As I grappled with the relentless grip of pain that seized me for 51 days straight, I couldn't help but feel as though I was staring down a ferocious lion. Yet, it was within this struggle that I discovered a profound connection with the biblical heroes who faced their own lions, armed with nothing but unwavering faith. In our latest episode, we walk alongside Daniel in the lion's den and uncover the powerful symbolism his story holds for overcoming life's fiercest challenges. We confront not just physical lions, but those that attempt to shake our spiritual foundations, and discuss how leaning on the 'Lion of the tribe of Judah' can turn our greatest adversities into triumphs.
When trials loom large and threaten to overwhelm us, it's the armor of God that we must don to stand unflinching against the roar of our fears and doubts. From health struggles to personal conflicts, this episode is an honest reflection on the dual nature of lions within scripture—as both adversaries and protectors—and how this shapes our journey of faith. Discover the transformative power of prayer and scripture engagement as I share the blueprint that carried me through my pain and can guide you through yours. Together, we affirm that with the presence of Jesus Christ within us, we have the ultimate ally to help us conquer our life's 'lions'.
As I grappled with the relentless grip of pain that seized me for 51 days straight, I couldn't help but feel as though I was staring down a ferocious lion. Yet, it was within this struggle that I discovered a profound connection with the biblical heroes who faced their own lions, armed with nothing but unwavering faith. In our latest episode, we walk alongside Daniel in the lion's den and uncover the powerful symbolism his story holds for overcoming life's fiercest challenges. We confront not just physical lions, but those that attempt to shake our spiritual foundations, and discuss how leaning on the 'Lion of the tribe of Judah' can turn our greatest adversities into triumphs.
When trials loom large and threaten to overwhelm us, it's the armor of God that we must don to stand unflinching against the roar of our fears and doubts. From health struggles to personal conflicts, this episode is an honest reflection on the dual nature of lions within scripture—as both adversaries and protectors—and how this shapes our journey of faith. Discover the transformative power of prayer and scripture engagement as I share the blueprint that carried me through my pain and can guide you through yours. Together, we affirm that with the presence of Jesus Christ within us, we have the ultimate ally to help us conquer our life's 'lions'.
My website is https://www.godslovingsacrifice.com
Speaker 1:
Today we're going to talk about who's your lion or what is your lion, because it can be either. There's a story in the Bible that we all know Daniel and the lion's den and how God shut up the mouth of the lions. But why was Daniel and the lion's den? Do we remember that? It was because Darius made Daniel over the kingdom. But the others say perhaps our governors did not get that and so they were jealous of Daniel. So Daniel's lion were really not the lions in the den, but the lions who came against him. And we all have lions.
Speaker 1:
The problem is, who protects you from your lions? There's another place in the Bible that it talks about lions, and one of them is in 1 Peter 5a. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Yeah, he does. He walks about as or like a lion. He isn't a lion. He may think he's a lion, but he is an lion. He is just a roaring nuisance. But we do have lions in our lives. In the last 51 days I've had a huge lion in my life and the lion is pain. I've been in severe pain often on for the last 51 days and it's been very hard and it's mentally horrible to try to deal with this, and I know that that lion is Satan and I'm depending on another lion to get me through this, and that is the lion that's talked about in Revelations 5, 4, and 5, which says so. I weep much because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me do not weep. Behold the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and loose at seven seals. The lion of Judah, that's who I depend on. What are your lions in your life? Are they the lions that David had in his life?
Speaker 1:
David killed lions when they came to bother the sheep and when Goliath came from the Philistines, he said he could take care of it. Of course his brother was mad at him and asked him why he came. Do you know that the reason that David came to the fight was to bring his brother's lunch? He had three brothers there, and this is all in 1 Samuel 17. David's lion was Goliath. Of course, david's lion was also his brother, who had no faith in him, and Saul, who questioned why a young man would think that he could do this, but David had God on his side, just like Daniel had God on his side, and he went out and he killed Goliath. That was the first of David's battles with Goliaths and lions.
Speaker 1:
When we talked about Daniel, his was sent to the den because the other governors wanted to find fault with him because he was ruling so much and they were only ruling a small piece that they got Darius to sign and decree that if you worshiped anyone but Darius, that you'd be thrown into the lion's den. Darius knew that he was a good man and tried to ignore it, but they insisted and so Darius threw him in the lion's den. But if you remember the story, darius told him before he went into the lion's den, the God that you constantly worship will keep you safe. And so Darius went back the next day, came back and he hollered at David and David said the angels had come and shut the lion's mouth. Darius turned to God, and the part of this that I want to read is the decree that Darius wrote after this happened Through all peoples, nations and languages that dwell in all the earth, please be multiplied to you. I make a decree that every dominion of my kingdom. Men must tremble in fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God and steadfast forever. His kingdom is one which shall not be destroyed and his dominion shall endure to the end. He delivers and rescues any work, signs and wonders in heaven and in earth. Who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions? So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Ceres Persian. So Daniel had many lions, but God saved him from all of his lions.
Speaker 1:
Do you let God save you from your lions? Do you turn to God when the lions or the Goliaths, or Satan is throwing his fiery darts at you? Are you putting on the armor of God to quench those? Are you standing on his word? Are you studying his word? Are you praying?
Speaker 1:
I'll tell you how to have an MRI for the pain that I'm in, trying to find out exactly what's causing it. And they said, oh, it'll take you about 20 minutes. And of course, you're in this little thing where you feel like you're in a straw. I just closed my eyes and took that 20 minutes just to pray for everything I could think to pray for and to praise God. You know my lion still the pain, and the pain is just driving me bonkers. In fact, a couple of times I said I felt like I was having a nervous breakdown, but I know that there's a reason why I'm going through this pain. I know coming out of it. I may understand the reason why. I may not ever understand the reason why, but I know God will deliver me because he's my lion.
Speaker 1:
And if you look at what that word means, lion was mentioned 119 times in the Bible and the things that it represents is courage and strength, power, royalty, good. But it also represents evil, fierceness, cruelty, and it shows judgment, authority, strength and triumph. We can claim all of that. Our lion gives us the right to claim all of the good from a lion and we can get away from the bad from a lion with the armor of God. It says it quenches all the fiery darts of the devil.
Speaker 1:
Satan wants me to feel like God's just forsaken me and at times when my pain has been at worst, I just cried out.
Speaker 1:
You know that, god, you have to do something, but how wonderful that I can still worship a God that I know will deliver me, even while I'm in my pain, if I allowed the lion or Satan that thinks he's a lion to win, then there would never be a win for me.
Speaker 1:
So, as you face these lions in your life, the sin people coming against you Remember God had people coming against him too and the health problems, marital problems, all of these things that come to us day by day, look to your lion, look to the lion that's in you. That lion is in you, jesus Christ is in you and if you follow his word, if you use the armor of God and you stand and I've told you this before when it talks about the armor of God, it tells you to stand three times. We have to stand against sin, we have to stand against Satan. We have to stand against those who would bring us down or pry to tear us out of God's hands, which they can't do, but stand, and I love the fact that it tells you to stand. And when we stand against a lion, remember we are standing tall in our armor, but the lion creeps in Rome's because it doesn't have the strength to stand before the lion of Judah.
