A Resilient Remnant (Daniel 2 pt 2): Answered Prayer as a Platform for the Gospel

Intro

Daniel 2:19–30 NASB 2020

Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven; Daniel said, “May the name of God be blessed forever and ever, For wisdom and power belong to Him. “It is He who changes the times and the periods; He removes kings and appoints kings; He gives wisdom to wise men, And knowledge to people of understanding. “It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, And the light dwells with Him. “To You, God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, For You have given me wisdom and power; Even now You have made known to me what we requested of You, For You have made known to us the king’s matter.” Thereupon, Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to kill the wise men of Babylon; he went and said this to him: “Do not kill the wise men of Babylon! Take me into the king’s presence, and I will declare the interpretation to the king.” Then Arioch hurriedly brought Daniel into the king’s presence and spoke to him as follows: “I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can make the interpretation known to the king!” The king said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation?” Daniel answered before the king and said, “As for the secret about which the king has inquired, neither wise men, sorcerers, soothsayer priests, nor diviners are able to declare it to the king. However, there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days. This was your dream and the visions in your mind while on your bed. As for you, O king, while on your bed your thoughts turned to what would take place in the future; and He who reveals secrets has made known to you what will take place. But as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me for any wisdom residing in me more than in any other living person, but for the purpose of making the interpretation known to the king, and that you may understand the thoughts of your mind.

James 5:13–16 NASB 2020

Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. A prayer of a righteous person, when it is brought about, can accomplish much.

Prayer is powerful, particularly when it is the faith-filled people of God who are praying. Many times throughout scripture, we are told to pray because God hears and moves with hearts of His righteous ones. And who are these righteous ones?

Romans 4:3 NASB 2020

For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

Romans 9:6–8 NASB 2020

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “through Isaac your Descendants shall be named.” That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.

Daniel is a true child of God not on the basis of his ethnic line, but on the basis of his unflinching faith in God. Did you know that Old Testament saints were saved by grace through faith too?

Here we see a man who truly believed God, who had every confident in God and in what God could and would do to preserve His people and to bring glory to His name.

God loves to answer the prayers of His children because He is jealous for His glory, because He loves us, and because He loves the world.

Problem

Truth

Today we will look at how God uses the miraculous to build a platform for His people to witness about Him to the world. We will also observe some key practices from Daniel’s experience which can encourage us to live boldly as a resilient remnant people in our world.

I. Daniel’s motivation in prayer was God’s glory, so his first response was naturally to worship. (19-23)

Daniel blessed God by declaring His greatness.

He acknowledged God’s insight and strength. (20)

He acknowledged God’s sovereignty over all things, and His providence over our lives. (21)

He acknowledged God’s great wisdom. (22)

He acknowledged God’s history of being faithful, and His specific faithfulness to Daniel in this moment.

Contrast Daniel’s reaction with that of a guy like Simon the Sorcerer in Acts 8.

Simon was chastised by the Apostles because they could see that he wanted the gifts of the Spirit for his own gain and notoriety rather than for the glory of God and the building up of Christ’s church.

Daniel was clear in his focus. He was excited about the miracle God had delivered, but not for his own sake. He was excited because God had revealed His glory and he kept the focus on God rather than himself.

Daniel’s response to God was to worship God, standing in awe of His greatness.

There are many who would use God’s gifts to further their own careers, or to make themselves appear super spiritual before others.

If that’s our motivation for prayer, we are totally missing God’s heart.

Matthew 6:33 NASB 2020

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you.

A truly righteous prayer has God’s glory and purposes at its center rather than our gain. Of course when we are set on God’s glory, we will experience great gain but our gaining must not be our primary motivation.

James 4:1–3 NASB 2020

What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is the source not your pleasures that wage war in your body’s parts? You lust and do not have, so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives, so that you may spend what you request on your pleasures.

God is not a magic genie who is waiting upstairs to grant our wishes and to spoil us.

God’s aim for us in prayer, is that we will grow to know His character, to walk in Him, and that our desires will be conformed to His to the extent that when we petition for things in prayer we will be in alignment with His heart.

1 John 5:14–15 NASB 2020

This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

Jesus did not promise to answer our prayers haphazardly. He promised to answer those prayers which are in His name.

John 14:12–14 NASB 2020

Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version Chapter 14

To pray in Christ’s name is to identify with the purpose of Christ to the extent that our will has become identified with the will of God

-R.C. Sproul

If a messenger goes in the name of a king, he speaks on behalf of said king, nothing more and nothing less. This is the same connotation Jesus’ words have here.

Daniel’s response to God’s answer is clear evidence that he was walking in God’s grace, and that his heart was aligned with the Father in prayer.

But how do we get to this place? There is no shortcut. We must marinate our hearts and minds daily in His word and presence if we are to become the sort of believer whom Daniel’s life shows us we can be in Him.

II. Daniel recognized God’s love for him personally. (23)

Daniel truly took God’s answer to his prayer personally.

He makes his connection with God clear in his prayer.

God is not just a god, but Daniel’s God specifically.

Calling Him “the God of my ancestors” is a clear was of identifying with his Jewish heritage rather than the pagan worship of the host culture he was living in. The Lord is Daniel’s personal God.

Daniel acknowledged that God had done something amazing for him personally.

He recognized that God has specifically and especially visited him, granting him both wisdom and power to visit the king and deliver the people.

Daniel saw that God’s love and favor over him had been clearly manifested by God granting him this miraculous wisdom.

Confidence in God’s love and kindness is one of the things that actually motivates us to pray.

Luke 11:13 NASB 2020

So if you, despite being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

Luke 12:29–31 NASB 2020

And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For all these things are what the nations of the world eagerly seek; and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek His kingdom, and these things will be provided to you.

III. Daniel became a great blessing and a powerful witness through God answering his prayer. (24-30)

Because God gave Daniel the dream and interpretation, many lives were spared.

How many families would have been wrecked by the King’s anger had the Lord not intervened through Daniel?

Because God gave Daniel the dream and interpretation, Daniel was able to speak of God’s glory to the most powerful man in the world.

Later we will see that Nebuchadnezzar was so impacted by what God did, that he spread the word about God all over the world.

In other words, God’s name was glorified everywhere because of the witness Daniel became through this miracle.

Application

If we want to pray powerfully and see God move, we must become a people who are about His glory.

Several things can lead to a weak prayer life, but probably the top two causes of a weak prayer life are not praying and praying with the wrong motivation.

Whose kingdom are we asking God to build in our prayers? Are we jealous for His glory to be revealed in us?

If we want to pray powerfully, we need to start believing that God loves and cares for us.

People who don’t believe that God cares either won’t pray, or will pray pessimistically.

Faith is a requirement for effective prayer. Why should God answer our prayers if we don’t even believe that God loves us and wants to move on our behalf? (James 1:6-8)

If we want to pray powerfully, we must remember that God loves this broken world and is going to great lengths to restore it for Himself.

Daniel had every reason to hate the king and to wish evil on him. Instead, he ministered to him.

I don’t see the Lord honoring the prayers of a bitter, angry person who has it out for the world.

God is the sort of God who loves His enemies so much that He crushed His only Son to redeem them.

We can choose to be a bunch of whiny Jonahs, or to be bold and faithful Daniels.

Ultimately God wants to answer our prayers to show us His glory, to show us His love for us, and to give us a platform to preach the gospel to the world. When we understand God’s motivation for answering our prayers, we will become much more powerful prayer warriors.

So I am challenging us to spend time with God daily in order to understand His heart and then to pray. Pray as best as we can, informed by God’s heart for Himself, for us, and for this broken world that He loves.