Sermon Central
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People Who Hear God Series
Contributed by Joe Holman on Oct 20, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: A look at why Daniel was able to hear/discern the voice of God and how we can also.
Can You Hear Me Now
People That Hear God Daniel 10
We have been talking about hearing God. This is far more important than I believe we make it out to be.
If I ask you if you hear our spouse, do you automatically think back to the day he asked you to marry him? Or do you think of this morning, or last night? When I ask if you can hear God, I am not talking about some momentous, supernatural event that you always look back to¡Kalthough there may be some of those. I am talking about listening to Him on a regular basis.
If I am to grow as a believer, I must hear God! Listen to me. You can grow into the image of this church without hearing from God. You can be conformed to the likeness of your religiosity without hearing from God. You can do spiritual disciplines without hearing from God. But you cannot grow into the image of God, be conformed to the likeness of Christ, or bear spiritual fruit such as true love, without hearing from God.
You see, hearing God helps me trust Him, know and obey His will, and change my heart.
Listening to others can change my life.
Listening to God changes my heart!
Did you know that one of the judgments of God upon unrepentant sinners is that He will withhold His words? It is as if God says¡K.since you don¡¦t want to listen to me¡K.I will stop speaking to you.
¡¥Behold, days are coming,¡¦ declares the Lord GOD, ¡¥When I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the LORD. (Amos 8.11)
People will stagger from sea to sea and from the north even to the east; they will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, but they will not find it. (Amos 8.12)
Hearing God is vital to our lives, that is why we need to listen to and obey our theme verse for this series.
He that has ears, let him hear. (Matthew 13.9)
I want you to open your Bibles to the book of Daniel, Chapter 10. We are going to read of an episode in Daniel’s life when he was fervently praying and seeking God--and he heard from God in a dramatic, powerful way. Before I read our text, let me explain a little of the background leading to the event we will read about. Daniel had been taken prisoner from his homeland and hometown as a teenager with other gifted young men and had been incorporated into the culture of Bablyon. Daniel continued to maintain his relationship with the Lord, and in his captivity he came across a prophetic passage speaking of the bondage of his people. God had promised that the slavery would last 70 years. As we begin to read, here is what has happened.
The king of Babylon had fulfilled the Scripture and had issued a decree two years earlier that allowed the Jews to return to their homeland. But a mass exodus from Babylon had not happened. You see, the Jews had spent 70 years¡Kthat is two generations¡Kin Babylon. Many of them had lost their identity. They were Jews in name, but in reality they were apathetic about the true things of God.
Daniel is an 85 year old man, retired from public office, and heartbroken over who the Jews have become. He begins to pray for their apathy. In this passage he has been praying and fasting for three weeks, when He receives a visit from the pre-incarnate Christ.
10:1 1In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a message was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belteshazzar; and the message was true and one of great conflict, but he understood the message and had an understanding of the vision.
10:2 2In those days, I, Daniel, had been mourning for three entire weeks.
10:3 3I did not eat any tasty food, nor did meat or wine enter my mouth, nor did I use any ointment at all until the entire three weeks were completed.
10:4 4On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, while I was by the bank of the great river, that is, the Tigris,
10:5 5I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, there was a certain man dressed in linen, whose waist was girded with a belt of pure gold of Uphaz.
10:6 6His body also was like beryl, his face had the appearance of lightning, his eyes were like flaming torches, his arms and feet like the gleam of polished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a tumult.
10:7 7Now I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, while the men who were with me did not see the vision; nevertheless, a great dread fell on them, and they ran away to hide themselves.
