Prayer and the Presence of God

Now when Daniel came to know that the writing had been signed, he went to his house (in his upper room he had windows open toward Jerusalem) and three times daily he knelt on his knees and prayed and gave thanks before his God, because he had always done so previously.

Daniel 6:10 RecVer

Daniel depended on prayer to do what man could not do and to understand what man could not understand. There is no other way to bring God’s economy into fulness and into fulfillment except by prayer; this is the inner secret of this chapter.

God desires to carry out His economy, but man is needed to pray for His economy on earth. God carries out His economy through His faithful channels of prayer. Today prayer is the lifeline in the Lord’s recovery. The more Satan tries to frustrate our prayer, the more we should pray.

This portion from the ministry supplied me with much light and life concerning my prayer life. I again and again repeated this burden to all the saints in my locality, to the people I am in contact, to the ones under my shepherding, and to my own family members, to live a life of prayer, to bring every matter to the Lord in prayer and also to also set specific time to pray daily. Daniel's three times a day prayer is a wonderful pattern for all to follow. 

May the Lord grace us all to men of prayer. 

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the blazing furnace of fire, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods nor worship the golden image that you have set up.

Daniel 3:17-18 RecVer

Upon careful consideration of the verses above, one can learn some important spiritual lessons. First, trusting in the living God come what may, God is faithful to take care of His children, even in living or dying. Second, one must not assume what God would do. God's intention with Daniel's three friends was not to deliver them from the furnace of fire but to let them go through it with His presence. In fact, God only arranged the three to go through the fiery furnace and thereby manifest who He is. Third, God can turn, and He will turn, whatever circumstances to His and His children's favor. Even the blazing furnace of fire becomes a pleasant place with Him to the extent that the fire has no effect whatsoever, against the natural law for He is above the natural laws, in fact, the very Creator Himself.

The presence of the Lord turns even the blazing furnace of fire into a pleasant place. His presence is all that matters, no matter the circumstances. The Lord did not deliver Daniel's three friends from the furnace of fire, instead He allowed them to go through it, but with His presence. The furnace of fire did no affect them at all, instead it drew the King's attention to the living God!

The Lord may not always deliver us from the furnace, but He will always meet us in the furnace. His presence turns the place of suffering into a place of enjoyment, and the fire that tests us becomes the means by which we gain more of Christ.

As a man of prayer living in the presence of God, everything is a blessing. All circumstances are pleasant with the presence of God. And all these, are for God to gain His chosen and redeemed ones to be fully one with Him to accomplish His eternal purpose on the earth. What a Christian life we are living today! What a blessing that we live on the earth today as God-man! No works of Satan can deter God's plan. On the contrary, God turns every scheme of Satan to display His multifarious wisdom. Hallelujah!

But in all these things we more than conquer through Him who loved us.

Romans 8:37 RecVer

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:57 RecVer