The Daniel Prayer - Session 1 - It's Time To Pray The Daniel Prayer

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The Church of Divine Guidance Sunday Morning Adult Bible Study Group studying the book The Daniel Prayer:  Prayer That Moves Heaven And Changes Nations By Anne Graham-Lotz.  

James 5:16 (NLT2) ¹⁶  Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. 

The Daniel Prayer is born deep within your soul, erupts through your heart, and pours out on your lips, words created by and infused with the Spirit of God quivering with spiritual electricity. It’s really not an everyday type of prayer. It’s a prayer birthed under pressure. Heartache. Grief. Desperation. It can be triggered by a sudden revelation of hope. An answer to prayer, a promise freshly received, a miracle that lies just over the horizon.

Study along with us by getting a copy of the book by clicking this LINK or the image of the book in the study notes. 

Why do our prayers often lack power, passion, and persuasion?  Anne Graham-Holtz thinks that perhaps that we don't have  an all-out, no-holds-barred, go-for-broke, nothing-held-back, old-fashioned commitment to pray.    The kind of commitment that’s born out of desperation. Intense aspiration. Soulful longing. The kind of commitment athletes make to win the race for the game or the trophy or the medal. The kind of commitment that makes sacrifices, accepts responsibility, keeps obligations, and overcomes obstacles. That's what she wants to urge us to do in this book.  She says that The Daniel Prayer is a commitment to persevere no matter what is going on.

Daniel prayed the prayer that was the inspiration for this book while his people,, the nation of Israel, was devastated and displaced from its country that includes both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah.  They were forced into exile in the face of being warned that turning from God and worshipping idols would result in punishment and exile.  God warned them through messages, dream, and visions given through the prophets whose writings make up a lot of the Old Testament. Daniel was a member of the nobility of the southern Kingdom, Judah.  He was in the first group of exiles taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. 

Daniel 1:1-4 NKJV In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his god. Then the king instructed Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king’s descendants and some of the nobles, young men in whom there  was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans.

We studied Daniel’s story a couple of years ago.  We learned that Daniel was a prophet and God used Him to reveal His plans for Babylon, the future of the Jews and the world. 

From the book;

“ Daniel was to serve the emperor with all his heart, mind, soul, body, and strength. He was to so immerse himself in Babylon that he would be severed from his past in order to embrace the present as the only reality. Everything was designed to force Daniel to conform to the Babylonian mold to serve at Nebuchadnezzar's pleasure.
      

Daniel 1:8 NKJV But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.

And thus he began his remarkable career that spanned two world empires and the entire time of his nation’s captivity. At great risk to himself, again and again, he maintained his undivided devotion to God. In turn, God gave him knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.5 He rose to be the equivalent of prime minister under four emperors: Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius, and Cyrus.”

Even with all his success he longed for Jerusalem every day of his life, evidenced by the fact that three times daily, when he prayed, he turned his face in the direction of his beloved city that once had been.  He was thrown in the lion’s den for this. 

Anne writes that because of  the prayer Daniel prayed, and that  we are going to be studying,  God moved Cyrus to issue the decree that after seventy years of captivity, every Jew living in Babylon could go home.  It was a prayer that moved heaven and Earth, and caused a nation to change.  By the way when the Jews went back they did a lot of things outside the will of God but worshipping idols was not one of them. Her question is is it possible that the prayer of one person could bring renewal, restoration, and revival to America?

Ann says, and I agree, that God allows things to happen to get our attention and to alert us to His coming judgment on the world because of disobedience resulting in evil. She gives several examples of why, in her opinion, God’s patience is wearing thin.

When faced with God’s righteous judgment, there is nothing . . . nothing . . . no politics or president, no government or agreement, no institution or organization,
 no media or ministry, no economy or military, no alliance or treaty . . . nothing will turn our nation around except prayer. Heartfelt, desperate prayer. Prayer where the pray-ers rend their hearts, return to the Cross, and repent of personal and national sin. Only prayer that moves Heaven can change a nation.
      

We are going to end our first session by reading the prayer.

 Daniel 9:1-4, 4-23 MSG “Darius, son of Ahasuerus, born a Mede, became king over the land of Babylon. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, was meditating on the Scriptures that gave, according to the Word of God to the prophet Jeremiah, the number of years that Jerusalem had to lie in ruins, namely, seventy. I turned to the Master God, asking for an answer—praying earnestly, fasting from meals, wearing rough penitential burlap, and kneeling in the ashes. I poured out my heart, baring my soul to God , my God: “‘O Master, great and august God. You never waver in your covenant commitment, never give up on those who love you and do what you say. Yet we have sinned in every way imaginable. We’ve done evil things, rebelled, dodged and taken detours around your clearly marked paths. We’ve turned a deaf ear to your servants the prophets, who preached your Word to our kings and leaders, our parents, and all the people in the land. You have done everything right, Master, but all we have to show for our lives is guilt and shame, the whole lot of us—people of Judah, citizens of Jerusalem, Israel at home and Israel in exile in all the places we’ve been banished to because of our betrayal of you. Oh yes, God , we’ve been exposed in our shame, all of us—our kings, leaders, parents—before the whole world. And deservedly so, because of our sin. “‘Compassion is our only hope, the compassion of you, the Master, our God, since in our rebellion we’ve forfeited our rights. We paid no attention to you when you told us how to live, the clear teaching that came through your servants the prophets. All of us in Israel ignored what you said. We defied your instructions and did what we pleased. And now we’re paying for it: The solemn curse written out plainly in the revelation to God’s servant Moses is now doing its work among us, the wages of our sin against you. You did to us and our rulers what you said you would do: You brought this catastrophic disaster on us, the worst disaster on record—and in Jerusalem! “‘Just as written in God’s revelation to Moses, the catastrophe was total. Nothing was held back. We kept at our sinning, never giving you a second thought, oblivious to your clear warning, and so you had no choice but to let the disaster loose on us in full force. You, our God , had a perfect right to do this since we persistently and defiantly ignored you. “‘Master, you are our God, for you delivered your people from the land of Egypt in a show of power—people are still talking about it! We confess that we have sinned, that we have lived bad lives. Following the lines of what you have always done in setting things right, setting people right, please stop being so angry with Jerusalem, your very own city, your holy mountain. We know it’s our fault that this has happened, all because of our sins and our parents’ sins, and now we’re an embarrassment to everyone around us. We’re a blot on the neighborhood. So listen, God, to this determined prayer of your servant. Have mercy on your ruined Sanctuary. Act out of who you are, not out of what we are. “‘Turn your ears our way, God, and listen. Open your eyes and take a long look at our ruined city, this city named after you. We know that we don’t deserve a hearing from you. Our appeal is to your compassion. This prayer is our last and only hope: “‘Master, listen to us! Master, forgive us! Master, look at us and do something! Master, don’t put us off! Your city and your people are named after you: You have a stake in us!’ “While I was pouring out my heart, baring my sins and the sins of my people Israel, praying my life out before my God , interceding for the holy mountain of my God—while I was absorbed in this praying, the humanlike Gabriel, the one I had seen in an earlier vision, approached me, flying in like a bird about the time of evening worship. “He stood before me and said, ‘Daniel, I have come to make things plain to you. You had no sooner started your prayer when the answer was given. And now I’m here to deliver the answer to you. You are much loved! So listen carefully to the answer, the plain meaning of what is revealed:

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