In generations past, God touched and anointed particular men and women in a powerful way. These followers of God became enraptured with the Lord and his cause and rose up in faith. They awakened and changed the destinies of entire nations — and one such man was Daniel.
“Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession” (Daniel 9:3-4).
The prophet Daniel discerned the times because he knew God’s heart. “I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet” (9:2). Daniel came to this path of knowledge and discernment through the study of God’s Word. He allowed the Scriptures to lay hold of him fully, and he quoted them often and at length because he had hidden them away in his heart.
In Daniel 10, this godly prophet was given a vision of Christ. “I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose waist was girded with gold of Uphaz … his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire … and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude” (10:5-6).
There were other men with Daniel when he saw the vision. These men had to be believers because in his captivity, Daniel had set a standard for himself not to associate with the wicked. Yet these believers who were with him now weren’t like Daniel, so when the vision came, they fled. “I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision; but a great terror fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves” (10:7). Why did they flee in fear? Because they possessed hidden sin in their hearts.
Does God raise up such men and women today? We know God “is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). We serve the same God as past generations; in fact, we possess something those godly of old didn’t have — the gift of his Holy Spirit.
Beloved, I encourage you to be filled with the Spirit, set your face toward the Lord and step out and be set apart.