Building on the Hearing From God series, this message focuses on creating an atmosphere for divine revelation through prayer, using Daniel’s lifestyle of prayer as the central example, and offers practical guidance on approaching God in secret, dealing with a wandering mind, and understanding prayer as sincere conversation rather than repeated words.
Scripture Reference
And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.
Key Points: What Prayer Actually Is
- Daniel’s excellent spirit, evidenced by a lifestyle of prayer so consistent that his accusers could find no fault in him except his devotion to his God, is presented as the reason revelation came to him.
- Daniel’s prayer in chapter 9, marked by fasting, sackcloth, and confession on behalf of his whole nation, shows prayer as sincere travail rather than routine repetition, and it was in the middle of that prayer that Gabriel arrived with revelation of the future.
- Earlier teachings in the series are recapped: confessing negativity, living in fear, allowing distraction, harboring unconfessed sin, trusting symptoms over the word, and isolating from other believers are named as ways Satan contests a believer’s faith.
- Prayer is described as simply talking to God rather than reciting practiced words, illustrated by contrasting rehearsed public prayers with the honest, conversational praying of someone who prays as though truly speaking to a person present.
- Practical suggestions are given for a wandering mind in prayer: praying aloud, praying through scripture, keeping a journal nearby, and changing posture.
- Worship is presented as the right starting point for prayer, following the pattern Jesus gave his disciples, before requests are brought before God.
- A shared, gathered atmosphere of prayer, beginning with music ahead of a prayer meeting so that hearts can settle, is described as something that strengthens the effect of individual prayers when believers pray together.