by Dr. Paul Jehle
“The people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.” Daniel 11:32
We live in perilous times. The culture that surrounds us is confusing and very distracting. We often find that the duties we have and responsibilities we hold drive us rather than we exercising purposeful priorities in our lives.
However, throughout the Scriptures, there were people, like Daniel and those to whom he prophetically points that will focus on God and not their surroundings. This is the key to knowing the Lord.
To know God we must exalt Him as God. To know Christ we must exalt His virtues and the excellency of His position in the universe, for “God… has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.” (Phil. 2:9-10)
Exalting Christ is to rehearse in your mind who He is and what position He has in the midst of your circumstances. This declaration brings us into unity with who He is.
It is amazing how much strength we can draw from our position in Christ in exchange for the weakness of our own nature. It is this strength that is a mark of those who know their God.
To be strong is to have the strength of character that will carry us when all goes wrong. Make no mistake, this character is formed by our exaltation of Christ in the midst of trouble and not merely to knowing about Him.
The result will be exploits done in His name. What are exploits? They are actions we take as a result of the strength of character that comes from exalting Him in our lives.
These exploits will span sharing the gospel with those who do not know Him, doing what is right when it is popular to do what is wrong, and standing in the midst of the storm as a witness of His reign in our lives!