DISCIPLES OF JESUS MINISTRY

Dan 9:3-4 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and awesome God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments

Fasting, sackcloth and ashes? Well we may have fasted at times, but we don't know what it is to adorn sackcloth and ashes do we? The veil has been torn in two but I have to ask myself have I lost sight of the holiness of my God because of over familiarity, we know Him as " daddy" as Abba which is so wonderful, for we have been adopted into His family but do we really see Him as the Holy God He is, that we might fall down at His feet and worship Him. We need not adorn dirty rags because praise be to God we are washed clean by the blood of the Lamb, we are new creations, hallelujah! Daniel demonstrated to us a purposeful persistence in prayer. Even Jacob in his prayer cried, “… I will not let thee go, except thou bless me” (Gen. 32:26).

How we need to learn that persistence.

Daniel acknowledges that God keeps His covenantal promises and shows mercy to them that love Him. He will keep His promises to us.

Dan 9:5 we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.

Dan 9:6 Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land.

At the IHOP Scotland conference last weekend we were crying out to God for our nation, acknowledging that our nation has strayed so far from the Lord, and asking God to forgive this nation, to break through the darkness that has blinded so many, this used to be known as Bible loving Scotland the blood of the covenanters was spilt on this land. Today there are Mosques popping up everywhere, the small town in which I live now has a Mosque and a Sikh Temple - would this have happened like this if we the people of God were really seeking the Lord in intercessory prayer as we should? The fear of terrorism has meant that in the name of political correctness the Government and local authorities in this land have bent over backwards for a Muslim minority (now fastly growing in numbers) and the Christian voice has not been listened to or is not allowed full freedom.

Daniel named a whole list of sins and He included himself in this prayer, we can learn so much about intercession from his prayer.

Dan 9:7 O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.

Here we see again just how Daniel recognised the character of God, he knew that his God was righteous and we need to recognise that in and of ourselves we have no righteousness except that which we have that has been granted to us by God, we are made rghteous in His sight and our lives are being transformed because the blood of Jesus washed our sins away.

Dan 9:8 “O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You.

Dan 9:9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him.

Dan 9:10 We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets.

Dan 9:11 Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him.

Dan 9:12 And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.

Israel had been unfaithful to the God who had done so much for them, they had forgotten all that He had done in the midst of them- let that never be said of us. Yet I have to ask myself am I obedient in all my ways- oh wretched woman that I am, I fall short. Praise the Lord for His mercies are new every morning. He has forgiven us much.

It's the last days and the Lord has been pouring His mercies, His love on us His sons and daughters - but He is looking for a strong faithful bride who will stand in the gap for our nations, who will be obedient to Him- let that be us.

Dan 9:13 “As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth.

Dan 9:14 Therefore the LORD has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice.

Dan 9:15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly!

God is good all the time, He is righteous but even today I believe He will allow things to come against us to get our attention. Sometimes we can be so busy doing things, even things we think are for Him and He stops us mid track and asks us "Did I ask you to do that? " We need to get better at listening to Him and following Him. I need to get better at that. "I want to be obedient to you Lord, help me to be obedient in all my ways."

Dan 9:16 “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us.

Dan 9:17 Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate.

Dan 9:18 O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies.

Dan 9:19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”

Daniel remembers how God led Israel out of Egypt. God did it because of His righteousness, because of His love for Israel, not because of their righteousness. He recognises that God is merciful - He believes God will answer His prayers and supplications on behalf of the people, therefore He cries out "O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”

I have known a number of people to start on their walk with the Lord and seem to be doing well and then something traumatic has happened in their lives and they have walked away and the Lord says to you and I today "Will you persist in intercession for those sheep of mine who have wandered away and got lost, will you reach out to them and help them find the way back, I will show you who to intercede for, do not believe that all are lost causes?"

God is merciful and can restore all the years that the locusts have taken.

WILL WE STAND IN THE GAP?

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