What Happened When You Prayed?

It's a good time. I love this. I love that. I spent three days at kids camp this week. I'm so tired. I need Jesus's help. My kids needed Jesus's help after being at camp for three days. Just like not sleeping a ton, but man, I'm so grateful. Here's what I'm the most blown away by, and I don't have a ton of time to talk about it. I'm so proud of the parents who went with and not only had these experiences with their kids at camp, but gave that experience to other kiddos. I'm so grateful and so proud of the student leaders of our church who are sophomores and juniors and seniors in high school. They didn't just go to hang out with their friends. They were ministering to kids. I am telling you, there's a group of student leaders. Some of you are in the room. I was blown away by you this week, by your heart for Jesus. They were talking about the Daniel Fast, talking about fasting this week. While they're still at kids camp, eating camp food, they're preparing to start the Daniel Fast. They are all in for Jesus. There's not even a question in their hearts. They're doing it together. They're going on reach trips. I'm just so proud of them. You see many of them. A lot of them are on our production team. They're helping run services on the weekend. I'm just really, really excited about the future and what God has for the student leaders

in our church. I'm also just grateful for every eKids team member, Pastor Kyle and the team have built a generational kids ministry that is just affecting so many people, and we're seeing young people called in ministry. It is awesome. My heart is very encouraged, even though my body is tired. I was like, I love kids camp, but why do they have to scream? And then why, when they're screaming, or when they're not screaming, we then ask them to scream? I don't. I'm very overstimulated. But man, there was a really cool moment. I'm spending too much time, but I think these wins are just really important, where we were all at the altar, and every cabin leader was praying over their different kids. So one guy in our church who's just this big, burly, manly man, and he was holding four boys in his arms as worship was happening. And you don't know if those kids have a dad at home, but for that moment, they had a big old papa wrapping his arms around them, which is pretty cool. Not to call you out, but my friend Sarah is sitting here, and I watched at an altar as Sarah prayed over every girl in her group, and she had written in her journal, I think, things that she wanted to speak over each kid, and then pray over them. And I watched her speak right into the soul of some of your kids, and then put her hand on their head and pray over them. And it's not child care that's happening on the other side of the building right now. It is ministry. And students and kids are being activated in the call of God. It's really, really exciting, really cool. So I've got to preach, but if you pass somebody and they're wearing one of those eKids shirts, you need to look them in the eye and say, thank you. Because it's making a difference, and it's making an impact in their lives.

So amen. We thank you, Jesus. We don't call common what is so uncommon in what you're doing among us. Lord, I ask that you use this message to encourage our hearts and to lead us in the plan that you have for us. In Jesus' name, amen. I was sharing with some leaders at camp this week how I learned to pray, and the primary way that I learned how to pray is having people who knew how to pray bring me into the presence of Jesus with them where I could watch them pray, where I could hear them pray, where I could participate in praying with them. It's why midweek is so important. It's because we go into the presence of Jesus together. We seek him together. And I'm so thankful for the people who didn't just go into the prayer closet and pray for me, but they said, come in with me. So it's so powerful for people to be at our altars praying for people during service or leaders praying for kids because they're saying, this is what the presence of Jesus is like. Come in with me. Let me show you how to pray, how to be with Jesus. I want to answer this question today as we go into 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting. What happened when you prayed? Or what happens when you pray? I'm going to give you two different prayers from the book of Daniel, two different prayers by the same man, but in color I've notated the things that are common that happened when Daniel prayed. So watch for them right now. Here we go. In Daniel 9.20, Daniel went on praying and confessing his sin and the sin of his people, pleading with the Lord, my God, for Jerusalem, his holy mountain. As I was praying, Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, Gabriel being an angel

of the Lord, came swiftly to me at the time of the evening sacrifice. He explained to me. Daniel, I've come here to give you insight and understanding. The moment you began praying, a command was given. The moment you began praying, a command was given. And now I am here to tell you what it was, for you are very precious to God. Listen carefully so that you can understand the meaning of your vision. Skip ahead to Daniel 10. And the man said to me, Daniel, this is a different conversation. You are very precious to God. So listen carefully to what I have to say to you. Actually stand up, because I've been sent to you and I'm about to talk to you from the Lord right now. When he said this to me, I stood up, still trembling. Then he said, don't be afraid, Daniel, since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. But for 21 days, the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia, the evil one, blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me and I left him. So the answer was given, but there was a battle spiritually for that answer to get through to Daniel. It took 21 days. There with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia.

I love that he's like, but Michael came, so I left him to fight the fight and I brought you the answer. Good luck, Michael. Daniel 10.14, now I'm here to explain what will happen to your people in the future for this vision concerns a time yet to come. Two different prayers that have some parallels in them. At the time of these prayers, Daniel is an old man. He's exiled in a foreign country, in a foreign city. He's away from the city of God. He's away from the people of God. And while reading the prophet Jeremiah, Daniel realizes that the 70 years of Israel's exile are almost over. He picks up the Bible, he picks up a scroll from Jeremiah and he realizes there's a promise of God that's on the table for the taking. And he doesn't say, I'm just gonna wait till that promise comes to pass because God keeps his word. He gets down on his knees and he begins to pray for it to come to pass. He begins to believe God for the promise that God's gonna restore Jerusalem and restore his people. While Daniel's praying, Gabriel appears and says, the moment you began praying, God heard you. God then gives Daniel insight into his greater plan for Israel's future. A couple of years later, Daniel receives another troubling vision.

He doesn't understand it. So he spends 21 days mourning, fasting and praying for understanding. A heavenly messenger arrives and says, from the very first day you began to pray, your request was heard. That should encourage somebody in the room that from the moment you started praying, the answer was sent. And even if you haven't heard the answer yet, it's on the way. Maybe it'll take a day, maybe it'll take 21, maybe it'll take a hundred, but God has an answer for your prayer. But unlike chapter nine, the messenger explains that he was delayed for 21 days because of spiritual opposition. He says, your request was heard. Michael came to help. Michael is known as an archangel in scripture. In the New Testament, he's specifically mentioned in the book of Jude and he's portrayed as the leader of God's heavenly armies. The question is, what happened when you prayed? Telling you something happened when you prayed. See, the greatest deception of the enemy isn't to convince you that God can't answer your prayers. The greatest deception is that God won't. The greatest deception is that nothing is happening while you pray.

But the Bible says, if you keep on asking, if you keep on seeking, and if you keep on knocking and you ask with right intentions, God can and will answer. The great tragedy isn't that sometimes we pray prayers that go unanswered. The great tragedy is that sometimes we abandon prayers that we are supposed to continue to pray and continue to ask and continue to seek. The story teaches us, don't judge heaven's answer based on earth's silence. Because sometimes something is happening in heaven that you just haven't seen yet. Just because there's no movement doesn't mean there isn't momentum. Just because you haven't seen a breakthrough doesn't mean that a battle isn't happening. Just because you don't have the answer doesn't mean that God hasn't already spoken. Maybe the first day you prayed, something shifted. Maybe the first day you prayed, something changed. Let me walk you through these four parallels that we see. What happens when we pray? First, the Bible says, God looks at Daniel and he says, you're very precious to God. Says it in both prayers. Second, the Bible says, the moment that Daniel prayed, an answer was given. Third, the Bible says that a messenger comes and explains things to Daniel. And fourth, Daniel is told,

buddy, you better stand up and listen because the Lord's about to speak to you. four parallels that take place in these two separate prayers. The first one is that Daniel humbles himself in prayer. He actually, I didn't read all the scripture, don't have time today, but he puts burlap on his back, something that would cause him to be uncomfortable and itchy. He is literally humbling himself before the Lord and then he begins to confess his sins. He begins to confess the sins of his people. He begins to cry out to God and he says something to the effect of, Lord answer my prayer, not because I'm worthy, but answer because of your mercy. See, we often think about the ways that we fall short and we confess our sin and we end up feeling badly about ourselves. But when Daniel humbles himself in this way and he lays out his sin and he lays out the ways that he falls short and he lays out even the sins of his people, what does God say? God says that you are very precious to me. That when we have a broken and contrite spirit, when we have a repentant heart, God doesn't look at us and say, thank you for that list of things that you've done wrong. As the eternal accountant, I'll make sure to hold it against you, your liabilities when you get to heaven. No, he says, you're very precious to me. He responds to us out of his mercy. The response that Daniel gets is, Daniel, because of your humility, because of your repentance, you are very precious to God. Another translation says, you are highly esteemed by God. This is both an identity because the apostle Paul writes that if you follow Jesus, that you're a precious child of God. You've been adopted into his family. You're one of his own. It's also a posture because we know that God loves a humble, honest and repentant heart. The scripture says the posture, the sacrifice that God desires is a broken spirit. He will not reject a broken and repentant heart, a humbled heart. Daniel doesn't walk in demanding things from God. He walks in and he humbles himself before God. If you've been around children or even your own children, you know, you've had those moments where they, they, they get really angry at you and they say things that they never meant to say, or they say things out of emotion. And as a parent, it's not supposed to bother you. But sometimes even an eight year old or a nine year old, it bothers you. And you're like, oh, that kind of hurt. And then maybe after an hour or a day, that child comes back and goes, dad, I don't hate you. I love you. I'm so sorry for what I said when

I was angry. And what do you do? How dare you say that to me? That hurt my feelings. I know I'm an adult, but I have feelings too. No, what do you do? You're drawn to them. You're like, hey, it's okay. I understand that you're frustrated. You, you want to reach for a relationship again, right? And this is a picture of our heavenly father. When we come to him, we say, father, I know I've missed the mark. I know I haven't done it right, but according to your mercy, deal with me mercifully. And he looks at you and he goes, you're so precious to me because of your humble contrite heart. You're precious to me. It takes humility though, doesn't it? I mean, there's some prayers in Daniel's prayer in Daniel nine, that if I'm honest, they hurt our pride. They hurt my pride a little bit to walk into the presence of Jesus and go, God, I'm the one who's sinned and done wrong. To walk into the presence of Jesus and say, God, I have rebelled against you. You're not the problem. My rebellion is to walk into the presence of Jesus and say, God, I have been refusing to listen. I've been listening to myself more than your spirit to say, Lord, you're in the right. I'm in the wrong. It's very common today to just never apologize for anything. For some of us, it's hard to go into the presence of Jesus and say, God, you're in the right. Or God, because of my disloyalty to you, I'm in this position. God, not even because I deserve help. I am not entitled to your help, but your very character in nature is to be a merciful God. And so according to your nature, deal with me in kindness. It's admitting when we're wrong. It's confessing that God's right. It's acknowledging our need for him. It's understanding that it's not because I deserve it, but because he's gracious and he's merciful. And it's to that heart. When you walk in the room and say those things to the Lord that he goes, you are very precious in my sight. And then what happens when you pray? The moment you began to pray, the answer was given. This does not mean the answer was immediately received. Another translation says the word goes out. A word went out. The answer was sent, but it's yet to be received. This should be encouraging to you because the moment that you prayed and answered the Lord's prayer, the answer answer was given. Your prayer was heard and it's on the way. You just gotta wait for it. And I know you love to wait. Like when you go in the restaurant, it's a 30 minute wait. I know you're like, praise you, Lord. Like when you're waiting for your coffee and it takes a little longer than you thought. And you're like, yes, Jesus. Come on, when you

go out to joy house and get a coffee at church, be a Christian, please. Sorry, that's a little juke in the middle of it, but come on. We don't love to wait. We don't love to wait at the amusement park for the ride. We don't love to wait when we text somebody and they don't respond right away. We start to think maybe, did I make them mad? Do they not like me? Come on, have you been there? Are they ignoring me? What's going on? How much more when we linger in prayer is it difficult for us to wait? But here's what I want you to catch. God is rarely a God of instant gratification. Because more often than not, there is a greater lesson or a greater revelation and a greater breakthrough in the waiting for the answer than the actual answer. Why 21 days? What if God doesn't do anything? What if I fast and pray and nothing happens? There is a greater revelation. The prize is not the answer. The prize is the presence. The prize is being with Jesus. Daniel prayed for 21 days. It's not about a number. It's about the fact that Daniel prayed until the answer came. And I'm just believing over these 21 days that God's going to put things in your heart that might, you might pray and it's answered in a day. You might pray and it's answered in 10 days. You might pray and it's answered in 21 days. You might pray and it's answered in 100 days. You might pray and it's answered in 10 years. The goal is not to make it a certain amount of days. In fact, I hope that you walk out of 21 days of prayer and fasting with a burden in your heart that you're praying for. And you're saying, it's not about the number of days. It's that I'm going to pray through. I'm not going to abandon this prayer until I see the promise come to pass in my family. I see the promise come to pass in my life. I see the breakthrough happen in my own spirit. I see the change happen in my church. Not just people that offer prayers to God, but people that persevere in prayer before the Lord until what's in his heart is actually accomplished among us. On both occasions, the messenger then shows up and comforts Daniel saying, I know you prayed, but now I'm here. And come on, you know, the waiting isn't fun. But when the now comes, there's a lot of rejoicing. Like the waiting of fasting certain things for 21 days is fun. It's not fun. But midnight on the 22nd day, praise the Lord. When you're going through a difficulty, the waiting isn't fun. But when the answer comes or the freedom comes, the waiting doesn't matter anymore. It's the now, but now the messenger is here. Now God has showed up. I don't have time to get into it today, but the Bible tells us that the waiting is for

us, but the waiting is also because there is a spiritual battle that's happening. Ephesians 6, 12 and 6, 18, both say, keep on praying, keep persevering in prayer, pray in the spirit because there's something changing in the heavenlies, even if it hasn't changed on earth yet. Don't be so immature or naive to think that the only thing that's happening is what you see with your physical eyes. Let the eyes of your heart be opened. Let the eyes of your spirit be awake to perceive what is happening, even though you don't see it yet. Daniel persevered for 21 days. There was a battle happening in heaven that he didn't even know about, but he knew his job to keep on praying, to keep on believing, to persevere in prayer, to not give up because there's more happening through your prayer than you know. Romans 12, 12 says, rejoice in your confident hope. Be patient in your trouble and keep on praying. Keep on praying because the answer is likely on the way. Eventually after you've prayed for a little while, this is the next parallel that happens in scripture. A messenger comes to explain. Real quickly, Daniel had conversations with Gabriel, an angel of the Lord. We've been offered something better. I am telling you, if Daniel is looking over the balcony of heaven right now, and if in your heart you're going, well, if Gabriel would show up to me, I'd be motivated too. And he would go, are you kidding me? Because when Jesus left, he sent the promised Holy Spirit, who's going to be with you to the very end of the age, who reveals the mysteries of God to the people. people of God. In my time, that Holy Spirit came upon people once in a while, but now He dwells in you. Are you kidding me? The same breath of God, Holy Spirit, that raised Christ from the dead, is available to you every moment of every day. What do you mean you want Gabriel to show up? The presence of God, the Spirit of God is with you. Jesus said, when that Spirit comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own,

but He will tell you what He has heard. He will tell you about the future. Sometimes people are nervous about the presence of God, because what if God shows up, or the Holy Spirit shows up and He starts telling me, or telling other people about all the bad stuff I've done? He's here to tell you about the future God has planned, about the things God wants to do. He's calling you, when the Holy Spirit convicts you, He's convicting you unto righteousness, unto the plan and the identity and the posture that God has for you. Come, Holy Spirit, is the most exciting prayer of the believer, because He's available and He's here. He doesn't come to condemn us of our past, but to tell us about the future. If there was one thing, out of all the books, all the counselors, all the knowledge of this world, if there was one thing that in our time, in our age, we should try, out of all the other things that we've tried, we should try the presence of Jesus. We should try bringing our problems and our questions and our concerns and our doubts and our identity issues into the very presence of God, and laying it all before Him, because when you pray, He sends a messenger, and His Holy Spirit guides us into all truth. He speaks to us, not on His own behalf, but He tells us what's in the Father's heart. He tells you, and sometimes, you know,

the Bible says in Acts 1,8, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And that word power is not like you will receive influence, or you will receive a position, or you will receive a position, or you'll be better than other people. That word power, in the original language, is dunamis. It's dynamite-like power. It's miracle-working power. You will receive supernaturally a God ability to hear His voice and to pray prayers of faith when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. That's a real good deal. It's free. I was trying to make a major leadership decision this summer, and I had a direction that I thought I was going. I was putting all the plans in place, and I had three messengers come to me. My mentor, my wife, and God through His word. I don't know God's voice. That's it. And said, hey, not yet. It's not the right time. I had all the plans in place. We were going, and you know what I resolved in my heart? I would rather have the nudge of the Holy Spirit in a direction than knowing the direction. And you know what? I still have that same problem.

I'm still praying about it. I don't know what I'm gonna do next, but I know the Spirit's in it, and that's better than having an answer. Knowing that God's with you, and He's behind you, and He's helping you. And even when He doesn't give the answer, He still offers His wisdom, and His comfort, and His peace, and His help in the meantime. We struggle in the middle, don't we? We want the then. We want the now, and yet we linger in the middle of when will God answer, and how will He answer, and we're giving Him the surrender of God. It's up to you. So help me in the middle to just trust you. But God will speak, and when He speaks, He says, listen in a way that is full of care. Listen carefully. When He speaks, we must listen. I know that sounds basic, but God speaks a lot of things to a lot of people, and we discount it. It's too scary. I don't want to. What will people think? I've never done this before. I don't know if that'll work for me. And what if we just set those things aside, and said when God speaks, the next time He speaks, I will listen, I will obey.

God has something to say, but we need to listen carefully and obediently, turning our hearts towards Him, attuning our ears to heaven, quieting our lives, prioritizing His word. I mean. I think it's a Holy Spirit prompt today, but many of you are suffering today simply because you're not living in God's word. Like you want the answers, you want the breakthrough, you want the healing, you want the wisdom, you want the promises of Scripture, but if you're not in the presence of God, listening to the voice of God, it's going to feel like it's evading you. But if you'll open the presence of God, if you'll take these 21 days and go into the presence of God, if midweek isn't just a service, but it's an encounter, it's the time to come into the presence of Jesus, to learn how to pray, to seek his voice, to find his wisdom, you will find answers, and you will find direction for your life. It's not about getting something from God, the reward is his presence, and we need to learn to be present in his presence. That's why we're surrendering distractions, surrendering indulgences, gaining a greater aware of God's presence throughout these 21 days. Don't get me wrong,

we are believing God for reconciliation of families, for healing of diseases, for miracles, for the salvation of many, for personal answers to be answered, but hear me, the prize is Jesus. The prize is not the miracle, it's the miracle giver. The prize is the presence of God, not what happens in the presence of God, just the presence of God, he is the goal. So I wanna bring you back to the start as I close today. Daniel came into the presence of God, not asking for anything, but humbling himself, positionally and in his identity, as one that the father loved. And we have that same opportunity today. As you came in today, you received elements for communion, will you just take them out and hold them in your hand for a few moments? At Evangel, we serve an open communion, you just have to have a relationship with Jesus in order to receive today. Just hold it in your hands for a moment. The first thing Daniel did was he humbled himself before God. He came into the presence of God and he surrendered. He repented, he turned from his sin and he turned towards the Lord and he worshiped God. He acknowledged who God was long before he ever asked God for anything.

And the Bible says, before we receive communion, we ought to examine our hearts. I'm not asking you to just think deeply about your life, I'm asking you to partner with the Holy Spirit and say, God, is there anything in me that you wanna change? Is there anything in me where I've been going the wrong way, where you want me to repent? God, search me and know me, seek out every wicked way in me, reveal it to me, and I'm gonna repent, I'm gonna turn from it. So you just take a moment, even now, close your eyes. Just let it be silent across this room. The Bible says in the book of James, come near to God and he will come near to you. It doesn't say ask God, it says come near to him. And then it says, wash your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you double-minded. So just come near to God right now. And if there's a sin or a distraction or pride or unforgiveness or divided loyalties, God has not moved himself away from you, but often our distracted, sinful hearts move themselves away from him. So just take a moment and examine your heart. Ask God to search your heart. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Is there anything you need to repent of? Is there any divisiveness in you? Is there any ill intent? Is there any place where the Holy Spirit is convicting? He's bringing it up, not to shame you, but to preserve you for the plan that He has for your life. As those things come up, just confess them to Him. Ask Him for His forgiveness, receive His forgiveness. Just begin to lay down every burden, every distraction, every hindrance. Tell Him, God, more than those things, I want You. I want Your presence. I wanna know You, Jesus. Come on, allow yourself, even as you repent, allow yourself to feel God's pleasure, His devotion, His love for you, His comfort, His peace.

Let the weight of shame and guilt and sin come off your shoulders. Jesus already bore the burden. As you do that, I want you to just open the top layer of your communion cup and I want you to break that wafer. Even as you feel it break, as you hear it break, let it be symbolic of Jesus' body being broken for you, breaking the power of sin, breaking the power of what has held you before. It is by His stripes that we are healed, amen? It is by His stripes that we are healed. It was His punishment that brings us peace. Father, we thank you for your broken body and your son, Jesus. By His wounds, I declare that I am whole. Come on, some of you might need to say that out loud. By His wounds, I declare that I'm whole today. I'm made new. Thank you, Jesus, for taking the punishment on your back and in your hands and your feet and on your head, dying in my place as a ransom for my life. I eat today remembering what you've done and participating because your death is like the death of my old self being raised to new life. You can go ahead and eat together if you haven't already. Come on now, I just want you to stand, hold that cup out in front of you as we receive together today. We thank you, Jesus, for the precious blood of the lamb that was slain. We thank you that this blood is now placed in the holiest place in heaven, declaring that God's people are holy because of the finished work of Christ. We thank you that it wasn't by our own merit or our own strength or our own good, but when you said it is finished, you declared that your work on the cross was sufficient for all our sin, for every place that we fall short, for the brokenness that we've displayed in our lives and in our parenting and in our marriages and in our jobs and with our mouths and in our hearts and in our lustful thoughts, in our desires for the things of the world and our pride, we declare that the blood of Jesus speaks a better word.

And now we ask that the spirit of the living God would govern over the desires of our flesh. We give ourselves as a church and as a people fully to you. We take the posture of Daniel. We repent of our unrighteousness. We repent as a people and as a person. And even as people drink today, Father, I ask in Jesus' name that they'd be filled with your Holy Spirit in a greater measure, that they would be changed from the inside out because we don't just remember today, we participate. We participate in the freedom that comes with the blood of Jesus. Come on, drink together in victory and in freedom that you have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Come on, set that container down and now lift your hands and begin to thank him, begin to praise him. You've been made new. You've been cleansed by the blood of the lamb. There is no other sacrifice that was sufficient, but he is all sufficient. Come on, would you open your mouth now and begin to tell him that you love him? Would you lean into his presence? Oh, how we love you, Jesus. We honor you in this place. May you get all glory and honor and praise. Come on, stir a holy passion and a holy hunger in your spirit right now. Let the zeal for God, for his house, for his blood, let it consume you. We love you, Jesus. Come on, give him your worship now. Place him in the highest place of devotion in your heart. We thank you, Jesus. We bless you, Lord. We honor you, Lord. We love you, Jesus. Come on, lift up holy hands.