Hi, this is Dave Olson. I'm the senior leader of
Heartland Church located in Ankeny, IA.
I hope the following message challenges, encourages and
ultimately changes you. Thanks for joining us.
Turn with me to Daniel Chapter 2.
Daniel, Chapter 2, the book of Daniel is a fascinating book.
It's a book of history. It's the story of this young guy
Daniel, who was taken captive. His the country of Israel was
was taken captive and this so he was hauled off into captivity.
He and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego,
they were castrated and indentured into servitude in a
government position. Not a good situation.
And it, it's so it's, it's a story of these of his
experiences. So it's a book of history, but
it's also a book of prophecy. And that's where most people
look at the book of Daniel because there's these prophetic
words. It's not just a record of his
experiences, but it's a record of dreams and visions that
Daniel receives. And interestingly enough, the
dreams and visions in this book, not all of them are dreams and
visions that Daniel has. Some of them are dreams and
visions given to Pagan kings, and Daniel interprets them.
So it's this fascinating story of this captivity of they're
they and the captivity is the result of God disciplining the
children of God. So now he finds himself in
servitude, but God uses it to push him into a place of
prominence and gives him a platform that he becomes the
counselor. And like the second in command
in three regimes within the Chaldean people.
It's an amazing story. So it's it's both history, it's
prophecy. But here's the thing we often
don't think of. It's also strategy the book of
Daniel is strategy for you and I Daniel was never meant to be an
anomaly A1 off he was He is an example to the rest of us of how
God interacts and you see this all through Scripture that God
will raise up a ruler. Pastor Adam still, he's over
there. He's just pray for him.
He so you've got you've got the king, you've got a ruler that
sits on a governmental throne. And God will often put a
prophetic person next to them, one of his people to be have the
ear of the king. And often God will not put his
person on the throne. He'll put his person next to the
throne because the person that has the ear of the king has the
real power. And so Daniel became this
counsellor. And so we see this this pattern
in the book of Daniel as strategy for you and I.
And So what happens is Daniel is captured within the first year
of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar is the rising
power in the earth, the Babylonian Kingdom and and
Nebuchadnezzar to this day, Nebuchadnezzar has looked at as
the high watermark of Persia and Babylonian.
I mean, he was he was a force to be contended with a brilliant
man, a brilliant strategist, builder, so forth.
And so as he is rising in prominence, God inserts Daniel,
this man of God, this prophetic intercessor, into his Kingdom,
what looks like tragedy. And it was tragic.
God, even though it was discipline for the other
children of Israel, for Daniel it was promotion.
And God used him not only to fill the destiny on his own
life, but the destiny that he'd given to Israel.
Israel was to be a blessing to all nations.
And Daniel became a tremendous blessing to the nation of
Babylonia and then Persia after that and so forth.
So it's an amazing story full of supernatural encounters.
And Daniel, he's having his own encounters.
These kings are having encounters.
It's crazy. And So what we see in the
opening of this thing, Daniel is, is he's, he's put into a, a
three-year kind of preparation so that he could be one of the,
the magicians or the wise men, one of the counselors to the
king. And he's going to be schooled
and paganism for three years as a child of God.
And so then he would then they would test him to see if he's
going to qualify. And about a year in, what
happens is Nebuchadnezzar, this Pagan king, has an encounter
with God and a dream so that he has this amazing dream and he's
so troubled by it, he's wrestling with this dream.
So finally he calls his wise men in and he says, OK, guys,
listen, I had this dream. It's troubling me.
I know it was from the gods, and I need you to interpret it.
And they said, OK, you know, we'll, we'll do that, Nebby, you
know, just give us the dream and we'll, we'll interpret it for
you. And he said, uh, uh, that ain't
going to happen. He said, I need to know that you
have the proper interpretation. And the way I'm going to know
that is that you tell me what the dream is first.
If God can show you the interpretation, then he can also
show you what the dream was. To which they all said, uh oh.
And they said, no man can do this, that those mysteries
belong to God, who doesn't dwell among men.
And he said, listen, you're trying to buy time and you're
hoping that the times will change.
And that's a key phrase. We're going to get into that
moment if we have time. You're that you're hoping the
times change, but it isn't going to happen.
I will kill you. I'll have you torn limb from
limb if you don't give me the interpretation.
And so things are not going well.
And then the guy who's to carry this out shows up at Daniels
door and informs him, I'm here to kill you because the king has
just declared that all the wise men are going to be killed.
And he said, whoa, whoa, put the brakes on this thing to ask the
king if I can have a little bit of time and then I will give him
the interpretation. He grabs his other brothers, the
three Hebrew guys, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and he
says, guys, listen, let's pray and fast and ask God for
insight. And we don't know how long it
was. It was most likely the very that
very night. And there we pick up the story.
God gives both the dream and its interpretation to Daniel.
He hasn't delivered it to the king yet, but we picked that up
in chapter 2, verse 20. Listen to what it says, Daniel
answered. So this is Daniel's praise and
prayer that's bubbling up within him after he's gotten the
interpretation. Daniel answered and said,
Blessed be the name of God, forever and ever, to whom belong
wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons.
He removes kings and sets up kings.
He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have
understanding. He reveals deep and hidden
things. He knows what is in the
darkness, and light dwells with him.
To you, O God, my of my Father's, I give thanks and
praise. For you have given me wisdom and
might, and you have now made known to me what we asked of
you. For you have made known to us
the kings matter. And so Daniel praised this out.
But what I want to focus on is this unique little verse 21.
He says he changes the times and seasons.
He removes kings and he sets up kings.
Then he says he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those
who have understanding. So he changes the times and
seasons and those two phrases changing the times and seasons,
removing kings and set up kings go hand in hand.
He's he's talking about the same dynamic.
Now this phrase of God changing the times is very key and it's
very unique, especially in the book of Daniel.
So much so King Nebuchadnezzar uses that phrase.
I just alluded to it with the wise men.
He said you're hoping the times change.
What he was saying is you're hoping that at the end of my
regime that my regime comes to an end so that you won't have to
experience the sentence I'm I'm I'm going to carry out against
you. And he said isn't going to
happen. You're you're, you're not going
to, you're not going to get out of this thing.
The times changing is a very specific idea and what it's
talking about from the Chaldean point of view and from
Scripture. When you look at the times
changing, it has to do with the reign of men.
That's on a micro scale and a macro scale.
OK, so if you look at first and second Samuel, 1st and 2nd
Kings, and 1st and second Chronicles, all three of those
are examples of God dividing redemptive history by the reign
of men. So much so that it says of
David, he served his forefathers and he served the purposes of
God and then was laid to rest for this forefather fathers.
In other words, there was an assignment on David's life.
He fulfilled it and then the time of David was over.
Then it was the time of Solomon. And so from God's perspective or
11 perspective that God uses with men is there is the time of
a man or woman. And that is true for you and I
that we Scripture is very clear that God chooses the times and
places in which men should live. God chose your generation and
your location. And in fact, those two elements
are parameters to your calling. They are elements to the call of
God, the assignment on your life.
And you will give an answer for those two things, your
generation and your location. So much so that Jesus isn't like
Matthew 11 and 12. Jesus talks about the the
Nineveh speaking against those of this generation.
So what he alludes to is that when we stand before God at the
end of the age, we are going to be judged according to the
generation in which we lived. I don't fully understand that.
I don't know what that looks like, but I'm just telling you
that's what the word says, that it's going to refer to those of
this generation and everybody that read that all through the
generations that was relevant to them.
So the time of your life is a key point.
And so you've got to know the times so that you must know what
you should do. Even that phrase when it says of
the sons of Isaacar who knew the signs of the time and therefore
knew what they should do, that is an allusion to the reign of
David. It was the end of the reign of
the the House of Saul and the emerging House of David.
And conventional wisdom protocol would have said get behind
Saul's children and bolster up the House of Saul.
But the sons, sons of Isaacar had a prophetic sense.
They knew the signs of of the times and therefore knew what
they should do. And the context of that is they
threw their weight behind David. And so this idea of the times is
connected with callings and people and the slice of of
eternity that you and I have on earth.
And so our generation and our location are very important.
Jesus talks about cities that he that we're going to be judged
according to city. So there is an individual
accountability that we carry for our lives, but there's also a
corporate calling. In the Book of Revelation.
He rebukes churches and calls them into account.
So there's a shared destiny that we have as churches, as cities,
and as generations. And so we need to understand
this because we are going to give an account for the unique
dynamics of our generation and our location.
It says of David this this interesting little verse.
It says that David discerned that he was made king or he was
anointed as king for Israel. Now you can read that thing.
It didn't take a whole lot of discernment.
Figure that one out. Israel puts a crown on his head.
Why does he have to discern it? What it was saying is that David
discerned the purpose of the anointing on his life.
And every one of us need to do that.
You see, God will raise up a man or a woman and it'll have a
mandate and it'll put a mantle on them to fulfill the mandate
for which they will give it an answer.
And every one of us, there is a purpose for our life.
And God custom designed you for this moment in human history.
And you are, you are the steward, the opportunities and
the crises in which you live. Now, why am I talking about
this? I'm talking about this because
of the unique hour in which we live.
When scripture talks about the times in season, those are two
very specific words in Hebrew times.
Let me let me make sure I get this right.
I'm pull up some notes here if I can find them real quick.
So the times and the seasons. This passage says that God
changes times and seasons two different measurements.
It's then goes on to say he removes kings and appoints
kings. These two phrases grant an
understanding of heaven's perspective and strategy in
history. Times and seasons are connected
to the rule of men. So times is so times and
seasons. Times is an indefinite period,
seasons a set time as in an appointment or even specifically
a marker. So the term times is translated
from the Hebrew word idan IDDAN and carries 2 specific
implications #1 it's an indefinite period and #2 it's
connected to a specific situation.
In other words, from God's perspective, when you you begin
to study time and scripture, you and I think of a date on a
calendar, the hands on a clock. But from God's perspective, it
is a period pregnant with purpose, and we can either
expand that period and elongate it, or we can compress it based
on our obedience, so much so that a 11 day journey coming out
of the promised land to Egypt can become 40 years because of
the disobedience of a generation.
And so when you begin to study time, and even in the New
Testament, it's a fascinating thing that God infuses time with
a purpose and then he speaks of this kind of idea in the
fullness of time. What does that mean?
It means that the purpose of that season, that time frame,
that it it these times we don't have time to get into this.
We have time. We don't have time to get into a
study of time. But what it the way God launches
a time is through revelation. And this is important for you
and I to understand because this is true on the macro level or
the micro level and the macro level, the personal level and
the global level, so much so that we talk of ages.
What is the Iron Age? It was the discovery of a, a
revelation about how to use iron.
We have the technological age. Even the secularists look back
at time and divide it among discoveries in, in fresh
revelation and fresh understanding.
And that's a very biblical treatment of that idea.
There are ages, even in our own personal life that God will
begin to deal with you on something.
And you need to be sensitive to this.
When the Lord begins to speak to you about some new truth, you're
reading the Word and all of a sudden something jumps off the
page. Don't be in a hurry to move on
to the next passage. Camp out on that thing and milk
it for all it's worth. Make sure you mind that vein
because what's happening is when God begin, I, I call him
revelatory seasons, that God will begin to speak to you
because it's through knowledge that God will move his purposes
on in human history. That's why way back at the the
Tower of Babel, God said we're going to have to slow this thing
down. We're going to confuse their
language because if they can communicate, nothing will be
impossible for them. That's a sobering statement from
God himself. So God confused their language
to slow down. But God says in Daniel, it says
that at the end of the age, knowledge will increase.
Do you think we're living in that such a time?
We're at the you just ask Suri a question and they'll give you
the answer. It's an amazing time in which to
live. So God will launch a time
through revelation. And the purpose of that season
is the stewardship of that given idea, that truth that, that that
element that God has revealed to you and it's consummated by the
fulfillment of the purpose of that season, or at times the
abortion of that. What do I mean by that?
Jesus came into human history in the fullness of time.
In other words, the previous season came to fruition.
The fullness, the full purpose of that previous season marked
the triggered the, the entry into a new time in the, in the,
the global epic plan of God. But that's true in our own lives
as well. And so when we begin to develop
a sensitivity and understanding of these things, we begin to
realize that there are times where God is building something,
establishing. He'll show us something.
He's trying to establish that truth in your life.
And as you respond with obedience, that becomes
established in your life. And the quicker you get about
understanding that and pursuing that and obeying that thing and
making it a fixture in your life, the quicker you can move
into the next season. Now many of you will remember
the first time we had Dean Briggs here.
He was talking about a good friend of his who had a dream.
And in the dream, this guys a dreamer.
He took him into an encounter. This, this Angel took him them
in this dream into this huge, massive room.
And in the room there was, it was millions of books and he
knew it was the archive room of heaven.
And the Angel said there are two volumes for every human soul.
And he took them over to the, to the, the bookcase.
And he said, why 2 volumes? And he, he tapped a big thick
volume and he said, this is what God offers to bring us into.
And then he pulled a real thin volume and he said this is what
most people enter into now when he said that, I've never been
able to shake the weight of that word.
So we've got to steward our life because at the end of the age we
will give answer for what God has called us to.
There is a purpose for your life.
Paul said there were works prepared in advance that you may
walk in them. Don't remain unemployed.
God has works prepared in advance.
There is a hole in human history that only you can fill and you
will give an answer for how well you fulfilled that purpose.
That's why Paul says don't be a fool.
Know the will of the Lord. He's saying it's foolish to live
haphazardly and not press in and say, God, I want to fulfill the
purpose of my life. And that begins with the Word,
where you get in the Word and you, you begin to do the
revealed things. And then he'll show you the
unrevealed things. But be obedient.
Realize that we have this breath called life, this little breath.
And then we're going to stand before God.
And what we're all going to long to hear is well done, the good
and faithful servant. And so we have this picture.
God says, Daniel says that the Lord showed him.
God changes the times and seasons.
He removes kings and he appoints them.
And that statement was actually the summer summation of the
dream that God had given Nebuchadnezzar because the dream
was of emerging global superpower, so much so that
Daniel was actually a geopolitical prophet.
He moved in and out of the courts of kings.
He was a counselor to kings and he would prophecy about rising
kingdoms in the future. Now we can look back in
retrospect and unpack what those those kingdoms were because we
can look at what Daniel said and it's clear that they show up in
history. We don't have time to get into
that this morning, but we but Daniel was receiving that from
the Lord and that was Daniel's role.
Now that that brings up a very important point.
There are some people, some people I deeply respect and
respect their walk with the Lord and their insight, but they will
tell you that God is disinterested in global
geopolitical, governmental and political affairs that that's
that's God's not interested. That's the Kingdom of men.
All he's interested in is his Kingdom and that stuff is
irrelevant. And they will often quote this
verse where Jesus himself stands before a governmental leader,
the man on the throne in Jerusalem, Pontius Pilate.
And as he's standing there, Jesus says to the governor, my
Kingdom is not of this world. He said.
He said essentially, he said, Pilate, listen, the only reason
you have any authority over me is my father gave it to me.
And you need to understand my Kingdom is not of this world
because if it was, I could call down a legion of angels and wipe
you out. And people will interpret that
as saying, oh, my Kingdom is not of this world.
What that means is I'm not concerned about this stuff down
here. I'm only concerned about the
stuff in heaven. And that's where you and I need
to be eternally minded and not worry about the affairs of men
and governmental affairs and not get pulled into politics and all
that stuff because it's irrelevant.
And I'm here to tell you that is absolutely not what Jesus was
saying because it's a misinterpretation of the word
Kingdom. The word Kingdom is basilia.
The English word literally means King's dominion.
It means authority rule. It shows up.
It's it's more clear in Spanish, right?
Who? Well, Reno, the reign of God,
when he says the Kingdom of God is Reno, it's God's reign.
And that's what he's saying. He's saying my reign is not of
this world. He's not saying it's not about
this world. That's why he came.
What did he teach us to pray? Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven.
He's not saying my interests don't lie here.
He's saying the source of my authority is not derived from
men. I'm not a king because some
human beings decided to put a crown on my head.
My authority, my rule, my the reason I am a king is because my
father in heaven, we preached on it a couple weeks ago.
God has installed his king on mountain Zion and it's King
Jesus. And so Jesus was not abdicating
the earth and saying, ah, you know, don't worry about that.
You'll hear people say things like why rearrange the deck
chairs on the Titanic? This is all going to hell
anyway. We we don't need to worry about
it. And that is absolutely
unbiblical. And Daniel is a perfect
expression of that. Daniel understood that he was to
be the connection between heaven and earth and he was to get
heavens Intel and share it with human kings.
So God's will would be done and God's Kingdom would come.
So Oh my goodness, who? Give me 5 minutes. 510152025 No.
OK, real quick, I want to tell you 2 stories, OK?
It was about probably six years ago now we had started these
morning prayer meetings we're still doing in the morning.
I want to invite you out, especially because of what I'm
talking about right now, because we are living in an hour of
shifting times in season. There is a battle for the
Thrones of the Earth. Mythologists talk about this
concept of unipolar versus multipolar worlds.
And when there's a unipolar world, we see the gospel going
out exponentially fast and we see, we see these superpowers.
We just, we, we're, we're at what some messiologists are
saying is the tail end of what's known as pox Americana or
American peace. We have been the UNI.
We, we have been the unipolar power in the world.
Prior to that it was Pox Britannica, and under Britain
there was this huge missions emphasis.
Under America, Pox Romana, Roman peace was the one superpower,
and the Gospel tends to go out tremendously fast.
When there's one superpower, even if they're opposed to the
gospel, we see with Rome, they end up getting converted.
But when it moves into a multipolar world, when there is
a there, there's a wrestling who's going to gain supremacy in
the earth. And that's what we're seeing
right now. The the power shifting, China,
Russia, you know, and these alliances beginning to emerge,
Iran, you know, Israel, all these things going on.
This is it. It what happens is, is Daniel
got inserted right at the beginning of this emerging
unipolar world called Babylon. And God inserted his prophetic
intercessor Daniel right into that thing so that Daniel could
help shepherd this thing into what God intended.
And an interesting thing is God, there were two different Pagan
kings. One had a dream, one had a dream
and a vision. The other had a vision.
And Daniel was the one to unpack that.
They were dreams and visions from God himself, given to
abject pagans who didn't even believe in the Most High God.
And Daniel was already there to give the interpretation, and
we're living in such an hour right now where there's moving
and shifting of the pieces. And So what God does in those
times is he raises up the Daniel company, the prophetic
intercessors who hear the word of the Lord, understand that
geopolitical element of intercession in the prophetic
and insert themselves. So about six years ago, we're in
prayer one morning, whether in the body or out of the body, I
don't know. Remember when Paul said that?
Well, for me, whether asleep or awake, I don't know.
I don't know if I was dreaming or I had a vision, It was early,
it was like 610. And so I was laying up here,
whether snoring or speaking in tongues, I do not know.
But I was laying here and I went into this picture, this dreamer
vision, and I won't go into all of it, but I saw the Lord took
me over Iowa, showed me some things about our state that
needed to be corrected and then took me under the ground.
And I saw this giant compass that was couldn't, it wasn't
pointed north. And then I, I came out of it and
I thought, I hope I wasn't snoring.
I'm leading this prayer meeting. And I so I stood up and I said,
Lord, was that you? And he asked me where it was
pointing And I won't go into all that, but I called everybody
forward and I said, Hey, I had this, I saw this.
And as I'm sharing this, one of the intercessors said, and I
know what this means. I said, what's going on?
She said, I woke up from a deep sleep just about an hour ago.
And in the in that dream, we were praying over a map of Iowa
and it morphed into a compass. But the needle couldn't find
true North thought, well, we're on to something.
I'm not the brightest bulb in the room, but I'm not the
brightest knife or the sharpest bulb, you know.
So the next day we're praying into this and I'm walking down
the aisle and as I'm walking up, out of my spirit comes these
words. God, you changed the times and
seasons. Now, to be honest, transparent,
I didn't know where that verse was.
Let's tell in the first service people say, pastor, you really
know the word. That's because I preached from
the parts I know. OK, I didn't know where that
was. I knew it was in the Bible, but
I couldn't have told you the chapter verse, but it came up
out of my spirit. God, you changed the times and
seasons and that same person reached up, grabbed my sleeve
and said, pastor, look at what the Lord just show told me to
turn to. I look down and it's Daniel
chapter 2. He changes the times and
seasons. He promotes kings and removes
them. And so the Lord took us on a
revelatory season and we were praying for the elections.
Now how does all this tie in 12 O 3 turn?
Can we put up there to Psalm chapter 2?
We've been talking about Psalm chapter 2.
I want to see how these overlay. OK, Psalm chapter 2, verse one
through 3. Really verse one and two, Why do
the nation's rage and the people's plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take
counsel together. The kings of the earth, the
rulers, the the verse before says the peoples and the
nations. And so David is in one of these
prophetic encounters and he is asking this question.
He's he, he's like, this is crazy.
Why would they try to oppose God?
OK, so I don't have time to elaborate.
Look, look at Psalm 149, verse 5 or verse yeah, verse 5.
Let the godly exultant glory, let them sing for joy on their
beds. It's talking about those moments
of praise. In Psalm 149, it says that this
happens in the assembly of the Saints.
The Hebrew word translated into Greek is ecclesia.
It's the word we translate church, which is a poor
translation. And there was a conspiracy by
King James to translate it that because he was intimidated by
the real meaning. The real meaning means the
legislative governing body, the church.
So he says let them sing for joy in the beds.
Let the high praise of God be in their throats and A2 edged sword
in your hand. What we were doing that was high
praise if you moments ago and at those moments there's things you
can do business in the spirit and why?
Why do we do this? Look at verse 789 to exit,
execute vengeance on the nation's punishment on the
peoples to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with
fetters of iron. It names those four groups of
people and what it's saying is that God sets kings and rulers
on Thrones, but he sets his prophetic people in place in
that hour of human history to put a a harness in their mouth
and steer them the way that God wants.
Because you and I are called to pray thy Kingdom come, thy will
be done. The danger is is that we think
just because God it it says God changes the times and seasons.
He removes kings and he sets them up.
We think it's in in it's a done deal.
But in reality, Daniel Chapter 7 says the enemy tries to change
the times. God has his plan, the enemy has
his and God gives you and I the responsibility of enforcing his
will. The last verse in that 149 says
to execute the judgement written against them.
And you see this dynamic show up in the book of Daniel.
In the Book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream, and
this Angel comes to him and says, hey, we're sending you out
to pasture for a while. You've got too big for your
britches. This is a modern translation.
Too big for your britches, Nebuchadnezzar.
So you're going to be sent out to pasture, literally.
You're going to lose your mind and become like a wild beast for
seven years. He doesn't know what it means.
It wasn't that clear, but Daniel gave him the interpretation
because sometime the prophetic churches to rebuke kings, we
keep them in check because at the authority of heaven, we pray
those things in. And so you see God breaking in
and bringing correction. God had set Nebuchadnezzar on
the throne as a Pagan king, but when he began to get outside of
the what the parameters, God would send Daniel in and Daniel
through the prophetic would pull him back in.
And this is the purposes of God for his church.
And let me close with this. It was probably man, I bet it
was 1415 years ago now, long before Donald Trump had, you
know, talked about running for president.
This is well before now you'll see interviews where people say,
hey, well, you're going to run for president.
And you know, he said, well, maybe someday.
And but this was long before he was on anybody's radar.
A little, little Baptist gal that went to church here, got
touched by God and she began to have dreams and visions.
She calls me and and I'm telling you, I could tell you stories,
uncanny things. She would tell me.
I'm like, that's confidential. No one knows that, but the Lord
would show her and she'd say, you know, I know this sounds
weird, but this is what the Lord showed me.
I'd poker face her. I can't verify that not supposed
to know that yet. She calls me one morning.
She said, pastor, I had the weirdest thing happened.
She said I woke up from a dead sleep this morning with Donald
Trump's face before me. He was just suspended in the air
looking at me. Donald Trump.
Now I'm thinking what the what the heck is that about?
I didn't say that, but that's what I poker faced her, but I
was thinking it. But she said this.
She said the Lord told me the House of prayer will Trump
Trump. Isn't that interesting?
Now some people would translate that.
Oh, that means that God's not using him.
I don't take it that way, just like God was using
Nebuchadnezzar. But there were times that God
would step in and the way he did it was through a Daniel, a
prophetic intercessor that would insert himself and bring
correction. God wants to bring, God wants to
raise up a people that will shepherd this hour of human
history through the tumultuous time.
So we come into the next season because ultimately, what's going
to happen in the dream that God gave Nebuchadnezzar, He saw
these rising kingdoms and all, and it was in the form of a
statue. And all of a sudden there was
this stone not hewn by men that was taken out of a mountain that
struck the kingdoms of this world, and they were pulverized
and became dust in the wind. And that stone became a
mountain, and it was Jesus. And until this thing culminates
and the rule and reign of the only one worthy, the only one
that can be really trusted with all the power, there needs to be
a Daniel church that will be praying and hearing from the
Lord and getting Intel and enforcing that stuff in worship,
in prayer that we're catching what the Lord is saying and
we're praying that stuff in. And God will raise up people
that will literally stand in the halls of power and deliver the
word of the Lord. I remember when George W Bush
was running for president. Go ahead and stance, you know,
I'm going to quit. George W Bush was running for
president. I was working for Teen
Challenge. And so we came and did a press
conference with us and, and so we, we met him and, and so he
really fell in love with Teen Challenge.
So he was doing just before the elections when George W got
voted in, he was in a he was going to do a debate that night
with Al Gore and he came, he was in Cedar Rapids and he said he
called, he didn't call. Some of his people called and he
said, hey, would you could you guys be in Cedar Rapids?
Because he's going to do a drug speech and he wants to use Teen
Challenge as an example. He really believes in this
faith-based cure. So you know, we'll do that.
So you get there and there's this long line that, oh, we'll
never get in. And so one of our peeps went up
there and told him who we are. We got ushered into this private
room and the limo comes up. And, yeah, it was fun.
And we got this seating we got. So we spent some time with
George W and one of our Teen Challenge students.
Guy's barely off of drugs, OK? He leans over and he says, Dave,
I got a word for George. I'm thinking.
I'm thinking, dude, don't. So we go into prayer and and he
was very open to prayer and and so we're praying and just God
lead him again. And all of a sudden that guy
pipes up and I'm thinking, oh, man, here it comes.
He said, Governor Bush, He said, I feel like the Lord gave me a
word for you. And he said, yes.
He leaned in. He's like real open to it.
He said, the Lord told me, take the high ground tonight, that if
you will take the high ground that your opponent will shoot
himself in the foot with his attitude.
He said, OK, wouldn't you know it?
Lo and behold, if you remember the debates, there was one where
the commentators began to 0 in because Al Gore would roll his
eyes and huff and puff and George W would just stand there
and it was amazing. And it and it things turned that
night, just a kid barely saved man, just just a few weeks out
of drugs, gets a word from the Lord, delivers it to him.
This man becomes the most powerful man in the earth.
In that moment, you and I hold the real position of power
because we are the representatives of heaven.
We're to pray Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.
But don't make the mistake of thinking God's will will just
happen without you, because God has given the earth to man.
Psalm chapter 8. He put everything under our feet
and that's why we need to invite His intervention.
Thanks for listening to our podcast.
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