Everyone whom God uses to turn the age is afraid of only one thing, that is, of offending God and losing His presence.
Daniel and his three companions are a pattern to us as self-sacrificing person with a spirit of martyrdom. They didn’t care for the king’s decree of the punishment if they don’t obey him – they loved God more and feared more of offending God than offending the king.
Daniel went to his room and prayed at the risk of his life (Dan. 6:4-24), and Daniel’s three companions did not care for their own lives but refused to bow down before the image the king made (Dan. 3:16-18).
The people God uses to turn the age are not cowards nor are they naturally bold; rather, they are those who are constrained by the love of Christ to sacrifice themselves for God, fearing only one thing: offending God and losing His presence.
Christ’s sacrificing life, His wine producing life, is a life that cheers others and satisfies God – this life is in us for us to experience, enjoy, and live by.
We are happy Christians only when we experience Christ’s sacrificing life, and the most happy person is the most self-sacrificing person who lives by Christ’s life within.
Lord, we love You! Make us men who turn the age! Lord, we want to experience Your sacrificing life, Your cheering life, Your wine-producing life in our spirit. Energize us with Your divine life and constrain us with Your love that we may be self-sacrificing persons. Make us those who live for You and to You with the spirit of martyrdom. Lord, we care for Your smile and Your presence!
The Men God Uses to Turn the Age
What kind of men does God use to turn the age? He doesn’t use “political men”, those who know how to speak in such a way they please everyone, and neither does He use those who love their own life.
The kind of men God uses to turn the age are those who don’t care for their own life but love God more than themselves and are willing to sacrifice their life for God.
They may not be physically martyred, but they have the spirit of martyrdom – they are absolute for God, afraid only of one thing: to offend God and to lose His presence (2 Cor. 5:9-10; cf. Psa. 51:11; Josh. 7:4).
In front of compromise or persecution, they choose the way of denying their self and putting to death their soul-life, rather sacrificing their comfort and their life so that God would be satisfied.
They are not bold in a wild or natural way, but they are bold because they properly fear God and choose not to offend God. They really love God, care for God’s presence to be with them, consult God, and do everything according to the index of His eyes.
They really join themselves to God’s desire in His Word and care for nothing else but for God to be satisfied and for His purpose to be fulfilled! Such were Daniel and his three companions, and such are we when we are one with Christ – the Overcomer in our spirit!
Being Self-Sacrificing Persons
If we contact the Christ typified by the vine and experience His sacrificing life, He will energize us to live a life of sacrifice, producing happiness for God and for others.
When we read Daniel’s story and when we read the above qualifications of those whom God would use to change the age we may say, But Who can Practically Be Like That Today?
It is Christ in us who can do this. If we contact the Christ in our spirit, He with His sacrificing life will energize us to live a life of sacrifice to make God and man happy (Judg. 9:13; Matt. 9:17; Rom. 12:1; Eph. 5:2; 2 Cor. 1:24).
In ourselves we are not able to live a self-sacrificing life – our natural life is a selfish life, loving the self and those who love us (see Job 2:4; Matt. 15:25).
But in our spirit we have Christ as the self-sacrificing life, and we can contact Him and experience Him as the sacrificing life, as the wine-producing vine, to cheer up others and to satisfy God.
When we are enjoying Christ as the new wine, God energises us to live a life for the happiness of others. Those who are the most happy ones are those sacrificing themselves for others to enjoy Christ as a result of enjoying Christ as the new wine!
The most happy person is the most unselfish one – he sacrifices himself for others to be happy, and he is happy! Just allow Christ to constrain you with His love of affection so that you may live to Him and die to Him (2 Cor. 5:14-15; Rom. 14:7-9).
Lord, constrain us with Your love that we may no longer live to ourselves but to You! Make us those who experience You as the self-sacrificing life, the new wine that cheers God and man! Strengthen us from within, Lord, that we may live no longer to ourselves or for ourselves but to You!
Satisfying God and Making Others Happy
By experiencing Christ as the wine-producing vine and by being filled with Him as the new wine, we may become a drink offering in Him and with Him to be poured out for God’s satisfaction and for God’s building.
We need to enjoy the Lord as the new wine – He was pressed, persecuted, and crushed by man and God, and His life is a cheering life, making man happy and satisfying God.
As we enjoy Him as the new wine, the more we drink the wine of Christ, the more we will also experience the same process – we will be pressed, crushed, and squeezed to be produced as new wine for others to be cheered up and for God to be satisfied.
We will then do things not because “we like to” or “we feel to” or “we want to”, but because we love God and we fear losing His sweet presence. Because we love God, we won’t do things or we would do things, and because we love His presence we will stay away from things or we will be involved in some things.
When we experience Christ as the cheering wine and we are ourselves pressed to become His reproduction as cheering wine, we will make man happy and God will be satisfied!
Lord, we are not here for ourselves. We give ourselves to You, Lord, to experience You and enjoy You as the self-sacrificing One. Lord, keep us drinking of You as the new wine. Constrain us with Your love. We want to live to You, living a life that is a duplication of Your self-sacrificing life on earth for God’s satisfaction and man’s happiness. May we experience You as the vine tree today that we may become new wine to others and satisfying to You for God’s building!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from brother Ed Marks’ speaking in this message and portions in, The All-inclusive Christ (ch. 5), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on Crystallization-Study of Daniel and Zechariah, week 2 (entitled, A Pattern of a Person Used by God to Turn the Age).
- Further Reading: The Overcomers (ch. 2),
- Hymns on this topic:
# I cannot help it; / I’m so in love with You / For I’ve tasted Your divine heavenly wine. / I’m soaked with Thy love, / I pour my all on You. / What my future holds for me, my Lord are Thine.
# Hands will pick and feet will trample / All the riches of the vine, / Till from out the reddened wine-press / Flows a river full of wine. / All the day its flow continues, / Bloody-red, without alloy, / Gushing freely, richly, sweetly, / Filling all the earth with joy.
# Let me love and not be requited. / Let me serve and not be rewarded. / Let me labor and not be remembered. / Let me suffer and not be regarded.
# ‘Tis the pouring, not the drinking; / ‘Tis the breaking, not the keeping– / A life suffering to seek others’ blessing. / A life loving and true comfort giving.
# Let me Love and Not be Respected – listen to this hymn in Chinese via YouTube. - Pictures credit: Via, Inspiration Unlimited Facebook page, HWMR Daniel and Zechariah Quotes album.
About aGodMan
Daniel was a person who would sacrifice himself to be martyred….The book of Daniel shows us that a person who is under God’s hand and who is used by Him to turn the age is a self-sacrificing person. Every incident and fact shows us that he was a person who did not care for his own life. For example, when he chose to eat vegetables only, he did not necessarily have the assurance that he would be strong. If the more he ate, the slimmer he became, he would be killed by the king of Babylon. Yet he cared neither for life nor for death. He knew that the unclean food, the food sacrificed to idols, could not enter into his mouth, that he would not be defiled, and that he would keep God’s word. Because of this word, he was willing to lose even his life. (Men Who Turn the Age, p. 28)
Daniel was a self-sacrificing person with a spirit of martyrdom (6:10-11). Satan, who is behind the chief ministers and satraps wanted to destroy Daniel, to cut off God’s channel of prayer, which was for the carrying out of God’s economy. Daniel's daily prayer was laying tracks for God to move. Praise the Lord that He had sustained Daniel and his companions to overcame the evil one by not loving their soul life. They treasured God’s presence and had kept His word. They knew in the furnace or the lion’s den, they still had God’s presence. They would lose God’s presence and offended Him if they bowed down to the human image or to worship Gentile gods, or to eat the demonic food. The Lord said “he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” (Mat 10:38). In ourselves we are unable to live a life of sacrifice, for our life is a natural life, a selfish life. Day by day, we need to contact Christ to experience His sacrificing life. He will energize us to live a life of sacrifice, producing happiness for God and for others. Daily, by His mercy and grace, we CHOOSE to love Him, to enjoy Him in the word, in our contact with Him in prayer time. We choose to please Him rather than pleasing our soul. “O Lord, we need You.”
Oh Lord Jesus make us Your men that turn the age. We fully give ourselves to You Lord, to experience and enjoy You as the self-sacrificing One. Cause us to keep drinking of You as the new wine. Constrain us with Your divine love and make us a duplication of Your self-sacrificing life on earth for God's satisfaction and man's happiness. Oh Lord Jesus.
I very much enjoyed this wonderful and enlightening article. Tk you for this labor. I appreciated this: "Contact Christ and experience His sacrificing life." As we do this we will experience the Lord "energizing us to live a life of sacrifice to make God and man happy." Amen Lord to this. I encourage all to take time to read this article!