A journalist assigned to the Jerusalem bureau takes an apartment overlooking the Wailing Wall. Every day when she looks out, she sees an old Jewish man praying vigorously. So, the journalist goes down and introduces herself to the old man.
She asks, “You come every day to the wall. How long have you done that, and what are you praying for?”
The old man replies, “I have come here to pray every day for 25 years. In the morning I pray for world peace and then for the brotherhood of man. I go home, have a cup of tea, and I come back and pray for the eradication of illness and disease from the earth.”
The journalist is amazed. “How does it make you feel to come here every day for 25 years and pray for these things?” she asks.
The old man looks at her sadly. “Like I'm talking to a wall.” (“Wailing Wall,” Religious Joke of the Day, beliefnet.com, 4-25-03; www.PreachingToday.com)
How often do people feel like they’re talking to a wall when they pray? They pray for something over and over, and nothing seems to happen. Then they begin to wonder if it isn’t all a waste of time.
If that’s been your experience, you might be encouraged by what happened to the prophet, Daniel, in the Old Testament. He prayed desperately for three weeks, and nothing happened. Then all of a sudden an answer came that laid him flat on the ground.
If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Daniel 10, Daniel 10, where we learn from Daniel how to break through “the wall” and reach heaven on our knees.
Daniel 10:1-3 In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel (who was called Belteshazzar). Its message was true and it concerned a great war. The understanding of the message came to him in a vision. At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over. (NIV)
Daniel is in mourning. He’s eating bread and water, and he hasn’t put on any cologne for three weeks.
Daniel has just received a revelation about a “great war”, and his people, the Jews, are in rough shape. Two years before this, some of the Jewish exiles had returned to Jerusalem, and they are not doing well at all. The city is in ruins. Work on restoring the temple has stopped, and the surrounding nations are trying to get rid of them.
It was not the homecoming they expected. They had left Babylon with great expectation, but their hopes were dashed against the harsh realities of trying to rebuild their lives from scratch in hostile territory.
Daniel did not go with them. It had been 72 years since he was kidnapped from Jerusalem and taken to Babylon as a teenager. At this point, he is in his late 80’s to early 90’s, do it didn’t make sense for him to return with the exiles. But he is concerned about their plight. The Jews are struggling with the prospect of war on the horizon, so Daniel goes into mourning for three weeks. Then he sees a “man,” or something that looks like a man.
Daniel 10:4-6 On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of the finest gold around his waist. His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude. (NIV)
Now, this description is a lot like the description of Christ in Revelation 1:13-15. So this may be a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ Himself to Daniel. Christ is there to strengthen Daniel in his pain and distress; but initially, Daniel is anything but strengthened. In fact, those who were with him were overwhelmed with terror, and Daniel fell flat on his face.
Daniel 10:7-9 I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; the men with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves. So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless. Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep, my face to the ground. (NIV)
Daniel is so weak he cannot even lift his head. He is completely humbled before the Lord, and that’s where WE need to start if we are going to break through “the wall” and reach heaven on our knees. We need to get to the place where we…
HUMBLE OURSELVES BEFORE GOD.
We need to get to the place where we are on our faces in absolute dependence upon Him.
Once upon a time there was a pilot, a professor, a preacher and a boy on a plane that had lost all its power. There were only three parachutes on the plane, so it was obvious that one of them would go down with the plane.
The pilot grabbed a pack, strapped it on and said, “I don’t believe in the captain going down with his ship.” He jumped out of the plane and was gone.
The professor grabbed another pack, strapped it on and said, “I’m the smartest man in the world. I’m too important to go down with the plane.” He jumped out of the plane and was gone.
The pastor turned to the boy and said, “I’ve lived my life and I’m ready to die. You have your whole life before you. Why don’t you take the last parachute and I’ll go down with the plane.”
The boy looked at the man and replied, “You don’t have to do that, mister. I’m a Boy Scout, and the smartest man in the world just jumped out of the plane with my knapsack.”
The professor’s pride brought him down, and pride will bring us down, as well. The Bible says, “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).
Sinclair Ferguson, the recently retired pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina, talks about the time when he was a little boy, spending his summers on the Northern coast of Scotland with his mother’s relatives.
His mother had a cousin who, right after he was married at the age of 21, contracted a serious illness which left him completely paralyzed. There was only one thing he could do with his body: he could move his head a bit; and if they put a cup of tea in his hand, he could move the tea, and he could sip the tea. He used to sit in a wheelchair; and from time to time, he would make guttural noises: “Uuuuh … Uuuuh … Uuuuh.”
Pastor Sinclair says, “After I got over the fright, the fear of the unknown, and the strange, I began to notice that every time these groans came from him, the woman he had married when he was 21 would appear by some, it seemed, mystical gift of interpretation, and give him exactly what he wanted.” (The Mystery of the Third Groaning, sermon by Sinclair Ferguson; www.PreachingToday.com)
Believe it or not, that’s what our God does for us when we groan. It is not our strength that impresses Him. Rather, it is our weakness that gets His attention and causes Him to respond.
Romans 8:26 says, “The Spirit helps us IN OUR WEAKNESS (not in our strength). We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”
Do you want to reach heaven on your knees? Then come before the Lord in your weakness, not boasting about your strengths. Humble yourself before God, and He will lift you up! That’s what happened to Daniel.
Daniel 10:10-11 A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. He said, “Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you.” And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling. (NIV)
God sent an angel to touch him, to tell him he was highly esteemed, and to stand him up. God lifted him up, and God will do the same thing for us when we come before him in our weakness. If you want to reach heaven on your knees, humble yourself before God. Then…
PERSIST IN YOUR PRAYERS.
Keep on praying until you get an answer. Keep on asking. Keep on appealing to divine grace until God comes through.
That’s what Daniel did. He prayed for three weeks and nothing seemed to happen. In his despair, he desperately pleaded with God to act, time and time again, but the heavens remained silent. Then all of a sudden, after three weeks of continuous, desperate prayer, God sends a messenger to Daniel with an amazing message. Look at verse 12.
Daniel 10:12-14 Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.” (NIV)
God heard Daniel’s prayer from the very first day he uttered it, and God dispatched an angel with a reply, but that angel ran into some opposition along the way. That angel ran into the spiritual forces of wickedness behind the Persian Kingdom. You see, “the prince of the Persian kingdom” is no mere man. It is the demonic spirit which influences that kingdom, and he tried to stop God’s angel from getting to Daniel.
While Daniel was praying, there was a spiritual battle going on in heavenly places for 21 days. The forces of evil were fighting the forces of good, but the forces of good prevailed, and Daniel finally got his answer.
Daniel persisted in his prayers until that answer came, and that’s what we must do if we’re going to reach heaven on our knees. We must keep on praying until the battle is won and we get our answer from God.
Maybe, you’ve been praying long and hard about a situation; and you’re discouraged, because God has been silent. Please, don’t give up on God, because God heard your prayer the first time you asked it, on the very first day. He no doubt dispatched one of his holy angels with an answer to your prayer, but that angel may be tied up in a spiritual battle right now. Don’t worry, that angel will win (as the good angels always do), and you will have your answer if you don’t stop praying.
Pastor Chuck Sackett, of Lincoln, Illinois, talks about his days as a Boy Scout, growing up outside the church. Then he learned about the God and Country award in the Boy Scouts, and decided to pursue it. “If that meant going to church,” he said, “then that's what I determined to do.”
Each week he walked from his house to the little church building in the next block. He walked past the Rinards' home every time, and later, he worked for the Rinards, doing yard work. Chuck Sackett said, “I attended that little church on the next block just long enough to get the award, and then I quit.”
Twelve years later, after he became a Christian and a preacher, he learned that Mr. and Mrs. Rinard were in a nursing home nearby. Out of friendship for the family, he and his wife decided to pay the Rinard’s a visit.
After a delightful visit, Chuck and his wife turned to leave. That’s when the Rinard’s said something he will never forget. One of them asked Chuck, “Do you remember when you used to walk to that little church? We've not missed one day since, praying that God would do something in your life.”
For 12 years, this elderly couple prayed for Chuck, every day – prayed that God would one day do something in his life. He had no other Christian influence at that time, but eventually he became a Christian and a preacher.
Chuck says, “I was prayed into the kingdom. There is simply no other explanation.” (Chuck Sackett, Lincoln, Illinois, www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s the power of persistent prayer! So don’t give up on your praying. Don’t give up on your praying for people who don’t know Jesus yet. Don’t give up on your praying that God would one day do something in their lives. If you’re going to reach heaven on your knees, humble yourself before God; persist in your prayers; and finally…
LISTEN TO GOD MORE THAN YOU SPEAK TO HIM.
Pay attention to what HE has to say in His Word. Seek not so much to be understood, but to understand God’s message to you. And open your ears and your heart to receive the truth He has for you. That’s what Daniel did.
Daniel 10:15-16 While he was saying this to me, I bowed with my face toward the ground and was speechless. Then one who looked like a man touched my lips, and I opened my mouth and began to speak. I said to the one standing before me, “I am overcome with anguish because of the vision, my lord, and I am helpless. (NIV)
This was the second time a heavenly being touched Daniel. The first time, the heavenly being strengthened Daniel to stand. Now, the heavenly being strengthens Daniel to speak. And what does Daniel say?
Daniel 10:17-18 How can I, your servant, talk with you, my lord? My strength is gone and I can hardly breathe.” Again the one who looked like a man touched me and gave me strength. (NIV)
Three times Daniel is touched by this “man, and the man says…
Daniel 10:19a “Do not be afraid, O man highly esteemed,” he said. “Peace! Be strong now; be strong.” (NIV)
And Daniel says…
Daniel 10:19b When he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, “Speak, my lord, since you have given me strength.” (NIV)
When Daniel finally has the strength to speak, he asks the Lord to speak instead, and the Lord does!
Daniel 10:20-21 So he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? Soon I will return to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I go, the prince of Greece will come; but first I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. (NIV)
Daniel was more concerned about hearing God than he was about God hearing him. And when he opened his ears and his heart to God, Daniel received from God a word from the “Book of Truth,” God’s own word itself!
If you want to reach heaven on your knees, then do what Daniel did. Seek more to hear God than to be heard by God. Open your ears and your heart to what God has to say in His Word.
In his book, Born Again, Chuck Colson related Nixon’s account of a conversation he had with his grandmother when he was still a boy.
“When I was eight or nine years old,” Nixon said, “I asked my grandmother, a very saintly woman, a little Quaker lady, who had nine children – I asked her why it was that Quakers believed in silent prayer.”
“When we sat down to the table,” Nixon said, “we always had silent prayers; and often at church, while we sometimes had a minister or somebody got up when the Spirit moved him, we often just went there and sat, and we prayed.
“Her answer was very interesting,” Nixon said, “and perhaps it relates to why Lincoln prayed in silence. My grandmother spoke to me on this occasion, as she always did to her grandchildren and children with the plain speech.”
She said, “What thee must understand, Richard, is that the purpose of prayer is to listen to God, not to talk to God. The purpose of prayer is not to tell God want thee wants, but to find out from God what He wants from thee.” (Chuck Colson, Born Again)
So when you pray, open your Bible and listen to God more than you talk to God.
Philip Yancey put it well in his book on prayer. He said, “If prayer stands as the place where God and human beings meet, then I must learn about prayer. Most of my struggles in the Christian life circle around the same two themes: why God doesn't act the way [I] want God to, and why I don't act the way God wants me to. Prayer is the precise point where those themes converge. (Philip Yancey, Prayer, Zondervan, 2006; www.PreachingToday.com)
Are you struggling with why God doesn’t act the way you want Him to? Then perhaps, you better struggle with why you don’t act the way God wants you to. When we come to God with that attitude, ready to listen, then we’re more likely to get some answers to our prayers.
If you want to break through “the wall” and reach heaven on your knees, then humble yourself before God; persist in your prayers; and listen to God more than you speak to Him.
It’s like Jim Elliot once said: “God is still on His throne and man is still on his footstool. There’s only a knee’s distance in between.”
