Scripture Reading: Dan. 1:3-8; 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; Isa. 8:8:
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; 9:23; 10:11, 19.
B
Christ as the only Overcomer includes all the overcomers; the only 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.
Ⅱ
Daniel had companions with whom he was absolutely consecrated to God and separated unto God from an age that follows Satan—Dan. 1:3-8; 5:22:
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 to enjoy God and bless others with God—Num. 6:1-8, 22-27; Psa. 110:3; Phil. 3:13-14.
B
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:
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.
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.
C
If we are going to live a holy life for the church life, we must be careful about our diet, which is a matter of life or death—Gen. 2:9, 17:
１
To eat is to contact things outside of us and receive them into us, with the result that they become our inner constitution—John 6:57; Matt. 4:4.
２
In Leviticus 11 our eating signifies our contacting of people; our contact with certain kinds of people can cause us to be reconstituted and thus make us another kind of person—Acts 10:9b-14, 27-29; Prov. 13:20; 1 Cor. 15:33; 2 Tim. 2:16-18:
ａ
Animals that divide the hoof and chew the cud signify persons who have discernment in their activities and who receive the word of God with much reconsideration—Lev. 11:3; Phil. 1:9-10; Psa. 119:15-16, 99.
ｂ
Aquatic animals that have fins and scales signify persons who can move and act freely in the world and at the same time resist its influence—Lev. 11:9-12; 2 Tim. 3:1-5.
ｃ
Birds that have wings for flying and that eat seeds of life as their food supply signify persons who can live and move in a life that is away from and above the world and who take things of life as their life supply—Lev. 11:13.
ｄ
Insects that have wings and have legs above their feet for leaping on the ground signify persons who can live and move in a life that is above the world and who can keep themselves above the world—vv. 21-22.
３
Different kinds of death are signified by the carcasses of unclean beasts (wild death), cattle (mild death), and creeping things (subtle death); in order to maintain our status as Nazarites, we must keep ourselves from the defilement of death—5:2; Num. 6:6-8; cf. 2 Cor. 5:4.
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:
A
God's living word works in us to separate us from the world and move us out of our divisive self into the oneness of the Triune God—John 17:17, 21; Eph. 5:26.
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:
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.
２
We must seek the Lord with all our heart—119:2; Mark 12:30.
３
We must deal with anything which separates us from the Lord—Acts 24:16; 2 Tim. 1:3a; 1 John 1:9; cf. Ezek. 1:22, 26.
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.
５
We must exercise our spirit to pray over and with God's word and exercise our whole being to muse on His word—Eph. 6:17-18; Psa. 119:15-16.
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:
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. 25:14; 86:11; Isa. 11:2.
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, 8.
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.
D
Prayer in the Spirit through the exercise of our spirit brings us under God's ruling presence for the carrying out of His economy—Rev. 4:1-3; Eph. 6:17-18:
１
The highest expression of a man who cooperates with God is in prayer; God carries out His economy on earth through His faithful channels of prayer— Acts 6:4.
２
Prayer is the lifeline in the Lord's recovery; the more Satan tries to frustrate our prayer, the more we should pray—Dan. 6:10.
３
Daniel depended on prayer to do what man could not do, and he depended on prayer to understand what man could not understand—2:17-19; 9:1-4.
４
Daniel's prayer was totally for God, not for himself—v. 2b; Jer. 25:11; Dan. 9:17; 1 Kings 8:48.
Ⅴ
Daniel was a self-sacrificing person with the spirit of martyrdom—Dan. 6:10-11; cf. 3:17-18:
A
Everyone whom God uses to turn the age is afraid of only one thing, that is, to offend God and lose His presence—2 Cor. 5:9-10; cf. Psa. 51:11; Josh. 7:4.
B
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:
１
In ourselves we are not able to live a life of sacrifice, for our life is a natural life, a selfish life—Job 2:4; Matt. 16:25:
ａ
Christ's love of affection constrains us to live and to die for Him—2 Cor. 5:14-15; Rom. 14:7-9.
ｂ
Christ's love makes the believers martyrs for Him—Rev. 2:10; 12:11; Rom. 8:35-37.
２
If we experience Christ as the wine-producing vine, we will be filled with joy in the Lord—John 15:11; Acts 5:41; 13:52; Phil. 3:1a; 4:4; Psa. 43:4.
３
By experiencing Christ as the wine-producing vine and by being filled with Him as the new wine, we may become a drink offering in Him and with Him to be poured out for God's satisfaction and for God's building—Gen. 35:14; Exo. 29:40-41; Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6.
C
The Body is versus the self, and the self is the enemy of the Body; we should deny ourselves to enjoy and live by Christ for the sake of the Body—Matt. 16:24; 1 Cor. 1:9; 12:27.