Daniel is an inspiration for many reasons. All of us remember his faithfulness and his deliverance from the lion’s den. Today our focus turns to another incident in his life.
Daniel 9:2 In the first year of (Darius’s) reign I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.Read Jeremiah 29:11 and II Chronicles 36:21 to understand Daniel’s source. God prophesied through Jeremiah that the Israelites would be taken into captivity for 70 years and then brought back to their own land. When Daniel saw this word, almost 70 years had passed, so he took action. He began to pray for God’s Word to be performed. He prayed for the return of God’s people to Jerusalem, just as God’s Word had said. Soon after that, God stirred Cyrus’s heart to let the Jews return to their land. Daniel prayed for God’s Word to come to pass and it did!
What would you have done? Would you have prayed for the fulfillment of God’s Word, or would you have just sat around twiddling your thumbs hoping God would do what He said? Many today are doing the latter. But there are those who are rising up. They are not settling for status quo, but they are digging into God’s Word and they are praying it back to God. And these people are seeing many miracles.
Isaiah made this concept easy to understand.
Isaiah 55:10,11 For as the rain and snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth, And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater, So shall My Word be which goes forth from My mouth. It shall not return to Me empty Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.Now we know how God sent the Word. It’s the Bible. Remember we talked about the snow being the Word when it is written, but frozen – hard to understand. Then God melts it as He reveals it to us. So how does it return to Him? It returns to Him as you pray the Word back to Him. When you ask Him for what He has promised, He will surely do it!
Sometimes while teaching, my husband has used the illustration of a desert. The reason the desert is so dry is that there is no water there to evaporate. When water evaporates, it brings rain back to the earth. In areas where there are large bodies of water, there will be lots of evaporation and lots of rain and snow. (Just ask some people who live near the Great Lakes. They get what they call “lake effect snow”).
The evaporation is like prayer. When there is no evaporation of God’s Word, your life becomes very dry. Nothing much is happening. You don’t see God’s hand very often. But if you are full of God’s Word, you will pray that Word back to him and the answers will shower down upon you. Your life will no longer be a desert, but a lush place.
God wants the Word to “succeed in the matter for which He sent it.” He sent it to give us understanding of His will and then for us to ask for that will to be done. So evaporate that Word, and you will see God’s will being performed in your life.
Today, as you pray, search out the promises which you need to send back to God. This is not a selfish endeavor. We pray for ourselves, but we also pray for others. Ask for healing to come to your neighbor, or for their teenagers to be protected, or for Him to open the eyes of their hearts to see the truth. There are so many promises which need to be prayed back to Him. When you start looking for them, you will find an abundance.
Have a great day, and I’ll see you soon.
