This sermon emphasizes the importance of prayer, focusing on the story of Daniel who prayed fervently despite facing opposition and the threat of the lion's den. It highlights the need for believers to be men and women of prayer, seeking God's face and repenting of sin to experience His cleansing and restoration.

Hell-shaking prayer. That's the message. Hell-shaking prayer. Go to Daniel, if you will, please, the sixth chapter. I'm so glad I'm saved. Let's... Let's start with verse 1, chapter 6. I'm going to read about 10 verses. Verse 1. Now King, O King, established the decree, signed the writing, that it shall not be changed according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. Wherefore, King Darius signed the writing and the decree. Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house. And as windows were opened, the chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did before. Nothing changed, not even a thread of the lion's den. Father, I thank you for your living word. I thank you, Lord, that we don't live by the bread of this world, but we live by the divine living bread that you have given to us in your word. And I come to you, Father, humbly and ask you to take the word that you've given to me and multiply it to this people. I pray, Lord, that you give us understanding hearts and ears and eyes to see and accomplish, Lord, what you want to accomplish in me in delivering it in those who hear it. Lord, I have no strength, I have no power, no ability. I am wholly dependent upon you, and I trust you now that you will do what you want to do through me and in me. In Christ's name I pray, amen. Hallelujah. Again, welcome to our visitors. We're delighted to have you here. May the Lord challenge you through the word tonight. Now, in this chapter that I've just read to you, Daniel's 80 years old. He's 80 years old. He's outlived two kings, Nebuchadnezzar and his son, Doshazer. And you know the Medes have come now. They've overcome and defeated Babylon. And Darius is now on the throne. He'd be serving for two years before Cyrus comes to power. This is the third king over Babylon under which Daniel served. This man is both preacher and prophet, a great man of God. He had started his ministry in Babylon, remember, as a very young man, and he started in prayer. There's not a mention in this man's life of burnout. There's not a mention of discouragement. Not a word about getting five acres out of town and retiring. Without any responsibility, he's 80 years old and he's just beginning. That is how old Pastor Jack West is going to be this next year, 80 years old. At 80 years of age, Daniel shook hell with his prayers. His prayers enraged the devil. Remember, he's been promoted now under Darius. This is under the Medes and Persians, and he is now promoted again. There are 120 provinces, 120 princes over those, and three presidents all co-equal. And now King Darius, because of the talents and wisdom of this man, thought to send him above the whole realm. In fact, he preferred him over the other two presidents over the 120. Now, Daniel's main occupation, though, was prayer. He was a busy, busy man. At 80 years of age, he's assigned to be president over these princes in the province. His time alone with God took precedence over everything that he did. Now, this man was over all the intellectuals. He was over the astrologers. He was made the main leader over the whole province. Now, this is a busy man. Do you understand this? There's no man can be in that position without being a most busy man. But nothing could take away his time for prayer. Three times a day, this man stole away from all his occupation, from all of his burdens and his leadership needs, and he slipped away and spent time with the Lord. At 80 years of age, he got his direction on his knees. This man never had to call a conference. He never had to go to a committee meeting to get answers. He never had to take a roll call. He never had to do this. He prayed, and God answered his prayers. This was a man who heard from God because he was a man of prayer, the Scripture says very clearly. Nebuchadnezzar, for example, has a dream. None of his astrologers or sorcerers or magicians can interpret the dream, and he has decreed that they all be killed. And this included the wise men. This was a death warrant, not against all the astrologers and wise men and intellectuals of his time that surrounded the court. They couldn't interpret his dreams, and he said, since you can't dissolve my doubts, you're dead. There's no purpose for your being alive. Daniel receives this message, and he calls a meeting with his three praying friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they didn't try to interface. They didn't try to take a survey among the Jews to find out how they could find some plan to cause survival of the Jewish nation. They prayed, the Bible says. They went to their knees. They went to their knees to hear from God. Daniel, the second chapter. Slip back this to the second chapter of Daniel, if you will, please. And look at verse 20 through 22. Daniel answered and said, see, he's prayed and he's got the answer now. And he said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his. He changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise, knowledge to them that know understanding. He revealeth the deep and secret things. He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. Now, where did Daniel get that? He got it no other place than in the secret closet of prayer. He got it seeking the face of God. Let me show you how important it is, I believe, to have a praying preacher or praying people in the midst of declension, especially at the brink of judgment. The Old Testament church at this time was at its lowest point. It's in captivity. The spirit of Babylon had gotten a hold of all the people. The praises of God had been silenced. They had lost their song, the scripture says. Satan is set on destroying Israel because out of Israel is going to come the seed. Out of this nation is the seed, Christ, the Messiah, who's going to destroy the power of Satan. The devil knows that. He's trying to destroy the royal seed. He's trying to destroy the seed, Jesus Christ. It was Satan himself who initiated this decree. You know these men didn't initiate it themselves. It had to come from demonic instruction. It was initiated out of hell itself. And all of Israel is watching. Israel is backslidden. Nobody is praying anymore other than Daniel and the Hebrew children. There's no evidence anywhere in the scripture that these in captivity prayed anymore. They'd hung up their harps. They weren't singing. They weren't praising God. They weren't worshipping. They'd all drifted away, got involved in the prosperity of Babylon. And now Israel is watching. I believe this with all of my heart. They're wondering, does God still speak to anybody anymore? Is anybody hearing from God? Is anybody reading the times? Does anybody know the secret of the Lord and what's happening and what's about to happen? And they are watching because they know that this decree has gone out. The future faith divisional depends upon somebody in touch with God. Somebody that's still on their face before God. Is God still revealing himself to humankind? And I'm sure this is on the heart of every backslidden Israelite in Babylon at the time. Now Daniel could have gathered the people together. Today what we would do, you know, there are many bright young men. Bright young men who are well-educated. They want to see crowds and they want to see results and they want to be successful. They take polls. They go around the neighborhood polling the people. What would you like in the way of religious education? What would you like? You're not going to church. Would you go to church? Just outline to us what you prefer. Let's see if we can come to some compromise and not confront you in the house of God. So they find out people don't like organs. They find out that people don't like messages against sin, they say. And they say that you can't mix ethnic groups. You can't have blacks with whites and you can't have Puerto Ricans with both of them. And you've got to have an all-white congregation or all-black congregation. Folks, we're doing everything wrong in this church. We've got 103 nationalities of all colors. We're doing everything the book says you can't do. We've had young theological students come in here absolutely amazed. They said they told us, you don't do it this way. You can't build a church in this. It's all white, it's all black or it's all something else. You've got to stick with your color and your kind. That's tommyrot. That's foolishness. You can't do that in this city. You can't do it under the anointing of the Holy Ghost. He could have called for a march on the Capitol demanding rights for the Jews. He could have got crowds together and demonstrated. I'll tell you what, I believe the devil snickers at our parades and balloons. He just snickers at it. He snickers at all these polls. I went to church in Dallas when I was off a few weeks ago, I think I told you. I just got hungry. I want to go and see what's happening. I'm so hungry to hear a good message. And I went to one of the new contemporaries. I didn't know it was a community church. And I go, and everybody is drinking Cokes and Pepsis and coffee and donuts. And they're doing a service. Everybody's nonchalant and kicking off their shoes. And kids are running around, and somebody gets up and starts to sing two songs you could have sung to your sweetheart. I mean, it's crossover songs they call them. And now this church was started by a poll. They took a poll to find out what the neighborhood wanted. And then they had a skit about how to buy a car. A funny skit for ten minutes had nothing to do with the gospel. Just a skit. And then somebody walks in the back of the church, a Ph.D. Two Ph.D. pastors. A Ph.D. walks up. No Bible in his hand. He had a little piece of paper and a message on how to be at ease on your job. How to find the right job and how to be at ease about a job. Had nothing to do about the gospel at all. And I'm sitting there looking at this crowd of people. I'm looking at couples that I'm sure are having problems in their life. I'm looking at this crowd of young people who are sitting there bored. I'm looking at this whole thing. And this is all a result of a poll. The world is not impacted by superchurches. The world is not impacted by massive buildings or massive memberships. It's impacted only by Holy Ghost's inexposing truth that gets into the heart and changes it. That is the only thing that impacts the world. The world is not impressed by a church and a theater on Broadway. If people came in here and did not hear something that struck their heart, if it did not expose the deep sin that's hidden in their heart, if the Holy Ghost wasn't here, it's just another show. In fact, Mr. Niederlander, who has so many theaters here, after Cats shut down last week, I saw him a few days before it shut down, and he said, Reverend, you've got the longest running show on Broadway now. You know, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. And he couldn't interpret it. He's a troubled man. He's a troubled man. He couldn't remember what the dream was. And nobody, none of the astrologers, none of the sources knew what the man needed. They didn't have any concept. They were out of the loop. They had no way of knowing how to get to that man's heart. And he represents the modern mindset who could say, look, I have all the material possessions a man could want. I have power. I have influence. I have unlimited chariots. I have access to every pleasure known to mankind. But I have no peace. I'm a troubled man. I can't sleep. I have a question in my heart. I have no answers. And if you intellectuals, if you astrologers, and you cultists, yes, and even you, Daniel, and all your holy men with you, if you can't dissolve my doubts, you have no reason to exist. You're all dead. You have no right to exist, he's saying, as a church. You have no right to be called a man of the cloth. If you can't dissolve my doubts, if you can't touch my heart, you have no reason to be alive. When the nation begins to see the handwriting on the wall, when judgment becomes so evident in this nation, they're not going to be turning to prosperity preachers. They're not going to be talking to those who said, all is well. When the finger appears, and handwriting is on the wall, and I see that finger appearing right now, the finger is already here, and when that finger begins to write judgment, and everybody knows it's beginning to happen, there had better be some Daniels around who can read the times. There had better be some praying people, not only in the pulpit, but in the pew, who know what God is doing, who are not afraid, who have the answer, because everybody's going to be like Nebuchadnezzar. They're going to have doubts. They're going to have fears. There will be churches all over the United States and around the world when people get upright in the middle of the servant. I'll tell you, how many skits do you think they're going to be when the handwriting comes? How many jokesters in the pulpit? How much straw is going to be preached, and given and fed to the people, when the people are losing everything they have? Many are going to be losing their houses, and their lands, and their possessions, and they're going to get upright in the middle of the message and say, Pastor, what's happening? What's going on? You didn't tell us. You didn't warn us. Oh, I get tired of warning, yes. I get tired of the word doomsday preacher. I get weary of it, yes, in my flesh, but there's something in my heart. I know that when the handwriting comes on the wall, it's going to be just like Nebuchadnezzar. Who has the answer? Who understands the times? Who can dissolve my doubts? We had better be there. We had better be men and women of God on our knees. He turned to his astrologer. He said, You're stalling. You don't have the answer, and I see that stalling in the pulpit today because men have lost touch with God. I thank God for the praying preachers, but there are so few, so few. Like the man I told you about, Pastor, 1,200 people asked me and my wife out for dinner, and his wife said, We asked you out because my husband has a confession. She said, Honey, you better tell him, or I'll tell him. I thought it was going to be adultery. And he blurted out, He says he's a pastor today. He said, I have to acknowledge. You're preaching God to hold him. He said, I have not prayed in one year. I've not prayed in one year. Successful pastor, people, church growing, because there were certain people coming who wanted to hear what he had to say because there was no power in it to convict them. Go to Daniel, 5th chapter. Now, this is Belshazzar. This is Nebuchadnezzar's son. In the same hour came forth the fingers of a man's hand and rode over against the candlestick, against the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king spake and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing and show me the interpretation thereof shall be clothed with scarlet and have a chain of gold about his neck and shall be the third ruler of the kingdom. Then came in all the king's wise men, but they could not read the writing nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof. Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his lords were astonished. They were absolutely astonished. Folks, just wait. Look at me now. Just wait. The day is not far off when those who are chasing silver and gold are going into shock, and just as these men, their knees are going to tremble. Absolutely tremble. You remember the story in the fifth chapter. Nebuchadnezzar sent Belshazzar being on the throne. He has a great feast to a thousand of his lords and princes, and in a drunken stupor he calls for his servants to bring in the golden chalice and the vessels, the drinking vessels that they had, that Nebuchadnezzar's father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem. They began to drink wine out of the consecrated vessels, and that's when the finger of judgment appeared. The finger of God always appears suddenly. It always appears suddenly, and so it will once again. Once again our world leaders, our national leaders are going to tremble. Their knees are going to smite one against the other. Their countenance is going to change. They're going to be astounded, greatly troubled. That's happening right now all over Europe. Europe dollar is collapsing, and unless they moved in two days ago, it would have collapsed. It may collapse next week. They're trying to bring it back, but even after billions of dollars infused in the euro dollar, it's shaking. Strikes right now because of high oil prices all over Europe, and folks, everywhere you look there's handwriting on the wall. God is warning. Just before the last depression, God tried to warn America with incredible storms, and then came a famine. There came a drought in the Midwest from Texas through Oklahoma, and the great dust storms. Folks, we see the handwriting on the wall. It's happening right now. Right now, 75 days without rain. The ground is cracking, opening up, and there are dust storms. They've got the red storm now. The red sky over Houston, they call it. The same red sky that came just before the depression in 1929. Folks, the very same thing is happening over and over again. Somebody said, here he goes again trying to scare the daylights out of me. No. We are blind to these things. The handwriting is on the wall now. Folks, they're not going to be turning to these prosperity preachers. They will not turn to those who said, all is well. That is being preached from our Pentecostal pulpits, Baptist pulpits, evangelical pulpits, that God will never bring down America because we send missionaries. God will never judge us. Forget this talk about an economic collapse. Forget it. Chapter 6, verse 11. This now is, I'm skipping now. I'm leaving. I'm going to leave Belshazzar for just a moment. I want to go back now to Darius. This is another time because I've got to move very quickly now. Daniel's been appointed over these three presidents and over 120 princes for over 120 provinces. And they see in this man's life something that made them very jealous. They see the wisdom that they don't have. They see the blessing of God and the favor on this man. They see the respect that he has, and they attribute it. There's no question they attribute it to those prayers that he'd been praying three times a day out his window toward Jerusalem. They tie it to that. And in their jealousy, they initiate this decree to try to stop Daniel. Now, folks, when I talk about hell-shaking prayer, how incensed the devil must have been that he organizes the entire government structure of an empire against one man. All the princes, 120 princes gathered together said, We have got to stop this man. These prayers of this man. He's the only Jew. The others are Medes and Persians. He's one Jew. He's one praying man. Now, folks, nobody else seems to be praying except the Hebrew children. I told them, Daniel, that God always has a man. He's always searching for a man, and God always finds a man. When I talk about a man, I'm talking about a kind of a man or a kind of a woman. They make this decree that no one is to pray to any god. Now, there were many gods. There were many religions in Babylon, because they brought captives from all of their conquered nations, and they brought them and allowed them to worship their gods. They feared offending any of their gods. And so they make a decree that no one can worship anybody but Darius himself. And they make this decree. But I want you to know something, folks. Scripture says that, in so many words, Darius says to Daniel, all these who told me all this will have nothing to say to me. They cannot interpret the time. They can't interpret the handwriting on the wall. Listen to Scripture. It says, But I have heard of you, Daniel, that you can dissolve doubts. It's in verse 16. You can dissolve doubts and read the times. You can resolve doubts. Folks, I want you to know that when hard times come, when people are in trouble, when they're sick and afflicted, and they're having family problems and things go wrong, they're not wanting empty, foolish, candy-cotton preaching. They don't want something that tells them they're all right. They want to hear the truth. They want it unadulterated. They want it even piercing, if it's necessary. They want the truth. He said, I need my doubts dissolved. You're a pastor here of a church. I'm telling you, you had better be a man of prayer in the days ahead because your people are going to want their doubts resolved. They're going to want a man in the pulpit that can stand there and reassure them what is happening and what is coming in the near future. I'm amazed at the terrible misconception in the church world today about what the world wants. You see, all these polls and everything else, they've come up with these ideas that work only in a time of prosperity, when all things are well. But none of these things work when the handwriting appears. None of it works when the difficult times are coming and people's families are breaking up and their children are going to drugs and their bank accounts begin to diminish. The finger of God is on the wall. Now we have a Belshazzar and a thousand lords trembling, a thousand lords who don't need a skit, a thousand lords who are shaking, a thousand politicians who don't know what's happening, a thousand politicians that are astonished. What is happening? Nobody has an answer. They're in fear and trembling. And Daniel comes on the scene and they tell us that people don't want to hear preaching about sin anymore. They tell us that you have to be non-confrontational. There's a church in San Diego, a charismatic church that advertises, I told you this, this ain't your mama's church. Fifteen minutes of singing, fifteen minutes of lecture and football scores during the service. But wait. Wait till the wall, your finger appears. Daniel comes on the scene, not to flatter. He doesn't come to give them what they think they want. He knows because he's been on the knees what they need. Listen to what he said, Thou Belshazzar, you have not humbled your heart. You have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. Your days are numbered. Your kingdom is finished. Your weight in God's balance, your found wanting. Belshazzar, it's all over. He told it like it was. He told it unadulterated, untainted and they loved it. They wanted it. They put a gold neck on his chains, a satin robe on him and make him the third ruler of the whole kingdom. It's what they wanted to hear. They wanted truth that would set them free. Folks, we came to New York City to start a church. When we first saw a whole row of transvestites, when I looked down one day and saw all these men dressed, looked like very pretty women. Some very pretty blondes. I'm not making fun, but I stood there and said, Oh God, what kind of preaching is he going to take? Drug addicts, alcoholics, people that were raising hands and praising the Lord and still performing in these shows that were vile and filthy. What kind of preaching? Non-confrontational? Am I going to come down with a pad and pencil and line them up and say, Now, what would you like me to preach so that I can keep you coming back? Do you want the organ out? You don't like the songs up here? Tell me what you want. We'll give it to you. Never. This church would be empty. This church would have been closed in six months. They would have left us out of town because every one of those down there were hungry. They had doubts that needed to be resolved. They wanted the truth. And it came forth with power and unction and love and grace. And it changed their lives. And many of them are here. Some of them are in the house tonight. Let me talk to you about the perils of a praying man. A praying man is a scourge of hell. And Satan will do everything in his power to shut him down. In Daniel's case, this initiation of a conspiracy. The president sought to find occasion against Daniel. And they couldn't. They couldn't find adultery. They couldn't find covetousness. They couldn't find pride. They couldn't find ambition. They couldn't find anything. Now, when they sought occasion, I believe that one of those occasions was this. And it came right out of the pits of hell. And it's one of the prime occasions the devil seeks against every Christian, every one of you listening. And I want you to hear me well now. I believe that they tried to involve Daniel in so much state business that he'd have no time to pray, make him the busiest man because he was sneaking off. Let's just pile it on him. Let's give him so much to do. Let's make him so busy he'll have no time to pray. This is one of the occasions I call the conspiracy of interruptions. I'm certain the devil conspired with his co-presidents to involve Daniel in job-related busyness that would take him away from the secret closet. Ask preachers today why they don't pray. One after another. I have no time. By the time I fulfill all the demands on my time, I can't do it. All I have time to do is to go, and many go to the Bible just to find a text and preach on it. They go to the Bible just to get a sermon. And you ask any businessman that's not praying anymore, I just don't have the time. It's a conspiracy of interruptions right out of hell. It is one of the most dangerous things that can happen to a preacher or to any of us that are here tonight, businessmen, businesswomen, and career people, and even housewives. I don't have time. By the time I get my children dressed enough for school and get my house cleaned, I don't have time. The philosopher Soren Kierkegaard referred to busyness of Christians as a narcotic. I don't agree with everything Kierkegaard writes, but he has some powerful warnings to busy Christians. He said it leads to double-mindedness. He spoke of men falling deeper and deeper into busyness while their love for the truth slipped more and more into oblivion. He said it's a mass of connections, the stimuli of activity, ever-increasing calls upon one's time, the more impossible for any to understand the danger he's in. The mirror of God's word is there, but you have to stand still to see a reflection. But he said the busy man is now moving so fast he has no time to reflect. He rushes by now and he sees nothing. He may even carry the mirror in his luggage, but he doesn't take it out to see and look and judge himself. Worst of all, the busy man is in worse condition than a man with a life-killing disease because that man, though he may not be able to stop the deadly disease, he sees the symptoms growing worse. But the busy man has a condition, becomes more and more agreeable, more and more comfortable. The disease of busyness is easier to excuse. He becomes less prayerful, less conscious about the things of God, and his convictions begin to wane. And finally his actions prove that he's lost the heat of his convictions. But Daniel was wide awake to this attempt to try to get him so busy he was no longer in the secret closet of prayer. He prayed in spite of it, even knowing that he would end up in the lion's den. And you know the rest of the story. The decree calling for a 30-day moratorium on prayer was signed, and Daniel winds up in the lion's den. Now I'm not going to get into the lion's den. I'm going to change direction here for just a minute, and I'm going to pose this question. How does a man or woman become a man or woman of prayer? What was it that motivated Daniel to pray so powerfully and shake hell that the devil had to organize a whole empire to try to shut him down? He was that effective. One man was that effective with God. What is it that brings about a praying man, that a man at 80 years of age is praying with more intensity than when he was a young man? Here's a young man. Here's an 80-year-old man that is seeing clearer than he's ever seen. He's hearing from God clearer than he's ever heard before. He's 80 years of age, and he's lost nothing of the touch of God. What was it about him? What motivated him? Where did he get that desire to pray, that motivation to pray? I want to know because I'm getting up there. You see, Daniel lived in the New York of his day. He lived in a time of spiritual apathy, of drunkenness, love of money, and great temptations, and he's a busy leader, and he lived in a time when very few were praying. But why would an 80-year-old preacher pour his heart out to God so fervently in the face of a lion's den? You see, prayer does not come natural. Flesh and the devil conspire against it, and it's so easy to start praying that it's hard to continue in it. So many have been called to prayer and started and maintained it for a while and then began to wane over and over. But you see, in a time of spiritual declension and prior to judgment, God has always, all through the Bible, the Scripture said, has gone looking. He's gone searching for those that were seekers after him. Remember in Jeremiah, the fifth chapter, don't turn there. We hear God pleading, Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem. See now and seek if you can find a man that executes judgment, that seeks the truth, and I'll pardon. He said, I'll pardon all the sins if I can just find one man that will seek my heart. There were people who no longer grieved over sin. They refused correction. They were fully fed and blessed and prospered, committing adultery, now running with harlots. And they'd broken all the bonds of morality. And God says, I'm just looking for a praying man. I'm looking for a seeker after my own heart. You find it again in Ezekiel 23 when you read of the times, similar to ours, a conspiracy of the prophets, ministers ravening wolves, raving after innocent souls, stealing from the poor and the widows, priests who violate God's law, pastors profaning His holy things, putting no difference between the holy and the unholy, hiding their eyes from sin, prophets full of vanity, preaching lies, false prophets saying thus saith the Lord when God said no such thing. God's people were oppressed and robbed and vexed. And God cries out, I seek for a man among you that should make up their heads and stand in the gap before me that I should not destroy, but I found none. God forbid that he should be in this house tonight seeking you, seeking me, and find us not. God forbid it should happen in this generation, especially among those who are seekers. When God found this man in Daniel, you see the kind of man God is searching for is going to be found with the word of God in his hand and his heart. You see, God moved on Daniel. Daniel is praying now in the ninth chapter of Daniel. You'll find him with his word on his lap, and he's searching and he's seeking the word. And he discovers that this is the seventh year, 70th year, the prophesied time that God would deliver Israel. You see, God goes through the land. He searches every church in the nation. He searches every pastor's study. He goes through every church looking for seekers. He's looking for those who are into the word of God, who have taken time, not because some preachers put them under conviction, but there's something in their heart. They see the things happening. They see the immorality. They see what's happening in the land. They see the moral degeneracy, and there's something stirring in their heart, and they go to the word of God. And it's that person that's in the word of God. It's the person that's beginning to read the times through the word. You can't know the times except through being shut in with God in this word. You don't know what's coming. You don't know what's going to come to your life. You don't know what's happening. But this is how a man of prayer, a woman of prayer, is made by the hand of God. Not only faith comes by reading the word of God, but a spirit of prayer from the Holy Ghost comes through being shut in with God. This is where Daniel got his knowledge. That's where he got his wisdom. He was a man just like you and me. He's a man of like passions. He was not a saint any more than you and I are as far as being perfect. And after he read that, he said, I set my face to the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication and began to fast with sackcloth and ashes, and I prayed to the Lord my God. You see, Daniel being a man of word becomes a man of prayer. You can't become a man or woman of prayer without being a man or woman of the word. The praying man who shakes hell is the one to whom God has revealed the conditions of his church, and that man humbles himself and identifies with that condition. He identifies with it. Daniel's discovered the time for God to bless his church. He looks at the church and he says, God may be ready to bless, but we're not ready to receive. He looked at the saddened condition of the church of that day, and he said, we're satiated with the sins of Babylon. We've become prosperous and comfortable. We've drifted from the moral standards that we once honored, and God, I believe, put this grief in Daniel's heart. He said, God is ready to restore his church. He's ready to revive. But we're in no condition to respond to God's desire because our minds are polluted. Babylon is on the brink of destruction. It's on its last legs, but we are divorcing. We're indulging. Our minds have been corrupted. Our families are falling apart. We're breaking God's laws. We're ignoring the warnings of the prophets. We're no longer obeying God. We've drifted away from him. It's all in the ninth chapter. Go home and read it. It's all there. Pray for revival like you will. Talk about everything God wants to do, and he does, and God has a heart to bless his people and bless his church and bless your family and mine, but if our minds are polluted with the things of this world, if we are not seeking his face, we are in no position to receive his blessings. Let's focus for a moment on our wicked nation. I'm not going to prolong this. Militant homosexuality rules in America unopposed. In California now, there's a law. Homosexuality is being taught. It's forced teaching, starting in first grade that homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle. First grade. Drunkenness now that used to be only on a college campus among young people now has hit the high schools. It's been on the front page of Time. It's been in Newsweek. It's been in national headlines. It's been in USA Today, the drunken binges in high schools all over America and even in Christian high schools. Today, we have the internet superhighway. Now, listen to me, please, and I am not exaggerating. I can back it up. I've seen it in the papers and I've seen other accounts. 90%, not of content, but of activity on the internet, 90% is pornography. I was handed a letter this morning from a schoolteacher that's in this church and probably here tonight. She said they're monitoring the 15, 16-year-olds. It's their other computers. They called from main office and said look in your classroom and 15-year-olds were into pornography, watching terrible filth. Parents, I want to tell you something. If you're trusting your teenagers in their room all by themselves with a computer, with Napster, they can download that and you trust your teenagers, you're foolish. Don't ever trust a teenager. No, no clapping. Christian mother told me last week she wanted to know what's happening. Spirit was speaking to her heart. She went, she didn't know anything about computers, so she went to computer class just to learn, to tap in, and to see what her teenager was watching. She learned how to tap in and saw all the connections to Napster, songs by Charlie Manson, songs about cop killing, songs with F words, songs about death, songs about suicide. She started to weep and cry and then looked at the other sites, at all the pornography sites, filthy pornography sites. She said her husband got so aggravated he just ripped it, just ripped it out of the house, ripped it out of the house. So she went to another mother, another family with a teenager, said, do you know what your kid's watching? Oh, I trust my teenager. She said, but would you like to see? And so she went into that computer, found the same thing. Folks, we've lost a whole generation of kids and I've often wondered why teenagers of Christian parents can come to this church. I have preached sometimes under such an anointing I knew that the spirit of the Lord was on me as if I were in heaven. And I knew that I stood between heaven and hell as a man standing in the gap. And I've seen Christian teenagers sit right in this church with their hands folded down, bored and chewing gum. And I said, how can that happen when hard and old time sinners are getting up and walking down the aisle and somewhere shaking and their knees trembling and a teenager sitting there chewing gum, totally untouched. Until you find out their minds have been satiated and they can't get those visions out of their mind because if you're watching pornography, sir, or ma'am, and there are many of you sitting here right now, you're tuning in, you're watching that filth and it's satiating your mind and that's why you don't pray. That's why you're not reading your Bible. You got your mind polluted. And all over the United States we're getting letters now from pastors' wives who said, I've been trying to find out why my husband has changed. He doesn't love me anymore. He's empty in the pulpit. He has no anointing. What's happened to him? And they find out. They open the door and they see their husbands watching filthy pornography. And here's the prayer that shakes hell. It's the man or woman who sees the condition. God shows him the condition of the church and the nation and something rises up because he's been in the Word or she's been in the Word and says, oh God, I don't want to be a part of this. I don't want to get caught up in this world, this cesspool of iniquity. I don't want my eyes polluted. I don't want to be a part of this. I don't care who doesn't pray. I'm going to pray. I don't care who doesn't read the Bible. I'm going to read my Bible. I want nothing to do with it. And the cry of my heart, night and day, I'm starting to take on ministers' conferences and I'm saying, oh God, I'm too old to care what people think anymore. My God, we're losing a whole generation. We're losing our kids. Even in this church. We have people who can sit in church and be unmoved because they're into filth. Preachers all over the nation. I had a minister friend who went to Germany and the superintendent of a Pentecostal movement said, don't mention pornography because almost every preacher that's in our meeting goes to bed at night with pornography. And I cry, oh God, where are the voices? Where are the people that cry out against it? Where are the praying people? And I say, God, whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. Keep me on my knees. Daniel wasn't on a soapbox. He wasn't yelling at his crowd at what they were doing. He said, we have sinned. He identified with the sins of the people. He said, to us belong confusion of faith because we have sinned against him. We have been disobedient. We have rejected his voice. And I say the same thing. God, open my heart to what's happening in my own life. Show me where I have been drifting. Show me where I lack, oh God, to deal with it. I have so much more but I'm going to quit. Let's stand. Hallelujah. Folks, I don't produce conviction. I can't move anybody's heart. If you've been moved by the Holy Ghost tonight, if God's touched you, if he put anything, if he put his finger on anything in your life, you say, Pastor David, I'm not a man of prayer. I'm not a woman of prayer. You may want to come down here and say, God, I'm taking a step tonight. I want you to forgive me for drifting. You know, people who backslide don't even know they're backsliding. They become, that's the narcotic Kierkegaard talked about. Become dull and sensitive to their own needs. And then we're backsliding in their prayerlessness. If there's a need for you to come down, up in the balcony, go up the stairs and either side down, anyhow. And in the annex, just go forward between the screens and stand there so I can pray for you there. I don't know how to give an altar call tonight except if you're not right with God, this is the time. If you've been backslidden, if you're not right with Jesus, come. And if God's putting his finger on something, obey him. Don't say no to the Holy Ghost. Don't say no to the Holy Spirit. Don't shake off conviction. That's dangerous. Move in tight. Move in close, please. And while they're ministering in music, would you step out? Only as the Holy Spirit leads you, we're gonna pray for you and ask God to do something supernatural in your life tonight. Obey him as he speaks to your heart. ♪ Create in me the clear God Hold the right spirit within me The right spirit within me Cast me not away From thy presence O Lord Take not thy Holy Spirit from me Restore unto me The joy of thy salvation And renewal Hold the right spirit within me The right spirit within me Cast me not away From thy presence O Lord Take not thy Holy Spirit from me Restore unto me The joy of thy salvation And renewal The right spirit within me The Lord loves his church. He loves his people with an undying love. But we are so bent on going our own way. We're so bent on drifting. We're so bent on giving up that burden of the Lord. That's why God has to keep building a fire on this. And that's what I believe. The house of God is for encouragement. I believe it's for healing. I believe it's for the ministering of grace. But it's also for the ministering of stirring up our hearts and our minds to continue in his grace, to continue fervently before the Lord. I know he has to do that in me. He has to do that in me every day. He has to keep stirring my heart. I want that. I don't want to drift. I want that stirring in my heart. Has God stirred your heart tonight? Do you feel the moving of the Holy Spirit? That's a wonderful thing to have, the Holy Spirit moving on you. If that's the case, thank God for that because you're in a position to be touched and blessed. I want everybody in the annex that have come forward, I want to pray for you in here, in the main house first. I want everyone, first of all, that's coming back. You've been drifting. You've been cold. You're coming back to the Lord tonight to be restored and healed in your spirit. I want you to pray with me right now. Let's everyone. Everybody that came forward, raise both hands. And in the annex, just lift both hands. The Bible said I would never lift holy hands to the Lord. Will you pray this prayer from deep inside your heart? Lord Jesus, I do love you. I need a touch. Forgive me, Jesus, for neglecting you. I repent. I'm sorry. Don't let me get too busy. Don't let me go away from the Word. Woo me back to the closet of prayer. Lord, forgive my sin. Forgive my iniquities and cleanse me. Give me clean eyes and a pure heart. Let me not be involved with the sins of this generation. Give me power over the seduction of Satan. Now, let me pray for you. Father, I pray for those that are coming to you now. I don't believe they have to scream at you or yell or beg or plead. You said you're more willing to give than we are to receive. Holy Ghost, minister to those in the annex now. And minister to those here in the main auditorium who've taken a step. Lord Jesus, blot out those iniquities. Blot out that neglect. Lord, you said my people forgot me days without number. Let that not be said of us anymore. Forgive us for neglecting you, oh God. You've been calling this church to prayer. You've been calling us all to prayer. Lord Jesus, for those that have been indulging in internet pornography, those, Lord, that have been indulging in things that you have forbidden in your word, these things that take away the anointing, these things that put us to sleep, these things that cause us to lie to ourselves and our families. Forgive us, oh God. Blot it all out. Let there be a cleansing of the blood of Jesus tonight, a wonderful cleansing. I want you to raise your hands right now and pray this right from your heart. Jesus. I receive the cleansing, healing power of Jesus right now, the blood of Christ applied to my heart. By faith, I am forgiven and I am free. Lord Jesus, give me power now of the Holy Ghost to worship and praise and seek your face. Thank you, Jesus. I want you to give him thanks and praise in your own words. Thank him. Praise him.