GOD SPEAKS IN MSYTERIOUS WAYS

GOD SPEAKS IN MSYTERIOUS WAYS – ANGLICAN DEVOTIONAL

READ: Daniel 7:1-8 (NKJV)

1. In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head [while] on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream, telling the main facts.
2. Daniel spoke, saying, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea.
3. “And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other.
4. “The first [was] like a lion, and had eagle’s wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off; and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.
5. “And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and [had] three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it: ‘Arise, devour much flesh!’
6. “After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.
7. “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It [was] different from all the beasts that [were] before it, and it had ten horns.
8. “I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, [were] eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.

THE MESSAGE:

Our God is an eternal God who knows all things and declares His mind in ways that pleases Him (Isaiah 46: 10). Dreams or visions are some of the ways God speaks to His servants. In our text, God, in the vision of the night, revealed to Daniel the events that would happen to strong nations of the earth. Bible scholars consider that the four beasts in the vision-a Lion with Eagle’s wings, a Bear, a Leopard, and the unnamed dreadful beast, represent the kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and perhaps Rome (verses 3-7). These nations ruled the world at different times and were very powerful but they all went down at the fullness of time. The vision therefore, reveals that no kingdom of the earth, no matter how powerful, abides forever except the Kingdom of God.

As a child of God, you should know that God speaks in mysterious ways to reveal past, present and future events. Every vision that God gives is for an appointed time (Habakkuk 2: 3). Such was the dream of Pharaoh in Egypt (Genesis 40). Often times, human wisdom may not understand the complexity of dreams or visions as they may come in figurative presentations. However, there is no dream or vision from God without insight, revelations and messages either for warning, correction or instructions (Job 33: 14-16). God speaks through dreams, be sensitive!