Daniel S.O.A.P. The Reason for Your Gift

While S.O.A.P.ing the other morning, I came across this powerful verse that spoke to me and I believe it will do the same for you.

And it is not because I am wiser than anyone else that I know the secret to your dream, but because God wants you to understand what was in your heart.


Daniel 2:30(NLT)


The king of Babylon had a dream and wanted to know what it meant.  He asked his wise men, but they couldn't interpret the dream and so he purposed to kill them all.  When Daniel heard about it, he asked God to help him interpret the dream and God did.

Daniel's keen understanding of God's gift at work in his life to interpret dreams is something we could all learn from.

1. Daniel understood that his special ability was from God and so he couldn't think of himself as better than anyone else.

• It's amazing how we sometimes take credit when in reality God has just given us a gift.
• Whatever you are good at, whatever just comes natural to you, whether it's sports, business, speaking, any talent, God gave that to you, so don't think you are better than.
• I Cor. 12 tells us that God gives everyone of us gifts, at least one.  Have you discovered yours?  
• Our nature is to want to be better than the next person, the best worker, the best looking, the highest paid.  Daniel had dealt with that selfish pride and understood that God had a higher purpose for him than merely being better than another.

2. Daniel understood that God gifted him to get through to other people, in this case the king.

• Your gifts are never about you, but about the people that God wants to use you to serve.
• Without this knowledge, you'll waste your life on personal gain but never find purpose.
• Your awesome, god-given gift is not to make you famous but to make Jesus famous.
• Think about how God wants to use your voice, your skills, your organizational ability for His kingdom.
• The body of Christ is an amazing entity, and you are a part, so do what you were designed to do.
• What makes you angry? You may be called to make it right.
• What breaks your heart?  You may be called to be a solution.
• What are you good at without trying?  That's the area in which God wants to use you.

3. Humility is just remembering that any good thing comes from God.  Worship is when we give it back to Him for His glory.

• God has promised to give grace to the humble.
• You've received it as a gift, so give it as a gift.