Praying God’s Will to Be Done
Daniel 9:1-3
9-13-09
Intro
In Dan 9:13 we have an amazing comment about the nation of Israel, “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.” We learned in our study of James that trouble is a call to prayer. “Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray” (James 5:13 NIV). That’s a fairly simple instruction. If you’re having troubles, what should you do? You should pray; talk to God about it. Find out from Him what’s going on. Is He trying to get your attention? Are you headed in the wrong direction and need a course adjustment? Is there spiritual opposition that needs to be resisted and overcome? Is anyone experiencing troubles?
The nation of Israel was experiencing a lot of trouble. Nothing was going right. But here is the amazing thing. Even with all the trouble, they still didn’t pray. They just kept trying to solve one problem after another as they sunk deeper and deeper into their difficulties. “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.”
That comment could easily be said about our nation. Eight years ago we experienced our first attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor. For half a century God had kept a protective wall around our mainland. Then the shocking events of 9/11 occurred. This week many of us relived some of the tragedy of September 11, 2001 as we watched the memorial service held in New York City. The History Channel had a series of documentaries about the event. I got a chance to watch some of those. 9/11 was a huge wake up call for our nation. Statistically there was an upturn in church attendance right after the attacks. But that didn’t last long. The war in Afghanistan continues. More troops are being sent there; in fact Briana will be deployed there in a couple of months. About a year ago some more trouble hit our nation. The economic bust of 2008 witnessed the fall of giant corporations and massive government bailouts—debts that our children may never be able to pay. We have an official 9.7 unemployment rate; but that statistic does not account for those whose unemployment benefits have run out and those who are underemployed. I am mediating cases where people who were making $ 60,000 a year are now making $ 13,000 a year. Why am I sharing all this? To simply say, we’ve got troubles! Yet, is there a massive movement toward prayer? Is that even happening in the churches? No, we just keep arguing over how we can solve our problems. We keep leaning on our own understanding instead of seeking God. The nation is doing that. That’s the way many Christian families are responding as well. “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.”
“Pastor, why do you keep preaching on prayer?” “I see no other answer!” The greatest problem this country is facing is not democrat and it’s not republican. It’s not essentially political. It’s spiritual. The greatest problem this nation has is a prayerless church! The solution to your personal problems is prayer. The solution to this nation’s problems is prayer.
I. Prayer is an essential dynamic in bringing God’s will to pass on earth.
A. Remember last week when we talked about the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus taught us to prayer, “Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Why would He teach us to pray that way?
1. If God is omnipotent, isn’t His will always done? No, the earth is full of violations of God’s will. It’s not God’s will that a man commit adultery and destroy his family. It’s not God’s will that a serial killer abduct innocent little children. It’s not God’s will that thousands of souls slip into an eternal hell everyday. 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” How many recognize that all kinds of things are going on that are not God’s will? We do not hold to some fatalistic doctrine that says everything is God’s will.
2. But if God is omnipotent, why isn’t His will being done in these instances? The answer to that lies in the first chapter of the Bible. Gen 1:26-28 “Then God said,’Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” So to whom did God give dominion over the earth? He created man with the capacity to execute His will in the earth. He created man in His own image and then told him to “...fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion”.
B. When God created human beings He made two profound decisions. (1) He created man in His own image. He created man with a free will—the capacity to make moral choices. Animals operate out of natural instinct. People have the capacity to rise above that, hear God’s voice, and obey it. God created man with a free will and He has never turned back on that decision. Even when people were betraying His own Son and nailing Him to a cross, God did not violate their free will. Has the significance of that ever soaked in on you? It took me a long time to grasp the significance of that. Getting a handle on that truth explains a lot of events in life. Getting a handle on that truth will profoundly affect the way a person relates to other people. If God won’t violate their free will, who am I to try doing that? So, there is God’s decision to give humans free will. (2) God gave man rulership over the earth. He gave to man dominion over the earth. That dominion involves authority but it also involves responsibility.
C. What did Adam do with that dominion? In his disobedience to God he surrendered it to the devil. Prior to that, there was no sickness on the earth. There was no death. There were no injustices. Adam opened the door for Satan’s influence in the world. Paul referred to the devil as the god of this world because that is now the realm of his activity.
So what is God’s answer to that problem? Jesus. In Gen 3:15 He gives the first glimpse of that answer when God says to the Serpent, “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” The Seed of woman is Messiah, Jesus. The bruising of His heel refers to Calvary. But at Calvary the Serpent’s head was crushed. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Jesus death and resurrection was the death blow to Satan. It settled the final outcome of the conflict. But the total manifestation of that victory has not yet been fully realized. We are fighting a defeated enemy; but there are still battles to be fought. The successful D-Day invasion in June 1941 marked the certain defeat of Germany during WWII. In fact, some scholars say events in Russia prior to that pretty well guaranteed Hitler’s defeat. But Germany did not unconditionally surrender until May 1945, a year later. Between the time of Jesus’ resurrection and His second coming there are battles to fight. There is a devil to resist. There is spiritual warfare for us to wage.
Listen to this summary that Paul gives in 1 Cor 15:20-28.
“But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. 24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. 27 For "He has put all things under His feet." But when He says "all things are put under Him," it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. 28 Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.”
When people ask, “Why doesn’t God do something about all the injustice and pain in the world?” the answer is, “He is doing something about it. He is in the process of totally fixing all those problems. One day there will be no more tears, no more pain, no more sickness, no more death. The ending of all that will be God’s doing. It will all be a result of His plan of redemption. In the mean time, He will work through any person who will yield to Him to address those issues right now. The real question for everyone is ‘Are we available to Him for that?’”
D. But here is the profound issue. God does not reverse His two big decisions about man. (1) He does not take away from man his capacity for moral choice. He does not violate the freewill. He will influence it; He will call people to Himself and to His service. But ultimately He leaves the freedom of moral choice with the person. (2) He has delegated rulership of the earth to man. Instead of taking that away, He redeems people and empowers them by His Spirit to assert His will on the earth.
Bottom line is this. The will of God is accomplished by the Holy Spirit through human beings. Prayer and other obedient action is an essential part of that. It’s not a matter of me going out and fixing the injustices of the world on my own. What a ridiculous thought! It’s a matter of me going to God in prayer, getting the mind of Christ, asserting the will of God in prayer, and doing whatever else God may tell me to do. Prayer is God’s chosen way to bring people into partnership with Him in executing His will on earth.
II. Let’s see this happening in our text: Dan 9:1-3
“In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans -- 2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
3 Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.”
A. So what propels Daniel into this intense prayer? He is studying the word of God; he is studying the writings of Jeremiah. In his study, he discovers something exciting. He discovers God’s will for His people. Turn with me to Jeremiah 29. In Jeremiah 25 we also find the prediction of the 70 years of captivity. In that chapter Jeremiah talks about why Israel went into captivity. But for sake of brevity we will just read this passage in Jeremiah 29:1-14.
“Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remainder of the elders who were carried away captive -- to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2(This happened after Jeconiah the king, the queen mother, the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem.) 3 The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, saying,
4 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5 Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. 6 Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters -- that you may be increased there, and not diminished. 7 And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace. 8 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. 9 For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them, says the LORD.
10 For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 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. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.”
So here is Daniel reading his Bible and he realizes the 70 years are about up. He was carried away captive in 605 B.C. It is now sometime between 535 and 537 B.C. (see note at end of sermon) So the time is almost here for God to bring His people back to Israel. This is the prophetic promise. This is the will of God.
B. What does Daniel do? That’s the key insight we have to see.
He does not begin celebrating the coming liberation. He does not throw a party. He does not pack his bags like some people of faith would tell us to do. He does not sit down and passively wait for the will of God to happen like 90% of the church is doing today.
Instead, he begins praying “Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” He prays for the will of God to be executed. He prays in such a way as to remove all obstacles to God’s will being executed. Here is the error of the church today. We are passively waiting for God to do His will. God is waiting for us to assert His will on earth through prayer. We are waiting for God to send revival. He is waiting for us to pray in revival. In this passage, Daniel is a perfect example of someone who knows how to pray, “Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
III. God’s will is not accomplished in a vacuum; it’s accomplished in the context of prayer.
1. When the resurrected Christ promised to send the Holy Spirit to the early church, what did they do? Did they throw a party celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit? Did they go back to their fishing nets telling Peter to give them a call when the Spirit falls—I really want to be in on that? No, they prayed for the will of God to be accomplished. In the process of praying they were prepared for what God had in mind. Today, people want a move of God; but they want someone else to pray it in for them. They’ll be out fishing, making a little extra money. They’re too busy for the prayer meeting. The problem is this. The prayer meeting is what prepares you to receive. If somebody else does the praying, they’ll be prepared. But that doesn’t prepare you. In fact, when God moves you may not even know it happened. You’ll still be busy with what you were doing. Jesus sent 500 people to the prayer meeting after His resurrection. Only 120 were there on the day of Pentecost. I don’t know what happened to the other 380. But this I can say, I would rather be a part of the 120 than the ones not at the prayer meeting. Can you imagine seeing the resurrected Christ and still not being at the prayer meeting?
2. In Exodus 17 Israel found herself confronted by an enemy, the Amalekites. There was a battle that had to be fought. Follow with me as we read Ex 17:8-13.
“Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. 9 And Moses said to Joshua, ‘Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.’ 10 So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11 And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12 But Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13 So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.”
In the natural, what difference would it make if Moses’ hands were held up or not? If there were not spiritual dynamics at work, it would make no difference at all. But there was a spiritual element at work and the holding up of Moses’ hands by Aaron and Hur was symbolic of prayer. Knowing Moses, it is pretty certain he was up there interceding for Joshua and his army. If we don’t accept the revelation God has given us in His word, we can conclude that prayer doesn’t matter. But here the outcome was determined by the intercession happening on the hill.
3. Remember in Acts 12 when the authorities arrested Peter? They had already killed James; so everyone knew this was serious. So what did they do? They called a prayer meeting. They began praying for Peter’s release. Acts 12:5 says “constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.” God answered that prayer. God sent an angel and delivered Peter out of that prison. The early church believed in prayer. The early church understood that the will of God does not just automatically happen. God brings it to pass through people who are willing to pray and obey.
Why do I keep preaching on prayer?” Because that is what God is saying we need to do! If you got any troubles, then pray. Why do we have a prayer meeting on Sunday morning, a prayer meeting on Monday evening, and an Internet Prayer Ministry? It’s my responsibility to make it available to you. It’s your decision as to whether you avail yourself of the opportunity. But this I know without a doubt. God is calling us to prayer. Prayer is the way His will gets done.
4. A favorite verse in Christian circles in Rom 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Most people who quote that could not tell you what the verses just prior to it say. Rom 8:26-27 “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” The Holy Spirit makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. The Holy Spirit empowers you and me to assert the will of God on earth. That’s how all things work together for the good of those who love God. Romans 8:28 happens in the context of prayer.
It is deception to think that the Church can be apathetic toward prayer, busy doing other things, and then experience God’s full provision for their lives. I don’t know why God has chosen to accomplish His will through prayer. I’m sure it’s related to His initial decision to delegate rulership of the earth to man. But I cannot fully explain the workings of prayer. I know this for sure; it’s about relationship with God and cooperating with Him to see His will done. It’s not about incantations, methods, or ways to manipulate spiritual reality for your own purposes. That ultimately moves toward witchcraft. Prayer is about embracing God’s will and praying its fulfillment in the earth.
Daniel 9:2 “ in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
3 Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.”
IV. Notice three lessons in those two verses.
1. Daniel knew the will of God because he was reading and studying the word of God. Had he not studied the prophecies of Jeremiah, he would have not known that it was God’s will to restore Jerusalem after 70 years. He would not have been able to pray with such confidence that God would do that. The word gave focus and content to his praying.
It is when we give ourselves to the word and to prayer that we are able to function best in God’s purposes. Studying the word, without a prayerful relationship with the Lord, results in dry intellectualism. Praying, without being informed by the word, can lead to praying amiss or fanaticism. The more we saturate our minds with the word of God, the better equipped we are to pray according to the will of God. The more we nurture our relationship with God through prayer, the more receptive we are to understanding God’s word.
When the deacons were chosen in Acts 6 the apostles made this commitment to the church. “...but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” That has to be the priority of the church if she is to survive and then thrive. I am extremely concerned about the state of affairs in America. We have too many Bible illiterate churches and too many prayerless churches. I don’t care if you have 50,000 people in your church; if none of them pray, the church is not much of a threat to the enemy. The NFL can get 50,000 people together pretty easily. That doesn’t scare the devil. Jesus got 120 people together in prayer and turned the world upside down.
2. Notice Daniel came to God in humility. If we come back to this passage I will get into this more. But there was nothing in him saying to God, “It’s about time; why didn’t you do this sooner.” The outer garments of sackcloth and ashes was symbolic of his internal state. Israel did not deserve this divine intervention. It would come by the grace of God. It would be an expression of His mercy toward His people. There could be no boasting about how our prayer brought the restoration. Prayer simply prepared our hearts to receive what God already wanted to give us.
3. Notice Daniel set his face to pray. There was a determined decision to seek God about this. He expressed his seriousness about this by fasting as well. There is a certain amount of prayer that comes pretty naturally. I’m talking about the daily praying we do to ask God to help us with this and that. I think that’s very important. It should be as natural as breathing for the Christian to pray throughout the day. But the kind of intercession Daniel is doing in our text requires a decision of the will. I have always had to work at having a disciplined, consistent prayer life. My flesh would rather be doing something else. I have to tell my flesh to settle down because we are going to pray. I have to have a set time that I will pray or other things will crowd prayer out. Some of you gravitate more naturally toward prayer and intercession. But my guess is that most of you are like me. If you don’t plan to pray you won’t pray very much. I have tried to explain why prayer is so important to your future and so important to the implementation of God’s will in your life and the lives of your loved ones. I have pointed out how Daniel did not passively wait for the will of God to be done but actively prayed for its fulfillment. I have also shown how even Daniel had to set his face to do this. He made a decision to pray and He prayed.
Conclusion
Today, I call you to a decision to pray. I say to those who are experiencing trouble, pray. I say to those who are complaining about the state of affairs in the church and in the nation, pray. Then I ask one simple question. When are you going to pray? Settle it in your mind here and now. Will you pray from 6:00-6:30 a.m.? Will you be here for pre-service prayer on Sunday morning? Will you come Monday evening from 6:30-7:30 pm.? God is asking for something more that good intentions. He is asking for a specific commitment between you and Him. He is wanting to know when you’re going to do this thing you say you intend to do. The most important part of any sermon is our response to it. Right where you are I want to ask you to take a few minutes and talk with God about this and come to an understanding of some specifics between you and Him.
Note: NIV Study Bible note at Jer. 25:11-12 the 70 years "probably represents the period from 605 . . . to 538 B. C. Criswell writes, "But Daniel did not know whether it was at the beginning of the year of his captivity, or whether it could have been at the beginning year when Jehoiachin the king was carried into captivity in 598 B. C. Or possibly the seventy yers could have begun at the destruction of the temple, which was in 587 B. C." W. A. Criswell, Expository Sermons on the Book of Daniel, Vol. 4 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1972) 85.
www.GatewayNixa.org
Richard Tow
Gateway Foursquare Church
Nixa, Missouri
