Bible Reading; Daniel 9:2-4; Daniel 9:21-23
What did Daniel do when he discovered that the 70th year was here? “Then I set my face to the Lord to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth.” He began to pray that the will of God will be done on the earth.
Studying the above scripture, you may be asking, “so at what time did God answer Daniel’s supplication?”, from the very beginning of it! As seen in Daniel 10:12, the angel came and said, “Do not fear, Daniel, for, from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come because of your words”. Daniel received an answer to his supplication from the first day.
But why did it take 21days for the answer to get to Daniel? The angel said the prince of the kingdom of Persia (which was the spiritual principality) withstood him for those twenty-one days! This kind of delay experienced by Daniel is the basis for entering into the next phase of prayer, which is intercession.
When you know that God has heard and answered your prayer, but you experience some form of delay, what do you do next? Get into spiritual warfare which is where men and boys are separated. This is where you enlist the ministry of angels. The Bible says angels are ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them which shall be heirs of salvation. And God releases an angel or angels to go and cause that particular thing to happen as you embark on spiritual warfare, where every hindrance must be removed. But you cannot get into warfare if you are not persuaded that God has heard you.
The bible says, ‘the kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent take it by force’ (Matthew11:12). Let me give an illustration to help you understand the kind of attitude you must show during the season/prayer of intercession and warfare. For instance, you are living in a house with an annual rent of about N2m. And this is taking a lot from you financially. Besides that, you also desire that your children go to a particular school but because of that rent, you could not afford the kind of school you desire for your children and have to settle for less for their education. You then later discover after four years, that somehow your father’s will state that the house belongs to you. What would your attitude towards the former landlord henceforth be? The moment your lawyer shows you the will of your father detailing what belongs to you, including the house for which you have been paying rent, you are going to be in awe! The same thing happens when the Holy Ghost shows you the will of God for you in the word of God. You are filled with awe!
In other words, in your life, Satan is claiming things that rightfully belongs to you as his and is deceptively making you pay for those things. But for you to engage in successful warfare to take possession of those things, there must be a persuasion in you, inspired by your eyes being illuminated in God’s word, that those things belong to you, in the first place. You are not fighting to make it yours. You are fighting because it is your rightful possession. From the minute you discover it in the scriptures and utter from your lips, you know that it is yours. In other words, if you pay a car, and money leaves your bank account to the account of the seller, and the seller issues a receipt or an acknowledgement of receipt of funds; the car is already yours no matter how long it takes you to have physical possession of the car long after you have paid. You can claim ownership of the car anywhere, anytime.
Thus, from the time you utter your supplication to the time it takes for angels to bring the answer, the manifestation is yours. It is your attitude that will determine what happens. The scripture says they overcame Satan, not based on what God was doing but because of the word of their testimony (Revelation 12:11). This means whatever your desires, there is angelic activity over those requests so keep pushing and do not relent in the place of prayer.
‘Poju Oyemade