“I will sing of the LORD’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself. You said, ‘I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant.'”
Psalm 89:1-3
Since the time of David, few men have risen up who could be considered his equal. David reached a point in his life where others said of him that he was a man after God’s own heart. His life was the expression of such a heart, lived in complete surrender at the foot of God’s altar. Yet, the Bible tells us of several times when David made decisions out of his human nature. The Lord in His goodness uses this to teach us that although David was very human, he also had a sincere heart towards God. He admitted his failures, repented, and completely restored his relationship with God.
As a result of the decisions that David made, God decided to enter into a covenant with him and his descendants. Although David wanted to build a house for God and had already gathered all of the materials to do so, God sent the prophet Nathan to tell him, “Nevertheless, you are not the one to build the temple, but your son, your own flesh and blood—he is the one who will build the temple for my Name” (1 Kings 8:19). Beyond its immediate fulfillment, this passage also speaks prophetically. God was talking about the coming of Jesus. Remember that Jesus was known as the son of David and in one of His teachings, He said, “I will build up my church” (Matthew 16:18).
Through Jesus, the Heavenly Father chose to build His house. The church was born in Jesus who was the corner stone, and the twelve disciples represent twelve pillars. The Apostle Peter wrote, “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4-5).
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
When the great English scientist, Sir Isaac Newton sat under a tree, a piece of fruit fell to the ground next to him. This caused him to think about why the fruit fell downward and not upwards or sideways. This thought drove him to an investigation that culminated in the discovery of the Law of Gravity.
I had a similar experience in 1991, when the Lord took the veil of limitation from my mind, opening it up to understand the significance of the Government of Twelve. I began to ask myself questions. Why did the Lord train twelve and not eleven or thirteen? Wasn’t it better to teach a large group at the same time? I thought that the larger the number of people the faster the work could be finished. Why did Jesus invest His time mainly in twelve people? What’s so special about twelve? Through these questions, God began to bring me a new understanding concerning the Government of Twelve. I heard the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking deep into my heart. He said, “Start to train twelve people, taking the character of Christ that is in you and reproducing it in them. If each one of them does the same with another twelve, and if these in turn do the same with another twelve, you and your church will experience unprecedented growth.” I immediately saw the multiplication and development that could come to our ministry in a short space of time through this idea.
After God showed me this vision of exponential growth and multiplication, possible in just one year, I was overwhelmed and could only manage to exclaim, “This is incredible!” I would never have dreamt of such phenomenal growth without seeing the potential contained in this model. If we want to get a really good grasp of the principle (of working through 12), we need to note that this is exactly how the Lord Jesus was inspired to develop his own ministry on Earth.
TODAY’S DECLARATION
“As a living stone, I choose to powerfully influence the transformation of my generation.”
Today’s post is an excerpt from Pastor Cesar Castellanos’ book, Declarations of Power for 365 Days of the Year: Volume Two.
TODAY’S BIBLE READING
Our Bible Reading Plan gives 25 daily readings per month. There is no scheduled reading for today. You can use this time to catch up on any readings you may have missed, or read through previous passages again.
