I shifted uncomfortably in my chair as my friends began clearing the dishes from the dinner table.

“David, why don’t you go relax in the living room while we clean up? Can I get you a cup of tea?”

“Yes, tea would be wonderful, thank you very much,” I answered as walked into the living room.

I was exhausted. “I don’t know how much more of this I can take, God,” I prayed under my breath as I sank into the couch.

When the invitation came from my friends to minister at their church, I accepted immediately with joy. They are a precious godly couple, pastors of a large thriving church, whom I love and respect deeply. Because of our common heart and passion for the Lord, our times of sharing are always meaningful. I was excited to be staying at their home instead of a hotel, because it meant it would give us more time to spend together.

But from the moment I had arrived I knew something was wrong. Judging from the emotional residue hanging in the air, I guessed there must have been an argument earlier that day and things weren’t quite yet resolved.

All through dinner, the tension grew worse. I felt like I was walking on eggshells. “Something”, but I didn’t know exactly what, was simmering just below the surface and I wanted to avoid saying anything that might set it off.

Now as I sat waiting for my tea, I silently asked the Lord for wisdom. “Lord I love my friends but I don’t think I can stay in all this tension – it’s just too hard. I love my friends but I really need a break. Even if I could just go for a walk alone for a few hours or stay the night at a hotel, anything would help. But I don’t want to hurt their feelings. Please help me to find a gracious way out of this”.

With a sadness that I will never forget, I heard the Lord speak to my heart. “Now, David, you understand how I feel in My church. I love My bride passionately and I want to be with her so much. So as often as I can, I come to visit her. But after a while, all the fighting, the strife, the jealousy is too much. And so I have to leave.”

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When the Lord spoke to me that day at my friend’s house, I could so clearly feel the longing of His heart to be with His Bride. Perhaps because we have experienced visitations of God (moves of God, revivals) which ultimately ended, we have wrongly come to believe that He doesn’t want to stay. But the truth is that His desire has always been to dwell in us

"I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. Jeremiah 31:33

His Kingdom coming to earth is all about creating a dwelling place for the King. That’s why this consecration is not about doing something for 52 days and then going back to life as it was. It’s about a transformation; it’s about being transitioned to a new way of life as individuals, families, churches, cities and as a nation so that we might be a place of God’s continual manifest habitation.

But no matter how much we cry out for His glory, we will never experience this habitation as long as His heart is grieved by the strife, the division, the wounds in the church.

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Eph 4:30-32

In this season where we know God desires to release blueprints and revelations for coming establishment of the Kingdom, may the deepest cry of our hearts not be for the newest strategy but for a deeper revelation of the love of God that will transform our hearts, as individuals and a body, into a place where the glory of the Lord can dwell.

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19

David Demian is a man of singular passion: to be a friend of God. This passion has led him on an amazing journey in life and ministry.  David is a spiritual son to the founder of Watchmen for the Nations, Pastor Bob Birch, who passed the mantle of leadership of the ministry to David in 1998.  David lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada with his wife Ruth and seven children.