The Daniel Prayer – Part 1

The Daniel prayer is taking God's Word and praying it back to Him.

It's what we call reverse thunder, where you take a promise from God and you pray it back to Him. We're so glad you've joined us for this week's Living in the Light with Bible teacher Anne Graham Lotz. Today, Anne begins a two-part message from Daniel chapter 9 that establishes a pattern for prayer.

Here's Anne with today's message. And our world is in a mess. And our nation is in a mess.

And I wonder if we just pull that down personally to your world. Is your world in a mess? You have a relationship that's in a mess, or your church is in a mess, or your family is in a mess, or your neighborhood is in a mess, or your office is in a mess. And what can one person do? When we're faced with a mess or a crisis or a disaster or just, you know, things unraveling, what can one person do? And sometimes we think one person just can't do anything and so we just wring our hands and we complain and we gossip and we just roll our eyes and just like every night when I watch the news, my son-in-law is getting sort of fed up with me every night I watch the news and you roll your eyes and you wring your hands and you think, what a mess. But there is something we can do.

We can pray. And about 60 years before Jesus was born, there's a true story according to the Jewish historian Josephus. And he tells a story that there was a drought in Jerusalem and it was so severe that it was in danger of just cutting off a whole generation and so the city elders called for Hani. And Hani was known as the rain maker. So they asked him to come out and pray for rain. So Hani came outside the city and he prayed for rain and nothing happened.

So Hani took his staff and he drew a big circle around himself. Then he got down on his knees and on his face inside that circle and he prayed for rain. He said, God send the rain. And so while he prayed there was a sprinkling, just a light sort of a drizzle. And he said, Lord not for that rain if I prayed.

I'm praying for rain that will just be an outpouring of rain. So as he prayed it was a deluge like what we would call a gully washer. And he said, Lord not for that kind of rain I want a slow steady rain that will fill up the cisterns and the reservoirs and the creeks and it will end this drought. And while Hani prayed there was that slow steady rain.

The drought was ended and the streams were filled up and the reservoirs because Hani had said, Lord I'm going to stay in this circle and I'm going to pray until you send the rain. And God answered his prayer. The prophet Daniel didn't draw a circle but in Daniel chapter 9 that's what he was doing. He was drawing a circle and he gives us a pattern for prayer in our circle that I want to share with you.

And there are six aspects to this pattern that I'll give you and then we're going to go through one by one. If you brought your Bible you can turn to Daniel chapter 9. I'm not going to read the passage because of time but I will go phrase by phrase and verse by verse. Daniel chapter 9 and there are six aspects to his prayer and the first is that Daniel prayed because he was compelled to pray. He prayed because he was centered in prayer. He prayed confident in prayer. He prayed with contrition. He was contrite in prayer. He prayed with clarity and he prayed until it was confirmed.

So that's where we're going. So first of all I want you to see that he prayed under compulsion. He was compelled to pray. The first verse says that it was in the year of Darius the Mede and it just gives us insight. We read between the lines and Daniel was in captivity in Babylon. And I know you know the story of the southern kingdom of Judah when they had, you know they were on like a roller coaster spiritually.

They would go up with a good king and down with a bad king and up with a good king and down with a bad king until finally they had bad king after bad king. And they were defiant, they were rebellious and God sent them messenger after messenger and they defied God and they disobeyed God and finally God had enough and so He sent in the Babylonians. And the Babylonians had taken them all into captivity.

And Daniel was one of the first ones the Babylonians took into captivity. And so his world, his nation of Judah was in a mess. They were being held captive by the enemy 800 miles east. They were separated from their foundation of faith if you want to put it that way. They were separated from God's place of blessing.

They weren't right with God. And so Daniel felt compelled by the problems in his world. So what are the problems in your world? Your family, your church, your neighborhood, in this state, in this nation, we're hearing of problem after problem after problem after problem.

And so many problems. And do you ever, instead of just wringing your hands and rolling around, you feel compelled to pray. And Daniel was compelled by the problems in his world but he was also compelled by the promises in God's Word.

And I love it. It says in verse 2, Daniel was reading the prophet Jeremiah and he's in his 80s and he's still reading his Bible. I'll never forget the vision of my mother in her 80s sitting on her bed, macular degeneration. She couldn't read so her secretary had typed out the Scriptures that she was memorizing in two inch high letters so maybe she'd get four words on a page and she had these big black notebooks on her bed still memorizing the Word of God in her 80s when she could barely do anything else. I remember talking to Ms. Johnson who founded Bible Study Fellowship about six weeks before she moved to our father's house and she told me she was reading about Jacob and she was learning something and I was so caught by the fact that she was still reading her Bible. This is the one that founded Bible Study Fellowship, wrote the notes and the questions and all that and she's still reading her Bible, learning something new from it that I'd forgotten what she was learning.

And then I just felt too embarrassed to ask her, Ms. Johnson would you repeat that? But I remember being so amazed that she was struggling with cancer and still reading her Bible, still learning from it. And Daniel in his 80s, he's still reading his Bible to put it in our terms. He came across the prophecy of Jeremiah and as he's reading Jeremiah, I'm going to read you these verses and I'm assuming this is what he was reading.

There's another portion in Jeremiah, it might have been, but Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 10, this is what the Lord says, when 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will come and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you.

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart. And Daniel came across that promise in 70 years, there'd be 70 years in captivity in Babylon, after 70 years God would bring them back to captivity but they would have to seek him and ask him and plead with him. And so Daniel is reading this and then he must have all of a sudden thought and he started to connect the dots and his mind was beginning to whirl because let's see, he had been in captivity for 67 years.

That meant if God was counting from the first deportation that meant in 3 years God would bring these people back out of captivity, restore them to the place of blessing, restore them to a right relationship with him, restore them to their foundation of faith in him. But who was praying? God said he would do it but he was waiting to be asked. Ezekiel 37, 36 God says I have this and this and this and this I want to do for Israel but I have yet to be inquired of. My mother said if there are any tears in heaven it's going to be for all the answers to prayer nobody ever bothered to ask. It's like Jesus walking on the water, remember when the disciples were in the boat and he made to pass by?

Have you thought about that? Why would he, you know, make like to pass by? Because he was waiting for them to call on him. And Daniel as he's reading God's word and he comes across this promise and he lays claim to it. And he begins to pray in a sense God's word back to him. God you promised in 70 years you'd bring us back that's in 3 years you said if we seek you we'll find you and you're going to fulfill your promise so the Daniel prayer is taking God's word and praying it back to him. It's what we call reverse thunder where you take a promise from God and you pray it back to him.

You hold him to his word. When you say God I want this. I want you to bless America. I want you to bless my family. I want you to save my son.

I want you to reconcile that relationship. There's a difference when you say God you said if your people who are called by your name will humble themselves, pray and seek your face and turn from their wicked ways then you said you'd forgive us and you'd hear our prayer and you'd bless our land. Pray God's word back to him. He loves to be held according to his word. So Daniel felt compelled to pray by the problems he saw in his world and he linked that to a promise from God's word and he's going to hold God to it. So I don't know what the problems are in your world but whatever they are would you ask God to give you a promise to match them and then you start praying that promise back to him.

I'll tell you one that I'm claiming. Jesus said I'm going to prepare a place for you. If I go to prepare a place for you I'm coming again to receive you to myself. Even so come Lord Jesus. You said you'd come back.

You said you would come and take us to be with yourself. You said when the nation of Israel is reborn and the fig tree puts first leaves you said the generation that sees that is the last generation. You said when the gospel is preached to the whole world then I'm coming Lord. You said so come Lord Jesus.

Clean up this mess. I do believe he's the only one that can do it. So Daniel was compelled and then Daniel was centered in prayer and he just focused right in in prayer. And centering down in prayer is like setting your spiritual compass so that you know which direction you're going. And he was centered down in prayer.

He centered privately. It says in verse 3 he turned to the Lord God and when he turned to the Lord God he was turning away from everything else and Jesus said in Matthew 6 when you pray go into your closet. And I'll tell you something you can pray anytime, anywhere, anyplace. Praise God he's available 24-7 right?

We all know that. But this kind of prayer requires privacy. No distractions. Getting alone with God.

Going into your closet. And Daniel centered in privately and he centered in sincerely. He fasted. In Matthew 6 Jesus said when you fast that's not an option.

Not for this kind of prayer. And fasting isn't just going without food. Fasting is going without anything and everything in order to make time to get alone and pray. So it's going without email and surfing the internet and television and reading and working and talking and ministry and shopping and housework.

I love to fast from housework. And we just turn away from everything in order to turn to the Lord God privately and sincerely and desperately and said he dressed in sackcloth. And sackcloth would be outward evidence of the inward necessity. God if you don't get us out of this mess we're not going to get out. If you don't save us we won't be saved. If you don't deliver us from the judgment that's coming we're not going to be delivered. You're our only hope. And he turned to God in desperation dressed in sackcloth and then he turned to God humbly when he smeared himself with ashes basically saying God without you I can't do anything. I am nothing.

I can do nothing. In me is no good thing. And he centers down on God. Have you set your compass? Would you make time when you draw your circle and you're compelled by the problems within your circle and you're claiming promises from the word?

And then would you turn away from everything and turn to God with a sense of desperation? It's hard to pray when people are moving around in the house isn't it? So you may have to get up early before they all move around. Stay up later you know after they've all gone to bed.

When they've all left the house and you have a few minutes to yourself. Turn away from everything to turn to him in desperation and humility. David said in Psalm 51 the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart God will not despise. God hears you and he has so many things he would give you in me.

Blessings. And I believe Joel chapter 2 says if we rend our hearts and not our garments and we return to the Lord who knows? But that he would return to us and instead of judging us would leave behind the blessing. But we have to turn to him and turn away from everything else.

Seek him with all of our hearts. Daniel felt compelled to pray. He centered down in prayer and then he prayed with confidence. In verse 4 he said I turn to the Lord my God.

Catch that pronoun? God was his God. And Daniel was confident of a covenant relationship with God. He had entered into a covenant with God. I'm assuming as he was a young person growing up in Jerusalem and in that day it would have been through the sacrificial system.

And he made a covenant with God and he was a Jewish young boy and so he had entered into that covenant and God was his God and he belonged to God. You and I from a New Testament perspective we enter into the covenant with God when we come by face of the cross and we confess that we're sinners. And it doesn't, well it does mean you confess specific sins. You know your anger, your jealousy, your meanness, your selfishness, your rudeness, your bitterness, your unforgett, whatever the sin is.

Yes you confess your specific sins but it's more than that. It means that you confess that you have a sin nature. We were born in sin. Given a choice you will choose to be selfish.

You want whatever that is for yourself and if you're given the choice you'll lose your temper when somebody does that or you're given the choice you'll lie to get out of it. When the pressure comes on our sin nature comes out. We're sinners. All of us the Bible says, every single one of us was born in sin. We're all sinners before a holy God. And we come by faith to the cross and we just tell God I'm a sinner.

I've sinned specifically and my nature is a sin and I'm sorry. And I believe, dear God, that you sent Jesus to die on the cross as your sacrifice for my sin. If nobody else was a sinner and needed a savior I believe you would have sent Jesus just for me. And I believe Jesus died for me. And I'm asking you God to forgive me based on his death.

I believe he made atonement for my sin. I'm asking you to cleanse me with his blood. Give me eternal life, that relationship that will never end. Come into my heart I give you the authority to rule my life.

From now on I'll live for you. When you do that you enter into a covenant relationship with God so that you belong to him. Jesus said you're born again into his family. You're God's child but listen to me God is your God.

He belongs to you. Jesus said I'm the way, the truth, the life, no one. No one can come into a right relationship with the Father. No one can go to heaven.

No one can have their sins forgiven. No one can come into God's family unless they come through me. Jesus said and I'm paraphrasing here. So make sure Daniel he had a covenant relationship with God and therefore he was confident in God. Confident in God's covenant, confident in God's character. And people today say well I don't think God is like that and my God would never do that and my God loves everybody.

He'll take everybody to be with him and you know. And everybody has their own God and some people call him Allah, some people call him Buddha, some people call him Confucius, some people maybe call him Jehovah, maybe they call him Muhammad, maybe they call him Jesus. Daniel knew his God and God is exactly the way he's revealed in his word okay. He's exactly the way he's revealed in Jesus.

Jesus is God in the flesh. If you want to know what God's like you look at Jesus but God reveals himself in this book. From Genesis to Revelation it's the revelation of God. It's his word but he's revealing himself and Daniel knows his God. So Daniel knows the character of God, his faithfulness. In verse 4 he says, oh Lord the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands. Daniel knew the faithfulness of God to keep his covenant of love with Daniel.

So I'll just quickly go through his testimony. Chapter 1, do you remember when he came enslaved to Babylon? He was about 15 years of age. They changed his name so that his name now honored a pagan god. I expect they emasculated him because his overseer, his immediate supervisor was the chief of the eunuchs. And then they said he would have to eat food that came from the king's table meaning it had first been offered to idols. Meaning that every time he ate a bite he would be given tribute to a pagan god. So Daniel couldn't prevent his name from being changed. He couldn't prevent what they did to him physically but he wasn't about to eat food that was offered to an idol and give tribute to an idol. So he said, I'm not going to do that. And he said, just give me a test.

Put me on water and vegetables and fruit for 10 days. And so they did and after 10 days he was healthier and smarter than all those who had compromised because God is faithful. And in chapter 2 Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon had a dream. He woke up, he was very disturbed so he called for the wise men and he said I want you to not just interpret the dream but tell me what the dream was because I've forgotten it.

And the wise men said, nobody can do that. And he said, well you're good for nothing and he ordered them all killed. And Daniel was at that point one of the wise men. So he had just gotten the death sentence.

So he said, whoa, you know, give me a night. The next morning God had given him the dream and the interpretation because God is faithful. And in chapter 3 his three friends out on the plain of Shinar refused to bow down to the statue of gold and so they were thrown into the fiery furnace and the Son of God shows up. Not a hair on their heads was singed because God is faithful. And in chapter 5 Daniel goes into that feast of Belshazzar who I'm guessing is Nebuchadnezzar's grandson.

He's a spoiled brat and they're in this big drunken orgy in the middle of the drunken field. They brought out the vessels dedicated to the glory of God in the temple in Jerusalem and they were toasting their pagan gods with them. And there's this hand that begins writing on the wall, you know. And they go stone cold sober and somebody calls for Daniel and Daniel tells Belshazzar to his face this night, your life will be required of you. And that night the Medes and Persians slipped under the gate and they took Belshazzar's life because God is faithful. In chapter 6 the next king Darius, egomaniac, he was convinced by the enemies of Daniel to declare that people could only pray to him.

And he signed that into law. And Daniel opened his window to Jerusalem like he did three times a day, got on his knees, prayed, was arrested, thrown to the lion's den. Next morning the king, Daniel, has your God been able to deliver you?

Oh yes. He sent an angel to shut the lion's mouth because God is faithful. Confident in the faithfulness of God by his experience. What experiences have you had of God's faithfulness? Daniel was confident of God's faithfulness and God's righteousness. In verse 7, Lord you are righteous.

You do the right thing. Think about it. When finally they had so rebelled against God that He sent in the Babylonians and it took them 22 years because God was so patient He didn't want any to perish. He was just wanting Judah to repent and He would have stayed His hand of judgment. And when she refused and she became belligerent and defiant He sent in the Babylonians. They tore down the walls of the city.

They burned the city with fire and they took Solomon's glorious temple and they leveled it and they took all the treasures back to Babylon and the people they didn't slaughter in the streets they took off into captivity. And Daniel is saying, God you've done the right thing today. You talk about judgments. People get so offended. And that's even within the church.

Don't talk like that. I remember I was on a national television talk show and it was after 9-11 and I was saying some pretty strong things and the talk show host said, Ann don't say that you're an angel. God is loving and kind and don't say that. God is loving and kind. Praise God He's loving and kind but He's also righteous. He does the right thing. And that's how come I know that I know America is coming under His judgment.

Can I just say that? Because God is righteous and you cannot shake your fist in His face and do the things we're doing with impunity. Because He hasn't judged us yet, we think, I think it's begun, but we mistake His patience for toleration.

And we think because He hasn't just opened up the ground and swallowed somebody that He's just not paying attention. Judgment is God backing away, removing His hand of protection and His hand of blessing and His hand of favor and just backing away and letting us have our own way, just giving us over to ourselves. That's what's happening today. Just before Ann returns with her closing words, a reminder to be back with us next week for part two of this compelling Daniel prayer series of messages.

Now here's Ann with these final thoughts for today. God is righteous, but God is also merciful and forgiving, which is the message of the cross. Because God is righteous, He demands judgment for our sin, but because He is also merciful, He stepped in and took the judgment for us. Even though we deserve His judgment, we can be forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. That's the gospel.

That's the good news. And there has never been a more timely message to share with our friends, families, and nation today. Because, make no mistake, our nation and our world are coming under the judgment of a righteous God. For that very reason, He is righteous. He cannot be less than Himself, and His righteousness demands judgment for our sin, our rebellion, our defiance of Him. But this is the hope.

This is the solution. When faced with God's righteous judgment, there is nothing, nothing, no politics, no president, no government or agreement, no institution or organization, no media or ministry, no economy or military, no alliance or treaty, nothing that will turn our nation around except prayer. Heartfelt, desperate prayer. Prayer where the prayers rend their hearts, return to the cross, and repent of personal and national sin. Listen to me, God promises in Joel 2, that if we return to Him with prayer, weeping, mourning, rending our hearts for our sin and that of our nation, He will return to us. It's time to pray like Daniel did, because only prayer that moves heaven can change a nation.