An Eternal Kingdom

Dannah Gresh: When you feel overwhelmed by seemingly mundane tasks or circumstances, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth encourages you to remember the bigger picture.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Ladies, you and I have been placed here by God, and we are supposed to serve Him wherever He has put us, keeping our hearts firmly planted in His eternal kingdom while we endure the difficulties. We cling in faith to the One who has promised that one day all things on earth will be redeemed and be made new!

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Heaven Rules, for October 29, 2024. I’m Dannah Gresh.

If you were driving full speed down the road in the wrong direction, you’d want someone to alert you to your danger, right? You would be grateful to that police officer! But when you head the wrong direction spiritually, are you thankful when God gets your attention? King Nebuchadnezzar was in that situation, but he didn’t respond well.

Today we’re listening to part two of a message Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth gave at a recent True Woman conference. It’s called “Heaven Rules: What Difference Does It Make?” If you missed yesterday’s program, be sure to listen to it at ReviveOurHearts.com. But right now, Nancy’s picking up in Daniel chapter 4. Let’s listen.

Nancy: Here’s a fourth scene, and I’m calling this one . . .

Scene #4 – The Proud King Loses His Mind (Daniel 4) 

Nebuchadnezzar was a proud, self-made man. As far as he was concerned, there was no need for God. He was blind to his need, but mercifully, God broke into Nebuchadnezzar’s sense of independence and control and got his attention. Listen, God will do whatever it takes to get your attention and mine. And when He does, don’t resist it. Thank Him for loving you enough to show you that you are not God, that He is God!

 

God gave Nebuchadnezzar another dream to warn him of the danger he was in, and in this dream he saw a massive tree! It was magnificent; it was beautiful, and it was visible to all the earth. This tree provided abundant food and shelter for every creature on earth.

And then the dream took a dramatic turn. An angelic messenger from God decreed the destruction of the mighty tree. Look at verse 14 of Daniel 4: 

“[This angel] called out loudly, ‘Cut down the tree and chop off its branches; strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit.’”

No longer would this tree provide shelter or food for birds, for animals. It would be reduced to a stump that would be shackled. The tree would no longer be supreme; it would be subject to the elements.

And we know as we study this chapter that the tree represented a powerful man who thought he was more powerful than God. He would be stripped of his greatness. He would lose his mind, and he would live like a brute beast for seven years.

Now, we know that this dream applied directly to Nebuchadnezzar—it’s pretty clear as you’re reading the passage. But it wasn’t at all clear to Nebuchadnezzar! Proud people have a hard time seeing the truth about themselves. 

 

So Daniel helped him out. He boldly explained the meaning of the dream to the mighty king; he made it personal. Look at verse 22. Daniel said, 

“That tree is you, Your Majesty. For you have become great and strong: your greatness has grown and even reaches the sky, and your dominion extends to the ends of the earth. . . .

“This is the decree of the Most High that has been issued against my lord the king: You will be driven away from people to live with the wild animals. You will feed on grass like cattle and be drenched with dew from the sky for seven periods of time, until you acknowledge that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms, and he gives them to anyone he wants. . . .

“Your kingdom will be restored to you as soon as you acknowledge that Heaven rules. . . . Therefore . . . separate yourself from your sins by doing what is right, and from your injustices by showing mercy to the needy. Perhaps there will be an extension of your prosperity.” (vv. 22, 24–27)

Let’s stop there for a moment. God mercifully gave the king a whole year to repent, but he refused. That’s what we see in the rest of this chapter. You see, pride is a way of thinking that says, “I rule. I’m in control. ‘My kingdom come, my will be done.’” 

And the prophecy of Nebuchadnezzar’s great fall . . . By the way, mental illness is nothing new. It can have various causes, but in this case, it was the king’s pride that stripped him of his senses and his reason and his rationality—his pride. 

The prophecy of his fall was fulfilled, but ultimately this was a good thing, because the discipline that God placed on him brought about his repentance, his humility, and his restoration. It led him to this conclusion . . .

Look at verse 37, the last verse of Daniel chapter 4. It talks about,

The King of the heavens . . . is able to humble those who walk in pride. 

Boy, when I read that, I realize there’s some Nebuchadnezzar in all of us. I can never get past that phrase without saying, “God is pointing His finger at my heart!” The King of the heavens is able to humble me if I walk in pride.

Heaven always gets the final word. If we refuse to humble ourselves under His mighty hand, we will force Him to humble us. Pride and self-sufficiency: that is the pathway to certain ruin. Humbling ourselves, acknowledging Heaven’s rule: that’s the pathway—it’s always the pathway!—to restoration and wholeness. 

Now, let’s turn over to Daniel chapter 6. (I hate to skip chapter 5, but I’m going to do it.) I’m going to give us Scene #5, the last scene we’re going to look at in Daniel; it’s called . . .

Scene #5–A Night with the Lions (Chapter 6)

Daniel lived in an environment that was hostile to God and to His followers. Daniel’s wisdom and his godly life did not win him human praise; in fact, it made him a target of the enemy. And in the short term, it seemed that a holy, obedient life did not pay off. Have you ever felt that way in your school, in your workplace? 

Knowing of his faith in God, Daniel’s adversaries attempted to bring him down by having the king make a royal edict outlawing prayer (because they knew Daniel was a man of prayer) for thirty days to anyone other than the king. Anyone who dared to defy that irrational, irreversible decree would be destroyed. And in this moment it looked like Darius [who had become king] and his officials were supreme.

But Daniel knew who the true King was; he never forgot that over all these decades serving in the palace. He knew the One to whom he owed his ultimate loyalty. Yes, he would serve the kings faithfully, but he would not let them take the place of God.

He knew his fate and his life were not in the king's hands, but in God’s hands. He knew that God was more powerful than the king. He knew that God hears and answers prayer, and he knew that the safest place he could be—even once that edict was signed and sealed—was on his knees in the presence of God. That’s what gave him courage to keep on praying to his God.

Notice, he didn’t start his prayer life at this moment of crisis. He already had a prayer life! Scripture says in Daniel 6:10 that "he went into his home, his room, as was his habit, and he opened his window and prayed toward Jerusalem" (paraphrase).

This is the picture of a man who believed that Heaven rules! And true to King Darius’ edict, hewas thrown into a den of lions where his opponents expected him to be mauled to death. But you know the story. His life was supernaturally preserved by God. At the end of this story, the king ends up honoring Daniel’s God. 

And so, in the end Daniel was honored by God, and those who sought to ruin and destroy him were themselves destroyed. Five snapshots of Heaven rules in the book of Daniel. 

Now I want us to take a few moments and look at five timeless truths about Heaven’s rule found in the book of Daniel. I’m going to give them to you, I hope you’ll get the key points and then that you’ll do your own soaking in the book of Daniel—and the rest of Scripture—to see where these appear.

Five Timeless Truths about Heaven's Rule from the book of Daniel

1. Heaven rules over all things—big and small.

He is God Most High. He sovereignly ordains and oversees the macro events of our world as well as the micro details of our lives.

The macro: 

• Heaven rules over all history, past, present, and future. 
• Heaven rules over the geopolitical affairs of our world—over presidents and prime ministers, over kings and queens, over dictators and despots, over elections and political parties.
• Heaven rules over the world of economics. 
• Heaven rules over the world of nature, weather patterns, storms. 

There is no “Mother Nature.” Heaven rules over all of nature! He regulates the seasons. He controls the temperature on earth to make it habitable for humans. God keeps the sun exactly the right distance from the earth in order to sustain life and keep us from being burned up! Heaven rules in the macro.

But Heaven also rules in the micro:

• The details of our personal lives: the loss of job, unexpected bills, our car breaking down. 
• How are you going to afford to retire? (Something you teens aren’t thinking about yet, but you will!)
• That unfulfilled longing for a godly mate, or for a child. 
• The details of miscarriages or stillborn babies. 
• Hurts and wounds that you carry that no one else knows about—how others have wronged us. 
• Health issues. 
• Relational challenges—prodigal children, an inattentive mate, an unfaithful husband. 

Heaven rules in the micro from tiny splinters to life-threatening surgeries, from coughs and colds to cancer, from the economy to elections and earthquakes, from earth-shattering news in our world to life-altering events in our personal worlds. Heaven rules!

Now, Heaven rules is not a glib or superficial sentiment. It’s not a fatalistic view of the very real difficulties and heartaches of life in this world. But here’s what it is: it’s a deep, settled rest and confidence that He knows it all, He orders it all—our world, our days, our steps—and He can be trusted with it all. Number one, God rules over all things big and small.

2. No earthly power or kingdom will last forever. Only God’s kingdom is forever.

We’ve witnessed the passing of Queen Elizabeth II after an unprecedented historic seventy-year reign! If you saw the committal service at Windsor Chapel, you saw that moving moment when the sovereign orb and the scepter and her crown were removed from the top of her coffin to be passed on to her successor. People thought she was going to live forever. She lived for a very long time, but no earthly power or kingdom will last forever.

The kingdoms of man rise and fall: good men, bad men, good queens, bad queens. Only God’s kingdom is indestructible, and one day it will crush every earthly kingdom that rejects His rule, and there will be an end to everything that opposes God and His people.

In fact, speaking of the end, that’s a recurring theme in Daniel’s prophecies. As you read the book of Daniel, look for those words: “the end.” What we learn is that all history is moving toward a divinely-predetermined end, which will take place exactly when and how God has ordered.

As believers, when the forces of evil seem to be winning and we see wicked powers setting themselves against God and against His people, we feel weak and helpless at times. But we take courage and we persevere in hope, because we know that their success is short-lived.

We know that God, our God, will have the final word. At the appointed time when Christ returns, He will triumph over every enemy, and He will reign forever, with no rival. Heaven rules! 

3. In the end, God will deliver all His people, and He will destroy all His enemies. 

Listen, that’s the end of every human life in the universe in all of history: destruction or deliverance. God will deliver all His people and destroy all His enemies. Those two verses in Psalms 34:19 and 21, tell us this: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous . . .”

You say, “Oh! When I signed up to follow Christ, I didn’t know I signed up for many afflictions!” We did. 

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. (v. 19 ESV) 

You say, “Well He hasn’t delivered me!”. . . yet. He will, out of every one, every affliction! But look at verse 21: 

Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. (ESV)

Those who had orchestrated Daniel’s downfall were destroyed in the very trap they had set for him while Daniel was supernaturally delivered. Now, in Daniel’s case it happened in one chapter.

It doesn’t always happen that way—the deliverance or the destruction. It mostly doesn’t happen that way in our lives, but it will happen. In God’s way and in His time, He will rescue all those who steadfastly trust in Him, but He stands against—He resists—those who resist Heaven’s rule. 

I know in an audience this size, there are some in this room who, in your heart (nobody else may know it) you’re resisting God. I want to tell you, your arms are not long enough to box with God. You won’t win! 

 

This is our hope, this is our confidence, in a world bent on the kingdom and the rule of man. That agenda will not end well, and those anti-God rulers who oppress others today will one day be utterly destroyed. And one day, God’s people who are now being oppressed and threatened will reign with Christ forever. Heaven rules! 

4. Heaven’s final victory is sure, but between now and the end, there will be war between the kingdoms of man and the kingdom of God. 

We live in a world that has set itself against God and is carrying out Satan’s bidding. We see deeply disturbing things all around us and sometimes feel overwhelmed, sick to our stomachs, or just plain exhausted by it all! 

In Daniel chapter 8 Daniel was given some terrifying revelations of the future, and they left him undone; his strength was sapped. But he never allowed himself to become paralyzed by those overwhelming visions, nor did he become obsessed with trying to figure out what all they meant, or try to fix or change all the broken systems that they represented.

So what did he do with all these visions that left him weak kneed and wobbly on his feet? He was terrified; he had no strength! What did he do? Daniel 8:27—I love this sentence!—he says, 

Then I got up and went about the king's business.

God had just shown Daniel these awesome but terrifying visions about what’s going to happen at the end of time! And what did he do? He went back to work—in Babylon, serving a pagan king! Yes, the burden of what he had just seen was weighing heavily on him, but he knew that all this was only temporary and that Babylon and all other earthly kingdoms yet to come would eventually come to nothing. 

In the meantime, he faithfully went about the work that God had given him to do in the king’s service, knowing that ultimately he was serving the King of Heaven.

Ladies, you and I have been placed here by God, and we are supposed to serve Him wherever He has put us, keeping our hearts firmly planted in His eternal kingdom while we endure the difficulties. We cling in faith to the One who has promised that one day all things on earth will be redeemed and be made new!

By the time we get to chapter 12 of Daniel, Daniel is an old man; he’s an octogenarian. I’ve heard we have a few women in their eighties who were brought by their daughters to this conference. I don’t know where you are, but God bless you! I’m so thrilled you’re here! Daniel was your age by the time we get to chapter 12. 

An angel said to Daniel, “As for you, Daniel, go on your way to the end.” (12:13) Now, Daniel had been told a lot of mysteries, a lot of prophecies, that commentators still are not sure exactly what they all mean. But the angel said to Daniel, “As for you, go on your way to the end.”

Here’s what Daniel was supposed to be doing in his eighties: not giving up, not checking out, but keeping on. He was to go on living as a faithful servant of the Lord in a foreign land . . . all the way “to the end” of his life.

Some of you older women—sixties, seventies, eighties (I don’t know if we have anybody in their nineties here)—it’s not a time to check out until the Lord takes you home, and then there’s no checking out there! (laughter) Go on your way to the end . . .

5. God knows the answer to the questions: “How long will this last?” and “How’s all this going to turn out?” 

Those are questions that Daniel asked (you can read about it in chapter 12). In times of distress, we ask those same questions: “How long is this going to go on? How’s it going to end?” Now, it’s not wrong, I don’t think, to ask those questions. But at the end of the day, if God doesn’t choose to answer our questions, we have to trust that, what? Heaven rules.

God knows exactly how long this will last. Every event in heaven or on earth operates on His timetable, and He controls the game clock! When He says, “It’s time!”, the “buzzer” will sound for the end. God places a limit on how far and how long His enemies can exert their power, and we trust that He will sustain all those who trust in Him all the way to the end! 

In the last half of Daniel, Daniel is given several visions. In the first half of Daniel, he’s interpreting visions that God gave to other people. In the last half of Daniel, God gives him a number of visions, and these visions are a glimpse into God’s plan for the unfolding of history and nations from the time of Daniel all the way to the end of human history.

Those visions included fierce wars and persecutions against God’s people. I think a lot of people never read the last six chapters of Daniel because they’re hard plowing. The first six chapters, those are the stories, and we learn those in Sunday school. Nobody ever read those latter chapters when they were in Sunday school as kids!

But you need to read them; you need to study them; you need to get to know them. Here’s how I summarized those visions of the span of human history when I was journaling in my study through Daniel: 

• Powerful rulers
• Aggressive, arrogant
• Truth trampled.
• Lies prevail.
• Saints persecuted.
• Sanctuary profaned.
• How long?!
• God knows. 
• Evildoers overthrown. 
• Sanctuary restored. 
• God wins. 
• The end. 
• Heaven rules . . . forever! 

And that’s the story!

Dannah: That’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, with a powerful summary of Daniel’s visions, recorded in the book of Daniel.

The question is, do you and I live as though that’s true? Do we really believe that heaven rules over everything?

In the book Heaven Rules, written by Nancy, you’ll find many stories of people who did live as though Heaven rules, even in the face of devastating loss or pain. The subtitle of the book is Take Courage. Take Comfort. Our God Is in Control. I think those stories will motivate you to live the same way.

We want you to have the opportunity to read this book or share it with a friend. So when you give any amount this week in support of Revive Our Hearts, we’ll send it to you if you request it. That way, not only do you get the book, but you’re helping share its message with women you don’t even know . . . women all around the world. To donate, go to ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1-800-569-5959. 

Well, there’s still more! Tomorrow, Nancy will wrap up her message on "Heaven Rules." We’ll also hear from a woman who has had every right, humanly speaking, to stop believing that’s true . . . but she hasn’t.

Please be back for Revive Our Hearts.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the CSB.

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