The Truth About The Four Hebrew Boys

Adelphoi, it is always wonderful to communicate Truth to you. Don’t take any moment you spend here as time wasted. No! It’s an opportunity to increase in the knowledge of God and His Christ so be intentional as the Holy Spirit breathes on you. Receive the truth with an open heart, humility and a broken spirit.

Last week I started to write to you about our erroneous conception of the spirit of excellence the Hebrew Boys had (Here is the post from last week “Untold Truth About Daniel” ).

Please, I want you to know that I’ve not always known this. I also believed some wrong things. I thought the spirit of excellence was to make me better than my colleagues. I thought the spirit of excellence was how I looked and presented myself and arranged my wardrobe and all that. I was wrong.

So what is the spirit of excellence?

Maybe in English, this excellence could mean extraordinary in the sense of doing something better than others (irrespective of moral quality). This is what we would naturally assume that the scriptures meant when the excellent spirit was testified to be in the Hebrew Boys especially because they excelled in their trainings and vocations and in all that they did but even that, is not the spirit of excellence.

Daniel 5:12 (KJV)
“Forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and shewing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar: now let Daniel be called, and he will shew the interpretation.”

I’m excited I can share this with you.

It is easier to think that Daniel and the other boys had an excellent spirit because they were found ten times better than their colleagues. I used to teach that we must have an excellent spirit in all we do, that is do things better than others. I thought doing things better, having a touch of class was a display of the spirit of excellence. It is not!

We often replace the spirit of a thing for acts that look like it. Let me explain. If you think because my customer service is topnotch, swift to respond and finding solutions then I have an excellent spirit, you’re wrong. If you think because my employees are properly and sharply dressed then I have an excellent spirit, you’re wrong. If you think because I do a work that is common on the road side in a plaza or mall and put a lot of class to it then I have an excellent spirit, you’re wrong.

None of the above shows having an excellent spirit.

According to English, they may be very representation of excellence but when scriptures talk about the spirit of excellence, it has nothing to do with “how extra white my white is“, you get what I mean there.

By the spirit, I understood that when the Queen mother talked about the spirit of excellence, she talked about how differently they lived and did everything not how better they lived and did everything. She was talking about their perspective to everything. She was talking about how they chose to eat vegetables and water over the king’s meat. She was talking about how they’d rather burn than bow to a gold statue. She was talking about how Daniel would rather die than not talk to his God (even though this hadn’t happened as at then). Their way was different. They were separate!

So, let me show you what an excellent spirit is and why I believe even when all the disciples were the scum of the earth, I am convinced they were ridden with the excellent spirit.

Daniel 1:8 (KJV)
“But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.”

Listen brethren, without further talk, the way of God is the way of excellence. The one who chooses the counsel and testimony of God concerning every matter is the one who has an extraordinary spirit.

The wisdom, understanding, visions, ability to interpret, etc, are not the spirit of excellence, they are given by God to the one who pleases HIM.

Listen, when you see a man that holds on to the Truth and the testimony of God, when you see a man choose the way of God and His Spirit, his shirt may be dirty (don’t worry, he will soon be taught) that man has the spirit of excellence. He may not be the best organizer but he does everything to please God and doesn’t deviate to the right or left from the commands of his God despite the circumstances, that man has an excellent spirit.

The one who chooses, learns of and keeps the knowledge of God and His way (Christ) is the one who has the excellent spirit.

Every other thing; wisdom, knowledge, understanding, visions, signs, etc shall be added to him.

I know this is long but it’ll bless you if you read it again. Maybe this time, write out everything you thought the spirit of excellence was and as you read from last week’s post, cancel them out and replace them with what you now know the spirit of excellence is.

The spirit of excellence that God likes is not seen in how solid your protocol is, it’s seen when you face the king’s portion. It’s seen when you face the burning furnace not how well dressed you are. It is seen when you face the lion’s den not how better you do anything. Listen, that’s why I started with the truth that the excellence of God is not that of competition.

Brethren, with your life, seek the knowledge of God. Seek the counsel of God and keep it. This is why I wrote this post. So you know that the one who keeps the word is the one who has an excellent spirit from God.

Read again and I pray you understand. I wish it was a podcast so I can be more expressive. God bless you.

Photo Source: https://images.app.goo.gl/fiNX7zGfoAdXts669 https://images.app.goo.gl/Peq5zz2WER3BfHfj9

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