FACEDOWN 40 Day 4


O Man! Greatly Beloved!

Written by Lou Engle
Saturday, 04 March 2006

Meditation:

“Suddenly, a hand touched me, which made me tremble on my knees and on the palms of my hands. And he said to me, "O Daniel, man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you." While he was speaking this word to me, I stood trembling.” – Daniel 10:10-11

Reflection:

On the first day that Daniel set his face to fasting and prayer, God immediately dispatched his answer, but a demonic forced hindered that answer for 21 days. Here, for one of the first times in Scripture, we see a new element brought into the picture about the abilities of the powers of darkness to hinder the will of God. Some make claims that fasting does not change God, but that it only changes us. This is not the case in the book of Daniel. The very first day that the prophet Daniel sets his face to fasting, God sent His answer. In this case in Scripture, the fast needed to be sustained for the answer of heaven to find its breakthrough. How many times have we said that such-and-such is the will of God and stopped pressing in for the breakthrough? Could it be that that such-and-such was not the will of God, but because we did not sustain our fasting and prayer, the powers of darkness were not bound?

Consider the following dream given to me by a fifteen year-old in our community:

"The Cause was gathered together in a restaurant-type place with many other
groups gathered there who were murmuring in foreign languages. Many Middle
Eastern countries were represented there. Their mumblings began to grow and
grew louder than our prayer. [Another young person in our community] spoke
out and asked, “Is America in the lead?” (In the dream, it was clear that
this person was essentially asking, “Are we winning, through prayer, for America?). But we knew that we were not yet winning in this battle and the pagan prayer grew yet louder. We knew that to get in the lead we had to pray in the Spirit more loudly
and more clearly. At that point, a young woman named April was pacing back and
forth in intercession and she was praying very loudly and clearly in the Spirit. A few of her words came forth in English and she said, “LOU! LASTING FASTING!”

I believe that the voice of the Church must pierce the sound barrier and resound more loudly in the heavens than the sound of the prayers of the Muslims. Of course it is not a matter of loudness, but power, passion and intensity and I believe that the young woman named April in the dream was not about a person, but the month of April where our prayers will crescendo with “lasting fasting.” For nearly two thousand years, Muslims around the world have been praying five times a day to their god and corporately fasting during Ramadan. The sound of prayer in the Church must be released into the heavens in this critical moment of history and we must not stop until the powers of darkness can no longer resist the breakthrough.

Prayer:

God of the nations, give your Church spiritual vision and perspective for the war that rages on the earth and in the heavens. Give to us a spirit of wisdom and revelation that will sustain us in our intercession. Give us perseverance like Daniel to pray until we hear the sound of the archangel saying, “O Daniel, man greatly beloved. Because of your prayers I now remain alone besides the King of Persia, victorious as on a field of battle.” Lord, sustain us as we pray for the kingdom to come in Iraq, for the violence to end, for the Shalom of heaven, and for rest on that land. Father, bring a shift in the war in Iraq so miraculous that it affects the future destiny of America and the upcoming elections. In Jesus’ name, Amen!