Daniel's Life & Answered Prayers - Episode #184

Hey there! Welcome to episode number 187 of The Burt (Not Ernie) Show. Today we are discussing some promises from the book of Daniel. Now, Daniel is a complex book, in my opinion. True story of exile and the greatest king to ever rule, visions of the future and of the end times, dramatic answers to prayers, miracles, just wow from start to finish, that’s the book of Daniel in a nutshell. A documentation of God working over the entire course of a man’s life. And a bold reminder of what a life lived all-in with the Lord can look like, and the mark it can make for the good of others and the glory of God. 

Praying Psalm 91 Audio Course

A 60-Day Prayer Journal for Parents

 

Let’s start by reading Daniel 2:21 from the Amplified. 

It says: It is He who changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and establishes kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and (greater) knowledge to those who have understanding! Verse 22: It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him. 

 

These two verses give sort of an overview of the entire book, and they stand as a bold reminder to us that God really is in control. Of all of it, whatever that “it” might be in your own life and the greater “it” in the world at large.

 

In those things in your family that are head scratchers, and in those things on the other side of the world that are gut wrenchers. 

 

God has not abdicated His throne. Daniel is a book that proves this to be true in so many ways. Just think about the prophetic role this book of the Bible has played down through the centuries, and how it has proven true again and again. Think of Alexander the Great, think of the Roman empire…those have proved true per the book of Daniel. Think of the things Daniel was shown in a vision, that were to do with the last days, and which distressed him so much that he was physically ill after receiving this information … when is the last time you had an experience with the Lord that left you so unwell that you could not get out of bed for days, for weeks even? I’m guessing the answer is never. And I’m not sure that, per Acts chapter 2, that we might not be missing something in the modern church as a whole, and as individual disciples of Jesus. 

 

We’re seeing things happening in the western church, meaning the American church to be exact, that should make us realize we’ve put too much on men in the pulpit…to much focus, too much value, too much loyalty, too much power, too much expectation, too much “let that go…it doesn’t mean what it seems like it means…” and too little accountability, too little first century church way of living (not way of going to church or being part of churchianity, but of living because it was their whole way of life, not just 90 minutes a week). Pastors are stepping down, resigning, and not because they repented for their sins, but because they got caught. Come at me, bro, if you want to, but I’m not incorrect on this. It is the issue of the day within the church culture in America, and so it is worth talking about and viewing through the lens of the Bible, not the lens of churches being run like a business, but through the very Word of God. What’s God’s standard for those who shepherd His flock? What’s God’s definition of repentance? It’s not “old sin” that “wasn’t a crime”, and it’s not a 12-year-old child being described as a “young lady”, or to blame the girl who was A CHILD…this nonsense is so far out in left field, and the fact that people within the church are saying these things and thinking they’re right in the Lord’s sight for their opinion? Oh my… oh my, we have all but lost any semblance of a fear of the Lord. And so, as we see these things taking place, if we believe that the book of Daniel proves that God is totally in control, then we have to believe that this is the time for uncovering what’s been hidden, for bringing things into the light, and for knowing that the words Peter penned, when he said that judgment begins with the house of the Lord, that being His church, well, it’s happening right now. We must stop calling God’s judgment on His house an attack orchestrated by Satan. That kind of thinking means you’re either far too accustomed to automatically defending people rather than letting God be God, or it means you have not opened your Bible and read it well enough to know what it says about things like this. Gotta be in the Word in these dark days, my friends. If you aren’t, you are going to be duped and tricked and deceived and manipulated and confused and on the struggle bus unable to pull the cord to get off at the right stop, just stuck on the struggle bus riding along and riding along with no God-given destination on your route. 

 

God is in control today, and He is doing a cleaning out, cleaning up, bring into the light work in the church. And why wouldn’t He? When Jesus returns, it is to be for a pure, spotless bride. Does that describe the church in America to you? Watching the garbage we watch on our streaming accounts, making excuses for sexual immorality, neglecting to lead our children in the ways of the Lord, hardly praying ever except when we need or want something, leaving our Bibles to collect dust on the end table and somehow thinking reading the verse of the day is daily Bible study…but huh, does that sound like the kind of studying that enables you to pass the final in college and get your degree? One verse a day? If we were quizzed on the series we binged versus passages of the Bible, how would we do? Pass one, fail the other? If you and I don’t know what God says about all the things, how can we possibly make a right judgment about serious situations in the world or in the church? Do we need to get serious about the Lord? Or is this all just fire insurance? Where are we at? What are we doing? When will we stop playing pat-a-cake with the world when the Bible says not to love the world nor the things in or of the world? 

 

We cannot experience a life even remotely like Daniel’s with our lukewarm version of Christianity. Do you practice Christianity or churchianity? Food for thought. Digest that. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, as Paul said. Not enough time left in this life for us to mess around with the truly important things. 

 

So if I haven’t lost you yet, haven’t offended you or ticked you off or something of that nature, by daring to be as bold as I’ve been on this episode, let’s look at some other portions of the book of Daniel. 

 

Remember the story of Daniel's three friends and the fiery furnace? They refused to bow down and worship the golden statue of Nebuchadnezzar and they were thrown into a lit furnace that had been heated seven times hotter than usual. And they walked out of that furnace without a single burnt hair - they did not even smell like smoke. Daniel chapter 3 tells this true story, and you likely already know this true story but I’d encourage you to read it again. It’s miraculous! But the miracle didn’t come from lukewarm faith, from trying to find a way to keep the peace with this particular regime and ruler, or from compromise. They expected to be thrown into the fire and burned alive. They also expected God to preserve them. Which He did, but they were willing to go all the way to death rather than even hint at dishonoring the Lord. 

 

Do we live like that? Even remotely? Is our fear of God such that we can say, “Toss me in, burn me alive, do whatever you gonna do but I’m not bowing down to whatever it is society or government or whatever says I have to bow down to cuz if I don’t I am gonna pay. Well, lemme pay, then! Hand me my bill, let’s get this thing paid already, and then I’ll need receipts cuz I am determined to stand before the Lord fearing only Him, and Him alone. So, that’s that.” Once the fear of anyone or anything other than God is settled in us, those hard decisions are no longer hard because the decisions have already been made when we chose to fear God and nobody and nothing else. 

 

Are you afraid of health problems? Don’t be! It’s not so bad, even the worst of it, in comparison to eternity in a perfect body with perfect health! And if health stuff has made you step further away from Jesus, can I encourage you to get honest about why that is the case? Jesus never promised us an easy life, but in some ways, the modern western church did, and that simply is not biblical. If people let you down, and boy oh boy can they ever let you down, did that move you closer to the Lord who loves you so much that He laid down His very life for you, or move you away from Him? Can you be brutally honest about why these kinds of hardships have moved us away from Him? And can we ponder Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego being tied and bound and chucked straight into the flames rather than bow down to a gold statue and dishonor the Lord, can we ponder why we don’t have that kind of loyalty to the Lord? Hard questions because they force us to be honest and not sugar coat things. Important questions that we need to ask ourselves. This isn’t for you to go ask your spouse. This is about you and your fear of God, or lack thereof. 

 

We can read about Daniel in the lion’s den and we can read about Daniel and the writing on the wall (the saying oft used, “the writing’s on the wall” comes from Daniel chapter 5, and once God says this is it, times up, it’s done, the goose is cooked, well, that’s how it’s going to be. Daniel 5-22 - And you, his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart even though you knew all this.” What truth from the Word of God do you and I know but have still refused to humble our heart? Do we really understand that we do not get a pass for refusing the humble ourselves and obey what God has said? I don’t know that we do. But Daniel, he did. And he lived a life filled with miracles, depending on God alone, through kings and kingdoms, from young man to old man, and that is truly a life well-lived. 

 

When we read Daniel 7 through 12, we find things that are incredible regarding the last days, and to think that one man, Daniel, was given such great revelations, is incredible. Do we take all of his life and all of the book of Daniel seriously, or just the parts that deal with end times and prophecies? I think we need to take all of it as crucial in this day and age, because when we read about a man like Daniel, his life and all he faced and the way he honored and trusted God fully, it gives us great hope and courage to advance day by day, walking with Jesus, depending on His Spirit, honoring the Father, knowing that one day soon our faith will be made sight. You and I are not living at this moment in time by accident or happenstance, any more than Daniel was in his day. God chooses the places we live and the times we live in. Do you know that’s true for you? Because it is. As it says in the book of Esther, perhaps you were born for such a time as this. No accidents, not for you, not for any of us, in terms of living in this current age. What will you do with what you’ve been given? Will you hide, tuck tail and run, ignore the writing on the wall, or will you square up, go all in with Jesus, and allow nothing but the fear of the Lord to strike fear in you? In chapter 9 we read Daniel’s prayer for his people. It’s powerful. The way he prays, the way he is so in line with the holiness of God and the unholiness of mankind, of his people, well, we don’t have enough of that today. And it shows. Verse 3 says: So I directed my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. I can’t speak for you, but I don’t pray like this and in light of the state of the world and the state of this land I live in, the moral rot that has even gone so far as to trickle in, seep in, and permeate Jesus’ church, well, I need to get to praying the way that Daniel did. I’m going to close out this episode by reading a few more verses from Daniel’s prayer in chapter 9, as a reminder that God hears and answers prayer, and not just asking for what we want or need (although that is part of a healthy prayer life - if you never talk to God about things that are personal and near to your heart, that’s not healthy at all and is not part of the close personal relationship God desires to have with you). God does hear when we pray, and He does provide answers, and as we read in Daniel chapter 9, repentance is not a bad thing. The promise for us here is that we can be bold and fear God and not man or circumstances, and live a life full of God keeping all sorts of promises to us. And I don’t mean this is a works based salvation, that’s simply not what we find in the New Testament. But fear of man is a snare, and even in the early church, God did things that were miraculous when fear of God trumped all other fears. It’s all throughout the book of Acts, as just one place with many examples of this. Pray boldly today, expecting God to hear and answer, to do things in response to your praying, and make fear of the Lord and not of man a priority for your own personal life. We may not have lives like Daniel’s life, but we can expect to live lives that stand out, to look like a people who trust our God and see miracles happen in our day. Let’s be about going all in with the Lord, similar to the way Daniel was all-in.

 

Daniel 9:5-6: we have sinned and committed wrong, and have behaved wickedly and have rebelled, turning away from Your commandments and ordinances. Further, we have not listened to and heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. Verse 9: To the Lord our God belong mercy and loving kindness and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him. Verse 13: Yet we have not wholeheartedly begged for forgiveness and sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our wickedness and praying attention to and placing value in Your truth. Verse 14b: for the LORD our God is uncompromisingly righteous and openly just in all His works which He does - He keeps His word; and we have not obeyed His voice. Verse 17-19: Now therefore, our God, listen to (heed) the prayer of Your servant (Daniel) and his supplications, and for Your own sake let Your face shine on Your desolate sanctuary. O my God, incline Your ear and hear, open Your eyes and look at our desolations and the city which is called by Your name; for we are not presenting our supplications before YOu because of our own merits and righteousness, but because of YOur great mercy and compassion. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! Do not delay, for Your own sake, O my God, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name. 

 

And how did God respond to this prayer?

Verses 22-26 tell us what the angel Gabriel said to Daniel when he appeared to him.

He instructed me and he talked with me and said, “O Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and wisdom and understanding. At the beginning of your supplications, the command (to give you an answer) was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly regarded and greatly beloved. Therefore consider the message and begin to understand the (meaning of the) vision.” 

 

How’s that for an answer to prayer? It’s something truly spectacular. 

 

Hold on to the hope of an eternity with Jesus that is perfect through and through. Spend time with Him in prayer, sharing your heart and listening for His reply and receiving His love and comfort and His direction and wisdom. And stay in your Bibles, keep them open, read them and study them and believe what God has to say over and above what anyone else has to say. These can feel like perilous days, as we see things happening in the pulpits that shock us. But God has to clean His house first before He can do any other cleaning up of our society, and have we not prayed that He would do a work in our lost world? Be willing to be part of the pure and spotless bride Jesus is soon returning for, and don’t give in to fear of man…not any man, but fear the Lord and serve Him only. 

 

I’ll see ya back here next time. (and if you’d like more Bible teaching like this, please check out the Psalm 91 audio course via the link in the show notes - for more on prayer, there is a link to A 60-Day Prayer Journal for Parents via Amazon). Feel free to share this episode with a friend! Thanks so much for listening! Bye bye.