Devotional & Reflection


Week 2, Dec 2001

Daniel 2: God Reveals
By Pang Hee Hung, Trainer & Deborah Pang (9-year Old Student)

Dan 2:19 " During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven "

Deborah (9-year old student):
"Nebechadnezzar had a dream and sent his wise men to interpret his dream. But, the wise men could not figure out Nebechadnezzar's dream. The king was furious and ordered his soldiers to kill all the wise men. At night, Daniel prayed. God gave Daniel a vision. It was the king's dream. The next day Daniel went to the king and interpreted his dream.

(What I Learnt)
Daniel was one of the wise men. God gave him a vision."

My children are enjoying their holidays now. I was praying and asking God how I can get my children to read the Bible during the holidays because they seemed so engrossed with playing and other activities. As I was praying, I believe God revealed to me in thought form what I can do. The idea was to get the children to write down what they learn as they read the Bible. I thought this idea was really full of God's wisdom. If they do this, then they will read the Bible, get to know God's heart and at the same time practice their compositional skills (their writing skills can go rusty during the holidays). The above sharing by Deborah is unedited. It is her first written reflection after I had the thought.

As I reflected on my daughter's sharing, I thought that it was an affirmation of the thought that was planted in me as I prayed. That wise thought was not my thought. It was not a human thought. It was a thought planted and revealed by the Spirit.

A vision is a revelation and interpretation from God. Not human thought. It gives special understanding and knowledge. The word "vision" occurs more than 20 times in the book of Daniel. In Dan 2:19, it was a vision in the night - presumably a dream. But Daniel received visions in the evenings and mornings (Dan 8:26). Hence, receipt of visions is not limited to dreams in the night. In Dan 10:7, Daniel had a vision at the bank of Tigris River - but the men with him did not see it. Sometimes, people cannot see what the recipient sees.

How can we receive a vision from God or hear God?

In Daniel's case, he prayed in concert with his 3 friends in probably what was the first home group prayer meeting mentioned in the Bible (Dan 2:17-18) (D.S. Russell, An Active Volcano, p. 32). In my case, I also prayed.


Reflect:
1. How can you go about to start asking God for a revelation to resolve your pressing situation?
2. Acknowledging that our families are different, how can your family practice accountability in consistently reflecting upon and applying God's word?