Daniel: The Way of the Warrior(19-Mar-2006)
(The sermon can be heard online at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)
Daniel M7 The Way of the Warrior
Do you remember the first movies you saw as a kid?
One of my favorites movie as a child was Star Wars…
The battle between Jedi Warrior, Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader, the clash between light versus darkness...
Star Wars resonated with so many people not just because (to paraphrase Sid Ganis president of the motion picture Academy) it involved what was considered then special state of art technology, but involved state of the heart story telling.
Whether we consider ourselves religious or not, “believers” or not at deep intuitive, heart level that we sense live in midst of some kind a clash of darkness and light, good and evil.
Epics like the Stars Wars or the Lord of Rings appeal so deeply to so many, because they myths reflect at some level the “true myth,” the clash of good of evil that the sacred book, the Holy Scriptures describes.
Today as we look at the book of Daniel, we’re going to explore what it means to live as a warrior cosmic, spiritual battle…
If you have your Bibles please turn to Daniel 8…
Daniel's Vision of a Ram and a Goat
1 In the third year of King Belshazzar's reign (about 548 or 547 b.c), I, Daniel, had a vision, after the one that had already appeared to me. 2 In my vision I saw myself in the citadel of Susa in the province of Elam; in the vision I was beside the Ulai Canal. 3 I looked up, and there before me was a ram with two horns (these represents the Medo-Persian Empire vs. 20), standing beside the canal, and the horns were long. One of the horns was longer than the other but grew up later (a reference to the fact at first the Medes were in ascendancy, but later it was Persia). 4 I watched the ram as it charged toward the west and the north and the south. No animal could stand against it, and none could rescue from its power. It did as it pleased and became great (The Medo-Persian Empire defeated Babylon).
5 As I was thinking about this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between its eyes came from the west, crossing the whole earth without touching the ground. 6 It came toward the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and charged at it in great rage. 7 I saw it attack the ram furiously, striking the ram and shattering its two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against it; the goat knocked it to the ground and trampled on it, and none could rescue the ram from its power (who is the goat? The goat is Kingdom of Greece which defeats the Kingdom of Babylon). 8 The goat became very great, but at the height of its power the large horn was broken off (who large horn of Greece broken off? Alexander the Great), and in its place four prominent horns grew up toward the four winds of heaven.
9 Out of one of them came another horn, which started small but grew in power to the south and to the east and toward the Beautiful Land (What is the beautiful land? Israel. The prophet Jeremiah and Ezekiel calls Israel the beautiful land). 10 It grew until it reached the host of the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them. 11 It set itself up to be as great as the commander of the army of the LORD; it took away the daily sacrifice from the LORD, and his sanctuary was thrown down. 12 Because of rebellion, the LORD's people [a] and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground (prophet Torah, God’s law was burned in the middle of the 2nd century BC).
13 Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to him, "How long will it take for the vision to be fulfilled—the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, the rebellion that causes desolation, the surrender of the sanctuary and the trampling underfoot of the LORD's people?"
In Daniel’s vision he sees this horn in vs. 10 which starts small but then grows until it reaches heaven and then throws some of the starry host to the ground and tramples upon them.
So, this horn apparently is ascending to heaven and oppressing the armies of heaven.
Vss. 11 The horn takes away the daily sacrifice and the place of the sanctuary was brought low…
In Daniel 11 vs. 31 we have another illusion this anti-God, horn figure. We read that he will desecrates the temple… and abolish the daily sacrifice and set up the abomination that cause desolation…
It’s interesting that battle in chapter 8 seems to be taking place in some spiritual realm, as the horn fights against the Prince of the heavenly host and causes the sanctuary to be desecrated, but later in chapter 8 and chapter 11 and it seems like this battle is actually played out on earth…
We know that during reign of the Antiochus Ephipanes IV who reigned during the mid-2nd century B.C. that the forbade the people of God to make sacrifices to God, committed a great abomination by setting up an altar to Zeus in the temple of the living and sacrificing a pig on the altar which would have been an unspeakable offense to Jewish people…
We also know that as result the Jews under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus began to revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes the IV and a few years later Judas Maccabeaus rededicated of temple (December 165 B.C.) to the living God is the reason why Jewish people today observe Hanukkah.
So it seems in Daniel 8 there is a spiritual cosmic battle being played out as the horn rises to heaven and attacks God’s people, AND at the same time this battle is played out on earth as Antiochus Epiphanes IV rises and seeks to destroy God’s people on earth…
In Daniel 10 we read of great war that takes places in heaven… the demon of the Persian Kingdom battling against the arch angel Michael.
In Revelation 12 we read also of great battle in heaven between a woman clothed in the sun, who and pregnant and cries out in pain… and an enormous red dragon trying to destroy her child and the woman fled into the dessert.
As world class expert on Revelation points out our own Darrell Johnson, this great dragon is Satan, this vision in Revelation points back to the spiritual battle going on during the time when Mary was giving birth to Christ. Satan was attempting to destroy boy and his fury ended up moving the King Herod to kill thousands and thousands of baby boys in that region…
The Bible clearly teaches that are transcendent forces of evil and good that clash at a cosmic, that mysterious and powerfully affect what goes on here on earth.
If you’re new to the Bible you might expect the Bible to assert something like that…
But of course many secular people reject that.
Secular people tend to believe that evil in our world is caused by DNA or social conditioning. I was with a Fortunate 500 corporate executive not long ago and she was talking about some of the ethical problems in her company. Why do you think people act like that in your company, I asked? She said it’s bad DNA.
Others say evils results from people, bad social conditioning, not loving social environment.
Andrew Delbanco is a secular, liberal professor at the NYC’s Columbia University, who wrote a book called The Death of Satan. In that book Delbanco argues… that if you don’t make some kind of appeal to the transcendent evil you won’t have the psychological capacity to deal with evil on a wider scale…
Professor Delbanco is a descendent of Eastern European Jews and some of his ancestors died on the Holocaust. ..
If you don’t in some kind of transcend evil how do you explain the genocide of 6 million Jews? The Nazi had bad DNA or are you going say the Nazi’s didn’t get tendering loving fare (TLC) and milk and cookies when they were kids… and they were “acting out” to get attention?
Or where they influence by a force of evil in some spiritual realm?
(Optional: May or may not use this piece: In article in the New Yorker by foreign affairs correspond Mark Danner, he describes the persecution of the church in a certain part of the world. He writes about girl being raped multiple times by soliders on a cruise and then as she lay on that boat she was quietly singing these strange Christian hymns of praise… and then a solider shot her in the chest, with blood flower from her chest, she continued to sing, but more though more weakly and then the soldiers a fear seemed to sweep over them and they unsheathed their machetes and had hacked through he neck and the singing stopped. That really happened.)
Sometimes secular people will argue the Christian approach to evil to simplistic. “Oh the devil made me do it.” “Yeah right!” But, the secular view is actually more simplistic that Christian view. Because the Christian view would say that evil can be the result of our DNA and genetic inheritance, our social environment, choice, AND spiritual forces of evil…
Paul in the part of Bible referred as newer testament, in Ephesians 6 says we are in a battle not against flesh and blood, but against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms….
So if we are in this spiritual battle how do we live our lives?
Paul in Ephesians 6 says we are to put on the full armor of God so that we can take our stand against the devil’s schemes.
He says Ephesians 6:14 we are to put on belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness…
Truth in this context refers to person’s sincerity and integrity and righteousness, a person refers to being inwardly pure…
In Daniel, we see the mighty warrior is a person of total integrity… He’s blameless not in the sense of absolute perfection, but in the sense that you can’t find fault with him.
When Daniel’s colleagues are envious of his success and want to smear him, they dig but can’t find fault with him…
In Daniel 9, we see him praying for cleansing for himself and his people. So when know does “fall” he seeks to be inwardly cleansed by God.
We tend to think that a warrior, particularly in the ancient context as someone who could throw a spear like fast ball with great accuracy and speed, or wield a sword with tremendous skill, or we think of a solider deft at firing a machine gun or able to precisely manipulate a computer guided a missile.
But if want to warriors for the God in a spiritual battle, like Daniel, we will seek be spiritual clean…
In interesting the mysterious battles the Hebrew soldiers fought in the Old Testament era that physical prowess was important what was far more important was the soldiers would be spiritual clean. In the New Testament, where the sole emphasis in as battle are concerned, is the spiritual battle, inward purity is everything.
In Plato’s republic, Socrates is asked through a winding dialogue is it ever advantageous to do what is evil as opposed to what is good?
Say you had the ring of Giges and could turn invisible and you knew you could get away with stealing a priceless diamond, would it some times be in your advantage to do evil?
Plato, through the mouth of Socrates says no, it’s never advantageous to do evil, because when you do evil you destroy your soul and it’s never in your advantage your own soul.
Sin is vandalizes our soul.
Sin weakens the spiritual warrior.
Purity free the Warrior… the Psalmist in Psalm 119:32 says I run in the path of your commandments, for you have set my heart free.
The Spiritual warrior is inwardly pure.
The spiritual warrior also prays.
In Ephesians 6:18 we are called to pray in the spirit on all occasion, with all kinds of prayers and requests.
In Daniel 3, we see that King Nebuchadnezzar asks the wise men of Babylon to interpret the dreams and no one can. So Daniel steps forwards and asks for time to interpret them and he prays and calls upon his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to pray.
In Daniel 6, we see that Daniel’s colleagues envious of his success conspire against him by having the King pass a law that no one can to pray to anyone or anything for the next 30 days except the King with penalty that if anyone does pray her or she will be thrown into the Lion’s den…
In the later part of Daniel as he receives this apocalyptic visions about things that will come we see in Daniel 9 and 10 that Daniel passionately seeks God in prayer.
It’s a mystery how this happens, but prayers can change the world.
In Daniel 10 as Daniel prays the angel comes in response to provides support in the spiritual battle against evil.
In Exodus, the Israelites are in battle against the Amalekites and Moses lifts his hands in a symbol of pray and as his hands are lifted a symbol of his appealing to God, Israel has the upper hand, but as his hands grow tired and weary the Amalekites gain the advantage. As Moses arms grow weary, Aaron and Hur hold his hands and the Israelties prevail.
In a mysterious way it seems as though pray can influence the onslaught of evil.
I remember an article in Newsweek magazine "Late one night in upstate New York, a journalist decided to take a shortcut home, up a steep, unlit path. Then she heard steps behind her, faster than her own. An instant later the man was upon her, tightening her new striped scarf around her neck…. At home, her mother woke from a deep sleep, seized with fear that something terrible was about to happen to her eldest daughter. The mother immediately knelt down beside her bed and prayed. Back on the stony path, the man suddenly ceased his assault. He cocked his head, almost beast-like, the woman recalls, and fled down the hill…"
There’s a young mom, in our community who has 3 young kids, and this mother wants to be used as an instrument of God. She knows mothering is a very ministry, but her that and more her kids and her family… and she senses that God has been calling her into the ministry of prayer. There are time prompted to pray for people through a sense or a dream and later she discovers that it was at exact time someone needed prayer.
Prayer helps us advance in the spiritual battle, Both Individual and group prayer.
Ephesians 6 calls us to take up the breast plate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, word of God…
A number of commentators have pointed out that all the stuff on the amour is for the front of the solider… meaning they are meant to go forward…
In the Old Testament, the people of God were involved in a literal war, the image of war in the New Testament part is used as metaphor for the spiritual battle.
Interesting that John the Baptist and of his contemporary and many were expecting the Messiah to come and overthrow the Romans.
John the Baptist was expecting the Messiah to come with an ax to cut down the trees that were not good bearing fruit and be thrown into the fire, with a winnowing fork in hand and clear the threshing floor of the chaff with fire…
When he heard of Jesus ministry of healing, casting out demons, and preaching, John wasn’t sure if he Jesus the Messiah or not… so John asks his disciples to ask Jesus was he the Messiah or should we expect someone else?
Jesus Warrior of God does not come as Messiah who uses physical, but spiritual force, as Martin King Jr. would soul force…
Daniel was a spiritual warrior, soul force…
Daniel as spiritual warrior turned people toward many people living God, including King Nechadnezzar and King Darius.
Daniel 12:2 we read “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.”
Being a spiritual involves turning others to righteousness…and it’s also a great joy…
My wife said, when I was hired as an editor at Newsweek, Japan I thought I though I’d very fulfilled, I had wanted to journalist and I was in a dream job. The best thing was being able to tell something a cocktail party, I am an editor at Newsweek! Even though, I magazine had thousands and thousands of readers, I didn’t sense deeply helping anyone…
Now, I don’t have a prestigious job, I work as volunteer, but I seeing a few people turning closer to God, I feel I am a difference…
As spiritual you may a prestigious job, Daniel did, my wife did before then she married me… but a whether power position or not you can as a spiritual warrior if you invite God to use as an instrument of righteousness…
Become a spiritual warrior involves being a person or righteousness, being a person of prayer, and turning others toward righteousness.
Many people think that becoming a Christians means we move toward comfort and ease and safety… there is a very real sense in which God is our refuge…
If you are follower of Christ, many still considering, but if you have it may well be time to pray you’ll be weapon, to wreak havoc in darkness… to become dangerous in the best sense…
Though Daniel is…80 something as he has this vision, he’s dangerous, in the best sense of word, he may not be as fast in the 40 yard dash as he was when he was 20, he can’t bench press what he could at 25, but he’s dangerous as a spiritual force…
A pastor in Los Angeles that I trained with named Erwin McManus says one my son Aaron went to a youth camp. He was just a little guy, and I was kind of glad because it was a church camp. I figured he wasn't going to hear all those ghost stories, because ghost stories can really cause a kid to have nightmares. But unfortunately, since it was a Christian camp and they didn't tell ghost stories, because we don't believe in ghosts, they told demon and Satan stories instead. And so when Aaron got home, he was terrified.
"Dad, don't turn off the light!" he said before going to bed. "No, Daddy, could you stay here with me? Daddy, I'm afraid. They told all these stories about demons."
And I wanted to say, "They're not real."
He goes, "Daddy, Daddy, would you pray for me that I would be safe?" I could feel it. I could feel warm-blanket Christianity beginning to wrap around him, a life of safety, safety, safety.
I said, "Aaron, I will not pray for you to be safe. I will pray that God will make you dangerous, so dangerous that demons will flee when you enter the room."
And he goes, "All right. But pray I would be really, really dangerous, Daddy."
Is it time where you stop asking God to give you a safe, comfortable life, and make you a dangerous warrior of Jesus Christ?
Daniel M7 The Way of the Warrior
Do you remember the first movies you saw as a kid?
One of my favorites movie as a child was Star Wars…
The battle between Jedi Warrior, Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader, the clash between light versus darkness...
Star Wars resonated with so many people not just because (to paraphrase Sid Ganis president of the motion picture Academy) it involved what was considered then special state of art technology, but involved state of the heart story telling.
Whether we consider ourselves religious or not, “believers” or not at deep intuitive, heart level that we sense live in midst of some kind a clash of darkness and light, good and evil.
Epics like the Stars Wars or the Lord of Rings appeal so deeply to so many, because they myths reflect at some level the “true myth,” the clash of good of evil that the sacred book, the Holy Scriptures describes.
Today as we look at the book of Daniel, we’re going to explore what it means to live as a warrior cosmic, spiritual battle…
If you have your Bibles please turn to Daniel 8…
Daniel's Vision of a Ram and a Goat
1 In the third year of King Belshazzar's reign (about 548 or 547 b.c), I, Daniel, had a vision, after the one that had already appeared to me. 2 In my vision I saw myself in the citadel of Susa in the province of Elam; in the vision I was beside the Ulai Canal. 3 I looked up, and there before me was a ram with two horns (these represents the Medo-Persian Empire vs. 20), standing beside the canal, and the horns were long. One of the horns was longer than the other but grew up later (a reference to the fact at first the Medes were in ascendancy, but later it was Persia). 4 I watched the ram as it charged toward the west and the north and the south. No animal could stand against it, and none could rescue from its power. It did as it pleased and became great (The Medo-Persian Empire defeated Babylon).
5 As I was thinking about this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between its eyes came from the west, crossing the whole earth without touching the ground. 6 It came toward the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and charged at it in great rage. 7 I saw it attack the ram furiously, striking the ram and shattering its two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against it; the goat knocked it to the ground and trampled on it, and none could rescue the ram from its power (who is the goat? The goat is Kingdom of Greece which defeats the Kingdom of Babylon). 8 The goat became very great, but at the height of its power the large horn was broken off (who large horn of Greece broken off? Alexander the Great), and in its place four prominent horns grew up toward the four winds of heaven.
9 Out of one of them came another horn, which started small but grew in power to the south and to the east and toward the Beautiful Land (What is the beautiful land? Israel. The prophet Jeremiah and Ezekiel calls Israel the beautiful land). 10 It grew until it reached the host of the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them. 11 It set itself up to be as great as the commander of the army of the LORD; it took away the daily sacrifice from the LORD, and his sanctuary was thrown down. 12 Because of rebellion, the LORD's people [a] and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground (prophet Torah, God’s law was burned in the middle of the 2nd century BC).
13 Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to him, "How long will it take for the vision to be fulfilled—the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, the rebellion that causes desolation, the surrender of the sanctuary and the trampling underfoot of the LORD's people?"
In Daniel’s vision he sees this horn in vs. 10 which starts small but then grows until it reaches heaven and then throws some of the starry host to the ground and tramples upon them.
So, this horn apparently is ascending to heaven and oppressing the armies of heaven.
Vss. 11 The horn takes away the daily sacrifice and the place of the sanctuary was brought low…
In Daniel 11 vs. 31 we have another illusion this anti-God, horn figure. We read that he will desecrates the temple… and abolish the daily sacrifice and set up the abomination that cause desolation…
It’s interesting that battle in chapter 8 seems to be taking place in some spiritual realm, as the horn fights against the Prince of the heavenly host and causes the sanctuary to be desecrated, but later in chapter 8 and chapter 11 and it seems like this battle is actually played out on earth…
We know that during reign of the Antiochus Ephipanes IV who reigned during the mid-2nd century B.C. that the forbade the people of God to make sacrifices to God, committed a great abomination by setting up an altar to Zeus in the temple of the living and sacrificing a pig on the altar which would have been an unspeakable offense to Jewish people…
We also know that as result the Jews under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus began to revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes the IV and a few years later Judas Maccabeaus rededicated of temple (December 165 B.C.) to the living God is the reason why Jewish people today observe Hanukkah.
So it seems in Daniel 8 there is a spiritual cosmic battle being played out as the horn rises to heaven and attacks God’s people, AND at the same time this battle is played out on earth as Antiochus Epiphanes IV rises and seeks to destroy God’s people on earth…
In Daniel 10 we read of great war that takes places in heaven… the demon of the Persian Kingdom battling against the arch angel Michael.
In Revelation 12 we read also of great battle in heaven between a woman clothed in the sun, who and pregnant and cries out in pain… and an enormous red dragon trying to destroy her child and the woman fled into the dessert.
As world class expert on Revelation points out our own Darrell Johnson, this great dragon is Satan, this vision in Revelation points back to the spiritual battle going on during the time when Mary was giving birth to Christ. Satan was attempting to destroy boy and his fury ended up moving the King Herod to kill thousands and thousands of baby boys in that region…
The Bible clearly teaches that are transcendent forces of evil and good that clash at a cosmic, that mysterious and powerfully affect what goes on here on earth.
If you’re new to the Bible you might expect the Bible to assert something like that…
But of course many secular people reject that.
Secular people tend to believe that evil in our world is caused by DNA or social conditioning. I was with a Fortunate 500 corporate executive not long ago and she was talking about some of the ethical problems in her company. Why do you think people act like that in your company, I asked? She said it’s bad DNA.
Others say evils results from people, bad social conditioning, not loving social environment.
Andrew Delbanco is a secular, liberal professor at the NYC’s Columbia University, who wrote a book called The Death of Satan. In that book Delbanco argues… that if you don’t make some kind of appeal to the transcendent evil you won’t have the psychological capacity to deal with evil on a wider scale…
Professor Delbanco is a descendent of Eastern European Jews and some of his ancestors died on the Holocaust. ..
If you don’t in some kind of transcend evil how do you explain the genocide of 6 million Jews? The Nazi had bad DNA or are you going say the Nazi’s didn’t get tendering loving fare (TLC) and milk and cookies when they were kids… and they were “acting out” to get attention?
Or where they influence by a force of evil in some spiritual realm?
(Optional: May or may not use this piece: In article in the New Yorker by foreign affairs correspond Mark Danner, he describes the persecution of the church in a certain part of the world. He writes about girl being raped multiple times by soliders on a cruise and then as she lay on that boat she was quietly singing these strange Christian hymns of praise… and then a solider shot her in the chest, with blood flower from her chest, she continued to sing, but more though more weakly and then the soldiers a fear seemed to sweep over them and they unsheathed their machetes and had hacked through he neck and the singing stopped. That really happened.)
Sometimes secular people will argue the Christian approach to evil to simplistic. “Oh the devil made me do it.” “Yeah right!” But, the secular view is actually more simplistic that Christian view. Because the Christian view would say that evil can be the result of our DNA and genetic inheritance, our social environment, choice, AND spiritual forces of evil…
Paul in the part of Bible referred as newer testament, in Ephesians 6 says we are in a battle not against flesh and blood, but against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms….
So if we are in this spiritual battle how do we live our lives?
Paul in Ephesians 6 says we are to put on the full armor of God so that we can take our stand against the devil’s schemes.
He says Ephesians 6:14 we are to put on belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness…
Truth in this context refers to person’s sincerity and integrity and righteousness, a person refers to being inwardly pure…
In Daniel, we see the mighty warrior is a person of total integrity… He’s blameless not in the sense of absolute perfection, but in the sense that you can’t find fault with him.
When Daniel’s colleagues are envious of his success and want to smear him, they dig but can’t find fault with him…
In Daniel 9, we see him praying for cleansing for himself and his people. So when know does “fall” he seeks to be inwardly cleansed by God.
We tend to think that a warrior, particularly in the ancient context as someone who could throw a spear like fast ball with great accuracy and speed, or wield a sword with tremendous skill, or we think of a solider deft at firing a machine gun or able to precisely manipulate a computer guided a missile.
But if want to warriors for the God in a spiritual battle, like Daniel, we will seek be spiritual clean…
In interesting the mysterious battles the Hebrew soldiers fought in the Old Testament era that physical prowess was important what was far more important was the soldiers would be spiritual clean. In the New Testament, where the sole emphasis in as battle are concerned, is the spiritual battle, inward purity is everything.
In Plato’s republic, Socrates is asked through a winding dialogue is it ever advantageous to do what is evil as opposed to what is good?
Say you had the ring of Giges and could turn invisible and you knew you could get away with stealing a priceless diamond, would it some times be in your advantage to do evil?
Plato, through the mouth of Socrates says no, it’s never advantageous to do evil, because when you do evil you destroy your soul and it’s never in your advantage your own soul.
Sin is vandalizes our soul.
Sin weakens the spiritual warrior.
Purity free the Warrior… the Psalmist in Psalm 119:32 says I run in the path of your commandments, for you have set my heart free.
The Spiritual warrior is inwardly pure.
The spiritual warrior also prays.
In Ephesians 6:18 we are called to pray in the spirit on all occasion, with all kinds of prayers and requests.
In Daniel 3, we see that King Nebuchadnezzar asks the wise men of Babylon to interpret the dreams and no one can. So Daniel steps forwards and asks for time to interpret them and he prays and calls upon his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to pray.
In Daniel 6, we see that Daniel’s colleagues envious of his success conspire against him by having the King pass a law that no one can to pray to anyone or anything for the next 30 days except the King with penalty that if anyone does pray her or she will be thrown into the Lion’s den…
In the later part of Daniel as he receives this apocalyptic visions about things that will come we see in Daniel 9 and 10 that Daniel passionately seeks God in prayer.
It’s a mystery how this happens, but prayers can change the world.
In Daniel 10 as Daniel prays the angel comes in response to provides support in the spiritual battle against evil.
In Exodus, the Israelites are in battle against the Amalekites and Moses lifts his hands in a symbol of pray and as his hands are lifted a symbol of his appealing to God, Israel has the upper hand, but as his hands grow tired and weary the Amalekites gain the advantage. As Moses arms grow weary, Aaron and Hur hold his hands and the Israelties prevail.
In a mysterious way it seems as though pray can influence the onslaught of evil.
I remember an article in Newsweek magazine "Late one night in upstate New York, a journalist decided to take a shortcut home, up a steep, unlit path. Then she heard steps behind her, faster than her own. An instant later the man was upon her, tightening her new striped scarf around her neck…. At home, her mother woke from a deep sleep, seized with fear that something terrible was about to happen to her eldest daughter. The mother immediately knelt down beside her bed and prayed. Back on the stony path, the man suddenly ceased his assault. He cocked his head, almost beast-like, the woman recalls, and fled down the hill…"
There’s a young mom, in our community who has 3 young kids, and this mother wants to be used as an instrument of God. She knows mothering is a very ministry, but her that and more her kids and her family… and she senses that God has been calling her into the ministry of prayer. There are time prompted to pray for people through a sense or a dream and later she discovers that it was at exact time someone needed prayer.
Prayer helps us advance in the spiritual battle, Both Individual and group prayer.
Ephesians 6 calls us to take up the breast plate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, word of God…
A number of commentators have pointed out that all the stuff on the amour is for the front of the solider… meaning they are meant to go forward…
In the Old Testament, the people of God were involved in a literal war, the image of war in the New Testament part is used as metaphor for the spiritual battle.
Interesting that John the Baptist and of his contemporary and many were expecting the Messiah to come and overthrow the Romans.
John the Baptist was expecting the Messiah to come with an ax to cut down the trees that were not good bearing fruit and be thrown into the fire, with a winnowing fork in hand and clear the threshing floor of the chaff with fire…
When he heard of Jesus ministry of healing, casting out demons, and preaching, John wasn’t sure if he Jesus the Messiah or not… so John asks his disciples to ask Jesus was he the Messiah or should we expect someone else?
Jesus Warrior of God does not come as Messiah who uses physical, but spiritual force, as Martin King Jr. would soul force…
Daniel was a spiritual warrior, soul force…
Daniel as spiritual warrior turned people toward many people living God, including King Nechadnezzar and King Darius.
Daniel 12:2 we read “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.”
Being a spiritual involves turning others to righteousness…and it’s also a great joy…
My wife said, when I was hired as an editor at Newsweek, Japan I thought I though I’d very fulfilled, I had wanted to journalist and I was in a dream job. The best thing was being able to tell something a cocktail party, I am an editor at Newsweek! Even though, I magazine had thousands and thousands of readers, I didn’t sense deeply helping anyone…
Now, I don’t have a prestigious job, I work as volunteer, but I seeing a few people turning closer to God, I feel I am a difference…
As spiritual you may a prestigious job, Daniel did, my wife did before then she married me… but a whether power position or not you can as a spiritual warrior if you invite God to use as an instrument of righteousness…
Become a spiritual warrior involves being a person or righteousness, being a person of prayer, and turning others toward righteousness.
Many people think that becoming a Christians means we move toward comfort and ease and safety… there is a very real sense in which God is our refuge…
If you are follower of Christ, many still considering, but if you have it may well be time to pray you’ll be weapon, to wreak havoc in darkness… to become dangerous in the best sense…
Though Daniel is…80 something as he has this vision, he’s dangerous, in the best sense of word, he may not be as fast in the 40 yard dash as he was when he was 20, he can’t bench press what he could at 25, but he’s dangerous as a spiritual force…
A pastor in Los Angeles that I trained with named Erwin McManus says one my son Aaron went to a youth camp. He was just a little guy, and I was kind of glad because it was a church camp. I figured he wasn't going to hear all those ghost stories, because ghost stories can really cause a kid to have nightmares. But unfortunately, since it was a Christian camp and they didn't tell ghost stories, because we don't believe in ghosts, they told demon and Satan stories instead. And so when Aaron got home, he was terrified.
"Dad, don't turn off the light!" he said before going to bed. "No, Daddy, could you stay here with me? Daddy, I'm afraid. They told all these stories about demons."
And I wanted to say, "They're not real."
He goes, "Daddy, Daddy, would you pray for me that I would be safe?" I could feel it. I could feel warm-blanket Christianity beginning to wrap around him, a life of safety, safety, safety.
I said, "Aaron, I will not pray for you to be safe. I will pray that God will make you dangerous, so dangerous that demons will flee when you enter the room."
And he goes, "All right. But pray I would be really, really dangerous, Daddy."
Is it time where you stop asking God to give you a safe, comfortable life, and make you a dangerous warrior of Jesus Christ?
posted by Shigematsu at 11:54 AM
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