My Christian blog has been going for five years now and during that time I have probably claimed at least a dozen scriptures in the Bible as my favorite verse. I love God and I love to study God’s word. As I come across a verse in my Bible study that excites me it becomes my favorite Bible verse; until I run across a verse that excites me even more and takes its place as my new favorite verse. I’m like a kid in a candy store running around excitedly pointing at everything. I’m like a kid who wants to sample all the treats in the candy store and loving everything I sample. Out of all my past favorite Bible verses I think Daniel 12:3 is my all-time favorite. It’s one of the 14 verses I have posted above my desk so I read them every morning over my pot of coffee. You see, as I run my race before the Lord I see Daniel 12:3 as the end of the road for me. It’s the fulfillment of all my goals and where I want to be at the end of my days. To manifest the blessings of Daniel 12:3 in my life it’s important that I continue saying yes to God in prayer that I will be obedient to the commandments of God by witnessing for Christ with all perseverance. I accomplish this by my Bible affirmations.
MONDAY AFFIRMATIONS (continued):
Daniel 12:3 – And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.
MY AFFIRMATION:
I will be wise before the Lord through obedience to the commandments of God. I will fulfill the Great Commission I received from Jesus Christ, which is to spread the gospel message, the good news of God’s saving grace. I will witness Christ to all nations and all people. I will continually give my testimony of Jesus Christ all my life to help save many lost souls to the kingdom of heaven.
NOTE: A favorite literary device used by God in his word is known as “parallelism” and we see it in Daniel 12:3. We have two stand-alone statements separated by the conjunction “and.” Both statements say essentially the same thing using different words. The value of parallelism is that while each statement on its own may not be very clear, but together they help clarify each other so the meaning of the verse becomes crystal clear. In Daniel 12:3 the word “they” refers to Christian believers who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. It’s just common sense you can’t save someone else if you’re not saved yourself. In the first statement of this verse the word “wise” refers to believers who are witnessing for Christ and saving nonbelievers to heaven. We know this because in his word God often refers to those sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ to save lost souls as being wise.
The word “shall” is a promise from God in the first statement and it’s implied in the second statement. God cannot lie nor does the Bible contain any errors. The word “shine” in the first statement reflects our glory which is God’s reward for our obedience in saving others and it’s also implied in the second statement. We know “shine” is compared to the light from the “firmament” which we know refers to the sun, the moon, and the stars in the sky. We don’t have a clue what God means by shine but we know it’ll be good because one of the spiritual truths of heaven is a good tree can produce only good fruit. That applies to both God and man. One thing we do know is that the mind of man cannot fathom the depth of the riches God has in store for us. The second statement confirms that shine means we’ll light up brightly, “like the stars.” The second statement says our shine will be “forever and ever” which means God is talking about when we’re in heaven.
The second statement talks about believers who “turn” or change a sinner from the error of their way which leads to eternal death in hell. When we witness Christ we save nonbelievers to “righteousness” and righteousness is God’s term for salvation unto eternal life in heaven. By using the word “many” in the second statement God is telling us the number of believers we are to save if we want to light up heaven. It’s obvious to me that the brightness of our “shine” in heaven depends on how many people we save for heaven. Do you want to be wise and save one person to heaven and shine like the moon or would you rather save one thousand people to heaven (many) and shine like the brightest sun in the firmament? I have a theory about shining in heaven. I have no proof from God; just a hunch that makes sense to me. We know in heaven we’ll have a glorified body just like the one Jesus has. When Jesus Christ was transfigured before Peter, John, and James on Mount Tabor Jesus allowed his glory to shine forth from his body so that he radiated brightness like the sun as an example to his disciples of the glory that awaits them in heaven one day.
When believers get to heaven God will glorify us so we’ll also be able to radiate outward our glory within. The more nonbelievers you save to heaven the more glory God will give you. If you save many nonbelievers unto eternal life in heaven by your witness for Christ you’ll be the brightest light of all and you’ll be in the top one percent of the saints in heaven. I don’t believe everyone in heaven will be walking light bulbs all the time but I do believe we’ll be able to radiate our glory when we want to. Every saint in heaven will know the rank of every other saint they meet automatically by their brightness. There is a pecking order in heaven. We are ranked by our “good works” done here on earth and by good works I mean how many nonbelievers we save to heaven. We know this because angels are ranked in heaven (i.e., archangels), therefore it’s common sense we will be also.
The last thing we need to figure out is what God means by saving “many” to heaven. I know the answer. As I’ve witnessed for Christ over the years the number one thousand kept popping up in my head as the number of saved souls I should shoot for as my goal. I wasn’t sure if the number one thousand came from me or the Holy Spirit so I prayed to God for months to give me an answer. God finally answered me. I keep in regular contact with a fellow believer who witnesses for Christ in another state. I sometimes send him Bibles and Christian tracts for his ministry and he sends me a text every time he or his team saves someone. Out of the blue, my brother in Christ sends me a text telling me his personal goal is to save one thousand souls to heaven in his lifetime. We both had the same goal but had never spoken to each other about it. God often answers our prayers through another believer. The Holy Spirit gave both of us the same goal and once I shared with him that it was my goal too we both realized God was blessing us both with the answer to our prayers. Those who save a thousand souls to heaven will qualify as saving “many” in the eyes of God and the promise of Daniel 12:3 will be theirs.
My friend is saving his thousand souls to heaven by witnessing one-on-one, which is the better way, but it makes it much harder to reach one thousand saved souls unless you start young. Everyone has their own personal ministry from God and that was his. Ask God if you don’t know how God wants you to serve him. The Holy Spirit gave me my ministry long ago, which is to study God’s word and give my testimony. My “passive” ministry evolved into this Christian blog where my twin themes are “studying God’s word” and “witnessing for Christ.” I started blogging in December 2019 and this is blog #671. I also “leverage” my witness for Christ by distributing Christian tracts containing the gospel message to my seven prison ministries as well as personally handing out Christian tracts for over ten years. It’s a big deal to save a thousand souls to heaven because 90% of the saints in heaven are there through faith in Jesus Christ alone, never having saved even one other person to heaven by a witness for Christ. If you save one hundred souls to heaven you’re in the top 5% of the saints in heaven and if you reach one thousand souls saved for heaven you’ll be in the top 1% of the saints in heaven, with all the honor, glory, and riches that go with it.
Christian tracts have saved millions of nonbelievers to heaven over the last 75 years. Christian tracts are the easiest, cheapest, and most effective way I know to reach the greatest number of nonbelievers. That’s why I’ve given away more than 40,000 tracts during my ministry to go along with 2000 Bibles and several hundred Christian books and gospel comics. I calculate that I’ve saved over one hundred people to heaven, which is a good harvest according to the Lord. However, I’m nowhere near my goal of saving one thousand people to heaven so I press onward with my witness for Christ. I work alongside my King in his harvest field to help save nonbelievers to heaven because the harvest field is great and the workers are few. I pray for more workers as God has commanded. As you witness for Christ to save nonbelievers to heaven make sure you pray for God’s help before, during, and after your witness because it’s the Holy Spirit that does the saving. You’re helping the Holy Spirit and not vice versa.
If you’re reading this blog you still have spiritual questions you want answered. Maybe you’re a declared atheist or agnostic but you’re not convinced. Maybe you’re a backsliding Christian who has doubts about your faith. More than likely you’re one of the five billion followers of one of the fake religions and false gods sponsored by Satan throughout history to hide the truth of God from man. We all know in our hearts that there is just one God and all other gods are false. I posit that Christianity is the one true religion and Jehovah is the one true God. Our Lord is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all other gods are imposters. God’s word, our Holy Bible, is the truth of God and the wisdom of God. This is my testimony. Furthermore, I have proof to back up my statements.
You can find that proof of God in my archived blogs from December 2019. I have a list of 23 physical proofs of God (there are over 200). I have a list of 34 fulfilled prophecies of Jesus Christ (there are over 60), and I have a list of Bible proofs as well. I have a posted witness outline I used at one time that uses verses from the Bible referred to as the ‘Roman Road to Salvation” which is favored by most Christians who witness for Christ. I made my witness template as a guide for others but feel free to make your own witness guide. What you’ll find is you’ll use a witness guide as a crutch the first few times you witness to someone and then you’ll never need to use it again. Dozens of Bible verses have been used to save nonbelievers to heaven. I have entire blogs dedicated to each set of proofs of God so I won’t repeat them here. Go check them out when you have the time. What I will say is that it’s fairly easy to pick out the true God because there are two things only God can do.
Only the one true God can bring someone back to life and only God can tell the future. We know that God brought Jesus Christ back to life on the third day after his crucifixion and burial. After the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we know that he walked the earth for fifty days before ascending back to heaven because we have proof. There were over 500 documented eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that is just a historical fact. We know that the Bible contains over 1000 prophecies, over 500 of which have been fulfilled and documented as historical facts. A prophecy is just history written in advance and only God is the author of history. All the other fake religions and false gods throughout history haven’t raised anyone from the dead nor have they fulfilled even one prophecy between them. You see, they can’t because they’re all fake. All the false gods of this world are powerless and they stand mute before our Lord, the true God of creation. I was saved unto eternal life in heaven when I was twelve years old by my profession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. God’s saving grace is available to anyone who comes to him in prayer. Googe “sinner’s prayer” and pray it to God, in faith, and you’ll be saved too.