Pttb 9 interior

THE PRAYER OF

JONAH

THE PRAYER OF

JONAH And Other Devotional Addresses to Encourage and Motivate You to Pray to the God of the Bible

THE PRAYING THROUGH THE BIBLE SERIES Volume 9

DANIEL WHYTE III

The Prayer of Jonah And Other Devotional Addresses to Encourage and Motivate You to Pray to the God of the Bible (The Praying Through the Bible Series: Volume 9)

by Daniel Whyte III Cover Design by Atinad Designs. Š Copyright 2015 TORCH LEGACY PUBLICATIONS First Printing, 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner, except for brief quotations included in a review of the book. ________________________________________________________________________ All Bible quotations in this volume are from the King James Version of the Bible.

The name TORCH LEGACY PUBLICATIONS and its logo are registered as a trademark in the U.S. patent office.

Printed in the U.S.A.

Acknowledgements For the Glory of God, and to my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who taught us how to pray; And to the memory of E.M. Bounds who God used to motivate me to pray.

To my favorite prayer partners: my wife, Meriqua, and my children: Danni, Daniel IV, Danita, Danae, Daniqua, Danyel Ezekiel, and Danyelle Elizabeth; And especially to my oldest son, Daniel Whyte IV, whom I have had the privilege of training in the ministry ever since he was a little boy when he said he wanted to be a preacher. He assisted me by doing most of the research for the messages included in this book.

And to all people around the world who want to be encouraged to pray more effectively and see God answer their prayers and bless their lives for His glory. —Daniel Whyte III

Contents Introduction 1. Standing in the Gap (Part 6) 2. Standing in the Gap (Part 7) 3. Standing in the Gap (Part 8) 4. The Prayer of Jonah (Part 1) 5. The Prayer of Jonah (Part 2) 6. The Prayer of Jonah (Part 3) 7. Habakkuk's Prayer of Praise, Prayer for Revival, and Prayer for Mercy (Part 1) 8. Habakkuk's Prayer of Praise, Prayer for Revival, and Prayer for Mercy (Part 2) 9. God Wants Realness Not Ritual in Prayer and Fasting (Part 1) 10. God Wants Realness Not Ritual in Prayer and Fasting (Part 2) 11. God Wants Realness Not Ritual in Prayer and Fasting (Part 3) 12. God Wants Realness Not Ritual in Prayer and Fasting (Part 4)

Introduction “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.”

—Luke 18:1 “All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired.”

—Martin Luther I am convinced that most people do not need to learn how to pray; they need to Just Pray! Prayer is like any other important discipline in the Christian life. If you don’t do it, you won’t reap the benefits and blessings that God wants you to have. If you want to reap the benefits and blessings of prayer, then you need to simply Just Pray! This is what The Praying Through the Bible Series of devotional messages is all about: exploring each of the over 500 verses and passages in Scripture concerning prayer, from Genesis to Revelation, so that you can be encouraged and motivated to pray to the God of the Bible.

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The Praying Through the Bible Series began after the Lord led me to put together a little devotional book titled, The Prayer Motivator, which was followed later by the Prayer Motivator Devotional Bible. The Lord leading me to do The Prayer Motivator Devotional Bible was a complete surprise because I had never dreamed of doing a themed Bible in my life. In this Bible, we highlighted each of the over 500 verses and passages on prayer in the Bible.

Following the publication of that project, the Lord led me to begin preaching a series of messages on each of those passages on prayer. To my knowledge, preaching solely on every passage concerning prayer in the Bible had not been done before. By the grace of God, this series of messages— each of which was preached on a Wednesday night to a live audience—has been a blessing to thousands as I have shared brief, devotional principles from God’s Word concerning the matter of prayer. (In most cases, the preached version of each of these messages is quite different from what is given in this series of books — and probably better. If you want to listen to any of the messages in this series, you can do so online at www.prayingthroughthebible.com.)

This is a series that every Christian can read and benefit from. This series will inspire, encourage, and motivate you to pray daily and throughout the day so that you can receive the benefits and blessings of a prayerful life. Prayer to God has been the center and highlight of my life ever since God used a series of books by E.M. Bounds to open my eyes to the importance and power of prayer. In spite of myself, God has been very good to me and to my family in many ways, but the

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thing that stands out the most to me are the thousands of answers to prayer over the past thirty years of full-time ministry and twenty-seven years of marriage with a family of nine. I want you to experience the same benefits and blessings of a prayerful life.

If you are a pastor, please feel free to use these short, devotional messages in your mid-week prayer services. You do not need to contact us to ask for permission; that is what these messages are for. We know of pastors who have taken these messages and adapted them for their congregation, so please feel free to add to and take away from them as God leads you for the needs of your people, and I am sure that you will do a better job than I have done.

These messages are not deep, theological expositions; other men of God who are scholars of the Word have already done that. These are simple, devotional messages that are designed to actually get people to just pray to the God of the Bible in faith believing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord led me to put them together with the assistance of my son who is an undergraduate student and still in training.

Most pastors can take the little effort that we have put forth here and make these messages far better.

Additionally, if you are a pastor, I want to encourage you to consider the following things: 1. If you have a weekly prayer meeting at your church, actually make it about prayer—pray and preach a short message on prayer to encourage the people to pray for

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you, for the church, for themselves, and for souls to be saved. This series can provide the basis for those short messages.

2. If you do not have a mid-week prayer meeting at your church, I encourage you to start one. In my humble opinion, it is a shame that most churches do not take the mid-week prayer meeting seriously anymore. Some churches have abandoned the prayer meeting altogether.

Christianity Today told the story of East Indian evangelist K. P. Yohannan who visited America and attended a well-known megachurch one Sunday morning. Over 3,000 people were at the church services that morning, where it was announced that the mid-week prayer meeting would be held in a chapel on the church campus. Yohannan was fired up by what he had experienced, and determined to attend the prayer meeting as well. However, when he arrived for the prayer meeting a few days later, he was shocked to find that the chapel—which had a capacity of 500—was entirely empty. He sat down and waited for a few minutes and eventually seven people arrived. They sat down and made small talk. About forty-five minutes later, one of the leaders of the church walked in, prayed, and gave a brief Bible study.

The article goes on to say: "In all his travels here, Yohannan saw the same pattern repeated over and over again in hundreds of midweek prayer meetings. Almost

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anything happens but prayer. There are announcements, singing, homilies, and a few prayers offered, but usually only by the leader—and that's in the churches that actually have prayer meetings in their schedules. Many more make no pretense even to have a church prayer meeting. There seems to be time for everything else— to study, to fellowship, to preach, but not to pray."

It appears that many pastors and churches have forgotten that the church was born at a prayer meeting in an “upper room.” Pastor, make sure that your church makes time to pray.

3. Consider establishing daily prayer meeting times at your church and throughout your congregation around the city. For example, put someone in charge of holding a prayer meeting at five or six in the morning, twelve o' clock noon, and seven in the evening. Encourage your people to come to the church to pray together as much as possible. I know of a church that has a beautiful prayer room where the door faces a side street. The church members have a key so they can go in to pray at any time. You might recall that Jesus Christ said, "My house shall be called a house of prayer."

4. Encourage your church members to pray without ceasing whether they feel like it or not. One way they can do this is by whispering a prayer for themselves, praying for someone else, and quoting a verse from Scripture at the top of every hour. If you pray a short prayer (based on the model prayer of our Lord in

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Scripture), this will only take about one minute every hour.

Down through the years, as I have preached in prayer meetings and revival meetings across the U.S. and around the world, I have had pastors to admit to me privately that they are not as strong in prayer as they would like to be and as they should be. The truth of the matter is, we all have our different gifts and callings, and just because a pastor does not emphasize prayer does not mean that he is not spiritual.

Pastors are the general practitioners of the church. They are multi-gifted individuals and have the ability to manage and oversee many different ministries and outreaches at the same time, whereas an evangelist is focused on two to three things: evangelism, prayer, and revival. His job is to encourage pastors and the saints to do the work of an evangelist and to evangelize, to pray, to confess and repent of sins so that they can be used by God to see souls saved and brought into the Kingdom. The pastor is not more spiritual than the evangelist; the evangelist is not more spiritual than the pastor.

We just have different callings, gifts, and purposes as it pertains to the church. The evangelist needs the pastor and the pastor needs the evangelist. Even though my calling is to be an evangelist, the truth of the matter is, without my pastor and my pastor friends counseling, advising, and fellowshipping with me on a regular basis, there is no way I would be where I am in my ministry. I thank God for my pastor friends. When there is a family crisis, nobody can outdo a great pastor as far as ministering to that situation. On the other hand, when it comes to taking more territory for God's kingdom through evangelism, and the spiritual warfare involved in doing that,

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no one can do it better than a godly evangelist. So, we need one another in the body of Christ, and we need to get back to recognizing that. We are not enemies, we are brothers serving the same Lord and King.

It is my prayer that this series will inspire all of God's people to pray daily and throughout each day so that you can receive the benefits and blessings of a prayerful life. This series was put together to inspire action on your part. It is designed to motivate you to pray based upon the Word of God by faith in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. If I can just encourage you to pray in faith believing, I believe all sorts of wonderful things will begin to happen to you, in you, and for you, your family, and whatever God has called you to do.

The simple purpose of this series is to encourage and motivate you to get off the ball regarding prayer, and take the little faith you may have and Just Pray to the God of the Bible in the name of Jesus Christ! The Praying Through the Bible Series is designed to help you get over spiritual inertia, your sinful flesh, the devil and his demons, doubt and unbelief, your busy life and the world, so that you can hit “pray dirt” and God will do the rest. Just open your mouth and start praying to the God of the Bible. JUST PRAY! and watch God do things beyond your wildest imaginations.

—Daniel Whyte III Dallas, Texas

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1 Standing in the Gap (Part 6) TEXT: Daniel 9:15-19 15 And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

16 O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.

17 Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.

18 O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.

19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.

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A devotional book tells the story of a man who was traveling across the United States. He stopped for gas in Montgomery, Alabama, got back in the car, and drove for five hours before realizing he had left someone behind — his wife. He couldn’t call her because she had left her cell phone in the car when she had gotten out to stretch her legs. So, the man called the police and asked them to help him get in touch with her. When he arrived back in Montgomery, the police asked him what happened that would cause him to leave his wife behind, and the man admitted with great embarrassment that he just hadn’t noticed her absence.

Now, most of us couldn’t imagine what would cause a man to not notice his wife’s absence for five hours. But, the truth of the matter is, we are not much different in our relationship with God. As the hymn says, we are “prone to wander” away from Him. That is why, in Scripture, God warns us not to forget Him or His Word. In Deuteronomy 8:11, speaking to the nation of Israel, He says, “Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day.”

As we consider this topic of standing in the gap and being intercessors for God’s people, we are going to look at the matter of remembrance in Daniel’s prayer for his people. Let’s look at how Daniel employed the power of remembrance in his prayer and three things the church needs to remember as it prays.

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In prayer, we must remember the blessings of the past.

In verse 15 of our passage, Daniel prays, “And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown...” Daniel goes back in history and calls to mind how God delivered the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. Throughout their history, God told the children of Israel that they needed to do certain things to remember God’s dealings with them.

For example, in Exodus 12, the children of Israel are told to keep the Passover to help them remember how God spared their families and their children when the death angel passed through Egypt. While they are in the wilderness, God commands the parents to consistently speak of God’s word and God’s works so that their children will not forget where they come from. When the children of Israel pass over the Jordan River into the Promised Land, they are commanded to set up two monuments of stones as reminders of how God guided them all the way to Canaan.

I have always told my children that when bad things happen, the first thing they need to do is remember all the times when good things happened. Did your car break down causing you to have to walk? Well, thank God for all the times when your car was running fine. If money is tight so you have to limit what you buy at the grocery store, thank God for the times when you could eat what you wanted. If you fall sick and you have to miss a few days of work or miss some event that you wanted to participate in, thank 21

God for the times when you were healthy and could go and do what you needed or wanted to do.

Often, when we are going through difficulties or when we are being chastised by God, we forget all of the blessings and benefits we received from God’s hands. We forget the “good times” that we had. However, whether in good times or in bad times, we need to do as the song says and count our blessings to see what God has done. And we need to keep on standing in the gap through prayer to God.

In prayer, we must remember the sins of the past.

In verse 16, Daniel prays, “because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.” Notice that the demise of Jerusalem is not just for the sins of Daniel’s generation, but for the sins of their fathers as well. Their disobedience and straying from God was not just a “right now” thing. They, unfortunately, had a history of it.

Daniel knew that the reason why God saved Israel from Egypt all those years ago was not because Israel was a holy or righteous people. It was simply because God had chosen them to be His representatives on Earth. As Psalm 106:7-8 says, “Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea.

Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.”

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The Israelites had not even gotten out of Egypt yet before they were ready to turn their backs on God and go back into slavery. Even though God had just blessed them by bringing them out of captivity, bestowing riches upon them, and sparing them from the death angel, they still complained and murmured against God when they reached the Red Sea. And yet, God still saved them — not for their own sakes, but for His own name’s sake.

Many of us in the church can recall the times when we have disobeyed God, when we have wandered away from God’s will for our lives, and yet God still sustained us and delivered us from the trouble that we were facing. How much more will God do for us if we choose to repent of our sins and become obedient to Him. In prayer, we must remember the blessings of the past; we must remember the sins of the past...

In prayer, we must remember the salvation of the past.

Daniel continues in prayer, “Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.” Daniel’s words call to mind a time when the sanctuary was not always desolate — when God’s face shined on the nation of Israel. Daniel remembered how God stepped in and delivered the children of Israel from numerous negative situations in the past. Not only from Egypt, but from heathen nations during the period of the judges, from the Philistines during the period of the kings, and from the Assyrians and 23

Babylonians during the period of the divided kingdom.

During those times, Israel had sinned, but when they repented, God stepped in and saved them from their oppressors time and time again.

Today, the church must remember that, over the course of 2,000 years of history, God has often saved us from negative situations as well. In various countries, when God’s people were growing cold in their love for Christ and becoming dead in their work for Christ, God sent men filled with the Holy Spirit to stir up revival.

When feeble believers across Europe in the Middle Ages were being oppressed by the false teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, God sent Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon and Ulrich Zwingli to stir up reformation.

When Christians in colonial America were becoming lukewarm in their faith and were losing the religious fervor that had caused their forefathers to seek a home in the New World, God sent Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield to wake the church up. When the English church was becoming dead and pharisaical, God sent John Wesley to preach and help bring about revival. As the world moved into the modern age and materialism threatened to cause people to lose focus on spirituality, God sent D.L. Moody, Charles Spurgeon, and Billy Sunday to challenge the church and the world and to re-emphasize the need for Christian missions in foreign countries. At a time when our nation was in the throes of dramatic social change, God sent Billy Graham, Martin Luther King Jr., Jerry Falwell, D. James Kennedy, and E.V.Hill to not only preach the Gospel, but to remind Christians that the Word of God is the final authority on every aspect of life.

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Time and time again, God has raised up His servants to bring revival to the church and to save the church from succumbing to complacency and false teaching. Today, we are faced with additional challenges. The prosperity gospel, adultery, fornication and homosexuality and other sins, preachers tickling listeners’ ears, and persecution of believers around the world are just a few of the threats facing the church right now. We are also faced with a secular society that is becoming increasingly dismissive of Biblical teachings on numerous issues.

Instead of worrying and trying to do things in our own strength, let’s look back and remember not only the blessings of the past and how God bestowed them on us, not only the sins of the past and how we got right with God, but also the salvation of the past — how God delivered us individually and the church as a whole from the attacks of the devil and the threats from a world that is hostile to our faith. God has saved and delivered His people from dire situations in the past. As we look around us today, we must remember that He can do it again. It is our job, like Daniel, to stand in the gap and to intercede for that deliverance.

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2 Standing in the Gap (Part 7) TEXT: Daniel 9:11-16 11 Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.

12 And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.

13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.

14 Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.

15 And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

16 O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I

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beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.

We come once again to this passage in Daniel at a time when nations around the world have been met with disaster after disaster. Former U.S. Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, put it succinctly when she said, “the world is a mess.” For Australia, the Netherlands, and Malaysia, a passenger plane was shot out of the sky and nearly 300 people died, most of them citizens of these 3 countries.

For Israel and Gaza, these two nations have been locked once again in a devastating conflict, and we are told that over 1,000 civilians and over 40 soldiers have been killed.

In China and the Philippines, these nations were hit by back-to-back typhoon this month, causing millions of dollars in devastation and taking over 150 lives. It seems as though every time we turn on the news or get on the internet, we are informed of yet another devastating occurrence which world leaders are scrambling to respond to.

For those of us who are committed to standing in the gap and to being intercessors for the people, places, and situations that God has placed on our hearts, we walk confidently to our prayer closets, for we may not be able to do anything about a war being fought halfway around the globe, but, as the song says, we can “still be in the battle in the secret place of prayer.”

Let’s look at Daniel’s intercession for his people in light

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of the disasters that are shaking our world. Because of the sins of the children of Israel, God judged them by sending the Assyrians and Babylonians to ravage their countries with war and then to carry them off into captivity in foreign lands — a true national disaster. In light of these events, I want us to look at the biblical perspective that we should take in times of national and world crisis and disaster...

We need to understand that God is in control no matter the crisis or disaster.

Often, when we think of things that are negative or when we think of things that bring about loss of life and extreme destruction to property and livelihood, our first reaction is to blame it on the devil. We naturally attribute bad things to the devil and good things to God. However, this view is not biblical.

In verse 12 of our passage Daniel states that God “hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.” Notice that God brought upon Jerusalem a “great evil.” Israel’s national disaster came not at the hand of the devil, but at the hands of God himself. You might recall that Job asked, “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” So, you see, both good events and what we would call “evil” events are under God’s control.

As hard as it may seem for us to accept, God was in control of that plane that was shot out of the sky a couple 29

weeks ago. God is in control of the conflict between Israel and Gaza right now. God was in control of the typhoons that struck China and the Philippines. In fact, God claimed power over such disasters when He asked Job rhetorically in Job 38:8: “Who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?...And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?” Psalm 89 says, “O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee?...Thou rulest the raging of the sea...”

Some of you might recall the devastating tsunami that struck Indonesia in 2004 with waves as high as 50 feet resulting in the deaths of over a quarter of a million people.

Was God in control of that disaster? Yes, He was. Dr. John Piper said in an article about that tsunami that “Nature does not have a will of its own. And God owes Satan no freedom. What havoc demons wreak, they wreak with God’s permission.”

God does not require us to understand everything that goes on in this world. It is His world, and He is working out His plan in it for the ultimate good. We would be remiss if we did not, in our prayer, acknowledge His control and sovereignty over every disaster that takes place.

We must realize that every disaster brings a mix of God’s judgment and mercy.

It is easy for us to try and pigeon-hole God’s purpose when he allows a disaster to occur. It is easy for us to say that God is judging a certain nation or a certain group of people.

However, God’s purposes are not always as simple as 30

we try to make them. In the midst of God’s judgment upon the children of Israel, Daniel prays, “To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him...” Daniel recognizes God’s hand of mercy even while his nation is suffering under God’s hand of punishment.

You will remember that Job was a godly man, and the calamities that fell upon him were not a punishment from God on him specifically. However, we do not know the spiritual condition of Job’s children. Job was certainly concerned about their behavior. The Bible tells us that he would gather his children and ‘sanctify them’ and “offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” It is possible that God took the lives of Job’s children in judgment. If that is true, then the same calamity that was mercy for Job was judgment for Job’s children. Every disaster mingles judgment and mercy, punishment and purification.

We are immensely saddened when we consider that 298 people died simply because they were in a plane that was flying in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, death eventually will happen to every one of us. We naturally think of death as a bad thing. However, death is only bad if one is an unbeliever. For a follower of Jesus Christ, death is a very good thing. Death can come in the form of judgment — as a doorway from this life to eternal damnation in Hell.

Or it can come in the form of mercy — as a doorway from this life to eternal life in Heaven with God. Paul said, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”

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God always mixes his judgment with mercy. When he punished the children of Israel, He promised that He would restore them in 70 years. And, as we have seen, this promise is what prompted Daniel to be earnest as he stood in the gap and interceded for his nation. He understood that God was in control of Israel’s captivity, and he understood that God intended to show mercy to them in the midst of his judgment.

We must realize that disasters are warnings that call us to prayer and repentance.

In verse 13, Daniel prays, “As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.” Every tragedy is a merciful call from God for those who were spared to repent. The Bible encourages us to “weep with those who weep” — and it is the Christian thing to do to show compassion and mercy to those who are suffering. But not only should we weep for those who suffer and die, but we should also weep because of our own rebellion against God and take that opportunity to turn from our iniquities lest we suffer punishment ourselves.

In Luke 13, the Bible tells us that there were some people who told Jesus about a group of Galileans who were slaughtered by Pilate. Jesus answered them by saying: “Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

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In the next verse, Jesus Christ talks about eighteen people in Siloam who died when a tower collapsed. Again, He says to those standing around, “Think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

Jesus’ point is that we should not be too quick to judge those who suffer as any greater sinners than we are.

Rather, we should soberly consider the disasters that befall others — whether they are intended as judgments or not — as warnings for us to repent of our sins unless the same or similar judgment come down on us.

Daniel knew that God’s judgment had come down on his people because of their sins. However, in his prayer, he lamented the fact that the Israelites did not turn to prayer and repentance soon enough. He said, “yet we made not our prayer to the Lord our God.” Elsewhere in Scripture we see the same unfortunate response to God’s judgment.

In Amos 4:10, God says, “I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword...yet have ye not returned unto me.”

And in Revelation 16, when God is pouring out judgment after judgment on Earth, the Bible says, “men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.”

God’s ultimate purpose in sending judgment is not to destroy us but to restore us. He wants us to turn to Him in prayer and repentance so that He can raise us up again.

Hannah Whitall Smith, the author of the classic book, “The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life,” said, “Look upon your

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chastening as God’s chariots sent to carry your soul into the high places of spiritual achievement.”

Daniel makes his prayer for the children of Israel because he knows that it is God’s desire to restore them as His people if they repent and turn back to Him. In verses 16 and 17, he prays, “O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain...hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary...”

Even though his people are not praying for themselves, Daniel intercedes for them and prays on their behalf. We all ought to strive to be like Daniel — people who see a need and step up to the plate, stand in the gap, and pray.

As we consider the disasters that have come upon the world in recent weeks, let us intercede for those who are directly affected by them. Let us understand that God is in control, and pray that those who are suffering would realize God’s mercy in the midst of their grief. And, for our own sakes, let us see these disasters as an impetus for us pray and to repent of our own sins and get our hearts right with God.

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3 Standing in the Gap (Part 8) TEXT: Daniel 9:11-17 17 Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.

Jennifer Kennedy Dean, the founder of the Praying Life Foundation, wrote the following in her book titled Live a Praying Life: “To pray with power, the pray-er must agree with God. A pray-er must be in agreement with the intercession of Jesus, who is always in agreement with the will of God. When more than one intercessor, each of whom is in agreement with God, come together to pray God’s will, then anything they ask Him to do, He will do.”

Let’s look at the element of agreement in Daniel’s prayer.

We will be focusing on verses 11 - 17. Throughout his prayer, Daniel agreed with God on three important issues.

Let us look at those issues right now.

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Daniel agreed with God’s view of Israel’s behaviour.

In verse 11, Daniel prays, “Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.”

Notice Daniel’s words: He says Israel has “transgressed,” “departed,” has “not obeyed”, and has “sinned” against God. The Biblical definition of the word “confess” is to “agree with.” When you confess something, you are not making a new statement, rather you are agreeing that a statement that has already been made is actually true.

According to the HELPS Word Studies, the word the Bible uses for “confession” refers to the “collective agreement of Christians about what God loves and hates — and the courage to proclaim it!”

In our own prayers, what God calls sin, we must call sin as well. What God calls wrong, we must call wrong. Like the prophets of the Old Testament, we should be on God’s side in any argument. We cannot stand by and condone, defend, or justify our sin or other people’s sin against God. We do not do anybody any favors by not calling it as God sees it. If we are to be effective intercessors for our families, our churches, our communities, and our nation, we must be in agreement with God about the actions of our people.

When we pray, we must be willing to say, “God, You are right. God, I agree with you.” When you begin to agree 36

with God, you will find yourself on effective praying ground.

Daniel agreed with God’s judgment of Israel’s sin.

In verse 12, Daniel prays, “And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.”

A long time before judgment came down on the children of Israel, God had warned them that it would come. All the way back when God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, God told Moses to warn them about what would happen to them if they disobeyed and turned their backs on God. And then, while they were in the midst of their sin, God sent prophets to rebuke them and warn them about the wrath to come. So, when it came, Daniel simply said, “Lord, we deserve this.”

Ray Stedman said, “our prayers are often hindered because we like to blame God for our problems.”

Unfortunately, that is true in many cases. When we experience chastisement from God, we make the mistake of protesting and trying to tell God how unfair we feel He is toward us. Some of us will even claim that we are going through a trial when we are actually being chastised.

I have learned from experience and the Word of God that the best thing you can do is agree with God about your chastisement. Raise your hands in surrender and say, “Lord, You’re right. You’re doing this for my good.” That is 37

what Daniel does in his prayer. That is what we must do if we are going to be effective intercessors for our nation.

Daniel agreed with God’s promises regarding Israel’s restoration.

In verses 16-17, Daniel prays, “O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.”

At first glance, it may seem like this is a direct request on Daniel’s part. But remember that we saw in the very first message of this series that Daniel based his prayer on the promise that God gave to Jeremiah that Israel would be exiled for 70 years and then would be returned to the Promised Land. Here, Daniel is saying, “Lord, seventy years is nearly up. It is time for You to bring Your people home again.” Once again, he agrees with God. When we as Christians sin, God promises that “if we confess our sins [agree with God about our sins], He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Sometimes, that ‘cleansing from unrighteousness’ must be brought about through God’s chastisement of us. We may not like the cleansing process, but we must remember that the point of being cleansed is for us to be restored in our fellowship with 38

God so that we can enjoy Him and His blessings once again. If we agree with God about the result of the chastisement, we will be more eager to view the chastisement in a positive light.

Every aspect of Daniel’s prayer found him in agreement with God’s word and God’s will. The effectiveness of our own prayers is limited by whether or not we are praying according to the will of God. Chip Brogden said, “God waits for a Remnant to rise up and to pray in agreement with His Purpose before He does anything. He will do nothing apart from the Church. Apart from HIM, we CAN do nothing; apart from US, He WILL do nothing.”

The question today is: Are we praying in agreement with God? Are we interceding in agreement with God’s purpose? Are we standing in the gap in agreement with God’s will?

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4 The Prayer of Jonah (Part 1) TEXT: Jonah 2 1 Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly, 2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.

3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.

4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.

5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.

6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. 7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.

8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of 41

thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.

10 And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

We are all familiar with Jonah’s story. He was the disobedient prophet whom God told to go and preach at Ninevah, but he didn’t want to go, and he thought he could run away from God. Jonah got on a ship headed in the opposite direction. The ship was going to Tarshish which was all the way at the other end of the Mediterranean Sea in modern-day Spain. Well, Jonah found that just as God knew how to get to him on land, God knew how to get to him at sea. God stirred up a storm so bad that it frightened the seasoned sailors whom he was sailing with. Jonah knew that God was trying to get his attention specifically, and he told the sailors, “If you throw me into the sea, the storm will stop.” So, Jonah gets thrown overboard. The Bible tells us that God prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, and the last verse of Jonah 1 reads, “And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

In the next chapter, Jonah is talking to God. He is praying.

Before, He didn’t want to have anything to do with God; he was trying to get away from God. But, now that he finds himself in the belly of a great fish, all alone beneath the surface of the water — as good as dead to the rest of the world — he finds himself wanting to talk to God. Some scholars have suggested that by the tense used in this chapter, these are actually Jonah’s words after the three days and three nights in the fish’s belly. We read that “Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights,” and right after that we see the word “then”,

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indicating a progression of time. In other words, Jonah spent three days and three nights mad at God, sulking in the belly of the fish. As you can imagine, that did him no good, and so finally — “then” — he decides to call on God. Let’s take a look at Jonah’s prayer.

Notice the painful predicament.

Jonah is quite literally in a mess. As he lifts his voice to God out of the belly of the fish, he describes the mess that he is in in very vivid and striking terms. Notice the hyperbole; it is almost comical — Jonah says, “out of the belly of hell cried I.” Now, Jonah is not literally in hell. But, he probably felt that way being in the belly of a fish, with that animal’s powerful, acidic gastric juices working on his skin. Jonah felt like he was in the worst place he could possibly be in, and he does not hesitate to tell God so.

Next, he tells God, “all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.” Jonah feels like God has thrown him under the bus and then thrown the kitchen sink at him. He feels like God hit him with everything He had. Of course, we would say to poor Jonah, “Jonah, if you had only listened, it wouldn’t have come to this.” But, Jonah can’t imagine that anything worse can happen to him.

Then, Jonah says, “I am cast out of thy sight.” Jonah is so alone and so distressed that he feels like not only is God punishing him, but God cannot even see him, despite the 43

fact that he is praying to God right now. He feels like God has abandoned him.

Jonah is in hell, he is helpless, and he is hidden from God — what a painful predicament to be in. Have you ever been in such a place? Have you ever rebelled against something you knew God was telling you to do, and God had to do some dramatic things to get your attention and to let you know that He was serious? Have you ever been in that place where you were mad at God and, instead of repenting, you sulked, and whined, and pouted? Are you at that place right now?

Understand, my friend, you cannot remain in that place forever. You will never get out of your painful predicament by refusing to submit to God’s will for your life. It got Jonah nowhere, and it won’t get you anywhere either. Eventually, you will have to humble yourself down and do like Jonah did and pray.

Notice the passionate prayer.

Jonah spends some time just telling God how he truly feels about the situation he is in. He does what we call ‘venting.’

And, that is fine. God already knows how you feel anyway, so there is no use trying to dress up those feelings when you pray. But, once Jonah gets past his feeling about his situation, he gets down to the business of prayer. He says, “I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord.”

Jonah’s affliction drove him to pray to the Lord. When Jonah started out in chapter 1, God was speaking to Jonah, and Jonah had told God, “I don’t want to hear that 44

right now,” and walked in the opposite direction. Jonah was trying to get away from God. But, now that Jonah’s whole life has been turned upside down, we find him running back to God. Not just wanting to talk to God, but crying out to God, pleading with God, begging God. In verse 7, Jonah testifies, “When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord.” Jonah was about to give up.

He was about to lay down in the fish’s belly and wait for death. But, then he remembered somebody — not a person — but the Lord. He couldn’t call on anybody else, so he called on the Lord.

Have you ever been where Jonah was? When you were at your wit’s end? When you simply didn’t know what to do? Then, in the midst of your predicament, the right name, the right face, the right phone number popped into your head, and you knew that was the solution to your problem.

Oswald Chambers said, “We do not pray at all until we are at our wits’ end.” Sometimes God has to get us alone and without any other options before we realize that because nothing is impossible with God, He is always an option in any circumstance. Jonah got down to the business of prayer when he realized that God had put him in the fish’s belly, and only God could get him out.

Notice the perfect peace.

In the dark and stinking belly of a great fish, Jonah found peace with God. Jonah says that when he cried to the Lord, “he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.” What a comfort it is to know that God 45

can hear you anywhere. Others may abandon you or may simply be unable to help you, but God’s ear is always open to the cries of His children, no matter how backslidden or rebellious they are. God is always ready to hear the prayer of his repentant child.

Jonah gained perfect peace in the fish’s belly for two reasons. First, he had confidence in God’s ability to deliver him. Jonah said, “I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving...” In other words, Jonah would offer praise to God no matter the outcome of his situation, whether he lived or died. Jonah, who had tried to run from God, realized that God was still in control of his life.

Second, Jonah decided that if He was given another chance, he would obey God. He said, “...I will pay that that I have vowed..” Or, in other words, ‘I will fulfill my obligations to You.’ That is the true spirit of repentance: turning from our sin and making up our minds to be obedient to God. Through prayer, Jonah was able to find perfect peace in the midst of his painful predicament. The question for us, today, is: are we running away from God? Is there something that we know God wants us to do or to stop doing that we refuse to do? We can see from Jonah’s example that God has a way of getting our attention, and the best thing we can do is humble ourselves in prayer to God, realize that He is in control of our lives, and commit to obeying Him.

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5 The Prayer of Jonah (Part 2) TEXT: Jonah 4:1-5 1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.

2 And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

3 Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.

4 Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry?

5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.

Last time we saw Jonah, he was quite literally at rock bottom. God had told him to go and preach in Ninevah, but instead, he had tried to run from God by escaping on a ship to Tarshish. But God sent a storm after the ship and Jonah got thrown out into the sea where a great fish was waiting for him. In the belly of that great fish, Jonah thought God had forsaken him, but after a while, he made 47

up his mind to pray to God and to repent of his rebellion against God, and God spoke to the fish and the fish vomited Jonah out on dry land.

True to his word, Jonah traveled to the city of Ninevah and delivered the message that God had given him to deliver.

That message was simply, “three days and Ninevah shall be destroyed.” However, a strange thing happened in Ninevah. Instead of rebelling against God and ignoring his prophet, the people of Ninevah humbled themselves and repented. They mourned in sackcloth and ashes. And, God decided to show mercy to them and spare them.

And, then, we see a very strange thing happened to Jonah — Jonah was not pleased at all.

Jonah obeyed God, but His heart was not right about the mission.

When Jonah saw that the people of Ninevah had repented, the Bible tells us “it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.” The Hebrew text tells us that Jonah “got hot.” Imagine a minister today who preaches for people to get rid of the sin in their lives, but when people start coming down to the altar to confess and repent of their sins, he sulks and gets mad. That is what Jonah did.

Even though he delivered God’s words to the people of Ninevah, he did not share God’s heart about the matter.

God’s ultimate desire for all people who have sinned is for them to repent and turn back to Him. Even though Jonah delivered a message of judgment, God really wished to show mercy to the people of Ninevah if they repented.

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Jonah, however, did not share that desire. He wouldn’t have minded seeing the Ninevites destroyed. Although he was God’s man delivering God’s message, Jonah did not have a heart that shared God’s will.

How often have we desired something or prayed about something, yet our hearts were not aligned with God’s will about it? We simply wanted what we wanted regardless of what God’s will was, and when we see that we may not get it, instead of accepting God’s will, we sulk and get mad. Our reaction at such times is a clear sign that something is wrong in our hearts and in our relationship with God. Jonah’s displeasure with God’s leniency toward the Ninevites is a reminder that God does not always play by our rules. Jonah prayed for his own deliverance from his judgment in the fish’s belly, but he was not willing to see another nation delivered from their judgment. He was simply selfish in his prayer. He wanted what was good for him and did not give a second thought as to what God wanted or what was good for others. When we pray, we must examine ourselves to see if our hearts are truly open to what God wants or if we are praying selfish prayers.

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6 The Prayer of Jonah (Part 3) TEXT: Jonah 4:1-5 Jonah obeyed God, but his heart was not right and he thought he knew better than God. When Jonah realizes that God is not going to destroy the city of Ninevah, this is what he says to God: “I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country?

Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.”

Jonah points his finger at God and says, “See! I told you so! I knew this was going to happen if I went and preached at Ninevah!” Jonah was all geared up to see Ninevah destroyed. Bible scholars have suggested that Jonah wanted to see them destroyed because like many of his own people, Jonah had a hatred for the heathen nations.

Additionally, John Walvoord and Roy Zuck point out that Jonah was likely familiar with the prophecies of Amos and Hosea who had declared that God would use the Assyrian nation (of which Ninevah was the capital city) to punish Israel. Perhaps, Jonah thought in his mind that he could

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pre-empt God and cause that not to take place.

When we look at Jonah’s unwillingness to share the message that brought salvation to an entire city, we cannot help but think of the church today. We sit in our comfortable pews or our familiar Christian ghettos and look at the outside world with our arms crossed and our noses turned up. We don’t want to share the gospel with people who are different than us, who come from the other side of the tracks, or who don’t have the same political or social views as us. For whatever reason — racism, classism, etc. — we don’t see them as worthy of the Gospel or Heaven.

Jonathan Swift wrote a rhyme that expresses Jonah’s frame of mind: We are God’s chosen few, All others will be damned; There is no place in heaven for you, We can’t have heaven crammed.

Jonah didn’t see the heathen Ninevites as worthy of salvation. He thought he knew better than God what should happen to them. And, because he knew that God was merciful and gracious toward sinful people — in fact, he had just experienced that mercy and grace — he did not want to deliver the message that God had given him.

Jonah obeyed God, but he still had to learn a hard lesson from God. The Bible tells us that after Jonah delivered the message in Ninevah, he went out of the city and sat on a hillside to 52

wait for three days to see God destroy the city. And while Jonah is sitting there, stewing and fuming, God comes around and asks Jonah a question. God says, “Doest thou well to be angry?” In other words, “Jonah, is it right for you to be angry?”

When God really wants to get our attention, He starts to ask us questions: He asked Adam, “Where art thou? Who told you that you were naked?” He asked Cain, “Where is your brother Abel? What is this that you have done?” Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” He asked Judas, “Betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?” He asked Peter, “Do you love me?” He knocked Saul off his horse and asked him, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” As Doug Batchelor said, God does not ask us questions because He needs answers, He asks us questions because He wants us to think. God wants Jonah to see the absurdity of His own actions. Jonah rebelled against God, God punished Him, and when Jonah prayed for deliverance, God delivered Him. Yet, here is an entire city which God had threatened to punish, and when they cry out for deliverance, Jonah does not want God to deliver them.

While Jonah is sitting on that hillside, God allows a little plant to sprout up in order to provide Jonah some shade from the sun’s heat, and Jonah is greatly relieved. However, by the next day, God sends a worm to eat away at the plant causing it to wither away, and Jonah grows angry again. God comes to Jonah with another question: “Is it right for you to be angry about this plant?” And Jonah says

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to God, “I do well to be angry, even unto death.”

Those are the last words Jonah speaks in the book that bears his name. But those are not the last words we hear from God. God says, “Should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand (120,000) persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?” Jonah has no answer for that question. Sometimes, when you realize your own error, all you can do is remain silent.

What was Jonah’s error? What was the lesson that God had to teach him? We can see this lesson in Jonah’s earlier prayer in chapter 2, where He said before being freed from the great fish, “Salvation is of the Lord.” Jonah wanted God to offer salvation on his terms. He wanted to be saved from the fish, but did not want the people of Ninevah to be saved from God’s judgment.

Jonah had to learn the lesson that God is in control. He does not run the world according to our desires. We cannot get angry because God does something in His world that does not happen to line up with what we want. Our prayers ought to be a time for us to draw closer to the will of God and the heart of God. If we are praying selfishly, we are not in God’s will. If we find ourselves angry over something that God has done, our hearts are not close to God’s. As we pray, let us learn to pray in the will of God and to get our hearts in such a place that we share God’s desires.

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7 Habakkuk’s Prayer of Praise, Prayer for Revival, and Prayer for Mercy (Part 1) TEXT: Habakkuk 3:1-2 1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.

2 O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.

Not much is known about the man Habakkuk. His name, which means “embracer” or “one who clings or grapples”, is fitting because he grapples with the difficult question of God’s decision to use the heathen nation of Babylon to punish the people of Judah. Habakkuk is one of the few who introduces himself with the formal title of “prophet”, leading some scholars to believe that he was a ‘professional prophet’, one who was a member of the “school of prophets”, and thus trained for the task.

Habakkuk likely lived during the reign of the good King Josiah and was led to prophesy during the reigns of the evil kings who came after Josiah. Habakkuk had

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experienced a time when his nation was being blessed

by God because of the obedience of its leaders, and he also experienced his people slipping into spiritual lethargy and sin. As the late theologian, James Montgomery Boice, host of the Bible Study Hour radio program, said, “Habakkuk had a problem. He had lived through a period of national revival followed by a period of spiritual decline.”

It is out of this problem that Habakkuk’s preaching comes.

In the first chapter of his book, Habakkuk has a dialogue with God: He cries out in despair at the spiritual condition of his people. He asks God why isn’t something being done. And, God tells Habakkuk that something will be done — the Babylonians will come to punish Judah for their iniquity and idolatry. But, Habakkuk doesn’t like that answer; he doesn’t understand why God will allow a heathen nation to punish God’s chosen people. But Habakkuk says, “I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what [God] will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.”

In chapter 2, God provides a justification of His choice of judgment on the nation of Judah. He tells Habakkuk that the judgment will come on a future generation so he has to “write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.” God explains to Habakkuk that He will be ultimately triumphant over all the wicked — the Jews and the Babylonians. God reminds His prophet of His own wisdom and strength and how that He knows how to deal with the rebellious people of all nations.

And, now we come to chapter 3 in which Habakkuk responds to God’s explanation of His judgment on Judah.

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No longer does Habakkuk protest God’s ways, rather he offers a prayer of praise.

Habakkuk’s prayer of praise.

The heading of chapter 3 reminds us of some of the psalms written by David. It says, “a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, on Shigionoth.” The word, “shig-i-o-noth”, appears only one other time in Scripture, in Psalm 7.

This word refers to a distinctive type of song sung in a spirit of victory and excitement. According to the Holman Bible Dictionary, it is often taken to mean “frenzied or emotional.” It is a song of enthusiasm and praise.

Despite the sobering defense of His judgments that God has just given to Habakkuk, this prophet’s response is to express praise and thanksgiving to God. Is Habakkuk happy that his people will be judged severely? Is he glad that his people will suffer. Of course not.

What Habakkuk is glad about is the fact that God is in complete control. He controls Babylon and Judah, and Habakkuk knows that even though God’s judgments may not always be understandable to his finite mind, God knows and will do what is best for His people and for the world.

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8 Habakkuk’s Prayer of Praise, Prayer for Revival, and Prayer for Mercy (Part 2) TEXT: Habakkuk 3:1-2 1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.

2 O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.

Habakkuk’s prayer for revival.

The overwhelming majority of chapter 3 is a psalm of praise to God. However, Habakkuk does make two requests both found in verse 2. The first one is: “O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known.” Habakkuk asks God to send revival to his people.

He knows how God worked among His people before and he wants to see the nation of Judah return to that state of obedience and blessing once again.

Habakkuk understands that revival is not a work of man, but a work of God. It is not something that we do — although

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it should be our earnest desire — but it is something that God does. That is why Habakkuk prays, “revive thy work.”

Recently, a preacher got into hot water for suggesting that it is a waste of time for churches to pray for revival. He implied that churches that are vibrant and fruitful are that way because of effective leadership or because the people in the church are working hard in their various positions of ministry. However, true revival comes about when God pours out His Spirit in response to the prayers of His people to see restoration and renewal in their relationship with Him. Richard F. Lovelace, in his classic book, Dynamics of Spiritual Life, explains how Jonathan Edwards — one of the men God used to spark revival in America years ago — understood revival. He writes: “[Revival] is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which restores the people of God to normal spiritual life after a period of corporate declension. Periods of spiritual decline occur in history because the gravity of indwelling sin keeps pulling believers first into formal religion and then into open apostasy. Periods of awakening alternate with these as God graciously breathes new life into his people. Every major advance of the kingdom of God on earth is signaled and brought about by a general outpouring of the Holy Spirit.”

We ought to have the desire for a genuine outpouring of the Holy Spirit, just as Habakkuk and all of the Old Testament prophets did. However, we cannot make it happen by our work or by our leadership skills. Only God can pour out His Spirit on His people. But, what we can

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do is do as Habakkuk did and pray for God to send such a revival among us.

Habakkuk’s prayer for mercy.

First, we saw Habakkuk’s prayer of praise to God, then we saw how he prayed to God for revival. Now, we see his third and final prayer request: he says, “in wrath remember mercy.” Why does Habakkuk ask for God’s mercy right after asking for revival? Because he knows that his people do not deserve to experience revival. The majority of the nation does not desire revival and does not want to get right with God. So, in light of the reality of God’s judgment, Habakkuk pleads for God to have mercy on his people.

Habakkuk realizes that his people deserve the judgment that God will bring upon them. However, in the midst of God’s wrath, Habakkuk’s desire for a spiritual, internal work to be done in the nation and in the hearts of the people. He wants their eyes to be opened. He wants them to see where they have gone wrong so that they will turn back to God. In other words, he wants to see them revived and renewed, if not by a dramatic outpouring of the Holy Spirit, then through the chastisement, rebuke, and judgment of God. As Christians today, we sometimes get fixated on praying for the outpouring of revival that we don’t notice that God might be saying, ‘Your desire for revival is good, but right now I am choosing to work another way.’ Remember, at the beginning of his book, when God told Habakkuk that the Babylonian nation would be used as an instrument of 61

judgment on the nation of Judah, Habakkuk was not too pleased with that arrangement. Certainly, he would have preferred that God would simply pour out His Spirit on his people and bring about salvation and restoration that way.

But, the nation was so far gone in its idolatry and iniquity that God had decided that harsh judgment was necessary.

So, Habakkuk had to adjust his desires to align with God’s will, and we must do the same in our prayers. Many Christians today are praying for revival in their countries, in their churches, and in their communities, but it may be that God has chosen to bring about judgment as the means of getting people to wake up and see how far they have strayed from Him. In the midst of that judgment, we ought to be pleading for mercy — that God’s work would continue in the hearts and lives of all people that they will eventually turn to Him.

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9 God Wants Realness Not Ritual in Prayer and Fasting (Part 1) TEXT: Zechariah 7:1-7 1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chisleu; 2 When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men, to pray before the Lord, 3 And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?

4 Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying, 5 Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?

6 And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?

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7 Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain?

A Christian man once told the story of how he went to a men’s conference to learn how to be a better husband.

One of the speakers at the conference was a very wellrespected relationship expert, and he gave the men some guidelines on how they should treat their wives on a regular basis in order to have a harmonious marriage. For example, he said: on Tuesdays, take your wife out for dinner; on Thursdays, buy your wife some flowers; on Saturday, stay home with the children and make sure your wife has some time and money to go shopping by herself or with her girlfriends. So on the first Thursday, after the conference, this man was determined to do as he had learned. He went out and bought some flowers after work, and when he got home, he presented them to his wife.

However, he was disappointed at her reaction. Instead of being pleased and surprised at his gesture, she said to him, “Are you doing this just because it is something somebody told you to do while you were at that conference?�

The man, of course, was seriously put off. But, what his wife was getting at was that she did not want anything from him that was perfunctory or fake. She wanted whatever he gave her to come truly from his own heart and mind.

The minor prophet Zechariah records an instance in which God deals with the very same thing with His chosen people,

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Israel. Zechariah was born in Babylon during the Exile of the Jews, and he was one of those Jews who returned to the Promised Land after the Exile was over. He participated in the rebuilding of his homeland, and scholars believe he was a young man at the beginning of his prophetic ministry.

As the Jews resettled in the Promised Land, they had numerous questions about how to relate to God, now that the exile was over. One of those questions involved two ritual fasts that the Jews had begun to observe when they were in Babylon.

Let’s look at the people’s question regarding ritualistic practices.

In the Promised Land, or Palestine, as it was then known, the Bible tells us that some Jews were sent to Jerusalem “to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?”

These Jews came to the priests, the Levites, and the prophets in Jerusalem with a question about whether or not they should continue observing a fast that they had observed during the exile. The fast they are talking about was one that remembered the destruction of the Temple in 587 BC. Throughout the 70-year exile, the Jews in Babylon observed this fast as a day of mourning over the terrible events that had fallen upon their nation. Zechariah also tells us that they observed another fast in the seventh month of each year which remembered the murder of the 65

governor, Gedaliah — the last act of rebellion against Babylon.

Now that the Jews had returned home, they wanted to know if they were to continue observing these fasts as they had done “these so many years.” Now, these fasts were not ordained by God. God had ordained only one fast for the children of Israel, and that was the fast for confession and forgiveness of sins observed on the Day of Atonement. Perhaps, if the Children of Israel had been faithful in observing this God-ordained fast, none of the other fasts commemorating tragic events in their nation’s history would have been necessary.

Unfortunately, not only the Jews, but many people today, have a tendency to pile on to God’s laws various rules, regulations, and rituals. Jesus Christ rebuked this kind of spirit in the Pharisees of his day. He admonished that they make sure their hearts are aligned with the spirit of God and the spirit of the Law, instead of just being concerned with the outward appearance.

Many in the church today are concerned with how they appear to others. They pray to be seen. They serve to be seen. They sing to be seen. They go along with rituals and practices simply to be seen. As Jesus Christ said, we prefer the praise of men rather than the praise of God.’ So, these Jews who had returned to their ancestral homeland from the Exile had a very important question.

They wanted to know whether or not they should continue with a man-made ritual that they had observed for over 70 years.

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Let’s look at God’s rejection of ritualistic practices.

Zechariah writes, “Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying, Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?”

God answers the people’s question with two questions of His own. He asks them, ‘When you fasted throughout the 70 years, were you really fasting as unto Me or were you just doing it for yourself?

Zechariah rebukes the people for what their fasting had become — nothing more than indulgent, ritualistic acts instead of a time to genuinely confess their sins and turn back to God. They were not truly fasting as an act of mourning and repentance to God, or as an act of sincere sorrow over their sins. For them, it was simply going through the religious motions.

How often do you just go through the motions when you pray? We all have been there — those times when we bow our heads and close our eyes but we are not really communicating with God. Our minds wander, and we feel as if we are just fulfilling a religious duty. We are just doing something because it makes us feel good about ourselves. How often do we go to church with that kind of attitude?

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That kind of prayer — or fasting, or church attendance, or any type of service to God — is not acceptable in His sight. God wants us to understand that what we do should be done with a pure heart for Him. He does not want us just to keep going through the motions or to keep on doing something because it is the way we have been doing it for years, like the Israelites were doing.

God deserves our very best. Jesus Christ said, “God is spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” God deserves prayer, worship, fasting, and service that is done with a pure heart of gratitude and sincerity toward Him.

Let’s look at God’s requirement of pure religion.

God’s message through Zechariah continues in verse 7.

He says, “Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain?”

God is telling the Jews who have come up with a question over a man-made religious ritual that they ought to look back on the times when their nation was prosperous. God wants them to look back on the times when the people took heed to the words of the prophets and God blessed them because of their obedience.

Zechariah goes on to specify what God wants to see in the lives of his people in verses 8-10 of chapter 7. He says: “Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every 68

man to his brother: And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.”

You see, the people of God were fixated on their past failure, not on what God wanted them to do in the present.

They had organized religious practice around what they had done wrong. Man’s answer to sinful failure is more religion, more rules, more rituals. But God says, ‘No, break out of those shackles.’ God wants us to live our lives in a spirit of freedom and to focus on active obedience and a relationship with Him. As F.B. Meyer said, “There is no need to observe the sad anniversaries of our sins and their accompanying punishment, if once we are assured of God’s free forgiveness. When He forgives and restores, the need for dwelling on the bitter past is over... Too many of us are always dwelling beside the graves of the dead past.”

How about you, dear Christian? Are you still bemoaning sins that you have already confessed and repented of?

Are you still lamenting those times when your prayers and fasting were just ritualistic practice? Are you still wallowing in the misery of hypocrisy and insincerity?

Please know that God wants you to be free. God wants you to have a genuine, biblical, authentic relationship with Him. He wants you to have a heart that is truly in tune with His, so that when you pray, when you fast, when you worship, when you serve, you are doing it as unto Him. Because when you are doing it because you love God and want to please God, and not out of a sense of duty, that is when you will truly be blessed.

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10 God Wants Realness Not Ritual in Prayer and Fasting (Part 2) TEXT: Zechariah 7:8-14 8 And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying, 9 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother: 10 And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.

11 But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.

12 Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts.

13 Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts: 14 But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all 71

the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate.

God, through His prophet Zechariah, tells the Israelites returning from captivity that He has no interest in their manmade rituals, especially if they are not carried out with a spirit of realness, sincerity, and purity before Him. God states that He is more interested in their obedience to Him and not their rituals.

That message is continued in verse 8 of this Zechariah 7.

God goes back to the sins of the Israelites’ forefathers before the Exile and commands this new generation of Jews to simply do what their forefathers did not do. The disobedience of the Israelites is part of the reason why they began to feel the need to act in a ritualistic manner concerning prayer and fasting. Today, notice with me three things about the roots of ritualism in this passage.

Ritualism begins when pure religion ends.

God commanded the Israelites to “Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassion every man to his brother: And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.”

These words, of course, are not the rigid rules of the Old Testament law, rather these words embody the spirit of the law that God had given to His people. We find similar words in the New Testament in James 1:27: “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit

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the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” God is more interested in people’s hearts being right with Him and their fellow man than He is in people abiding by a set of rules and regulations.

Abiding by a set of rules, if your heart is not in it, is worthless to God. That is why the text says, “let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.” God says don’t even think about doing evil against your fellow man. Scripture says, “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” In God’s eyes, if you are seriously contemplating doing evil, it is almost just as bad as you doing it.

Imagine that scientists were to invent a “Real You Device.”

This device — an RYD machine — can scan your brainwaves and determine your true thoughts and emotions about people and situations. This machine also has the ability to state your true feelings. Now, imagine walking around with this device attached to your person all day. When you see that person at work who you can’t stand to be around, and you give them a hug and tell them how much you appreciate them, the “RYD” (Real You Device) starts talking, and it states what your heart truly feels for that person, which is: “I can’t stand you. I hope you never cross my path again.” When you look across the dinner table and smile at your spouse, the Real You Device lights up and starts telling your true feelings, which are: “Why did I ever marry this person? So-and-so and I are way more compatible.” When the cashier at the grocery store gives you too much change and you tell them about it, the Real You Device lights up and says what you really think, which is: “I should have kept that change. She

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would have never known the difference.”

That kind of device does not exist (thankfully), but our true thoughts, feelings, and emotions are laid bare before the eyes of Almighty God — and before ourselves. You see, when we know that our hearts are no longer in tune with God’s law, we begin to see the law as a ritual that we have to abide by. Kind of like a person who goes to church every Sunday even though they don’t really want to go and their heart is not into the sermon or the worship. We do it just because we have to, or just because that is what we have always done. When pure religion — religion that is rooted in the heart and not in habit — comes to an end, that is where ritual begins. And God wants realness, not ritual, in our prayers, in our fasting, in our service, and in our worship.

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11 God Wants Realness Not Ritual in Prayer and Fasting (Part 3) TEXT: Zechariah 7:8-14 Many of us have, at times, struggled with going through the motions in our spiritual lives. Perhaps we have struggled with feeling like we are just doing something because that is what we have always done or because it is what we think someone expects of us. If we are honest with ourselves, we know that our hearts are not really into what we are doing.

We have been looking at the issue of ritualism in our prayer life. God addressed this issue with the Israelites who had taken it upon themselves to institute fasts which God had not ordained. From the words of the prophet Zechariah, we are given key insights into the roots of ritualism.

Ritualism deepens when rebellion is embraced.

Verses 11 and 12 read, “But they refused to hearken, and 75

pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law.”

God continues talking about the forefathers of Zechariah’s generation — the Israelites who lived before and at the beginning of the Exile. These Jews had refused to listen to God and His prophets. They had jerked their shoulders away like some of us do when we don’t want somebody to touch us. They had stopped their ears like a toddler covers her ears when she doesn’t want to hear what her parents are saying. Their hearts became as rocky or as hard as stone so that they would not hear or take heed to the Word of God. In other words, they had embraced rebellion.

You know that you have embraced rebellion when there is a part of your life that you know is wrong but that you are unwilling to let go of. For the Jews it was their idolatry. For some of us it is shacking up, having a bad attitude, lying, having sex outside of marriage, embezzling money, or a host of other things. If you refuse to give it up even though you know it is wrong and even though God has chastised you for it, you have embraced rebellion.

In many of the churches that I have preached in down through the years, I was witness to people who call themselves Christians, yet have no intention on doing what the Bible says. Their hearts are intent — set like a stone — on what they want to do. Yet, they continue to come to church, they continue to sing in the choir, and they continue to lead ministries in the church. On the outside, they might look like model Christians, but they have embraced

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rebellion, and their hearts remain far from God. They have abandoned pure religion and are engaged in ritualism.

And God wants realness, not ritual, in our prayers, in our fasting, in our service, and in our worship.

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12 God Wants Realness Not Ritual in Prayer and Fasting (Part 4) TEXT: Zechariah 7:8-14 Ritualism results in separation from a righteous God. Finally, in verses 12 and 13, we see the result of ritual and rebellion. The Bible says, “therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts... It is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts.”

For many years, God threatened judgment on Israel. He begged them, pleaded with them, and warned them to turn back to Him — not just in their outward actions, but in their hearts. However, they did not take heed. Their hearts remained as stone — cold and unyielding to the mercy and grace of God. Finally, the judgment that God had promised came upon them, and when the children of Israel realized what had happened, it was too late.

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Perhaps you can imagine hundreds and thousands of God’s people in chains and forced to march or ride nearly 1,000 miles from Israel to Babylon. Perhaps you can imagine them being assimilated into a strange culture with a different language, different customs, and pagan gods.

Perhaps you can imagine them finally crying out to God in surrender and repentance. And, perhaps, you can imagine their despair and dismay when God would not hear their prayers.

That is what ritualism leads to. When we place form and function over faith, when we place pedantic platitudes over passionate prayer, God will eventually reject our offerings.

He will turn His face from us as we have turned our faces from Him. He will stop hearing our prayers and accepting our fasts just as we have stopped hearing His word and obeying His commands.

Only when we return our hearts to God can we expect Him to hear our prayers. Only when we embrace pure religion and reject rebellion can we expect Him to honor our fasts. Only when we choose realness over ritual can we expect to receive His blessings.

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The Sinner’s Prayer If you are reading this book and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, your first prayer needs to be what we call the Sinner’s Prayer.

Please understand that you are a sinner and that you have broken God’s laws just as I have. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Please understand that because of our sins, we deserve eternal punishment in hell.

Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death...” This includes both physical death and spiritual death in hell.

That is the bad news.

The good news is found in John 3:16 which says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

If you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead, and you want to trust Him for your salvation today, please pray this simple prayer and mean it from your heart:

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Holy Father God, I realize that I am a sinner and that I have done some bad things in my life. For Jesus Christ sake, please forgive me of my sins. I now believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died for me, was buried, and rose again. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life today. Amen.

If you just trusted Jesus Christ as your Saviour, and you prayed that prayer and meant it from your heart, based upon the Word of God, you are now saved from Hell and you are on your way to Heaven.

Welcome to the family of God! Congratulations on doing the most important thing in life and that is trusting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour.

For more information to help you grow in your newfound faith in Christ, go to www.GospelLightSociety.com and read “What To Do After You Enter Through the Door.”

Jesus Christ said in John 10:9, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

May God bless you as you begin your new life with Him.

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You can listen to Daniel Whyte III preaching any of the messages in this book online at www.PrayingThroughtheBible.com.

Tune in to The Prayer Motivator Devotional Broadcast/Podcast www.PrayerMotivatorDevotional.com and

The Prayer Motivator Minute www.PrayerMotivatorMinute.com These broadcasts/podcasts will inspire, encourage, and motivate you to pray every day so you can live your best life now.

Based on The Prayer Motivator book

by Daniel Whyte III. Both of these broadcasts are available on: iTunes Google Play (Android) Stitcher Radio BCNN Radio 7 Live365 Radio Gospel Light World Radio BlogTalkRadio.com Buzzsprout.com FeedBurner BlackBerry Podcasts and many other podcast outlets