A theme of conflict pulses through the book of Daniel. War, opposition, power struggle. Kingdom against kingdom. It doesn’t take much to notice the spiritual battle that surrounds us, and the war within our hearts.
The heart is the battle ground where flesh opposes Spirit.
Spiritual growth is spiritual warfare, and the is struggle intense. In his book, Awe: Why It Matters for Everything We Think, Say, and Do, Paul David Tripp says that sin has made us not only lawbreakers, but awe breakers as well.
“Sin captures and redirects the motivational system of our hearts. Sin changes how our hearts operate… We exchange awe of Creator for awe of created, … most fundamentally awe of self.”
Daniel 10 is a lead-in to the final vision of what’s to come for the people of God and for the end of time.
“In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a word was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belteshazzar. And the word was true, and it was a great conflict. And he understood the word and had understanding of the vision.” Daniel 10:1
Daniel’s name, assigned to him by his captors, becomes Belteshazzar. It’s intended to remind us that he is not free. Daniel is still in exile, in bondage; he has yet to be delivered.
God uses exile as a means to restoration.
God has given us hearts to know Him; He restores our hearts in this ongoing struggle between awe of self and awe of God. Tripp says, “Spiritual growth is about recapturing your awe.”
In the book of Daniel, we see the physical conflict between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world. The turmoil in Daniel’s visions mirrors the nightly news feed and reminds us of the ongoing unseen battle.
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” Galatians 5:16-17
In Christ, the flesh no longer controls us; the Spirit leads us instead. Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Daily. We die to self daily. Though our eternal rescue is complete, we look to Jesus to daily rescue us from ourselves.
What God begins, He finishes.
Our flesh longs to worship self; the Spirit knows our hearts need to worship God alone. It’s a power struggle called sanctification. It’s an all-out war between the kingdom of me and the Kingdom of God, and we need this war to end.
Jesus Christ has personally carried me from victim to victor. He has made a way—the only way—for this enemy of God to become a child of God. And in the very end, He will win this war of awe.
God recaptures our awe through an ongoing, grace-filled, intimate relationship with us. He created us to live utterly and completely enthralled by Him, and the Spirit gives us everything we need to intimately know Him. But here’s the thing…
None of us can spark our own fires.
I can’t. You can’t. The Spirit is our fire, our Sanctifier. The realization that sin has hijacked our awe can overwhelm us, but this simple prayer invites us to turn to God instead and ask Him to do what we cannot do for ourselves.
Spark a fire in me. Keep the fire going. Kindle the flame when it starts to fade.
