Daniel stopped the mouth of lions

This is from the blog Daily Meditation:

Daniel 6:20: And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: and the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?

The people who surround Daniel were envious of him because he was about to be elevated above them. They formed themselves into an investigative panel so that they can look for fault with him. They made a thorough search of issues concerning him but saw that he was blameless (Daniel 6).

They decided that they their only alternative is to create a conflict that does not exist before between Daniel’s commitment to the God of Israel and the law of the Medes and Persians.

They made the king set up a law that no one should pray to any other god except the King for period of 30 days and anyone who disobeyed will be fed to the lions. Daniel would immediately contravene that law by praying to God facing Jerusalem as he used to. And of course he was arrested and thrown into den of lions. But God saved him.

He explained later that God whom he served unflinching and who supports him unbendingly, sent his angels to save him from the lions.

And in a classic case of one with God being a majority, the king fed the people who schemed against Daniel and their families to the lions. They were paid back in their own coin. They fell into the trap they have laid.

Because Daniel was focused on obedience to God, he shut the mouth of the lions. And in your case, what is meant to devour you will only promote you when you stand in faith. That was what happened with Daniel. What was meant to crush him crushed his adversaries.

The writer of the book of Hebrews obviously referred to Daniel, when he said by faith some people shut the mouth of lions (Hebrews 11:33). That shows that underneath the whole drama of Daniel going to and coming from the lions’ den, his faith was in operation.

What is meant to bring you down will only take you up when you are in faith. Faith uses adversity as soaring board. Faith says that it is not over until you win. When Daniel was thrown into that dark pit of a den full of lions, his adversaries thought that was the end to him. They thought he would no longer be any threat to them or their ambition, that they have rid themselves of him. But God would have none of that.

And Daniel would be given a public recompense of his devotion to God and his enemies will be given a public recompense of their opposition to the man who is with God. The Lord is committed to oppose those who oppose you. You can stand secure in his protection. God said, touch not my anointed and do my prophets no harm (Psalm105:15). You are marked by the anointing and you are protected. John wrote that this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith in God (1John 5:4). And greater is he who is in us than the one who is in the world (1John 4:4).

Faith is about bridging between heaven and earth. It presents a possibility above human ability. It activates the activity of angels.

When Jesus was about to be arrested, he said he can ask his father in heaven and he will make available 12 legions of angels to his defense (Matthew 26:53-54). He declined to activate faith to save himself, because of his commitment to go through with dying on the cross to save humanity.

Angels hearken to the word of God according to the testimony of scriptures (Psalm 103:20). So when you put the word of God in your mouth, declaring it over your situation, angelic activities are activated. The words you declare shows that you believe in God and angels get excited when they are around someone who believes in God and his declaration lines up with that.

I know that because when Zechariah, a priest, John the Baptist’s father was before angel Gabriel, he irritated Gabriel by mouthing disbelief to the word of God (Luke 1:18-20). And as punishment the angel said that the priest will be dumb for a season. He said that because he was pissed off by the unbelief of that priest. That was a negative action of the angel.  Faith does the opposite; it activates the positive actions of angels on behalf of the believers.

Faith unleashes enormous power. The bible says that the prayer of faith saves the sick and that the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man avails much (James 5:13-18), dynamic in its working and makes tremendous power available. That shows there needs to be present, for tremendous power to be made available, the threesome of righteousness, faith and prayer.

Daniel was standing in faith and his connection to God was without fail, which is righteousness. He was also a man of prayer; he defied the law of the land to go and pray on the pain of death by being eaten alive by lions. Prayer, righteousness and faith were present in his life and the three give forth a formidable combustion of spiritual energy as released by angels.

Righteousness is about a lifestyle that pleases God; faith is stepping out on the word of God, with active expectation that what he says, he will do, and prayer, is focusing the word of God as a laser beam in the realm of the spirit to get the will of God done.

But since God does not hear sinners, it means that righteousness is the core of all these. A life of faith starts with obedience to God, which is another definition of righteousness. There can be no activation of the help of God when you are not right with him. He is holy, remember?

However, the gift of righteousness that we receive from Jesus takes care of any acceptance issues between us and God (2Corinthians 5:21).  In Jesus, we are covered on the righteousness front. And God accepts us as he accepts Christ. The sacrifice he made was because our sin was laid on him, so that according to the logic of divine exchange, his righteousness can be put on us. He didn’t do anything to deserve the cross in the same way that we didn’t do anything to deserve his righteousness.

That, however, is not the same as license for lawlessness (Romans 6:1-2). After accepting the blood sacrifice of Jesus and we are now born again, we need to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4), walk in the truth (3John1:4), walk in the light (1John 1:7), walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16). Though we start with the gift of righteousness we are supposed to go on from there with the life of righteousness (1John 3:7). Because what Christ gives us is not just a gift, it is a change. We are new creatures (2Corinthians 5:17).

In Jesus we have our righteousness, in him our faith stands firm, and we use his name in prayer. He therefore represents for us victory over the lions of this world, whatever they are, and victory over whatever seeks to consume us.

_____

"A man with God is always in the majority."

"Let a thing be noted, that the prophet of God sometimes may teach treason against kings, and yet neither he nor such as obey the word, spoken in the Lord's name by him, offend God."

     --John Knox