2 Samuel 6:2-7
2 “And [he] arose and went with all the people who were with him to Baale-judah [Kiriath-jearim] to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts, Who sits enthroned above the cherubim.
3 And they set the ark of God upon a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart.
4 And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill, with the ark of God; and Ahio went before the ark.
5 And David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord with all their might, with songs, lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets, and cymbals.
6 And when they came to Nacon’s threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled and shook it.
7 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for touching the ark, and he died there by the ark of God.” AMPC
After some time of absence from this blog page I'm back with a word that was unfolding within me since yesterday. While having a conversation with someone about the proper way to carry God's presence, the Lord revealed something for His people to me, and that is that we have come to a time where there are changes in the heavenlies that are also reflecting on the earth and in His church.
These changes are causing His people to need to change the way we have tried to carry God's presence so we can see the Kingdom backing us up in our battles and in the things, we are called to do. We see in this account that it was time for the presence of God to be among His people in the city of David, which was reflected in the ark of the covenant called by the name of the Lord of hosts. This right here should make us want to be cautious in how we're dealing with the presence of God n our lives, because the Lord of hosts by which this ark is named fights on our behalf, but also fights everything that is not of Him in our lives that we would try to mix with the things of His Kingdom.
Verse 3 says that the ark was being brought out of the house where it had settled for quite some time, until King David decided to move it to the city that had his name. Nevertheless, a huge mistake was being made in the way the ark was being carried. The Scripture says it was being mobilized by a cart. This is contrary to the ways of the Kingdom of God. Why is that? You may ask. If we carefully read and study the Scriptures, the ark of God, even before David's time was being carried on the shoulders of the priests, not by any man-made contraption or improvised device.
Joshua 3:3 says,
3 “and commanded the people, 'As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it.” ESV
The ark of the covenant represents the government of the Kingdom of God, and those of us who are called to represent His Kingdom on the earth and bring His presence and government to take over our situations and be able to accomplish our destinies, can never mix the systems and humanistic, or worldly doctrines to bring the Kingdom to back us up. Keep reading because I will show you why this is detrimental.
Isaiah 9:6
“For
to us a child is born,
to
us a son is given;
and
the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and
his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty
God,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.”
ESV
Isaiah shows us that the government of the Kingdom is to always be carried on our shoulders. Jesus, the One spoken of in this verse, when He was on the earth, He carried the government He came from on His shoulders (in power from on high, with authority, and with dominion through communion with the Father and led by the Holy Spirit) and paid the price to show us that this was the only way to carry it on this earth. You might say that Jesus lives on the inside of us and that should be enough. It is true that He dwells on the inside of us.
But it is also true that salvation and the gifts and talents God endued us with were a free gift and we activate them in our lives by believing on His sacrifice on the Cross and by our confession by faith in what He did for us as we receive Him as our Lord and Savior King and His government to rule our lives. We also believe that He gave to us those gifts and talents by grace because we need them to accomplish the plan and purpose of the Father predestined for us on the earth (Ephesians 2:10).
For everything else in the Kingdom, there is a price to pay. And carrying the ark of the presence of the Lord which fights on our behalf cannot be done on the carts of the world. Many people in the church refuse to allow the process of God for them that makes them wear in the spirit the white as snow garments that stand for our right standing with God and our position as priests that sit at His right hand in heavenly places to rule and reign with Him. The ark also represents the glory of God, and its weight is heavy. That is why we are processed to remove the world and its systems, all traces of its sinful nature, and its dirty garments from us (Zechariah 3:4).
The ark of God's presence opposes the things of the world because they are contrary to the divine nature of its King of glory. For this reason, when we want to bring His presence among us and see the Kingdom backing us up in battle, or we want to usher in His presence, like it happened to King David and those who accompanied him, no amount of worship and dancing can replace the principles of the Kingdom to bring the presence and still live in compromise with the world and its systems or live by the faith and prayers of of someone else for us to see victories while we continue to seek the comforts, pleasures, and complacency with the world.
This is the reason why verse 6 says that when the ark of the covenant reached Nacon's threshing floor the oxen stumbled and that caused the ark to shake. The threshing floor is the place where the wheat is separated from the chaff. The way David chose to bring the ark the first time was considered by God chaff and it ignited His wrath, and Uzzah, someone who had the ark of the presence in his house for so long, still didn't know how to treat the ark and carry it properly because he took it for granted. That is why he died when trying to accommodate what was an abomination to God.
This writing is a way to alert God's people that if we see something pruned or that dies in our life, it may just be that we were trying to bring the systems of the world and mix them with the ways of the Lord and of His Kingdom. His government never bows to the world and its darkness. Quite contrary, it causes the idols we have raised in our hearts knowingly or unknowingly to topple and even be dismembered and decapitated before Him.
When something is decapitated, it means that it has lost its authority over our lives and its influence in us because the presence of God we also try to have in our lives drives it out. I learned from Prophet Katie Souza that the presence fights the idol and of course it does not lose a single fight. We see this when the Philistines captured the ark of the covenant and brought it to the house of Dagon, their idol.
1 Samuel 5:1-4 shows this,
“Now the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon, and placed it beside Dagon. 3 When the Ashdodites got up early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and set him back in his place. 4 But when they got up early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. And the head of Dagon and both palms of his hands were cut off on the threshold; only the torso of Dagon was left.” NASB
Therefore, due to the place in the spirit the church has gone to, the world systems it has adopted and accepted together with its conformity and love for worldly pleasures are now at the threshing floor of separation because they are chaff in the sight of God, and thus, will be get shaken and removed by the wind of the Holy Spirit, so that the true essence of what is of God in us and in His house can go beyond the threshing floor, and into what He has prepared in this hour.
In this place, we will see that the things that have taken precedence in our lives more than the love of God and hunger to become the priesthood that is able to carry His weighty and glorious presence are being toppled out of our lives and out of God's house so we can advance into where we will only be focused on becoming true priests of God and are willing to pay the necessary price to be able to support the weight of His glory in our life by His grace. King David had to learn this lesson and after his devastation for trying to bring in the ark in the wrong way, learned the proper way to do it and the second time His attempt was successful and joyous (2 Samuel 6:13-15).
To God alone be all the glory. *
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