Well I know it has been a while now since I have posted anything but it has been quite a busy few weeks. The reality is that my family and I entered into the 21 day Daniel fast that Pastor Jentezen Franklin and his church "Free Chapel" in Gainesville Georgia do every January of every year. So I have been really trying to not do anything but fast and pray. I will be honest though it's tough to seek the Lord "ALL" daylong. It's amazing how many distractions show up when you truly set yourself to worship the Lord all day. Anyway before I go off on a tangent, the Lord gave me a message during this fast regarding the book of Daniel that blessed my heart very much. I want to share it with you all and I pray that you are blessed as much as the Holy Spirit has blessed me through it.

In Daniel chapter 6 we find the account of when King Darius assigned his kingdom to 120 satraps and over them 3 governors, one of which was Daniel. In the beginning of the chapter the bible declares in verse 3, "Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm." Firstly the name Daniel in Hebrew comes from uniting two Hebrew words, the first word is DIYN which means a straight course or to sail direct. The second word is EL, which means God. If you take Daniel's name and translate it literally and direct with the words together you get Judge of God. So we see that even in his name Daniel was set to follow a straight course, he was meant to sail direct or in other words to live a righteous life in right standing with the Lord, straight and not crooked. The reason he could live this way was not simply because of his name, in this sense was prophetic because it was given to him before he lived the way he did. So the name in itself has no power. The power comes from what the bible refers to as "the spirit within him."

The bible says that Daniel distinguished himself because of the excellent spirit that was inside of him. He was not different from the rest because of what he looked like or what he did or even how he spoke or acted, he was distinguished by the spirit that was in him. The bible does not say the spirit that came upon him or that spirit that he spoke to or prayed to, it says the spirit that was in him. This means the spirit dwells inside of him and lived with him always. The Hebrew word for the word excellent is Yattiyr, which comes from Yathar. Not only does it mean to exceed or be excellent, it also means to remain, be left, to leave or remain as in when you separate the good from the bad like in the threshing floor when the grain is separated from the straw. This spirit is the spirit that is not of this world it is the spirit of God that separates us, it threshes us from the rest and once God is done threshing our lives all that is left is holy and all that is left will walk straight and will sail direct.

The spirit of God or the Holy Spirit is what was in Daniel and alive in him causing him to be distinguished from the rest. When you allow the Holy Spirit to take action in your life it begins to cause you to be threshed from the rest of the world. All the garbage in your life is thrown away. It's a little harsh to call people garbage but in essence the garbage is not the people in your life but what they bring and represent in your life. So God will even get rid of the people garbage in your life and you might even find yourself physically alone but always remember that God is with you every step of the way. Whatever He removed He removed for your protection and what ever He took from you He will replace it with something far more precious and valuable then anything you could ever ask or think of. The King is always watching over you and always interested in what is going on in your life.

The bible said an excellent spirit, we already know what excellent means so we must now move on to the word spirit. As I said before we are referring to the Holy Spirit of God. In Daniels case the Holy Spirit caused Daniel to stand out from the rest to be different and even to stand alone. This is what happens even in our lives if we allow the Holy Spirit to take control. Now many of us know that the Hebrew word for spirit is Ruach, which means breath, or wind of God but it also means something very interesting and important. It means MIND of God. So the excellent spirit that was in Daniel not only caused him to be able to walk straight or be in right standing with the Lord but it also gave him the mind of God. Please do not misunderstand me, I'm not saying that Daniel was able to read the thoughts of God or even know how God thinks but what I am saying is that through the Holy Spirit we are able to be wise and think and act like God in the sense that we do what He wants us to do and act like He wants us to act and think like He wants us to think.

It was this very state of mind that allowed Daniel to make the wise decisions in his life that lead him to find favor in king Darius' eyes. It was this state of mind and spirit that allowed him to be righteous in God's eyes and allowed him to live a powerful life of faith and action. This is why he could and did overcome all the obstacles that were set before him. Because Daniel thought like God he know that God would never fail him, Daniel know God's almighty power and Daniel know that God would never forsake him. Because the spirit of God was living and dwelling in him he had the ability to have enough supernatural faith walk into a burning furnace and a den of lions and not be afraid. This very state of mind and spirit allowed Daniel to worship God when he knew it was against the law to do so. He knew the law but he also know that God was above the law and that God was faithful enough to complete the good work that he had begun in his life. Do you see it yet?

Allowing God full and total control of your life puts you in a place were your faith is un movable and unbreakable. The devil hates this because if your faith is that strong he cannot use fear against you. Fear is the devils main weapon against faith, actually fear is the opposite of faith, and fear is faith in the devil. When your relationship with God is so intimate and so powerful, the Holy Spirit causes you to have unbreakable and supernatural faith in your creator. It is God who gives us that faith, without Him our faith isn't even the size of a mustard seed. If not the Jesus would not have said, "IF you have faith the size of a mustard seed" Key word here is IF. Jesus meant if we could even get our faith to grow to the size of a mustard seed we can move the mountains, so our natural faith must be way smaller then a mustard seed. Think about it when we were in the world or even now if your relationship with God is not at the level were it is supposed to be, you truly don't believe that anything good is going to happen. This is why we have so much motivational books in the world and why people all have confidence problems. Most of the time we are just waiting for the next thing to go wrong. Always trying to be ready for the next big issue that will hit our lives and always living with an expectation that something will eventually go wrong and will force us to deal with it. In essence we live in constant fear. So I believe me if it was up to us alone, our faith could do nothing. When you allow God to do His work in your life, the first thing He does is give you hope for the future, faith in that fact that He will pull you through, faith that He will carry you to higher place and will mend all your brokenness.

Ok we see that is was nothing that Daniel did that made him distinguished but it was the excellent spirit in him that caused him to stand out from the rest and succeed in everything that he did. This spirit caused him to live the life that God wants us to live. Now anytime you stand out from the crowd you will be noticed, especially if the reason you stand out is because Jesus Christ lives in you and has transformed you. When you allow Jesus to transform you, you no longer do what people say, think or want you to do. You do what Jesus guides you to do. You know longer do what people think is right, you do what God tells you is right. Jesus Christ makes you sail straight, He makes you exceed. At first you might not exceed economically, physically or materialistically but you will exceed morally and spiritually. Exceeding morally and spiritually brings success in all the other areas. It's the same principle of putting God first. If you seek Him first then everything else will fall into place. If you put Him first, Jesus makes you succeed were it is important to Him first which is spiritually and morally and everything else will fall into place. When you exceed spiritually and morally you tend to make some people happy and proud but most people angry and envious.

Why you ask? We live in a world were the moral and spiritual fiber that used to wrap around the world is now only holding it together by a few strands. People do not care about morals and spirituality anymore. The longing for a more spiritual and intimate connection with our creator is almost no existent. They don't care about doing the right thing and standing for what is right and just. I mean this for the church also, not just the world. Sometimes it seems as if the people at church are worse than those in the world. Many church people, so called "Christians" talk more behind your back then your coworkers at work who don't know Jesus. People at church or more envious of those doing the right things and living the right life then people who have never even set foot in a church. When other people see you actually obeying the word of God and actually putting it to action I your life rather then just reading it every Sunday and they begin to see results, they get envious, they start to find ways to discredit your success.

In Daniel Chapter 6 verse the word declares, "So the governors and satraps sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find no charge or fault, because he was faithful; nor was there any error or fault found in him." The governors and satraps were also servants of the king. They were fellow members of the same house that Daniel was in. Because Daniel was exceeding and standing out they were envious and set out to find something wrong, they set out to find something to accuse Daniel of because it was eating them up inside that he was doing so well and finding so much favor in the king's eyes. Like many church members they did not realize that if they did what Daniel did and allowed God to have full control of their lives and put Him first in their lives, they would have the same success and favor that Daniel had. Sometimes it is easier to point fingers and accuse and slander then to obey the word of God. Unfortunately people choose the former of the two.

When you give Jesus 100% control of your life and allow Him full access to your emotions, thoughts, desires and character He begins the change. When you begin to let Jesus Christ transform you, He turns your spirit into His spirit, your mind into His mind, your will into His will and your character into His. Our savior king Jesus Christ does not stand for injustice. Jesus will not do the wrong thing. Jesus will put aside religion for truth and revelation. Jesus will never be selfish or self-centered. These characteristics, this way of life, this attitude is completely contrary to what people of the world think, feel or do. Not just the world but sadly many in the church as well. When Jesus lives with you, when you have this excellent spirit inside of you, you have no choice but to live and act in the way Jesus does. That spiritually and moral excellence is what brings success in all the other aspects of your life from the smallest to the largest.

So when you are living the Jesus life, as I like to call it, you make some people happy and a lot of people angry. In the case of Daniel the people who were upset about his favor conspired against him, to bring him down. This is always the case; people who are envious of the favor and blessings living the Jesus life brings will always try to bring you down from your elevated position. Not that you are better or higher then the others but spiritually you are in an elevated position. When Jesus has full and total control of your life, you have crucified the flesh on the cross. You have literally placed yourself on the cross high on a hill for all to see. Not for vain purposes but in obedience to the Lord almighty. When Jesus was crucified the people mocked Him and tried to make Him come down on the cross. In other words they tried to bring Him down.

In Matthew chapter 27 verses 39-43 the word says, "And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, "You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross." Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, "He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, 'I am the Son of God." Not realizing that Jesus being on the cross was the very reason they were offered salvation and everlasting life. If they did the same and crucify their flesh they would find life everlasting and blessings and favor beyond their expectations. In the same manner people and the enemy will try to bring you down from your cross. Can you imagine if Jesus would have come down from the cross and not completed His assignment? God forbid, we would still be lost without a hope and a God, strangers to the promise and foreigners to the citizenship of Israel. The same goes for you, Jesus will be glorified through your crucifixion and lives will be saved through you. What will happen if you come down off of your cross and you don't fulfill the plans that Jesus has for your life? That is truly an amazing question and I for one want to find out what happens if I stay on this cross! In Matthew 4:5-7 the devil tempts Jesus. They are on a high place, the pinnacle of the temple meaning the very top of this building. The devil tells Jesus to throw himself down to the ground. Again he is trying to bring Jesus down, the devil even uses scripture and says that the bible declares the Lord will protect Him and He will send angels to rescue Him. People will try to bring you down even using the scriptures and even trying to convince you that if you come down the Lord will protect you and nothing will happen. Jesus answered the devil with scripture and told him that we are not to tempt the Lord. Jesus knew that His father would protect Him as long as his motives were pure and He continued to obey God. If you deliberately go against what God has told you or even do the wrong thing because you feel that God will protect you, you could not be further from the truth. God is willing to be with you every step of the way as long as you obey Him and put Him first. If you decide to make your own decisions without Him or go against His words your basically on your own at that point. The world wants to get you to that point. That's why it is so important to endure the cross and to latch on to it and cling on to it for dear life. It is at the cross and only at the cross where you will grow and attain all that the Lord has for your life.

Wow ok, I went a little off course there but I'm sure God was talking to someone. When the satraps and governors set to bring Daniel down they looked to find something wrong in his Kingdom, meaning what he was in charge to care for. The thing is that they could find nothing wrong in his kingdom, they couldn't find anything to throw in his face and show the king. The satraps couldn't find any dirt on Daniel, no offshore accounts no tax evasions or sex tapes on the internet or past jail records you know the regular stuff. The same goes in your life, the first thing others will come after is your personal life, what the king has placed you in charge of. In the Daniels case and for all those who truly love the Lord and always put Him first, they will never be able to find anything. When Jesus has transformed you, your life is clean like your spirit. It is when they can find nothing wrong with your kingdom that they will attack your beliefs in God and your faith.

In Daniel chapter 6 verse 5 the bible says, "Then these men said, "We shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God." See the enemy knew how dedicated Daniel was to the Lord, they knew that the only way to get Daniel in trouble was to outlaw the worship of his God. Brothers and sisters when you are experiencing this type of persecution it is because you are starting to make a mark, it is because the devil knows what you are doing and he knows how close you are to God. In fact it's actually a good sign that you are on the right track and close to God. The devil knew he could not do anything to Daniel and his kingdom but he knew that if he made it illegal to worship the Lord, Daniel would get in trouble and be convicted. The foolish devil though that the sentence of being put to death would be enough to scare Daniel to stop worshiping. Daniel knew though that stronger was He who was in him than he who was in the world. Hallelujah! Daniel knew that no matter what the outcome was that God was going to protect him for putting Him first. Daniel's faith in God out weighed the fear the devil was trying to put in his heart.

When the Lord starting working in my life I began to hand out daily scriptures to my employees. The daily scriptures began to have an amazing effect on my staff and God began to work wonders. The daily scriptures lead to daily talks about God and those talks lead me to preach to them daily at a set time. Of course the devil could not find anything to attack me personally with but he would make my boss find out about what we were doing and try to stop it. They had a meeting and told everyone that is was against company policy to speak about God in the work place. They said that was ground for instant termination. Now I'm not saying that you should all go out and lose your jobs because of preaching at work but in my case God had plans for many of my employees and the devil was just trying to stop them. The truth is I got to a place were I no longer cared about my job and all I wanted to do was preach the gospel and I knew the Lord had a plan for a select few and I just refused to stop. Later we found out that one of the people in my department was telling administration everything that was going on. I continued to preach and I just asked the Lord to remove that person and guess what? He did. The Lord saved many employees and many of them will never be the same again.

Ok sorry back to Daniel. So the satraps and governors basically forced the king to sign into effect a law that stated no one can worship anything or anyone else other then King Darius. The bible says in Daniel 6 verse 8 that once this law was signed by the king it could not be changed according to the law of the Medes and the Persians. When the bible refers to Persia it is a symbol of the world, the dominion of the devil. So what they did was establish a law that said you cannot worship anyone else or anything else other the king of the land or the ruler of the world and this law can never change. The devil was trying to outlaw the worship of God by instilling fear in the hearts of men with the consequences of breaking this law. If you look at the world today this law is still in effect. People will not worship the Lord in fear of what people will say about them, do to them or think about them. The devil has managed to hold hostage the people with fear. When you worship the Lord in spirit and in truth you are violating the law of this world and you are going against everything the devil has tried to place against this practice. The devil sends his people, circumstances, issues, problems and persecutions in hope that he will make you afraid enough to stop. People who are bound by this law will attack you because you are freed from it. People who are bound by religion will attack you because you are not tied to it. Those who are bound by the world and its desires will despise you because you are not.

Daniel though continued worshiping God even though he knew that he would be convicted of wrong doing in the eyes of the others. You see the King loved Daniel and was reluctant to send him into the lion's den. So much so that the satraps had to pressured the king continually to say the words so they could throw him into the den. Jesus Christ the King, our God is a just God and although he loves you and wants nothing but the best for you, reluctantly has to allow the devil to move in your life sometimes. If God was to just plain stop them from throwing Daniel into the den it would be like God cheating at His own game. He holds everything in perfect balance and He is just to make everything work the way it is suppose to. The same way he sustains our life and this planet he also sustains the devil and his world. That is how honorable and just our God is. As much as it hurts him he will not even cheat the devil and bully him. He also gives the devil free will. Although God might not like what he is putting you through God has already set laws and boundaries up for this world and He is to upright and just to break them. What God does though is provide a way out of a situation. God performs a miracle and allows you to survive and through this process God uses what the devil meant for bad and turns it for good and your faith grows and you grow as a person. Your spirit is strengthened and you grow from glory to glory learning just how amazing and loving God is.

In Daniel chapter 6 verse 14 the word says, "And the king, when he heard these words, was greatly displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him; and he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him." Later on it says the king did not sleep. The King of Glory, Jesus Christ never rests. He never stops thinking about you. He never stops protecting you, He is always watching you. You see in this verse that since the King heard what was going to happen to Daniel he set his heart on delivering him. That is exactly what happens. As soon as God sees the devil coming to attack you He sets His heart to deliver you from the attack. Remember when I told you that when you stand out because of Jesus you make a few people happy and proud and a lot of people angry? Well among those few who are happy and proud is the most important one and that is the King. As long as you keep Jesus Christ Happy and keep Him first in your life, you have nothing to fear and nothing to worry about. The word says in Daniel 6 verse 16, "Your God whom you serve continually, He will deliver you!"

What a wonderful and powerful statement. I don't know what your going through right now but if you chose to put God first, if you chose to follow Him and obey Him no matter what the outcome may look like He will deliver you! He will save you and He will pick you up and help you. If you are going through some trials and persecutions because you are obeying Jesus and worshiping Him, God will deliver you and you have nothing to fear and no one to fear. God may not be able to change the situation but He can change the outcome. Again it is not because He does not have the capability to change it but He is to just to interfere with free will. He did not stop Daniel from going into the den with lions and by the way we are not talking Hanna Barbera cartoon lions either here folks, we are talking real life fully grown national geographic, discovery channel will bite your head off lions. So God may not have stopped Daniel from entering the den but God was able to send an angel to shut the lion's mouths. Now it does not go into detail on how the lion's mouths were shut. It could have been as simple as the Lord made the lions not hungry and sleepy. The point is no harm came to Daniel and once again the Lord delivered him from the enemy because of his love and dedication to the Lord.

When morning came the King went out to see if Daniel was still alive and he cried out to Daniel. "Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?" and Daniel replied, "O king, live forever! My God sent His angel and shut the lions' mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him" Daniel was able to praise the Lord and say "O King live forever!" Notice that the reason Daniel gives for his breakthrough is that he was found innocent before HIM, who is HIM? The Lord God almighty. Daniel did not care what anyone else though or what the world declared him guilty of. What brought Daniel through the trial and to his breakthrough was the fact that he was found innocent before the Lord. If you endure and if you put Jesus first, your breakthrough will come. You might be going through the darkness of the night right now in the lion's den but the morning will come and you will be able to praise the Lord. The Lord whom you serve continually will deliver you!

But what is this all for? What purpose is behind all of this? Never forget that the ultimate purpose is to bring glory and praise to the Lord. Our number one goal in all we do and in all we endure is to glorify our savior King Jesus Christ. Daniel 6 verses 25 to 28 shows how everything that Daniel went through not only brought him more prosperity but more importantly brought Glory to God in all the land.

Then King Darius wrote:

To all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth:

Peace be multiplied to you.

I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel.

For He is the living God,
And steadfast forever;
His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed,
And His dominion shall endure to the end.
He delivers and rescues,
And He works signs and wonders
In heaven and on earth,
Who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.

So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

Remember that if you put Christ first in your life and if you commit to obeying God and His word in every aspect of your life you will encounter trials and tribulations and you will suffer for persecution for His namesake but you will be delivered. You will be prospered and you will see the hand of the Lord your God in your life in amazing and marvelous ways. If you allow Jesus to transform you and make you the reflection of His image, He will give you faith that not only can move mountains but faith that can defy the spirit of death himself. It is only through total surrender that we can achieve anything with Christ and in this world. Remember the more you hold on too the harder it is for your and the more you hold on to the slower the process happens in your life. Take this moment, this day to give your self completely to the Lord. Allow Him total and complete access to every aspect of your life and see the amazing change that only He can make. Never forget that He will deliver you and He will never forsake you and never leave you. Seek God and His kingdom first and everything else will fall into place. I pray that God has blessed you through this message and has brought some light and salt to your life. If you are reading this and do not know Jesus and have never been born again but you want to experience this awesome life changing power, all you have to do is pray this prayer and truly allow Him to take control of you from the inside out. Ok pray this prayer:

Lord Jesus I recognize that I am a sinner
Father I recognize that I need to change and that I need you in my life
Forgive me of my sins, cleanse my soul and renew my mind
I give you my life, my heart and my mind
I hold nothing back from you
I open my heart to you and I ask you to come inside my heart and live with me
Change me from the inside out
Today I give you everything that is in me and I ask you to give me a fresh start
I receive your forgiveness and love
I receive your mercy and grace
And I thank you for coming into my life.

If you prayed this prayer for the first time and need someone to talk to please email me or send me a comment and I will be more then happy to assist you on your new walk in Christ. Right now the most important thing is that you find a church that will nurture you and feed you and help you to grow this newly restored life that Jesus has just given you. Yes it is that simple, if you believe and trust in the Lord.

May God bless you and Keep You always!