Go Ahead, Be A Daniel!
I heard about a church in Texas where the pastor quoted II Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Suddenly, behind him there was a tremendous “Boom!”, and when he turned around he saw that a marble altar had been pushed over by an unseen force. Evidently, God was trying to draw attention to this verse of scripture.
We cannot expect this lost and confused flock to repent of their sins and turn to Jesus. They don’t even know what sins they are guilty of. They don’t even know that “sin is the transgression of the law”, I John 3:14, and they don’t know what the law says.
The prophet Daniel was faced with a similar problem in the sixth century before Christ. Moved by the Spirit of God, he did not wait for the people to repent. He repented for them. His prayer and the response of God are found in the book of Daniel, chapter nine. Daniel 9:20,21 states “And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.”
After this prayer by Daniel, there was a decree sent forth by Darius, king of the Medes, to complete the temple in Jerusalem (Ezra 6), and the Jewish nation was set up under Nehemiah and Ezra in preparation for the coming of Jesus the Messiah. I believe it was the prayer of repentance by Daniel and others that released the power of God in Israel.
We Christian Israelites can do what Daniel did. If you repent of your own sins as Daniel did and then repent of the sins of your country, you can expect God to reveal His plan to you with more clarity and to send His angels to intervene in the affairs of your country. We Christian Israelites are part of a “holy priesthood”, I Peter 2:5. One definition of priest in Webster’s dictionary is, “a mediatory agent between God and man”. So, as priests, we can repent on behalf of the country we live in.
We need the work of God’s Spirit in the Anglo-Saxon nations to prepare a believing remnant to meet the Lord at His coming. Here is a word of caution; when you present your prayer of confession for the sins of Canada or the United States, be prepared for a very long prayer session.
