Daniel - The beloved of God and his availing intercessions

I’ve been around a lot of prayer meetings, and one thing you begin to notice some times, are people praying out phrases they’ve heard from others that sounds good but if you’d ask them, “Where is that in the Bible?” They wouldn’t be able to tell you (nor could they because it’s not in the Word).  There’s also a lot of declarative prayers, declaring to the “principalities and powers” what they need to do and “binding” them over a city or country or so on.  Although a few verses will try to be used, one will not find such prayers in the Bible.  And where is all the fruit from such ongoing prayers?  Are they seeing Biblical results?

What are the prayers that moved the hand of God in the Old and New Testament?  What are prayers that move the hand of God today?  What we see are prayers of repentance.  Prayers of faith?  Absolutely, but in faith, prayers of humility and contrition. 

There’s such a presumption today in the church that you can actually hear people telling God what He is do in prayer meetings.  Or some who begin to blame God for inaction.  Where is this coming from?  I believe it’s coming from a culture that has bred entitlement, pride,  and a demanding impatient spoiled shallow spirituality.  What was God’s response to Job?  We need to teach this in our churches.  What was Paul’s response?  He quoted from the Old Testament (Psalm 51:4) when he said in Romans 3:4 that God would be found true but every man a liar that “You may be justified in Your words, and my overcome when You are judged.”

When we read Daniel’s intercession for the nation of Israel, we find a humble repentant heart that identifies with his people in confession.  We would be wise to follow His example. Isn’t this how Jesus taught us to pray?  “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us..”

So what do we see in Daniel’s prayer of Daniel 9?  A prayer that got the attention of heaven so much he was visited by none other than Gabriel himself immediately in response with divine revelation.

We read such things as this;

v 4 O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments,

As we saw before, the prayers of others, like Abraham, Moses and Hannah, start with praise and an understanding of His character.  His holiness, His benevolence and His mercy.

5 we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. 6 Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land.

Daniel acknowledges there are consequences to rebelling against God’s Word. There is false teaching today in churches that say there are no consequences and nothing is altered in our relationship with God if we sin or don’t sin.  Really?  When Paul said in Galatians 6 to the church, that God will not be mocked, what a man sows that will he reap.  If he sows to the flesh he will reap destruction.  Or who can say there are no consequences and judgment when one reads of Jesus’ words to the churches of Revelation?  Or His warnings in the Gospels to those who do not do what He says but only confess Him with their mouth?  Or John in 1 John stating the way we demonstrate we really know Him is obedience? (1 John 2:3,4).

Do you see the first step in a prayer of repentance here?  It is taking full responsibility.  There’s no true humility or true repentance as long as we are like Adam and Eve in the Garden, casting blame on another.  WE must take responsibility, WE must acknowledge we have strayed far from God’s plumb line as a church.  We must return to a corporate identity in our prayers, in the face of a society that has trained and conditioned so many to be individualistic and detached from the corporate church.  Again, that’s not how Jesus revealed He views it in Revelation 1-3.  He is sees the church represented in that city.

7 O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.

8 “O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him.

We’re taught today you shouldn’t feel shame in many churches.  True there is wrong shame, where one may feel shameful if we’ve done no wrong.  Or being tempted to feel shame for ones faith and being set apart for Jesus.  Or continued shame when we’ve confessed our sins to the Lord and have turned from them.  Yes, we reject this kind of shame.  We are not to be ashamed of the Gospel, of our Lord. 

But there is a shame that comes when we do wrong!  And this opens our eyes and understanding to flee from compromise, from immorality and dishonoring the Name of our King!  This is what the New Testament reveals as well as the Old!  (See verses Hosea 4:18, Ezekiel, Romans 6:21, 1 Corinthians 6, 15:21, 2 Thessalonians 3:4 for examples).

This sorrow, this godly sorrow leads us to repentance, (2 Corinthians 7:10) to reject the lie to just accept status quo, or have a fatalistic attitude about our lives or our society.  No, we are to rather take personal responsibility of bringing His Kingdom around us, and humbling ourselves in prayer for anyway we’ve misrepresented God’s Name and character, and ask Him to cleanse us by His blood, and use us to glorify His Name in all the Earth!

10 We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. 11 Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him. 12 And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.

13 “As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. 14 Therefore the Lord has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. 15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly!

 Daniel has this understanding because he knows the Law, he knows the Word of God. The more we are familiar with God’s Holy Word, the more familiar we are with Him.  His Word leads us to know His heart.  From this we have His perspective and will repudiate sin, we’ll have a deep desire to align ourselves with Him and His will.  Total submission, for He is worthy of nothing less!

16 “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. 17 Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. 18 O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. 19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”

Again do you see the focus of Daniel’s prayers?  It’s not about him, it’s not about his demands or a self focus.  He, like Moses, is concerned with the city that is called by His Name, Daniel asks for God’s sake not his or Israel’s.   

The Bible states clearly in 1 Peter, that judgment will begin in the house of God.  Not the LGBT community, or in Hollywood, but in God’s house!  It’s time we take full responsibility of our sins, and repent.  Repent not only of our own sin, but the sin of the churches in our city.  We too, in appealing to God’s gracious character can see mercy, and His answer come quickly.  In our next time together we’ll address this in one of the most well known verses of the Old Testament....

Hannah - a humble woman whose prayers impacted a nation

As God said Himself, His ways are not our ways.  He has revealed over and over that He uses the humble, the rejected and the least expected by the worlds standard, to bring monumental change.  Paul said it as articulately as one could state by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence (1 Corinthians 1:27, 28).

And yet, what we too often see in the church is a mirroring of the world’s standard.  Get the most charismatic personality, the most gifted, the most influential, the most educated, etc, etc.  Can these things be redeemed? Of course they can, but they must be continually laid down before the Lord, or they can soon become idols.

 What are the examples we see in Scripture?  We see Moses the one who stammers and stutters as the spokesperson for God.  We see Gideon who was cowering in the winepress, who ends up leading an army.  Then there’s David the “least of his brethren” tending the flock who ends up shepherding a nation.... or Jesus’ choice of disciples, and on and on.

We look at the life of Hannah.  She is seen as a reject by her culture, a woman who could be perceived as being “judged” by God, unable to do her “created function” of bringing forth children for her God fearing husband.  A woman mocked by her husband’s second wife, even reminded daily of her condition by her mocker’s children.  The pain is so deep, so constant so consuming, the Hebrew word used is “raam.” In 1 Samuel 1:6 he New King James translates it  that she was made “miserable” but it’s literally “to roar, to thunder, to tremble, to be violently agitated.”

It’s from this deep pain, this place of absolute humiliation, that a prayer is birthed that will impact millions of people possibly in her lifetime but beyond that, for generation to come.

I believe the key position God is revealing here in 1 Samuel is humility, and I submit to you that humility is closely linked to desperation.  Desperation is linked to a revelation of ones absolute helplessness and weakness, and from this comes the blessed place of God displaying His strength and glory in that weakness and humility.

Friend, it’s the humble who receive grace.  Our God said it Himself, repeatedly (Proverb 3:34, James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5).

Father chose Hannah, this humble, broken woman, to be entrusted with Samuel.   Not Peninnah the mocker, the one who by man’s eyes appeared “blessed” and “favored” but Hannah.  Because man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

We must renounce self-dependence as individuals and as a church.  We’ve relied too many times on our gifts and talents, our equipment and presentation, on... can I say it?  Money.

We see over and over from Scripture who Father’s ear is open to, it’s to the humble.  We see over and over whom the Lord chose to have revealed in Scripture as getting His attention.  The desperate.  Whether that was Bartimaus, or the woman with the issue of blood, or Jairus, or Martha and Mary, or the Syro-Phoenician woman... they were people of desperation, they were humble/ed.  The Lord was truly their only help.  If we want to be heard and be the movers and shakers He wants us to be in prayer, there must be a self examination (James 4:8-10 see context of drawing near) and the prayer of David for God to search us, and try us and see if there is any wicked way (Psalm 139).  Renounce all pride, and let us even take the proper position of worship (which in Hebrew and Greek is connecting to prostrating oneself).  Total humility!

I close with a testimony in regards to this.  When my wife and I served in Senegal, we were working with the largest unreached people group of West Africa at that time, the Fulakunda.   There were no known Fulakunda believers where we were placed.  We were told what was to be “strategic” by our well intending mission agency, go for the head of household, the men for they have the most influence.

We quickly realized the impossibility of this task in this muslim stronghold, and saw no real fruit that we could see.  We resorted to a deeper place of desperation (He knows how to bring us to that point if we’re willing!) in our prayers.  My wife’s language teacher was the last one probably anyone would say would be a person of “strategy.”  The fourth muslim wife of a man who showed no concern or care for her, sexually assaulted at a young age, full of pain and anger and a liar.

  Yet as we prayed, God was working... His way!  I had a dream one night that the well in our backyard there in Kolda, Senegal, began to overflow, and overflow, and shoot up water and flood the whole area. It was out of control!  In my dream it was going everywhere and I was nervous, until I heard the voice of the Spirit speak, “This is of Me, says the Lord, let Me have My way.”  And suddenly my nervousness turned to joy and I was exclaiming, “Yes Lord!  Let it go all over!!!”   It wasn’t but a few weeks later, with my wife in a deep place of humility herself, that she led her the first known Fulakunda muslim to Jesus, her language teacher, Ami Nango.

 The one who seemed the least likely candidate to make any impact, was Father’s choice.  Ami would go on to lead many women and men to Jesus!  She was a Hannah, a true person of humility, whose past pain and sorrow was redeemed, and her life truly testified of the yoke of heaviness being removed and the garments of praise being placed on her!  The Lord is awesome!  

Let us never forget this fundamental truth, the Lord is drawn to humility!  If you want to be heard by God you must go down, if you want to be seen by the Father, you need to pray in secret....

Hannah was heard, her child Samuel would even be named for that reason, “Heard by God” and would go on to be the final and best judge for the nation Israel before the beginning of kings. And it was because of Hannah's prayers....

In closing, look at the heart of Hannah’s praise/ prayer to the Lord in chapter two of 1 Samuel... and what she emphasizes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, on humility....

“The bows of the mighty men are broken,

And those who stumbled are girded with strength.

Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,

And the hungry have ceased to hunger.

Even the barren has borne seven,

And she who has many children has become feeble.

“The Lord kills and makes alive;

He brings down to the grave and brings up.

The Lord makes poor and makes rich;

He brings low and lifts up.

He raises the poor from the dust

And lifts the beggar from the ash heap,

To set them among princes

And make them inherit the throne of glory.

Moses the man of God

Few exemplify an intercessor like Moses.  So much could be addressed concerning this servant of God who led a nation and walked with God.

One could talk about how:

Prayer opens a path where there is no path (Exodus 14)

Prayer opens the door for God’s supernatural provision in time of need (Exodus 16)

Prayer opens the door for God’s help in fighting against our (spiritual) enemies (Exodus 17:9-15).

                  Prayer opens our hearts to receive revelation from God (Exodus 19, 20)

Prayer opens the way to receive grace and strength in the midst of trials and temptations (Numbers 11:1-16)

Prayer opens the way for us to see more of God’s glory (Exodus 33)

It would also be good to meditate on the only Psalm attributed to Moses to see his heart in prayer, Psalm 90.  One thing one will quickly notice is the constant focus on the brevity of life. Moses, through his intimacy with God, is brought more and more to the understanding of eternity and how our lives are but a breath here on earth.  The application is a prayer that God would teach us to number our days that we might gain a heart of wisdom (v.12).

However I want us to focus on a few verses of Moses’ prayer life in Numbers 14.

Israel has refused to obey God for the umpteenth time, and this time it has brought the Lord to being so angry He is speaking of destroying and disinheriting them.  The Lord tells Moses that instead He will make of Moses a great nation greater and mightier than they.   To think that like Moses, God has allowed us to commune with Him, and to have this relationship that He actually responds to our prayers is deeply humbling!  

We read Moses’ prayer, this prayer that has been forever etched in heaven, this prayer that God wanted the world, and the ages to see.  A prayer that brought forth destiny, and to which Israel can thank Moses for, forever.  By this prayer Moses, as Scripture reveals, stayed the judgment of God to the fullest extend that would have totally wiped them off the map, and would have been a very different history.

What did Moses pray?

1.                   We see Moses’ overwhelming focus through this prayer is his concern of God’s reputation among the nations.   “Now if you kill these people as one man, then the nations which have heard of Your fame will speak saying, ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring this people to the land which He swore to give them, therefore He killed them in the wilderness” (v.15,16).

2.                   Moses appeals to the revelation of God given him concerning God’s character.  He directly quotes what He received when asking to see God’s glory and the declaration of His character in Exodus 34:6,7 appealing specifically to His mercy and His longsuffering. 

3.                   From this place Moses asks for forgiveness for those that have sinned against God, interceding for those who will not themselves, blindly ignorant of their condition before a holy God.

I want us to see again, the confidence we have in prayer, to be heard and for our prayers to be answered, are directly connected to our understanding of God’s holy character.   From this knowledge of Who He is and place of worship comes a desire to obey, and from obedience comes a place of intimacy, and from intimacy comes a conformity to His character that causes us to pray the prayers of His heart.  We must spend time meditating on His revelation to us from His Word of Who He is that we might walk in authentic faith!  Let us apply this by even now meditating on and memorizing Exodus 34:6, 7 and praying this out!  Worshipping Him in this truth, and making this a part of prayer, as we intercede for His people, for the lost, and for our nation and the nations of the world!

We see in just two chapters later this account of Aaron standing between the living and the dead in intercession for the people (Numbers 16:41-50).  I submit to you that this is what the Lord had in mind when He said in Ezekiel 22:30, 31, “So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath: and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads, says the Lord God.”

Friend, we are called a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), and this is our responsibility.    Let us follow the example of Moses, and be a people that will stand in the gap, and pray for those who are bringing judgment upon themselves.  This is the heart we saw in Paul (Romans 10:1), but most importantly which is in our Lord Jesus (John 17).