Dharius Daniels - The Enemy Stole Your Understanding

Not suggested, not recommended, but commanded for Israel. So, on the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. That’s a completely different lesson there, right? The enemy, when he can’t rob us of hearing, robs us of understanding—the foundation on which your spiritual life is really built. Just commenting on prayer and expanding what we’ve been taught, I remember one time we would label prayer as unsuccessful if God didn’t get us out of something. One of the revelations that God gave me was, «Hey, sometimes prayer is not designed to get you out; it’s designed to get me in.» Right? Yes! Like the three Hebrew boys—I know they would rather not have been thrown into the fiery furnace, but when Nebuchadnezzar looked in, he said, «I put in three, but I see four.» That’s right. And I think sometimes God says, «The only way I can get you out is by me getting in.» Yes, I’m not going to get you out. I want what you’re in to teach you something. But I’m going to get in there with you so that it can teach you and not destroy you. Absolutely! I’m going to use it to burn what has you bound. But when I bring you out, you’re not going to smell like smoke. That’s right! So sometimes you might say, «Hey God, you didn’t get me out.» No, but the reason you’re still here and standing is because I got in. Absolutely! This foundation we are discussing is so important because our success in any area—success relationally, in the Kingdom, success mentally in terms of the quality of life promised to us by the Father, and our success emotionally and spiritually—is not just determined by what we build, but by what we build with. Here, I want you to follow me on this. When the enemy cannot stop us from building the right thing, he tries to get us to build it with the wrong material. This is what I see in Nehemiah chapter 8. In Nehemiah chapter 8, verse one, it says all the people came together as one in the square before the Watergate. They told Ezra, the teacher of the law, to bring out the book of the law of Moses. Listen, when you get better spiritually, everything gets better. Spiritual life is not the only important part of your life; it is the most important part because it affects every other part. However, you don’t get stronger spiritually by accident; it takes intentionality. You need to get fed, and you have to learn how to interpret, apply, and explain the Bible. The Bible is the blueprint for your best life, and I am going to tell you that Sunday is not enough to give you the tools you need to improve your understanding of the Bible. I want you to join me in my community called Bible You, where I help you take your understanding, application, and explanation of the Bible to another level. Bring back the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord commanded—not suggested, not recommended, but commanded—for Israel. On the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. That’s a completely different lesson there. When the enemy can’t rob us of hearing, he robs us of understanding, and one of the ways he does this is by making us resistant to truth that challenges an area we don’t want to change. Another way is by triggering our trauma so that when there is a truth communicated, our trauma creates a barrier preventing us from receiving it. If I have trauma with my father, it can create a barrier to my receiving the fullness of what God wants to be when I hear a revelation of Him as Father. He uses this on the part of the receiver, but we need to talk more about this. This is a different lesson; maybe it belongs in Bible You, Ministry Mastery Academy, or something else. He also attempts to impact the understanding of believers by confusing communicators and causing them to communicate in a way that’s unclear. We don’t talk about this enough; sometimes we focus on the comprehension level of the saints but not on the communication ability of the preacher. We don’t discuss this enough. It’s like, «No fam, I sat here and listened to you for 30 minutes and I’m confused—not because I’m dumb, but because this is incoherent.» It’s all over the place, and I don’t know if you studied this thoroughly. We don’t talk about this enough.