Joseph Prince - Believe That God Is Working In Your Favor

This is an excerpt from: Answers For Dark Nights And Difficult Seasons

So, in the night seasons, we got to know that God is also, the devil is active, but God is even more, during that time, wanting to turn the whole thing around into your favor. The devil may roar in the night season, and he roars really loud. How many realize that at night you can hear him roar very loud? It seems like all the accusations multiply 100 times at night. Am I the only one? The daytime is okay. I mean, you hear the roar, but it's like a cat's meow, you know, but it still irritates you. But at night when everyone is asleep, wow. Even doctors tell us that when our child is sick, you remember that, their fever? The worst time is always at night. It seems that the morning it's more tolerable. Am I right, parents?

Now, I know there's a physiological explanation, the body is still, there's inflammation, and you need to move around. I understand that, but there's also a meaning behind this that things are worse negatively in the night season, even the devil's accusation becomes loud. So, we need to know what the Bible teaches us about the night seasons, what God is after. Remember, there was a hero of faith, Daniel? Because he stood up for the Lord, he was thrown into the lions' den. Let me just establish this first, those lions are hungry lions. They are not little cubs. All right, they're not little cute cubs running around. How do I know this? Because later on when the enemies of Daniel were thrown by the king into the lions' den, the Bible tells us they didn't even reach bottom. The lions pounced on them while they were on the walls and broke their bones into pieces.

So, these are real mature hungry lions. And because of his obedience to God, he was thrown, Daniel was thrown into the lions's den. So, even men of God like Abraham have night seasons, night fears, night terror, but praise God for the vision. I want to leave you with this vision, amen. So, even Daniel, sometimes you do right, you find yourself in the lions' den. And we know the lion is a picture of the enemy, amen? So, I'm gonna give you some tips, take down notes, how to spend an overnight stay in the lions' den. Okay, number one. Okay, so once you're there, what do you do? This is what the Bible says, let's get right to what God is doing.

In Daniel 6, "Now the king was exceedingly glad", this the next day, "for him", for Daniel because the king loved Daniel. In fact, in a way, he was forced to throw Daniel into the lions den because of his law, but his heart was for Daniel. So, he was very glad that Daniel wasn't hurt, and he commanded, take Daniel out. So, Daniel was taken out of the den, and no injury whatever was found on him. You know why? Because he believed in his God. Underline that, "He believed in his God".

So, even when you go into a night season, you don't understand what's happening, believe. There's nothing for you to do but believe. Can I have a good amen? By the way, when Abraham was tossing and turning, and the Lord gave him that vision of the shield in Genesis 15, later on God says, "Come out, look at the stars if you are able to", your English Bible says, "number the stars". In the Hebrew it's sapher, sapher is the same word used, the heavens declares, sapher, the glory of God. Tell the story.

So, in other words, the ancients, they knew, this is not astrology, okay? Listen carefully, it's not astrology. The stars don't rule our lives. We look to the one who made the stars, beyond the stars, amen. He will guide you, he will lead you, amen, he will prophesy your future. Don't look to the stars. But the ancients knew that there's a story of the stars, amen. It began with Virgo, the virgin with the child, ends with the lion. You start from Virgo, you end up with the 12 constellation, you will end up with the lion. And the New Testament starts with the Virgin, and it ends with the lion of the tribe of Judah in the Book of Revelation.

So, God wrote the story, before there was a Bible, God wrote it in the stars. The heavens declared the glory of God and God told Abram, "Abram, come up here", amen. Sometimes they bring you out of your little troubles that you look and you get so obsessed with. God has to give you a larger vision, amen? And that's what happens when you read the Bible, and you hear anointed sermons, amen, you fill yourself with that, even you have to wake up and listen to it. Fill your heart with a greater vision, and God says, "Look at the stars, see if you're able to sapher them, number them", so you can tell the story, recount the story.

So, Abram started recounting the story and came to how, you know, the virgin will have this son, and this son is the dragon slayer, amen? He is the one that will destroy the dragon, hallelujah, amen, and all the way to the lion where he'll come conquering. He's no more a baby. He comes conquering as King of kings and Lord of lords. And Abram's eyes were filled with tears. And God says, "You know that son that you see up there? That's your seed, it will come from you, so shall your seed be". And the Bible says Abram believed God and he was justified. He was the first man that's recorded for us, justified by faith. We know Noah as well, but the first recorded in the clear sense that Paul repeats time after another is Abraham being justified by faith. I don't believe for one moment it's because he counts the stars.

See if he can count the stars, one, two, three, four, 3,001, 3,002, 3,004... then God says, "You are justified, so shall your seed be". Doesn't make sense. It was the gospel story. He was justified when? In the night. He was justified in the night, in the night. It seems like angels are active at night. Do you know that, angels, not only demons, angels are active at night. Now, I'm playing both night season, as well as literal night. It seems like angels are active in the night. How do I know? Well, the Bible tells us so many accounts of angels being active at night.

You say, "Pastor Prince, it's an Old Testament and all that". Listen, friend, New Testament as well, they're active at night. Remember Acts 5, the apostles were caught and put into prison? The Bible says that Acts 5, at night, say, "at night", an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, "Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of life", amen. And this is New Testament. So, God is the same God. His angels are the same, and they are active at night. Abraham's son, or grandson, Jacob, had a dream when he fled his father's house.

Remember the story? He was afraid of his brother, brother's wrath, that he might get killed by the brother so he fled the father's house, Jacob, good old Jacob. Then he slept in a place that later on became Bethel. He lied down there. He had a dream that night. He dreamt what we call Jacob's ladder. This is what he dreamed. "He dreamed, and behold, a ladder". How many know that it's nighttime when God gave him this dream? "He dreamed of a ladder that's setup on the earth, and it's top reached to heaven, and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it". Nighttime he saw angels very active coming from heaven, going to heaven, coming from heaven, going to heaven, bringing a message, bringing deliverance, going back to report, amen, amen, of what they have done. Down, up, up, down, down, up.

Let me announce to you, you have something greater that makes angels want to come down and up, down and up. You know why? You have Jesus, and when Jesus first came in the Gospel of John chapter 1, the very first chapter the Bible says, "Then Jesus said to him, to Nathaniel, 'Most assuredly, verily, verily I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man", amen. Because I am here, angels are doing that all the time. And you have him. You have him. That was a fulfillment of what Jacob saw. Jacob's ladder is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the stairway to heaven. Are y'all with me so far? Solomon, he received wisdom when he was awake. Think about it, we ask God for wisdom, right? "God, give me wisdom". Even David said just now, "You instruct me in the night seasons". That's the best time of teaching.