Prayer: Lifting The Curtain

Let’s lift the curtain on Prayer

Opening: How does prayer work?

Are there messengers transporting the actual words to God?

Why don’t I feel like praying, and yet after praying feels so much better?

Why are my prayers not getting answered?

I believe we have all asked some or all of the above questions sometimes of another, maybe we are asking some tonight, all over the world people, children of God are asking these and similar questions, all about prayer.

Illustration: Have you ever been to a play, and seen the curtains close, and on re-opening, even just a few moments later, the stage looks different, new props are in place, and wondered, how on earth did they do that? And then by accident somebody moves that old big curtain, ever so slightly and for a few moments, you are able to see… people moving the props, the set put into place, actors taking positions; and the mystery is solved, now you know how the stage got changed!

Well tonight as we turn to God’s Word, not only are we going to find answers from God’s word for the questions asked, but in the book of Daniel, chapter 10, the curtain is going to be moved, and we will see a glimpse of what happens when we pray.

Let’s examine together:

a) Who do we pray to (how do our prayer get to Heaven?)

b) What happens when we pray (behind the scenes)

c) How does our prayer affect those we pray for

d) How does it affect ourselves

Read Daniel 10: 1 – 21

Pray God’s blessing on the public reading of His Word and the ears reached by it.

1. Spiritual realm

A) Who do we pray to (how do our prayer get to Heaven?)

Lets look at Daniel

He is a man of prayer, we see him pray 3 times per day, he prayed in his room, he prayed in the lions den, he prayed for wisdom, he prayed for guidance, he prayed for the sins of his nation, but here we see him pray, like us because he is troubled. He is concerned, for 21 days he fasted, and he got some friends to pray with him.

It is important to note that this is around the date that the prophet Jeremiah prophesied and told Israel, their exile would end – their 70-year period of captivity. But nothing happened. See the Jews, a nation known to be sheepkeepers, has now in exile become shopkeepers, and they were doing well, and were not keen to go back.

But Daniel knew that his people needed to repent, to obey, and to return to the place (physical and spiritual) where God can bless them abundantly. (Don’t we still fall for that trick from Satan) So he was praying with his friends for God to stir His people up to return to the Promised Land.

Daniel 10:4-6

4Now on the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, that is, the Tigris, 5I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose waist was girded with gold of Uphaz! 6His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude.

GLORY TO GOD!

Think for a second what if something like this would happen at our prayermeeting?

As Daniel and his friends were praying, SUDDENLY in there midst, this amazing figure stood!

First Question: Who could this be?

Remember John the Apostle on the island Patmos?

Revelation 1:12-14

12Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. 14His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; 15His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; 16He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.

Second Question: Did Jesus Christ just decide to do a quick visit, or what exactly happened here?

There is another place in the Word that will answer this very important question:

Elisha and his servant in 2 Kings chapter 6

The King of Syria wanted Elisha killed, and he send his army, who entered Dothan at night, and when the servant went out the next morning, to his shock they were surrounded by the enemy’s forces,