INTRODUCTION
• We are in the 4th part of series on the life of Daniel.
• Daniel chapter 4.
• Move away for a week from the cultural issues and into the prophetic part of Daniel’s journey.
I. DANIEL THE PROPHET
• Daniel was first and foremost a prophet according to Jesus.
• Most of us hear that and we wonder
• How could this matter to me?
• It does, because Jesus still speaks to His people today.
• Here is what he said about Daniel.
Matthew 24:15-21, 15“The day is coming when you will see what Daniel the prophet spoke about—the sacrilegious object that causes desecration standing in the holy place.” (Reader, pay attention!) 16“Then those in Judea must flee to the hills. 17A person out on the deck of a roof must not go down into the house to pack. 18A person out in the field must not return even to get a coat. 19How terrible it will be for pregnant women and for nursing mothers in those days. 20And pray that your flight will not be in winter or on the Sabbath. 21For there will be greater anguish than at any time since the world began. And it will never be so great again. 22In fact, unless that time of calamity is shortened, not a single person will survive. But it will be shortened for the sake of God’s chosen ones.”
• Those words will get our attention won’t they?
• Daniel spoke them 500 years before Jesus was born.
• Because Daniel was a prophet.
• No spiritual leader or Christian ever made a huge difference in the Kingdom of God and the lives of people unless they were empowered by the Holy Spirit.
• Daniel included.
• You cannot be spiritual without the Holy Spirit.
• Daniel like all of us had to grow in his ministry with the Spirit. When we first see him as a youth he got a gift from God.
• The gift of interpreting dreams. We see this often in the Old Testament.
• Joseph in Genesis 41:16 interprets Pharaoh’s dream, but “it is not in me” is his first statement.
• Joseph like Daniel figured out, if you are going to move in the Spirit, do it with great humility and thoughtfulness.
• Don’t move hard on people, but thoughtfully.
• Always prepared to be ok with being wrong or misreading a situation.
II. THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHET
• Beginning in the Old Testament, prophecy and “prophets” held a valuable and esteemed place in all the work God did.
• In fact a major portion of the Old Testament includes books entitled by the names of prophets.
• We divide these books into two groups, the Major and the Minor Prophets.
• The Major Prophets include Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Lamentations and Daniel.
• The Minor Prophets make up the last twelve books of the Old Testament including Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah And Malachi.
• The significance of these prophetic books is clear in the New Testament, as Luke 24:44 states Jesus’ words:
“These are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the Law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled.”
The Old Testament prophets did two things that make them important to us today. First, they foretold the future, some of which has come to pass and some of which has yet to unfold, but may in fact be taking place in our lifetime.
• Most of us, if challenged, would agree that prophecy is just that, foretelling of the future. This is part of prophecy, but only a portion.
• Much of the ministry of both Old and New Testament prophecy and prophetic ministry has less to do with the future and more to do with the present. It is forth-telling, not foretelling.
• This second aspect of prophecy, forth-telling, may impact each of us more than the more widely understood aspect of foretelling. It is declaring the present, clarifying the present, helping us to get a grasp on what God is up to in the here and now. We find both of these throughout prophetic ministry in the Bible.
• It is what people often tell me I do during a service. Speak about a situation and it is exactly theirs. Use a phrase or word that is exactly the word they told the Lord they needed.
III. THE DREAM
• King Nebuchadnezzar has just come off of seeing Daniel’s friends thrown into a fiery furnace and surviving it.
• So he is humbled and listening.
• Vss. 1-3 Read
• He has a dream that troubles him and he calls Daniel to interpret the dream which he had done in chapter 2.
• But notice vs. 8 he calls Daniel by his Hebrew name. This is huge.
• The dream - vss. 10-18
• Vs. 19 - Now it is Daniel who is shaken by the king’s dream.
• Vss. 19-26 - The interpretation
• Daniel reads the dream and then counsels the king.
• Humble yourself. This is all of our journeys.
• God moves, we are blown up for a few minutes.
• Then we go back to our life and think nothing of it.
• But God does. He is trying to get our attention. Here He is trying to get the king’s attention.
• Vss. 26-27 - Daniel tells him to repent.
IV. DEALING WITH REALITY
• We all have to come to grips like this king. There is a God and it is not us!
• Daniel 4:28-32, “But all these things did happen to king Nebuchadnezzar. Twelve months later he was taking a walk on the flat roof of the royal palace in Babylon. As he looked out across the city, he said, ‘look at this great city of Babylon! By my own mighty power, I have built this beautiful city as my royal residence to display my majestic splendor.’ “While these words were still in his mouth, a voice called down from heaven, ‘O King Nebuchadnezzar, this message is for you! You are no longer ruler of this kingdom. You will be driven from human society. You will live in the fields with the wild animals, and you will eat grass like a cow. Seven periods of time will pass while you live this way, until you learn that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone He chooses.”
• But unfortunately this kind of thinking is all too real for each of us. We know what is right, but we are blinded by pride.
• Pride is so deeply fostered in our culture that it just feels “normal” to go there. But pride kills.
• It destroys lives and destinies. In this case it cost the king his kingdom.
Jesus knows how deadly pride is to human hearts so He warned against it over and over encouraging us to see humility as a blessing.
That opens rivers of life rather than a curse that puts us at the bottom rung on the ladder of life.
Matthew 23:12, “But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Unfortunately, no matter how much I work at being humble it is a losing battle. Deep inside me is a well of pride just like the pride that drove the king to boast about his accomplishments and try as I may I cannot defeat that poison.
Only the Holy Spirit’s graceful and powerful touch can win that battle. In Galatians 5:17 Paul explains this;
“The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.”
There is a battle inside of each of us, my flesh and His Spirit are battling in us, Paul says, “These two forces are constantly fighting each other.”
Wanting to do what’s right and not doing it. But there is a way out in verse 16 Paul tells us,
“Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”
Walk by the Spirit, this word walk, peripateo
• Two words combined, peri and patos.
• Peri means around and patos is to tread.
• Simply put it means to tread around. It has an old Hebrew meaning to it, to tread around in order to take possession on the land. It is what
God told Israel to do in Joshua 1:3 “Wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you…”
• Paul is telling us that in order to defeat pride and win the battle with our flesh we must allow the Holy Spirit to have territory inside us, to “tread around” in us.
• We must invite the Spirit to freely move within us and to search us and conquer our flesh so we can live out of His power and not our own. It is a daily journey, yielding to the Spirit and allowing Him to empower you, but it is a journey that will bring life and peace deep inside your spirit.
CLOSE
Like us, it took the king a while to figure it out. But he did - vss. 34-37.
“After this time had passed, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven. My sanity returned, and I praised and worshiped the Most High and honored the one who lives forever. His rule is everlasting, and his kingdom is eternal…now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and glorify and honor the King of Heaven. All His acts are just and true, and He is able to humble the proud.”
