WHAT IS YOUR DESTINY? Daniel 12:3,13.

People talk a lot about “destiny,” as if it is all known and planned out. And perhaps it is. God certainly knows the future. But He gives us so many choices.

You will only achieve a great destiny by making hard choices. 

Destiny can mean fame, riches, a good marriage, a loving home, or many other things. But what does destiny look like to God? He is outside of time. Now—this is deep; stay with me—could your real destiny not even happen on earth? If Heaven is your real home, maybe heaven holds your real destiny. Maybe the great, amazing future we all dream of is coming there—after death?

After all, speaking of greatness, the Bible says that in heaven, “Those who are wise will shine like the bright expanse of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” Daniel 12:3

Imagine God giving you a shine of His glory, so that you shine like a star? Wow. Sounds better than any fame or fortune on earth. Maybe eternal life really is the great key to our existence. 

And consider what the angel Gabriel said to Daniel, one of the Bible’s greatest heroes:

“Go your way to the end, you will rest [die], then rise to your destiny at the end of days.” Daniel 12:13.

So even Daniel, a prophet and writer of a book of the Bible, one of the most famous, most successful men in world history by any measure, one even unbelievers know is a great hero of history, is told his REAL DESTINY awaits him in HEAVEN. 

Think about that: DANIEL’S MOST IMPORTANT–MOST REAL–DESTINY WAS WAITING FOR HIM IN HEAVEN.

Isn’t that crazy? People think heaven is boring, an eternal “retirement” where you sing songs and tell stories about your adventures back on earth. NO WAY!!

Heaven is where the real adventures begin! That is you real destiny! This life is just a warmup, a bullpen session to get ready for your real destiny. 

God, teach us to number our days, that we may present to thee a heart of wisdom. Help us use our time wisely, to study the word, to love you, to love others, and to store up treasure in heaven! We love you!

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Eternity is Real-er Than This Life. Daniel 12:2-3

At the end of days, what will be your destiny? (Did you know you can be a star in the Lord’s kingdom?)

“Those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, and some to shame and eternal contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the bright blue sky of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever” Daniel 12:2-3.

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WHAT IS TRULY HIGH PRAISE? Daniel 10:12-13.

What have been your favorite compliments? I recently wrote a list of favorites from my whole life—I came up with 37, including one or two from each of you!

But several people in the Bible were praised by God—now THAT’S high praise! God called Abraham His friend, Genesis 18:17. He said Job spoke rightly of God’s truth, Job 42:7. God called Noah, Job, and Daniel righteous, Ezekiel 14:14. God said Moses was the most humble man who ever lived, Numbers 12:3. He said David was “a man after My own heart, who will do My will” 1 Samuel 13:14. The angels greeted Mary by saying, “Hail, highly favored one” Luke 1:28. Paul says if he suffers for Christ, that means God considered him “worthy to suffer for His name” Philippians 1:29.

But today I’m reading Daniel. In chapter 9, the angel Gabriel comes to Daniel and says “you are treasured by God” Daniel 9:23. Wouldn’t that be amazing? In chapter 10, Gabriel came to Daniel again and began his message by saying, “Daniel, you are a man treasured by God….” Daniel 10:11. Then after the angel’s message overwhelmed Daniel, Gabriel touched him and said, “Don’t be afraid, you who are treasured by God. Peace to you; be strong!” Daniel 10:19.

Why does Daniel receive such High Praise–three times? Gabriel explained:

“Don’t be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that YOU PURPOSED TO UNDERSTAND and to HUMBLE YOURSELF BEFORE GOD, your prayers were heard. I have come because of your prayers, but the prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me for 21 days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me….” Daniel 10:12-13.

Daniel is praised for being determined to understand God’s truth, and for humbling himself before God. Can we do those two things? Yes!

Make a choice to (1) learn and understand God’s word, no matter how tough it might be, and (2) to HUMBLE yourself before His word.

Ask God to help you be like Daniel, so that God can bestow the same sort of high praise on you. (*Also—be persistent in prayer: God sent Daniel his answer, but a battle between angels and demons delayed the answer 21 days!)

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Pray and Never Give Up! Daniel 10:12

Do you have a problem you are praying about? Daniel prayed about a problem for three weeks. Finally an angel came and explained something to him:

“Don’t be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you prayed and humbled yourself before God, your prayers were answered. I have come because of your prayers.

But the prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me for 21 days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes among the angels, joined me in the fight against the Prince of Persia. Now I have come to answer your prayers…” Daniel 10:12-14.

God hears your prayers. But sometimes the answers are delayed while angels and demons do battle. Spiritual warfare is real. Pray more. God may strengthen angels or deploy additional angels (as Michael was deployed in Daniel 10). Pray, have faith, and don’t give up!

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*Consider reading the novel, THIS PRESENT DARKNESS by Frank Peretti.

Corporate Sin. Daniel 9:8-9.

Americans, more than any other culture, are obsessed with independence.

We tell ourselves we can do what we want. We cherish individual freedom over everything else, to the point that we would rather be self-destructive than submit to someone else’s idea of how we should live. But our selfish obsession with “liberty,” “self-actualization,” “self-care,” or whatever you choose to call it is a mistake. Like I said—no other people on earth elevate the “KINGDOM OF SELF”[1] the way we do.

Most of us are so focused on being “independent” we don’t have a word for any other way of living. Some good words are “family,” or “brotherhood,” or simply “team.” The Bible takes it further: we are ONE BODY.

Teams and families are great. But a body is a single unit–with a single blood supply. When oxygen comes in, it will nourish the whole body. On the other hand, bacteria from an infected tooth can enter the bloodstream, travel through the body, and lodge in a heart valve, eventually leading to death. THAT is what it means to be ONE BODY–we are connected to everyone in our society. Bad choices create CORPORATE SIN.

“Corporate” comes from the Latin root “corpus” which means “body.” As children of God, we are part of a body. Christians often think of the New Testament term “Body of Christ,” but the notion of a body did not begin with the New Testament. Old Testament prophets understood that God’s people are interconnected. What one person does will affect other people. What several people do will affect many people.  Good people create a good influence that reaches further than they know. That positive influence travels through space geographically, but it also travels through time—into the future. People long dead are still influencing our world today, some in good ways, some bad. People in your family—people you have never met—continue to wield an influence through the way they raised their children, and the way those children raised their children, and the way those children raise you.

It’s not about you.

Your life is not about you. Your choices are not about you. Every choice you make influences your friends, your family, your church, your students, and especially—your self. And those choices will influence your future, thus touching the future of your children. Imagine that: your choices today have an influence on children you have not even met.

The Bible’s message is that we are all connected. If people in my city engage in crime, that harms me. If people in my city feed the hungry, that benefits me.  And if my church, my denomination, or my political party brings shame to the cause of Christ, I am part of that. I am shamed—and I am guilty.

When Isaiah saw the Lord’s throne he said, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” Isaiah 6:5. Isaiah was a good and righteous man. But he knew he had the stain of his neighbor’s sin on him. I remember twice being so moved by America’s sins that I quoted Isaiah on Facebook: I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.

What our people do affects us, infects us, INCLUDES us.

We cannot insulate ourselves.  All of the prophets understood this: Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Daniel, and others. When they confessed sins to God, they lumped themselves among the guilty.

“Lord, public shame belongs on us, our kings, our leaders, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You…. We have rebelled against You and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God” Daniel 9:8-9.

God, remind us that we are part of this world. America’s sins are OUR sins. The sins of our church, or our friends, or our family members affect us. They infect us. Teach us not to think of ourselves as independent, but interdependent. The unchurched, the godless, the atheists, the progressives, the openly pagan—their lives and their choices DO touch us. We are part of this world, as in the Incarnational View of Ministry. Show us how to join them. Show us our mission. Show us how to stop fighting “sinners” long enough to serve them. To minister to them.

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[1] See THE KINGDOM OF SELF, by Earl Jabay.

GOD IS HIGH AND LIFTED UP. Daniel 7:9-10,13-14,27.

God is love. He cuddles little children. He calls Abraham His “friend,” and tells Abraham His plans—because that’s what friends do, Gen 18:17 (Amp.).

(Perhaps we should pray THAT: ‘God, tell me what You are doing… because I am your friend.’)

But don’t snuggle up so cozy with God that you forget He is “the omnipotent Creator of man’s first breath.” We love the Lord, but we must also FEAR Him. Daniel 7 contains an excellent picture of God on His throne. Read this passage and talk to God about how GREAT and AWESOME He is.

“As I watched, thrones were set in place, and THE ANCIENT OF DAYS took His seat. His clothing was white like snow, and the hair of His head was whitest wool. His throne was flaming fire. Its wheels were blazing fire. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from His presence. Thousands upon thousands served Him, ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The Court was convened. The books were opened….

And I saw One like a Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was escorted before Him. He was given authority to rule, and glory, and a kingdom, so that those of every people, nation, and language should serve Him. HIS DOMINION IS AN EVERLASTING DOMINION that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will not be destroyed…. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all rulers will serve and obey Him” Daniel 7:9-10,13-14,27.

How to FEAR GOD? God is NOT safe. Fear that. But He is GOOD.

SUSAN: “…Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous meeting a lion.”

MR. BEAVER: “Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

God, we praise You because You are the King of All Kings. You are both the MOST UNSAFE and the MOST GOOD. We fear You and we love you and we worship you. You are above all things.

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GOD-IS-MY-GIRLFRIEND MUSIC. Daniel 7:9-10.

Does your music help you grow in Christ? Christian pop and many worship songs emphasize our intimate friendship with God. He is our loving, intimate friend. Those who scorn such music have called it “God-is-my-Girlfriend Music.” But I don’t scorn it—it beats regular-girlfriend music. We are the Bride of Christ; intimate friendship is His desire.

Add to your playlist songs about Jesus your intimate friend, the lover of your soul.

Hymns have a different emphasis: God is Holy. He is the Almighty Creator of Man’s First Breath, the Sovereign King and Creator of the Universe. He is so much bigger and greater than we are—we need to remember that. When you face challenges, it is the awesome power of an infinite God that will inspire courage.

Add to your playlist songs and hymns about God’s holiness and power.

God gave Daniel a dream. He saw four evil beasts that would rule the world before the end. But then Daniel saw a vision of the God who conquers all:

“As I kept watching, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took His seat. His clothing was white like snow and the hair of His head like whitest wool. His THRONE WAS FLAMING FIRE; ITS WHEELS WERE BLAZING FIRE. A RIVER OF FIRE WAS FLOWING, COMING OUT FROM HIS PRESENCE. Thousands upon thousands served Him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. Eternity’s final court was convened, and the books were opened.” Daniel 7:9-10.

Imagine standing before THAT JUDGE. Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess. Every single person alive today will bow and cry out, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” Every atheist, every evil dictator, every filthy singer corrupting minds, everyone who ever hurt you. Praise God. He is Awesome, Holy, and Infinite.

Find music about how big God is, not just how close He is.

Focus on His power. Add “Awesome God” by Rich Mullins to your play list.

Or “He’s Alive!”

Or “End of the Beginning” by David Phelps.

Songs like these are not dated, they’re classics. Use music to encourage your faith.

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ANCESTOR WORSHIP. Ezekiel 43:7,9.

There is an interesting line in Alex Haley’s novel ROOTS. When the author travels to West Africa, he discovers that the tribe of his ancestors requires children to be able to recite their ancestry to ten generations. But ten generations would include over a thousand people.  It’s understood that children were memorizing only one branch of their family tree, probably Dad, then Dad’s dad, then Dad’s dad’s dad, and so on, for a total of ten people. Mine goes like this: Ernie Wales, Willie Wales, Bennie Wales, Edward Wales, Larkin Wales, Edward Wales, Thomas Wales. My father spent years doing genealogical research, but he could trace only seven generations in that line. All we know about the earliest one—Thomas Wales—is that he was born in the English colony of South Carolina in 1750.

It is easy to obsess over ancestors. People love to discover connections to famous people or to claim they are heirs to the throne of some nation, or cousins to some famous king and more, all the time ignoring the fact that the numbers are mathematically insignificant. For example, King James IV of Scotland is my 12th great grandfather. But don’t get too excited!  He is one of 16,384 grandparents at that generation. Sixteen thousand! I may pull up his portrait and joke that he looks just like me, but honestly the bloodline is meaningless at this point. 

Again, the phrase is

“mathematically insignificant.”

Yet it feeds our pride if we let it. What’s worse, in many cultures, ancestors are not merely remembered, but worshipped as deities—as gods.

But there is only one God, and “you shall have no other gods before me” Exodus 20:3.

Remember the burial of Moses? After God showed him the Promised Land, the prophet died on Mount Nebo and God buried him—but no one knows where, Deuteronomy 34:6. Do you know why? Because God knew people would turn Moses’s grave into an altar—and go there to worship the man’s bones. (Look at Graceland.)

No one ever found the body of Moses. But the people found plenty of kings to worship, burying them on the high places of Israel and using them as part of their idol worship.  

God spoke to Ezekiel: “The house of Israel and her kings will no longer defile My holy Name by their religious prostitution and by the corpses of their kings at their high places … let them remove the corpses of their kings far from Me and I will dwell among them forever” Ezekiel 43:7,9.

The Bible encourages respect for ancestors, but that respect must never be perverted into the capital crime of ancestor worship.

By one count, God included 25 genealogies in the Bible. Some of these extend for pages. Clearly God is interested in families. God seems to value family trees, and perhaps we should too. But we must not obsess over it. Ancestor worship or “consulting with the dead” is strictly forbidden, Deuteronomy 18:11.  “You shall worship the Lord and Him only shall you serve” Luke 4:8.

God, help us to have a proper respect for those who have gone before us, but to never allow anything to fill us with pride or otherwise take our eyes off of you.

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DANIEL NEVER FAILED. Daniel 6:10-11.

Daniel is one of few Bible heroes who never failed. There’s “Daniel in the Lions’ Den.” There’s Daniel interpreting dreams. Daniel insisting on a diet of vegetables in order to avoid breaking God’s law by eating unclean meats. There’s even a VeggieTales version in which, while being thrown to the lions, Daniel (played by Larry the Cucumber), yells, “Hey, don’t I get a phone caaaaallll?”

The Biblical report is amazing. When a law is passed making prayers illegal, Daniel goes home and prays. Not to make a point. Not to be SEEN praying. He simply goes home to pray. So he prays—alone in his private room.

“When Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into his house. The windows in its upper room opened toward Jerusalem and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to God, JUST AS HE HAD DONE BEFORE” Daniel 6:10-11.

You know the rest—Daniel was thrown into a pit of lions, survived the night, and was rescued by the king the next morning. Then the men who conspired against Daniel were thrown to the lions and were dead before their bodies reached the floor.

But what interests me is not some bold, heroic action, but rather Daniel’s ORDINARY prayer life. Consider his habits. EVERY day he knelt three times to pray and give thanks to God. This was not a man trying to prove a point. It was just a man of God showing why he IS a man of God: because he spends valuable time with the Father EVERY DAY. And not just once a day, but three times.

I believe THAT is the secret to Daniel’s extraordinary success. This prophet’s life is a story of success building on success, each win building on the win before. Why? Because Daniel got down on his knees and sought God’s face—EVERY DAY.

God, teach us—MOVE US—to spend quality time with YOU and in Your word EVERY DAY.

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CONSISTENCY. Daniel 6:5-16.

What do you do consistently? Do you run every day? Eat potato chips every day? Pray every day? People notice the things you do consistently.

Three kings rewarded Daniel for his consistency.

When others became jealous, they hatched a plan that would land Daniel in a pit filled with starving lions. They wanted to trap Daniel, but the usual ways to trap a man would not work. They knew they could not lure him into adultery, or convince him to embezzle funds, or to overstep his authority. So they looked at Daniel’s life for something predictable. What did they find? That he would obey God—THAT was predictable.

“We will never be able to charge Daniel with a crime unless it is a crime based on obeying the law of his God.” Daniel 6:5.

Daniel was consistent. So they flattered king Darius (he was easy to trap) and an irrevocable law was passed outlawing prayer. Daniel ignored it:

“THREE TIMES A DAY he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to God, JUST AS HE HAD DONE BEFORE” Daniel 6:10.

Soon he was arrested and the king was furious–not with Daniel but with his own advisers. The king knew he had been tricked into passing the irrevocable law. But the king honored the law. (How’s that for consistency?) But he also prayed and fasted all night long, hoping God would spare Daniel:

“May your God, whom you serve consistently rescue you.” Daniel 6:16.

God saved Daniel and the king threw the bad men in the pit, along with their wives and children, and they were eaten before they could reach the ground. And King Darius made a new law:

“In all my royal dominion, people must tremble in fear before the God of Daniel, For He is the living God, and He endures forever… He rescues and delivers… for He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions” Daniel 6:26-27.

Do we pray enough? Daniel stopped what he was doing three times a day—even when doing so put his life at risk. Muslims stop for prayer five times a day. How often do we stop everything and talk to the God who saved us? God loves to spend time with you. Be consistent and persistent about talking to Him.

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P.S. The picture above is a colorized version of Eric Enstrom’s famous photograph, “Grace” circa 1920.