Mar 15, 2023
Daniel can teach us to pray because he knew how to pray. In his prayer and his positioning before God, he had all the elements that God had taught Solomon—who taught the people how to pray when they were in a time of God’s judgment and wrath against them for the way that they had refused Him and refused His Word. I believe we are in similar times, and therefore we need to apply the words of Daniel to our hearts and learn how to intercede in this way before God.
Show Notes: God spoke to Solomon, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will heal the land.” Daniel followed this instruction when he saw his land devastated and ravaged and the people taken into captivity. He longed to see that time of disaster turned into the time of restoration that God had promised. So he humbled himself, fasted, and prayed for God to forgive Israel.
Devastations happened to Israel because of their actions which God had warned them about. Today, just as it was in Israel before the devastation Daniel witnessed, we live in an era when people are mocking the Word of God and mocking those who are messengers sent by God. The Word of God is scoffed at and rejected. It is refused by all aspects of our society from our courtrooms to our classrooms. Our land is being devoured by many things, and pestilence, like COVID-19, is touching every nation in the world.
We need to be the Daniels in our generation who humble ourselves before God, who pray and seek His face. I think we need to be seeking God like never before. With a force in our hearts and spirits, let us believe for our prayers to work today in Jerusalem and in Israel for His chosen people, as well as for the Church, the Body of Christ, in America and the nations around the world. We ask the Lord to grant the prayer of His servant Daniel that it be a teaching to us and that we learn how to pray in the same manner to bring His grace and compassion into our lives.
Key Verses:
• 2 Chronicles 7:11–14. “If … My people … humble themselves and pray and seek My face.”
• 2 Chronicles 36:11–21. “They continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets.”
• Daniel 9:1–19. “O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action!”
Quotes:
• “There is a level of repentance I think that we all need to enter into in this day. I think we need to seek His face about our wicked ways. What is the wickedness that you're pointing to God that you want us to get rid of?”
• “I just want to somehow connect with Daniel and with his heart because we think of him as a prophet, but he was a man of prayer. He was a man who sought the Lord.”
• “He is a God of great compassion. And we cry to Him to hear, to forgive, to listen and to take action for His own namesake. And we ask that He not delay because of the need of the people called by His name and those who are believers in Christ His Son.”
Takeaways:
1. The judgments happened to Israel because of actions the people were warned against and the fact they did not learn the lessons they were given to prevent such a fate. I believe we in the United States have had similar lessons and similar warnings. And if we are not already experiencing the consequences, we are certainly close to experiencing them.
2. I believe that we find ourselves today in the circumstances described in 2 Chronicles chapter 7. And I believe our answers are found in the instructions the Lord gave Solomon concerning how to pray during circumstances brought about by people’s rejection of God and His Word.
3. I also believe that Daniel’s prayer recorded in Daniel chapter 9 teaches us exactly how to follow the instructions God gave Solomon that His people humble themselves and pray and seek His face and turn from their wicked ways.