When you’ve been praying for something, maybe for a long time or maybe just one day, and you get the news that your prayer is going to be answered in the near future, what is your response?
Praise and thanksgiving are very appropriate here. But what about more prayer for the thing that you already found out is a “sure thing?” And I’m not just talking about the word of a man saying it’s a sure thing, I’m talking about the Word of God Himself. Unfortunately, I have to confess that in that moment, my prayers often cease. What if instead our response was not only to continue to pray, but actually pressing the accelerator and diving into continual prayer and fasting? That doesn’t sound very logical, but it is the response of Daniel to the revelation of God’s promise for the Israelites in Daniel chapter 9.
Daniel 9:1-4a – “In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom— 2in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. 3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. 4 I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed…”
Notice first of all that the promise, the revelation, was discovered by sincere searching of the scriptures and an intimacy with God’s Word that Daniel certainly practiced (It earned him a trip to the lion’s den, as chapter 6 tells us that Daniel “got down on his knees and prayed” three times a day, even when it was forbidden.). The same will be true for us: if we are seeking a word from our God, if we are seeking direction, it will most often be found in the Bible. Daniel had one of those moments where you’re reading something that you’ve read before, but then suddenly it jumps off the page and you understand it like you never have before. Daniel suddenly understood the promise given in Jeremiah 29:10:
“This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.” (see also Jer 25:11-12)
Daniel was able to see that not only would the captivity last only 70 years, but the 70thyear was approaching! Suddenly excitement as freedom was near! When you see the light at the end of the tunnel and it is so close that you are only steps away (things like financial security, full health, marriage, children, freedom from addiction, or anything you’ve been longing for and can see is almost yours after waiting for so long), do you get fixated on being in that place you’ve been longing for or do you respond like Daniel and pray even harder for the promise, the “sure thing?” I want to challenge you and myself to respond as Daniel with renewed fervor, not lacking thanksgiving, to seek Him fully and pray it right through to completion.
But let’s make sure we understand the nature of Daniel’s prayer. If you haven’t read Daniel 9 recently, I encourage you to stop reading this and read it now (if you have only enough time to read either my blog or the Bible today, please read your Bible! It is the only pure truth that lasts and anything you read outside of the Bible should point you right back into it.).
Daniel’s prayer was of sincere, sweeping repentance. In addition to prayer and petition, he fasted. In addition to fasting, he put on sackcloth and ashes, a sign of grief and repentance. Grief and repentance in the face of a fulfilled promise? Yes, this is the response of a human heart pure before the Lord, recognizing our sinful nature, His perfection, and confessing in His presence in response and awe of a gracious, loving, powerful, sovereign God of justice who would relent for “[His] people who are called by [His] name” (v. 19).
Every single verse from 4 through 16 speaks of confession of sin and repentance. So we see revelation followed by a full repentance, as Daniel confesses personally and on behalf of the entire nation, for “all Israel has transgressed your law” (v. 11). Finally, Daniel makes an appeal to God for who he knows God to be in verses 17-19. This is an appeal to grace, mercy, and for the sake of God’s own name to be glorified, because the Israelites bear God’s name before all men and nations. Revelation and conviction, followed by thorough repentance (13 of the 19 verses here), followed by an appeal to God’s character--His face, not just His hands.
2 Chron 7:14 – “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
You see, Daniel was a man seeking much more than personal gain or the hands of God to bless him and his nation. Daniel had an intimate, dedicated relationship with God through His Word. We have the same Word of God in the Bible, and additionally, we know that through Jesus Christ, “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). Through the Word of God, most purely Jesus Christ in our lives, we too can have this intimate relationship with a pure, just God who is also loving and merciful such that He saves those who call out to Him through the name of His Son Jesus Christ.
2 Chron 7:14 speaks to repentance and seeking God’s face, and the promise that follows: restoration, both spiritual eternity and the physical present. It is interesting how much Daniel’s prayer models this promise, in that He spoke up on behalf of an entire nation “who are called by [God’s] name,” he offered repentance for the entire nation and sought God’s face on behalf of an entire nation, all of which are prerequisites to the promise of forgiveness of sin and actual healing of the land.
What I see in this prayer is a leader stepping up in intercession for His people. Boldly, powerfully, humbly, and purely. This is a leader well acquainted with God and His Word. A leader who answered to God alone and not men. A leader blessed by God to rise to this position for a time such as the one described in chapter 9. These are real leaders and the kind that we need to be seeking in America and across the world. What good is a leader who can provide one generation of wealth and prosperity? We would fall all over ourselves for a leader that could deliver on 4 years of prosperity, yet we struggle to find even that. Yet what future do we preserve for our families and our nation if even a full generation of prosperity can be promised and delivered, but no more? We need to stop being so short-sighted and see the eternal picture, or at least 2 or 3 generations past ourselves for starters. We need a leader who will seek God’s face. A leader who knows His Word. A leader that answers to God alone and not men. A leader who will be an intercessor to God for his people, through Jesus Christ the Supreme Intercessor.
Can you imagine what great works God would come and do in America if a Daniel became President of the United States? How about a Daniel that became the leader in your school, your church, your office, or your family? What might be started on this small level and propagated by the hand of God? I don’t believe we grasp the power and value God places on a sincere intercessor who seeks the heart of God and His face.
Isaiah 59:15-16 – “So truth fails, And he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Then the LORD saw it, and it displeased Him That there was no justice.
16 He saw that there was no man, And wondered that there was no intercessor; Therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him; And His own righteousness, it sustained Him.”
“He wondered that there was no intercessor.” In the book of Isaiah, this speaks to the absence of men to intercede on the behalf of the defenseless, such that evil abounded; to intercede to God the Father on behalf of a sinful nation; and the inability for a man to properly intercede for the sins of any man, such that God Himself would have to become a man, live a perfect life, make the sacrifice of death that results from sin, conquer death on our behalf, then take His place at the right hand of the throne of God with a the title of King of Kings and Lord of Lords and the only adequate intercessor on our behalf.
Do to this lack of an intercessor in the time of Isaiah, the Israelites would soon enter into the 70 years of Babylonian captivity. And with Daniel as an intercessor at this time, according to the promise given through Jeremiah, at 70 years, they would be delivered.Notice also that right at the very onset of Daniel’s prayer, God gave a command:
Daniel 9:21,23a - “…yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering… 23 “At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved…””
An empowering truth and realization is that at the onset of our first words of prayer, God has already seen our heart and begins to act swiftly in our favor when we bear such an attitude as Daniel.
In view of all this, as we stand in the climate of our times, will you join me as an intercessor for our people? Will you search the scriptures with me for truth and receive God’s promises and revelations? Will you give yourself to sincere prayer and repentance, thoroughly and personally, as well as for our entire nation? Will you set out with me to seek God’s face, desiring an intimate knowledge of His very character? If so, we will be the leaders through which God will accomplish His every promise to be fulfilled in our lifetimes. And when we see the eminent fulfillment of God’s every promise, every personal small or large thing, or on a national or global scale, let's respond as Daniel responded, diving deeper into prayer.
God’s promises are a sure thing. Let’s pray them through to completion. I pray that we discern and seek leaders like Daniel and that we ourselves would be those leaders right where we are today. Amen.
(To see all posts for "Pray It Through," click here.)
