In my last two articles, we’ve looked at the life of the biblical leader Daniel to discover two ways to build influence in a hostile culture. Those two keys are commitment and character. Daniel demonstrated a commitment to God that had been tested, and he modeled character through his integrity, wisdom, and humility. In this article, I want to share three final lessons from Daniel’s life on building influence.
Daniel served under four different kings (King Nebuchadnezzar, King Belshazzar, King Darius, and King Cyrus), and in each government administration he served in the highest levels of leadership. One verse gives us a glimpse into Daniel’s secret to building influence:
“Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom” (Daniel 6:3).
He distinguished himself by his commitment to God and his upright character, but there were three additional distinguishing characteristics of Daniel’s life and leadership: competence, courage, and consistency.
1. Competence
Daniel exhibited the gifts, abilities, and skills to effectively lead. Everybody has abilities, but Daniel’s understanding and approach to his giftedness set him apart.
A. Daniel Knew His Gifts and Their Source
When you read Daniel’s story, it becomes clear that he had three primary gifts:
- Knowledge and understanding
- The ability to interpret dreams, riddles, and problems
- The capacity for leadership
But Daniel not only knew his gifts, he also knew the source of his gifts. Daniel 1:17 says, “To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.” This is an important point to make, because in our culture, gifts quickly get turned into gods. We see this in sports, media, and anywhere there’s a platform. But Daniel kept his gifts in perspective by recognizing God as the source of his gifts.
B. Daniel Had a Learning Attitude that Helped Him Grow His Gifts
When King Nebuchadnezzar captured Daniel and brought him to Babylon, Scripture describes his appetite for learning:
“Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility—young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service” (Daniel 1:3-5).
Daniel was one of these men who applied his God-given gifts, knowledge, and understanding to learn the language and literature of Babylon. And Daniel 10:12 tells us that Daniel set his mind to gain understanding. It’s clear that God gave Daniel the aptitude to learn, but Daniel chose the attitude to learn.
That’s the same choice God gives us today. God gives you the aptitude, but that God-given aptitude doesn’t do you much good if you don’t combine it with the attitude to learn. Your attitude toward growth determines the size of your growth.
C. Daniel Used his Gifts to Serve the Kings with Excellence
Daniel distinguished himself with a spirit of excellence. Daniel 1:18-20 says,
“At the end of the time set by the king to bring them into his service, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s service. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.
Consider this: Daniel served four corrupt and ungodly kings with excellence. This is an important insight. Sometimes God will place you in an environment to use your gifts to serve faithfully and with excellence—even though your leader is ungodly. That’s what God did with Daniel. He served four corrupt kings for over 65 years. How corrupt?
- King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Daniel’s hometown of Jerusalem. He also threatened to have Daniel and the other wise men torn limb to limb, and to burn down their houses, if they didn’t interpret his dream. In addition, Nebuchadnezzar threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into a fiery furnace for refusing to bow down to his idol.
- King Belshazzar got drunk on wine out of the goblets that used to sit in the temple of God in Jerusalem.
- King Darius had Daniel thrown in the lion’s den for praying to God instead of the king.
Again, these weren’t just mean kings…these were corrupt, inhumane, and ungodly kings. And yet, despite all of these acts of corruption, violence, and disrespect for God, Daniel faithfully—and with excellence—deployed his gifts in service to each king.
Here’s the lesson for us today: Sometimes you won’t agree with your leader’s decision. Sometimes your values will collide with those of your leader. Sometimes your leader will reject your faith and your God. But sometimes God calls his people into those environments to be light in the darkness. And when you show yourself—in that environment—to be competent, God will often increase your influence so that God’s Kingdom can expand in those broken places.
2. Courage
Anytime you serve in a culture that opposes God or exhibits corruption, you will be faced with moments that require courage. Courage isn’t necessary when everybody thinks and acts like you. Courage is only necessary when you have to take a stand for what is right, and sometimes that comes with a cost.
For example, Daniel had the Courage to speak the truth. On one occasion, he interpreted the handwriting on the wall for King Belshazzar. He told the king:
“This is the message that was written: Mene, mene, tekel, and Parsin. This is what these words mean: Mene means ‘numbered’—God has numbered the days of your reign and has brought it to an end.Tekel means ‘weighed’—you have been weighed on the balances and have not measured up.Parsin means ‘divided’—your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians” (Daniel 5:25-28).
What king wants to be told he doesn’t measure up or that he’s about to lose his kingdom? Those are pretty risky words to tell a king who has the authority to kill you. But Daniel had the courage to speak the truth when the truth was unpopular.
Daniel also had the courage to remain faithful to God. When King Darius issued an edict to pray only to him for 30 days, or face the consequence of the lion’s den, Daniel continued to pray to God alone (Daniel 6:10-11). He was faithful to God, even in the face of death.
Sometimes courage starts with the smallest acts. In their book, A Leader’s Legacy, James Kouzes and Barry Posner share the story of Rosa Parks. On December 1, 1955, the bus driver of the Cleveland Avenue bus in Montgomery, Alabama demanded that black riders move from their seats in the racially neutral middle section of the bus to make way for white passengers. But a black rider named Rosa Parks remained seated.
When he asked her if she was going to stand up, she said, “No, I am not.” When he threatened to have her arrested, she said, “Go ahead.” Rosa Parks’ actions weren’t strategic or grand; in fact, you could argue that they were simple and mundane. But Rosa’s refusal to move from her seat demonstrated the power of a single act of courage to stand up for what was right.
Rosa wasn’t a powerful civil rights leader. She was a seamstress on her way home from work. She was a wife, member of her church, good neighbor, and a volunteer in the army of black citizens doing their part. But because of her single act of courage, she gave momentum to a movement. In her autobiography, Quiet Strength, Rosa writes:
“I didn’t get on the bus that day to get arrested. I got on the bus to go home.” She said, “It’s funny to me how people came to believe that the reason that I did not move from my seat was that my feet were tired. My feet were not tired, but I was tired of unfair treatment.”
Rosa Parks was committed to a set of values that propelled her to make a courageous decision. She said, “There had to be a stopping place, and this seemed to have been the place for me to stop being pushed around and to find out what human rights I had, if any.”
When you look at Rosa Parks’ actual behaviors—not moving, saying no, willingly getting arrested—they are fairly simple actions. They don’t require big budgets or strategic planning sessions. They require only a personal decision and the will to stick with it. But that’s where courage often begins.
3. Consistency
Daniel did not gain and exert influence overnight. Daniel 1:21 says, “Daniel remained in the royal service until the first year of the reign of King Cyrus.”
Get the picture: Daniel served four kings—King Nebuchadnezzar, King Belshazzar, King Darius, and King Cyrus—from the time he was 16 until he was in his 80s. He slowly built influence, step-by-step, day-by-day, year-by-year, and choice-by-choice. Simply put, Daniel was consistent. He modeled…
- Consistent Commitment to God
- Consistent Character
- Consistent Competence
- Consistent Courage
Anybody can do any of those things once. Anybody can be committed to God in a moment. Anybody can show character in a single moment of convenience. Anybody can be competent or courageous for a brief time. But Daniel’s commitment, character, competence, and courage were lifetime qualities. As a result, his influence and impact grew stronger year after year.
Consistency has a compounding effect. In the same way money in an investment account compounds over time, consistency compounds your commitment, character, competence, and courage. Anybody can be good once, but consistency is what makes the difference.
In his book, The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, John Maxwell shares the story of composer, John Williams. John Williams has written film scores for more than 120 movies, including classics like Jaws, Star Wars, Raiders of the Last Ark, Superman, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, and Harry Potter. What was his greatest key to success? Consistency. John Williams said:
“I developed from very early on a habit of writing something every day, good or bad. There are good days, and there are less good days, but I do a certain amount of pages it seems to me before I can feel like the day has been completely served. When I am working on a film, of course, it’s a six-day-a-week affair, and when I’m not working on films, I always like to devote myself to some piece, some musical project, that gives me a feeling that I’m maybe contributing in some small way or, maybe more importantly, learning in the process.”
No matter how good you are, without consistency, you’ll never make your greatest contribution to the world, and you certainly won’t build influence.
So, how would you score yourself in the five qualities necessary to build influence in a hostile culture. On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you score your:
- Commitment to God
- Character
- Competence
- Courage
- Consistency
More importantly, what one or two steps can you begin taking to improve. These are not quick fix solutions to a life of influence. They represent the long road. But they are the only way to build enduring influence amidst the hostility of culture.
