This Radical Shift Will Wreck You in His Presence

At the beginning of 2015, we hosted a gathering of thousands of believers in Cleveland, Tennessee, and we watched the absolute Presence of God wreck our lives.

We entered into a time of ecstatic worship, and in the joy of the moment, I remembered that behind the stage we had a life-sized styrofoam replica of the Ark of the Covenant.

I asked my friend and worship leader, Chris Burns, to join me along with two other musicians, and we completely demolished the set on stage in order to make room for the Ark to be brought out. When we brought it out, young people from all over the auditorium gathered and began to dance violently around the Ark.

This caused an absolute firestorm on the internet because people with no spiritual discernment could recognize the prophetic significance of that moment. We all knew we weren’t dancing around the literal Ark of the Covenant, but it was a prophetic act calling a generation into a new day of hosting His Presence.

After that night, I called the ministry we were leading at the time into 40 days of hosting the Presence of God nightly at our building. It was a glorious time of intimacy, tears, passion, and anticipation for what God was about to do in our lives. After several nights of gathering and making Abba’s Presence the priority, I heard the voice of God say, “This is forty days for forty years. A time to plant the seeds for the greatest reformation in church history.”

At the end of those forty days, I was preaching my usual Saturday morning session at our largest youth event that we hosted every year. Right there in front of 5,000 screaming teenagers, the Lord interrupted my message and started talking to me. He said, “The spirit of 1776 has come upon this generation. Just as your forefathers cast off the yoke of the tyranny of Great Britain, so shall this generation cast off the yoke of the tyranny of religion and come into the glorious liberty of being the sons and daughters of Yahweh. And if you want to be a part of it, you will be required to make revolutionary decisions.”

That month was the beginning of what my apostle calls “systemic exodus.” That was my Nacon’s threshing floor moment when I realized the current wineskin of the church, no matter how “successful” man deemed it to be, was not scratching the itch in my heart as a man who longed for the Presence of God.

This article is not being written by a man who has not experienced ministerial success, sitting in the bleachers pointing my finger in jealousy at “successful” people. I know what it’s like to see a small beginning of six people become thousands. I have watched millions of dollars come in and been a part of watching a 23-million-dollar facility be erected, debt-free, five months before we had the first service.

For almost a decade, I traveled forty-two weekends out of the year, was featured on Christian television, preached at conferences, and knew how it felt to be the honored guest in church houses all over this country. I preached for some of my heroes and shared the stage with amazing worship artists, but in that moment of realizing there was a revolution on the horizon, none of what I was raised to call ministerial success mattered. I knew God was doing something new, and I had to be a part of it.

When Abba interrupted my message that day, I had to admit that I was the one yoked to religion and stuck on the treadmill of performance. I had to admit that my pace was off from the way of Jesus. I had to have enough humility to admit that I had traded my Presence obsession for ministry success.

To the surprise of many, I resigned from the ministry I helped birth. I didn’t know exactly what was next, but I could not let this revolutionary moment pass me by because of the opinions of others. My decision to resign led to Abba asking me to shut down my full itinerary and do the very things that I have written to you in the pages of this book.

I walked away from it all because I heard a frequency in the voice of Damon Thompson calling us out of the dysfunctional model of conference Christianity. At that moment, I could have given you a thousand reasons why I needed to walk away, but years later I recognize there is really only one reason—He was jealous for me. He wanted me locked back into the face-to-face gaze of His furious love.

This story of David’s journey to restore the Presence of God is my story and the story of many others who were stuck in this modern-day church system. I may be just a few steps ahead of others in the journey; however, I know He brought me out of systemic religion early so I could help others find their way back, under the weight of His glory, to find the way of glory again!

Just as David discovered the way to carry His Presence, the Lord supernaturally led me on a journey as well. He gave me a certain father and a certain family. I found my Levites from the house of Kohath who could get up under the weight of God’s Presence and see it rearrange my whole world.

That decision to walk away from everything that I knew in systemic religion not only brought me back to face-to-face encounters with Jesus, but my wife and children began to come alive with things that I never knew existed in them. My whole house became rich in the Presence of God. My children were encountering Jesus in supernatural ways, and we experienced supernatural provision the entire time we said yes to living this life exclusively unto Jesus.

As a matter of fact, the very week I laid my full itinerary down at the feet of Jesus, God moved upon the heart of a businessman to call and see what I needed. I half-jokingly said to the man, “I need a salary.”

His reply was, “That’s exactly why I am calling you.” The Lord had shown this businessman that He had brought me into this new place in life in order for me to sit still, for what would become three years, and to inherit the Kingdom blueprints for a new expression coming into the earth that we now call apostolic revival cultures.

Yes, walking away from everything you know is a huge risk, not to mention that no one could comprehend that someone would walk away from “success” in ministry to just be with Jesus. So we had to endure the rumor mill, accusations, and warnings from religious leaders who just couldn’t accept that our only reason for leaving was because we wanted more of Jesus. We were accused of neglecting our call and letting a generation go to hell while I “rested” in the wilderness. Let’s not leave out that some accused us of joining a cult.

Who knew that we would be persecuted for choosing Jesus, being captivated by the gospel, and becoming a living witness among our community? I didn’t realize that saying yes to the life of devotion without a microphone and a platform could be so controversial.

So let me just go ahead and warn you. When you walk away to inherit the protocol for this new day, don’t expect everyone to throw a party because you want the real thing. Some just cannot and will not understand why or when God starts doing something new.

Also read: Bill Johnson: “My Heart Burned While Reading This.”

It wasn’t long after my transition in 2015 that the Lord gave me a vision that I believe is important for those of you today looking for the next step.

In February of 2016, I had a vision. I saw three men, all recognized by many as apostles in the church today, sitting on a platform. Above their heads were blue portals, which I knew were open heavens, and lightning strikes were producing something in their hands. As it began to unfold, I saw that these lightning strikes produce blueprints for the church. I knew radical changes were to be announced to the remnant.

So I asked the Lord, “How do I stay in step with what You are doing?” Immediately He took me back to an aerial view of this gathering and showed me a new generation sitting on the floor in a childlike position. His response to me was crystal clear. “It looks like children sitting at My feet.”

Since that word came, I have been meditating and writing from this whisper, and I want to begin preparing those who will listen for the radical shift that is happening. I do not know what it all looks like; I just want to share my part. I see many voices from the triumphant remnant that will come forward in the days ahead, sharing more pieces of the puzzle and how to posture ourselves to receive the new thing the Lord is doing.