Trusting God is the root of deep faith, and this is where all blessings are bestowed. In this Part 10 of the reflection about Let Go and Let God, God is strengthening us in His unfailing love for us, and in the gift of His righteousness, which He has given us as a free gift. Dr. Siohvaughn Funches focuses on Chapter 6 of the Book of Daniel. Pondering on the prophet’s life, she talks about God’s right timing in conferring blessings unto us and why we must be ready for the jealousy and insecurities that lie ahead. Dr. Siohvaughn also delves into a lesson of leadership, sharing how King Darius decided to embrace humility and trust God as for the outcome of Daniel’s life. Let go and let God take over everything that concerns us, and receive all God has for us with joy, peace, and rest!
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Let Go And Let God (Part 10)
We’re going to be continuing on and likely finishing up our series titled Let Go and Let God. Before we do that, we’re going to take a moment and do what we always do, that’s to acknowledge God. I thank you, heavenly father, for this opportunity to get at the feet of your Son, Jesus and to hear Him. I thank you, Lord, that as we do so, you’re imparting to us the spirit of wisdom, revelation and the knowledge of Him. The eyes of our understanding are being enlightened all the more that we may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in us, the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of His power towards us who believe. I thank you that you’re going to expound on the scriptures and open them up to us about the things concerning yourself. I thank you that as we do the one thing that’s needful, you are causing everything to work together for our good. You’re causing things even to fall effortlessly into place. I thank you, God, that we return to places, return to people, return to situations, circumstances and find them completely turned around for your glory and our good. In Jesus’ name, we pray.
We’re going to be looking at the life of Daniel, not from a perspective or a way that most people who probably have taught from Daniel 6 would do, because God took me to a different route when He was showing me the blessings and the benefits of trusting Him. That’s letting go and letting God. That’s a matter of trust. We looked into a few people’s lives now, but we began this series even looking at the life of Esther. We saw that even as a matter of life and death, she had to trust God. She got to let go and let God. When she did, we saw that not only was she saved, but she even saved the entire Jewish nation at that point. A lot of people’s lives were saved. Not only that, but God also turned it around. He was all the while working behind the scenes.
We also learned that valuable lesson from her life’s testimony and we saw that God was working everything together for their good. It was God who allowed their enemy to arise and reveal even the magnitude of hate that He had for them because of their Jewish descent, not so that God would horrify His children or that God would allow them to be destroyed. He did the revealing and allowing the revealing of who their enemy was, who was quietly in their midst and seemingly meaning them no harm. All the while in his heart was not just to harm them. It was to murder all the men, women and children who were Jewish. That level of hate right there was needed to be exposed not to horrify them, scare them or allow them to prosper, but to know what they’re dealing with. They prayed about it and prayer is God’s ordained way of moving on the face of this earth. It’s not like He needs it. God can do all things without us but He won’t do anything without us.
That’s His will that we pray, even pray without ceasing and prayer being in communion with God. It establishes and keeps a healthy relationship, open communication and not have that disconnection with God. Also, it allowed them to know that when they ask God, it would be no doubt that it was God who delivered them and protected them. It even allowed their enemy to pop up and arise so that God could once and for all take them down, and take down anyone who would have come behind him to try to finish the evil that he started.
We also looked into the life of Jacob. We did so via looking in the life of Joseph and that’s how we get to know God. Jacob was Joseph’s father and to get to know the father, what did he do? He sent his son and revealed his son. Jesus said, “If you’ve seen the son, you’ve seen the father.” I love this particular part of the Bible because it’s more of a clear depiction of these typologies when Jesus is hidden in the scriptures. Joseph is a type of Jesus. I love it because to me it’s one of the clearer ways that I can say, “I see that God was talking about Jesus because of this, that and the other.” I particularly enjoyed that a lot.
We saw that not only was God protecting them and providing for Esther, Jacob and Joseph, and that God works behind the scenes, that God works all things together for our good. We’re getting to know this God that is calling us to trust Him. Those who do trust Him, calling us to trust Him even more, and even calling us who trust Him maybe with some things to trust Him with more and more until we trust Him because He’s trustworthy. We saw how God didn’t just bring them to a place of victory or a place where they escape their enemies’ trap, but God also gave them overwhelming victory. We also saw that God is a God of prosperity and restoration. You can trust God. God knows what needs you have spiritually, but God is also a practical God. He knows what needs you have naturally. We can trust Him.
Daniel 6
We’re going to look at Daniel 6. We’re going to see someone else who trusted God and how that worked very well for them and get more of a reason as we get more of a revelation of who God is, to trust Him fully and wholly knowing that He’s fully and wholly trustworthy. I am going to be reading it. Daniel 6 is not very long but at some parts, I’ll be skipping through. Follow along with me. I’m going to be reading from the New Living Translation version. If you’ve been on this journey with me, you know that I usually read out of the New King James version. Look at me getting all fancy. I’ve been reading out of the New Living Translation. You also know if you’ve been with me specifically during this series that I’ve been reading from my Bible as opposed to digital notes.
Let’s start at Daniel 6. Let’s start with the first one. It says, “Darius the Mede decided to divide the kingdom into 120 provinces and he appointed a high officer to rule over each province.” Darius is the king at this particular time for those who don’t know it. “The king also chose Daniel and two others as administrators to supervise the high officers and protect the king’s interests.” Daniel’s position is one that is very high. These high officers were the top in the kingdom, but then they had bosses over them. It was just a few and Daniel was among one of them. Verse 3 says, “Daniel soon proved himself more capable than all the other administrators and high officers. Because of Daniel’s great ability, the king made plans to place him over the entire empire.”
I know I have done this as well and I can understand from a human standpoint that what I’m about to say is easier said than done. Let me announce right off the bat that I’m not superhuman. I’ll probably need you to remind me that I said this at some point in time in our journey together. It amazes me that sometimes we will pray and we want God to bless and increase us. Nothing is wrong with that. Sometimes it may seem like there is a delay in that prayer being answered or there’s some time that manifests in between the time that we made the prayer and the time that it manifests in the earth as it is in heaven. Sometimes that time is to prepare us. There are times when it’s to prepare others who are a part of our destiny. Sometimes the preparation is needed to be able to handle the blessings and the persecution that comes along with it. I hate to be joy kill.
Praying For A Blessing
When we’re praying for a blessing, we’re like, “Bless me, God.” Sometimes we get so focused on the blessing and it’s something good. We can find verses in the Bible where we know it’s the perfect will of God to get it and we feel like, “Why hasn’t God released that yet in my life?” Sometimes God is not just preparing us for the actual blessing. He’s preparing us for the things that will come along with it that we probably won’t call a blessing. We saw even in the life of Joseph, his very own family members became jealous of him. They already were. They already had hate in their heart but it manifested to the point that they plotted to kill him.
That was when Joseph revealed to them a dream that God gave him to prosper him. He revealed to them the prophetic word God gave him. It turned the hate up in their hearts 400 notches to the point that they got together and plotted his death on a whim. Those were his blood brothers so, “God, thank you for family,” or perhaps, “No, thank you.” It depends on which side of the story you’re on. Joseph’s brothers did that. Before that dream manifests, we know there was a time that passed when Joseph needed to be prepared. Some of that affliction and persecution prepared him even for what was to come.
Although the Bible doesn’t reveal it to us, I’m pretty certain if Joseph experienced jealousy at that level when what he had was a prophetic dream that God gave him, a promise of that which was to come. What do you think happened in certain people’s hearts that saw when God manifested that dream and he did so well above and beyond even what He had revealed to Joseph? I’m certain that everybody wasn’t happy for Joseph because I’ve lived long enough and I’ve experienced this enough. Joseph just so happened to be put in a position where, “You better act like you’re happy for Joseph,” or your head could roll because he was next in line after a pharaoh as far as power and authority are concerned in the nation of Egypt.
However, if he would have just been someone who had been blessed by God and maybe didn’t have that power and authority, people would have had more fear in them than it would be jealousy to act on plotting his death the way his brothers did. We would be undone almost. We saw also on Esther that there were people who plotted to kill her husband who was the king. He had the top authority in that nation, in that realm other than God himself but people still plotted to kill him. They were probably filled with jealousy, rage and hate towards him and plotted his death. With that being said, we want to be prepared for the blessing. It was a blessing for him to become a king. It was a blessing for Joseph to be appointed, anointed, and then exalted the way that he was. It even saved his family and even other Egyptians. However, everybody wasn’t happy for him.
What Comes With Blessing
It begs the question, can you handle not just the blessing but everything that comes with it? Sometimes hateful hearts and jealous hearts come with it. There may even be people and relationships that are lost because of the revealing of people’s hearts. They can’t handle the blessing and seeing you succeed. Most of the time, those are people who are comparing it to their own lives and they’re unsatisfied with their own lives in some way. That usually stems from a lack of revelation of how big God is, how lavishly He gives and how He is not a respecter of persons and will bless them as well, or they’re already blessed and can’t see it or don’t consider it a blessing. The question that begs to be answered is, can you handle the blessing and what comes along with it? Can you handle the success and what comes along with it?
Here, Daniel is in this nation. It’s a foreign nation. They were exiled to this place as Jewish people and God is working it for good. God is with him. He is still prospering and blessing them, even though they’re in that place. They were in there, even though their descendants disobeyed God. This was the consequence or the fruit of their sin, but they were still being prospered, favored, protected and loved by God because God is good. We can’t change who He is even with our wrong behavior, thankfully like dodge not a bullet but a missile. Thankfully, God is faithful even when we’re unfaithful.
We see in the life of Daniel that he was promoted. This promotion, this blessing, this success and favor that came from God Himself provoked people to some jealousy. It struck up some evil in their heart like sediments at the bottom of a pot, that boil to the top when the water gets hot enough. He got blessed enough and the sediments of hate and envy in their heart boiled to the top and were revealed. Know this, sometimes that time between prayer and manifestation is not God just getting us ready for the blessing, but God getting us ready to be able to handle what sometimes comes along with the blessing. It can be people right around you. It was Joseph’s brothers or Daniel who worked with these people. He’s not doing this to make them look bad. It’s just the favor of God in his life. He’s good at what he does. He’s talented, successful and they hated him because of it.
Let’s read verse 4, “The other administrators and high officers began searching for some fault in the way Daniel was handling government affairs, but they couldn’t find anything to criticize or condemn.” He was faithful, always responsible and completely trustworthy. They concluded, “Our only chance of finding grounds for accusing Daniel will be in connection with the rules of his religion.” Look at these people. You know for sure they don’t have a heart for God. They were trying to get Daniel by any means necessary. If that means that even Daniel’s relationship with God is collateral damage in this process and gets destroyed so be it. They’re hell-bent on raising hell in his life because they can’t stand to see this man successful in all that he does. This is the definition of a hater. God help us and continue to bless us to be able to handle the blessings, prosperity, victory, restoration and the fact that everybody probably won’t be happy for us. Some of the people who won’t be happy for us might surprise us. May God hold our hearts and protect us. I mean this, in Jesus’ name.
Let’s get down and it says, “The administrators and high officers went to the king and said, ‘Long live King Darius.’ We the administrators are all in agreement.” They were all liars because we know that Daniel will never be in agreement with this particular thing that they’re about to ask the king. “We administrators, officials, high officers, advisers and governors, that the king should make a law that will be strictly enforced. Give orders that for the next 30 days any person who prays to anyone, divine or human, except to you, Your Majesty, will be thrown into the den of lions. Now, Your Majesty, issue and sign this law so it cannot be changed. An official law of the Medes and Persians that cannot be revoked,” like with Esther that we’ve looked at that earlier in the series. King Darius signed the law.
Leadership Lesson
This law is in effect and there’s a lesson here even in leadership and in life. We have to be mindful of people who use so much flattery. I know the flesh doesn’t like to be corrected but people who usually will correct us. I’m not talking about people who condemn you or fault-finding people like a nag. That’s not what I mean. That’s not God. I mean people who will correct you in love when need be, “You were wrong.” They’ll let you know, “No excuse. You were wrong. You should apologize.” Those kinds of people, that’s done in love. We need people like that in our life.
All of these yes men or hype men, first of all, life is not a concert. Settle down. Every time I say like, “Yay,” you’re like, “Yeah.” It’s ridiculous. Everything I do and say cannot be right because I’m human. If you’re just in total agreement and everything is like, “Yeah, you’re so good,” those are the bloodiest red flags to me. It’s almost like, “What do you want? What are you trying to get out of it?” It’s usually, “What is going on when there’s so much flattery like that?” Especially people who are in positions of leadership must be aware of this because with leaders, what happens or what doesn’t happen, what they do, what they don’t do, what they say, what they don’t say doesn’t just impact them and their family, it can impact the nations at large.
With that being said, God said in His word, “To whom much is given, much is required of him.” To leaders, it even should weigh heavier to know and say, “God, help me.” It’s like what Solomon did, “Give me the wisdom, God, to discern. Give me a hearing heart, God, to be able to discern and hear from you so that I can deal and judge with things. Judge things as I go along, discern the difference between good and evil. To not be hoodwinked and not just mess up my own life or something in my own life but end up harming someone else because of this position of authority and leadership that you bestowed upon me.” It’s very important. Put a pin there. Maybe go back and read that because you’ll see that flattery is going to come and cut him in a way and not just Daniel.
It says that when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, the Bible says, “He went home and knelt as usual in his upstairs room, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God.” Don’t you love this fearlessness, this trusting God, this “I will not be moved?” It’s like, “You’re not going to scare me away from God. You’re not going to intimidate me away from God. You’re not going to come threatening to take this or that unless I nag God, so be it. God gives, let Him restore it because I’m not turning my back on God.” Daniel is a made-up mind and had a resolution in his heart. He was going to follow God no matter what it cost him. Look how God honors this guy with his heart.
The officials then went together to Daniel’s house because they set him up, and found him praying and asking for God’s help. They went straight to the king. Tattletale, we haven’t liked those sorts of people since we were two years old. They reminded him about his law, “Did you not sign a law that for the next 30 days any person who prays to anyone, divine or human, except to you, Your Majesty, will be thrown into the den of lions?” “Yes,” the king replied. That decision stands. It is an official law of the Medes and Persians that cannot be revoked. Now, they want to lay it on the king after getting him, trapping him and trapping Daniel, so they thought. They told the king, “That man, Daniel, one of the captives from Judah is ignoring you and your law.” They’re so full of accusations and the Bible calls Satan the accuser of their brothers. This is Satan working through them.
They say, “He still prays to his God three times a day.” Hearing this, the king was deeply troubled and he tried to think of a way to save Daniel. Remember, he’s supposed to be thrown at the lion’s den right away to stay that whole night in a den full of hungry, ravishing lions. It says, “He spent the rest of the day looking for a way to get Daniel out of this predicament.” Can you imagine? This king has a heart for Daniel. He hasn’t just promoted him. He has promoted him to one of the highest positions. Now, he is creating another position so that he can put him in the highest after himself over that entire realm, that entire nation and people. He must trust, like and love Daniel. He has got a heart for Daniel.
This right here is rough. It would be rough enough if you knew someone you love and trusted was essentially about to be killed, was going to walk the green mile. That’s heavy but this man had it even heavier on him because I’m sure this king felt responsible. He knew by now they trapped him to trap Daniel. He is the king who allowed the flattery to work. He is the king who signed off on it. He is the king who did not ask Daniel first. They said that all these people were in agreement but they were the only ones who stood there present. Daniel wasn’t there. I’m sure this king probably started going to his mind about a million different ways he could have gone about that. He probably went from that guilty place to say, “I must save him. I have to do something.” He’s the king and he had enough power that was used wrongfully by those men that would essentially seal Daniel’s death, but he found himself powerless to save his dear friend, his beloved friend. This is the definition of a heavy heart right here.
He was struggling. He was trying to figure it out. It says, “In the evening, the men went together to the king.” Here they are, here comes the accuser of their brothers again, Satan’s working through these men and said, “Your Majesty, you know that according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, no law that the king signs can be changed.” Ask yourself, “Why would they have to go back to the king?” The king has been the king probably for quite some time. He knows that. Not only that, they had spoken to him when they even got the decree. He knows he was making a decree in the land of the Medes and Persians, which could not be revoked. The Bible records that. When they came to him to let him know someone broke the law, they reminded him again, “They broke the law that cannot be changed. Remember you wrote and made a decree that nobody can worship anyone, divine or human, other than you, for 30 days?” We know that the king is aware that the law cannot be revoked to change, which means he decreed Daniel must go into the lions’ den. Why do you think these people had to come back and remind him again?
The Bible says that it was evening. All day long, this king with a big clock ticking in his ear. It’s getting closer to the time that your friend and your most beloved advisor and official is about to die. You know how Satan gets down. Probably he said this, “Because of you,” because you know he’s an accuser. You know he comes to try to make people feel condemned. He tries to get people to take their finger and pointed at themselves. He’s like an expert at that thing. I’m sure he did that. The king is laboring from the coming up of that sun to the going down of it, but he has to execute this order. If a king at that time, like Queen Esther’s husband, makes a decree, they themselves can’t even undo what they’ve done. It was serious.
I’m sure this king was thinking that with the power that he has, he should have been more careful to use it. It’s too late now because he already made the decree. They had to come to him. God showed me this because this king was more than reluctant, more than dragging his feet, more than didn’t want Daniel to die especially with him knowing, deep down he was partly to blame. He knew that. He delayed, denied, tried, held on fault, researched, probably was praying, doing all sorts of stuff, trying and trying again, with minute after minute, until it’s hour after hour passing to save Daniel. Until they had to come to him and say, “You know the law because you’re the king. You already issued this decree to put Daniel in the lions’ den and it cannot be revoked, not even by you. It’s evening time now, king. It looks like the time has come because it had to be done before the day was over.”
Sure enough, God showed me, “This king had to let go and let God.” He had a lot of power. He had a lot of authority. He had a lot of say-so. We see that in the fact that when he decreed the thing, even he himself couldn’t revoke it. That’s a lot of power right there but this guy could not, in all his power and all his authority, save the most valuable person in his kingdom other than himself. He couldn’t do it. He was powerless to do anything not only to save Daniel to even help him thrown into the lions’ den. How can you even make him more comfortable? There was nothing that he could do but he could trust God. He could let go and let God.
Verse 16 says, “At last.” That’s what God told me, look at this, “At last.” He was reluctant, dragging his feet to let go, “At last the king gave orders for Daniel to be arrested and thrown into the den of lions.” The king said to him, “May your God, whom you serve so faithfully, rescue you.” He let go and he let God. Let’s see how the matter turned out when he did it. It says, “A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den,” which is also a picture of Jesus and Jesus is hidden in here too. The king sealed the stone with his royal seal and the seals of the nobles so that no one could rescue Daniel. He is trusting God. It’s like he doesn’t have a choice. “The king then returned to his palace and spent the night fasting.” The king is no longer trying to make it happen in and of himself. He knows as much power as he has naturally speaking, he’s powerless in this.
Now, he has humbled himself, let go and let God, saying, “God, do save because I realized I cannot.” That’s humility right there especially for a man who has that kind of power and authority. It says, “He did that all night long, refusing entertainment and he couldn’t even sleep that night.” He’s up all night praying and fasting. Early the next morning, the king got up and hurried out to the lions’ den. When he got there, he called out in anguish, “Daniel, servant of the living God. Was your God whom you serve so faithfully able to rescue you from the lions?” Daniel answered, “Long live the king. My God sent his angel to shut the lions’ mouths so that they would not hurt me for I have been found innocent in his sight. I have not wronged you, Your Majesty.” The Bible said not a scratch was found on Daniel because he trusted in his God. Daniel let go and let God. The Bible doesn’t say that Daniel got put in a lions’ den, kicking and screaming. He was poised knowing that God isn’t in control.
Trust God
The king eventually let go and let God. Both of them were powerless to do anything except trust God. Sometimes we find ourselves in situations where we are powerless to do anything except trust God. If it weren’t for that, we probably wouldn’t trust God. We would still try to fix it ourselves. If there’s no way to fix it, if there’s nothing left to try, we are put in a position where we didn’t trust God because we wanted to. We trusted God because we had to. Sometimes even in that, God is so good and loving. He won’t be like, “You should have trusted me. I’m trustworthy. I’m God. I’m not a man that I should lie.” He doesn’t do that. He could, he’s God but He doesn’t.
Sometimes as humans we will go about it arrogantly defending ourselves but God doesn’t even do that. He’s cool. You see how would Jesus walk on the earth smoothly. Accusations were flying or whatever, he owned to the next person and healed them, completely focused on the goal. When we get to a place where we cannot do anything, there is no choice. God doesn’t condemn us. He just uses the opportunity to prove to us, once and again, that He is wholly trustworthy so it’s wise of us to wholly trust Him. I pray that this has blessed you. It has blessed me and given me even more courage and faith to let go some more and let God.
It may not all happen at once. You see that king. He was holding on tight until he had no choice, and then we see Esther. She tried to hold on but she may be a little bit quicker to let it go. It all depends. Maybe some things were faster to trust God. Some things were a bit more slowly. It may even take years but the point is, we’ve gotten to know when we’ve seen knowing that God is not a respecter of person and He changes not. He’s the same yesterday, today and forever. What He did for them, He is willing and able to do for us when we just let go, let God and trust Him to do what only He can do. We saw even at the beginning of this series, that does take faith and humility.
May God continue to increase us in our faith, continue to impart His humility to us even as a gift. As He does, we continue to live lives that glorify Him because we trust Him and we can give all glory to Him knowing that God fought that battle for me. God restored me. God protected me. God provided for me because He wants to do this. He lives and breathes to do this. Let our lives bring praise and glory to the one who’s wholly trustworthy as we trust Him wholly. In Jesus’ name, I pray.
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