THE FIRST PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
From the Captivity to the Return
Message Six—Daniel (1)
Scripture Reading: Dan. 1:8-9; 2:17-19; 6:10; 9:23; 10:11, 19
I. The Lord used Daniel and his companions—Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah—to turn the age of the captivity of God’s people to the age of their return to the land of Immanuel for the building of God’s house and God’s city for God’s expression and authority—Dan. 1:1- 21; 2:17; Isa. 8:8: (2012 WT, msg. 2)
A. Every time God wants to make a dispensational move, an age-turning move, He must obtain His dispensational instrument; we must be those who have dispensational value to God—Rev. 12:5-11; 1:20; Dan. 12:3; Matt. 13:43. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
B. Christ as the unique Overcomer includes all the overcomers; the unique Overcomer dwells in our spirit to make us His overcomers—John 14:30; Dan. 2:34-35; Rev. 19:7-21; 1 John 5:4, 18-19; Rev. 3:21. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
C. We need to consider what we are doing to bring in the next age; this is a special time, so there is the need of special Christians to do a special work—Matt. 16:18; Rev. 19:7; 1 Cor. 1:9; Rev. 2:4-7; Col. 1:18b; John 17:21; 1 Cor. 14:4b; Eph. 4:16; Col. 2:19. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
D. An overcomer works according to the principle of the Body; the principle of the Body annuls sectarianism and individualism—1 Cor. 12:12; Phil. 1:19. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
E. In God’s sight an overcomer is a “man of preciousness,” even “preciousness itself “—Dan. 10:11, 19; 9:23. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
F. The Lord needs to raise up men who will turn the age for the recovery of God’s expression and authority; among fallen mankind God’s expression is torn down, and His authority is denied; Daniel and his companions truly allowed God to be expressed through them and were truly under God’s authority—Gen. 1:26; Rev. 4:3a; 21:11, 18a, 24; 22:5. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
II. Daniel had companions with whom he was absolutely consecrated to God and separated unto God from an age that follows Satan—Dan. 1:4-8; 5:12, 22; 6:10: (2012 WT, msg. 2)
A. All those who are used by God to turn the age must be Nazarites—voluntarily consecrated ones who are sanctified absolutely and ultimately to God—Num. 6:1-8, 22-27; Psa. 110:3; Luke 9:62; Phil. 3:13-14. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
B. Although Daniel and his companions were still very young, they stood up as an anti-testimony, similar to the way that Antipas did in the church in Pergamos—Rev. 2:13. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
C. We need to flee youthful lusts and pursue Christ in the Body and for the Body with God given companions, “with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart”—2 Tim. 2:22; 3:1-5; Eccl. 4:9-12: (2012 WT, msg. 2)
1. According to the divine principle, the proper representation of the Body is always by those who are matched with others; this matching is determined entirely by God’s arrangement, not by man’s maneuvering—Neh. 1:1; 8:2; 1 Cor. 1:1; Exo. 4:14b-16; Phil. 2:19-22; Luke 10:1; Acts 13:1-3; 1 Thes. 1:1. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
2. An overcomer lives in the Body and works according to the principle of the Body in the blending life of the entire Body of Christ; whoever cannot be blended with others will be disqualified by the age—Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:12, 15, 20, 25. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
D. One of the subjective signs of a called one (seen with Moses) is the sign of the water becoming blood (Exo. 4:9); this means that in the eyes of God all the earthly supply and worldly enjoyment (the water of the Nile) are nothing but death (blood). (2012 WT, msg. 2)
E. If we are going to live a holy life for the church life, we must care for our diet, which is a matter of life or death—Gen. 2:9, 17; Dan. 1:8-9; John 6:57; Matt. 4:4; Rev. 2:17. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
III. Daniel joined himself to God’s desire through God’s Word—Dan. 9:1-4; Deut. 17:18-20; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Eph. 6:17-18; Psa. 119:11, 24: (2012 WT, msg. 2)
A. Daniel was not only a person who read God’s Word regularly but also a person who was joined to God’s Word—Dan. 9:2-3; 29:10-14: (2012 WT, msg. 2)
B. Daily we need to practice coming to the Word to have the Triune God as truth infused into us according to the following life principles: (2012 WT, msg. 2)
1. We must open our entire being to the Lord for the inner shining of the divine light and the supplying of the divine life; the one who experiences the greatest amount of transformation is the one who is absolutely open to the Lord—Psa. 119:105; Prov. 20:27; Psa. 139:23-24. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
2. We must seek the Lord with all our heart—119:2; Mark 12:30. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
3. We must deal with anything that separates us from the Lord—Acts 24:16; 2 Tim. 1:3a; 1 John 1:9; cf. Ezek. 1:22, 26. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
4. We must humble ourselves before the Lord, putting aside our self-confidence and self-assurance and looking to Him for His mercy and grace—Isa. 66:1-2; 1 Pet. 5:5. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
5. We must exercise our spirit to pray over and with God’s Word and exercise our whole being to muse on His Word as the condensation of God’s light in order to receive the life supply and the divine watering—Eph. 6:17-18; 5:26; Psa. 119:15-16, 25, 50, 105, 130. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
6. When we experience the enlightenment, the life supply, and the watering, we shall have other blessings through the Word: restoration (19:7a), deliverance (119:41, 170), strength (v. 28), comfort (v. 76), nourishment (v. 103), upholding (v. 117), and safeguard (v. 114). (2012 WT, msg. 2)
IV. Daniel was a man of prayer with an excellent spirit, a man fearing God, honoring God, exalting God, and living under God’s rule in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens, the ruling of the heavens—Dan. 6:10; 9:1-4, 17; 5:12, 14; 6:3; 5:22-23; 4:25-26, 32: (2012 WT, msg. 2)
A. Fearing God means wanting God, desiring single-heartedly to keep His will, being fully submissive to Him, wanting nothing of ourselves, walking not according to our will, seeing not ourselves, and seeing God’s greatness alone—5:22-23; Psa. 86:11. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
B. To honor God is to live and walk by the Spirit for Christ’s exaltation in order to honor others by ministering the Spirit to them—Judg. 9:9; Phil. 1:19-21a; 2 Cor. 3:6. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
C. To live under God’s rule is to be filled with His ruling presence of righteousness, holiness, and glory for the carrying out of His eternal covenant in dispensing Himself into us to make us the wise exhibition of all that He is—Gen. 9:8-17; Ezek. 1:26-28; Rev. 4:3; 21:18-20; 1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 3:10-11. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
D. Prayer in the Spirit through the exercise of our spirit fills us with and brings us under God’s ruling presence for the carrying out of His economy—Rev. 4:1-3; Eph. 6:17-18. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
V. Daniel was a self-sacrificing person with the spirit of martyrdom—6:10-11: (2012 WT, msg. 2)
A. Daniel prayed at the risk of his life; the intention of the chief ministers and satraps was to destroy Daniel, but the intention of Satan, who was behind them, was to cut off the channel of prayer that God was using for the carrying out of His economy—vv. 4-24. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
B. Daniel’s companions did not care for their own lives; when they were commanded by the king to bow down to a golden image, they said, “O Nebuchadnezzar,…our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the blazing furnace of fire, and He will deliver us out of your hand…But if He does not,…we will not serve your gods nor worship the golden image that you have set up”—3:16-18. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
C. Everyone whom God uses to turn the age is afraid of only one thing, that is, of offending God and losing His presence—2 Cor. 5:9-10; cf. Psa. 51:11; Josh. 7:4. (2012 WT, msg. 2)
D. If we contact the Christ typified by the vine and experience His sacrificing life, He will energize us to live a life of sacrifice, producing happiness for God and for others—Judg. 9:13; Matt. 9:17; Rom. 12:1; Eph. 5:2; 2 Cor. 1:24. (2012 WT, msg. 2)