I.　The Lord used Daniel and his companions—Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah—to turn the age of the captivity of God's people to the age of their return to the land of Immanuel for the building of God's house and God's city for God's expression and authority—Dan. 1:1- 21; 2:17; Isa. 8:8:

A.　Every time God wants to make a dispensational move, an age-turning move, He must obtain His dispensational instrument; we must be those who have dispensational value to God—Rev. 12:5-11; 1:20; Dan. 12:3; Matt. 13:43.

B.　Christ as the unique Overcomer includes all the overcomers; the unique Overcomer dwells in our spirit to make us His overcomers—John 14:30; Dan. 2:34-35; Rev. 19:7-21; 1 John 5:4, 18-19; Rev. 3:21.

C.　We need to consider what we are doing to bring in the next age; this is a special time, so there is the need of special Christians to do a special work—Matt. 16:18; Rev. 19:7; 1 Cor. 1:9; Rev. 2:4-7; Col. 1:18b; John 17:21; 1 Cor. 14:4b; Eph. 4:16; Col. 2:19.

D.　An overcomer works according to the principle of the Body; the principle of the Body annuls sectarianism and individualism—1 Cor. 12:12; Phil. 1:19.

E.　In God's sight an overcomer is a "man of preciousness," even "preciousness itself "—Dan. 10:11, 19; 9:23.

F.　The Lord needs to raise up men who will turn the age for the recovery of God's expression and authority; among fallen mankind God's expression is torn down, and His authority is denied; Daniel and his companions truly allowed God to be expressed through them and were truly under God's authority—Gen. 1:26; Rev. 4:3a; 21:11, 18a, 24; 22:5.

II.　Daniel had companions with whom he was absolutely consecrated to God and separated unto God from an age that follows Satan—Dan. 1:4-8; 5:12, 22; 6:10:

A.　All those who are used by God to turn the age must be Nazarites—voluntarily consecrated ones who are sanctified absolutely and ultimately to God—Num. 6:1-8, 22-27; Psa. 110:3; Luke 9:62; Phil. 3:13-14.

B.　Although Daniel and his companions were still very young, they stood up as an antitestimony, similar to the way that Antipas did in the church in Pergamos—Rev. 2:13.

C.　We need to flee youthful lusts and pursue Christ in the Body and for the Body with Godgiven companions, "with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart"—2 Tim. 2:22; 3:1- 5; Eccl. 4:9-12:

1.　According to the divine principle, the proper representation of the Body is always by those who are matched with others; this matching is determined entirely by God's arrangement, not by man's maneuvering—Neh. 1:1; 8:2; 1 Cor. 1:1; Exo. 4:14b-16; Phil. 2:19-22; Luke 10:1; Acts 13:1-3; 1 Thes. 1:1.

2.　An overcomer lives in the Body and works according to the principle of the Body in the blending life of the entire Body of Christ; whoever cannot be blended with others will be disqualified by the age—Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:12, 15, 20, 25.

D.　One of the subjective signs of a called one (seen with Moses) is the sign of the water becoming blood (Exo. 4:9); this means that in the eyes of God all the earthly supply and worldly enjoyment (the water of the Nile) are nothing but death (blood).

E.　If we are going to live a holy life for the church life, we must care for our diet, which is a matter of life or death—Gen. 2:9, 17; Dan. 1:8-9; John 6:57; Matt. 4:4; Rev. 2:17.

III.　Daniel joined himself to God's desire through God's Word—Dan. 9:1-4; Deut. 17:18-20; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Eph. 6:17-18; Psa. 119:11, 24:

A.　Daniel was not only a person who read God's Word regularly but also a person who was joined to God's Word:

1.　When he read from the book of Jeremiah that God had ordained seventy years of captivity for the Israelites and that after seventy years God would turn back to bless them, he immediately fasted and prayed; as soon as he touched God's desire through the Word, he immediately joined himself to that desire—Dan. 9:2-3.

2.　After he read the book of Leviticus, he could no longer eat the unclean food (Dan. 1:8-21); after he read the book of Jeremiah, he could not help but fast and pray for the restoration of God's people (29:10-14).

3.　Whenever we find out God's desire from His Word, we must immediately join ourselves to that desire—cf. Psa. 119:11, 15-16, 133, 140.

4.　The Bible should affect our living, and we should be joined to the Bible—cf. 2 Cor. 6:14-18.

5.　To be an anti-testimony, one must read God's Word and touch God's desire from His Word; God's living word works in us to separate us from the world and move us out of our divisive self into the oneness of the Triune God—John 17:17, 21; Eph. 5:26.

B.　Daily we need to practice coming to the Word to have the Triune God as truth infused into us according to the following life principles:

1.　We must open our entire being to the Lord for the inner shining of the divine light and the supplying of the divine life; the one who experiences the greatest amount of transformation is the one who is absolutely open to the Lord—Psa. 119:105; Prov. 20:27; Psa. 139:23-24.

2.　We must seek the Lord with all our heart—119:2; Mark 12:30.

3.　We must deal with anything that separates us from the Lord—Acts 24:16; 2 Tim. 1:3a; 1 John 1:9; cf. Ezek. 1:22, 26.

4.　We must humble ourselves before the Lord, putting aside our self-confidence and self-assurance and looking to Him for His mercy and grace—Isa. 66:1-2; 1 Pet. 5:5.

5.　We must exercise our spirit to pray over and with God's Word and exercise our whole being to muse on His Word as the condensation of God's light in order to receive the life supply and the divine watering—Eph. 6:17-18; 5:26; Psa. 119:15-16, 25, 50, 105, 130.

6.　When we experience the enlightenment, the life supply, and the watering, we shall have other blessings through the Word: restoration (19:7a), deliverance (119:41, 170), strength (v. 28), comfort (v. 76), nourishment (v. 103), upholding (v. 117), and safeguard (v. 114).

IV.　Daniel was a man of prayer with an excellent spirit, a man fearing God, honoring God, exalting God, and living under God's rule in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens, the ruling of the heavens—Dan. 6:10; 9:1-4, 17; 5:12, 14; 6:3; 5:22-23; 4:25-26, 32:

A.　Fearing God means wanting God, desiring single-heartedly to keep His will, being fully submissive to Him, wanting nothing of ourselves, walking not according to our will, seeing not ourselves, and seeing God's greatness alone—5:22-23; Psa. 86:11; Isa. 11:2.

B.　To honor God is to live and walk by the Spirit for Christ's exaltation in order to honor others by ministering the Spirit to them—Judg. 9:9; Phil. 1:19-21a; 2 Cor. 3:6.

C.　To live under God's rule is to be filled with His ruling presence of righteousness, holiness, and glory for the carrying out of His eternal covenant in dispensing Himself into us to make us the wise exhibition of all that He is—Gen. 9:8-17; Ezek. 1:26-28; Rev. 4:3; 21:18-20; 1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 3:10-11.

D.　Prayer in the Spirit through the exercise of our spirit fills us with and brings us under God's ruling presence for the carrying out of His economy—Rev. 4:1-3; Eph. 6:17-18:

1.　The highest expression of a man who cooperates with God is in prayer; God carries out His economy on earth through His faithful channels of prayer—Matt. 26:41; Acts 6:4; Eph. 6:18; Col. 4:2.

2.　Prayer is the lifeline in the Lord's recovery; the more Satan tries to frustrate our prayer, the more we should pray—Dan. 6:10, cf. vv. 4-9.

3.　Daniel was a person living before God; he depended on prayer to do what man could not do, and he depended on prayer to understand what man could not understand— 2:17-19; 9:1-4; 10:1-3, 11-13.

4.　Daniel's prayer was totally for God and not for himself; through prayer he afforded God the highest cooperation—9:2b; Jer. 25:11; Dan. 9:17; 1 Kings 8:48.

5.　Because Daniel was a man of prayer, he was acknowledged by God, qualified to be used by God, and capable of speaking forth the mystery of God—cf. Acts 6:4.

6.　Daniel's prayer reached the highest peak; he asked God to do something for Himself; he prayed, "Now hear, O our God, the prayer of Your servant and his supplications, and cause Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary that has been desolated, for the Lord's sake"—Dan. 9:17.

7.　Only a person like Daniel, who prayed to God single-heartedly, can be used by Him to turn the age.

V.　Daniel was a self-sacrificing person with the spirit of martyrdom—6:10-11:

A.　Daniel prayed at the risk of his life; the intention of the chief ministers and satraps was to destroy Daniel, but the intention of Satan, who was behind them, was to cut off the channel of prayer that God was using for the carrying out of His economy—vv. 4-24.

B.　Daniel's companions did not care for their own lives; when they were commanded by the king to bow down to a golden image, they said, "O Nebuchadnezzar,…our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the blazing furnace of fire, and He will deliver us out of your hand…But if He does not,…we will not serve your gods nor worship the golden image that you have set up"—3:16-18.

C.　Everyone whom God uses to turn the age is afraid of only one thing, that is, of offending God and losing His presence—2 Cor. 5:9-10; cf. Psa. 51:11; Josh. 7:4.

D.　If we contact the Christ typified by the vine and experience His sacrificing life, He will energize us to live a life of sacrifice, producing happiness for God and for others—Judg. 9:13; Matt. 9:17; Rom. 12:1; Eph. 5:2; 2 Cor. 1:24:

1.　In ourselves we are not able to live a life of sacrifice, for our life is a natural life, a selfish life—Job 2:4; Matt. 16:25.

2.　Christ's love of affection constrains us to live and to die to Him—2 Cor. 5:14-15; Rom. 14:7-9.

3.　Christ's love makes the believers martyrs for Him—Rev. 2:10; 12:11; Rom. 8:35-37.

4.　If we experience Christ as the wine-producing vine, we will be filled with joy in the Lord—John 15:11; Acts 5:41; 13:52; Phil. 3:1a; 4:4; Psa. 43:4.

5.　By experiencing Christ as the wine-producing vine and by being filled with Him as the new wine, we may become a drink offering in Him and with Him to be poured out for God's satisfaction and for God's building—Gen. 35:14; Exo. 29:40-41; Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6.