Bad news. Even in this world’s stressed-out economy, It’s one thing that remained plentiful, accessible and cheap (OK, free). These days, more than ever, bad news abounds. It’s broadcast on Television 24/7. It’s constantly updated on the Internet, passed along by mobile phone, and delivered by email. It’s printed, satellited, cabled and shared the old -fashioned way at the office and the coffee shop. But if you’re a born-again child of God, there’s some good news about all that bad news. It’s this: You don’t have to let the bad news bother you! You can stand on The Word of God, shout the victory and live in THE BLESSING no matter how much the naysayers nay.
That’s what the man described in Psalm 112 did. He developed such boldness of faith that negative reports had absolutely no effect on him. He cultivated such confidence in his covenant with God, the Bible could say this about him: “He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies. He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever” (verses 7-8). That’s the kind of believer God intends us all to be. He wants every one of His children to keep on giving to others and living by faith, even…no, especially… when bad news is swirling all around us. Through Jesus, He has made the way for us to be BLESSED and a blessing — in any economy, any time, any place. To do that, however, our faith in God can’t be an off-and-on thing. It can’t rise and fall with the stock market or the price of gasoline. No, our hearts must be fixed on The Word like a fencepost is fixed in concrete.
We must be so established in it that nothing can move us off it. Even if the whole world is cock-eyed, we’ll stay straight because trusting God is the plumb line for our lives.
You Have an Edge
“Brother Copeland, do you really think I could develop that kind of rock-solid faith?” Certainly, you can. “I don’t know. I’m pretty much of a beginner in the things of God.” That may be true, but answer this: Do you know if He has the ability to save you from the bad situations you’re facing in your life? “Of course! One thing I’m sure of is God’s power. I know He can do anything!” Then you already have an edge on three of the boldest people of faith in the Bible. You already know something Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego didn’t know — and they faced about the worst news possible with fixed and fearless hearts. You probably remember their story. The king of Babylon had erected a golden idol and commanded everyone in the nation to bow down and worship it. Anyone who refused would be thrown without delay into the midst of a burning fiery furnace (Daniel 3:6). To Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego — God-worshipping Jews who were captives in Babylon at the time — that was very bad news. Yet it didn’t change their attitude or their actions one whit. They weren’t about to betray their God by groveling in front of an idol. So while everyone around them bowed to it, they just went on about their business.
Their stand of faith didn’t go unnoticed for long, either. Jealous government officials looking for an opportunity to oust the three Jews from their positions of authority wasted no time telling the king about their behaviour. Enraged, he called for them and said: “Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? Now if ye be ready…fall down and worship the image which I have made; but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?” (verses 14-15). Talk about a negative report!
That kind of news could have been enough to convince Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to figure out a compromise. They could have said to themselves, It doesn’t make any sense for us to be rigid about this issue and go up in flames over it. This idol is just a pile of metal anyway. It’s not a real god. We’ll just bow to it enough to get the king off our backs and things will be fine. That sounds logical. But it’s not what Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego said. Instead, they stood their ground. They faced bad news without fear or compromise. They answered the king: “O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up” (verses 16-18).
Genetically Altered Bible
I’ll be blunt with you: Religion has totally messed up that passage of Scripture. Religion has taught people for years that the three words “But if not” in verse 18 prove that you never know what God is going to do. He might deliver you, or He might not. He might save you from the fire, and He might not. He might want to teach you something by letting you fry. That’s absurd! It’s genetically altered Bible! God is not a murderer. He is not going to just sit there and let people who are serving and trusting Him die without lifting a finger to help them. What’s more, Shadrach and company knew it. What, then, did they mean when they said, “But if not…”? They were saying, “If our God is able to deliver us, He will. But even if He is not able, we won’t bow to any idol.” Unlike Christians today, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego weren’t sure if God had the power to rescue them from the furnace. They didn’t have an entire Bible to read like we do. They’d been surrounded by the heathen culture of Babylon since they were kids. Most of what they knew about God they’d learnt from Daniel. He was their mentor, and he was a man who absolutely would not compromise his covenant with God. Even if he was threatened with death, he stood his ground. When Daniel refused to eat the defiling food provided by the king, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego followed his example. They said, “Yeah, we’re not going to eat that food either.”
As a result, they came out of the situation on top. Again and again as Daniel took his stand for God, his three little Jewish brothers stood with him; and each time they did, they were prospered and promoted. Every time they were faithful to God, He was faithful to them…and they knew why. It was because of the covenant God had made with Abraham. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego may not have understood just how much God could do, but they did know about the covenant of BLESSING. No doubt, Daniel had told them the story: how God had appeared to Abram in fire and smoke. How He had walked the blood covenant path. How He had sworn an unbreakable oath to do everything in His power to protect and bless Abraham and his descendants forever — even if it cost Him His life. Eventually it did!! Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego knew their covenant. So when they heard bad news from Nebuchadnezzar, they didn’t get upset. They didn’t sit around stewing about it. Instead, they talked back. They spoke to the most powerful king on earth and said, “Mister king, we’re not going to mince words with you about this. If our God is able to deliver us, He’ll do it. The only reason He wouldn’t is just because He can’t. But even if that’s the case, even if He is not able to deliver us, you can turn up the heat in that furnace all you want and we still won’t bow to your idol. So do whatever you need to do!” Their boldness made the king so mad that he called for the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than usual. Then he picked some of his most valiant men to throw them into the flames. Never mind that the furnace was so hot it was belching sparks and radiating so much heat that it killed his men. Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t thinking about that. He just wanted those God-loving Jews dead.
The Fourth Man
He didn’t get what he wanted, of course. Instead, he looked into the fire and saw Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego walking around, joined by a fourth man who looked to him like “the Son of God” (verse 25). What was that fourth man doing in there? God sent him to deliver those three men of faith. Why? Because of their faith. They looked death in the eye and refused to be moved by it. They stood on their covenant with God and said, “If our God is able to deliver us, He will.” Sometimes I wonder when believers today are going to start talking like that. When are they going to get wound up enough to speak to the economy and say, “Hey, I’m not bowing to you. I’m trusting God and He will deliver me. He will prosper me. He will meet all my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus!”
When are we going to say, “Listen, Mr. President, Mr. Senator, Mr. Congressman and all the rest of you government people, I’m not dependent on you. I don’t need your bailout plan. I believe Almighty God, and I look to Him, not you!” What will inspire in us that kind of boldness and uncompromising commitment is the same thing that inspired it in Daniel and his three little brothers: a revelation of the fact that we have a blood covenant with Almighty God. We’ll be able to handle bad news with the same sweat-less confidence they did when we realise God has sworn a covenant oath to us in the blood of Jesus; that He has given to us the promise He made to Abraham; that He has sworn by Himself because He could swear by no greater, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.”
Get High on the Good News
Once we get a revelation of the New Covenant, a covenant that’s even better than the one Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had, we’ll be as bold as they were. Once we understand what really happened after Jesus paid the price for sin and was raised from the dead, our hearts will be so fixed that nothing can move them. I remember the first time it dawned on me. I was on a plane, coming back from Houston, reading a little book on the blood covenant. All of a sudden the pieces came together and it hit me: My God in heaven! Jesus Christ of Nazareth is my blood brother! I’ve been covenanted into the family of God through His blood. I’ve been made a joint heir with Him! In an instant, I understood the parable of the prodigal son as never before. I realised that when he came home from his life of sin asking his father to let him be a servant, his father did the unthinkable. He said, “Kill the fatted calf!” The father didn’t want a servant. He wanted a son. That calf was a blood-covenant sacrifice. By killing that special calf, the father brought his son, who had been as good as dead, back to life again. He covenanted him back into the family. He didn’t just give him his previous standing as a second-born son. He put the best robe on him. He put the signet ring on his finger and made him joint possessor of everything he had. That once-prodigal son became wealthier in one moment of covenant than he ever was before he fouled things up.
When I saw that, I got wilder than a goat right there on the aeroplane. I was sitting up front by the forward bulkhead when I got so excited I kicked it about three times. When the flight attendant stopped by with her little booze cart and started to ask me if I wanted a drink, she said, “Oooh no…you’ve had enough already!” She was right, too. I was higher on that revelation than I could ever get on any of that junk she was offering. I’m still high on it. You can be too because that blood covenant is yours just as much as it’s mine. So meditate on it. Spend time thinking, studying, praising God and praying over the fact that God has sworn on His own life, in the very blood of Jesus, to bless you, multiply you and fulfil in your life every scriptural promise He ever made. Get your heart so fixed on the good news of that covenant that not even a fiery furnace could shake you. Be like the man in Psalm 112. Be like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Get so high on the good news of the New Covenant that no matter how much bad news the devil delivers, he can never bring you down.
Article by Kenneth Copeland from the BVOV Magazine, November 2010.
