King Nebuchadnezzar spent seven years wallowing in the thick of mental illness and no one dared try to restore him
during that time (see Dan. 4). For King David, however, it took seven days. David was not mentally ill; neither was he engaged in a pattern of narcissistic, predatory behavior, nor did he have a personality disorder. He was a normal man who eventually gave in to a sense that he was entitled to anything he wanted in life to meet his perceived unmet needs.
Many pastors hold up the story of King David as a model of restoration and cite Second Samuel 12 as the formula that one should follow during a time of restoration. The pattern started with David’s open acknowledgment of failure and calling it like it was—murder and adultery, coveting and greed. After seven days of prayer and weeping, David accepted the fact that there were repercussions from his actions that could not be thwarted. He realized that he needed to clean up his mess, and accepted the fact that some things just could not be undone. By verse 20, we see David getting up from his shame and humility, washing himself of the condemnation and anointing himself with the oil of joy and gladness—despite feeling the opposite. The anointing enabled him to step back out into his authority. It was a time of re-commissioning and restoring his position. David changed his clothes, the fact which is symbolic of stepping back into his kingly authority. He worshiped and reconnected with God. Finally, in verses 24 and 25, David accepted what he could not change and extended mercy to others.
Some leaders believe that fallen leaders should just step right back into their positions of authority and ministry. They
cite David’s seven-day restoration as a model to be followed. However, seven days is more symbolic of a period of completion than an actual time frame that implies a fallen leader should just get right back into ministry.
David’s process of restoration is common to warriors even today. He had to come back into his true personality humbly submitted to God, a personality that had become warped through the years by fighting one too many battles. David had to shift from a place of being a warrior to becoming a lover. His process of restoration enabled him to regain his position of sonship—a sonship that initiated his ascent to the kingship.
In my consulting work, I’ve worked with countless soldiers, predominantly male who find themselves undergoing a process of restoration after returning from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. They left the U.S. as lovers, fathers, husbands, and sons. They returned hardened, weary, suspicious, and often with a sense of feeling entitled to relieve the adrenaline rush of war through prostitutes or reckless behaviors and spousal abuse. They had to shift out of the warrior mentality, set aside the memories and intrusive images of battles, and return to becoming sons, lovers, and fathers. It was not an easy shift to make for many—especially since they knew they were going back downrange.
I’ve watched the faces of those who managed to navigate the restoration process. When they first returned, they were sun-baked and hard, gruff with their families, and unsure of themselves in civilian life. After a month or so, their faces
softened and smiles returned. They were on their way to recovery, but it would take months to restore some sense of equilibrium in the family. Others were not so lucky and needed more time and professional help.
We see this same hardening of heart in many who fall in ministry or burnout, and walk away from ministry. True, biblical restoration is all about restoring the heart of the son or the daughter to the Father. It is about restoring the love of community. Restoring the anointing and one’s spiritual authority is more tenuous, and it may or may not happen along the way.
Prophetic minister John Paul Jackson talks about the difficulty of using David as a model of restoration and about true biblical restoration from his point of view:
I’ve known men and women who have made a comeback, but not a single one has ever came back as strong as before, let alone stronger. David never came back as strong as before Bathsheba. When you fall, it is more than just a sin; the damage it does to family and those who follow is horrible.
When people say David was forgiven instantly and immediately put back into “ministry,” I say they are confused. David who was a king, who could have multiple wives, was responsible for implementing God’s desire for the kingdom as a whole and responsible for the safety of a people. Priests were responsible to minister to God from the position of the
people. Prophets brought the desires of God to the people. Biblically, kings were allowed more than one wife, priests only one wife. People say, “David never stepped down from ministry after he fell,” and I have to reply, “So you’re advocating that priests and prophets can have more than one wife?”
A lack of character development will kill your influence. Failure to differentiate between power and authority will also kill the anointing. For example, you think you’re OK ’cause the power is still flowing through you. However, power without relationship with Jesus is lawlessness. Authority is the fruit of a relationship with God. Authority comes only by relationship. In Matthew 7, people were saying didn’t we do this and that…. And Jesus said, “Depart from me! You took the gift and used it without ever knowing me.”
To know the giver of the gift, to know the Father is to begin to move in true authority. The Bible doesn’t say that the gifts and authority are given without repentance. The gifts and calling are given without repentance. God is saying, I’ll not revoke the gifts and calling, but I’ll also not endorse you. Therefore, you see all these men and women who move in power but seem to have no authority.
The Church teaches that if you are gifted, you get a dispersion of grace. Grace then, mistakenly means
covering the sin of the person because they still operate in power. Power is a gift that God will not take back. Call it “grace” and people believe that God will cover all our sin, so that you never have to repent of anything again. He died to forgive that sin but you frustrate grace when you don’t repent from the sin. The key to restoring the anointing is this—are you going to repent or not? If you don’t repent—you become defiled. Jesus said to the unrepentant ones, “I must go. We have nothing in common.” Without repentance, you have something in common with the evil one—and that is called defilement.2