Mensa Otabil - Changing the World
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Welcome to day number 32 of our 40 days of power. This week we’ll be looking at possessing territories, and we’ve been examining the victory that God gives to us in nations, kingdoms, cities, and spheres of life. So we conclude our discussion of possessing territories by looking at Daniel chapter 6, verse 26.
«I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom, men shall tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for He is the living God and steadfast forever. His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall endure to the end.» This is the testimony of King Darius, and he makes this testimony after Daniel has gone through a very harrowing experience. His enemies set him up; Daniel’s enemies set him up because they knew he was going to pray. They made the king declare a decree that nobody should pray to any god except to the king. Of course, Daniel went to pray, and so Daniel was arrested. The king could not change his mind, and Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den, with a bunch of hungry lions waiting to consume him.
In those days, that was certain death; it was like a firing squad. If you were thrown to the lions, you did not come out. So, Daniel was thrown to the lions. The king was so distraught that the next morning he went out to look for Daniel, and lo and behold, Daniel was alive with the hungry lions; they hadn’t harmed him. Daniel was pulled out, and his enemies were thrown into the lion’s den. The king made a decree, and there are two things I want you to pay attention to.
The first is the change of heart of the king. King Darius is not a godly king; he worships other gods, but this encounter with God through Daniel changes his heart. He begins to see the God of Daniel as the living God, and he proclaims Him as a living God. That is something God does when we take territories: He touches the hearts of kings, turns their hearts around, and gives us opportunity and access to people who have denied God. So that’s the first thing that happens; may the Lord use our lives to touch people of influence to have a change of heart.
The second thing we see is not just the change of heart but the change of nations. The king makes a decree, and this king, King Darius, ruled over a very large kingdom. There were other nations he had subjugated with their gods, but he comes to this conclusion and makes a decree-a political enactment — that the God that Daniel worships is the supreme one. There is legislation, there is policy that opens Darius’s kingdom to the message of the God of Daniel, and that is something we should trust God for: that in our time, in our nations, as we possess territories, God will touch legislators, policy makers, implementers, and parliaments to open their nations for the kingdom of God.
As you know, our world is getting increasingly antichrist; Europe has virtually shut its door to Christianity and to Christ. We find that largely in Asia, while the African continent has openness largely to the gospel, in Europe and in Asia, the gospel space is being shrunk; the door is being closed. But we pray that what happened to Darius will happen in Europe and in Asia: that God will work a work with His servants, with His Daniels, and with His Esthers in these lands that will affect policy makers and the laws of the land, so that doors of opportunity will be opened for the gospel of Christ to enter into the darkness of the nations of the world and bring the light of God, the beauty of God, the goodness of God, and salvation to the nations of the world. That is something we are possessing in Jesus' name.
Let us pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, change the hearts of rulers, open up the nations to the saving power of the gospel. In Jesus' name, amen.»
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