Whenever I hear the popular praise song “When the spirit of the Lord is upon my heart, I will dance like David danced”. It comes so naturally for me to want to add some ginger to my dance steps. Or if one is in an extreme of melancholic state, it was a signal to change gear.
The skillful music minister can use this song to make every living soul to praise the Lord-Good as this may be, that is not all there is to the spirit of David. At best this can only be described as the icing on the cake.

The essence of revisiting the spirit of David in this exhortation is to take us into deeper dimensions as to what the spirit of David is, so we are not content with just the icing on the cake.

In the old testament, kings and priests come from different genealogies and no one asides Melchizedec who was God in his pre-incarnate form, combined these two titles. The two lines don’t mix and when one of the kings of Israel tried entering into the office of the priesthood. The priests withstood him and when he eventually had his way, he became leprous [2nd Chronicles 26:16-20]. It must be stated also that Gods original intention was for the whole nation of Israel to be a priesthood [Exd 19:7], however, they were disqualified when they chose to worship the Golden calf.

Inspired by revelation, David crossed the forbidden line! We now see David standing in front of the unveiled ark and ministering before the ark. In fact, as they were bringing the Ark up to the hill, David was clothed in an ephod. “And David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was girded with a linen Ephod” (2 Sam 6:14). As a king he wore the linen ephod which only priests were allowed to put on (Exd 28:6) and nothing happened. Why? It was by revelation, the prophetic grace upon him took him beyond his time to begin to enjoy the church age even while living at the time of the law.

While the tabernacle of moses existed at this time with all the forms and rituals of worship, the tabernacle of David became another worship centre, howbeit without all the religious facad and rituals. Within the space of about 45 years these two worship centres existed side by side and worship was going on simultaneously. The distinguishing factor between the two tabernacles was the presence of the divine ark and the absence of the veil in the tabernacle of David. There was no veil in the tabernacle of David and the people had access to God’s presence. God’s desire of ages to come, seeing man face to face was fulfilled in part, speaking of the better things to come. The worship center upon mount zion in Jerusalem experienced the holy of holies type of worship with the presence of the divine ark without the veil while the worship center at Gibeon experienced outer court and holy place worship.

When you have the spirit of David you thirst and long for true worship within the veil, it makes you restless and pant for more, it pushes you to challenge status quo and enter into the deeper realms of the spirit.

Being a King and a priest was a watershed in the life of David as his influence upon the enemy kingdoms of Israel grew. David’s life at this time is depicted in Psalm 2: “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of zion. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like the potters vessel” (Psa.2:6, 8-9). David not only subdued kingdoms, he subjugated them and made them pay tribute. Up until this time in Israel’s history their battles were mostly internal. Their enemies were within their territory or they fought against invaders to their territory. For the first time, Israel became the agressor! Notable amongst the nations David conquered were the 7 sworn generational enemies of Israel which includes: Philistia, Moab, Edom, Babylon, Egypt, Assyria and Amalek.

In reality the church still battles some of this ancient foes of Israel which are symbolic or representations of different works of the flesh. Daniel Caram in his book titled “The Tabernacle of David” outlined the new testament equivalents of this ancient demons as follows:

• PHILLISTIA- SPEAKS OF ENVY AND HATRED
• MOAB-SPEAKS OF PRIDE AND ANGER
• EDOM-SPEAKS OF BITTERNESS AND RESENTFULNESS
• BABYLON-SPEAKS OF CONFUSION
• EGYPT-SPEAKS OF WORLDLINESS
• ASSYRIA-STOUTNESS OF HEART AND CRUELTY
• AMALEK-SPEAKS OF THE LUST OF THE FLESH

In our current reality, these enemies reside in the realm of our old adamic nature and the realm of the spirit. All these put together is what Gal 5:19-21 categorizes as the works of the flesh. This brings to light the paradigm shift as it relates to the spirit of David. The true spirit of David comes upon us as we are able to present our bodies as a living sacrifice as priests so that we can rule and reign with him as kings. This was christ’s example and we should follow suit- [Heb 10:5;Gal 2:20].

The tabernacle of David was a shadow of God’s eternal purpose of having a royal priesthood in whom he would dwell and propagate his kingdom. It points to those who are willing to suffer with him as priests and reign with him as kings. When we have truly grasped the spirit of David, we would be able to fully exercise the dominion mandate as we govern ourselves. We will be given authority to rule, reign and govern the nations. Full and total redemption will be reached as the 7 ancient demons are crushed under our feet and we are filled with the 7 spirits of God declared in Isa 11:1&2 “There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.2 The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”
David crossed the forbidden line of being both a king and a priest in the old testament speaking to the better things that God had in store for us-we are such a privileged generation.

You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ- 1 Pet 2:5

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.- 1 Pet 2:9

Don’t settle for less!

*Footnotes: 1 Pet 2:5, 1 Pet 2:9, Rev 1:6, Rev 5:20, Heb 6 :12*

Exhortation by Noel Abdullahi