Moreover, I tell you that ADONAI will make you a house. 1 Chronicles 17:10b

The seventeenth chapter of 1 Chronicles opens with David’s realization that he is living in a luxurious palace while God has been relegated to a tent. In a flash, David runs to the prophet Nathan and tells/asks permission to build God a house. Nathan acquiesces, and tells him to go ahead and build it. God had something else in mind, however. That very night, God gives Nathan a message that David will not build His house. This is what He said:

 “Moreover, I declare to you that the Lord will build you a house. ¹¹ When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹² He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. ¹³ I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, ¹⁴ but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.’”

David’s heart chased righteousness, chased intimacy with God such as the Bible has never seen up until this point. Of course David sinned, but he was overwhelmed with desire for God and his righteousness for the majority of his life. In putting God first, David was the recipient of a Godly reversal: God put David first. In wanting to build God a house, God instead builds David a house- a never-ending house, which has an eternal throne, upon which David’s own seed would reign forever.

When we put God first, we are blessed in knowing he is likewise doing the same. When we lift up his name, he bathes us in his own reflected glory, and continues to pour his blessings upon us- because he knows that every time, we will return that glory back to him. He will get all the credit, all the honor.

Sometimes, however- we aren’t the ones who get to build his house. We must be content to prepare and raise up the next generation, the next person, who God has hand-picked for the task. There is no diminishing in that, either. Who would build God’s house, if it weren’t for those who taught how to build?

As I have been learning about the past Great Awakenings and revivals throughout the US and the world, it strikes me that it almost always starts in the young. God uses the youth to start a fire in the hearts of those around the nation and the world. We established Christians must be praying for these youth, for our nations and our world, that God would prepare hearts and spirits for another great revival. That God himself would bring a great revival in our world. It may not be you or I who get to bodily be part of that next Great Awakening, but we can pray for those who will be, and we can trust God that he is building up the heirs of that everlasting throne.

We must be praying for the revival of our world. We cannot abandon them now. Every person on this planet is still breathing for one reason only: God is not through with them yet. God is not yet finished molding them spiritually and God is not finished with their places in his tapestry. We are responsible for lifting each one up to God, as brothers and sisters in Christ.

How I pray that God would be preparing this world for the greatest awakening it has ever seen. I pray that he is softening hearts and raising up leaders who would desire above all, to build God a beautiful temple, made of bricks with the intimate names of his people written upon them. We are blessed in being the heirs to the throne of David, through Christ. We, too, have a name that only God knows, which is written upon our brick in his house (Rev 2:17).

God hear our prayers. Amen.