Daniel 11: The People Who Know Their God Stand Firm

Introduction

"The people who know their God will be strong." Jen Sains, who oversees prayer at Kingdom Faith Church in the United Kingdom, starts from this verse in Daniel 11 to deliver what she received from the Lord for his Church: "Church, hold on."

Storms are coming, she says, and they will try to move us. What will keep us standing is not our strength, but knowing God. "It is not enough to know things about you. It is not enough to have a secondhand revelation."

The message follows several biblical figures: the house built on the rock, David facing Goliath, Moses' mother, Elijah at Mount Horeb, Elisha and his servant. It ends with a call to return to God with all our heart and to keep the fire burning on the altar.

Message Outline

1. Those who know their God stand firm

In Daniel 11, the king tries to push God's people into compromise, to make them bow the knee and abandon God's ways.
But "the people who know their God will be strong and take action" (Daniel 11:32). Jen Sains puts it another way: they will be strong, they will stand firm, they will be neither shaken nor defeated.
"Our strength comes from knowing him. Our ability to stand comes from knowing him. Our ability not to fall under the spirit of this world comes from knowing him."

2. A Church rooted and anchored in him

The preacher heard the Lord say that his Church must be rooted in him: "Church, hold on." To hold on is to grip so tightly that you do not let go.
Storms come and want to move you. The wind will try to push you back, but it will not win if your anchor is planted deep in God.
For roots to go down, some soil has to give way. There are things in our lives that must make room so that the root can go deep.
Jesus speaks of the wise man who builds his house on the rock: the rain falls, the floods come, the winds blow, and the house does not fall (Matthew 7:24-27). "All you have to do is turn on the news": there are wars and rumors of wars (Matthew 24:6).
"It is time to pick your Bible back up and read it. It is time to pray. It is time to be with him every day."
The questions she asks: how deep are your roots? Are you more attached to your Bible than to the voices and speeches of this world? If this feels heavy, it is because a loving father sometimes speaks firmly: he loves his child too much to let them be swept away.

3. David facing Goliath: the strength of the one who knows his God

David was no match for Goliath. It was not his ability, his strength or his courage, but the God to whom he had attached himself.
It is his relationship with God that allows him to say: "You come against me with spear and javelin, and I come against you in the name of the Lord" (1 Samuel 17:45).
The strength that comes from knowing God lets us not only survive, but flourish and be victorious in him. His victory becomes your victory, his strength your strength, his courage your courage.
The God who lives in you knows no defeat and has no rival. His Spirit makes you rise up, rush against a troop and leap over the wall (Psalm 18:29). He makes you more than a conqueror (Romans 8:37).
"There is a fight for your destiny, whether you realize it or not." A fight for your devotion to Jesus, a fight for your calling. The Spirit in you says: "I will not let the enemy take my children."

4. Hiding your children in prayer

When the enemy went after children to steal their destiny, Moses' mother hid her son and saved his destiny (Exodus 2:1-3).
Jen Sains heard God say to her: "Hide your children in prayer. Hide your life in prayer. Hide your family in prayer."
God is awakening the house of prayer, because "a praying Church is a powerful Church."
Jesus said: "When you pray," not "if you pray." Pray that his kingdom come and that his will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:9-10).
"My house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples" (Isaiah 56:7). She adds: "I am not telling you this because I oversee prayer. I am telling you because God says it." We are weak in ourselves, but he is powerful, and there are still people who have not heard the Gospel.

5. Discerning the still, small voice

A passage through which the Lord has been speaking to her lately: Elijah on the mountain (1 Kings 19:11-13). A strong wind breaks the rocks, then comes an earthquake, then a fire, but the Lord is in none of them. After the fire, a still, small voice.
Elijah does not move at the noise of the earthquake, nor under the pressure of the fire, nor at the force of the wind. He comes out to the entrance of the cave when he hears the voice of the Lord.
"There are so many other voices." If you do not know his voice, you will move with the earthquake, with the fire, with the storm, and these things will sweep you away.
God calls us to be a prophetic people, that is, a people who know him, who hear him and who see what he sees.

6. Seeing what God sees

Elisha's servant sees an army coming to get them. He panics: "They are coming for us!"
Elisha answers: "Don't be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them" (2 Kings 6:16). The servant must have thought Elisha had gone mad, since there were only two of them, or else that he saw something the servant did not.
The servant saw in the natural, Elisha saw in the Spirit. He prays: "Lord, please open his eyes, that he may see" (2 Kings 6:17), and the mountain is full of God's armies.
God wants to open the eyes of his Church so that it does not live only from the natural, but sees what he is doing and what he is saying, and from there moves forward, lives and prays: "on earth as it is in heaven."

7. Returning to him and keeping the fire burning

"When he speaks, we must respond." The response is a return: "Father, I am coming back to you. I know you wait for me every day." Restore to me the joy of your salvation (Psalm 51:12).
Do not be lukewarm (Revelation 3:16): do not just come every Sunday with no fire on the altar. "You did not die so that we would simply come to church. You died so that we would know you."
Every time you pick up your Bible and pray, every time you spend time with him, every time you choose Jesus, your fire burns. "Only you can keep your fire going. No one else can do it."
Jen Sains prays that the fire would burn in the United Kingdom and that God would have in this nation a Church that is not lukewarm, but devoted and in love with him.
She shares a picture received a few weeks earlier: a person sitting on a chair, tied with ropes. This person represented the Church, and the ropes what the enemy wanted to do and had done. God breaks every chain, every restriction that would keep his Church seated, so that it may rise and stand with him.

Key Takeaways

The Church's strength does not come from its abilities but from knowing God personally (Daniel 11:32).
Being rooted comes through simple things: reading your Bible, praying, being with God every day, even if some things must give way.
A praying Church is a powerful Church: hide your children, your family and your life in prayer.
Among all the voices, we must discern God's still, small voice, and see in the Spirit what he sees.
Only you can keep the fire burning on the altar of your heart, every time you choose Jesus.

Personal Application

How deep are your roots today: are you more attached to your Bible or to the speeches of this world?
What in your life must give way so that your roots can go deeper in God?
Who are the children, loved ones or people you can "hide in prayer" this week?
Among all the voices you hear, when did you last recognize the voice of God?
Is there still fire on the altar of your heart, or did you come to church without coming to know him better?

Scriptures Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Daniel 11:32 say about those who know their God?

In this chapter, a king tries to make God's people bow and push them into compromise. But those who know their God take action with firmness. For Jen Sains, our strength, our ability to stand and not to fall under the spirit of this world come from knowing God personally.

How can you be rooted in God day by day?

Jen Sains answers simply: pick your Bible back up and read it, pray, spend time with God every day. She also invites us to accept that some things must give way in our lives so that the roots can go deeper, and to ask ourselves whether we are more attached to the Word than to the speeches of this world.

What does the still, small voice in 1 Kings 19 teach us?

Elijah does not move at the sound of the wind, the earthquake or the fire. He comes out when he hears the still, small voice of the Lord. Jen Sains draws a call from this: in a time when many voices make themselves heard, the Church must know and discern the voice of God, or it will be swept away by the storm.