The Power of Prayer
When we encounter challenges that
seem insurmountable, we are to pray
and ask God for His power to do
what is right.
Here's Gene:
Most of the situations that we face
that are challenges--well those
situations are not a matter
of life and death.
But in terms of the situation we have
here with Daniel and his three friends,
it's a matter of life and death.
And the setting basically, is this:
Nebuchadnezzar had a dream--
or he had dreams, actually,
and these dreams troubled him.
In fact, it kept him awake.
I think, which was probably part of his
irritability because he couldn't sleep.
But he had one particular dream
that really, really bothered him.
Lots of anxiety over it.
So he called for all of his wise men,
his mediums, his sorcerers, and he
did something that was very unusual.
He said: Tell me the dream.
And tell me the interpretation.
And of course, all of these individuals said:
Well tell us the dream.
And he said: No. You tell me the dream.
And if you can't, I'm going to
destroy all of you.
Now he was a hothead.
But they must have done something
that really ticked him off.
Because later on he said: Look,
you're just trying to get time.
Tell me the dream and the
interpretation or your homes are
going to become a garbage dump.
And you're going to lose your lives.
Well they said to him:
King, this is impossible.
Only the gods know and they don't
dwell with humans.
Now that was a very significant
statement from these men.
Only the gods know, they said.
And they don't dwell among us.
Well because of their response, we see
Nebuchadnezzar responding in a way
that's just is not human, really.
And notice in Daniel chapter 2, verses 12 and 13:
Because of this, the king
became violently angry...
And when it says violently angry,
I mean this is violence.
...and [he] gave orders to destroy
all the wise men of Babylon. ...
I mean, he's going to take out
all of these guys.
I don't know how many there were
but obviously a lot of them.
I mean, this was going to be a huge slaughter.
...The decree was issued that the
wise men were to be executed,
and they searched for Daniel
and his friends, to execute them.
Which means that Daniel and his three
friends had emerged as very, very well-known
men in relationship to wisdom.
Well obviously, this created a serious problem.
Now again, remember at this point in time,
these men are only 17 years old.
They're still in the training program
because the training program was a
three-year training program.
And yet they had emerged as being
very wise, as we've seen,
and very well known--even to the king.
And notice that Daniel had built some
great relationships because notice
his wise response:
...Then Daniel responded with tact
and discretion to Arioch, the commander
of the king's guard, who had gone out
to execute the wise men of Babylon. ...
Now basically, here's a 17-year-old
young man coming up to this guy
who is going to take his life.
And he asks him--he approaches him.
And the interesting thing is,
he responds, he listens.
Which means there's a relationship here.
This man is just carrying out the order.
He's probably not very happy to have to
do it, but if he doesn't, it means his life.
...[So] he asked Arioch, the king's officer,
"Why is the decree
from the king so harsh?" ...
Now that's a very straightforward
question to a man who's ready
to take your life.
But the amazing thing, as I said, this
man respected this young man.
Because if he hadn't, he wouldn't have listened.
And notice what he said:
...Then Arioch explained the
situation to Daniel. ...
He took time to explain this whole deal.
And the incredible, irrational situation.
...So Daniel went and asked the king
to give him some time, so that he could
give the king the interpretation.
A 17-year-old just doesn't walk in to
the king's presence. Which demonstrates
that he already has a bridge to this king.
The king knew who he was.
He knew who the three friends were.
And of course that makes sense because
they were demonstrating more wisdom,
more physical prowess, more mental
prowess because they were just eating
this simple diet the king
didn't know anything about.
But he knew that they were way ahead
of all the other young men.
So there was a relationship there that
Daniel had built, even with the king.
Notice what happened:
Then Daniel went to his house...
In other words, the king said: Okay.
Take your time but it's going to happen.
For some reason he had a relationship
with the king to the point where
the king backed off of his anger
and gave him some time.
...Then Daniel went to his house
[and] told his friends Hananiah, Mishael,
and Azariah about the matter, urging them...
In other words, this is serious. This is serious.
Not only are we going to lose our lives
if the king doesn't change his mind,
but all the wise men of Babylon.
...urging them to ask the God of heaven
for mercy concerning this mystery,
so Daniel and his friends would not be
killed with the rest of Babylon's wise men.
In other words, they went to prayer.
And that's a great lesson in itself, isn't it?
And the lesson basically is great truth
is when believers pray in the will of God
with the right motives,
it makes a difference.
And even though God in His sovereign omniscience
already knows the future,
yet He answers prayer.
Which is a part of that great mystery again
of God's sovereignty
and man's responsibility.
Prayer is a great mystery.
But the fact is, it works.
And we are to pray in difficult situations.
And when we go to the New Testament,
we're told to pray.
For example, we're to be faithful in prayer.
1st Thessalonians:
Pray constantly...
That doesn't mean we are praying
day and night with formal prayer.
What it means is, be regular.
Make it a part of your life to pray.
It's very important.
And I've tried to do that more and more
in my Christian life. To take some time
during the day to literally write out prayers.
When I write them out,
it's very significant for me.
I have to focus.
...Pray constantly.
Give thanks in everything, for this is
God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
We need to take that seriously.
In 1st John, we read--praying in God's will:
Now this is the confidence we have
before Him: whenever we ask anything
according to His will...
And that's a very key phrase
in relationship to prayer:
Praying according to His will.
When we do, John says:
...He hears us.
And if we know that He hears whatever
we ask, we know that we have
what we have asked Him for.
In other words, praying in God's will.
And Daniel and his three friends
are praying in God's will.
Here's another statement.
This one comes from James.
Praying with the right motives:
You do not have because you do not ask. ...
In other words, what he's saying is:
If you don't ask God, you won't receive.
In other words, that's important.
God welcomes that. But he goes on to say:
...You ask and don't receive because
you ask with wrong motives, so that
you may spend it on your evil desires.
In other words, he's saying:
God doesn't answer prayers that are based
upon selfish motives.
But He answers in response to prayer
that is based on right motives.
So we have these wonderful statements,
wonderful exhortations,
wonderful promises.
And basically, they really state that
prayer makes a difference in the heart
of a sovereign God.
And again we come to that great antinomy:
How do we reconcile the fact
that God knows what we're going to ask,
He knows how He's going to respond,
and yet we are to pray?
And prayer literally makes a difference
with the sovereign God.
Here's a question for application for
Reflection and for Response on our parts:
In what ways have you seen God
answer prayer when you faced what
seemed to be an insurmountable challenge?
Well most of us don't face
the challenges that Daniel and his
three friends faced--a matter
of life and death.
But we do face challenges.
And I was reflecting on this.
And one of the things came to me.
I wish I had more stories to tell
in relationship to seeking God's will
and answers to prayer.
But I do remember some.
They didn't involve life or death
but I remember one time I flew to Sao Paulo, Brazil.
I was invited to speak at the Word of
Life Bible Institute that was located
about 40 miles west of Sao Paolo.
I landed in this big city--10 million-plus people--
on a Sunday morning, 5 o'clock.
And someone was supposed to be there
to meet me.
Well I found out later, the letter that
I had sent--and we didn't have email
way back then. But the letter I had sent
never arrived.
In fact, six months after I got back to the
states, it came back to me unopened.
But the fact is that no one was
there to meet me.
What am I going to do?
Sunday morning, 5 o'clock
in Sao Paulo, Brazil in the airport.
I looked up the Word of Life offices that
were located in Sao Paulo but they were closed.
I had no way to get in contact with anyone.
And I thought: Wow, I'm stuck here
for 24 hours.
And then I thought, well, I remembered
that I heard a man by the name of
Carlos who came to the United States,
spoke at Moody Bible Institute.
He was an architect.
And he spoke in chapel.
And it went through my mind:
Carlos the architect.
So I went over to the Varig [Airline] counter
and I said: Does anyone speak English?
One guy said: Yeah, I speak English.
I said: This is a crazy question but do
you know someone in Sao Paulo, Brazil
by the name of Carlos the architect?
Now that's like going to New York City
and saying: Do you know someone
by the name of Bill who's an architect?
And to my amazement, this young man
came back and said: I know Carlos.
He's in my church.
And he picked up the phone
and he called Carlos.
In about an hour, Carlos picked me up
at the airport, took me to his beautiful
apartment, and that afternoon drove
me all the way to Atibaia--40 miles.
And I showed up at the door.
And you should have seen their eyes
get big when I stood at that door.
Because they didn't even know I was
coming, because they didn't get the letter.
And I remember that I did some praying
before that.
Now to me, that was a significant
answer to prayer.
I had another experience in Sao Paulo
with a good friend of mine, a missionary
Jim Peterson, at that time.
And he took me--this was another
occasion--took me to the airport.
We got inside--this was in Sao Paulo.
And got inside and he said: Gene, I left my--
and they have a name for a male
purse that they carry in Sao Paulo.
Had all of his documents in it--
passports, credit cards, everything.
I left it in the taxi.
And I said: Well Jim, let's pray about it,
that he'll return it.
He looked at me as if I were crazy:
You don't understand.
But I remember we just prayed.
I said: Lord, help that taxi driver to return it.
We came to Dallas.
Twenty-four hours later Jim called.
He said: Gene, you're not going to believe it.
The taxi driver turned it in to the
lost and found.
And I went to the lost and found,
and not one thing was missing,
which was a miracle in itself.
And he got it back.
Is God interested in things like that?
Yes, He is. Because as Paul said:
Don't be anxious about anything,
but in everything by prayer and petition,
let your requests be made known to God.
So let me restate that Principle--
the power of prayer:
When we encounter challenges that
seem insurmountable, we are to pray
and ask God for His power to do what is right.