To What Kind of Prayer Does God Answer Yes?
Daniel 9: In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, from the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, discerned in the books the number of the years concerning which the word of [a]Yahweh came to Jeremiah the prophet for the fulfillment of the laying waste of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. 3 So I gave my face to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. 4 And I prayed to Yahweh my God and confessed and said, “Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, 5 we have sinned and committed iniquity and acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and judgments. 6 Moreover, we have not listened to Your slaves the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and all the people of the land.
18 O my God, incline Your ear and listen! Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Your name; for we are not [k]presenting our supplications before You on account of any righteousness of our own, but on account of Your abundant compassion. 19 O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, give heed and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
21 and while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision [m]previously, [n]touched me [o]in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering.
To What Kind of Prayer Does God Answer Yes?
If
the request is wrong, God says, "No."
If the timing is wrong, God says, "Slow."
If you are wrong, God says, "Grow."
But if the request is right, the timing is right and you are right, God says,
"Go!"
Bill Hybels, Too Busy Not To Pray, IVP, p. 74.
I told you last time about six kinds of prayers that the Lord answers yes. These are the ingredients to answered prayer. Since last time I have added a sixth ingredient.
The Humble/Repentant have answered prayer. The Scriptural have answered prayer. The Righteous have answered prayer. The Fervent have answered prayer. The Selfless have answered prayer. The God exalting have answered prayer.
I. The Humble/Repentant have answered prayer.Luke 18:9-14 Legacy Standard Bible
9 And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and was praying these things to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was [a]beating his chest, saying, ‘God, be [b]merciful to me, the sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
I. The Scriptural have answered prayer.
I chose the passage of Scripture out of Daniel to share with you today because it is one of the best examples of praying that is based in Scripture. I want to share with you what steps you should take in order to pray in agreement with Scripture. 5 points
Pray for what God has already ordained. Search the Scripture. Pray as you read. Don’t take Scripture out of context. Be specific.
A. Pray for what God has already ordained
Let’s read again from Daniel 9.
Daniel 9: In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, from the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, discerned in the books the number of the years concerning which the word of [a]Yahweh came to Jeremiah the prophet for the fulfillment of the laying waste of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. 3 So I gave my face to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
So, let’s first lay out some background here. 597 B.C.
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Babylonian_Exile
According to the Book of Jeremiah (52:28-30), 3,023 Jews were deported in the first wave, 832 in the second, and 745 in the third, making 4,600 in all. However, it is likely that only the men were counted. Including women and children it is estimated that 14,000 to 18,000 people would be the full number.
Daniel, a member of the upper class in Israel, was taken in the first deportation. And you might remember that the first deportation included
“a high percentage of court officials, the priesthood, skilled craftsmen, and other wealthy citizens, the exiles constituted the majority of the cultural elite of nation.”
But in chapter nine, Daniel is an old man. We know he is an old man because chapter nine tells us we are in the first year of the reign of Darius. Darius began his reign over Babylon in 523 B.C.. Daniel was taken in the first deportation, as a young man, in 597 B.C.. So, Daniel had to be over 80 years of age. He is searching the Scripture.
A. Search the Scripture
2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, discerned in the books the number of the years concerning which the word of [a]Yahweh came to Jeremiah the prophet for the fulfillment of the laying waste of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
In order for you to pray in agreement with Scripture, you have to study the Scripture. But Daniel was studying the Scripture. He was studying the prophecy of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 25:11-12 This whole land will be a waste place and an object of horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. ‘Then it will be when seventy years are fulfilled, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,’ declares Yahweh, ‘for their iniquity, even the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation.
Jeremiah says that after 70 years of captivity, Babylon will be punished. But chapter 29 really heightens his enthusiasm.
Verse 1: Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile, the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken away into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
Jeremiah was still in Judah prophesying. Many of Judah’s citizens have been deported. So, he sends a letter to those who have been deported.
saying, 4 “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, 5 ‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their fruit. 6 Take wives and [a]become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. 7 Seek the peace of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to Yahweh on its behalf; for in its peace you will have peace.’
Jeremiah 29:10 “For thus says Yahweh, ‘When seventy years have been fulfilled for Babylon, I will visit you and establish My good word to you, to return you to this place.
Now here’s the good news Jeremiah was allowed to deliver. Not only will Babylon be overthrown during your 70 years away, but after 70 years, you will be allowed to return to Judah, to your homeland.
So, Daniel is reading this prophecy. And he is doing the math. Depending on what you consider the beginning of the 70 years, it is coming to completion. The time of exile is complete. Babylon has been overthrown. Darius the Mede has begun his reign. So, Daniel reads this and that leads us to a third step.
A. Pray as you read
2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, discerned in the books the number of the years concerning which the word of [a]Yahweh came to Jeremiah the prophet for the fulfillment of the laying waste of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. 3 So I gave my face to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
He reads the prophecy, then he gets down on his knees to pray that God would do what God said he would do. This is an important step for us to emulate. We are sinful in regard to many things in our Christian walks. First, we do not spend time in the Word of God outside of our time at worship services. I don’t spend the time I should, and many of you don’t. I am so thankful when I hear some of you talk about time you spend in the Word at home, in your personal devotions. We need more of that, and more like that.
But a second kind of sinfulness in this area is that we open the Word, we read the Word at home, we read devotions, but we don’t respond to what we have read. James chapter one addresses this problem.
22 But become doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his [r]natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he looked at himself and has gone away, [s]he immediately forgot what kind of person he was. 25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of freedom, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in [t]what he does.
He compares reading the Word without responding to the Word to a person who looks at himself in a mirror. He’s got dirt on his cheek, his neck needs washed. He needs to shave and get a haircut. His hair is sticking up all over the place and needs to be washed. His eyebrow, singular, needs to be plucked and his nose hair trimmed. But he looks at himself in the mirror, shrugs, and says, “good enough,” and goes on without fixing any of the flaws the mirror revealed.
To pray scripturally is to read and then respond. It isn’t just beginning my prayer with a list of my desires to bring to God. Then finding Bible verses that purportedly agree with what I want. We do that don’t we. We start praying, then we think of Scripture to shore up our desires. The godly way of praying Scripturally is to go to the Word in search of God’s answers and wisdom, then to respond to what He shows us as we study the Word.
Well, that leads us to the next step.
A. Don’t take Scripture out of context
Taking Scripture out of context means that we take one or two verses that we like and apply them to our circumstances, without considering, when and to whom that Scripture was written to begin with. We do this a lot. We stencil Scripture passages on our walls taken entirely out of context. And the passages we are looking at in Daniel and Jeremiah give us a good example of taking Scripture out of context.Jeremiah 29:9-11Legacy Standard Bible
9 For they prophesy a lie to you in My name; I have not sent them,’ declares Yahweh. 10 “For thus says Yahweh, ‘When seventy years have been fulfilled for Babylon, I will [a]visit you and establish My good word to you, to return you to this place. 11 For I know the plans that I [b]have for you,’ declares Yahweh, ‘plans for peace and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.
How many of you are familiar with verse 11. “For I know the plans that I [b]have for you,’ declares Yahweh, ‘plans for peace and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.”
How many of you knew it came from Jeremiah? How many of you knew that it was spoken specifically to the Jewish exiles in Babylon regarding God’s plan to return them to Judah?
But we like this verse because it tells us that God’s plans for us are for peace and no calamities. But if you take it in context, those were God’s plans for the exiles in Judah at that time, at the end of their exile.
When you look at Scripture, you must consider its context. That’s not to say that there are not some general principles in every Scripture that apply to us. God does have a future and hope of peace and no calamities for those who will turn to Him in faith, and outside this world in eternity. But He has not promised peace and no calamity in this world for the believer. In fact, He promised the opposite.
Matthew 10: 22 And you will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.
23 “But whenever they persecute you in this city, flee to [a]the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes.
24 “A [o]disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. 25 It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house [p]Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!
34 “Do not think that I came to [v]bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.
I needed to address this because when I say to you that you should pray according to Scripture, I think many consider what I am saying is that they should latch onto an affirming verse, and claim its promises as promises made to me. I am not saying that those verses don’t exist, but we must be careful to fully understand the message of the whole passage; when was it written and to whom, before we blindly apply it to our circumstances.
Let’s get a little silly in order to further drive home this point. I have some recommended life verses for you. These are inspiring verses that you could stencil to your wall or put on a plaque on your desk. Here we go. First, Jesus said this to Peter;
Matthew 17:27 Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.
Go fishing, you’ll catch a fish with money in its mouth, use that money to pay your taxes. Anybody want to stencil that on your wall? Why not? Oh, you say that those were words directed to Peter at a specific time and place for a specific circumstance. They don’t apply to you. Let’s look at another.
Ezekial 4: 11 The water you drink shall be the sixth part of a [a]hin by measure; you shall drink it from time to time. 12 You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human dung.”
Want to stencil that on your wall? God said it.
How about this.
Hosea 1: “Go, take for yourself a wife of harlotry.” There’s a life verse for you.
The point I am trying to make is that praying according to Scripture is not some light use of the Word manipulated to say what we desire. It is a careful study of the Word and application of the Spirits revelation to our circumstances.
The last step in praying according to Scripture is to be specific.
B. Be specific
3 So I gave my face to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. 4 And I prayed to Yahweh my God and confessed and said, “Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, 5 we have sinned and committed iniquity and acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and judgments. 6 Moreover, we have not listened to Your slaves the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and all the people of the land.
7 “To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us [b]open shame, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which You have banished them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against You. 8 O Yahweh, to us belongs [c]open shame, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 9 To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, [d]for we have rebelled against Him; 10 nor have we listened to the voice of Yahweh our God, to walk in His [e]laws which He put before us through His slaves the prophets. 11 Indeed all Israel has trespassed against Your law, even turning aside, not listening to Your voice; so the curse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the [f]law of Moses the [g]servant of God, for we have sinned against Him. 12 Thus He has established His words which He had spoken against us and against our judges who judged us, to bring on us great calamity; for under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what was done to Jerusalem. 13 As it is written in the [h]law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us; yet we have not [i]entreated the favor of Yahweh our God by turning from our iniquity and acting wisely in Your truth. 14 Therefore Yahweh has watched over the calamity and brought it on us; for Yahweh our God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not listened to His voice.
15 “So now, O Lord our God, who have brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand and have made a name for Yourself, as it is this day—we have sinned; we have acted wickedly.
Note how specifically he laid out their sinfulness. “we have sinned and committed iniquity,” “turning aside from Your commandments and judgments,” “we have not listened to Your slaves the prophets,” “we have sinned against You,”” we have rebelled,”” nor have we listened to the voice of Yahweh to walk in His [e]laws,” “all this calamity has come on us; yet we have not [i]entreated the favor of Yahweh our God by turning from our iniquity and acting wisely in Your truth,”” we have sinned; we have acted wickedly.”
It's amazing how specifically we bring our requests to God, but how generically we confess our sins to Him. The old hymn says, “count your blessings, name them one by one,” that’s what we should do with our sins in confession before God; name them one by one. But Daniel goes on to be specific in his request to God.
16 O Lord, in accordance with all Your righteousness, let now Your anger and Your wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all those around us. 17 So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Your slave and to his supplications, and for [j]Your sake, O Lord, let Your face shine on Your desolate sanctuary. 18 O my God, incline Your ear and listen! Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Your name; for we are not [k]presenting our supplications before You on account of any righteousness of our own, but on account of Your abundant compassion. 19 O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, give heed and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
His prayer is for God to restore Jerusalem and its people. He is praying that God will do what God already said He would do.
Jeremiah 29:10 “For thus says Yahweh, ‘When seventy years have been fulfilled for Babylon, I will visit you and establish My good word to you, to return you to this place.
And so, we to should search the Scriptures for truth from God. Then we should take God at His Word and pray in accord with what He already said He would do. But you may ask, “If we are praying for those things that God already said He would do, then why pray? God’s going to do them anyway. Let me tell you why we pray.
Because we are commanded to.Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.Prayer is the means God uses to make all things work together for good.Romans 8:26-28 And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the [a]saints according to the will of God.Because we have to ask to receiveJames 4:2-3You lust and do not have, so you murder. You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask [a]with wrong motives, so that you may spend it [b]on your pleasures.Because righteous prayer accomplishes muchJames 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective [a]prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.Because prayer brings blessing beyond what I ask or understandEphesians 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works within us,
28 And we know that for those who love God [b]all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.
Prayer changes thingsThat’s why we pray. You may say, “Preacher, how can you bring those two things together in your head; Pray for what God has already revealed He will do, and prayer changes things. That doesn’t make sense. How do you explain it preacher. My answer; I don’t. Because I don’t understand it. But guess what, I don’t have to.I don’t have to understand how an automobile works, I just put in the key and drive off down the road knowing that somebody has more knowledge than I do. I don’t have to know how prayer works in relation to God’s revealed will. I just obey what I do understand and leave the rest up to the manufacturer. So, this time we talked about praying Scripturally. Next time I want to get more specific and talk about what we should pray Scripturally and specifically regarding our church.
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