Dan. 10:12 Then he said to me, “Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words.
This verse reveals the path to apprehending from God. Hungry Disciples are always desperate for more, and are constantly crying out how to receive the “much more” experience of His presence. We seem to move from chamber to chamber, with each chamber being nearer His beauty and larger in experience of His glory. The longing for the next chamber is itself a gift from Him. The joy of longing is a joyful, and desperate anguish, that keeps us in a state of perpetual hope for “more.” Though the thought and the hope of “the more” is both painful and glorious, if we find ourselves stuck in the birth canal into the next place, we can despair. I’ve found that, though each new chamber ‘further up and further in’ is larger, the birth canals seem to get smaller and smaller. That means that with each new place in His presence, I have to get smaller to pass through into new and greater glory. Having said that, the way through is always the same, though with increasing degrees. Look at what the Angel said to Daniel. He told him that God responded positively to him for two reasons. One, he set his heart on understanding. He wasn’t passive about apprehending God in this matter; he was DETERMINED to gain God in this journey he was embarking on. Like Jacob when he wrestled with God; he cried out “I will not let you go until you bless me.” God loves that. Daniel SET his heart. Secondly, he SET his heart on humbling himself to get there. In other words, he was willing to pay any price. He was willing to give up anything; let go of anything; do anything to have all that God had to offer. The journey to apprehend all of Him and all that He offers, if you really want Him above all things, is a journey from which you will never return. The you that you are today, will have to die along the way into the next place, where you are once again made new before His face. Of course, to gain Christ in a new way, is to look back at any price you may have had to pay and call all the loss “rubbish.”