The earlier account in scripture that we quoted is particularly enlightening for us, because in this passage the prophet Daniel describes just what it felt like to have an encounter with the power of the supernatural. Although Daniel’s encounter was with an angel of the Lord and not with the Lord Himself, his physical responses are still typical of how the natural human body reacts when it encounters the power of the supernatural. Daniel describes how his body became weak and he immediately fell to the ground in a trance. When he woke up he found himself face down on the ground and the angel had to help him to his feet. But even though the angel helped him to stand upright, Daniel’s body continued to tremble in the angel’s presence, and the moment the angel started speaking to him, he lost all strength and fell face down of the ground once again. The angel then picked him up again and Daniel explained to the angel just how his body was struggling to cope with this encounter. And so, the angel touched Daniel’s body with his hand and supernaturally imparted strength to him, and thus Daniel was able to continue to stand in the angel’s presence and receive God’s message from him. But unless the angel had intervened in this manner, Daniel would have remained incapacitated on the ground the whole time, for the natural human body is not able to stand when the power of the supernatural is manifested. But again I want you to notice the important truth that the scripture reveals to us from this account, i.e. Daniel fell to the ground simply because he was too weak to stand in the angel’s presence, not because the angel’s power either forced him or threw him to the ground against his will.
Michael E.B. Maher
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