When a person does this, it is usually an indication that something very serious is going on. Now some, to be sure, may do this out of a regular ritual, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. But there are times in the life of an individual, The Church, and nations when something is looming on the horizon, or is already upon them, which calls for this intense, even repetitious declaration, "prayer and supplication with fasting, sackcloth and ashes." This does not happen in the daily "quite time," or regular times of prayer in the Church. After all, people do have to eat. In the vast majority of Biblical references to such, "prayer and supplication with fasting, sackcloth and ashes," however, something has been revealed to the People of Jesus Christ, something which indicates a "cosmic shift" in events with ramifications far beyond the individual or a local congregation. Biblically, in almost every case, such a fervor in seeking the Living Triune God is brought about by national and/or international events.
Such was the case of Daniel in chapter 9, which contains, incidentally, a great prayer for congregations, cities and nations. Basically, it was a study of the prophetic, "God-Breathed," Word in Jeremiah which alerted Daniel that something of great significance was working in the nation. It was not some "elite" group of prophets getting together to "get a sense of what God was saying." It was, "the Words of God," which revealed to Daniel that events in the "super power" of the day, events affecting the Jews and, "the City of the Great King," Jesus, events in a prophetic timetable, which put something in motion in Daniel' heart. Such a prophetic revelation as in our text is a call to denial, humbling oneself, The Church, a nation.
Events of the past year, current events, and what I see on the horizon indicate to me that our Lord Jesus Christ is calling His People to some very serious, "set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes." Check your heart to see, "what the Spirit is saying to the Churches."
Father, in Jesus' Name, give me a heart such as Daniel's to hear and see what You have revealed in Your Word, and Your prophetic timetable. Amen.
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When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
