MAKING AN IMPACT FOR GOD: THE AWESOME POWER OF PRAYER
On the morning of April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln met with his cabinet as the War neared its end. Lincoln said to them, “I’ve been having a strange dream the last few nights. In this dream, I picture a ship sailing toward some indefinite shore. I keep having that dream. I don’t know what it means.”
That very night he and Mrs. Lincoln were attending a show at Ford’s theater when John Wilkes Booth shot the president in the back of the head, inflicting a mortal wound. The next day, the ship which represented the life of Abraham Lincoln reached the shore of eternity. President Lincoln's dream had personal, national, and eternal significance.
In this sermon, we focus on a dream a king had 2,600 years ago. And that dream also had personal, national and eternal significance – Daniel 2:1-11 . . .
Have you ever had a dream that left you feeling frustrated? (In the dream, you were trying to get something done or get somewhere, but you could not quite make it due to all kinds of weird stuff that just kept on thwarting your efforts.)
If you are familiar with Sigmund Freud’s dream analysis, perhaps you recall Freud's conclusion: Our dreams represent repressed negative feelings associated with fears, worries, and anxieties.
In ancient times dreams were considered to be predictors of things to come; throughout the Old Testament dreams appear quite frequently as a way thru which the Lord communicated with His people . . . whereas, in the New Testament, except for two specific dreams, such use of dreams disappeared inasmuch as God gave us the Holy Spirit came to guide us and interpret the Word of God to us.
Nebuchadnezzar had his doubts about “wise men” who depended upon astrology and magical thinking to advise him, so it is not surprising that, due to the seriousness with which he took this troublesome dream, he decided to put his advisors to the supreme test of wisdom with an absurd demand that they, first of all, tell him what he dreamed, then interpret it.
Taken aback by the king’s apparent insanity, the only argument these guys could come up with was an exclamation of desperation: “There is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing (you dim wit)!”
This much they got right: No MAN could do it - “And the gods don’t have anything to do with man!” Oh yeah? Time for the stage to be set for the GOD who has everything to do with His people to be consulted, magnified and glorified – Daniel 2:12-16 . . .
What was it about Daniel that made him God’s appointed spokesman? “Daniel spoke to the commander with wisdom and tact”! He did not rave or rant; he did not panic or pout. He responded with prudence and discretion.
Someone has said, “Wisdom is the ability to say the right thing, and tact is the ability to say it the right way.”
Why did Daniel ask for time to show the king the interpretation of a dream that had stymied his own wise men? Daniel needed time to pray! How could he be so confident? He firmly believed in the power of prayer – Daniel 2:17-21 . . .
Daniel’s meeting with his friends was more than informational . . . It was a praying meeting - in which all of them together were to plead for God’s mercy on the basis of God’s deep love for them and their deep love for God . . . They were praying to “the God of heaven”.
There comes a time in our own journey when we feel so inadequate that we must declare our dependence on a power greater than ourselves and greater than all the forces of our world combined.
“The God of heaven” is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble! He and He alone solves mysteries that are beyond the understanding of the philosophers, theologians and scientists of this world.
Daniel’s genuine faith in God prompted him to praise God even before the answer came, but when it was received and there was no doubt about it, PRAISE “burst forth”! Daniel could not get enough of “bragging on God to God”!
Then it was time to “brag on God” to the king – Daniel 2:24-28 . . . The theme of the entire Book of Daniel is stated in Daniel’s response to the king - verse 28a: “There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.” Picture this:
Daniel – just a teenager- strides into the presence of a king, stands before him, and says, “I’ve got the answer to your problem.” You know what this tells me?
When we kneel before God in prayer, we can stand before anybody - and not feel intimidated! Reliance on God lets courage rise with danger!
After Daniel tells the king his dream and interprets it, then what happened? Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel, honored him, and declared: “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and the true revealer of mysteries.”
No longer a mystery: God has plans for the world and the end of time. The Nebuchadnezzar’s of the world might be people of power and influence, but God is greater than all of them combined. The destiny of the world, therefore, is under the control of the One and Only "God of heaven" - the LORD God! Praise God!
God is able to do exceedingly more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work in us and in the world . . . We sometimes face impossible demands . . . but never forget Paul’s words: “With God, all things are possible.”
Difficult situations force us to rely on God. Perhaps you’ve heard it said, “God helps those who help themselves” but the truth is, God helps those who, when they realize they cannot go it alone, reach out to Him who IS able to help.
When we face situations too difficult to handle, we need the wisdom that comes from praying - specifically, earnestly, intelligently.
There’s an old song that says it: “Just keep on praying until the light breaks through, just keep on praying, He’ll answer you.”
Praying in faith, believing that God hears and answers the prayers of His saints, gets results – even if the only result is simply the unburdening of our fears and anxieties so that we no longer carry our burdens alone. Just knowing that we have turned our worries and our fears over to the Lord . . . that He bears our burdens with us . . . enables us to say sincerely, “not my will but Thine be done”.
Trust in the Lord displaces worry . . . calms fears . . . assures the outcome - the outcome that God our Father planned for His people from the beginning.
Pray in faith, believing!
Mother Teresa told the story of a young lady in the village where she served giving birth prematurely and dying in childbirth. The premature baby needed an incubator which of course the village did not have.
Mother Teresa thought her best option would be a hot water bottle to keep the preemie warm, but there was none available. So she called together the children in her school and asked them to pray with her for a water bottle to keep the baby warm.
One of the school girls, also concerned about the baby's little sister being left without a mother, prayed for a doll for the baby's sister. That very afternoon, a big box from a support group in England arrived at the village and, when opened, right on top of all the stuff inside the box was a water bottle which Mother Teresa filled immediately with hot water.
But the school girl who had prayed out loud with Mother Teresa kept on digging into the box, throwing items out right and left. When asked "why are you doing that" she responded, "There's got to be a doll in here somewhere!" Sure enough, at the very bottom of the gift box was a rag doll!
Always pray in faith, believing! You never know what God might be up to! Amen.
