If Daniel could do that under the Old Covenant, what can we do under the New Covenant? Shouldn’t we, as believers, also be prospering and being promoted to the highest place available in whatever sphere of influence to which God has called us?
Sure, we should—and we can. We just need to walk in the excellence of our true identity.
I first received a revelation of this years ago when I was attending Oral Roberts University and working for Brother Roberts. He said to those of us on his staff, “If we’re to demand excellence from our students, we must demand it of ourselves.” He was adamant about that, and I realized he was right to be. So, from then on, especially when it came to ministry, I followed his example and that became my standard.
I remember one time, in the beginning years of this ministry, I was in the studio with some musicians recording an album. We’d done several takes on the various tracks, but I still was not satisfied with the last song. I said, “We can do better than this. Let’s try it at least one more time.”
The guy who’d been playing steel guitar wasn’t interested.
“Aw, that’s good enough for gospel,” he said.
Good enough for gospel?
Just hearing that made me want to feed the guy his guitar. I didn’t. But I didn’t smile either. I just ignored him and we did the song again and again until we got it right.
Of course, later The LORD brought us musicians like Steve Ingram and Phil Driscoll to work with and they had an entirely different attitude. They stuck with a song as long as necessary. They’d keep recording one take after another until we all said, “Yes, that’s it!”
Some people might call that being a perfectionist. But it wasn’t that we were looking for perfection in the music. We were looking for the anointing to come on it, and it’s an interesting thing: The anointing and the perfection run along side by side.
Excellence and the glory flow together.
Put Some Pressure on the Devil
One person who understood this was the Apostle Paul. He never had a sloppy, just-get-by attitude. Even before he was born again his zeal as a Pharisee was unsurpassed, and as a believer he became even more zealous about following Jesus. After meeting Him in His glory on the road to Damascus, Paul went after Him with everything he had.
As he wrote in Philippians 3:
"I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: [Remember, the word Christ means “the Anointed One and His Anointing.”] for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ…that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing…forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (verses 8, 12-14).
6 : BVOV
