Behind the Scenes of Biblical Scenes, Pt. 9
Study Guide, November 3, 2024
Pastor Clay Olsen
Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and have trouble going back to sleep? Yeah, that’s pretty common. And sometimes your brain is just going off, like it somehow got a jolt of caffeine or something. One person put it like this: ‘Here’s your brain at 3AM: “I can see you are trying to sleep, so I would like to offer you a selection of every memory, unresolved issue, mistake, or thing you should have said or done today, or in the past 40+ years!”’ Right? You just want your brain to stop and unwind, but it’s zipping around like a racecar!
One great way to deal with that, of course, is to quiet your mind with Prayer. Use the sleep interruption for a Praise and Prayer session. That not only does Kingdom work, but it also restores peace to your spirit, and sleep for your body…and your brain.
In our look Behind the Scenes of Biblical Scenes today we’re looking at Prayer…not only the wonder of prayer, but the preeminence of prayer in our life and ministry. Actually, today is designated as International Day of Prayer…particularly for the Persecuted Church. And we can each devote some of our prayers toward the provisions, and protections, and blessings on our persecuted Brothers and Sisters in Christ around the world. But we also want to use this opportunity to rally us each to use our prayer ministry to impact all the arenas of our lives…from our families to our church and to our country, especially at this crucial time of elections.
Now, if you are following our Bible reading calendar, you recently read through Daniel. And in Daniel we see an absolutely remarkable ‘behind the scenes’ encounter with Daniel and Gabriel in connection with Daniel’s prayer ministry. So let’s look: Dan 9:20-23- “Now while I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God, while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering. He gave me instruction and talked with me and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding. At the beginning of your supplications the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed; so give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision.” NASU
For one thing, Daniel is teaching us an important aspect of prayer by ‘how’ he was praying. What was his mindset and his attitude, which gave him a hearing before God and a powerful influence before others? It was ‘humility’ before God and others! Mark it down: It is the virtue of ‘humility’ about yourself that gives you a hearing before God and a powerful influence in the lives of others. And your humility before others is developed by your humility before God; particularly in the practice of confessing your sins before God and confessing the sins of your people before God. It’s back to that need that, even though the penalty for our sins has been completely removed from us in our salvation, there is still the daily need for us to be cleansed from the presence of our sins for our daily fellowship with God and for our usefulness to God. Plus, again, this habit of confession in prayer helps to develop ‘humility’ in our character.
We also see that our prayers set things into motion, like here, when Daniel began praying, God sent Gabriel on mission. Now, we may not always be able to identify all the things that are set into motion by our prayers, but we are to know that things are set into motion, nevertheless. And one day God will show us how each of our prayers did set things into motion and were used by God to weave His plans and works together. That’s how important our prayers are and how necessary our prayer ministry is!
Plus, we are informed here how God thinks about His people who are humble in character and committed to the practice of prayer – Gabriel informed Daniel “…for you are highly esteemed.” How important are God’s prayer warriors to Him? God highly esteems His people who pray like Daniel prayed. For a child of God’s who God can count on to be active in intercessory prayer…that is a child who God highly esteems. And when God highly esteems you, that’s as highly esteemed as you can get! That’s being ‘blessed indeed!’ And when you are highly esteemed by God you have God’s permission to let yourself enjoy God’s blessed estimation of you and God’s feelings toward you. Remember, the greatest feeling in the world is feeling God’s pleasure over you. Ps 147:11- “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy.” NKJV And the greatest motivation for godly living is to let yourself feel God’s pleasure over you and His love toward you.
Now then, in looking further behind the scenes we see a stunning revelation that we have talked about before, but this is particularly pertinent in connection with our own country’s governmental elections going on. Check this out: Dan 10:12-13- “Then he said to me, “Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.” NASU
What a key revelation for us all to realize and to know and which then gives us greater understanding as to what’s going on behind the scenes of world governments. Here, Gabriel is revealing to Daniel, and to us, the reality of the spiritual warfare that was not only going on in the kingdom of Persia, but the reality of the spiritual warfare that is going on in every kingdom of the world, every nation of the world, every government in the world. Gabriel was not referring to human rulers here, but to the rulers, and the powers, and the world forces of this darkness…the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places that influence and affect earthly governments all over the world. (Eph 6:12 NASB)
We are to realize that when we speak about cultural wars within nations, within our nation, that a powerful reason for the cultural war that is going on is because of the spiritual war that is going on. Government leaders are being pressured and influenced by spiritual forces of wickedness to carry out policies of wickedness that destroy people and nations. Fortunately, some leaders are resisting those forces of wickedness, and many are looking to the King of nations for guidance and direction for their roles and their decisions that they make in holding to values and carrying out policies that will honor the King of kings and will bless the people and the families of the nation.
That’s why the most important step in government and political action is Prayer, particularly with God’s people. 2 Chron 7:14- “If My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” NIV You and I…we, are the ‘Daniels’ of our day and to our nation. The mantle of prayer for our churches and our country has fallen on us. And just like with Daniel in Babylon, we are not responsible for the outcomes of the choices of those in our government and nation, but we are responsible for the outgoing of our prayers and the actions of our works as Dual Citizens of both Heaven and Earth. Gal 6:9-10- “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” NASU Our duty to do good extends to whatever good we can do for ‘all people’…not only those who are of the household of faith, although especially to our Brothers and Sisters in Christ, but to ‘all people’…all of the people in our communities and in our country and our world!
And the ‘good’ that we are to do is defined for us by the godly principles and values delivered to us in the Word of God…the Scriptures…things like the Sanctity of Human life, the Created order of God of marriage and family, the rewards of wages earned for honorable works and labor, the protections of those who are law-abiding and the punishment of those who are law-breakers, and especially the freedoms for sharing the Gospel and living out your Biblical faith and beliefs in every area and every arena of your life from your homeplace to your workplace! That is the ‘Good’ that we are to be doing, that is the ‘Good’ that we are to be speaking, that is the ‘Good’ that we are to be promoting, that is the ‘Good’ that we are to be supporting, and that is the ‘Good’ that we are to be personally guided by in our virtues and publicly guided by in our voting as both God’s citizens of Heaven and God’s citizens of His earth, of whom all are accountable to the God of all creation and the Lord of all nations!
Remember, there is no such thing as the difference between the sacred and the secular in life…there is only the difference between ‘faithfulness unto God’ and ‘unfaithfulness unto God’, between ‘obedience’ to the Lord of all or ‘disobedience’ to the Lord of all. God’s rule doesn’t stop at the doors of His churches. NO! God’s rule extends to every courthouse, every schoolhouse, every company and every country on the face of the Earth! And every person is going to give an account to the God of all people for everything they did in their homes and in their churches and in their communities and in their country. Heb 9:27- “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” NKJV
And in our connection with the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, how strange that in our so-called ‘Land of the Free’, that Biblical followers of Jesus Christ no longer experience the ‘freedom’ and the ‘respect’ and the ‘honor’ that was once afforded to Christians in America. Persecuted Brothers and Sisters of other countries have often cited the progression of persecution. It begins with Social Persecution, where Biblical Disciples begin being maligned and misrepresented by social institutions of media and education and business and government. And that spreads to being ostracized and then excluded from certain social groups and from certain areas of social influence. And that spreads to being refused certain jobs and opportunities, even losing employment and status in certain industries.
And every one of these descriptions is now being experienced by followers of Christ in this once ‘Land of the Free’. And of course, when that is allowed to go on and on, this Social Persecution always leads to Physical Persecution. Again, many of God’s people now live in countries where both Social and Physical persecution have become the status quo. And note this: those who minister to the persecuted ones are called to prepare themselves for the persecutions they will face. Here is an actual example of one of the pledges that some believers are making to one another: They say this: “I am as right with God as I know how to be – I have said “Goodbye” to my friends and family – and I will not run.”
Sobering to be sure. But, again, this is another reminder of the great need for us all to not only be prepared to live for Christ and share His gospel and His truths, in spite of the dangers, but to be prayer-warriors for the sake of those facing physical danger day by day. Again, those dangers used to be thought of as just happening in foreign lands. But now, this has come closer and closer to our own land. Pray that this persecution will be pushed back by the influence and the leadership of more and more in our own government and in all places of power and influence. We are each to be powerful prayer warriors and public Gospel ambassadors. We pray that our message and our lives will be met with peace. We pray that the Words of Christ and the Will of Christ will be more and more welcome in our communities and in our country. But we also know that both history and prophecy teach us that there are times and places when God’s words and God’s people are not welcome. Remember what Jesus said about that? John 15:18-21- “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed My teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of My Name, for they do not know the One who sent Me.” NIV
When the world, when the culture, when those in your community resist or reject the Biblical message you share and the Biblical values that you hold, yes, it certainly feels personal, but it is right here that we are to know that behind the scenes of the one or ones rejecting you is someone who is rejecting another Person besides you…they are rejecting the Person of Jesus Christ, whom you worship and seek to follow. They will scorn the ambassador because they are scorning the One you are seeking to represent. And unless we regain the religious freedoms in America that were once respected, unless there is a repentance and a revival of hearts and minds toward the truths of God’s Word, unless there is a reversal of the direction of the insidious abandonment of God by America, we, too, may have to practice the prayer that our persecuted Brothers and Sisters are pledging to God and to their families: “I am as right with God as I know how to be – I have said “Goodbye” to my friends and family – and I will not run.”
This is a time when we are to stand firm, to be firm in our faith, to be God’s ‘Ambassadors’ of light to a culture of darkness, for we, too, have been appointed for such a time as this. And as we do so, all things are possible, as we pray and serve and carry out the Great Commission, there could be ‘Revival’…or…there may be further judgment. But either way, as we stand firm and faithfully do our duty, we can be assured of what Paul told us all: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is never in vain in the Lord.” 1 Cor 15:58 NASU