The Daniel Anointing: It’s Time for the Kings of Earth to be Advised
Last fall, I started an adventure I would have never prescribed for myself. I moved out of my comfortable hometown and moved down the road to Joplin for college. In the grand scheme of living, my move was a minor address change, but to this young, unprepared girl, it was horrifying. I spent my first two weeks lying in bed listening to podcast sermons through my headphones, struggling through a time of confusion and disillusionment because I wasn’t sure where God was in my new season. He told me at the end of my high school career to go to school, he pointed me directly to this university, put me in this dorm, and somehow, He expected me to thrive in this situation. I couldn’t see why. I fought being a victim to a world I was called to impact, but I just didn’t have the full vision of why I was there. I had to let God interrupt my pity-party long enough to give me a new perspective on my life.
Kris Vallotton is a prophetic speaker out of Bethel Church in Redding California that I appreciate and regularly listen to. During this rough season, I was listening to a handful of his sermon podcasts on replay. One specifically had to do with Daniel. The more and more I listened to it, the more God highlighted Daniel as a mascot for the season I was in. Several of the following points I will make stem from are very similar to his sermon notes.
For those of you unfamiliar with Daniel’s story, here’s the basics: Babylon took Jerusalem over and in the process claimed some of the smart, well-educated youngsters to learn and work as wise men for King Nebuchadnezzar (but everyone called him Chad). So Daniel and three of his buds (Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah or Rack, Shack, and Benny for us VeggieTale Kids) were placed into this group. They skip the big feasts that King Nebuchadnezzar provides and focus on becoming the best scholars they can possibly be. One of the most impressive things about Daniel and his friends (you know, besides the Surviving-a-Night-in-the-Lion’s-Den and the Not-Burning-in-the-Oven stories) is that they remembered where they came from. Babylon had a different form of religion that renamed Daniel to Belteshazzar, but he didn’t take that name on as his identity. The wisdom that he picked up from his days of studying and reading were supplementary to his relationship with God. When King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that he needed interpreted, Daniel ran towards God to solve the puzzle. When he woke up from sleeping the night the dream interpretation is due, Daniel had a spectacular encounter.
As I sat in my lonely dorm room, God highlighted a passage of scripture to me in Daniel 2: 19-24 (NIV):
“During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven and said:
‘Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
wisdom and power are his.
He changes times and seasons;
he deposes kings and raises up others.
He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to the discerning.
He reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what lies in darkness,
and light dwells with him.
I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors:
You have given me wisdom and power,
you have made known to me what we asked of you,
you have made known to us the dream of the king.’”
Daniel handled the King during the day, studied all he could, and worked to figure a solution to the problem during the day time, but when he got back to his room, Daniel cried out to God to supply a greater answer. When Daniel woke up with the dream interpretation, his first reaction was to praise God for “making known the dream of the king”. I read how David presented himself rightly and just before the King and his staff, but ran home to confide in his brothers and realized that God has a similar vision for me. As I re-read and journaled, God told me “You are made to advise Kings during the day, and worship me in the night”. I don’t think God physically meant, “Now during the day, don’t worry about me, just do your own thing and then come see me at night”. What God told me was this: play the part the world wants from you during the day, still remembering who you are. During the quiet time, the times that others don’t notice, come lay the problems of the kings before God and let him solve them. At the time, I was surrounded by heart-broken, misidentified, college freshmen girls looking for their place in the world. I worked on finding a way to advise them, which, for them was to simply be their friend, during the times they needed it, and take those new relationships and questions to God so that the next time I was around them, God would have an answer for them through me. It’s detailed evangelism in its simplest form.
Daniel didn’t let the rules of King Nebuchadnezzar’s game keep him from influencing the entire Babylonian empire. Daniel didn’t let some false identity or misconception of him stop his mission. He didn’t back down from impossible challenges from ridiculous, insensitive people: he rose to the opportunity placed before him.
It’s been a year and some months since God first started speaking to me about how to live like Daniel did; and since that dark season, God has continually highlighted the Daniel anointing around me, whether it be in my life personally, or in other people that I pray for and do life with. It’s become a testimony in my own life; the girl who wanted no long-term commitments to her university has been given a voice in the school. I applied and was accepted into the Honors Program, labeling me as one of my school’s “elite” students; giving me privileges and advantages that other students don’t get. I am also now placed in classes with the more intelligent and commonly preferred professors (can someone shout FAVOR?). I “coincidentally” found a job in the Foundation office, just down the hall from the President’s suite and I was invited to join a team of students that represents the university at Presidential events. Within a year, I have been welcomed into the presence of spiritual kings and been asked for an opinion, just like Daniel.
And my story isn’t the only one to write. God is strategically placing his people into this world so that when the kings of our world have questions, the Daniels will supply answers. God is placing radically different students on college campuses that are quietly praying in the darkness, awaiting their summons to the throne room. We have government officials sitting as flies-on-the-wall in what seems like “mediocre” jobs, just itching for a moment to speak the truth into our country’s foundation. We have actors, directors, musicians, and creators bustling around in celebrity circles interceding for their friends and co-workers to find a new hope while developing kingdom-minded projects. I believe God has a mighty story in the works, placing Daniels in unconventional “churchy” places in order to shatter a new reality into being.
So today, if you’re sitting at your office desk, lounging in your dorm room, or out conquering the business domain, be inspired: the kings around you are hungry and searching for answers no one else can answer. God has a specific script written out for your destiny and He has anointed you to do it. It’s time for the Daniels to come out from their time of cave-hiding and advise their kings.
