Daniel . . . went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.
Daniel 6:10
The heavens above are in constant motion. God is moving, Jesus is interceding, and the saints are worshiping and bearing witness to prayers being constantly answered. As the psalmist put it, “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). They are alive with His glory. Experiencing this energized activity of heaven changed the way I understood how our prayers are heard. The throne room is filled with our prayers, moved by our prayers. But on earth, it is easy to feel less inspired. The heavens may be alive, but often our times of prayer feel stagnant and cold. When we are alone in a moment of prayer, it can feel as if nothing is happening.
As a pastor, I have counseled countless people who feel their prayers don’t make a difference. People feel as if their prayers go unheard. They feel as though their prayers are prayed into an empty void. We may feel an obligation or a desire to pray, but we aren’t sure what really happens when we do. Where do our prayers go? It is easy to lose the connection between the throne room above and our praying below. We pray, but we aren’t sure what is happening or what impact our prayers have.
But God is not ignoring our prayers. He is not distracted. In fact, prayer isn’t something we are left to figure out on our own. We do not pray into an empty sky; we pray into an active throne room. We pray into a throne room moved by our prayers.
Scripture offers us the powerful prayers of men and women from whom we can learn. By them, we better understand why we pray, how we should pray, and what happens when we do. Daniel is one of the most powerful men of prayer of all time. Daniel’s prayer life can teach us a lot about the importance of prayer and what really happens when we pray.
Mention Daniel and most people remember a den full of lions. It is that old Sunday School story we grew up with. Certainly, it is a story about how God protects His people, just as He did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who were three of Daniel’s friends. God is faithful to rescue us in our moments of need, whether that be from flames or lions. But Daniel’s story is about far more than escaping the jaws of beasts. Daniel’s story is about the power of prayer and how our prayers on earth move heaven above.
Daniel was a young Jewish exile living in the great city of Babylon. Having laid siege to Jerusalem, the Babylonians carried off the best and the brightest of Israel, assimilating their skills and talents into Babylonian society. Daniel had been selected to serve in the king’s palace. He was already recognized for his talent and potential. It was a position of favor, but it came with unique temptations and challenges. Daniel was offered food and alcohol that violated his lifestyle as a Jew. Refusing to eat that food risked his position and possibly his life. Still, Daniel refused. He continued to observe his Jewish practices and worship Israel’s God alone. Daniel refused to live as the world around him did, even when it cost him. He may have lost his home, but he would not lose his God. Though he served in Babylon, he continued to serve the God of Israel.
God blessed Daniel’s faithfulness with wisdom beyond that of any other advisor in Babylon. That wisdom allowed him to rise quickly in influence and to gain favor in the culture around him. Externally, things seemed good for Daniel. But Daniel was engaged in something that threatened the demonic powers of that pagan nation. Daniel not only continued his Jewish lifestyle, but he also continued to pray. Daniel prayed that God would restore his people and their nation.
Nothing threatens the work of the enemy more than prayer. You can gain political power, you can accumulate wealth, you can even use your platform to share your faith, but nothing threatens the work of Satan more than when we pray. Daniel had to be stopped. It was his prayers that the devil was concerned about. It was his praying that put all he thought he had accomplished at risk.
For a long time, Daniel had made it his routine to pray at the altar of his window. That window faced toward Jerusalem. So daily, Daniel would kneel in his window and pray for his home, his people, and the future of Jerusalem. People saw Daniel praying. They understood by his devotion and routine how important it was to him. Daniel had an altar. That altar was more important to his life and work than any governmental position or Babylonian favor.
Though Daniel served with integrity, and maybe because of it, he had enemies. Motivated by demonic inspiration, pride, and insecurity, Daniel’s enemies plotted to silence him. They confronted Daniel where they knew he had the most effect: they would attempt to silence his prayers. They knew they could not tempt Daniel, so they formed a plan to trick the king into silencing Daniel’s prayers. They convinced the king to issue a decree that for thirty days no one could pray to any god except to the king himself. This decree made Daniel’s daily prayers an act of treason and punishable by death. They knew Daniel’s faithfulness. The decree would silence him either by fear or by death.
Notice how Daniel’s enemies didn’t try to trap him in sin or tempt him into compromise. They struck at Daniel’s strength, the thing that most threatened them. They tried to keep him from praying.
What did Daniel do? He did what he always did. He went to his altar in the window and prayed. No law or scheme could keep him from it. Not even threats against his life. Nothing was more important to Daniel than prayer.
Why is Satan so opposed to prayer? Why was it Daniel’s prayers that stirred his enemies to action? We may feel as if our prayers go unheard, or we may feel as though our prayers are not answered, but Satan does not share that opinion. Satan wants to keep us from praying because he knows how much prayer matters. He knows the power of prayer perhaps even more than we do.
Scripture repeatedly reminds us that there are things happening around us that our senses cannot recognize. We live in a world of spiritual conflict. Paul explained to the Ephesians, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against . . . the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12). Satan fears prayer because prayer moves the unseen. Satan understands that he is most vulnerable when we pray, when we take up this struggle against the powers of darkness through prayer. It is no surprise that he will use every tactic at his disposal to keep us from praying. From simple distractions to legal limitations, Satan seeks to silence your prayers, too.
It was true in Daniel’s day and true in ours. It is no coincidence that prayer continues to be under attack. It always has been and always will be, as long as the enemy is about his work. Private, personal prayer may be permitted (though it is often ridiculed and increasingly neglected) but public prayer is fiercely attacked. The Barna Group has reported that of the Americans who pray, only two percent pray audibly with another person or group, and only two percent participate in praying with their church.1
Perhaps Daniel could have prayed privately and no one would have known. He could have stepped away from his window and prayed somewhere out of sight. He could have avoided the whole conflict by keeping his prayers to himself. Certainly, Daniel did also pray in private, but what got Daniel in trouble was his refusal to give up public prayer. He would not hide what he was doing.
When prayer gets reduced to only a private and personal matter, we limit it, and we limit the ability of believers to learn how to do it. People are left to figure it out on their own. Our congregants grow frustrated and feel unprepared. They may talk about prayer, but it becomes increasingly less important in their lives. We, too, assimilate to the world around us and gradually lose our knowledge and passion for prayer. It takes believers like Daniel to keep it alive in a place like Babylon.
When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He did it by praying with them. They prayed together. When they faced challenges, they gathered to pray. When they sought the Spirit, they gathered in an upper room. When one of them was in danger, they gathered in a home and prayed. The New Testament is filled with people praying together and praying in public.
God’s people pray. It is what we do; therefore, praying must be at the center of who your church is and what it does. Everything is shaped by prayer. Every church must build a ministry of prayer. It can’t be just a small group that meets once a week. It can’t be just a few passionate people, though that is a great place to start. Prayer must energize every part of your church. You must teach people how to pray. You must practice praying with them. You must make space for it in your services and calendars. You must commit to praying privately and publicly. It is prayer that moves the heavens and prayer that energizes the church. It is prayer that ushers in revival and pushes back the darkness. It is prayer that threatens the enemy and releases God’s power.
Don’t get distracted. As a church leader, there is nothing more important in your life and church than prayer. And there is nothing you will be more tempted to neglect.
Daniel’s actions proved that he believed more in the effectiveness of prayer than all his other gifts and talents. Daniel had wisdom and influence. He knew how to lead and administrate. He held a powerful position and had access to critical resources. Daniel knew how to be a great leader. But when he faced challenges, when he really needed things done, he went to his window, knelt at his altar, and prayed. Before he was anything else, Daniel was a man of prayer.
Daniel believed that using his authority in the spirit world was more important than using his influence in the political world. That is a lesson for us as leaders. When we work and lead without praying, are we not making the statement that our actions and skills are more powerful and more important than our prayers? When our churches see the emphasis we put on planning, resources, and strategy, do we not risk them seeming more important to us than prayer? Too often they are.
The demonic forces at work around Daniel confronted him at the center of his power—they confronted his praying. The devil would love to completely stop the church and all its good works, but if he can only stop one aspect, it will always be prayer. Satan fears it more than a church service with great music or a dynamic sermon. He is content to let the church fill its time with anything that will keep it from the altar. And too often, it is the altar that is most neglected.
No one could question Daniel’s priorities. No one could question his source of power or be confused about what mattered most to him. Daniel’s life and leadership were marked by prayer. He was willing to die for it. What marks yours?
Building a ministry of prayer begins with some important self-evaluations. It is going to take honesty. It is easy to evaluate your life based on what you achieve. We are good at evaluating our own successes, influence, and accomplishments. But the enemy is happy to let us accumulate good things if it keeps us from what is most important.
Evaluating your prayer life isn’t just about how much time you spend praying or how frequently you pray. Certainly, time and frequency matter, but they are the natural fruit of a deeper belief and commitment to prayer, a life lived in His throne room.
So, ask yourself, What are the things that keep you from praying? For some, it is time. With busy schedules and constant demands, prayer gets pressed out of the day. After all, God isn’t knocking at your office door, texting you problems, or calling with requests. It is easy for external demands to fill up your time and end up with your prayers getting diminished.
For some, prayer is limited by the prioritization of other relationships. Part of being a pastor is loving and spending time with people. It is possible to prioritize relationships with others over your relationship with God. In fact, the constant need to be around others can be a way of avoiding yourself and God. Is it possible for relationships to keep you from prayer?
I heard a story about one of our great prayer warriors that went something like this. They said he had a close friend who had been away for a long time who came unannounced into his study expecting to be welcomed with excitement. Instead, he was greeted with hesitance and was requested to come back later. It was the prayer warrior’s time of prayer and communion with God, and he would not allow anything or anyone to violate it. Even though he loved and looked forward to his time with the old friend, his time with God was of greater value.
For some, family is a constant distraction. For others, they are distracted by the open-door policy to the church that fills the time that should belong to God. Establishing times and closing the door to the outside is even more required to those of us who love being with people more than any other part of our life. We need to join the old prayer warrior I just spoke about and make our prayer time as holy as a Sunday morning service.
Or perhaps it’s interests and hobbies. After hard days of work and the stress that comes with it, we look for opportunities to relax and pursue the things we enjoy. There is certainly nothing wrong with hobbies, but they can replace important things. They can distract us from higher priorities. To truly grow in prayer will always mean giving up something to be with God.
But maybe the most difficult evaluation to make is to look at our need for control. Trying to stay in control of our life often keeps us from prayer. When I experienced the reality of God’s throne room, one of the most important truths that I learned is that my life is lived in His presence. That means my life is not lived in my own throne room—it is lived in His. To recognize that I am before His throne is to recognize He is rightfully in control.
To step into the throne room of God is to lay down our attempts at control. Remember how the elders laid down their crowns before His throne? Each time we pray, we do something similar. We lay down our control. We lay down our authority. We lay down our plans and projects. We seek His will. That can be an uncomfortable consequence if we are desperate to stay in control. Many do not pray because they know giving up control risks too much. We attempt to plan and lead out of our own power.
There must have been something about how Jesus prayed that stood out to His disciples. The disciples grew up in a world of prayer. Prayer was not a new concept for them. They had heard prayers at the synagogue, at religious festivals in Jerusalem, and probably from the mouths of their parents as they grew. The disciples had certainly prayed themselves. But as they watched and listened to Jesus pray, they sensed something different. Their request was as simple as a child. “Jesus, will you teach us to pray?” (Luke 11:1). They wanted to pray like Jesus.
What Jesus offered them is remembered as the Lord’s Prayer. Much of it is simple to understand. He encouraged them to pray for daily bread, to pray for forgiveness, and to pray for protection from temptation and evil. But there is a line that has always intrigued me. Jesus taught them to pray that God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Right there in the middle of Jesus’ prayer, He acknowledges the unique connectedness of life here below and the reality of heaven above. Our prayers connect us to heaven. Our prayers connect us to the throne room and to the power of God.
I have prayed that prayer countless times and have come to believe that it requires a humility to recognize that we cannot change the world through our earthly power. It offers us an opportunity to stir heaven into action. We move heaven to see things changed on earth.
There are things that no matter how hard you try you cannot fix. There are things on earth that no earthly power can change. To give all your time and energy to mere earthly projects is to be significantly stunted in what is possible. We pray partly because we realize how limited we are in our earthly possessions and power. We pray because we need things we can’t do on our own. Jesus recognized both the limitations of earth and our need for God’s will from heaven.
When Jesus described how the reality of heaven has an impact on earth, He was helping us realize that heaven must be affected before the earth can be changed. Every earthly struggle is preceded by a heavenly one. Our earthly power may be limited, but when heaven is stirred, there is nothing on earth that cannot be changed. To pray for God’s will on earth as it is in heaven is to pray that heaven might be moved to accomplish things on earth that we otherwise could not.
I believe Daniel understood that remarkable truth about prayer. What made Daniel so powerful and so threatening to the leaders of his day was not his personal skills or talent, as great as they were. What made Daniel a threat was the way he prayed. Daniel understood how to move heaven. His prayers released angels and instigated heavenly war. Once he had moved heaven, there was nothing his prayers could not accomplish on earth. Daniel could change earthly kingdoms by the power of his prayers in heaven. That is what the earthly rulers feared.
Daniel had been praying for years that Israel’s exile would come to an end. In response, God gave Daniel a series of visions. He gave Daniel a glimpse into things to come and things that were already underway in heaven. Daniel saw a vision of a series of kings and kingdoms. These were kingdoms of earth, rulers who used earthly power to rule. They were powerful and ruthless and set themselves up in opposition to God. But they were not the only reality.
Though they seemed unbeatable and Israel’s future seemed hopeless, an angel explained to Daniel, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them” (Daniel 10:12).
Though these earthly kings imagined themselves supreme, Daniel’s words were being heard in heaven. The angel went on to explain that he and others had been commissioned from heaven to confront these earthly powers. There was already a heavenly war underway because of Daniel’s prayers.
This was the reason Satan, and those earthly rulers he maneuvered, were determined to end Daniel’s prayers. And it is for this reason that Daniel was determined not to stop. He didn’t pray publicly to make a point. He didn’t pray just to resist the culture around him. Daniel prayed because he knew that as heaven was moved, what he was praying for would be done on earth. He prayed because it mattered most. He prayed to change things. No hobby, work, or relationship could keep him from it. Prayer defined Daniel’s life. He knew it was where he was most powerful.
If you try to bend a tree, you can’t do it. Lean on it, push on it, take heavy machinery to it and you still can’t bend it. Years of unnoticed growth have fixed it. But it is easy to bend a fresh shoot, a growing sapling. You can do it with your fingers. If you hold it, it will grow bent. You can make it any shape if you show up every day and apply even small pressure. In the end, no one will be able to straighten it out.
We can change the world. But it will not happen by the world’s power. It will not be changed by momentary bursts of strength. We must show up every day and move heaven. As heaven is stirred, so it will be done on earth. It doesn’t require great wealth. It doesn’t require political power. It doesn’t require special skills or knowledge. It requires people, like Daniel, who are willing to humble themselves and go daily into the throne room above. It requires people being willing to fight a spiritual battle. It requires people willing to pray. If we are willing, there is nothing on earth that cannot be moved. Our prayers connect earth and heaven.
I hope you become like Daniel. The world needs you to be. But really, my hope is that your church would raise up a generation of Daniels. The Church must recapture its focus on prayer. Our power in this world depends on it. This book exists to help you do it. You need a deeper prayer life, and you need to lead and cultivate places of prayer across your congregation.
I want you to consider how much time you have given to cultivating leadership skills or defining your church’s strategy. Those are important and necessary tasks, but they are not the tools Daniel used to overcome Satan or oppose Babylon. They are not the focus of Jesus’ lesson on prayer. You will do more by prayer than you will by leadership development or church strategy. The altar is the place of change. The altar is the way forward. Whoever controls the altar controls the outcome.
It is my deepest belief that if we could all truly understand how powerful and effective prayer is, the Church would be transformed into a place filled with constant prayer, believers would find their days dependent on prayer, and families would center their life together around it.
Just as Daniel defined his life by that altar in the window, I want to help you do it—first in your own life and then in the congregation you lead or attend. I want to help you build the five critical altars that will help you and your congregation discover and experience the power of prayer.