“He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, ‘Oh, Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision.'”
– Daniel 9:22–23
Oh, those are two awesome verses, and I wish we could spend a lot of time talking about Daniel chapter nine. This is quite a chapter on so many different levels. In the beginning of the chapter, Daniel turns his face to the Lord God, seeking Him by prayer and pleas for mercy, fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. That’s Daniel 9:3. And then later, in verse 23, this messenger from God comes and says, “At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you.”
Did you hear that? Daniel’s prayers, his pleas for mercy triggered activity in the spiritual realm. Can I just say that one more time? When Daniel prayed, it triggered activity in the spiritual world. His prayers mattered. His prayers affected what was happening in the spiritual world, what was happening in the physical world. When we pray, it matters. We’re not just talking into the air. We’re not just saying words alone in a room or with a small group of people. When we gather together with a church just going through religious motions, we’re talking to God, and God is acting in response to our prayers. And how easily we can forget this. We can pray and just in the back of our mind, almost unconsciously thinking, “I’m just kind of saying this. Is it really doing anything?”
Yes, it’s doing something. When we pray, God is listening and God is acting in response to our prayers.
Is that not awesome? And obviously, we immediately think, “Well, I’ve prayed for things and I’ve not seen anything happen before.” Isn’t that the beauty of prayer though? That when we pray, we’re praying to the God who’s all wise, who’s all powerful, who’s all good, who knows better than us what is good and wise, and just, and best. And He will answer according to His wisdom, not according to ours. He will answer with His power, not with ours. And according to His love, not with our imperfect love. So God, teach us to pray with confidence, with faith, with joy. What an opportunity that right now, oh God, you’re listening to us and you answer according to what we say. That you move heaven and earth according to what we say. Who are we? What a privilege. What an honor. And what a grace. What a mercy.
God, help us to pray continually. God, I’m freshly convicted even right now. God, I need to pray tons more. I need to pray so much more if this is true, which it’s true according to your word. So God, there’s so many things that we could pray for right now and need to pray for right now. Even when I say amen in a moment, may we just all start praying for all kinds of things, knowing that our prayers are triggering activity in the spiritual world and the world around us. We want to join our hearts in prayer right now for the Susu people of Sierra Leone, 201,000 of them. You know every single one of them, God. You know every single man, woman, child, among the Susu of Sierra Leone. And you know that most all of them have little to no knowledge of Jesus. So, we pray right now, God. We ask for your salvation to be made known and to spread among the Susu of Sierra Leone.
God, will you we unite our hearts right now? We ask for this. We pray that even right now while we’re praying, would you cause the gospel to go to them? Would you raise up laborers to go take the gospel to them? Maybe there are some laborers among them. Would you give them boldness right now? We ask God to proclaim the gospel. Would you open eyes of some Susu people right now in Sierra Leone to trust in you? God, we’re asking. Move heaven and earth for the salvation of the Susu in Sierra Leone. We’re boldly coming before your throne, God, expectantly confidently with faith asking. You deserve their glory. You want them to know your love. And you desire their salvation. You are worthy of their worship. Lord Jesus, make your glory, your salvation known among the Susu of Sierra Leone. We boldly, humbly ask in Jesus’ name, and we boldly, humbly ask in Jesus’ name for so many other things. God, help us to pray continually in light of this reality in Daniel 9:22–23. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
