DAY 5: Daniel, A Man Of Prayer

Daniel praying

Another example which supports our need for prayer is found in the life of Daniel. In 606 B.C. Israel had been taken captive by another nation because of its sin.

Years later in Daniel 9 we're told that while reading the prophet Jeremiah, Daniel discovered it was time for Israel's captivity to end.

Jeremiah had not only prophesied the captivity of which Daniel was a part, but he also prophesied the duration: 70 years.


At this point Daniel did something very different from what most of us would do. When we receive a promise of revival, deliverance, healing, restoration, etc., we tend to passively wait for its fulfillment-but not Daniel. He knew better. Somehow he must have known that God needed his involvement because he said, "So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes" (Daniel 9:3).

No verse in Daniel, as there is with Elijah, specifically says Israel was restored because of Daniel's prayers, but with the emphasis given to them, the insinuation is certainly there.

We do know that the angel Gabriel was dispatched immediately after Daniel started praying. However, it took him 21 days to penetrate the warfare in the heavens with the message to inform Daniel that "Your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words" (Daniel 10:12). Paul E. Billheimer says:
Daniel evidently realized that intercession had a part to play in bringing the prophecy to pass. God had made the prophecy. When it was time for its fulfillment He did not fulfill it arbitrarily outside of His program of prayer. He sought for a man upon whose heart He could lay a burden of intercession....

As always, God made the decision in heaven.

A man was called upon to enforce that decision on earth through intercession and faith.

Rev. Obadiah Swen

Pastor, Bethel World Outreach Church - Virginia