Daniel's adversaries were ambitious to prosecute him for praying three times a day to his God. Will such a day ever come for you or me? One of my readers wrote to say that the military in his country invaded their church service and shot up a dozen people. Two of them died. Their crime? Practicing Christianity. Everyone else was warned to abandon all Christian practices within thirty days or be prosecuted. Will you keep on praying if that time comes?
Daniel 6:16 - "Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions."
PRINCIPALS - "Measurements Of The Millennial Temple"
The messenger in the vision showed Ezekiel the future temple in which Jesus Christ will rule for 1000 years. He measured the posts, the doors, the most holy place, the walls, surrounding chambers, windows, galleries, porches, and the height and thickness of the walls. The Temple will be 70x100 cubits (roughly 140x200 feet) inside a walled courtyard that will be about 200 feet wide.
Ezekiel 41:1,4 - "Afterward he brought me to the temple, ...he measured the length thereof, twenty cubits; and the breadth, twenty cubits, before the temple: and he said unto me, This is the most holy place."
PRINCIPLES - "The Separate Place"
Seven times, Ezekiel spoke of "the separate place." This was a large marginal area - a free space - that separated the temple proper from the remaining chambers and structures. In spiritual terms, it reminds us that we should have a clear distance between the holy things in our lives and the profane things of this world.
Ezekiel 42:1-2 - "And he brought me into the chamber that was over against the separate place, and which was before the building toward the north. Before the length of an hundred cubits was the north door, and the breadth was fifty cubits."
PROPHECIES - "The Man And The Young Lion In The Temple"
Ezekiel described the doors, posts, windows, galleries (three stories high), and wooden ceilings of the temple. Above the doors and walls were ornamental cherubims and palm trees. Every cherubim had two faces - a man and a young lion. Was that a symbol of the man Jesus, lion of Judah?
Ezekiel 41:18-19 - "A palm tree was between a cherub and a cherub; and every cherub had two faces; so that the face of a man was toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side."
God's Will Is Liberty
Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
- 2 Corinthians 3:17
Liberty. If you could put the will of God into one word, that would be the word. God wants people to be free. Free from sin and sickness, poverty, oppression and every other curse.
That freedom is what Jesus came to provide. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor...to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised…” (Luke 4:18). That’s what He trained His disciples to do. And if you’re a born-again believer, that’s what He wants you to do too!
Some people say, “Well, I don’t know about that. That may not be God’s will for today.”
But listen, the Bible says God never changes. He hasn’t changed His will for the earth. He doesn’t do one thing awhile and then go do another thing for a while. Jesus’ life was a perfect picture of God’s will 2,000 years ago—and it still is! That’s why He left instructions for us to go and do the works that He did. That’s why He sent the Holy Spirit to empower us to do them.
Jesus still wants to do the will of God here on earth—but He does it through us. He has to work with us until we’re willing to lay down our traditions and let Him do His thing. That’s what the early Church did. They started out with a bang because they did as Jesus taught them. Everywhere they went people became free.
Let’s pray for the Church of today to begin to deliver the liberty of God to the world. It’s time to quit questioning the will of God and start carrying it out instead. He said the works that He did we would do also and even greater works (John 14:12). It’s time for us to take up where Jesus left off and set captives free.
Amen! We are indeed in need of following God's instructions daily. An we can't STOP praying, 4 it's within prayer, that HE helps us each and every day. To give us guidance, direction and assistance, in our everyday lives. It's what keeps US, close 2 our Lord and HE deserves HIS "PRAISE." Nothing was ever promised 2 us that said, it would be easy 2 serve the Lord nor was tomorrow ever promised unto us. So we must live our lives, one day at a time. An continue 2 Pray and give HIM "PRAISE." Until our Lord, returns 4 US.
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