“Don’t be afraid, Daniel,” he said to me, “for from the first day that you purposed to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your prayers were heard. I have come because of your prayers.” (Daniel 10:12 HCSB)
The spiritual world is unseen, but is very real. A lot goes on behind the scenes when we pray - or don’t pray. When we act in faith or fizzle out in discouragement, powerful battles are won, lost or prolonged in direct relation to our spiritual choices. Daniel had been a captive of the Babylonians and then the Persians for decades. His heart and soul longed to return to Jerusalem and to see the Temple of Solomon rebuilt. The Bible says that he prayed daily for his people as he faced Jerusalem. His dedication and love for God’s people and God’s ways was so strong that God used him as a powerful prophet and a shining example of God’s faithfulness during that difficult time in history.
In this passage, Daniel hears from a messenger of God that his prayers had been heard from the very first day that he “purposed to understand and to humble yourself before God.” The answer from God’s throne had instantly been yes, even though Daniel had not yet seen any answer materialize on earth. The angel continues to explain about the spiritual battles that were going on with the demonic principality of Persia. In fact, not long after this vision, King Cyrus of Persia has favor on the Israelite captives and allows them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, just as Daniel had prayed for so long.
We have to constantly remind ourselves that what goes on in the spiritual world is more real and more permanent than what we see with our eyes. There are battles that God is urging you to engage in, to fight against demonic forces for the sake of your families, your dreams, and for your own salvation that cannot be abandoned just because you don’t yet see the changes you’re hoping for. Faith is the evidence of things not seen, as Hebrews 12 tells us. Daniel did not relent in his prayers for God’s people. He didn’t know that his faith was sending out warrior angels to fight on his behalf, until God revealed it to him.
God has included this in His word to us to show us what happens when we persevere in our prayers and in our faith. Faith has to be acted upon, and even when it seems tedious and our motivation levels are low, our determined choice to cling to His promises is what makes all the difference. Promise after promise in the Bible agrees with and supports all the others. Every promise undergirds the universal truth that God is faithful and just, merciful and loving, and will answer those who are just like Daniel – the ones who purpose to understand His word, and humble themselves before God.
Don’t give up your fight. Don’t relent. Spiritual battles are being fought that you cannot see, but directly affect the physical world. God has already said yes to your requests. With the new covenant of Jesus’ sacrifice we now have the authority to rebuke and bind up demonic powers by our faith. Make that a daily part of your prayers with God. Give Him praise, thanksgiving and offer your requests, and then fight alongside God’s army to win your battles, and His.
“Rejoice, childless one, who did not give birth; burst into song and shout, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the forsaken one will be more than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord. (Isaiah 54:1 HCSB)
For the guys who read this and assume it’s just a promise for women, it actually was God’s promise to all of His people, so keep reading…
There’s an aspect of God’s power that not many people know about in this promise. A childless woman in those days, was viewed as cursed and rejected by God, a shame to her family and community. She is a metaphor for those who’ve made serious mistakes and let the devil curse them for years. They can easily feel shame and regret for all their wasted time before finding God’s forgiveness. The devil knows that once we’re safe in God’s Kingdom he can’t destroy us, but he’ll try to twist our thoughts to believe that our repentance came too late in the game. “Sure, you’ll make it into heaven when you die,” the devil will tell us, “but until then you’re still a loser. Who’s going to want to marry you now? Why would anyone hire you after all you’ve done?” He can snuff out the joy of our salvation, and even make the hope of heaven turn sour. Once those feelings settle in, it’s pretty easy for him to choke out what faith is left.
Why would God tell this forsaken woman that she’ll have more children than the married one who naturally has children? Because when God restores what Satan has cursed, He restores supernaturally. He goes above and beyond what the world can offer, if we have the faith to take it. This is His promise to those who turn to him. It will be so amazing, they won’t be able to hold back the rejoicing and singing because of what He will do. The devil can say it’s too late, but it’s never too late for total restoration that comes straight from heaven.
A man who has a series of broken relationships in his wake, fathering children without knowing how to be a father, can believe in this promise right now. God won’t rewind time, but He can heal any pain that was caused, and establish such a great bond between this dad and his kids, as if they had always lived in a loving and godly home. A woman who’s struggled with sickness for years and was never able to marry and have a family, can believe in this promise as well. She can expect God to restore joy and love into her life as well as physical healing. She can have such a sense of worth, love and family, as a supernatural gift of God. There will be many other women around her with families who are ungrateful and troubled by their relationships, while she will be strong, free and loved.
People who've suffered years of loss can rejoice, sing and shout for how God snatched back that loss from the hands of the devil, and how he lifted them up as an example of His goodness. God is outside of time, so as long as we are in this world, there is no such thing as too late. This, as well as most promises, doesn't just happen without the effort of faith and determination on the part of God’s people. Make this your prayer and seek out ways to be a part of God’s answer for you.
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:5-8 HCSB)
When we talk about bearing fruit we usually think of the list in Galatians 5. But in this passage other attributes of someone who pleases God are listed. Verse 9 even says, “The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.” Blind, shortsighted and forgetting God’s forgiveness are not words that describe a true believer. That means that this list above is of utmost importance as a gauge to know if you are useful to God, or useless — fruitful for Him, or unfruitful.
Goodness, love and self-control overlap the list of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, but others listed here are not always given much consideration. Knowledge is not just head-knowledge and theology, but a deep understanding of who God is and how He works. When doubts attack at an emotional level – where they're most effective – it’s an unshakable knowledge that God is our shield and defender which keeps us stable and able to rebuke doubts. For those who feel like they have no time to learn about God, to read His word or spend time communing with Him, then spiritual, fruitful knowledge will never happen.
We know that patience is a fruit of the Spirit, but endurance takes on another dimension. That’s the motivation of a marathon runner who keeps up the pace in expectation and excitement. The finish line may be miles away, but his driving goal is to make it, and in good time. When the answers to our prayers seem to be taking ages to materialize, an immature Christian easily gives up in despair. But the endurance to see the vision God has given you through till the end, is God’s power manifesting in you.
And then there’s brotherly love, what people assume they have when they smile and act friendly in church, but which is actually very hard to find. If you love someone as a brother or sister, you’ll care about their struggles, and even if you don’t exactly know how to help them, you’ll guide them towards faith, and to fight in the Spirit against whatever evil is attacking them. It also includes tough love, calling up someone who has slipped away from faith and encouraging them to start believing again. It reaches out to others in deep spiritual battles, and in simple acts of kindness. It believes the best in your fellow believers and fights for them instead of tearing them down.
And lastly godliness, which just means having the character and behavior of God. That means a hatred for sin and evil, a love for His people and a desire to imitate Jesus in everything. Whoever is lackadaisical in their attitude towards sin is someone who doesn’t value godliness, or God for that matter.
God promises that we will be useful and fruitful in this life, as we make every effort to grow in all of these things — building one upon the other. No matter how much effort this requires, it’s nothing compared to the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, and the daily love and care that He provides even though we are so undeserving.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. (Psalm 84:11 NASB)
Imagine travelling through the wilderness thousands of years ago, without the aide of modern equipment. The darkness and cold of night, the wild animals and dangerous terrain would be cause to fear for your life. But as the sun would rise in the morning, the warmth and light changed everything. Fears would be banished and hope would be renewed with the constant presence of the sun as your companion.
And just as God refers to Himself as our sun, He is also our shield to protect us from harm. He gives us the light of day to see our enemies, and then blocks them for us as well. His light never goes out, and even in the night, He continues to be our sun. The Bible even describes the new Jerusalem as needing no sun because God Himself will illuminate everything, everywhere (Revelation 21:23). This is His character – He is light and warmth, protection and strength. He gives us grace (good things that we don’t deserve) and glory (honor from Him). And the part that most people just can’t believe, is that He won’t hold back anything good from those who walk uprightly. That means ANYTHING good! He loves to bless those who follow Him in purity of heart and hold fast to His ways.
That sounds simple enough, it’s just that final stipulation that stumps most people, “those who walk uprightly…” Even a well-seasoned Christian who has been a great example of faith has to re-examine his life daily to see if he is truly walking uprightly with God. Maybe obvious sins like stealing or adultery aren’t an issue, but subtle things can slip in. A complaining attitude, a hidden grudge, a critical spirit, a feeling of superiority, a lack of faithfulness in small things, a reluctance to fulfill commitments. Everyone is hit with temptations like these and everyone falls for them from time to time. These are the sins people often excuse with the famous line, “I’m only human…” But the longer these sins linger, the more they poison a person’s relationship with God. Their prayers go unanswered and things just seem to go wrong for no apparent reason. The light, the protection, the grace and the glory are wearing thin, and after some time a Christian can feel like God is withholding everything good that he needs.
Run a systems check on your heart, your attitudes and your motives. Pray and ask God to reveal anything that you need to repent of and correct. Everyone with a close bond with God knows how important it is to do this on a regular basis, and learn to identify the negative symptoms that alert them to a problem. From the moment you repent and choose to change, you are instantly in the right place to enjoy this promise. And what if you’ve been walking uprightly but have not yet seen the good things that you’ve been seeking? …Begin thanking Him in the certainty that they are coming! God can’t change His character and can never go back on His promises. Hold onto that truth. He won’t withhold anything good.
Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. God has appointed Him heir of all things and made the universe through Him. (Hebrews 1:1-2 HCSB)
The way God revealed Himself through Moses and the prophets, was like seeing the spiritual world through a certain lens. God gave the Ten Commandments and the more detailed moral and ceremonial laws to help the people to stay in communion with Him, and they were able to see some fundamental aspects of His character. Early on in Old Testament times, there were no written scriptures, and God had to speak either directly, or through angels so that His people could know His word.
But then Jesus came, and the Holy Spirit was sent ten days after Jesus ascended back into heaven, and a newer, clearer lens was placed before us so we could see even more of God. Jesus’ teachings and the revelations of the Holy Spirit written down by the apostles, suddenly brought the teachings of the past into sharper focus. Jesus’ death and resurrection taught us more of who God is, and Jesus taught in depth about who Satan is and how he works to destroy us. Jesus’ revelations of our spiritual battle against Satan, injected new life into the old stories, laws and prophecies from before. They all fit together, they all make sense as the unified and perfect word of God. Just like Jesus said, He didn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). He made it deeper, wider, truer.
We are so blessed to live in this day and age after Jesus, when we have His clearer more high definition lens to see God now, and also to look into the past and see how God has been faithful and consistent for millennia, right up until this very day. The Bible says that prophets and kings longed to see the things that we see. We now know the Messiah, a mystery that people of God had prayed about for generations. We have the powerful name of Jesus, we have the written word of the Bible, and we have the opportunity to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.
What we have is better by far than the Old Testament prophets who would receive an occasional word from an angel during years of silence. Instead, we can have the presence of God dwelling inside of us, just as He dwelt in the Holy of Holies upon the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is our immersion into that blazing light that had encompassed Moses on the top of Mt. Sinai and caused his face to shine. This is the power of the Creator of the Universe, Father, Son and Holy Spirit that is ours to live in and through. And despite all of that which is ours to take, God still tells us that we only “see through a glass darkly.” Eternity is coming where we will see Him face to face – in the highest definition there is. The supernatural world is not something to treat casually. It’s all around us and soon it will be all there is. Let’s live each moment knowing that what we don’t yet see is what really matters.
Let them boast in this alone: That they truly know me, and understand that I am the Lord of justice and of righteousness whose love is steadfast; and that I love to be this way. (Jeremiah 9:24 TLB)
This is the only thing that God allows us to be proud of – that we truly know Him. There are plenty of verses in the Bible about how our wisdom is foolishness to God, and that boasting in our accomplishments and grand plans are just as foolish. But knowing God should be what show the world with pride. This doesn’t translate into acting religiously superior and looking down on those who don’t know as much as we do, which in fact would prove that we didn’t know God at all. Knowing Him demands a humble heart, among many other things.
Think about how you identify yourself the most. What do you want others to know when you walk into a room? That you’re smart, well-educated, funny, successful or a good person? That you’re tough, cynical or bored with life? You could claim to be a believer in Christ and still be projecting any of these things because of what you value most about yourself. But God says that our pride and joy should be to point others to God. If we have financial success or bright ideas, happy families or great personalities – they all pale in comparison to the fact that we are saved. We know the one who loved us so much that He gave us His life, and anything good that we have should be used to honor that.
For a worldly-minded person, all of that seems a bit degrading. Being able to look impressive is the only sense of security some people have. But to forget selfish pride is so freeing. We can work with people who are undervalued in society, of humble means, and feel love and compassion for them because we know that there is nothing that we have that wasn’t given to us from the God who we have the privilege to know as our Father. We can also work among people who the world considers powerful and important and be completely at ease because we know that every one of us is on the same level – we all need a Savior. Under their important sounding résumés are people who have nothing to boast about if they don’t know Him. We can offer them compassion, because what impresses them doesn’t impress us.
But the promise that is often overlooked in this verse is that, “I am the Lord of justice and righteousness, whose love is steadfast; and that I love to be this way.” He loves to be this way – He enjoys seeing justice happen, and He loves being the Lord of justice. He loves having a steadfast, unchanging, unwavering love. When we pray and know that He loves to be all these things, faith can be stable and certain. The feeling of desperation that so often accompanies our prayers will be gone. We don’t need to promote ourselves or ensure that everyone knows us and treats us right. Our boast is in Him, and of course He’ll take care of all the rest.
The Spirit is the One who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. (John 6:63 HCSB)
I can remember moments of reading the Bible when it felt as if a huge curtain was being pulled aside before my eyes. All of a sudden things made sense, God’s voice was clear and practical so that I knew just what to do, but it was also deep and unexplainably transforming. I’d feel a huge shift inside of me just because of that revelation, it was a joy and a conviction that I hadn’t fabricated on my own. Someone was pulling me closer to Him right then. It was the Holy Spirit.
This happened even before I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. In those days I didn’t even know about the baptism the way I understand it now. All I knew was I wanted to know God deeply, and it was all that would occupy my mind. Those “aha” moments of hearing the Holy Spirit speak started happening more often, because I allowed those revelations to change me every time. I treated His word with an excitement and reverence. No one had to create a church program or fast or special event for me to have a hunger for God. As I kept yearning and seeking, it was just a matter of time before I was transformed and received His baptism.
The Holy Spirit speaks to us all to create new life in us on a daily basis. But how we respond to His voice determines everything. We could dismiss what He says as undoable, or even agree with His urging at the moment and then casually toss it into the recycling bin of our brain a moment later. The more we put Him off, the less we hear Him. He keeps speaking but we dull our ears. We allow exactly what this verse says, “The flesh doesn’t help at all.”
The words of God are spirit. The Bible is alive, living and active - a double edged sword (Hebrews 4:12). There is no book you own that has life and spirit like the word of God. And yet, it cannot be understood by your flesh. Your spirit needs to reach out to God’s Spirit, to the spirit in His words. This is what gives you life.
Just as I have loved those moments of hearing and receiving directly from Him, I know that I’ve also wasted time trying to listen to Him in my flesh. I’d feel frustrated and bored, and preferred to turn my attention to more enjoyable things.
Now that we have a fast of Daniel to enjoy and share together, don’t think that just because you’re avoiding secular media you deserve a pat on the back for your great “sacrifice.” This isn’t about you or your flesh or how impressed you are with your holiness. It’s about setting your eyes on Him, and hungering after His Spirit. In a few weeks time you could be so transformed that you’ll never want to go back to the way you are right now. Get your flesh out of the way, it doesn’t help at all.
