Discovering Destiny (Part 70): The Only Way You Lose Is If You Quit
Today, we continue our focus on THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, as we learn to maintain our posture of faith after God has revealed His plans for our future. Yesterday, we saw God's grace make Daniel ten times better. Today, we see how long God kept him standing.
Key scriptures for this year:
2 Peter 3:18 GNT
"But continue to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be glory now and forever."
Luke 10:20 Mirror
"It's time for you to rediscover who you are from Heaven's perspective."
1 John 3:10 Mirror
"There is a very visible and vast difference between living one's life from your God identity or from a fallen man's mindset."
Proverbs 25:2 NKJV
"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter."
Jeremiah 29:13 NIV
"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
Scripture(s) we will study today:
Daniel 1:21 NLT
"Daniel remained in the royal service until the first year of the reign of King Cyrus."
Daniel 6:28 ERV
"So Daniel was successful during the time Darius was king and when Cyrus the Persian was king."
Supporting scriptures:
Proverbs 19:21 AMPC
"Many plans are in a man's mind, but it is the Lord's purpose for him that will stand."
Psalm 75:6-7 TPT
"This I know: the favor that brings promotion and power doesn't come from anywhere on earth, for no one exalts a person but God, the true judge of all. He alone determines where favor rests. He anoints one for greatness and brings another down to his knees."
Proverbs 24:16 NLT
"The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked."
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 TPT
"Though we experience every kind of pressure, we're not crushed. At times we don't know what to do, but quitting is not an option. We are persecuted by others, but God has not forsaken us. We may be knocked down, but not out."
Psalm 92:12-14 NLT
"But the godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon. For they are transplanted to the Lord's own house. They flourish in the courts of our God. Even in old age they will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green."
Isaiah 40:8 TPT
"But even though grass withers and the flower fades, the word of our God stands strong forever!"
Setting the Stage:
Daniel was a teenager when Nebuchadnezzar's army carried him out of Jerusalem. Babylon gave him a new name, a new language, a new school, and a new job: serve the king. Babylon was the superpower of its day, and Nebuchadnezzar ruled it for more than forty years. If you had walked through that city and asked people who would still be standing seventy years later, nobody would have picked the Hebrew slave.
Then, at the very end of chapter 1, right after the report that Daniel was ten times better, the Bible does something unusual. It fast-forwards to the end of Daniel's career: "Daniel remained in the royal service until the first year of the reign of King Cyrus." Before you ever read about the king's dream, the fiery furnace, the handwriting on the wall, or the lions' den, God tells you how the story ends. Daniel is still standing.
Think about what that one verse covers. About 70 years. Four kings named in this book: Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius, and Cyrus. Two empires. Death threats, jealous coworkers, and a law written just to trap him. We are going to walk through every one of those stories over the next few weeks. But here is the headline: Babylon fell, and Daniel did not. When the Persians took over, Daniel was still serving, and the Bible says, "So Daniel was successful during the time Darius was king and when Cyrus the Persian was king."
I call this reading the last page first. Well, the way God says it, he calls the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). God showed us the end of Daniel's story so we would know how to read the middle. And He wants you to read your life the same way. The teenager Babylon captured outlasted Babylon. Here is what I want you to see today. Your destiny will outlast the people and the systems that tried to define you, and the only way you lose is if you quit.
So, what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. The People Who Tried To Define You Do Not Get The Last Word.
Babylon had a whole plan for Daniel's life. Change his name. Change his language. Change his education. Make him a servant of the king and turn him into a Babylonian. Nebuchadnezzar was the most powerful man on earth, and he had every resource he needed to make that plan work. But Nebuchadnezzar died, and Babylon's plan for Daniel died with Babylon. Solomon said, "Many plans are in a man's mind, but it is the Lord's purpose for him that will stand." I have taught you this before: God made plans for you before the world began, so success, for you, has already been defined. People can make plans for you. Only God's plan gets the last word.
How this applies to you:
-- People can label you, but they may not outlive God's plan for you.
-- Babylon called him Belteshazzar. Heaven kept calling him Daniel, and Heaven had the last word.
-- God planned your destiny before you were born, and no person's opinion of you can rewrite it.
-- Some of you are still living under a label somebody put on you years ago. A teacher, a parent, a boss, or an ex told you who you were. That was their plan for you, not God's. Like I've told you many times, the key to success in life for you is to get to the point where you believe what God believes about you!
-- Nebuchadnezzar had more power than anybody on earth, and he still could not cancel God's plan for one Hebrew teenager.
-- Stop giving people the final say over a life they did not create. They cannot define you because they did not design you.
-- The Lord's purpose for you will stand. Their plans will come and go, but God's purpose will still be standing when they are gone. Say “AMEN” to that!!!
2. The People In Charge Of You Are Not In Charge Of Your Destiny.
Every king in Daniel's life held power over him. Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius, and Cyrus could each have ended his career with one sentence. And when a new king takes the throne, he usually brings in his own people. But Daniel stayed in royal service from the first king to the last. Why? Because the kings did not put him there. God did. David said, "No one exalts a person but God, the true judge of all. He alone determines where favor rests." I have taught you this before: Daniel experienced grace-based success under four different regimes. The kings kept changing, but the God who placed Daniel never did.
How this applies to you:
-- Bosses change, but God’s grace and anointing on your life do not.
-- Daniel served four kings named in Scripture, and every one of them needed what God put in him.
-- God planned your destiny before you were born, and no manager, no company, and no government can sign it or decide it away.
-- When leadership changes at your job, do not panic. The new person in charge did not hire you into your destiny. God did, and He is still sitting on the throne.
-- Daniel did not need a friend on the throne. He needed God on his side, and he had Him.
-- Kings (or bosses, managers, CEOs, etc.) do not promote you. God does.
-- When God is the one who put you there, a change at the top cannot take you out. Daniel stayed in royal service from Nebuchadnezzar all the way to Cyrus.
-- When you acknowledge the fact that you are a man/woman of destiny, you know that what God has for you is for you.
3. God Is Looking For People Who Will Stay Faithful For The Long Haul.
Daniel had every reason to quit. He was a slave with no way home. Kings changed, enemies rose up, and his life was on the line more than once. And yet the record says he remained in the royal service until Cyrus. Decades in a hostile system, and Daniel never walked away. Daniel did not just start well. He stayed well. I call this long-haul faithfulness. And do not think it was easy. If we could sit down with Daniel at the end of his life, I believe he would say, "I can't tell you how many times I wanted to quit. But I never gave up." Solomon said, "The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again." And Paul said, "At times we don't know what to do, but quitting is not an option... We may be knocked down, but not out." I have said this for years: the only way you lose is if you quit.
How this applies to you:
-- Anybody can start strong. God is looking for people who will finish strong.
-- I have been writing Today's Word since December 1997. That is almost 29 years of getting up and doing it again. There were days I wanted to stop, but I kept showing up, and God kept me standing.
-- God planned your destiny before you were born, and faithfulness is how you walk it out one day at a time.
-- Resist the urge to quit.
-- Daniel got knocked down more than once. He never got knocked out.
-- Some of you are tired because you have been doing the right thing for a long time, and nobody has noticed. God has noticed. Stay faithful, because Heaven keeps the record.
-- You do not hold on by willpower; grace holds you.
-- The grace of God will empower you to endure and overcome for the long haul.
-- Solomon was the richest man of his day, and he had access to all types of people, but he said, "Many a man proclaims his own loving-kindness and goodness, but a faithful man who can find?" It is hard to find people who will stay faithful, diligent, and dedicated for the long haul. When you are a person of destiny, God is looking for that kind of faithfulness in you.
4. What God Plants In You Will Still Be Standing When Everything Around You Changes.
Think about everything Daniel watched fall. He watched Jerusalem fall when he was a teenager. He watched kings rise, and kings die. He watched the empire everybody thought would last forever fall, and he watched Persia take its place. And at the end of it all, the Bible says, "So Daniel was successful during the time Darius was king and when Cyrus the Persian was king." The empire was gone. The captive was still standing. David said, "Even in old age they will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green." That was Daniel. And Isaiah said, "But even though grass withers and the flower fades, the word of our God stands strong forever!" Kingdoms have an expiration date. God's Word does not.
How this applies to you:
-- Empires fall. But God's Word and His promises stand forever.
-- Allow me to encourage you for a moment: If you embrace the grace of God, you will outlast every difficult season.
-- God planned your destiny before you were born, and the plan was always bigger than Babylon.
-- Daniel was still producing fruit as an old man. Your age does not cancel your assignment. If you are still breathing, then God is not through with you.
-- The system that tried to swallow Daniel is now a page in a history book. Daniel is still preaching from the pages of the Bible.
-- Babylon built its kingdom on power. Daniel built his life on God. Only one of them was still standing at the end.
-- On Monday, we go back to Daniel chapter 2, where the king demanded something no human being could do, and a death sentence reached Daniel for a meeting he was never invited to.
That's enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, Your purpose for me will stand!
People can label me, but they do not get the last word!
The people in charge of me are not in charge of my destiny!
You hold every king, and You hold my future!
I will stay faithful for the long haul!
The only way I lose is if I quit, and I will not quit!
Time will not wear down my faith!
What You planted in me will still be standing!
I will outlast what tried to break me!
In THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!
I declare this by faith. In Jesus' name. Amen!
This is Today's Word. Apply it and prosper!
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