DOING EXPLOITS FOR GOD by Francis Dixon
(Scripture Portion: Daniel 11:30-45)
The people that know their God will do great exploits… Daniel
• There’s a difference between knowing someone, and knowing of someone.
• That I might know Him in the power of His might… this generation knows OF Him, we really
don’t know Him.
• To know Him, you must work to develop a relationship with Him. When a person marries
another, they know them, at least they think they do, divorce usually happens when they
discover, I really didn’t know them…
• God knows us, but we don’t know Him. He knows all that there is to know, and that includes
even the things that we try to hide from Him.
• Knowing God is intentional… I know Him because I want to know Him, and I love Him, because
I love Him.
This study is based upon the last part of Daniel 11:32 as it is recorded in the King James Version. Three
ideas are contained in this verse.
• There is the thought of knowing God, being strong and doing exploits. God’s people are
characterized by what they know, what they are and what they do.
○ Believers (Christians) are different from worldly and unconverted people in these three
respects – in the matter of knowing, being and doing.
○ Notice that these three characteristics of the child of God are related, for only as we know
God can we be strong; and only as we are strong can we undertake exploits in the name
of the Lord.
○ Conversely, if we are not doing exploits for God it is because we are not strong; and if we
are not strong it is because we do not know God well enough.
• In this study we shall examine the three ideas in Daniel 11:32.
- FIRST, WE MUST KNOW GOD
It is not enough to know about Him. It is possible to know much about the Lord, His nature and
attributes, and yet not to know Him personally. We can, of course, only come to know God through the
Lord Jesus Christ – look up and compare Job 22:21; John 14:6; 17:3. This is the initial sense in which
we come to know God as our loving heavenly Father through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as our
Savior; but we must go on to know Him progressively, for there are degrees of knowing Him, as John
14:9 and Philippians 3:10 indicate. How do we really get to know God? - We get to know Him as we spend time in communion and in fellowship with Him. We can
only really get to know anyone by spending time in his or her presence, and we can only really
get to know God as we spend time alone with Him and cultivate fellowship and friendship with
Him – – as Enoch did (Genesis 5:22-24). - We get to know Him as we listen to Him speaking to us. When friends get together they talk
and listen to one another, and thus they get to know one another; and as we wait in the
presence of God regularly, He speaks to us in and through His Word, and we hear His voice
and, like Mary, really come to know Him – – look up Luke 10:38-42. - We get to know Him by speaking to Him. Fellowship is mutual; it is not a one-sided affair, and
when we come into the presence of the Lord and open our hearts and our lips to Him we get to
know Him, as David did (Psalm 55:16-17); and as Daniel did (Daniel 6:10).
All this should make us ask ourselves: How much do I know Him? For the measure of
our knowing…will determine the measure of our being…and our doing!
- KNOWING GOD WILL MAKE US STRONG
Yes, and the more we know Him the stronger we shall be. Shall we be strong physically? We should
remember that He is the source of our physical life as well as of our spiritual life. Shall we be
strong morally? Yes – as Daniel was when he was cast into the lions’ den; and as Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego were when they were cast into the fiery furnace. Shall we be strong spiritually? Yes –
look up Ephesians 6:10. As we go on to know the Lord:- We shall become stronger in our confidence in Him. We shall be filled with a holy
assurance; we shall “know” – look up Job 19:25; Romans 8:28; 2 Timothy 1:12. We shall have
confidence in God and His enabling to endure in adversity, trial, sorrow and any kind of
affliction. - We shall become stronger in our power to meet and overcome temptation and evil. How
weak we are sometimes! Why? Because we do not know the Lord enough; but as we get to
know Him better we shall receive more power to meet and to overcome those things that are
displeasing to Him – look up Acts 1:8. - We shall become stronger in our ability to be a strength to others. A Christian once prayed,
“Lord, make me as Thine arm, upon which the troubled and tried can lean!” Is that the kind of
prayer we should pray and that God will answer? Indeed, it is!
Thus, as we know God we become strong – look up Isaiah 40:28-31. And when we are strong, then what happens?
- We shall become stronger in our confidence in Him. We shall be filled with a holy
- WHEN WE ARE STRONG WE SHALL DO EXPLOITS FOR GOD
An exploit is: “A heroic deed of achievement”; a great and daring feat. The Bible is full of illustrations of
men and women who did exploits for God.
• Think of Gideon and his 300 (Judges 7:19-23);
• Samson (Judges 14:5-6);
• Elijah on Carmel (1 Kings 18:36-39); and
• See God’s picture gallery of the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11.
• Think also of the apostles and the early Christians who hazarded their lives for the name of the
Lord (Acts 15:26), and turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6)!
If we really know God and are thereby made strong in Him, we also shall do exploits, and we shall do
them in two ways:- By prayer. We shall find ourselves walking in the footsteps of men like George Muller and
Hudson Taylor, who by prayer alone “moved the arm that rules the world”. - By Witnessing. We shall find ourselves walking in the footsteps of the early Christians, whose
hearts were so full of the love of Christ that their lips were constantly filled with the message of
the gospel as they went from place to place witnessing to the power and grace of God.
- By prayer. We shall find ourselves walking in the footsteps of men like George Muller and