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Daniel 09: God's Power to Answer Prayer
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Hello everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today, daniel, chapter 9, and today's title is God's Power to Answer Prayer God's Power to Answer Prayer. We're going to see something that was part of what we now know as the Daniel Fast, which is the time frame of 21 days. I haven't really talked about this except for the very beginning, but that idea of what a Daniel fast is is taken from different sections of the book of Daniel, and today is going to be one of the big ones. And so, for many of you who have done a 21 day Daniel fast and you've been so weary at about day 16 or 17, which, if I'm honest, I'm weary at about day two, right. But if you're wondering who in the world made this a 21 day fast, well, which, if I'm honest, I'm weary at about day two right. But if you're wondering who in the world made this a 21 day fast, well, you're going to find out about it today. We're going to get all that in just a moment. So if you have your Bibles, want to get them open with me to Daniel, chapter nine. If you're new around here, make sure you take just a moment and like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast and make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook.
Speaker 1:There's an amazing group of people who are doing these wonderful devotions every day and I'm telling you they're amazing. I love those devotions. They're a joy and an honor to read and we would love for you to comment. The goal of doing those on social media is to create community. We are here to grow together, so make sure you are doing that Also. I want to give a quick shout out because we have some people who have started listening to us from Morocco, and I want to say hello to everyone in Morocco. I'll be honest with you, I've never been there, but I want to go one day, and how cool would that be if we ever had some people from our area go to Morocco and we could meet some fellow Bible Breakdown community people. So thank you so much for joining us and it is an honor to just enjoy God's Word together. Well, once again, we're going to be in Daniel, chapter 9 today. Don't forget.
Speaker 1:The overall goal of Daniel is God is in control and, if you remember, daniel is writing this to people who they're really grappling with their identity. They've lost their homeland, they've been scattered all over the known world. And Daniel is writing to them and he's saying yes, it's a mess right now. We are where we don't want to be. There's chaos all over this world. God is still in control and he tells us this by sharing with us. In the first six chapters he said let me tell you some of what's been going on in the capital of Babylon. And he talks about him being rescued from the lion's den, about the three Hebrew teenagers being rescued from a fire, about the different words being written on the wall and just all these different things. And then now, in the second half of Daniel, he is writing about the different visions he has had throughout his life and how God has been telling him not only am I, god, in control of right now, I'm also in control of the future. And he is telling him through these different things. And then yesterday it ended on a little bit of a cliffhanger, where God was showing him this vision of these different kingdoms that were going to come up and try to come against God but then ultimately fail. And at the end of the chapter he says I was so worried and disturbed because I had no idea what that vision meant, to which some of us were going yeah, me neither. Well, today we're going to get the second half of it and we're going to talk about this idea of God's ability to answer prayer, and we're going to talk about at the very end why it is that we even pray to begin with, if God knows why do we pray. Well, we're going to talk about this when we get to the end, but first let's see what's going on as Daniel is trying to grapple with understanding these visions that God has given him. So here we go.
Speaker 1:Daniel, chapter 9, verse 1, says this it was the first year of the reign of Darius of the Medes, the son of Azarias, who became king of the Babylonians. During the first year of his reign, I, daniel, learned from reading the word of the Lord, which would have been the Torah, and some of the books there, of the different books of Moses and Joshua Judges, probably some of those it was revealed to Jeremiah, the prophet, so also some of the prophets, that Jerusalem must lie desolate for 70 years. So I turned to the Lord, god, and pleaded with him in prayer and fasting. I also wore rough burlap and sprinkled myself with ashes. I prayed to the Lord, my God, and confessed O Lord, you are great and awesome, god. You always fulfill your covenant and keep your promises of unfailing love To those who love you and obey your commands.
Speaker 1:But we have sinned and done wrong. We have rebelled against you and scorned your commands and regulations. You have refused to listen to your servants, the prophets, or we have refused, not God. We have refused to listen to your servants, the prophets, or we have refused, not God. We have refused to listen to your servants, the prophets, who spoke on your authority to our kings and princes and ancestors and to all the people of the land. Lord, you are in the right, but, as you see, our faces are covered with shame. This is true of all of us, including the people of Judah and Jerusalem, and of all Israel, scattered near and far, wherever you have driven us.
Speaker 1:Because of our disloyalty to you, o Lord, we and our kings, princes and ancestors are covered with shame because we have sinned against you, but the Lord, our God, is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him. We have not obeyed the Lord, our God, for we have not followed the instructions he gave us through His servants, the prophets. All Israel has disobeyed your instruction and turned away, refusing to listen to your voice. So now, the solemn curses and judgments written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, has been poured down on us because of our sin. You have kept your word and done to us and our rulers exactly what you warned Because of our sin, by turning from our sins and recognizing the truth, therefore, the Lord has brought upon us the disaster he prepared.
Speaker 1:The Lord, our God, was right to do all these things, for we did not obey Him. O Lord our God, you brought lasting honor to your name by rescuing your people from Egypt and a great display of power, but we have sinned and are full of wickedness. In view of all your faithful mercies, lord, please turn your furious anger away from your city, jerusalem, your holy mountain. All the neighboring nations mock Jerusalem and your people because of our sins and the sins of our ancestors. O, our God, hear your servant's prayer. Listen, I plead For your own sake. Lord, smile again on your desolate sanctuary. Oh my God, lean down and listen to me. Open your eyes and see our despair. See how your city, the city that bears your name lies in ruins. We make this plea not because we deserve help, but because of your mercy. Oh Lord, hear, oh Lord, forgive. Oh Lord, listen and act. For your own sake, do not delay, oh my God, for your people and your city, bear your name.
Speaker 1:I went on praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people, pleading with the Lord, my God of Jerusalem and his holy mountain as I was praying. So pause again. So what it is is he went over this time frame and he's just continually repenting before God for the people and he's asking for mercy. In other words, god, please forgive us and please let this 70 years come to pass. Verse 21 says Please let this 70 years come to pass.
Speaker 1:Verse 21 says as I was praying, gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier visions, came swiftly to me at the time of the evening sacrifice. He explained to me Daniel, I have come here to give you insight and understanding. The moment you began praying, a command was given, and now I am here to tell you what it was, for you are very precious to God. Listen carefully so that you can understand the meaning of your vision. A period of 70, sets of seven.
Speaker 1:That's where some people get the idea of time frames in the book of Revelation. A period of 70 sets of seven has been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish their rebellion. Now listen and understand. 70 sets of seven plus 62 sets of seven will pass from the time command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until a ruler, the anointed one, comes. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and strong defenses, despite the perilous times. After this period of 62 sets of seven, the anointed one will be killed, appearing to have accomplished nothing. A ruler will rise whose armies will destroy the city and the temple. The end will come with a flood and war, and its miseries are decreed from the time to the end. The ruler will make a treaty with the people for a period of one set of seven, but after half of that time he will put an end to the sacrifices and offerings. As a climax to all his terrible deeds, he will set up sacrilegious objects that cause desecration until the fate decreed from the defiler is finally poured out on him.
Speaker 1:Now I know we're probably getting lost in the weeds, but really quick. Verse 27 is where many people who study end times doctrines say that's where you have seven years first, three and a half good, second half bad of a tribulation. Here we go. The end of this is this Once again, he says that there will be a ruler who will make a treaty that will start off good, but it will end badly. Now, what does this have to do with anything? Well, the important thing about this is remember the overall context.
Speaker 1:Daniel has received the word of the Lord. He's reading the Torah, which is the first five books of Moses Genesis, exodus, leviticus, numbers, deuteronomy but then he's also reading about the prophecies of Jeremiah, where Jeremiah said that, because they didn't honor the years of Jubilee and didn't honor the Sabbath years, there was going to be a 70-year time of exile so that the land could rest and so that they would experience the punishment for what they didn't do. And so when Daniel read this and found out why all of this had happened and what was going on, he began to repent for the nation. He began to say God, I don't understand what happened. I don't know why it had to happen this way. I just know we were wrong. And I am asking you God, he just, over and over and over again, is repenting for the nation, repenting for the nation over and over again After a season and we're going to continue into next week, when excuse me, tomorrow, when you'll see the rest of it. And it said 21 days is what it took for Gabriel to get there with the message. And that's where the 21 days of prayer and fasting come from.
Speaker 1:And the idea is is that the reason why we pray is because God answers our prayer? The reason why we pray is because God answers our prayer. He prayed and he prayed and he prayed and then God answered. And what you see here is some of the most direct prophecy about what's going to happen that you have in the entire Bible. It's so direct that it's hard to even call it apocalyptic literature. Now I know there's like the 70 times 7 or whatever. That's time frames that are saying that there's going to be a time that this is going to happen and then a time that's going to happen, and that's veiled in mystery. But it's so direct that it's quite astonishing and which is why that is one of the most studied chapters by people who study end times doctrine.
Speaker 1:But he also gives us the answer to the question that is why do we pray? We pray because there's power in prayer and that God answers our prayer. Now, god's answer to this prayer wasn't that he changed heaven and earth to do what Daniel had to say. He revealed heaven and earth, so Daniel would understand why things were happening. So one of the things we have to understand is that God is sovereign, god is in control, god is doing what he's going to do, and so when we pray, we can't change God's mind. But what we can do is we can understand God's mind, understand what it is he is doing and understand how we can partner with him. Now, once again, prayer is powerful because prayer changes us. Prayer is powerful because God can partner with him. Now, once again, prayer is powerful because prayer changes us. Prayer is powerful because God will partner with our prayer to do what he has called us, what he wants to do. So we have no idea all the things that God does when we pray. What we do know is is that when we pray, he reveals himself to us. We're able to know him more and we're able to see what he is doing.
Speaker 1:Sometimes the most powerful thing we do in prayer is we submit our will to his. I think of the idea of Jesus being in the garden of Gethsemane and he's teaching us how to pray in our darkest moments. And he's saying, god, I would, or, father, I would rather not do this. Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. In other words, he's saying from the foundation of the earth, we already decided this was the way we're going to go, but in this moment, my flesh is telling me I don't want to. However, I submit myself to your authority. That's one of the great things that prayer does is that God answers our prayer by opening our eyes and seeing him. So here's my question for you what would it look like in your prayer time if you stopped seeing prayer as a negotiation process with God and it was more of a submitting our will to him?
Speaker 1:Now, that doesn't mean we don't ask for things. Please don't hear that. I'm not saying we shouldn't ask things. I'm not saying that God doesn't answer our prayer by doing things. What I'm saying is is that what if the chief aim of our prayer wasn't to say, well, god, if you will, I will, and if I will, you will, and stop feeling like we're in a negotiation process, but instead pray the way Jesus did, god, this is what I'm asking. Nevertheless, not my will, but your will, if this is what you want to do. I pray you will change me so that I will understand that your way is higher.
Speaker 1:When you start praying that way, it sets you free. It sets you free because you no longer feel like it depends on you, because there are some people who say, if I pray hard enough, god has no choice but to do what I say. And I tell you that makes no sense to me. You're telling me the king of the universe must do what you say because you prayed. No, rather say, when I pray, every time I submit my will to god and I ask him what it is he wants from me, what it is he wants to do in my life. I ask him for what I need. The bible says pray and ask and tell him what you need, and then, when you do, the peace of God, which passes understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So we pray and God will do what he's going to do, but in the process, he gives us peace because we relinquish the control to him. What is it you need to pray about today? And to stop thinking that you're going to convince God and instead you're going to agree with God and say God, this is what I'm asking you to do. I'm asking you to do it this way specifically, and here's all my reasons. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done when we do that.
Speaker 1:Daniel, chapter nine, teaches us that God will answer our prayers powerfully, opening our eyes to see what he's doing. Let's pray right now, god. Thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, that you see us and you know us. And, god, you're not asking us to not pray, you're asking us to trust you. So we pray and we ask for everything we want and need, but then, on the other side of it, we trust you. Therefore, if you do it our way, we know that it was already your way and our will conform to yours. But, lord, if you don't do it our way, we trust you. We trust that you want what's best for us.
Speaker 1:And, lord, in this situation with Daniel, he prayed, he fasted, he asked and then, lord, you opened his eyes to see more than he could imagine. I pray you will do that in our lives today, that, as we pray, we fast, we ask You'll open our eyes to see you more clearly every day. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen, in the name of God's word, says in Daniel, chapter 3, these three Hebrew teenagers look defiantly at the most powerful man in the world and he said God, or they say God is able to save us, but even if he doesn't, we will never serve your gods. In other words, god is in control. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Daniel, chapter 10.
