Praying Like Daniel Prayed

Daniel again this morning, except we're not doing our normal verse by verse, we're going to be teaching on a specific topic, praying like Daniel prayed, we'll be looking at Daniel's prayer life, but let's, well, let's start off in prayer and let's give this time to the Lord. Father, we come to you right now and we're so grateful, we're so thankful that we can have a personal relationship with you. And when we look at various men and women in the Bible, we see some real prayer warriors, we see some people who really knew you.

And so we pray this morning that as we look at the prayer life of Daniel, that you would speak to our hearts, that you would challenge us, that it would be something for us to grow with, that it would be something that would inspire us, that there would be something that each and every one of us would leave with this morning. And so help me speak clearly, help us hear clearly. Thank you, Father, for this time in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, so we are in the book of Daniel this morning and the sermon message is entitled Pray Like Daniel Prayed. And so yes, you need to turn to the book of Daniel. And we just finished teaching through all 12 chapters of Daniel, verse by verse, chapter by chapter.

And this morning, we're focusing on a particular theme throughout the book, that of prayer and his prayer life. Daniel was a politician, Daniel was a prophet. But above all, Daniel was a prayer warrior.

And we've covered all three of those ideas, those topics as they came up time and time again, and spread throughout all 12 chapters. You see those three themes all the way through. But if there's one area that we can learn to imitate and apply to our personal lives, if there's one takeaway from this book, besides all the wonderful prophecy in the book, if there's one takeaway for us in our own walk with the Lord, it's looking at how Daniel prayed, how he talked to the Lord, how we reacted in various kinds of situations.

Nowadays, we live in some very uncertain, tumultuous situations. When you look around at Canada, when you look at the United States, when you look at the UK, when you look at Europe, France, the last few weeks, we live in some very, like I say, uncertain and tumultuous times. Daniel lived in some very uncertain and tumultuous times.

So what we're going to look at this morning is five chapters and five main insights into Daniel's prayer life. And so you may want to jot these ideas down. They're all headings that start with the word see.

I don't often do that, you know, where I try to make them start with a certain letter or something like that. But this is just to help you to remember. And so turn to Daniel chapter one.

And the first thing that we see within Daniel's prayer life is what I call consecration. Consecration. In Daniel chapter one, we find young Daniel as a teenager, far from home, living under the rule of a foreign king, King Nebuchadnezzar.

Not his plan for his life. And he was forced into service of King Nebuchadnezzar and the Empire of Babylon, possibly made a eunuch. And in chapter one, he was told he had to eat ceremonially unclean food to him as a Jewish person.

And Daniel did something remarkable. Instead of becoming a victim, instead of giving up and giving in, he gave himself to God. He turned a hopeless situation into an opportunity for God to use him and to use his life.

And so what did Daniel do? Well, Daniel did what we, thousands of years later, call the Daniel fast. He did the Daniel fast. Chapter one, take a look at verse 12.

And you can read more of the chapter for context later. But it says, please test your servants for 10 days and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. And so Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, as we know them, after 10 days, they did this Daniel fast and they looked better than the rest of the crowd.

They were set apart. And so for three years of their training, because that's what it was, this was at the beginning of their training and their training was three years getting a, as I call it, a bachelor of arts degree in liberalism. But anyways, and so for three years of their training, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they didn't eat the choice foods according to verse 16 in chapter one.

They didn't eat the choice foods. They didn't drink wine. They didn't drink choice delicious drinks.

And it says, actually it says towards the end of the chapter that they were 10 times better than all the other wise men. And of course, that's something that jumps out at you when you read chapter one, they were 10 times better than all the rest. And so when you read chapter one, it doesn't mention prayer specifically, but in the Jewish mindset of fasting, fasting always went along with prayer.

It's implicit within the text and the understanding here. You're fasting, you're also praying and seeking God. And so the lesson is this, in this first chapter, fasting and prayer is consecration.

You are consecrating yourself to God. What is consecration? Consecration is the act of setting yourself apart and devoting yourself to God fully. Consecration is dedicating oneself to a spiritual purpose.

It declares your commitment to God. It chisels out a singleness of heart within you. Something happens to you when you do this the right way.

And so Daniel cleared away the distractions. Daniel crucified his doubts because you mortify the flesh when you fast. Daniel overcame overwhelming discouragement that could have been so easy for him to buy into and could have had a pity party for the rest of his life.

His spiritual hunger for God was greater than his desire for physical food. And this was the opening chapter of God doing amazing things in his life and through his life that would have repercussions for all of the Jewish people and for the Gentile people centuries later. I wonder if there's any Daniels amongst us this morning.

You know, we forget how dark things must have been to the young man Daniel who was a teenager. We forget the hopelessness, the darkness that things must have appeared to him as a young man taken captive by a foreign power into another land and being forced to learn somebody else's language, someone else's culture while your own people were being oppressed. We forget the hopelessness and the darkness that surrounded young Daniel.

We forget how desperate Daniel must have been. And so for three years, at least three years, we don't know what happened in the rest of his life, but for three years in this area of prayer and fasting, Daniel goes all out in consecrating himself in this area with prayer and fasting with the Daniel fast. And I would put this challenge out to some of us this morning.

Maybe all of us. I don't know. Maybe some of us here need to learn this discipline, this biblical discipline called fasting and prayer coupled together.

Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount said, when you pray, not if you pray, he expected people to pray. But then in the very same area, he says, when you fast, not if you fast, he said he expected it. It was just a regular part of the of the Christian life.

And, you know, now, of course, I know some people have health issues and there's things with blood sugar and there's all sorts of things you need to talk to a doctor. But if you're a healthy person with no issues, you know, very easily, I would suggest that you think about this and pray about it and seek God, whether this is the right thing for you. So prayer and fasting, such an important thing, made a big impact.

We're going to see it later on in the book of Daniel, how it impacts him and others around him. Fasting and prayer was consecration. All right.

That's insight number one. Now, insight number two is what I call crisis prayer. Have you ever done crisis prayer before? You know what crisis prayer is? Daniel chapter two.

You don't have to go very far. King Nebuchadnezzar had a very troubling dream. Couldn't get anybody to interpret.

He demanded that his wise men or the magi or astrologers of their time, as they were called, give an interpretation to the dream. They couldn't give the interpretation to the dream, nor the dream itself, which was part of the requirement. None of the top guys could do what the king wanted.

And so King Nebuchadnezzar sentenced them, all the wise men, all of them in the kingdom to death, the death sentence. And so Daniel one day is walking along in life and, you know, just doing, making the best and all of a sudden somebody announces to him the death sentence and he was one of the wise men. Imagine that.

Imagine you're just doing your best as you can in life, minding your own business. And somebody comes up to you one day and says, by the way, you and your friends are now under the death sentence. That's what I call crisis prayer, right? Your life is on the line.

Crisis prayer. It's game over. You're thinking this is it.

You're painted in a corner. There's no way out. Well, in Daniel chapter two, verse 16, Daniel hears this news of the death sentence and in verse 16, chapter two, he says, give me more time.

Give me more time. And then verse 17, we're going to read it. Chapter two, verses 17 and 18.

Then Daniel went to his house and made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, which were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They're Jewish names there, and his companions, and that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Again, very, let's get down to business and look at the lesson here.

Like I say, sometimes things can come out of you from nowhere. You're living your life, minding your own business, and you get the news. It could be a knock on the door, it could be a phone call, it could be an email nowadays.

What do you do when you're blindsided by something and the news is so bad that you don't know what to do? Well, what do you do when you don't know what to do? Well, in the first place, you do what Daniel did, you ask for some time if you can. You ask for some time. There's an old saying, God guides, but Satan rushes.

God, that's a good principle. God guides, but Satan rushes. I usually don't make good decisions when I'm rushed and pressured.

I like to say, let's just slow this down. Let me think about this. Let me pray about this.

That's what Daniel was doing. Give us some time. The second thing Daniel did was, well, obvious, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, and don't give up until you get the answer.

Pray, pray, pray, and don't stop until there's a result. You pray like your life depends on it, and it did. You ask God for an answer.

You ask God for a direction. You ask God to give you a revelation. Show me things I don't see in this situation.

Show me things beyond my ability to see. Give me some possibilities that aren't even on my radar, Lord. And that's the second thing he did.

Well, number three, after asking for more time, and then pray, pray, pray, pray. Number three, when it comes to crisis praying, you do what Daniel did when you get in trouble. You get together with some prayer buddies, and you pray with some people.

And that's what Daniel did. He grabbed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and he says, guys, we got to pray. That's a powerful lesson.

Remember, you may not come to Sunday morning prayer meeting, but the Sunday night prayer meeting is always there for you. Remember, you're always a phone call away for someone to pray with you. Sometimes after a church service, I'll break up into small groups of three or four people, and I get you to pray with each other.

And some of you, it's like, it feels like a fish out of water. It feels like, oh, I hate this. But then afterwards, you go, man, I really like that.

It was the best part. Doing those small groups, it trains you to pray with other people and build relationships. And that's a foreign idea in the modern church nowadays.

And I would say this, don't wait for emergencies to value prayer meetings. Don't wait for emergencies to build those networks and those relationships. You build it now.

So insight number two is how to pray in a crisis. So number one, consecration. Number two, crisis, praying.

And that's what Daniel was doing. The number three insight that we get from Daniel's life is consistency. And you got to turn to Daniel chapter six for that one.

By the time we get to chapter six, Daniel was a man of consistent prayer. And we see a pattern modeled in his life in chapter six, verse 10. It's worth underlining.

It's a great verse. Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, the decree, he went home. And in his upper room, with the windows open towards Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as was his custom since early days.

There's three main things that I want you to see. There's actually a fourth element here that most people skip over. How to pray like Daniel prayed is laid out beautifully here in chapter six, verse 10.

There is a model, a simple model to follow. The first thing he did was he prayed how often each day? Three times a day, as was his custom, as was his habit. It was his discipline.

I imagine morning, afternoon, and evening. The second thing he did was he got down on his knees. Now, I've always said God is more concerned about the position of your heart than the position of your body.

But sometimes the position of your body affects you in other ways. And God hears your prayer just as easy if you're sitting down or lying down. And there's nothing wrong with that.

The psalmist says, you know, through the watches of the night, while I'm in bed, I'm praying. That's perfectly OK. But Daniel did something here that was, I think, something for us to look at and examine.

Getting down on his knees and praying. You know, recently, actually, when I was back in chapter six, I started doing this. I started getting down on my knees and trying to do that morning, afternoon, and evening.

And I have to admit, the first time was about two minutes long because I go, man, this is really hard on my knees. I don't know if anybody else did it. But I started going from two minutes to three minutes.

I stretched it out. I'm like on a marathon, you know. And it doesn't have to be long.

But I found something very interesting. I was surprised at some of the benefits that came out of it. I'm not saying everybody needs to do that.

I'm not saying I'm going to do this for the rest of my life. But there were some advantages to doing that. The first good thing that came out of it was when you get down on your knees, it puts you into a mindset.

Man, this is not comfortable. I'm meaning business. I'm here to pray.

I'm not here to daydream. I'm not looking at my phone surfing or something like that. It's very, very focused.

I'm on my knees for a reason, and I'm praying. I'm getting down to business. The other benefit of getting down on your knees is it helps you remember whether you did it or not.

Sometimes you go, oh, yeah, did I pray in the morning? I was so busy. Did I stop? Did I stop? Well, for me, at least, it helped me remember whether I did or not. Did I pray this morning? Did I pray this afternoon? So this is Daniel's pattern that he built into his life.

Praying three times a day, kneeling before the Lord during that time. But then look at the verse. And it tells us in verse 10 that he gave thanks.

He gave thanks. He didn't complain. If anybody had a right to complain, losing your family, losing your culture, your language, your customs, being forced into service in a foreign land, probably being made a eunuch, because that's what they did with a lot of them.

He had a lot of things to complain about. A lot of things taken away from him. He overcame the darkness with thanksgiving and gratitude.

And even after prayer itself was outlawed, as it says in this verse, chapter six, verse 10, it tells us he still did it. He still prayed, but he still gave thanks. That takes a lot of faith.

You know, then after he does it, guess what happens? After he's a faithful man and he's praying to the Lord, guess what happens? He gets thrown into the lion's den. I mean, Daniel really could have been filled with discouragement and fear. And here's the kicker.

And this is sort of the sideline here that we forget again. Ironically, the guys that he saved from execution back in chapter two, the wise men that he saved from execution, those very same wise men were the conspirators that stabbed him in the back, that got him in trouble in chapter six. The guys that he saved are the ones who stabbed him in the back and got him in this situation, being thrown into the lion's den.

There is nothing that hurts more than being stabbed in the back by people that are close to you. And yet he was giving thanks to the Lord. That's a discipline, that's maturity, that's consistency.

You know, we always focus on the lions that are in the den. What about the lions that were outside the den for him? He had lions everywhere. Well, how could he do that? Well, the fourth element, Hebrews 11.33, you can jot it down.

Hebrews chapter 11.33 tells us, it was by faith that the mouths of lions were shut. Who do you think that's talking about? It's gotta be Daniel. It was by faith that the mouths of lions were shut inside the den and outside the den.

And instead of giving into fear, he responded in faith. He got on his knees, he prayed, he give thanks. He exercised faith over fear.

I'm sure he might've had fears and doubts and things going on. He exercised faith over discouragement. And that really is the fourth part of this pattern.

Faith, faith, faith. And on top of that, actually in verse 10 that we just read, faith is there. It doesn't say the word faith, but faith is there.

Do you know how you know that faith is there? Because the fourth thing that he did was he opened his windows and he prayed in which direction? Toward Jerusalem. The reason Jews did that was because the temple was there and the presence, the Shekinah glory of God was there. And Jews then would face towards the temple and pray because that's where God was.

Well, the temple had been destroyed. And as we're gonna see in the next insight that we look at in chapter nine, Daniel believed in the promises of God. And even though the temple wasn't there, he had faith that it was gonna be there one day.

He still had faith. There was no temple there, but he had faith to pray that direction and believe that the temple was gonna be there again. He saw with eyes of faith, not with physical eyes.

That's pretty powerful. So let me say this again. Consistency, consistency, consistency.

It's the battle that you and I face every day. You're not gonna wrestle with lions, but you're gonna be wrestling with your own self of consistency, of just being faithful in this area. Because Daniel was consistent in his prayer life.

He was better prepared for the lions. And so number three insight, every believer needs to have a consistent lifelong habit of prayer. All right, so that's number three.

Number four, confession. Turn to Daniel chapter nine. Confession, confession.

In Daniel chapter nine, verses one to 20, there is the famous prayer by Daniel where he's confessing the sin of the nation of Israel. They're coming towards the end of the 70 years of captivity, God's judgment on them for their idolatry. And here in chapter nine, Daniel is nearing the end of his life and he turns to the book of Daniel.

The very same book of Daniel that is in your Bible right now, a couple of books ahead of Daniel here, all right? He turns to the book of Jeremiah. The very same Jeremiah that you have in your Bible right now, a couple of books ahead of Daniel. And he's read the judgments.

He's reading the judgments in Daniel. And there's promises in Daniel as well that at the end of 70 years of captivity, God would bring them back. And so Daniel realized, and this is, again, this is the other thing.

He's at towards the end of his life. He realizes he's never going back to his home. He realized he's gonna die in a foreign land.

He's not going home. Yet he's praying with faith for his people, for other people. He's praying for other people in this chapter.

Talk about sacrificial. And in verses three to 20 of chapter nine, we see him confessing the sins of Israel. His heart was right, but he's confessing.

Actually in verse two, he's reading Jeremiah. It says it right there. He was reading Jeremiah and this whole thing of the judgment of God on them.

And then verse three, it tells us in verse three, take a look, he's praying and he's in sackcloth and he's in ashes and he's fasting. And then from verse four, all the way to verse 20, he's repenting and confessing the sins of the nation. And what's interesting is you read it, he uses inclusive language.

His heart is right with the Lord, but he says, he doesn't say they, your people. He says, we have sinned. We deserve this judgment.

We, we, that's a good sign of humility right there. We, not they, they need to get their act together. No, no, we need, we, sign of humility.

He was modeling 2 Chronicles 7.14 that we all know that verse that we've heard so many times repeated. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. That's a good verse for Canada and the United States nowadays because the land needs a healing.

The land is getting sicker and sicker and it's almost like it has a death wish. But here was Daniel confessing sin, the confession of sin. Now, not only was he doing that, he was doing something, I think again, and that's, this is appropriate for us to do that and it's good to pray that prayer for our country.

But Daniel was doing something else. It says in Daniel chapter nine, verse two, what book was he reading? He was reading Jeremiah. And there's a couple of places in Jeremiah where it talks about literally the 70 year captivity.

Now stay here in Daniel, but if you turn to Jeremiah chapter 29, if you turn to Jeremiah chapter 29, it is very interesting to see what it says there because this is probably what he was reading. Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 10. Verse 10 says this, for thus says the Lord, after 70 years are completed, at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word towards you or my promise towards you, as other translations say, and cause you to return to this place, the holy land.

And then it goes on in verse 11 and it's the famous verse 11 that everybody puts on their fridge. For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for good and not for evil, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. As one modern translation says.

Do you know what Daniel was doing? Daniel was praying the promises of God. Daniel was pleading the promises of God. And I think we need to do the same of reminding God of his promises and pleading his promises before him.

Not that God has forgot, but because God is delighted and honored when we put our trust in his word. God is just looking for a man or a woman who will take God at his word. It's so rare.

Just taking somebody at their word. You know what I'm talking about? You know, you meet a person, you know, a business deal is done with a handshake. You don't even need to sign anything, even though you will.

There are some people that you meet, their word is good. Just take them at their word. God is just looking for somebody who's gonna take him at his word.

Yeah, you said it. I really do believe it. I rely on that.

I trust in that. Now, there are hundreds and hundreds, some say even up to 4,000 promises in this book. Unfortunately, we don't hear much about this nowadays because of the abuse by the prosperity preachers, the prosperity gospel, the health and wealth guys who have destroyed so many people's faith and shipwrecked so many believers by this false teaching.

Because the pendulum has swung so far that way, we don't hear about it in churches anymore. The idea about praying the promises of God or pleading the promises of God or claiming the promises of God. But I'll tell you something.

And some of you here are old enough to affirm what I'm saying. It wasn't that long ago, 100 years ago, where many a Christian home would have sitting on the kitchen table what was called a promise box. And at times during, after the meal, people would open the box and take a promise out.

And they would read the promise and they would share it with the family. How many here know what I'm talking about? All right. Even 30, 40 years ago, you could still buy those promise boxes at the Christian bookstore.

Nowadays, you pretty much have to order them in. Maybe there's one, you can get them here. I don't know.

But that used to be a common thing. People putting faith in the promises of God. I'm talking about 100 years ago, even 50 years ago, people were still doing it.

That has totally disappeared amongst the church. Praying and pleading the promises of God and believing God for great things. Taking God at his word.

So confession of your sin, but confession of the pro... I hate to use the word confession of the promises of God, but the claiming of the promises of God. That's number four insight. Number five, we're gonna finish off here real quickly.

Turn to chapter 10. I just spoke on this a few weeks ago. In Daniel chapter 10, insight number five is conflict.

Conflict. As in spiritual warfare, spiritual conflict. In Daniel chapter 10, we get a very rare glimpse behind the spiritual curtain.

Daniel had been praying for 21 days and fasting a Daniel fast, if you will, for 21 days. In this particular case, it says he didn't use any underarm deodorant or anything else. So you may wanna talk to your wife or husband about that before you do this one.

But he was praying for 21 days and the angel of the Lord appeared at the end of the 21 days and said in verse 12, your prayer was answered, Daniel, on day one when you prayed the prayer. Chapter 10, verse 12. Then he said to me, do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart, there's consecration, set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before God, your God, your words were heard and I have come because of your words.

And so the answer was given. However, there was demonic interference as you start to read in verse 13. Verse 13 tells us that the prince of Persia, which is the principality, the demonic entity over Persia, modern day Iran, stopped the answer coming from heaven.

Verse 13, but the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. It says here that the archangel Michael, the protector of Israel, intervened and wrestled with this demonic power. There is no other way to take this.

Amazingly, we see powers, spiritual powers, angels wrestling in connection with Daniel's prayer life. Amazingly, we see Daniel fasting and praying and being persistent and he in his physical weakness through fasting overcame powerful, powerful spiritual beings. Shows how God is attracted to weakness and humility.

The result in all of that is that entire nations, entire kingdoms were moved in the physical realm to the spiritual realm on earth. And we can see with our physical eyes what's going on in the physical world, but there's so much going on behind the curtain, the spiritual curtain that we don't see. And Daniel chapter 10 lets us peek behind that spiritual curtain.

I look at what's going on right now in the world politically and culturally in Canada and in the US and UK and Europe as in France. I'm giving that list because that's what's going on. There is a spiritual conflict going on.

There is a spiritual warfare going on. And I do believe that we are living in what Jesus and all the biblical writers referred to as the end times. I do think we're living in that time zone.

If you don't think we are, maybe the most recent protests around the world that are attacking Jews, maybe that will make you rethink things. Folks, let me say, the anti-Semitism that we see right now, the war in Gaza is going to end one day and all that conflict, somehow it's going to end or morph into something or calm down, but the anti-Semitism in Canada is not going away. Be very clear.

Anybody that doesn't think that is deluded. You're delusional. We are importing hate and intolerance on massive scales and we are changing on a systemic level our culture and our nation.

If you don't know what I mean by that, come talk to me afterwards. Just when you think the political atmosphere can't get any worse, surprise, it's going to get worse. One crisis after another, one thing after another, one this after another.

When I read books like the prophet Daniel, I get a sense of hope that God can change things. I really do. There are no political answers.

Every four years we hear somebody stand up and say, I've got an answer. I've got an answer. And then four years later, they got a different answer.

Four years later, someone's got an answer. Someone's got an answer. We are in a conflict.

We are in a spiritual conflict, a spiritual wrestling match. When God's people pray and seek God, there is spiritual wrestling, a spiritual war that is going on that you involve yourself in. The conflict is more, the conflict is, it's really, the truth of it is really behind what's going on behind the curtain.

That's what, that's the real conflict. We get so caught up in conservative and liberal and Republican and Democrat and all these things and everything like that. And you folks know, you know, I think we need to be civically responsible.

But there is a greater spiritual conflict that we really need to focus on, that 90% of our attention needs to focus on, the spiritual war that is behind the scenes. I think of Paul's words in Ephesians chapter six, verse 12. Do you remember what he said? He got that word, you know, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities.

He got that word principalities from here in Daniel chapter 10, Prince of Persia, when it says that. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but we do wrestle with spiritual forces of evil. We do wrestle with demonic powers.

That's what he's saying in Ephesians chapter six, verse 12. And the question I have for you this morning, I'm going to leave you with this basically is this. Are you in the fight? Are you wrestling? The challenge for us is it takes faith for us to believe that we can pray like Daniel.

Oh no, I can't be like a Daniel. I can't be like an Elijah. No, book of James says, Elijah was just like us.

Just like you and me. Says that in James. I can't be a Daniel.

Yes, you can. It takes faith to be a Daniel, to believe you can pray like Daniel. It takes faith to believe that God can make us more effective and impactful like Daniel.

Daniel was 10 times better. When we seek the Lord with all our heart, he will make you more effective and your life will have more impact. It takes faith to believe that God can save us from the lion's den.

It takes faith to believe that our prayers can influence the nation of Canada or the U.S. with their election, even from Canada, believe it or not. Can't vote, I can pray. It takes faith to venture into this arena.

Daniel was a politician. Daniel was a prophet. Daniel was a prayer warrior.

We need more Daniels. We need more participators and less spectators. We need more people of faith to get into the public arena of politics, get involved somehow, some way, even myself reluctantly.

I'm like a reluctant Daniel in that area. I would rather focus on what I'm doing for the Lord than do my civic duties at times. Try to do something on a small scale, whether it's right or wrong, or it pans out for good, I don't know, but I'm doing what I can.

We need more people of faith to be like the prophets of old. Daniel was a politician. He was also a prophet.

We need more people like Daniel of the prophets of old. People who aren't afraid to tell forth the counsel of God, to say, this is what God says on this issue in our time. But above all, we need people of faith to be prayer warriors.

And everybody can participate on that level. That is the real battle. We need more people to pray and to fight the battles on their knees that need to be fought.

Father, we come to you this morning and we bow before you. And Lord, we pray that you would open up the eyes of our hearts and our understanding to see these spiritual truths. It says in Corinthians that only those who have a spiritual understanding can understand spiritual words and spiritual truths.

And that even people within the church can sometimes be of a carnal understanding and not have spiritual understanding. I pray that every single person would have spiritual understanding this morning and spiritual discernment. Every single person, I pray here this morning, we agree to that right now, Lord, that you would give us discernment to see with eyes of faith the spiritual battle.

We wrestle not against flesh and blood, even though it feels like there's flesh and blood that's wrestling us, and it is. But we wrestle with spiritual forces of evil, principalities, powers. And in our weakness, in the flesh, we could never even touch these things.

But when we humble ourselves with these spiritual weapons, the weapons of our warfare are not worldly or carnal or fleshly or physical. It's a different kind of warfare. I pray this morning that you would open our eyes to pray like Daniel prayed.

Some people may be being called to fasting the Daniel fast. If it's appropriate for them. Some of us are in crisis prayer.

Some of us need to build a consistent prayer life. Some of us need to confess, if it's not our sins, other people's situations and pray for them to get out of it. And repentance for our families, our nation.

And we need to confess and claim the promises of God and plead the promises of God. And no matter how dark, how hopeless we may feel, Lord, you have equipped us with powerful, powerful weapons. You've given us tools.

You've given us a way to approach the living God. And so we pray this morning that you would challenge us to pray like Daniel prayed. To live a life like Daniel lived.

We pray that for every single person here, Father. In Jesus name, amen.