How much of the Lord do you want?
How much is all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength? I pray. It's good to listen, but when God speaks, it's good to say yes.
And I just kept following the prayer and the yes and the prayer and the yes. Now, here's an offer that'll strengthen your marriage as you grow closer to your spouse and God. We have an exciting resource to help strengthen your marriage so it can thrive no matter what your circumstances. It's The Marriage Devotional, 52 Days to Strengthen the Soul of Your Marriage by Levi and Jenny Lusko.
And we'd love to send you a copy as thanks for your gift this month to grow the ministry of Connect with Skip. How do you figure out what's going on underneath your marriage? You ask about it. So when was the last time you've checked in with your spouse? And a little pro tip, Jenny and I, our marriage counselor, for what it's worth, she told us to never, ever, ever do the check in during date night.
And this has been revolutionary for us. We used to just literally have a fight every single date night because that was our check in. One of us would be dumb enough over appetizers to go, well, what's going on in your house? Which is usually code for, please tell me the five things I'm doing wrong this week. You know what I'm saying?
And so now, I'm pushing the cauliflower away because I'm feeling hot and angry. And then we get in this big fight and she goes, oh, gosh, you're doing it wrong. Date night's joy. Date night's fun. Just keep it light. Put a pin in stuff that's going to give you stress on the date night.
But you got to have the check in too. Great marriages are made, not born. This devotional journey will be the encouragement your marriage, not just any marriage, needs to flourish. So we cling. We cling to God. We cling to our spouse. We cling to the local church because we're vines. And we want our marriage to be like a fruitful vine in the heart of our house.
In The Marriage Devotional, 52 Days to Strengthen the Soul of Your Marriage, Levi and Jenny will point you to God's word and help you experience a depth and beauty you may have never thought possible. We'll send you a copy of this powerful resource as thanks for your gift to expand Connect with Skip Heitzig to reach more people in major U.S. cities. Yours for a donation of $50 or more. Just call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer.
That's connectwithskip.com slash offer. Now we're turning to Daniel 9 as Skip begins today's study. One of the best books I have ever read on prayer, bar none, is a book simply called Answers to Prayer.
Not flashy. Put out about a century and a half ago by a guy named George Mueller. Some of you will recognize his name. George Mueller was a pastor, but more than that, he ran an orphanage called the Ashley Down Orphanage in Bristol, England. Tens of thousands of little children were there and he educated them and fed them for years. He was a man of prayer and his book Answers to Prayer is a classic, an absolute classic. Let me share a paragraph. It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost for more than 14 years.
The point is this. I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how I might serve the Lord, but how I might get my soul into a happy state and how my inner man might be nourished. So I saw the most important thing I had to do was give myself to the reading of the Word of God. Not to prayer, but to the Word of God. And here again, not the simple reading of the Word so that it only passes through my mind like water runs through a pipe, but considering what I read, pondering over it, applying it to my heart. To meditate on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed, and that thus by means of the Word of God, whilst meditating on it, my heart might be brought into communion with the Lord. He said, prayer is most effective after the inner man has been nourished by the meditation of the Word of God. And he said this, I sought the will of God only in concert with the Word of God, for the will of God is never contrary to Scripture.
You get a secret? His prayers to God were prompted by the Word of God to his heart. So it became a conversation. Now wouldn't you like to know exactly what passage of Scripture Daniel was meditating on this for his quiet time to get this prayer? Would you like to know?
We actually do know. It says he was reading through the prophet Jeremiah. He was reading the books of Jeremiah. And he understood 70 years. God said 70 years. Listen to this. It's 538 B.C.
He was taken captive at 605 B.C. It's 67 years of the 70. Time's almost up.
He's reading that and going, whoa, whoa, whoa. God said 70 years? Time's almost up? I'm going to set this aside now and I'm going to pray about that. So there's two places in Jeremiah, chapter 25 and chapter 29, that speak about the exact 70-year time frame that he's referring to. I'm not going to read them both, but I'm going to read to you Jeremiah 29, beginning in verse 10. A very famous portion of Scripture actually, some of which you know, but listen to it this way.
Now picture Daniel. He's reading the scroll. For thus says the Lord, after 70 years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good work toward you and cause you to return to this place, Jerusalem. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
It's amazing how we rip that verse from its context. The context of that glorious promise to give you a future and a hope was all about the Babylonian captivity for 70 years, but at the end of that he would bring them back to fulfill his good purpose. And so here's Daniel in 538 B.C.
going, we've got three years and we're going back. And so he prayed. His prayer was prompted by what he read.
Actually, there's a couple fascinating things I don't want you to miss. First of all, Daniel believed in a literal interpretation of Bible prophecy. Literal. It wasn't figurative. It wasn't allegorical.
It was literal. It said 70 years. To Daniel, 70 years meant what? 70 years! They weren't 70 allegorical, mystical, perhaps years, meaning something else.
70 years meant 70 literal years. Just like when the Bible talks about 144,000 Jews in the book of Revelation, it means that and nothing else. He believed in the literal interpretation of prophecy.
Daniel realized he was on the very threshold of fulfilled prophecy. Why is that important? Well, because there are people who say, if you study Bible prophecy like what you guys are doing Sunday mornings at Calvary, you're going to get really distracted from the present. You know, it's not really good to talk about the future so much. It distracts you from the present. One preacher actually said, I never preach on prophecy because it distracts people from their present responsibilities. Another preacher said, well, then there's a lot of distractions in the Bible.
Because God speaks about the future a lot and his coming kingdom a lot. What I want you to see is that it did not distract Daniel. It motivated Daniel in the present tense to pray to his God very powerfully. Second thing to note is that Daniel's prayer was driven by what he read. Now, I say this because for those of you whose prayer life has gotten a little bit dusty, a little bit rusty, you're in that three to four minute crowd, this is good for you. This could freshen your prayer life up a bit. Letting what you say to God be prompted by what God says to you in his word. I have another little book and I'm not here to sell books. I didn't write them, so I guess I can talk about them.
It's a book called Drawing Near by Ken Boa. And he has taken the prayers of scripture, prayers of confession, prayers of worship, prayers of intercession, and categorized them for days of the month. And I found it very helpful to pray scriptural promises back to God. To get prompted by what I'm reading in those prayers, they're so inspiring. It's very helpful in my prayer relationship to God. So here's the principle. The prayer that God accepts is the prayer that God directs.
Say that out loud. The prayer that God accepts is the prayer that God directs. This is why when George Whitefield would read his Bible, he would read his Bible every day.
This is practice. Get on his knees and have his Bible open and read his Bible on his knees so that when he came to something that he felt the Lord was speaking to his heart, he'd use that to prompt his communication back to God. It was a two-way communication. It wasn't a monologue. It was a dialogue. God is speaking to me. I am speaking to him.
That's a relationship with a person. Now, listen. According to Jesus Christ, you and I have all of the authority to draw checks from the bank of heaven, the power bank of heaven. If you ask anything in my name, Jesus said I'll do it, right? But to make a withdrawal, it has to conform to heavenly policy. The only way you and I are going to know what heavenly policy is, is by what's written in God's Word, what he has revealed. So when you read the sure promises or the warnings, those become promptings to you to have a dialogue with God.
Now, you might ask yourself a very basic question. At least I hope you do this from time to time. If God made a promise in Jeremiah that the captivity would last 70 years, why does Daniel need to pray about that?
It's going to happen. Why didn't Daniel read that and go, oh, cool, it's going to happen, give me a rocking chair, I'll just watch. Why did he enter into this lengthy prayer?
Well, a couple reasons. Prayer is really a cooperation. It's an aligning of my will with God's will. It's like God made this promise, I want to be a part of this. I want to enter into cooperating with you, and God invites us in to do that.
Here's another example. The book of Revelation is about the coming of Jesus Christ. We know he's coming, but how does John end the book? With a prayer. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. He enters in to the purpose of God through prayer.
Here's the second reason. As Daniel prayed about what he read, God said would happen, God gives him further insight, further revelation, by giving him the Daniel 70 weeks prophecy toward the end. So, how hungry are you? How much do you want? How much of the Lord do you want? How much is all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength? To Daniel, it was everything, and God gave him more revelation. Prayer should be prominent. Prayer should be prompted. Finally, and we close with this, prayer should be passionate. Verse 3, then I set my face toward the Lord God to make requests by prayer and supplications with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. That's pretty intense. And I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession and said, O Lord, great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and mercy with those who love him, with those who keep his commandments, we have sinned, committed iniquity, done wickedly, rebelled, even by departing from your precepts and your judgments. Now listen, Daniel was engaged physically and emotionally.
Did you notice that? Physically, it says fasting, sackcloth, ashes, that's a physical gesture, emotionally by prayers and supplications. What's a supplication?
It's kind of a weird word. When was the last time you and I supplicated? It sort of sounds like a medical treatment, right? This is going to take four weeks of supplication to get this right.
A supplication is a prayer, but it's a little stronger than just a prayer or an asking for something. It involves a level of intensity, even strong crying. It just sort of automatically includes an emotion with it. It's more than this. Oh God, I just want to come before you. It's just more than that. That's not a supplication.
I don't know what that is. It sort of dies before it gets out of the room, but a supplication is a strong, authentic, from my heart pleading with the Lord. You say, well, is that even New Testament? Because you're just quoting the Old Testament, James chapter 5, the fervent, effectual prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Fervent, effectual are two English words to translate a single Greek word, energeo, where we get the term energetic from. Let your prayers be with power, with energy, with feeling, with emotion, with reality. It's a simple way of saying genuine passion in prayer can be very effective. Pray with energy. I want you to see that this is actually a biblical principle, not only in the Old Testament book of Daniel and others, not only in James, but listen to what Jesus said. He's given a parable on prayer. He's teaching on prayer. And he says, which of you, having a friend, if you need bread and you went to your friend at midnight and you said, friend, lend me three loaves of bread, and your friend said, look, it's midnight.
I'm at home with my wife and kids in bed. I can't get up and give you bread. Yet because of your persistence, your friend will get up and give you the bread you want. Jesus said, therefore, ask, and it will be given to you.
Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened, for everyone who asks receives. And in the original language, it's a continual. Whoever continues to ask, continues to seek, continues to knock, because he's teaching on persistence in prayer. So Jesus is inviting you in your prayer life to be a little more passionate, not just to mumble off things, but to be passionate and authentic and genuine in your communication. Did you know that all throughout the scripture, when it comes to prayer and worship, there's a lot said about how to do it with our bodies and our emotions? I'm speaking to a Western audience. Western audiences are known for being pretty dry, and the whiter we are, the drier we are.
And you want to get really dry, you go to England, and it's like dead meat. So I know that we're kind of, like, used to listening to things and not getting all emotional about it, but you know the Bible talks about praying, raising your hands? And I've got to tell you, the first time I saw people raising their hands in church, I thought they were all nuts. They were goofy. I thought, that's so weird.
What is this? One of my antennas are up? Then I read the Bible, and Paul wrote to Timothy, 1 Timothy 2, I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer without anger or disputing. Don't get mad about it. Don't argue about it. Just do it.
That's what he says. Now, what really is this about? If you're wondering, what is this about? I come into church, people do this.
What's that about? Raising hands denotes a couple things. It's a welcome sign. You shake your hand. You put your hand out to welcome somebody. Do you go like this to somebody? Hi.
Because nobody wants to be around you if you're like that. You put your hand out. You welcome them. One of the things I love about my grandson when he sees me, you know what he does? He doesn't do this. He does this. That's what he does. He does this. He's saying, like, pick me up.
I want to hang with you. He's not worshiping me. He's not praise you, Papa. It's a welcome sign. Raising your hands welcomes God in.
Don't be afraid to do this unless you're not welcoming to God. It means something else. When you raise your hands, it's a sign of surrender. Surrender. You can't text like this. You do enough of that in your car. You can't text like this.
You're all in. You're surrendered. It's like in the old movies. Come out with your hands up.
Why? Because you can't do anything but that when your hands are up. So when Paul said, I want you to worship with your hands up, it's because I want you to be welcoming to the Lord and completely surrendered to your prayer and worship. The Bible speaks about kneeling. The Bible speaks about lifting up your eyes toward heaven. Jesus even spoke about somebody praying, beating their breast in contrition, and God received that. Interestingly, there's one activity the Bible says nothing about, and that's closing your eyes. I'm not saying it's bad. It's just not one of God's top five, not one of God's commands.
It's sort of a Western tradition we've accumulated. Why do we think that love for God and worship of the most worthy thing in the universe must be carefully contained? Because I don't want to get too emotional.
Prayers should be passionate. Hey, let me have you walk away with three quick little principles. I need kind of three main points. I want to sum up all that we've talked about with three takeaway points.
These are points you need to write down, or you'll lose them. Number one, live intentionally. Live intentionally.
Here's what I mean by that. It would be good for us as believers to make spiritual decisions about the rest of our lives. What are our spiritual goals? How will I live intentionally after today? I went to a sporting goods store, and I saw these plaques over these pieces of clothing they were trying to sell, and they were plaques of local athletes giving their goals, my goal in one year, two years, five years, lifetime, personally, professionally. And I looked at that, and it just sort of dawned on me.
How many of us believers live that intentionally? Number two, read carefully. This Bible we have, I hope you own one, first of all.
And it's good if you carry it with you. And when you read it, read it carefully. Mull over what it says. What is the text telling me about God, about myself, about my goals, about the world, others? Is there a command I'm reading to follow?
Is there a warning I need to listen to? Is there a promise I need to grab ahold of or an activity to do? So live intentionally, read carefully. Finally, pray relationally, relationally.
You're talking to a person, not Wilson, a person. Never allow your prayers to degenerate into just mouthing words, mindless, thoughtless, same old, lead, guide, bless. Freshen it up a bit. When I was young, I was taught to pray, and I was taught to memorize my prayers. Anybody ever do that? You grew up in the same tradition. I memorized a lot of prayers. I knew a lot of prayers. Because I memorized them, you know what it let me do? You know what I could do while I was praying?
Anything. I could do just about anything while I was praying. I knew him that well, which meant I was disengaged from talking to God, actually. I want you to reevaluate your relationship to God.
Is he your all in all? That's Skip Hyten with a message from the series I Dare You. Find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at ConnectWithSkip.com. Now, let's go in the studio with Skip and Lenya and hear about a very special ministry to children that Lenya leads. You know, prayer is such an important part of every Christian's life. And when we're listening, God can prompt us to do some pretty radical things. So Lenya, I think immediately of you, because in some ways, it was a prayer that put a seed in your heart that birthed the Reload Love ministry.
Tell us about that. Yeah, I think watching the news or seeing things in lives of people you know, sometimes you just want to say, God, what can I do? And that was a simple prayer.
It was during ISIS, and they were killing genocide Christians and Yazidis. I was in the shower, and I literally said, what can I do? And I thought of making this brass jewelry to help kids impacted by terror. So it's good to pray. It's good to listen.
But when God speaks, it's good to say yes. And every time I asked something, I went, OK. I got right out of the shower and looked for spent bullet casings. And wouldn't you know, someone let us go to the shooting range for the police, and we could pick them up. We went to Calibers.
They gave us their spent bullet casings. And I just kept following the prayer and the yes and the prayer and the yes. So I would say definitely pray, but you should be listening. And God's ways aren't our ways. His thoughts aren't our thoughts.
Sometimes he might give you an answer that's counterintuitive. You're like, that's nuts. I don't know why God would do that. And so I remember, too, when I first got saved in California, I was fasting.
I was sitting on the beach. And I said, God, if you want me to witness, have someone come to me. And maybe that was a little fearful prayer instead of me just going up. But wouldn't you know, someone came over, and I was willing to witness. I guess he wanted you to witness. Exactly.
Exactly. So just be willing to pray in all things and watch God move and listen to what he plants in your heart. Thanks, Skip and Lenya. We hope this conversation inspires you to keep living for Christ. And we want to invite you to help others find this same inspiration with a gift to keep these biblical teachings on the air. Just call 800-922-1888 to give a gift today.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate.
Thank you. Come back next time as Skip discusses why prayer is so controversial and what that means about the enemy's understanding of prayer's power. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection. A connection. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
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