Taking the Fear out of Fear

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverb 1:7)

I find it interesting how some Christian teachers attempt to dumb down the word “fear” as it relates to God. Often we are told this use of the word “fear” does not mean to terrify or scare; rather, it means to reverence or respect, as if any of these words are antonyms; they are actually synonyms. The closest ideal to God in this life is our dad. This is one reason God is called The Father. A child, rightly so, does respect his or her dad; however, the fact is when a father is doing a good job, there are some things his children will not do because they are afraid of incurring dad’s chastening. Sometimes taking the right course is fostered by avoiding the painful strap of correction. Ironically the book of Proverbs is written by a father to his son, laying out the principles of human nature and their behavioral causes and consequential effects. The effects of unrighteous behavior are meant to be a terror to us. If we would be honest with ourselves, at some point in life each of us did right, not because it was right, but we were just downright scared to do wrong. That fear preserved us until we came to understand why right is right and wrong is wrong.

Yuri Solomon (Devotion 101313)

The Daniel Discipline vii

I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things. These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever Daniel 7:16-18

Daniel’s discipline and devotion has reserved him from defilement in chapter 1, saved him from death in chapter 2, brought him to distinction in chapter 4, rewarded him with his due in chapter 5, brought about his deliverance in chapter 6, and now rewards his devotion with divine insight here in chapter 7… Literally, the rest of time is revealed to Daniel In dreams and visions.

“DANIEL DISCERNMENTS” are a result of personal study, fasting, prayer, meditation, fellowship, confession, and serving… as a result of such devotion, God rewards one with stewardship over divine information and insight that can only be experienced and embraced by FAITH and PURITY.

Any dedicated Christian will tell you that the more purified and closer your walk is with God, the less you can be fooled by men and the more you know them. Hebrews 4:12 declares, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” But there is still a greater benefit and bonus in your nearness to God. Great Christian discipline leads to great insight not only about the affairs of men but the future and the end of the world. As Paul puts it in 1Co 2:9-10 …Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. BUT God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

It is our nearness to God that gives us an increased measure of His Spirit. The fact of the matter is the more I can think like daddy thinks, the more I can see what daddy sees. When you suffer with all diligence to scale the mountain of godliness when you get up high you can see all the way to the end of the world. I’m not talking about merely pharisaical study of the bible; I’m talking about sitting at the feet of Jesus like Mary. I’m talking about laying your head on his breast like John. To know and see this kind of stuff, you’ve got to really know Him. Jesus said, “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” (John 15:15)

Daniel Discernments requires maturity because such wisdom and insight brings about tremendous sorrow for the people of God. It bears the reward of Matthew 5:4 “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” It is an insight that cannot be shared with the masses or by the masses, for they cannot receive it.

In today’s grand confusion of eschatology, the answer is not in the speculation over the unchangeable complexity of details but in the simplicity of the big idea that our unconquerable, conquering King is coming to crush all of the enemies of the cross.

It seems here that the issue is not the details or what “will happen,” for such cannot be change, altered, nor thwarted in any way. It is but information, and for the devout saint, requires no adjustment in his normal devotion routine. Devotion brought about Daniel’s revelation and continued devotion will bring about ultimate salvation. The beauty and bounty of the revelatory reward granted to Daniel is a great surety in knowing, “We have a champion that is stronger than loin-like Babylon, and that will consume more than bear-like Persia, and will move swifter than leopard-like Greece, and will be fiercer than ferocious Rome – a fifth and final kingdom, the last emperor, Jesus Christ.

The Daniel Discipline vi

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. (Daniel 6:10)

Daniel is in the second empire and under his third administration since being led captive from Judah, and he always rises to the top, not because he smart, wise, or gifted, but simply for one reason: “because he believed His God”. Daniel gets all the favor of the world by taking none of the world: No packs, no compromises, no angles and backroom bargaining; He did not buy his way to the top… He didn’t play the “it’s-who-you-know” game… He didn’t make any back-scratching deals. Whenever a Christian reaches for what he wants he will lose what he has. It is ours to wait on God to place what we are due in our hand.

Daniel has the favor of God, the heart of the King, and a position of authority. Yet he had another key indicator of God’s favor: he was targeted by his enemies. You can’t have the favor of God and freedom from tests and trials. I’ve heard people say “I’m blessed and highly favored” as a type of colloquialism. Well I don’t know what they meant by that, but I do know what blessed and highly favored meant for the Virgin Mary; it meant that she was disoriented about the message, distressed about the situation, displaced from her home, distrusted about her purity, and almost divorced from her husband. Favor is a prescription for fiery trials.

His enemies first examined Daniel’s doings and only found an excellent spirit and a blameless life. Thus they decided to design a law against the law of Daniel’s God. Abiding in the character of Christ will ensure and assure that your enemies are always fighting God and never fighting you.

Constant and consistent devotion to God is indeed to live in preparation for every situation. The fact of the matter is if you are not devoted to God before the Lion’s den, you cannot be devoted despite the Lion’s den. Daniel shows us that deliverance is foster by devotion to God: devotion is how you win against your enemies every single time.

The conspiracy of his enemies did not distract Daniel. This enormous weight, intense trouble and severe threat, required no adjustment in his normal routine. What more in life does one need then devotion to God? What more can be done then absolute reliance and hope in God alone? Daniel, three times a day he went down on his knees in prayer and praise before his God, as he had done before.

Let me tell you why Daniel prayed anyway… because his time, his relationship and his history with God was more pressing, dictatorial, important, assuring, and securing than anything going on around him. The paradox is that while the threat of the Lion’s Den was meant to restrict prayer, for Daniel it demanded prayer.

The answer to every problem is devotion to God. The only thing that the enemy wants to do is distract you from devotion to God. I’ve been there, where the counsel was, “Doc you better watch her” or “Man, you better keep your eye on him; because, he does not mean you any good.” And thank God, the Holy Ghost said to me in that moment, “You better keep your eye on God.” You can’t take your eye off of God to watch your enemy. You’ve got to keep your enemy behind you and your eye on the prize before you. Your enemies are God’s business and not your business.

Daniel was in a crisis, but he did not pray a crisis prayer. When Daniel was praying about this law that had been passed, let me tell you what God told Daniel that day, (and I am not using my spiritual imagination either). He said, “Daniel you’ve been with me long enough; you’ve talk to me every day -- three times a day. Listen, Daniel don’t worry about those guys down there in administration. Don’t worry about that lion’s den. If they want you to go on in it, just walk on in. You know I can handle all of this; so just let me handle it. You’ll be alright!”

The Daniel Discipline V

In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote... And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this. (Daniel 5:5 & 22)

It is ironic that Daniel and his friends maintained the lessons of their parents while here Belshazzar has failed to learn the illustrative lesson of God dealing with his father Nebuchadnezzar. How often it is that great lessons of one generation are many times left and lost in the next. How painful it is for parents to watch their children choose to do what they know will not and cannot turn out good. I heard one elderly lady remark about children, “When they are young, they are on your lap, but when they are grown, they are on your heart.”

The prevailing wisdom common to young people today is not unlike that of Belshazzar, “I’m young and have time…” “I have to experience the world for myself like my parents did, then I’ll see for myself…” “I should be out having fun right now, that’s for old people.”

On the other hand, what virtue, to simply pay attention, learn the hard lessons, do the hard work, and stand on the shoulders of those who have been through the trials and errors. There are some trips you don’t have to make. God has put a road-sign there, a warning, an example of its consequences. And if you choose to take a trip down that road, you just might not come back, and most certainly you won’t come back the same. They say “Experience is a good teacher.” Yet one must ask, “At what cost???” if mere inconvenience is the only price, then one might freely consider it as a alternate route to the same end; however, so-called experience often results in great loss, pain, deep wounds, scares, and even death. The fact is sometime experience does not give a second chance. The classroom of experience is often painfully unforgiving. Asked any single mother who is raising a child along, because she sold her body for an “I love you” instead of a wedding. Listen to the testimony of a young addict who felt that since his friends were doing drugs, he would try it just this once. Take the story from the graveyard of a fellow who thought a gang was security. Sin will always make you go further then you meant to go, make you stay longer then you meant to stay, and make you pay more then you meant to pay.

The frequently committed error is a failure to count observation as experience. Belshazzar chose to ignore his father’s experience with God. He saw his father come the know God and the change God made in him. And that counts too! God never wastes what he gives us. Whether taste, or touch, or smell, or sound, or sight, your every experience is jammed packed with meaning and significance to be examined in the light of God. Act 17 says, “God has determined your time before you were here, and the distance you would travel; That you should seek the Lord, if haply you might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from anyone: For in Him we live, and move, and have our being…” Your very existence is both proof and call to worship God. Rest assured, delay in pursuing and serving God is never profitable.

Belshazzar’s opportunity was greater than that of His father and so was his condemnation greater. He has more from the beginning, his father’s story. Instead he has to hear more, see more, smell more, feel more, taste more and then his end came into view. The handwriting was on the wall. There was no turning back.

If you have more, God requires that you do better. We presume upon God by assuming experiences are parallel. We are all dealt our hands from the same deck of life, but look closely, everybody’s cards are different. God judges each of us by what He has perfectly dealt to us. Nebuchadnezzar’s idolatry ended in his salvation while Belshazzar’s idolatry ended in his damnation. The person who says to himself or herself, I will go as far as I can until I see clearly, BE WARNED!!! By the time you can see the reality of your end apart from faith, it’s too late. -- The handwriting is on the wall!