There is only one man in the Bible who is called a "man after God’s own heart." What was it about this shepherd boy that became king that would give him such honor? What set apart the life of this music playin’, giant slayin’, spear dodgin’, cave hidin’, psalm writin’ youngest son of Jesse? Charles Swindoll, in his Bible study on David, states that this title is such that "we might think of him as some kind of spiritual Superman in a world without a trace of kryptonite. But he wasn’t studded with superhuman qualities. God doesn’t select his servants on the basis of Atlas physiques or Einstein intellects."

David was one who understood the heart of God. He was one who was abandoned to his God. This was a man of great stature and responsibility, yet he still danced about wildly before the ark of his God! He was a man who knew of God’s desire to be known throughout the earth and desired to do everything He could to bring Him the honor due Jehovah’s Name. He burst upon the scene as a type of man rarely seen. How did this shepherd boy grow to be the man who would be called "after My own Heart?" How did this fugitive gain the rank of the throne of David, which shall never end, which Christ will sit upon and bring justice to the nations?

David was indeed a man after God’s own heart. He reflected God’s heart, and He pursued God’s heart. How do you become Christlike? You pursue the things in which Christ is interested. You begin to pursue His heart, His interests, what is on His mind, and you cannot help but begin reflecting what He is interested in, what He is concerned about, His attitudes. David was a man like this. He was not the perfect man, but he was somebody pursuing God’s heart.

This pursuit can be seen in two ways. First, he was completely in love with God. It is hard to think of a man being more attached to His Creator. The Psalms have a way of lifting our worship of God into realms only briefly con-sidered. This is a degree of intimacy that is missing from many churches, having been replaced by a cold formalism. Not many in our pews would consider stripping down and dancing in wild abandonment before the Lord, but David did. (2 Sam. 6:20)

The second issue we see all the way through the Psalms is David talking about God’s purpose to make Himself known to all nations. Psalms is crowded with understanding of God’s global intent. Psalm 1 is passion for God, and Psalm 2 is God being King of the Nations and understanding His purposes among the nations.

Let us look at Psalm 96:1-3:

Oh sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His Name; Proclaim the goodness of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.

This new song has to do with God’s glory among the peoples, His salvation among the nations. "Declare it, Israel!"

Psalms is full of God’s heart for the nations. We do not have space here to go through the whole book, but pay attention as you are reading the Psalms. Every time you look at them, in fact, every time you look at your Bible from now on, you will have trouble not seeing the nations there.

When people die, it is important to pay attention to their last words. David’s last Psalm before he died was Psalm 72:

Blessed by the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who only does wondrous things! And blessed be His name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen. The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended. Psalm 72:18-20

This became God’s favorite verse. "May the knowledge of the glory of the Lord cover the earth as the waters cover the sea." It is repeated at least fourteen times in scripture. It is as though He cannot wait for another generation to pass, so that He can say it again through another one of His prophets. "May the whole earth know the glory of the knowledge of the Lord." David perfectly understood God’s heart. The Muslims believe that God is unknowable, but we believe God desires to be known—He reveals Himself. The hallmark of a Christian is one who knows his God.

God speaks only to those who take time to listen. It is the man who cares, who communes with the Most High and learns the secrets of the Lord. Such a man also sees the sorrow and feels the woe of the world. He shares the burdens of his brothers. (God Tells the Man Who Cares, A.W. Tozer)

The Bride of Christ

While at a family reunion, a great uncle of my wife’s came up with tears in his eyes exclaiming, "The young people, they just don’t understand intimacy with Jesus." He was wrought with sorrow, as he looked at the younger generations pursuing the world and denying Christ. He went on, "When I was in the army about to cross over the Rhine into Germany, I was scared. I prayed, "God I don’t know if you’ve got any use for me, but I just want you to know that if I survive, I’m yours to do with as you please." Turning to me and looking at me with eyes full of tears, he blurted out, "For forty years I have been faithful, and He has never failed me."

My wife’s uncle knew one missing element in these young folks’ lives. It was fidelity to Jesus. Much of our parents’ and grandparents’ commitment to Jesus had to do with fidelity, kind of like their marriages. When they got married they were getting in for life. Divorce was not talked about; it was never an option.

This commitment to fidelity is wonderful! Even if things went terribly, they made a commitment, and they would stick by it. Even if the romance and feelings fade, they will stay married until their death. However, I would call this a passionless marriage. It leads to terrible boredom. Many of our churches are like that. Passionless. Our kids are bored and leaving the church as soon as they can. The older folks are committed to Christ, but it has been quite some time since they felt like David did, wanting to twirl before God, dancing and shouting.

I remember as a boy climbing the stairs of my grandparents’ house in Sacramento and peering into their room—the old furniture, the wallpaper and the two beds. I never understood that whole two-bed thing. Maybe if one moved around too much or something, I could see it . . . nah.

I think much of the subsequent generation felt the same way I did. We knew that passion was valuable. The hippie movement was born of this sympathy, "If it feels right do it." Our pursuit of our emotional passion led to such brilliance as "If you’re not with the one you love, love the one you’re with." And a whole generation abandoned fidelity for passion.

In the Church, I see whole denominations formed out of the hippies and yuppies (both born out of self-gratification: one based in a counter-culture; the other in an ultra pro-culture). The Charismatic movement, in many ways, can be understood in the light of people coming out of faithful but boring churches, knowing that there must be more of God to be enjoyed. Experiencing the joy of worship and the release of the Spirit to dance before Him is the major pursuit.

I was standing in a citywide praise and worship gathering. I noticed the man in front of me energetically worshiping God with His hands raised. When the song ended, I noticed him immediately eyeing the girl in front of him with all the classic signs of lust. I believe he illustrates perfectly the fruit of "passion only" churches. In their pursuit of feeling God, they have often made their experience their God. Whatever feels good will be their pursuit.

Now before you who are more of the fidelity persuasion get all "I told you so-ish," know that your lack of passionate intimacy with Jesus is pushing your kids to seek from the world what only Jesus can give. Our churches are in decline in America. We are not even close to maintaining biological growth, because we are bored, and children are only born from a common bed of intimacy. We need more than head nods to our spouse, Jesus; we need closeness.

A church that does not seek to worship and let God touch the core of their heart is questionable in its gospel. Never forget that Jesus tells us through the conversation with the woman at the well, that God seeks worshipers in spirit and truth. Most of us focus on truth, and do not know of what spirit we are. When all of time is ended and the missionary task is over and we stand before the Lamb, only one thing will remain to do. It will not be evangelism; it will not be preaching; it will not even be Bible study; it will be worship.

On the other side, there are churches who think that if people could only experience God once, they would change. This goal is a phantom, if you never preach repentance and holiness. Let me address you at this point. One pastor friend of mine repeatedly warned me to stop using terms such as "rebellion" and "sin" when talking about His people. They were not "stiff necked;" they were merely misled. They were not sinful; they were "deceived." I guess when it comes right down to it, they were not needing the death of Jesus and His blood for the forgiveness of sin, they were needing a hug because they were having a bad day.

At this same family reunion earlier mentioned, there was a young man who all day played on the lake. He had a real lust problem with the women. Observing this, I kept my wife well covered and far from his leering eyes. I was not given a word of knowledge about his sin; it was just obvious by his behavior. That evening he slipped on a Promise Keepers shirt and proceeded to lead us in worship. He needed a good dose of old-fashioned holiness preaching. Our churches will continually be immature and a reproach to the Gospel, if we do not marry fidelity and Passion and get past the satanic division.

Compatibility

When the first two are in place, fidelity and passion, God desires to bring forth the type of marriage He wants. When I married my wife, it was not just because I was physically attracted and emotionally infatuated, nor was it just an intellectual, logical commitment that I was making. I also loved being with her. We liked to do things together.

This is the third component that God is looking for in this mystery of the Church and Christ, the Bride and the Bridegroom. Jesus wants a compatible wife, not just a passionate one, not just a committed one, but a compatible Bride, one who likes what He likes, one who wants to go where He likes to go.

Somehow we think He wants a prissy woman who spends hours teasing her hair and playing with her makeup getting perfectly spotless, buying new clothes and shoes, when what He wants is a Bride who will touch the lepers and walk the dusty trails. This explains why so many churches are spending time and energy on their own beautification or even their own purity, and only the religiously expected amount for the unreached now outside the Gospel.

The admonition is: "Be ye not unequally yoked." Jesus will not go against His own Word. He will surely not be unequally yoked. He will not marry a girl who is not committed to Him even unto death. Nor will He marry a girl who is not in love with Him. But most alarmingly, He will not be yoked to someone who is not in line with His passion to save every tongue, tribe and nation.

I have thought of how to be less abrasive in this department, but I think some will have to not like me for a minute while I finish this. The picture of marriage is the yoking of two oxen together to pull a plow in the same direction. However, if the oxen are going in opposite directions, yoking them together will only bring disaster. If our churches are focused on their own comforts and the building of their own Kingdoms, Christ cannot be yoked with them. If we are sold out to money and our own security, we are serving mammon and the flesh; Christ is not our Master, and we are not yoked with Him. (Amos 3:3) We cannot soften this truth.

Until we reach compatibility with Him and His purposes, we will never truly be one with our Bridegroom. This is what Jesus was doing when He approached Peter three times in the vision. Peter’s fidelity had been resolved. His passion for Jesus was well documented. What was lacking? It was not the Holy Spirit’s power. It was not His cleansing. It was the Holy Spirit’s heart, His purposes on the earth in which Jesus wanted Peter to be a partner. Beyond commitment and filling of the Spirit is this place of spiritual intimacy called compatibility.

Hearing His Heartbeat

In the picture of the Last Supper, we see John resting his head on the breast of Jesus. This is a picture of intimacy. He is listening to the beating of that great Heart. It is a picture showing what is meant for His Bride, the Church. We must be close enough to Him to hear His concerns, dreams and desires. It is in the place of intimate communion that we discover what makes Jesus tick and begin to enter into a oneness that is the mystery of this eternal marriage. (Amos 3:7)

As we resolve not to turn away from His emotions and begin to pursue the things that are on His heart, we will inevitably encounter The 10/40 Window. The term 10/40 Window is where the vast majority of the world’s unreached people groups live. This geographical area is located at 10 degrees by 40 degrees N. latitude, stretching from the desserts of North Africa over to the islands of Indonesia and up into what used to be Soviet Central Asia. It is like a black hole of the blessing that God promised through Abraham and his descendants. If we are the light of the world, this is where it is dark and where the light must go.

Materially speaking, this is where the poorest of the poor live. When our poor are hungry, they have places to go for help. The poor in The 10/40 Window have no place to go, and millions perish there. Millions die of starvation in these areas. This is where the worst of the worst problems are.

When you think of the starving children with bloated stomachs, malnutrition and disease, this is where they are. When you think of the oppressive governments in the world, you think of Tien An Men Square. You think of the human rights violations in Miramar (Burma) or the killing fields of Cambodia. You think of Iraq and its gassing and torture of the Kurds to the north and the Shiites to the south. They are here in this Window. Corruption abounds, and totalitarian governments seem to have permission to do whatever they will with their people.

When you think of natural disasters, this is the area in which they take the worst toll. You remember when Hurricane Andrew smashed into Florida. It was a horrible thing—billions of dollars of damage and 12 deaths. We sent water bottles and truckloads of food. The newspapers were full of the accounts. America’s minds and attentions were focused there. That very same week a cyclone, which is the same thing as a hurricane, smashed into Bangladesh. I found it on page seven of the "Daily Oklahoman" on the day it hit, and 300,000 people in Bangladesh died in that storm. We cannot comprehend that number. It was on page seven, and the churches were not called to mourning and weeping and prayer for the lost. We were concerned about our damaged property. I can hear the discussion between God and Jonah all over again: "You’re concerned about your property and your comfort, and it is short lived at best. Why shouldn’t I be concerned about the 300,000 people?" They were swept out to sea without ever having heard of Jesus Christ. They never had a chance like you and I have from our childhood to repent and mess up and repent again. Nothing! They went into eternity, into that darkness, without having even heard the name of Jesus Christ. We treated them like animals, like they did not have souls. Actually we did not treat them like animals did we? If 300,000 monkeys had been swept out to sea, it would have topped the news. Two whales get stuck in ice, and we are concerned. A dog is stuck in a hole somewhere, and we are concerned, but 300,000 people for whom Jesus bled and died and cared and loved incredibly more than you could ever love your children were swept out to sea without us hardly noticing them.

This is The 10/40 Window. 95% of all the unreached peoples of the world are locked into the demonic stronghold of The 10/40 Window. Peoples without Jesus are imprisoned behind the high walls of Animism and Hinduism, Chinese idolatry, Buddhist hopelessness and Islam’s laws. Some of the most demonic religions are in The 10/40 Window. Tibetan Buddhism is one example. Hollywood makes it look like a peaceful ideology, but it is a big lie. I have been to Mongolia, which has been long held captive by this Llamastic Buddhism, and the people are dying under terrible oppression and fear. I visited a Tibetan temple where I saw the most demonic idol I have ever seen. The god they worship is crushing people under his claw-like feet. It has skulls for the hair, blood streaming out of his mouth, as he is chewing on people, and he is raping a woman, all at the same time. This is their god. And Hollywood is putting out movies that make Tibetan Buddhism appear to have good philosophies. Do not believe it! I have seen it! It is oppressive and demonic. They actively have incantations that help the Llamas levitate off the ground while rolling hot coals over their tongue, and they invoke demonic spirits to curse their enemies.

These peoples have been locked in Tibetan Buddhism for thousands of years without the freedom of Jesus Christ. We have walked in His freedom for how many years? Our people in North America have been free for hundreds of years, and these unreached peoples are still locked in total bondage. I will not be happy if I die and it is still the same. How many generations have to go by without something changing? Sitting at home and wishing is not going to make a change. It will change by us being brave men and women of God, stepping out and giving up our shopping malls. We must give up our culture, our comfort and our friends, and like Abraham follow God to the land He will show us. It takes brave, war-like actions, violent actions (Matt. 11:12), laying it all down for the sake of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. And He is worth it, friends. Those first missionaries, who threw their lives into Africa with their coffin in tow, knew that the Lamb was worthy of that price.