Daniel Chapter 7. If only we could see the real battle.
In chapter 7 we see the vision that Daniel had and it's interpretation. There were four beasts with a lot of battles going on. We see God and his Son rising to the occasion to defeat the beasts and to provide victory for his church, the followers of Christ.
Theologians try to figure out which nation represents which beast and which kingdom, etc.
I'm not going to try and predict such things. What I want us to become aware of (which we see in this chapter) is that we are in a SPIRITUAL WARFARE!!!!!! if you get nothing else from this chapter, please realize we are in a battle, not against our flesh, but against our souls.
Life on Earth is very temporary. We tend to think of life-based solely on what we can see, but the real battle is in the spiritual world where we can't see. Ephesians 6:12 makes that clear. Read it!
Daniel sees this battle and how the devil wages war against God's people and is overtaking them. You understand what I'm saying. We feel like because we handle the name of Jesus above our heads that somehow we don't have to worry about the enemy. But we see in this chapter that the devil overtakes so many of God's holy people through his deception and lies. I have to realize that I am susceptible to such deception if I'm not focused in the right direction. The right focus, and the good news is Christ! The church and His holy people are able to rise up and defeat the enemy when Christ becomes their focus, their power, and their authority.
And the great news from all this is one day the enemies of God will be judged and thrown into the Lake of Fire but we who persevered and were Faithful to the Lord will receive eternal life. Revelation 20:15.
The problem is, we get so caught up in this busy life that we can see everyday, then we allow ourselves to be so overwhelmed. As a result, we don't realize the devil is wearing us down to the point so our focus on the Lord decreases. Eventually we are no longer in the Word, which sustains us and gives us power and authority. Plus our prayer life no longer exists except for occasional selfish prayers.
We are so blinded by the physical world and all that is going on, that we don't realize the enemy of the spiritual world has overtaken us. We are held captive. But because we are so blind, we don't say, “oh no, I'm overtaken by the schemes of the devil.” Instead we just say, “I'm so busy.” and assume that our lack of spiritual food is no big deal. We become unaware that our spiritual armor is becoming cracked and destroyed so that we are eventually overtaken by the enemy.
Our hope is in Christ alone. Trust me when I say the devil will do all he can to take that away from us. He doesn't do it by stealing our Bible off from our dresser. He does it by stealing our hearts from the Lord through the busyness of life or the temptations of the world. He doesn't have to take our Bible away from us because once he steals our heart, we willingly leave the Bible on our dresser untouched.
Let's get back to God's Word and be consumed by it so we obtain the power and authority we need to have victory against the enemy of the spiritual world.