Today we look at one of the most powerful scenes in the whole bible. The prophet Daniel is reading his bible (Jeremiah) and he “UNDERSTOOD” the times he was living. Daniel took Gods word (prophecy) about Jerusalem “literally” and began to seek Gods face in repentance with prayer and supplication. I want to highlight a couple things for those of us who discern the times we are living in. No nation can truly prosper without the LORD God. Daniel like myself is looking at his bible and realizes that God will perform what He has said in the prophets. America desperately needs to have men and women of God move in repentance and prayer to God.
Note: As I highlight this discerning prayer that Daniel was standing in the gap believing that God would move on behalf of his nation (Israel) and restore them as a people according to Gods word. That people is exercising faith in action. I don’t think it would take allot of people of prayer to turn America back to God, but it will take serious mournful prayer for America grievous sins.
Consider today that America is the number ONE exporter of everything that God hates. Porn, Hollywood, and coupled with the stripping of our Godly heritage by our courts, ACLU not to mention nearly 50 million abortions. America is in gross sin! Too many Churches are only worried about numbers and entertaining goats instead of feeding sheep. We are too comfortable in our sin. Judgement is a word not even many professing Christians like to say nevermind think about. Judgement begins at the house of God as the Apostle Peter warns us.
For the time [has come] for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if [it begins] with us first, what will [be] the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? 1 Peter 4:17
With this godly fear the Church must repent first of her worldly trappings and seek God as never before. We must confess as a Church we have gone our own way with social, prosperity, best life know gospel messages which cater to the carnal nature we all have. We must confess our sins and return to gospel truth. All of it! Preach the word in season and out of season. We are most definately out of season. We must trust God for everything in the gail force wind of inderference to a world that desperately needs the gospel. The gospel is good news friends. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord! Trust God for everything, He will move, He wants too if we would only repent and wrend our hearts for our family, friends and neighbors. Love fulfills the law.
As you read this passage from Daniel. Note his heart for his people and nation. He does not blame God, he confesses the sin of himself and the leaders and fathers of his nation. We need to see the pattern of his prayer and that we too can expect God to move when we indeed move in repentance toward Him. Be blessed as we move toward Him. God is rich in mercy.
Daniel’s Prayer for the People
1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. (Daniel Understood Gods word literally)
3 Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. 4 And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, 5 we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. (Confession for self and the nation)
6 Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. 7 O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You. (God is righteous even in judgement, know this gives God glory!)
8 “O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. 10 We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. 11 Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him. 12 And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem. (Is this not also the history of America. We too have departed from God as a nation and done wickedly. This is the sin of the Church today!)
13 “As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. 14 Therefore the LORD has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. 15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly! (Consider the false gods of America, we worship money and god is judging it. We have churches failing under huge mortgages that God NEVER modeled this worldly way.)
16 “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. 17 Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. 18 O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. 19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
God is good and rich in mercy. We need to realize where we are in Gods plan. His mercy is extended still, but only to those who will ask for it out of a heart grieved by our sins, our leaders sins, and our nations policies against Him and His people. Pray! Read your bible like Daniel and Pray. May God richly bless you.
