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527 | Pray in your Darkest Hour · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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God is in control.
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She's a happy girl. Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman
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at the Well Ministries, where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus
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like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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Our highest priority is making God real in your life.
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Whether you are listening in our app, in your favorite podcasting app,
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or on our website at watwm.org, We invite you to sit down with us as we look
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to the scriptures to learn more about God and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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During your most troubling times, what is your go-to action?
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Do you turn to friends? Are you prone to figuring things out on your own and hoping for the best?
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Daniel gives us a perfect example of what we are to do in our darkest times. We are to pray.
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Because of Daniel's wise action to pray when in trouble, he was able to spare
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his own life and the lives of many others.
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Join us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries as Kim takes us on a
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journey through the Scriptures, revealing the blessings of a life lived in the
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center of God's will and a life that follows Him closely.
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Hello, and thank you for joining us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
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And we're going to be coming out of Daniel 2.
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And we are familiar with this passage of Scripture. but I want you to look at
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Daniel chapter 2 through the lens of Philippians 4, 6, and 7.
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Philippians 4, 6, and 7 says.
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As we look at this command in Scripture to not worry, we're told why we don't worry.
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Because we're going to be praying, if we follow this recipe in Philippians 4,
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6, and 7, we'll be following a recipe that bathes our entire requests,
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all of our burdens, all of our needs, in the thankfulness.
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Of knowing without a doubt, having full confidence that when we pray, He hears,
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He acts upon those requests, and the end result is perfect because it's exactly
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what He has planned for each of us.
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And when we understand that our circumstances, even the results of our circumstances,
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have no bearing on who God is, the goodness of God, the greatness of God,
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the sovereignty of God, when we understand that that changes never,
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that nothing impacts the truth of the goodness,
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the mercy, and the grace of God, and that everything happens exactly exactly
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the way God intends for it to happen,
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as he sifts our life through his nail-scarred hands,
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proving day after day and moment by moment his love for us.
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And when we look at Daniel chapter 2, what we're seeing is Daniel is living Philippians 4, 6, and 7.
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Daniel is going to make a request of God to deliver to him an answer he desperately needs.
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But he's already made an appointment with the king to give the answer prior
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to the answer being given to him.
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See, in Daniel chapter 2, we see King Nebuchadnezzar is the second year of his reign.
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He's a dreamer who dreams dreams.
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And this particular account explains to us that he's had a dream, and.
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That he can't sleep. And so he's looking far and wide in Daniel 2, 1 through 17,
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for someone to interpret that dream.
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And all of his servants and all of those wise people, the magicians,
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the sorcerers, they're unable to give to the king the interpretation of the dream.
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But among these people living in the kingdom of Babylon are Daniel and three Hebrew children.
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They had been taken captive at the age of 14 and brought to live in Babylon.
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We know them most generally as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
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who were thrown into the fiery furnace.
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But Daniel's name was changed to Belshazzar.
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Shadrach was Hananiah, Meshel became Meshach, and Azariah became Abednego.
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Now, the importance of that is this. The Hebrew names, Daniel,
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Hananiah, Michelle, and Azariah, all have something to do with a connection to God.
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But the names Betashelzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
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they all have something to do with the deity of the gods the Babylonians served.
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So from the get-go, what we see is King Nebuchadnezzar is trying to conform
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these people, these servants of God,
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these faithful individuals into the Babylonian way to acculturate them so that
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they would forget their God,
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so that they would forget the traditions and the commandments and the will of
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God, and that they would become more conformed to the ways and the little G.O.D.s of Babylon.
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And I mention this to you because I want you to see how true they stay to their
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faith, regardless of their circumstances.
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Our lives today are not that different.
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We live in a world that is anti-Christ. We live in a world that is anti-God.
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We live in a world that is wicked and fleshly and anything but holy.
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But we've been bought with a price. We have a new identity, we have been stamped
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and washed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
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We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that marks us as different from the world.
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We're new creations in Christ Jesus. Old things are passed away.
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Behold, all things have become new.
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And as such, the way we walk, the way we talk, our attitude,
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it's all different than those who do not know the Lord.
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And for those of us who walk in a foreign land, Christians walking in a world filled with sin.
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Sometimes we're marked. We'll suffer persecution. The Bible says that a man's
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born of a woman and a few days full of trouble.
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Scripture refills to us that in this world you'll have tribulation,
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but be a good cheer. I have overcome the world.
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These four Hebrew children, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,
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they were strangers in a land.
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They didn't choose to go. They had been brought there.
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But no matter what was happening on the outside, nothing could get to the inside.
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And as we move through Daniel chapter 2, we see that nothing detours these three
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Hebrew children from serving their God and trusting in him fully.
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You could call them anything you wanted to call them, but it didn't change who they were.
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And so as we pick up in Daniel chapter 2, and Nebuchadnezzar's had a dream and
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is particularly disturbing and he isn't able to sleep, he's seeking someone
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to interpret this dream.
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And as the king summons the magicians, the sorcerers, and all the Chaldeans
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to come and to tell him not only what his dream was, but what his dream meant,
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there becomes a problem in the land.
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All the king's servants wanted the king to explain to him what the dream was,
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so then they could somehow interpret it.
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However, the king, he was adamant that if they were real and they were true
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and they had this ability and he could trust what they had to say,
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not only would they be able to interpret his dream, but they would also be able
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to tell him what the dream was.
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So time passes just a little bit, and the servants of the king are asking for
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more time because they're asking, tell me again. Tell me what the dream is.
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Tell me what you dreamed.
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Nobody can interpret your dream that doesn't know what the dream is. Only a person of God.
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Here's a worldly bunch of people knowing they've reached their limits,
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knowing that pretty much they've been had, because they don't know what the
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dream is, and they don't have any way of knowing what the dream is.
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But even the devil knows the Lord and trembles.
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They know that a person of God would be able to tell them what the dream was
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and then interpret what the dream meant.
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Well, the king was on to their scheme to buy time, and so he demanded that all
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the wise men of Babylon be destroyed.
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So here's our situation.
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The king is probably growing grumpier every day because he's losing sleep.
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And he needs to know what this dream means because it was disturbing him.
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And no one can interpret it.
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And so he's angry. And so he orders that all of the wise men be killed.
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And that included Daniel and the three Hebrew children.
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But Daniel, using wisdom gained already by the Lord, evident by his walk with God,
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strengthened by his commitment to do the will of God,
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he speaks to the king's captain named to Ariok, and he asks Ariok,
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why is it that the king has been so hasty to decree that all the wise men in Babylon be killed?
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And so after Ariok explains to Daniel what the king is doing and why the king
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is doing it, Daniel requests some time before the king to interpret the dream.
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Now, Daniel is exercising extreme faith and complete trust.
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And he's using the wisdom that the Lord has given him to do the right thing in his darkest hour.
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To clarify what Daniel is facing, let's look at it carefully.
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Daniel and his three friends,
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known in Babylon as Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego,
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are facing death because they were considered people of intelligence and wise counsel.
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And so Daniel, needing some time to consult with God, because you're going to
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see that's exactly what he uses his time for.
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In his darkest hour, he's seeking light to be shed upon his issue.
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He needs an answer he doesn't have. He needs assistance he cannot provide,
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but he knows exactly who can. it.
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So Daniel makes an appointment to interpret before the king,
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telling the king he knows, the king's captain, that he knows what the dream is.
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But when he tells the captain of the king that he needs an appointment to reveal
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to the king the interpretation of the king's dream,
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Daniel doesn't know the answer to the mystery.
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But he knows where to go when he needs answers.
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Daniel was not going to survive this event without God revealing to him what he needed to know.
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And I submit to you, especially those of you who are in trying times,
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those of you who have medical conditions, financial distress, broken relationships,
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uncertainty for your future, and confusion.
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I submit to you that he is not the author of confusion. I submit to you that
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he is the way, the truth, and the life, and I submit to you that a life yielded and shielded by him,
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following in the center of his will, will lead you to the answers that you need
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to provide for you the protection and provision that's required for the situation you face.
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So Daniel knows where to go when he needs answers, and Daniel uses wisdom.
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And relies fully upon his trust in God to provide a way of escape.
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He understands this is my situation.
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I have a need. I don't know the answer, but I serve a living God who knows all things.
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I serve a living God who understands exactly what I need, is capable,
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willing, and on the ready to deliver it.
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I serve a God who bids me come that I might find help in my time of trouble,
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who tells me to call on him, and he'll answer me and show me great and mighty
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things, which I don't know.
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Daniel understands, and he uses the wisdom and his faith to seek God for a way
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of escape from this situation and to receive the answers he needs.
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He does not get ahead of God. He does not delay.
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Daniel fully trusts. And when we look at Daniel 2, verses 17 through 24,
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we see that Daniel goes back to his house in verse 17.
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He has a conversation with his friends, and he says for them to pray,
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that they would desire mercies of God of heaven concerning this secret,
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this mystery they don't know,
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that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men
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of Babylon, but that God would reveal the secret to the interpretation of King
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Nebuchadnezzar's dream.
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Want you to see that when Daniel's in his darkest hour, not only does he pray,
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but he gathers his godly friends.
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He's not seeking the world. He's not seeking the next best self-help book.
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He's not asking for worldly wisdom, fleshly desires, and he's not wavering.
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He comes back to his godly friends, he says to them, here's the situation.
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All the wise men in the land are going to be killed because no one can tell
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the king the meaning of his disturbing dream.
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But I've made an appointment with the king through the king's captain,
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Ariok, and I'm going to go to the king and I'm going to interpret the disturbing dream.
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Oh, and by the way, I don't know what the dream is.
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So I first have to know the dream and then the interpretation of the dream.
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And me and you guys, we're going
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to spend the next bits of time we have calling upon the Lord and asking him.
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In his mercy to give us the answer we need so that I don't die.
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Neither do you, my fellow friends, die.
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But when we call upon God, guys, it's not just for me, it's not just for you,
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but everybody around us in this predicament or situation is going to be spared,
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because the one true living God in his mercy and grace,
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who knows all things and all things are
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under him, is going to give us the interpretation I want you to see that.
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God is getting ready to give Daniel the answer to the problem he needs.
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In Daniel's darkest hour, God's
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going to shine a light that gives him the path out of this situation.
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And I want you to know that he's going to give that information out.
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And we, too, have an obligation to tell others what they don't know so that
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they, too, can be spared the annihilation.
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Of sin and hell so that they can be saved and rescued from the certain penalty
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of death because of their sins and their rejection of Jesus.
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Daniel is in his darkest hour, and he's calling on the light,
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and you're going to see that when he receives the light, he's going to share
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that light, and it's going to dispel the darkness for everyone else.
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Children of God. We walk in a dark world, but we don't have to walk in darkness.
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The light of the world is in us, and he's shining out from us.
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In fact, in Matthew chapter 5, he says, you are the light of the world,
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and you don't hide your light.
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14 verses through 16, he tells us, but you put it on a candlestick for all the world to see.
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And then he says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your
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good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
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In this prayer closet, Daniel and his godly friends are going to receive the
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light to dispel the darkness of this bleak situation.
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And Daniel has lived, Philippians 4, 6 through 7, because he's already gone to Ariok.
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He's already made an appointment to tell the king the answer to the mystery
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because he believes and he knows the only way out of the situation is for God to intervene.
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And since God is an awesome God, a gracious God, and a merciful God who has a plan for each of us,
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Daniel is on his knees along with his godly friends to receive the information
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to be able to be able to reveal the meaning of King Nebuchadnezzar's dream.
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At no point does Daniel ask for the Lord to change his circumstances.
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He doesn't ask for the Lord to cause Nebuchadnezzar to not heal everyone if
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he doesn't get the information.
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He doesn't ask God to reveal to Nebuchadnezzar his own meaning.
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Because Daniel has resolved this is the situation that God has placed him in,
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and he's going to fully trust him to get the glory he needs out of it,
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to win the souls that need to be won, and to bring him through unharmed.
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Much like we read in Isaiah, when we pass through the waters, he's with us.
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And through the rivers, they don't overflow us. and through the fire,
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we don't even come out smelling like smoke.
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He doesn't ask for a change of circumstances. He asks for what he needs to go
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through the circumstances.
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And perhaps today, both you and I need to settle our hearts,
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gather our godly friends, and ask God to give us exactly what we need to transverse,
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through the situation we find ourself in.
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To not ask for the situation to be removed, God has chosen it,
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but to fortify us, to equip us, to reveal to us our part in His plan,
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to bring Him glory and to build His kingdom.
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We must be willing to take up our cross and follow Him, to deny ourselves, off.
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Us pray and ask God for the courage and for the understanding to follow the path,
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to embrace the state he's given us so that we can be victorious through Christ Jesus,
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that we can live a life that demonstrates that we're more than conquerors in Christ Jesus.
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As you read Daniel 2 verses 17 through 24, what you see is God reveals the mystery
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because of the prayers of the four Hebrew children.
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I'd like for you to turn in your Bibles with me, please, to Daniel chapter 2, verses 20 through 23.
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And here is how it reads.
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Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of
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god forever and ever for wisdom and might are his
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and he changes the times and the seasons he
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removeth kings and setteth up kings he giveth
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wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that
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know understanding he revealeth the deep and
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secret things he knoweth what is in the darkness and the light dwelleth with
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him i thank thee and praise thee o thou god of my fathers who has given me wisdom
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and might and has made known unto me now what we desire to thee.
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For thou hast now made known unto us the king's matter.
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Wisdom belongs to God. And Daniel used the wisdom given by God to hold his cool,
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to determine a plan, and to save their lives and those around them by seeking God's will.
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God's assistance in the situation. Daniel was a wise man.
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Daniel was very intelligent and had lots of understanding. He had to be tempted.
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It his way, or perhaps he was that close to where he had yielded and submitted his own will,
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and really all he lived for was to be a tool in the hand of God,
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that all he actually wanted was to be used of God,
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that his life was his sacrifice for God to use as he wished and as he saw fit
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to teach the principles of the kingdom of God, to distribute the love of Jesus to others.
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12, 1 and 2 says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
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that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God,
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which is your reasonable service.
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2 says, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing
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of your mind, that you may prove that which is perfect and acceptable will of God.
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Daniel on the Hebrew children. They were thanking God for the answer that was
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going to come, as we're told to do in Philippians 4, 6, and 7.
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Daniel wasn't looking to himself for the answer for a way of escape,
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and he wasn't running from the problem, and he wasn't asking the problem to be removed.
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Daniel was saying, transform me by the renewing of my mind.
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Change me into who you need me to be so that your glorious plan will go off without a hitch.
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So that I can be part of your amazing story, Lord, to lead others to you.
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We read in that passage of Scripture in Daniel 2, verses 20 through 23,
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that God adds wisdom to those who seek him.
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He gives wisdom to the wise.
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If you have chosen Jesus as your Savior, you have wisdom.
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And if you continually seek him and you understand to seek the kingdom of God
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first and all these other things will be added unto you.
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You're using wisdom. And when you seek more wisdom, God's going to give it to
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you because he can trust you with the amount you already have.
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He adds wisdom to those who seek him and he gives knowledge to those who have understanding.
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If you're not interested in the ways of God, he's not going to educate you in
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a higher, deeper level of it.
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Not willing to forsake yourself, dive in wholly and solely into Jesus Christ,
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you're never going to know him fully, because your vessel won't be clean enough
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to hold the truce he has for you.
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The woman at the well left filled, but she came with an empty vessel.
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We as Christians must come to the Lord in prayer, empty to be filled.
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Seeking, for the things that don't belong in our heart and our mind and our
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lives to be sifted out and for us to be filled with the goodness of God.
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We can't distribute what we don't have, and we cannot have what we don't make room for.
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It's an interesting concept. You can only put so many clothes in a closet.
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If you're a person that continually shops, you've got to take something out
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of that closet to add something to it.
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Our life is much like a closet.
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We live every day putting stuff inside of it.
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We fill our heart with things that we pick and we choose.
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And if we are picking and we are choosing things that are not of God,
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we are not going to distribute things of God.
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You can only speak of the things you know.
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And out of the heart, man speaks. And where your treasure is, your heart will be also.
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He speaks in this passage that all of nature bows to his command as he changes
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the seasons at will. You can't change the seasons.
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The weatherman can't even predict it. Oh, he gets it right every now and then.
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But even with his best abilities, the most advanced technology still misses it many times.
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Want you to see carefully that it's during our dark times, when we're in the deep,
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that God reveals hidden things when we seek Him.
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When we call unto Him at the midnight hour, He listens, he delivers.
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When everything around us is dark and disturbing, his light will shine a path
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for us to reach and hold his hands as he lifts us up out of the miry pit.
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Sets our feet on solid ground, and walks us to the path he created for us that
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leads to joy and the abundant life he so promises in John 10.10.
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Through the prayer of these four people, devoted, dedicated,
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and purposed in their heart to serve their God, in the deep and dark situation they find themselves,
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God reveals to them the mystery.
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In your darkest moment God is standing there with the light,
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begging you to come to him to
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depend on him and to follow him if you don't know which way to turn next.
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Jesus, and stay there. And then when darkness falls upon your path,
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his light will always lead you out.
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As we continue to read Daniel 2, 24-30, it reads like this.
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Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, The secret which the king
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hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians,
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the soothsayers, show unto the king.
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But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and make us known to the
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king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.
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Thy dream and thy visions of thy head upon the bed are these.
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Here what we see is that nothing's too hard for God. No place is too dark.
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Nothing is beyond his knowledge. the answer you are looking for the answer you
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need is found seeking him on your knees.
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Plainly told. In the darkest hour,
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Daniel and these three Hebrew children hear from God the answer to the problem,
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and God reveals the secret that no man could reveal.
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Daniel takes this information, and he goes to the king, fully confident, fully equipped.
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See, the battle's not yours. It belongs to the Lord. And Daniel fought it on
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his knees with his godly friends.
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The answers he was seeking, he went straight to the source that would know them.
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His heart never wavered. His faith didn't weaken.
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He used wisdom to gain more wisdom,
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and he used his knowledge to gain more understanding and knowledge.
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But not of the things that don't matter, but of the things of God.
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Daniel and the three Hebrew children, weren't interested in all the facts and figures of the world.
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They were interested in a pure, strong, deep, lasting, real relationship with Jesus Christ.
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In knowing God, for who he is, who he was, what he can do, and what he will do.
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They had chosen to choose him above all else and all other things.
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In Daniel 2.30, he says this, But as for me, this secret is not revealed to
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me for any wisdom that I have more than any living. Oh, what humility.
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He was in the presence of God.
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He was favored by God. He had done the work. He had done the sacrifice.
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He had lived the life.
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Yet he knew. This wasn't anything that he knew. This wasn't anything that he could do.
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But for the sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king,
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for my sake, for my Hebrew friend's sake, for the other wise men,
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that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.
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Daniel shows his wisdom is from above. He gives all of the credit to the Most
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High God, the one true living God that he knows.
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Daniel isn't just asking for himself, but his prayer is for others because effective,
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faithful prayers are beneficial to others. They're not just selfish prayers.
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He says, pray one for another. Thank you.
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Actual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
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I have to believe that the life of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah mattered as well as Daniel's.
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His posse of friends who he gathered to pray to hear from the Most High God could reach heaven.
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They weren't spending the first half an hour trying to get to know him.
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They were familiar with who he was.
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God was familiar with their voice. Because I guarantee you that wasn't the first
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time these four boys prayed together.
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God wants us to pray for ourselves, to pray for wisdom, to pray for direction. And no doubt Daniel was.
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But not for selfish, prideful gain.
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But that every step we take and every breath we breathe, would bring glory to
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the kingdom, would spread the
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great story that would lead others to a personal relationship with him.
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In their darkest hour, Daniel prayed fervently and instinctively.
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In your darkest hour, what's your default?
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It is my prayer. Let each of us, in our darkest hour, in our brightest day,
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and everywhere in between are praying without ceasing and in constant communication,
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with the one who bids us come remember you are loved jesus loves you.
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Joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for quotes from
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today's podcast and scripture references.
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We pray today has been a blessing and we encourage you to reach out to us through
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our app, our website, or our Facebook page.
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You can find our app by searching for Woman at the Well Ministries in your app
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store or through our website at watwm.org.
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We're on Facebook at facebook.com slash watwm.
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If you visit our website, you'll be able to subscribe to Bible Bits,
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a daily devotion written by Kim and delivered Monday through Friday by text message.
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Woman at the Well Ministries is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving
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our Heavenly Father, and it is through your loving and generous support that
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our ministry continues to bless others.
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To learn how to partner with Woman at the Well Ministries, please visit our website.
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Thank you to the Gospel Group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song, Happy Girl.
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We greatly appreciate your prayers. We are praying daily for our listeners.
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Remember that God loves you. You are loved.