Mike Bickle emphasizes the lifestyle of an effective intercessor through the example of Daniel, who, despite his weaknesses, maintained a consistent prayer life for decades, demonstrating that a righteous lifestyle enhances the power of prayer. Bickle highlights that Daniel's prayers moved angels and shifted spiritual strongholds, encouraging believers to embrace a similar commitment to prayer and obedience. He asserts that the grace available in the New Covenant empowers believers to live righteously, thus enhancing their effectiveness in prayer. The sermon calls for a deep, personal history with God, urging individuals to remain steadfast in their faith regardless of life's challenges or distractions.

In our last session, last week, we considered the effectiveness of Daniel's prayer. We are in Daniel chapter 10 on the subject of strongholds, and we're going to continue just a little bit on that subject of Daniel chapter 10 because the only message in Daniel 10 is not just that Daniel had prayer that moved angels and demons, etc., but there's a lifestyle behind that kind of authority in prayer. Paragraph A, Daniel's prayer resulted in an increase of activity of high-ranking angels to resist powerful demons. I mean, here we have a weak man. Don't get a kind of a hero status version of Daniel. He was a weak and broken man, powered by the grace of God. We actually have more grace available to us in the New Covenant than he had. Daniel's prayers had a significant impact on shifting things in the Spirit. The reason the story of Daniel's in the Bible to give us a vision, beloved, there's a desire in God's heart that people, even in this hour of history, interact with him in that way. I mean, just normal people. Daniel was a young Jewish boy that was taken as a slave, probably in his late teens, taken off to a foreign country as a prisoner. Had to learn a new language, was a slave all of his life. But he had a vision. He said, you know what? I'm not going to draw back just because circumstances are tough. We kind of read the end of the story and how glorious some of the visions Daniel had, but we can easily lose track of the mundane routineness of his life and the impact that he had with God just by the way that he lived for 80, 90 years. Paragraph B, how would you like to have your prayers move angels and demons in the way that his did? Or to experience similar results, I mean, a different application, but the same kind of results? Well, if we want a greater effectiveness in prayer, along the lines of Daniel, we want to embrace the values Daniel embraced. Again, the story is in the Bible for our encouragement, for our instruction, it says in 1 Corinthians 10. Well, paragraph C, we're going to take just a moment of review from last semester in the third class. In the last semester, we talked about the effectual prayers of a person who's embracing a righteous lifestyle. I'm just going to mention it and just refer you back to that third session last semester. James chapter 5, verse 16, James said, the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man. It has great impact. It doesn't matter how much money they have, how popular they are, how much skill they have, anybody has access to this promise. Last semester, I highlighted in that session four points that James is making in James 5. We're not going to develop those points tonight, but I'm just going to reference them. He talked about the prayer that was rooted in faith or confidence and who Jesus is and who we are in Christ, etc. He talked about prayer that was in context to godly relationships. Not just the prayer in isolation, but those that are actually pursuing godly relationships. The point I want to mention tonight is the lifestyle of righteousness. But also, the effective prayer is a prayer that engages with God but stays with it, is the idea, over the years. Not just for a summer or a semester, but stays with it, like Elijah did, like Daniel did. Paragraph D, John said that whatever we ask, we receive. Now he gives this very strong statement that really sets some believers back. They don't like this. They look at this and they go, wait, maybe John didn't understand the grace of God. Well, he did, of course, but he says we ask, whatever we ask, we receive, because we keep God's commandments. Like, what? And because we do the things that are pleasing to Him. Now just at a quick glance, it sounds like we're earning our answered prayers. And that's not what John's saying, because the rest of 1 John, he makes it abundantly clear in the context that the grace of God is free and we love because God first loved us. But he's highlighting that there is a place to make sincere, long-term decisions for righteousness. Many people, even that talk about prayer in the prayer movement, they don't emphasize this in very important biblical New Testament principle. Paragraph E, the New Testament has much to say about our lifestyle and its relationship to our effectiveness in prayer. The truth of the grace of God doesn't cancel out the benefit of living in agreement with love, which is called obedience. Obedience isn't earning, but it's living in agreement with God's heart and His leadership and His love. It's through the blood of Jesus. And it's in response to our agreement with God, that's called faith. We offer our prayers in weakness. But they ascend in power. I mean, we offer our prayers, we don't feel the power of them. They don't seem very powerful because we don't feel them. We imagine God doesn't feel them. Paragraph F, I want to emphasize again, because we're looking at Daniel and sometimes when you use an Old Testament example, some people go, that's Old Testament. This is New Testament, as though the idea they're implying is Old Testament. They obeyed God. In the New Testament, it doesn't matter because we have grace. And that's a real confusing, well, it's a deception and it's just based in utter confusion. And so the reason I'm taking the time to say that, because some, they'll cancel out Daniel's life and the instruction and encouragement of it because it's Old Testament. Old Testament was grace of God that would empower obedience, free forgiveness. New Testament, grace of God empowers obedience, free forgiveness. God doesn't change between the two Testaments. There's a lot of confusion that some ministries promote related to that. Paragraph F, I want you to really get encouraged and get a vision by Daniel's life. Not let some person cancel that out by some non-biblical argument that they present with great persuasion and you might go, wow, okay, well, that's sad because I was so inspired by Daniel. I guess I got to throw that out. No, don't go there. Be encouraged by what Daniel did. Daniel's life, he didn't earn power in prayer, but he positioned himself by his lifestyle to live in greater agreement. It's the greater agreement with God that makes our prayers more effective. We don't earn anything by it, but when we bring ourself into agreement, there's a greater connection. There's a greater manifestation of the glory of God in our hearts and our lives. Paragraph G, what does a lifestyle of effective intercession look like? Well, we're using Daniel as an example. We could use Paul. We could use John. We could use a number of New Testament examples, but I'm wanting to use the example that we pointed to last week related to breaking spiritual strongholds and shifting things in the spirit in Daniel chapter 10. But when you consider Daniel's life, the first, I mean, the things I want to point out, his consistency in prayer for decades, Daniel said it was his custom in his 80s. He said, it was my custom, or it describes his custom that from his youth, his probably late teens, early twenties, we're talking 60 years. It was his custom to be in prayer three times a day for 60 years. Can you imagine a young, a teenager, late teens, early twenties, making that resolve after his nation had been in crisis, his city was destroyed. He's removed from his family, taken prisoner to a hostile nation, and that's his custom. He says, you know, I'm going to set my heart down. I'm not going to be offended. I'm going to go the other direction. I'm going to see something happen in the realm of the spirit. It's remarkable. So we see his consistency in prayer for decades. We find out it's over six decades. We see his determination to walk in obedience. His obedience wasn't perfect, undoubtedly. There was failure, setbacks, because he's a weak human being. We see his determination to understand the purpose of God for his own generation. He wanted to know what God was doing in his generation, paragraph two, or Roman numeral two, cultivating a history in God. That's just a term that I've used over the years. I've heard others use it, that each of us have a personal history in God. Daniel had a long one. What I mean by a history in God, it's the history in how we responded to Jesus with love, faith, diligence. Some people have a very deep and rich history in God. They've been doing it for decades. Other folks, they're just beginning, but they've got a vision to have a deep history in God. Beloved, every one of us are developing our secret history in God right now. Meaning secret, it's the history that only God knows. It's not how big your ministry, it's not how many people are celebrating what you're doing or recognizing it. Your history in God is far deeper and richer than that. And all of us are cultivating our own history in God in a very intentional way, and we're seeking to go deep, or our history in God stays at a superficial level, but God remembers it all. Here in Hebrews six, for God is not unjust to forget. He will not forget your labor of love. The love you've shown towards Him and the things you've done. God declares it in justice if He forgets one thing you've done. Your history in God, the way you've interacted to Him, responded to Him in love. I mean, some of you, since you were five years old, you know, some of you might be 25, maybe you've got a 20-year history. That counts. It doesn't just begin after you get your driver's license. Your history, God, some of you began when you were five years old. You were serious about God, and God took you seriously. We may forget the details of it. I don't remember the details of what I did in February when I was 16 years old and 18 years old or whatever, but God remembers it. I know I was devoted to the Lord. I know I prayed and sought the Lord and served Him and believed Him and had setbacks and failures and all, you know, the whole thing. But God remembers all that. I can't even remember. I don't know what I did back in those days. I remember a few general things, but He remembers every day. Top of page 2, Daniel 6. This is Daniel's in his 80s in Daniel 6. This is Daniel and the lion's den. The Persian authorities are going to, are testing him. They're trying to trap him and trick him. And they said, if anybody prays to any God except for the, you know, the customs of the Persians and honoring the Persian king, et cetera, that kind of thing, let him be thrown to the lion's den and destroyed. And Daniel said, I'm not stopping because there's a law against it. He goes, I'm going to pray three times a day. That's been my custom since I first came here 60 years ago, and I'm not going to stop. And my point isn't his courage when he was in his 80s. That's kind of one of the main points here. My point is the consistency from his 20s when I was in my 20s, I read those verses like this and some other ones I said, Lord, ah, Ooh, I like this. I want to say this 20, 30, 40 years later, by the grace of God, whatever paragraph C now we know you hear it said, it's not too late to start some of those that are older, but I want to say it the other way. It's not too early to start. You can be 16, be 21. God takes you seriously right now. Well, after I get through this and establish that and get situated, then I'm going to really take off that. That's good. But don't wait till then to take off. Determine now, 20 years old, this is what I'm going to do. You'll look different than Daniel, but when I'm 80, by the grace of God, I'm talking, I'm getting into your prayer life, Lord, when I'm 80, I want to be able to say that it was my custom since I was 20 or whatever. That's just, those are just numbers. Paragraph D, let's, again, let's consider his life. He was taken forcibly to a prison camp. If a foreign nation came in and took you prisoner, you might be mad. Daniel had a vision. I mean, he knew the young people in his city in Jerusalem, I'm assuming wherever, you know, in Israel, maybe Jerusalem, a young, you know, his teens, he had a vision. He wanted to do this. Suddenly he's a slave. He's in a foreign land, in a foreign culture. Some people get so easily offended. Some don't get easily offended, but they do get offended if the situation is just right. And the example I put here is a little, you think, oh, come on, because I'm thinking of a little more dramatic than my example here. Someone doesn't get on the worship team. They don't get the job they're after. They don't get accepted to the university. They go, oh, God, God, I can't believe, Lord, I thought you said, and they could start drawing back and letting go. And if that's how it is, forget it. I didn't get on the team. This is how people are going to treat me. I was a drummer for a few months, and now I'm not the drummer. Forget it. That's how the kingdom is. You don't want to throw away your life vision because somebody bypasses you by, even if it's wrong. It's your life vision. And many people give up their vision in God because they don't, they get mistreated in the job or in the ministry. They get mistreated and give up their own vision and destiny to go deep in God. You can do what you do to me, but I tell you one thing about the grace of God, I'm not letting go of my life vision because of mean people in the body of Christ or outside of the body of Christ. Because when I stand before the Lord, the Lord's not going to listen to anybody's voice about my life but his own, and the same is true of you. Paragraph E, it's common for everyone in their 20s and 30s to face disappointments, setbacks. Daniel had the same setbacks. I mean, the situation was obviously different, but the general disappointments were the same. I mean, he was forced into a celibate lifestyle. He was forced, I mean, his whole life, he was forced into slavery, yet he refused to be offended by what God didn't do. Well, God, if you're really God, deliver me. God says, I am God and you're in the slave camp your whole life. Serve me. Trust me. But not only that, over time, Daniel actually got promoted as a Jewish man in a Babylonian, in an Iraqi camp, slave camps, work camp, I mean, a Jewish boy in Iraq is probably not a real popular thing when the king is against you, the demonized king. But he actually got promoted. But here's a remarkable thing about Daniel. He didn't let his promotion, not just bitterness, that's over here on the left side, go to the right side. He didn't let the promotion stop his vision in God. The devil can't get you in the left ditch. He'll push you hard to the right ditch. If he can't get you off the path by bitterness and disappointment, he'll promote you and try to get you off by popularity. He doesn't care which ditch you get into as long as you get off the path. Over the years of ministry, I've seen different ones where the Lord promotes their ministry and their vision to go deep doesn't last very long after a season of promotion. They had a vision for, you know, their earlier years to go deep and they're promoted in the economic realm, the business world, the ministry, you know, world, they're becoming popular and they are so busy networking and servicing all their opportunities, their vision in God gets set aside for now, but 10 years go by and it's still set aside. The enemy got him through popularity, not through offense. Well, paragraph F, I'm sure Daniel had problems in his 50s and 60s. Some of you guys go, yeah, tell those young people. Well, I'm talking to the old people now. I've seen a lot of well-meaning middle-aged believers, more than middle-aged believers drift away from the commitment of their youth. Some set back, some disappointment, some wonderful opportunities, some just growing responsibilities. The miracle of Daniel is he stayed consistent through the years. This is, this is remarkable. We see his impact in prayer in his 80s in Daniel 10, but we let's connect his life and his impact in his 80s to his 20s and 30s and 40s. Don't separate those. Paragraph G is absolutely remarkable. Ezekiel 14, the Lord spoke to Ezekiel. Let's just read this now, but here's the part I want you to get before we read it. Ezekiel's living in Babylon, the same city in the same hour that Daniel is. They were taken as youth, as youth from Jerusalem or just Israel. They were both taken captive and Ezekiel was in the work camp area and Daniel served in the king's court, but as a slave. They didn't have much fellowship, but they knew of each other. They were peers, contemporaries. The Lord says in verse 13, Ezekiel 14, son of man, he's talking to Ezekiel. When a land sins against me by persistent unfaithfulness, he's talking about Israel right here. I'll stretch out my hand against that land. I'll cut off its bread supply. This is the Lord speaking. I'll send famine on that land to wake them up. I'll cut off men. That means people will die. I'll cut off beasts. You know, the domestic animals in the field related to agriculture, they'll die. The idea of beasts. Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, even if they were in the land, I would only deliver them. If the majority of the land chooses persistent obedience and they won't repent. We don't know what the majority are. We don't know the number, but the Lord says, and he's talking basically about the leaders of the land and because the people follow the leader. He goes, even if Daniel prayed, I'd save Daniel, but if there's persistent rebellion in the leadership and through the system, the culture of that land, now, but nobody knows exactly how to apply that in any given city or nation at any given time because only God knows how far is too far. He goes on in verse 19, he says it again. Even if Daniel prayed, yeah, I'd deliver him, but not that land. But here's my point. My point isn't how far is too far for a nation. That's not my point tonight. By the way, I believe we're not too far. I believe we have a tremendous opportunity for great restoration and revival in our nation. I really do. So I think it's in the balance, but I believe we're going to see tremendous breakthrough of the Holy Spirit in our nation. Many things recovered, many things lost, but many things recovered, but that's not my point of pointing this out. My point is this, it's the only time in the Bible where God uses a man who is alive as the example of prayer. The Bible typically uses a person who died. The Lord appeals to Abraham or Moses years later, long after their life. I mean, it's like if an angel of the Lord appeared to me and said, even if Alan Hood prayed, whoa, that's intense. I mean, for someone alive, this is unprecedented. This is the quality of life that a man in the old covenant without even the indwelling spirit, how he lived and how God's heart was moved. It wasn't that he was heroic in the sense he didn't have sin and temptations and failures. This is how willing God is to move. Top of page three. Well, Daniel had a vision of wholeheartedness. It wasn't just decades of consistency in prayer. It says in Daniel 1.8, now he's back at, you know, we don't know if it's 18 or 22, say about 20 years old. It's back at the beginning of his journey. Daniel chapter one is. Back when Daniel, we'll just use the age 20, again, it's a few years older or younger. We don't know for sure. He purposed in his heart, 20 year old, I'm not going to be defiled. I'm in an ungodly culture. All the young men in the court that he interacted with, they had a whole different lifestyle. Many of them, most of them, he had these three godly friends, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego. My main point here is that even in the face of peer pressures, in the face of a hostile culture, Daniel determined, I'm not going to defile myself. Some people read that and they think, okay, what's the food? Because God had laws for the Jews in that time. And it wasn't in our application. It's not about what kind of food or not food. It's the commitment not to be defiled. The thing that's defiling our culture is the pornography and the immorality, but also the slander, just the tremendous increase of slander, even in the body of Christ. The freedom that believers have to talk and defame one another. You know, this thing through the social media and all these things, it's so defiling to their spirit, even if they win the argument. They lose in God's court, even though they win in man's court. Many things can defile us. And my point is, he set his heart, he goes, I'm not going there. I'm not going there. And, you know, again, he's a weak man. He's a man of the flesh. Undoubtedly, he had times of failure. I don't know what they are. They're not mentioned in the Bible, but humans are humans. But whatever he did, he recovered and set his heart back to stay steady. And the reason I like to mention the weakness of Daniel, lest you get a hero version, a heroic kind of super saint status, then this whole example of Daniel doesn't even move you because he's a super saint. It doesn't matter. He's in another category. What I'm trying to tell you is that he's not in another category. Elijah was a man with a nature-like arms. All of them, David, a nature-like arms. I'm sure at the end of paragraph C, at the end of Daniel's life, you know, when he's 60, 70, 80, those last years, he wasn't saying, oh, I sure wish in my 20s I would have had a little more pleasure. I mean, I just wish I could go back. I miss some opportunities in my 20s and 30s to just really have a ball. Some people think the goal of life is to make sure you have fun. They think the American dream, they get it mixed up with the mandate of the kingdom. I mean, there's a place to have fun, but the mandate is to walk in the first commandment, to love God with all of our heart, to be faithful. Our goal of life isn't to make sure we don't get ripped off of fun. I mean, that just sounds silly, but a lot of folks, that's their mindset. I remember when I was in my 20s, and I don't want to overdo my own life, but I remember at 22, 23, 21, 22, 23 in those days, I'm 59 now. So if you count nine months of the womb, I'm 60. I like to say I'm 60. My wife, we're the same age. She goes, we're not 60. I go, if you believe in a pro-life, you're 60. Don't tell her I said that publicly. Although she, on Friday nights, she's at home often, and she's tracking with me. She'll come home. She goes, you think I didn't hear that? Okay, honey, you know. You're 49, I'm 60. Okay. But anyway, when I was about 22, something like that, the young people, I was in the ministry, and I had a couple hundred young people in my swirl, and we're believing God for revival, and we're calling times of prayer, and we're doing times of fasting. We're not doing a great job, but we're trying. I mean, we're giving ourselves to it. The big argument of the day was Friday and Saturday nights. We've got to have freedom to go have fun. I wasn't really, fun wasn't my life goal. I was wanting to go deep and touch God when I'm in my 20s, and thinking I want to show up one day and be 40 and 50, and I want to be somewhere in God. So I determined back then about maybe 22, maybe 21, I said I'm going to spend, because Friday and Saturday night was the big argument, I said I'm going to spend the rest of my life, every Friday and Saturday night, a few exceptions, 95% plus, in a prayer room or a worship setting, for the rest of my life. I said I'm not afraid of losing anything. I'm going to use Fridays and Saturday nights to go somewhere in God, not to spend my strength and then have to recover from it. Well, 40 years later the Lord's helped me to do that. I'm guessing 95%, maybe more, Friday and Saturday nights for 40 years. I've been in a prayer meeting or a worship setting, it's the same thing, worship prayer, every Friday and Saturday night for 40 years, minus 2 or 3%. I look back, age 60, I have no regrets. Folks told me back then, they said, the old pastors, the 40-year-olds, used to tell me when I was 20, you're going to burn out. I said I'm not worried about burning out, I just don't want to rust out. I said, well, it's 40 years later, I didn't burn out. I got tired a few times, but I didn't burn out. My vision is sharp and I'm engaged, and if I had to do it over again, I would do it over again. I'm not saying you can't go do something on Friday and Saturday night, I just determined to operate in the opposite spirit of what was so powerful in the culture of the young people I was with when I was in my 20s. I just said, I'm going to go opposite, radical, and I'm burning the bridges. Anyway, you don't have to use that example. But go opposite. Don't be captured by what everybody else is doing and all their reasons why they do it. Go deep in God. Look at Romans 4. We're still in Daniel 10. Again, Daniel's in his 80s. The angel appears twice, says it twice, in one chapter. The Lord wants you to know, Daniel, can you imagine an angel saying this? You are greatly beloved by God. Imagine an angel appearing and saying, I have a message for you and your nation, for your generation and for the end of the age. But before I give you the message for your generation, because he had something for his own generation for then, but he also had something for the end of the age, but the Lord says, before, the angel says, before I give you the message, God wants to say, you're greatly beloved in his sight. Then tells him a little bit, and he says, he wants you to know this, Daniel. Could you imagine that? What the angel was saying is the Lord is moved by the way you live. He's moved by your hunger for him. He's moved by your choices to cultivate the relationship. He's moved by the things you decide to do, Daniel. Paragraph B, now we know God so loves the whole world. God loves every unbeliever in the world, but he doesn't enjoy his relationship with them. He loves them, but he doesn't enjoy a relationship with them. God loves every believer, but God has special delight in the lifestyle choices of believers, some believers more than other believers. He loves them, but he loves and delights in their lifestyle choices. They move him. Paragraph C, Jesus taught this, same principle. Jesus, New Testament. Jesus said, he that has my commandments and keeps them. That's the man or woman that loves me, and he says a statement that almost sounds opposite of the teaching of Jesus. He goes, and the person that loves me, my father will love that person. I thought God loved us when we were unbelievers. He does. I thought God loved every believer. He does. Jesus was saying something more than God loves you. The principle that he's talking about, God loves the choices. He loves the hunger that you have. He loves the value you put on the relationship, and Jesus says, I will love that person who loves me. Well, the Bible teaches the other principle, God loves us first, when we have a thought in our mind about him, God loved us, and therefore we loved him. That principle is clear. It's biblical. Jesus understands that principle, but he's saying something different here. I'm not talking about loving you in that way that I love my people. I'm talking about loving the choices and the lifestyle and what you are set your heart after. And he goes on and says, I'll manifest myself to that person. Paragraph D, what a remarkable statement that Jesus would manifest himself in a greater way. We're not talking about you go to heaven with greater security. Heaven is secure. He's not talking about heaven. He's not talking about even the love of God in the general sense. That's solid. That's secure. He's talking about experiencing more, not because you earn it, because you're lining up in agreement with love. When you live in agreement with love, love is a person. You agree with his leadership. You agree with his relationship. You agree with his ways. You agree with his purposes. That's called obedience, the spirit of obedience. Now be clear. No one's good enough to deserve the manifestation of God's glory. It's not about deserving. It's about lining up in agreement with love. And the Lord says, I want you. That's the way you've set your heart. I'm going to manifest myself to you in even a greater way. I mean, the principle in Mark chapter 4, Jesus says to the one that has, even more will be given. It's not about being good enough. It's about positioning ourself. Excuse me, to receive more. Let's go to the top of page 4. It's a miracle of grace for someone to stay consistent for decades. It's a miracle. Consistent doesn't mean they never have a setback. That doesn't mean they don't have a bad day and a bad week. I mean, even spiritually. It means they don't settle in for a season. It's a miracle of grace for someone in the face of positive experiences. I mean, promotions, popularity, prosperity, or the negative ones. To stay steady. To stay locked in. I'm going to say something really sad. Paragraph F. Now you're looking, oh, okay. 40 years of ministry. I've seen many people go hard. Again, I'm 60. When I was 20, I was with a whole bunch of fiery young adults. I was 21, 22 years old. I was like the youth pastor of 500 to 1,000 young people. More like 1,000. I don't know the actual number. But we had days of prayer and fasting and going hard after God. And I saw a lot of young people. I was 22 and 23 years old. On fire for God. I mean, we were reading the biographies and Charles Finney and the Great Awakenings and John G. Lake and David Brainerd. We're all reading the biographies and having days together of seeking the Lord and nights we were meeting together, et cetera, et cetera. I've seen a lot of young people in their 20s make those decisions. And they stay with it five or ten years. But most of them, by the time they reach about 35, that's just an arbitrary number. That's not a magical number. You know, in their 30s, early 40s, whatever, they find good reasons, practical reasons why they need to draw back. They were so on fire for five, six, seven years in their 20s. I've only seen a few. When the numbers are small, 30 years later, still pressing in. And why am I telling you that? I want you to go like, oh, that's horrible. I want that painful, negative feeling that you might have for a moment here. I want you to personalize that and say, that's not me in the grace of God. That's the point at which I'm saying it. I've seen a handful stay steady 20, 30, 40 years. Mostly they stay steady five or ten years, and then they get into the left ditch, disappointment. If that's how people treat people, then all over the kingdom, that, you know, whether they're in the marketplace or ministry or whatever, or they get into the right ditch of promotion and things are going well, and they use all their time and life energies servicing the things going well, whether ministry, business, whatever. Beloved, set your heart. Even if you're 60, you're 80 right now, take the last years and go deep. It doesn't matter who else does. You won't regret it. Romans 5. The next three or four minutes, I have five examples of people who went deep in God for decades. Well, Daniel is remarkable. 60 years, it's history in God. Cornelius, paragraph A, Acts 10. I love the story of Cornelius. You can read it right there in Acts 10. He's a Roman. He's a leader in the Roman army. He's a Gentile. He's in a prayer meeting. He's been living a life of prayer for a long time as a Gentile, unsaved Gentile. Doesn't have the Holy Spirit. Doesn't have a Bible. Doesn't have any anointed prophetic music. Just a Gentile soldier. Verse 2. A devout man. Feared the Lord. Prayed always. What? How is it possible a Gentile, no Bible, no Holy Spirit, not saved, pray always? What is that about? I bet his prayer meetings were boring. No Holy Spirit moving in them. No Bible promises. No prophetic music. I wouldn't want to go to his prayer meetings. I've been to a few of those kinds. Okay. Meaning I led them is what I really mean. Not that bad because everybody was born again. But verse 3. The angel appears. Cornelius! Your prayers are a memorial to God. Meaning God remembers them. And when something's a memorial to God, He remembers it forever. Your prayers move God. I can imagine Cornelius, you know. Really? I mean picture that prayer meeting. No air conditioning. There's none. No music. No Starbucks coffee. No Holy Spirit living in them. No Bible. They're Gentiles. They don't have a Bible. They're sitting there. Four or five crusty old soldiers sitting around on a stone bench. You pray. Oh God, do something. You next. I mean, I've really pictured this guy's prayer meetings. God was moved. The angel appeared. Shock of his life. Paragraph B. Anna. Luke 2. She's married seven years. She's widowed. Probably her mid-20s. Now she's her mid-80s. 60 years later. The Bible gives testimony. She didn't depart from the temple. I mean, obviously she did depart technically. But the point is she was in attendance. She was laid hold of this through her years. Can you imagine 60 years? And the reason they mentioned, I believe, her widowhood in her mid-20s is the approximate time is because that is the time where she's beginning this new lifestyle. I mean, a lot of folks, the situation, widowed. Number one, that's a crisis. Widowed in the ancient world, that's an economic crisis. In addition, I mean, it's an economic crisis anyway, but I mean, there's so many emotional, relational, family dimensions to this. Young lady in her 20s, she responded like Daniel. She went deep in God instead of going the other way. That's remarkable. I mean, the tragedy of what happened in her life. And the story. Paragraph C. The third example is Mary of Bethany. Young, single woman. Never mentioned in the book of Acts. Never known in the court of man for her ministry. Never mentioned in church history. Jesus says, Mary, you've chosen the right thing, and this will never be taken from you. This grace won't be taken from you, and even the reward, the response of God, God's view of it will never, ever be taken from you. I mean, she died and was before the Lord. She saw what that really meant. Jesus is prophesying. Number one, he goes, this will never be taken from you. There's going to be grace on you, Mary, to stay with this. And number two, the fruit of it, the wisdom of it will be there when you stand before the Lord. We find in Mark 10 that Jesus said to her that what she has done is a memorial before God. Like Cornelius, he'll be remembered by God forever. Wow. Got paragraph D, the priest of Zadok, God promised their lineage, a promise of the age to come. He said, because you were faithful, your family line will be blessed. He's talking about the age to come in Ezekiel 44. But think about the individual priests and the way God responds to them. They were faithful for decades. To get this kind of promise in the Bible about their faithfulness related to their family line, he says, your family line will be blessed and be near God. What about the individual priests? The Lord says, oh, tell them personally what I think about the way they lived. But it was decades. It wasn't a summer of kind of fervency. They stood true when the children of Israel were going astray. They kept the sanctuary of the Lord going. They kept the place of God's presence. They were staying involved when the culture was opposite. And then paragraph E, David, this is all the days of my life. This is my goal. All the days. Not just when I'm king. Not just when I'm winning. All the days of my life, this is my life goal. Beloved, you want to be a man or woman after God's own heart, there was an all of the days of my life dimension to David's heart because I'm going to be in the presence of God. And, again, it wasn't like all of his prayer meetings were remarkable and amazing. He had many troubles, many setbacks, many oppositions, many disappointments. But he said, there's one thing I'm sticking with all my days. Not just to be faithful. I'm going to seek the Lord. I'm going hard after him. Beloved, this is the lifestyle that Daniel speaks of. I've asked the Holy Spirit over the years. I said, Lord, I want to be like David, a man of one thing. That's why we use that term, one thing. And when I get off track, when I lose my focus, intervene. Give me a dream. Stir me up in the word. Have another person inspire me by their words, by their example. Trigger me and bring me back even when I'm starting to get into one of those ditches. The left ditch of bitterness and disappointment. I've been treated wrong. The right side of the road, popularity and busyness. Lord, talk to me again. I want to be a man of one thing. Amen. Let's stand. We're going to just take for a moment here. I'm going to pray over you. Just go ahead and stand if you want to. Let's respond to the Lord for a moment or two. And then again for about four or five minutes, I want us to just go around the circle and just say one thing that encouraged you, challenged you, something. And why? Just take 30, 40 seconds each. And then we'll have our break for 15 minutes. We have the coffee over there and drinks. Father, we come before you. Lord, I want to be like Daniel. Lord, I want to be a man that is in agreement with your life and your heart all my days. And the Lord, I mean, he says to you, it's never too late. Start today. Well, I lost all my 20s. Now I'm 30. Well, you've got years ahead. Well, I'm 60. You've got years ahead. It's not too late, the Lord says. It's not too late to start now. It's not too early to start now. Men may not take you seriously, but God will take you seriously at age 20. Set your heart. He will remember all those days. You won't regret missing out on things by giving yourself to this over the years. So, Lord, I ask you for the spirit of grace. I ask you for the spirit of the fear of the Lord. I ask you for the vision to go deep. They're not taken out by the left side of offense and setback and not by the right side of busyness and popularity and prosperity. And I just ask you for your grace to raise up young Daniels in this room. Old Daniels in this room. Men and women. In Jesus' name, amen. And amen again. Let's get groups of four to five. Let's take 30, 40 seconds each. Say one thing and why that challenged you, encouraged you, or something exhorted you to. And then we'll start the countdown.