising up a remnant that has gone through a drought season that seemed fruitless. All the while, their roots have been diving deep in desperation for Him. Now, when the heavy rains come, it’s going to hit those deep roots, and it’s going to make harvesters come alive again. We’re going to see the greatest harvest the world has ever seen. 

Reflecting on the uncommon favor with God and men in 2023, I was excited about the season shift. We equipped, empowered, and released over 37,200 leaders last year to establish healthy fireplaces that steward the fire of God’s love and have a passion for God and compassion for a hurting and dying world. 

In the Philippines, Destiny Ministry International announced 2024 as the year of the Harvest. It was such a confirmation of what I was sensing and encouraged me to say “yes” to the Lord of the Harvest. 

God is calling a generation of Kingdom Ambassadors who immerse themselves in this glorious love and are empowered by the Holy Spirit to live and love like Jesus for such a time as this.

The scripture for 2024 for the Kingdom Family Movement is Ephesians 5:15-17:

“So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.”

In 2021, I received the International Peace Award as an Ambassador of Love by the President of Pakistan and the Grand Imam. It was the greatest honor. 

On the floor at the Voice of the Apostles conference in Brazil, I wept as I felt King Jesus asking me to equip, empower, and send a million Ambassadors of Love to bring Heaven to earth in the harvest fields. We are commissioned to announce, proclaim, and demonstrate the Kingdom as Jesus did. 

Ambassadors of Love know who they are (identity), where they are (intimacy), what they have (inheritance), and what they are called to do (destiny). 

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17

“We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.” 1 John 4:16-17

We must love the world God Loves.

Becoming an Ambassador of Love who knows how to bring their best when the world is at its worst is a calling. Our bridegroom King is calling. Can you hear him? 

Our true fight is not against those who are hurting in the world; it is against the sinful and demonic forces of darkness. 

“Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:4

Every believer is called to be an Ambassador of Love. Jesus, our great King, called all His followers to be with Him, become like Him, and do everything He did. 

“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.” John 14:12.

If you still need to go through the foundational training to become an Ambassador of Love, I encourage you to do it! The Blueprint for Kingdom Identity Masterclass is a twelve-week revelation, impartation, and activation journey. 

Heaven’s call for Ambassadors of Love in business, government, media, arts, entertainment, education, the family, and religion is NOW!

May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:10 

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. Matthew 6:33

The way of Jesus is irresistible. Just say yes! 

Leif Hetland

Ambassador of Love

P.S. Interested in the Ambassador of Love training? Check it out here –> www.kingdomlifeblueprint.com.

Oh my! Already another year coming closer to an end. I know that God sees time differently than I do, but seriously, a year feels like a week. I encourage the ones that I love to try and stay present. When we are young we tend to wish our lives away; “I wish I were older”, or “I wish I could drive a car”, and one of my favorites, “I wish I were married with children.” The anticipation to live life will always be there and yet as we age, we relish the time that God has given us. We also now know the reality and responsibility of some of those wishes. We know loss, we know fatigue, we know fear, we know so much more than we did in those innocent wishing days. 

There is always something bittersweet about holidays: the anticipation, the build-up, and then the execution of menus, meals, and guests. And then, it’s here. And then, it’s gone, over. Dishes to wash, leftovers to hand out and the proverbial, “We only have a month left until Christmas.” I do laugh at people when they talk about it sneaking up on them, as if we don’t celebrate it at the same time every year. 

We can also feel sorrow, discontentment, fear and a myriad of other emotions during the holidays! Some will face their firsts! First Thanksgiving, first Christmas, first New Year without a loved one, whether spouse, child or other. Some will be alone during these holiday seasons. 

We encourage you to find the joy that only Jesus can bring. And to be thankful for the comfort and power that the Holy Spirit is always ready to supply, at just the right moment! Grace is always timely. We do not have tomorrow’s grace today. Each day carries the same access to the grace we need. As you are able, reach out to those around you who may need a friendly face during this season. If you are one of those people, reach out and make your needs known. There are so many in our communities who are willing but they are not aware of your need if you don’t tell them.

Global Mission Awareness (GMA) is a family of families. We love family and are so grateful to have you as part of ours. We are so thankful for you, and as we push toward our End of the Year Giving campaign, we are fully aware of the sacrificial giving you have all been a part of this entire year and pray God’s riches blessing as you consider giving generally or to one of our following global connections. Just know that whether you are able to give or not, we always appreciate your prayers covering us in that way!

Follow along with our giving campaign by subscribing to the newsletter here. You can support the mission and work of GMA by clicking here.

In Christ,

Jennifer Hetland

From the time of His baptism to the time of His ascension, Jesus spoke of one thing–the good news of the Kingdom (Matt. 4:23). That, He tells us, is what He was sent to do (Luke 4:43). And He sent out His disciples to do the same. 

Jesus was obsessed with the Kingdom. And rightly so. He had just come from Heaven where the Kingdom stood in all its splendor, everything radiant in its beauty, everything in harmony with the love of God, everything at peace, everything bursting with life, brimming with joy. For Him, that was the real world. Earth, even at its best, was merely a dim and distorted reflection of all that existed in Heaven.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave His first recorded teaching on the Kingdom of God. When He finished, Matthew says the crowd that heard it was amazed. G.K. Chesterton, the British essayist who was a contemporary of C.S. Lewis, described the sermon like this:

“On the first reading of the Sermon on the Mount you feel it turns everything upside down, but the second time you read it, you discover that it turns everything right side up. The first time you read it you feel that it is impossible, but the second time, you feel that nothing else is possible.”

Chesterton’s words are particularly applicable to the upside-down way that Jesus tells us to treat our enemies. In Luke 6:27-31, we are challenged to love our enemies and do good to those who hate or curse us.  

God so loved—not Americans, not Muslims, not Jews, not Christians, not Republicans or Democrats—the world. He doesn’t want anyone to perish but wants everyone to come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). Everyone. The Father’s heart is for the Jew and the Gentile, for the slave as well as the free, for the woman along with the man. And that includes Muslims, whom many believe are our enemies. Muslims are not a problem but a promise. 

The God of the Bible is a searching God, seeking to find us, regardless of how alone or afflicted we feel. It doesn’t seem to matter where we have ended up or how we have gotten there. It doesn’t matter into what physical wilderness we sought refuge. All that matters is that we are found and that we are brought home. The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son all tell the same story—the story of how greatly we are loved, how greatly we are missed, and how happy Heaven is when we are found and brought home (see Luke 15). 

That includes our enemies.

Take Saul of Tarsus, for example—a terrorist in the eyes of the early church, a jihadist against this emerging threat to his Jewish faith. He was a murderer, and he took pride in the fact that he did his murderous duty with such religious zeal (Acts 9:1-12). From the perspective of the early church, Saul was seen as an enemy. But that is not the way heaven saw him. Heaven saw him as a friend in the making. 

There are a lot of ways an enemy can be dealt with. He can be threatened into silence. He can be tortured into compliance. He can be imprisoned or exiled, even murdered. Jesus does none of those things. Instead, Jesus seeks him out—not to censure him, not to intimidate him, not to harm him, but to love him. And in loving him, Jesus turned this most feared of enemies into the most faithful of friends. Look in Acts 9. Put yourself onto the scene, looking with Kingdom eyes and hearing with Kingdom ears. What do you see? What do you hear?

Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:3-5, ESV). 

What do you see? You see a light—not fire, not brimstone—but a heavenly light, dispelling hellish darkness that had blackened Saul’s heart. And what do you hear? You hear a voice. There is no anger in it, no animosity, no antagonism. But there is tenderness in it, tenderness tinged with sadness. “Saul, Saul…” The repetition of the name is reminiscent of His words to Martha when she came out of the kitchen, angry at her sister and at Jesus, accusing Him of not caring that she had left her to do the serving alone. “Martha, Martha,” He begins. And you can hear the tenderness in His voice, mingled with sadness. He doesn’t return her anger with anger. He corrects her, but in the gentlest of ways, without a critical spirit or a condescending tone (Luke 10:38-42). Then there is His final entry into Jerusalem the week before He weeps not for His destruction but for hers. And the words He speaks have the same tender but grieving tone. “Jeruslame, Jerusalem…” (Matt. 23:37). 

After Jesus calls Saul by name, He doesn’t threaten him, rebuke him, or lecture him. There is no ridicule, no payback, no evening of the score. Just a tender, sorrowful questions. “Why?” And it sounds as if Jesus is confused, at a loss to understand all Saul’s animosity toward Him. “What are you persecuting Me?”

That was the beginning of their friendship—Jesus seeking out an enemy, and loving him instead of hating him, forgiving him instead of punishing him, blessing him instead of cursing him. Before then, Saul was filled with hate for Jesus and for anyone who followed Him. His hate was an obsession. Blaise Pascal once said “men never commit evil so fully and so joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions.” The bloody history of the world’s religions backs up Pascal’s claim. The three great Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—are stained with the blood of their enemies. 

When will it ever end? And if it doesn’t, where will it all lead?

Martin Luther King Jr. was right: “The chain reaction of evil—hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars—must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.” 

How can that chain reaction be broken?

By the radical principles that Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount—loving , forgiving band lessing our enemy. 

However difficult it was to treat His enemies like that, Jesus practiced what he preached. He lived by those principles; He died by those principles. And in doing so, He showed the world how to step back from the abyss.

This blog is an excerpt from Leif Hetland’s book Seeing Through Heaven’s Eyes. You can purchase your copy by clicking here.

Paul said to the Romans, “For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed” (Rom. 8:19). If you listen closely, you can almost hear the strain from exertion. The longing is so great that his words are about to burst at the seams. The whole world waits in eager anticipation for the revelation that can only come through the exploits of the Father’s children. We are confounded by how the Lord values our contribution. Let me clarify Paul’s message one more time: God’s creation waits in eager expectation. The whole earth groans in pain. The whole of mankind eagerly waits for deliverance.

In anticipation of a forthcoming query, the apostle wrote down the logic behind his statement. He said, “[C]reation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay, and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21). As if on cue, the eyes of our understanding begin to open. All of a sudden we see why there is a cry that echoes from the bowels of the earth. Creation longs to be restored to its former state! And there is only one way to satisfy that deep-seated long- ing of all living things: through the intervention of Father’s children. As we imitate Christ, we will show the way (see 1 Cor. 11:1).

It is God’s will to heal and liberate mankind. Just as creation was subjected to the curse through the fall of man, its redemption and total restoration are realized with the manifestation of the glory of the sons of God. It is the Father’s will to restore order and fruitfulness to this planet. If we are children of God, we need to participate in this kingdom mandate. This mission is framed through the Lord’s decree, “You are my son; today I have become your father. Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession” (Ps. 2:7-8). By revelation, David spoke of the depths of Father God’s heart, that is, the nations are the Father’s inheritance to His beloved Son, Jesus. As co-heirs with Christ, the nations are our inheritance and the ends of the earth our possession as well. 

This global mission of inheriting the nations can only be accomplished through the love of the Father. This loving mission is manifested in affection and working relationship where children learn to serve their Papa God in love. Jesus Christ laid down the blueprint for this master plan. We know that the Old Testament is a foreshadowing of the Lord’s coming. Therefore, it is the Son of God who will fulfill this particular prophecy.

But take heed! Christ is in us. Since He is in us, then we also partake of the same inheritance. Our inheritance is not merely limited to future events in the divine realms. Our inheritance is not merely limited to heavenly mansions. We can live thankful that someday we will inherit a jeweled city with pearly gates. However, a major part of our inheritance is far better than streets paved with gold. It is more precious than walls encrusted with rubies and diamonds. If you are a child of God, you are destined to inherit nations. Christ is in you! Thus, these words form part of your reality and commission. It may all seem like mission impossible at first glance, but take heart; the risen Lord that is in you is greater than the devil that roams the earth. Everything is possible through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

We are called to be people of destiny, but many people never recognize theirs. I’ve noticed four destiny-killers in my life: disappointments, discouragement, distractions, and delays—I call them the four D’s. Any one of these can undermine the destiny we have been given, but they also work in powerful combinations to divert us from fulfilling our true purpose. The destiny of both David and Saul was to be a king, but only one of them fulfilled his destiny. Saul became a king but had his kingdom taken from him because he was not faithful. He was a man after man’s own heart, while David was a man after God’s own heart. David was faithful in the natural—with his harp, with his sling, in his friendships, in his responsibilities, and in his Bethlehem season. Faithfulness in the natural realm correlates to faithfulness in the spiritual realm.

Many believers want to move into the supernatural and change the world. We’re in the middle of a training-for-reigning program, but our identity as sons and daughters of the Father needs to include faithfulness in our natural identity too. It took 30 years of preparation before the destiny over Jesus’ life was birthed into a three-and-a-half year ministry that changed the world. He learned how to be a faithful son in the natural until the supernatural came in. Then the Father opened heaven over Him and the Dove came down. David was a faithful son to Jesse, his father. He was a shepherd who took care of his father’s business. He also knew he was a worshiper and a warrior, a priest and a king. Others had their own dreams, but David had a vision for his father’s dream, and that upgraded him into the destiny God had given him.

We are not fulfilling our destiny because we are not living from a place of rest in our identity, intimacy, and inheritance. God is raising up world-changers, giant-slayers, and history-makers who will go through this training-for-reigning program and not shrink back from it. David was willing to take care of his father’s business even when a bear or lion came against his father’s sheep. No one was going to snatch those sheep away from the family’s estate. David knew his responsibility in the natural and his responsibility in the supernatural were connected. David wasn’t always in Chair 1. He didn’t always have the right perspective during his season in the wilderness. He learned how to get out of Chair 2 and back into Chair 1, as we see in many of his psalms. He often cried out with a focus on his problem, but ended them with a focus on God. During David’s years of exile from King Saul, who was trying to hunt him down and kill him, he took refuge in the cave of Adullam. “Everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them. Now there were about four hundred men with him” (1 Samuel 22:1-2). In the cave David learned how to create a culture to sustain what God had called him to be. He was called to be a king, but if he was going to conquer a kingdom, not just one tribe, he needed to take these people on the margins, create a synergy among them, and develop a covenant relationship. David went from Adullam where everybody was in it for themselves—Chair 2—and came to Hebron, where he reigned for seven years after he became king, before Jerusalem was conquered and made the capital. In Hebron, he developed a new culture that was going to change the old culture. It was a kingdom culture, a family culture that was part of his destiny. That foundation was eventually given to his son Solomon, who took it and established shalom. David paid a price. He was at war so his son Solomon could inherit a kingdom. The Bible says there was rest on all sides, with no adversary and no evil threats.

Many people never pass that test; they never come out of the cave or stop seeing it as a problem. David was able to turn his cave into a palace. He could see himself as royalty before he ever sat on a throne because he had learned to see himself as God saw him. That identity began to pull from heaven’s resources. David’s destiny was not just to kill one giant; it was to raise up an army of giant slayers. It was not just to worship at a temple; it was to create a culture of worshipers. David’s destiny was bigger than David and yours is bigger than you. 

If you are on a path of discovering your destiny, my Blueprint for Kingdom Destiny may be a helpful tool for you in this season. You can learn more about this life altering experience at www.kingdomlifeblueprint.com/masterclass-destiny.