Discovering Destiny (Part 84): Public Success Comes From Private Prayer
Today, we continue our focus on THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, as we learn to maintain our posture of faith after God has revealed His plans for our future. Yesterday, Daniel's enemies searched his work and found nothing. Today, they get the king to sign a law aimed at Daniel's prayer life, and Daniel goes home and prays anyway. Daniel shows us that the routine you build in private will hold you up under public pressure.
Key scriptures for this year:
2 Peter 3:18 GNT
"But continue to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be glory now and forever."
Luke 10:20 Mirror
"It's time for you to rediscover who you are from Heaven's perspective."
1 John 3:10 Mirror
"There is a very visible and vast difference between living one's life from your God identity or from a fallen man's mindset."
Proverbs 25:2 NKJV
"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter."
Jeremiah 29:13 NIV
"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
Scripture(s) we will study today:
Daniel 6:6-7 ERV
"So the two supervisors and the satraps went as a group to the king. They said, 'King Darius, live forever! The supervisors, prefects, satraps, advisors, and governors have all agreed on something. We think that the king should make this law and that everyone must obey it: For the next 30 days, whoever prays to any god or man except you, King, will be thrown into the lions' den.'"
Daniel 6:8-9 NLT
"'And now, Your Majesty, issue and sign this law so it cannot be changed, an official law of the Medes and Persians that cannot be revoked.' So King Darius signed the law."
Daniel 6:10 NLT
"But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God."
Supporting scriptures:
Isaiah 54:17 AMPC
"But no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall show to be in the wrong."
Matthew 6:6 TPT
"But whenever you pray, go into your innermost chamber and be alone with Father God, praying to him in secret. And your Father, who sees all you do, will reward you openly."
Mark 1:35 TPT
"The next morning, Jesus got up long before daylight, left the house while it was dark, and made his way to a secluded place to give himself to prayer."
Psalm 55:17 ERV
"I speak to God morning, noon, and night. I tell him what upsets me, and he listens to me!"
Acts 5:29 NLT
"But Peter and the apostles replied, 'We must obey God rather than any human authority.'"
Romans 1:16 NLT
"For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes."
Philippians 4:6 NLT
"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done."
Setting the Stage:
Yesterday, the officials went through Daniel's work with a fine-tooth comb and came up empty. So they changed their strategy. If they could not catch Daniel breaking the rules, they would write a new rule that Daniel would have to break.
So the whole group marched into the palace together. They opened with flattery: "King Darius, live forever!" Then they told the king that "the supervisors, prefects, satraps, advisors, and governors have all agreed on something." That was a lie. Daniel was one of the three supervisors, and nobody asked him. Then they made their pitch. For the next 30 days, nobody could pray to any god or any man except the king. Anyone who did would be "thrown into the lions' den."
Think about how that sounded to a brand-new king. For 30 days, the whole empire would bring its requests to him and him alone. Darius liked the sound of that, so he signed it. And under "the law of the Medes and Persians," once the king signed it, nobody could take it back, not even the king.
Word travels fast in a palace. Daniel found out the law had been signed, and here is what he did. He went home. He climbed the stairs to his upstairs room. The windows were already open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees, and he prayed, "just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God." He did not change his schedule. He did not close the windows. He did not pray quietly in the closet for a month until things blew over. Daniel did what he had done three times a day for more than 60 years.
So, what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. When They Can't Find Fault In You, They Will Try To Change The Rules.
The officials could not beat Daniel on the facts, so they went after the rulebook. They put together a coalition, they flattered the king, they lied about who agreed, and they wrote a law aimed at one man. Daniel never broke a single rule in Babylon. They had to invent a rule to have something to charge him with. When your life is clean, the enemy cannot work with what you did, so he tries to change what is allowed.
How this applies to you:
-- Don't be shocked when people change the rules in the middle of the game, because that is what people do when they can't beat you fairly.
-- I call this a coalition of opposition. The supervisors, the prefects, the satraps, the advisors, and the governors probably never agreed on anything. But they all agreed on trying to stop Daniel. The point here is that the enemy will bring people together, who would otherwise never come together, just to ATTEMPT to stop you.
-- Notice how the plan started: "King Darius, live forever!" Flattery is usually the front door of a trap. Proverbs 29:5 NLT says, "To flatter friends is to lay a trap for their feet." When people suddenly start stroking your ego, check what they are asking you to sign.
-- They told the king that "all" the leaders agreed, but Daniel was never in the room. Two things stand out here. First, it was a lie. Jesus called satan "a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44 NLT), so when a plan starts with a lie, you know who is behind it. Second, a crowd agreeing on something does not make it right. Popular does not mean true. Exodus 23:2 NKJV says, "You shall not follow a crowd to do evil." The majority opinion is not always God's opinion.
-- God never said the weapon would not be formed. He said, "No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper." They can form it. They can sign it. It still will not work.
-- When things like this happen, many times, Christians make the mistake of running to worldly leadership to plead their case. Before you do that, why don’t you ask God? Daniel did not run to the palace. He went home and talked to God. Never underestimate the power of prayer!
-- If people have to rewrite the rules to stop you, take it as a compliment, because the grace of God on your life is clearly a threat to somebody.
2. Your Public Success Is Birthed In Your Private Routine.
Daniel succeeded in public under three kings. He rose to the top under Nebuchadnezzar, under Belshazzar, and now under Darius, and he did it as an exile in a foreign land. Everyone in Babylon saw his public success. But almost nobody saw the upstairs room. Three times a day, every day, for decades, Daniel met with God in private. What happened in that room is what everyone saw in the palace.
How this applies to you:
-- The people around Daniel saw the promotions, but they never saw the time he spent on his knees.
-- Jesus said, "Go into your innermost chamber and be alone with Father God, praying to him in secret. And your Father, who sees all you do, will reward you openly." The prayer is private. The reward is public.
-- Even Jesus had a routine. The Bible says, "Jesus got up long before daylight, left the house while it was dark, and made his way to a secluded place to give himself to prayer." Every morning, Jesus spent time with the Father, getting His orders from headquarters. If the Son of God needed time alone with the Father, so do you.
-- I get up every morning to do Today's Word. People see the video. They don't see the hours in the Word and in prayer before the camera ever comes on. The private time (my relationship with God) is where the message comes from.
-- God is not in the business of promoting unprepared people, because prepared blessings come to prepared people.
-- If you don't like what is showing up in your public life, look at what is happening in your private routine. The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.
-- I have told you many times that private processing precedes public promotion.
3. Pressure Doesn't Build Your Prayer Life, It Reveals It.
The Bible says Daniel prayed "just as he had always done." That one phrase tells you everything. Daniel did not start praying because of the law. The law just showed everybody what he had been doing all along. When the pressure hit, Daniel did not have to scramble for faith, because his faith was already built.
How this applies to you:
-- There is an old military saying: train the way you fight. But in actuality, you fight the way you train. You will pray in the crisis the way you prayed before the crisis.
-- Crisis does not create character. Crisis reveals it.
-- Daniel was over 80 years old, and this was not a new habit. He had been walking with God since he was a teenager in Babylon.
-- You can't wait until the lions are hungry to build your prayer life, so build it now, while things are calm.
-- The windows were open. Daniel did not hide his faith to save his position. He did not trade his relationship with God for a title. He trusted God, at the risk of losing it all!
-- Paul said, "For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work." You don't have to be loud about your faith, but you never have to hide it.
-- When man's law and God's ways collide, the apostles already settled it: "We must obey God rather than any human authority."
-- Daniel's routine was his anchor, so when everything around him was shaking, he had something that did not move.
-- When the pressure is on, you will find out if you have a prayer life or not. And if you wait to build one until you need it, you will be learning to swim while you are drowning. Daniel did not start praying when the law was signed. He kept praying "just as he had always done" (Daniel 6:10 NLT). The habit you build in the quiet seasons is the habit that keeps you steady up in the storm.
4. Thank God Before You Know How It Ends.
This is the part that gets me every time. The law was signed. The lions' den was real. The king could not reverse it. And the Bible says Daniel went upstairs and prayed, "giving thanks to his God." Daniel did not know yet how the story would end, but he knew the God who writes the ending. That is what it looks like to pray from a position of grace, not from a position of panic.
How this applies to you:
-- Daniel gave thanks with a death sentence on the table.
-- Paul said, "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done." Worry and thanksgiving can't sit in the same chair.
-- David said, "I speak to God morning, noon, and night. I tell him what upsets me, and he listens to me!" You can bring God what upsets you, and you can still thank Him while you do it.
-- Thanksgiving is faith speaking out loud: when you thank God before the answer shows up, you are saying, "Father, I believe it's already done!"
-- The Bible says, "And in the midst of everything be always giving thanks, for this is God's perfect plan for you in Christ Jesus." It doesn't say thank Him after everything. It says "in the midst of everything."
-- Daniel prayed like a man who had already seen God show up for him in Babylon, and your history with God gives you confidence for what you are facing now.
-- You may be looking at a decree someone else signed against you. Open the windows anyway. Give thanks anyway. God has the final word.
-- Daniel was "giving thanks to his God" (Daniel 6:10 NLT) with a death sentence hanging over his head. That is pre-performance praise, thanking God before He has done anything you can see. It is the outward display of the inward trust you have built with God over time. You can't fake that kind of thanks in a crisis. It comes from years of watching God come through, so when the next test shows up, you thank Him in advance because you already know how the story ends. You may not know the specifics, but you do know this: IT WILL WORK OUT FOR MY GOOD!
That's enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You that my life is hidden in You!
When people change the rules, I will not change my routine!
No weapon formed against me shall prosper, no matter who signs it!
I don't need to fight my critics, because I talk to my God!
My public success is birthed in my private time with You!
I seek You in secret, and You reward me openly!
My prayer life is built before the pressure comes!
I will never hide my faith to protect my position!
I give You thanks before I see how it ends!
In THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!
I declare this by faith. In Jesus' name. Amen!
This is Today's Word. Apply it and prosper!
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