Then the one
who looked like a man touched me again, and I felt my strength returning. "Don't
be afraid," he said, "for you are very precious to God. Peace! Be encouraged!
Be strong!" - Daniel 10: 18-19 (NLT)
I wish I had all of the answers to all of the questions this life throws at us. I wish I knew why some people are healed and others are taken home way too soon for us. I wish I knew why sometimes this life just seems to crush us. Why some people find their soul mate at an early age and others seemingly have to wait forever for the elusive happiness of companionship. Why happiness seems so deferred for some of us. What I do know is that God loves us all with an endless love. A love that was willing to sacrifice His only Son for us so that we can be restored unto Him. What I do know is that God is never far and that during those times that He seems more distant -- it is not He that has moved. What I do know is that for all of the answers I do not know, His Word provides us with. It may not be the answer we want. It may not be the answer we have been praying for. We have started to lose sight of the very important principle of sovereignty when it comes to God. We do not simply draw circles and insist that we get our way. We have to trust that God knows the way even when it disagrees with what we think we want. That is one of the hardest things to accept sometimes because we think we know what we need when in reality we are dealing with what we want:
And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from
his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. -- Philippians
4: 19 (NLT)
Now we might disagree with God
about what we need; I know I have at times. Yet who is in a better position to
know? Us or the one who created us and sees all time? I can think back to
situations I wanted and was denied by God and see how it was His protection,
not chastisement. Now, when I was led to write about this topic I was searching
for great encouragement verses for the key verse. God is our shield and
rampart. Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. My God
will never leave us nor forsake us. Yet God had me pass by all of them to come
to this story from the Book of Daniel. It is a story where Daniel was looking
for an answer that was delayed in coming. Going through it verse by verse, let
us see how God wants to minister to us today:
In the third year of the reign of King Cyrus of
The backdrop for the
story is that Daniel receives a vision from God and it was not a pleasant
vision. Times of great war and great hardship. Daniel enters into a period of
fasting and prayer so God can give him the answer as to what this vision meant.
I think the first lesson for us all in times of great trial is we need to seek
God on an even deeper level. I think sometimes we are so used to the lazy
Christianity that surrounds us that we lose sight of the spiritual weapons God
has given us insight into. By denying the flesh the food it craves we open up
the chance to then rely more upon God and draw even closer to Him. I understand
that it is at the times of greatest hardship that it is often the hardest to
draw closer. It is harder to praise God. It is harder to pray without ceasing. We
need to rise up to the challenge of our hard times -- not cringe in despair.
Daniel knew what this time was; it was a period of mourning! It's ok to be
mournful. I think we are conditioned in Churchianty that we have to always be
blessed and highly favored. Well, welcome to the real world, where quite often
things do not go the way we wanted or expected. Mourn -- but seek God. But I am
preacher! Well, seek Him more. Seek Him deeper. Get out of your comfort zone.
If you know full well the Spirit of God is not moving in the church you are in
go somewhere else. Make an altar in your bedroom. Do not give in or up. Jacob
refused to let go until he was blessed and because of it he become
On April 23, as I was standing on the bank of the great
Finally, an angel of
the Lord appears before Daniel. What I find interesting here is that the men
that were with Daniel saw nothing but they became terrified anyway and ran
away! Listen beloved; sometimes we need to remove ourselves from certain
people. You know the people I mean. The people who may be nice enough but just
are not on the same spiritual level as you. People who may actually be
hindering the answer from coming. We are spiritual creatures living in a
spiritual word and engaged in a spiritual war -- and don't you forget it! Yet
sometimes we associate with people who simply do not get it. They are more into
the feel-good Christianity then the genuine article. They believe in the warm
and fuzzy Jesus instead of the one that said He came to set our world on fire!
They believe God exists to pour blessing out upon them. Maybe you can meet back
up with them later but right now, in the middle of the storm, you cannot
surround yourselves with people who refuse to even admit the clouds are
darkening! You need to surround yourself with people who understand spiritual
warfare. Who will pray with you and pray you through. People who will be
willing to stand in the gap for you; not people who think the gap is a place to
buy jeans.
My strength left me, my face grew deathly pale, and I felt very weak. Then I heard the
man speak, and when I heard the sound of his voice, I fainted and lay there
with my face to the ground. -- Daniel 10: 8-9 (NLT)
Dear God we must be
reverent! I hear the modern day Christians speak about nonsensical encounters
with God where they are supposedly whisked away to His throne room and they
describe it like they are having a latte with the Father! At the mere sound of
the voice of this angel, Daniel collapses with his face to the ground and
faints. When Isaiah was called he said "woe is me for I am a man of unclean
lips!" When the Apostle John, who spent three years walking with Jesus, saw Him
in the glory of the Revelation he fell down as if he were dead! Sometimes we
might be thinking we are seeking God but what God are we seeking? Look at how
Daniel's friends addressed King Nebuchadnezzar, a man who had their very lives
in his hands:
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not
need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the
blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us
from your power, Your Majesty.
But even if he doesn't, we want to make it clear to
you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold
statue you have set up." -- Daniel 3: 16-18 (NLT)
The words I want us
to focus on are -- "but even if He doesn't The three Hebrew boys acknowledge
the sovereignty of God. They understand that the answer they were looking for
and hoping for might not be the answer God had. Beloved, we cannot approach God
petulantly about things we think we want and then get upset when the answer
doesn't come. The object is to find His will -- even if it is the opposite of
what we think we want. Far too often we want something and then we seek God for
"confirmation." It doesn't work that way! Even at His most human moment in
Just then a hand touched me and lifted me,
still trembling, to my hands and knees. And the man said to me, "Daniel, you are
very precious to God, so listen carefully to what I have to say to you. Stand
up, for I have been sent to you." When he said this to me, I stood up, still
trembling. Then he said, "Don't be
afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to
humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have
come in answer to your prayer. --
Daniel 10: 10-12 (NLT)
