Your space in human history

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 2 · chapter mention

Daniel, Chapter 2, the book of Daniel is a fascinating book.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

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

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

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?

Psalms 2 · chapter mention

We've been talking about Psalm chapter 2.

Psalms 2 · chapter mention

I want to see how these overlay. OK, Psalm chapter 2, verse one

Psalms 2 · chapter mention

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.

Psalms 149:5

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

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

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

Psalms 8 · chapter mention

and that's why we need to invite His intervention.

Thanks for listening to our podcast.

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