Daniel-Sized Faith Moves Mountains
Faith does not come with age or church membership. Faith comes from exercising your ask. It comes in believing God can, and God does, work on your behalf. Faith moves in the unseen realm and manifests in miracles and answered prayer. God is waiting for you to petition Him for your need and request. It just takes a mustard seed of faith to move the mountains in your life.
I love the story in the Bible of the prophet Daniel. A true man of faith. Whether it be the lion’s den, confronting the king’s orders, revealing prophecies, or exercising faith through a fast, this is one man that truly walked with God.
It took faith to approach the King’s steward at age seventeen and request that he be tested and not eat the food from the King’s table. That he requested to fast from the delicacies and wine that the King offered and eat only vegetables and drink only water. That he would pray to his God for wisdom and revelation. He challenged the King’s steward that if, after ten days, he was not healthier than the King’s men, then he could see fit to do with him as he pleased.
The Bible tells us in Daniel 1:17: As for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.
Daniel was a man of conviction and faith in his God, and the King’s servants hated him for it. Looking for any reason to frame and convict him, they proposed a plan to the King that no one could bend the knee to any King but Darius for thirty days. If found guilty, they would be thrown in a fiery furnace. Daniel knew he could not compromise with his God. As was his habit, he went into his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, and knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and gave thanks before his God.
“Got you!” The King’s men conspired. But as we all know, the God of Daniel was not finished with His servant of faith.
Remember, when you fast and pray and yield your life to God, others are watching. King Darius loved Daniel and saw a man of faith and loyalty to his God. Read with me what happened next.
18 Now the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; and no musicians were brought before him. Also his sleep went from him. 19 Then the king arose very early in the morning and went in haste to the den of lions. 20 And when he came to the den, he cried out with a lamenting voice to Daniel. The king spoke, saying to Daniel, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?”
21 Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever! 22 My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him; and also, O king, I have done no wrong before you.”
23 Now the king was exceedingly glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no injury whatever was found on him, because he believed in his God (Daniel 6:18-23).
Daniel had been given the gift of dreams and visions and used his calling to declare the goodness and faithfulness of His God.
No one is born with faith. It is a spiritual decision like that of salvation. You must receive it. You must believe it. You must act it out as though you were walking in the reality of what you are believing God for. Your faith can only be placed in God, no one else. If you are looking for any other way to exercise faith than in the true God, you will be sorely disappointed. Faith is not hoping so or wishing so; it is believing so. It’s expecting so.
To read more from Tammy Hotsenpiller’s Fasting For a Change, visit MyCharismaShop.com