The Power Of Prayer Series

The Power of Pray

Prayer that has Power

Daniel 9:1- 11:1 (excl. 9:24-27)

Slide

Good Morning.

We are going to be finishing up the final 4 chapters of Daniel over these next 2 weeks.

There are 2 more visits that Daniel has with messengers of God to give detailed prophecy regarding events that are important to Israel and to us and that have some very specific information regarding the end times, so you will definitely want to be here next week, if you have any interest at all in the end times events that are to come.

But this morning we are going to start in Daniel 9 ( you can turn there)

Slide

I want to start by looking at Daniel’s devotional life and his prayers and consider how these played a part in him experiencing the powerful work that God did in and through Him and in the powerful revelations he received.

So, let’s start out and just read the beginning of chapter 9 together.

Daniel 9:1-4a

9 In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. 3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

4 I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed:

Pray

Ok, I want to get this chapter in its proper context.

We start out learning that this is taking place in the first year of Darius’ reign so this might be around the time of Daniel being thrown to the Lion’s.

If you recall, Daniel along with 2 others, have been put in charge to administrate the kingdom, but Daniel shows himself so superior, that the King is about to make him the sole ruler of Babylon under the king himself. The other leaders don’t like this, so they devise a plan that makes it illegal to pray.

Daniel doesn’t obey that law and prays to God anyway, but God ends up rescuing Him and he is put in charge of Babylon.

Stress & Responsibilities of Leading

Now for those of you who run a business or are in management, or just try to run your house day in and day out, you know that when you are in charge of something, there is a lot of responsibility and along with that can come a lot of stress!

I know for me, I am sometimes wondering how I am going to get everything done and when the load is really heavy, I have to confess the first thing to go is my prayer and devotional life.

But if you recall back to Daniel during chapter 6, he made time to pray 3 times a day.

And not only that, we learn here that he has been studying the Scriptures.

Daniel 9:2 says he “understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet”

How could he fit those things into his busy schedule?

Well, Daniel had a view of life and had ordered his life and priorities so that he knew God and drew close to God. And in the passage this morning I want us to see several things that Daniel did, and that we can do, that I believe helped him to experience the power of God.

And the first thing we learn about Daniel here is that he had a desire to learn the truth of what God had already revealed.

If we are going to experience the power of God through prayer, then we need to

Desire the Truth

Slide

Now, I don’t think any of us have a desire to believe lies, but Daniel’s desire for the truth caused him to take action and sacrifice other things so that he might find and know the truth.

Daniel knew God was the source of truth, so he spent time seeking God through prayer and studying God’s words given through the prophets.

In fact we learn in these first verses that he was reading some of what Jeremiah had prophesied. What exactly was he studying to gain this understanding of God’s truth?

Well, it was most likely what we know as Jeremiah 29. Listen to these words from Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7, 10-14

Slide

1 This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. …

So Jeremiah 29 gives us the words of God that He wanted the exiles to know and understand. It goes on in verse 4 and says: