In this sermon, the speaker shares a personal story of being wounded in battle and how God healed him. He emphasizes the importance of leaders in the spiritual realm and how the enemy targets them to cause havoc. The speaker encourages the audience to have a regular habit of prayer, just like Daniel who prayed three times a day. He also mentions the idea that forming a regular habit can create a positive impact on the brain. Overall, the sermon highlights the significance of prayer and the need for consistent spiritual discipline.

If you would like to follow the message this morning on prayer again, we are looking at this chapter 6 of Daniel. When God looked down on this kingdom of Darius, he saw that his chosen race, Israel, were in captivity. They could no longer worship in the temple at Jerusalem. They were no longer the conveyors of his great laws. They were no longer separate, sanctified unto God. For they had rebelled time and time and time again, despite God's mercy and forgiveness under Moses, under Joshua, under David. And at the end, God allowed them to go into captivity. And as God looked down from heaven, he saw a man who prayed. That's what God saw, Daniel. For Daniel prayed three times a day, every day, despite the fact that he was away from his native land, despite the fact that the whole of his nation, whom he loved, was in captivity, and many of them contaminated by the idols of Babylon, despite the fact that they'd been under three kings, Nebuchadnezzar, Belteshazzar, and now Darius. But all the time, Daniel, every morning, he went to his chamber, and he opened his windows towards Jerusalem, and he knelt down, and he prayed to his God. Then he'd go about his duties, and about noon, at the same set time every day, Daniel would go to his chamber, open his windows to Jerusalem, kneel down, and pray to his God. Then he would go back to his duties again, in the king's house, and an evening, possibly before retiring, he would go to his chamber, open his windows to the starry sky, facing Jerusalem, and he would kneel down, and pray to his God. A regular prayer was Daniel. Every day, despite the circumstances, despite his very responsible position, for he was responsible for the whole realm to the king, God honored Daniel, and God always honors those who pray regularly, consistently, as a divine habit. It's a great mistake to neglect prayer, and Daniel grew in stature. He was the wisest man in the kingdom, and when Darius conquered the Babylonians, he looked round for the sort of men that would be useful, and he chose 120 princes, leaders, men of ability, men of character, men of leadership, men who were wise, and out of those 120, he chose three to be presidents. They would be responsible for the oversight, but Daniel, he chose above them all. Am I stretching the imagination too much? Am I dreaming in some kind of mystic dreaming? If I say it's because Daniel prayed, I wonder what would happen to every single disciple of Christ, if every morning they prayed to their God, if every noon they prayed to their God, if every evening they prayed to their God, constantly in season, out of season, always abounding in the work of the Lord, praying without ceasing, despite circumstances, despite success, despite responsibilities, despite a very busy life. I wonder what kind of stature they would grow into. I wonder what kind of position they would obtain in God's sight. God looked down, and I believe, especially when I read of the revelations of Daniel, this great prophet who prophesied the things to come, I believe when God looked down, Daniel was the peak, the great sight in that vast realm, regularly, consistently praying to his God. That challenges every Christian. Well, the devil looked down too, or perhaps he was walking up and down through the earth, like he did when he stood with the sons of God before God, and God said, have you seen my servant Job? But whether he was walking to and throwing the earth, or whether he was in the first heaven over his spiritual powers of darkness, there's one thing certain, he saw Daniel, and he hated it. I wonder if Daniel was the greatest hindrance to the devil's plans. I wonder if that one man could bring the fall of the devil's strategies. I believe he could. I believe personally, although it's not mentioned in scripture literally here, but of my study of the word of God, I believe that the devil says, come here, look at this. But when we pray, God sees it. And when we pray, the devil sees it. And he called his forces, he says, look, you've got to stop that. I want you to go, and I want you to work among those princes, and as your instructions, I want you to go there and put a spirit of jealousy in them, those 120 and the president. And I want you to go along and put a spirit of selfish ambition in them. Speak to the thoughts, stir their hearts, let them see things, influence them. And I want you to go, and I want you to build a hatred against Daniel. Now get going, stop it. For whatever happens on earth is always influenced by either the power of God or the power of evil. There's always an influence of one of those two. Here was Daniel safe and sound under the everlasting arm, praying three times a day. Here was a nation in captivity. Here was a powerful king who saw the potential of Daniel. And here were 120 princes, some presidents, some captains, good material in the hands of the devil. He couldn't get at Daniel. You know, I'll tell you an open secret. Are you listening? The devil can't get at those who pray, really pray, every day, consistently. He's got a mighty job to get near them. But he can use other people. And so we read that the presidents sought occasion against Daniel. Now notice, they could find no fault, and they could find no error in his life or conduct, in the way he held his responsibilities, in his integrity. They couldn't find any fault. They had nothing to report to the king. I'll tell you another open secret. If we pray, honestly, sincerely, regularly, consistently, they won't be able to find any real fault with you. Not really. But I'll tell you what they will do. They'll make an occasion against you. When you're falsely accused, persecuted for the kingdom of God's sake, for righteousness sake, then leap and dance for joy. Your reward is great in heaven, for so did they to the prophets before you. It's the surest seal of discipleship, when you're being falsely accused, persecuted. So when you hear accusations against leaders or Christians, who you know, from your own experience, are people of God, be very careful you don't listen. Or you might be taking the devil's part. And anyway, God knows. Now we are preparing for a crusade. And we're talking about the battle in the air. This is what it's all about. If the devil can put jealousy, selfish ambition, and then build it up into hatred, almost a positive murder in your heart, he'll do it. And you're not immune, once you start on the downward trail. And his attack will be against every Christian that's living the life, but especially against those in leadership. For if you want to destroy an enemy, one of the quickest ways is to go to the top. The Bible says that if the shepherd can be dealt with, the sheep will soon be scattered. In the last war, I remember the snipers. They used to come in the night, and they used to climb into the trees or hide in a vantage point in a copse of wood, a hundred or 150 yards away from our lines. They'd come up at night, they'd climb up somewhere in a vantage point and camouflage themselves, and they'd wait. They had telescopic sights. That's a magnified sight, that when you look through it magnifies, and there's a cross in it, and it's very, very accurate. And these snipers were marksmen, the best shots in the German army, and they were chosen. And their instructions were, don't waste your ammunition on the ordinary soldier. Don't give away your position to just kill one soldier. We can do that with the mortars and the shells. We can kill them off quite easily with plenty of mortar shells, plenty of aircraft, plenty of machine gun fire. You don't have to worry about them. Your work is to watch out for an officer or a commander, and the higher the better. We don't mind if you lay there six weeks. If you get the field marshal, you might help to win the war. I was there on one occasion when one of the highest brigadiers in our particular area came along with his red braid, and he didn't wear his helmet, and he wasn't camouflaged. What a foolish thing to do. It's a kind of reckless bravery to give an example to the troops, and it has a certain amount of merit because it gives the troops encouragement to see the leader who's not afraid to stand in sight. But it's a dangerous business for a commander to do. And he walks to the front, and we were in trenches with some hedgerows, slip trenches. They're all the time, night and day, and the Germans were about 500 yards away in some woods, and there were coxes in between. We knew there was a sniper there. And he went to the edge, went beside a tree and put his hand against it and pulled over the edge and had a look at the Germans, you see, about half a second, perhaps, or maybe a little longer. Bing! Straight in the middle of his forehead. Bullets. In fact, it was that occasion that caused me to be wounded because we had to go and bombard the cops. We couldn't see anyone, and I got a little bit back and graded C3, and then God healed me, and so I'm still preaching the gospel. But it's an interesting story because that commander, you see, was an important man. Now, if the enemy can get a leader, a campaign chief, a Sunday school teacher, youth leader, pastor, any leader, anyone with responsibilities, he caused havoc in an army. Just imagine, just before a crusade, if four or five of them are laid aside. It makes it very difficult. Now those are what he'll aim for, and he does it with these spiritual weapons. Selfish ambition, jealousy, covetousness, and then hatred. It's all false, but he can make a case, believe me. He can make a case that looks so real, and you can hear the story from the other side that will sound so good, and he'll make sure you see plenty of things that support it. But there's no real evidence. It's always wise, I believe, to leave it entirely alone when there's an accusation against a person, and go and pray. Or else tell the person, I don't want to know. If you think that, go and tell the person to the face, you coward. And no matter, God's afraid of facing a person face to face, providing it's honest. And if it's not honest, well, I believe he'll be able to help them, maybe. Vicious thing! That's what he did. But this was an occasion against Daniel. They couldn't find a fault. Well, he can find fault with you, and I can't. They found fault against Jesus, didn't they? Do you remember? He gave up everything. He gave up his home. He gave up his comfort. He had nowhere to lay his head, and he preached, and he prayed in the mountains. What did they say? Your mother and brethren are outside. He says, who is my mother and brethren? These are my brothers and sisters. When he called his disciples, he said to them, follow me. And they left off. And Peter said, we've left wife and family and friends for your sake. And he says, God bless you. You'll gain a thousand more, and eternal life with persecution. There it was. You'll find an occasion against your good things. If a man gives up his life for God, and he has one motive purely to please God, and all flesh and everything else must take second place, God must take first, you'll find an occasion, all right. He'll be called a hard man, a selfish man, an unthinking man, everything you like. Don't you believe it? It's by the fruits you know them. You'll find an occasion, and then he'll smash the campaigner movement, or the Sunday school, or the church, or whatever. Found an occasion here. We can't find a fault, but if we can find against his God, then we'll do it. So they got this intriguing plot. They got the king together, and they said, sign a decree, appealed to his pride. Nobody must pray and ask a petition of any God or man but you for 30 days. Clever. Now let us learn. Let's look at the other side. If you're a Christian, and you're a disciple, and you're in this battle for Manchester, you're going to be persecuted. You're going to be falsely accused. The devil's going to try and get an occasion against you. He'll do anything he can to stop you being in the army. He will you. He'll kill you. He'll destroy you. So put on the old armour of God, and let's learn how to pray. That's our weapons. Our weapons are not carnal, but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. Pray. Daniel was a man of prayer, and my, did not he prosper? And so, this is what I like. We're going to learn from this. There's a few points from his prayer in verse 10. Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he knew all about it. When you pray, you know all what's going on. God reveals everything that you need to know. So what do you do? Go and try and put it right in the flesh. Not on your life. For then you'll be provoked into getting involved in a mass, and riddle, and a maze of intrigue. Don't touch it. You'll be so busy trying to put it right, and it'll go on for 14 months, 12 months, 10 years. You'll lose out. Just go and put it at one side, and go and pray. Now prayer does not depend upon circumstances. Prayer does not depend upon feelings. Daniel mustn't have felt very good. For although he was a man of God, surely he had feelings. What a sword goes through the heart of a man of God, when he's falsely accused. Not for his own sake, but for the kingdom's sake. He's not too bothered about himself. That doesn't matter. It doesn't matter a man of God. It doesn't matter if he loses everything. He's got God. He's not in it. It doesn't matter what he has. If you love God, it doesn't matter where you are, or what position you're in. You're not seeking position. Not a man of God. It's God that promotes. Promotion comes from the Lord, the Bible says. So if God's placed you in a position, or if you're a leader, or even if you're a disciple serving God, when you're falsely accused, it hurts, not because of your own feelings, but because of the damage to the kingdom. Like a sword that pierces into the heart, and it goes deep. It's a terrible pain, worse than a physical pain, because you love the kingdom of God. And so with that in your heart, you don't stop praying. And though you feel disappointed, you don't stop praying. And although it's very dangerous, you don't stop praying. Oh no. First thing we can learn from Daniel, when he knew, he continued to pray. What else can we learn? You'd be well to look at this verse 10, and look at it when you get home. There's some good lessons. He went into his house. Now he'd been doing this for years. He had a place he went to. A familiar place. A secret place. A hallowed place. A place that he revered. Holy ground. Have you got one? You know, it's no good just snatching a prayer here, and snatching a prayer there. Every Christian, every disciple should have a secret place. Now it doesn't matter whether it's in the garden under a tree, as long as it's quiet, and you can go there every day at the same time. It doesn't matter if it's beside your bed in a self-contained flat, as long as you can do it every day at the same time. It doesn't matter if at work, and you want to have a midday prayer, it doesn't matter if it's in the toilet. It doesn't matter where it is, as long as you can go there regularly. And according to your circumstances, you pick the place that's most conducive to quietness. It doesn't matter if you go out and sit on a bench in the park, or pick a dilly garden. It's better than not praying at all. But every Christian should have a place, a regular place, a secret place. You know the value of that? That when real trouble comes, when distress comes, when you don't know where to turn, you do it automatically. It's like running to your mother's arms. It's like running to the cleft in the rock. It identifies a place of security, a place of blessings, a place of God, and it takes on an atmosphere, you know. It's amazing. You pray there every day, and if you pray for 10 years, my goodness, when you walk in that place, your voice will lower, and you'll kneel down, and you'll feel God. Find a place. Very important, especially when the battle in the air is raging. While that's going on, go and find a little place. Don't try and solve it yourself. Don't get involved in intrigue. You're not dealing with people, you're dealing with the devil. He'll have you running around all over the place, and you'll get more involved, and then before you know where you are, you'll find you're retaliating, and all sorts of things will come in your heart. Leave it alone. It's full of all sorts of things. Get along with pure God. Is that good advice? Well, do it. It's important. Let us not be hearers of the word only, but let us be doers. Otherwise, we're not doing the work for God. What's the third thing? First, he goes to his closet, a private place, and he doesn't depend on circumstances, and then his windows were open in his chamber towards Jerusalem. You see, Daniel, Jerusalem had been captured. The temple destroyed. There was no more altar, no more priests, no beautiful Shekinah glory in the holiest of holies. It had all gone. But what did he do? He knelt down and opened his windows towards Jerusalem. He made sure he got a room facing Jerusalem, and he looked out. It helps, you know, to have an imagination, and he looked out to Jerusalem, and he was back there in the beloved place. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. So he turns to Jerusalem. Now, we have a better place when we go to ours. We turn to heaven. We don't look through the windows. We look up, and we look to heaven where Jesus is on the right hand of God in the highest place of authority that heaven can afford. He is absolutely supreme, our commander, and so we little lieutenants, and we little soldiers, we don't go and try and engage that vast forces of tanks and armor and power. We couldn't stand a chance. We go back to our commander-priest structure, and we look up, and there he is in might and authority, and he's on the right hand of the mighty, great, holy, wonderful, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient God. All-wise, all-powerful, ever-present, everywhere. No one higher. So we've got the Father and the Son. We've got something more than Daniel, too. We've got the Holy Ghost comforting us. What a place. So we turn to God. I like Daniel's prayer, the one we had last week. I love that phrase. He says, Oh, mighty God, my mighty God. He can handle the situation. He's in a great place up there. He can handle it. And there's twice as many powerful angels that have not fallen than there are evil powers. So I think with Gabriel and Michael on our side, and double the forces of Satan, I don't think Lucifer can do anything against us. On one condition, you don't go out and try and fight him yourself. That's disaster. He's too clever. However righteous you may feel, however you think you should put it right, you'll make a mess of it. You're up against somebody cleverer than you. So go to the mighty one. Never mind what they say. Never mind what they think. Go to him. Oh, it's marvelous. All the worries go. You hand all the responsibilities over to God, and you come away, and you have no problems. You have peace. And Daniel did his job. Why is man in the kingdom? Because he had no problem every day. Fourthly, he kneeled upon his knees. Now you might say it doesn't matter about kneeling. Doesn't matter what position you pray in. Well, I will agree with you to a point. But I want to say something, because I think, especially in Pentecost, where we believe in freedom, I think we can lose a very vital truth about this. Body, spirit, and mind are all co-related. If you are feeling sad, it will reflect in your eyes, and it will affect in your shoulders. You're feeling happy, and it will reflect in all your body. Vice versa, if you're sick, you'll find your spirit is affected. Not easy to pray. They're co-related. And so I believe that attitude in prayer with the body is very important. Now when you kneel, all right, you don't have to kneel. You say, well, I don't know about you. I always kneel. It's uncomfortable at times. I get a soft cushion. But even then, I feel the outlaw, but I kneel. And I change my knees now and again. Kneel on one and then on two. But the thing is this. I don't know about you, but my body is related with the spirit. And as soon as I kneel, I mean, I feel I'm in the right place before God. Who am I to stand upright in the face of God? I mean, you might lounge in a chair, but not really a good position, is it, if you really believe you're in touch with God? Is it? There's something unrealistic about that. If there's a tremendous, powerful, holy God, and me in all my sin, if I can lounge in a chair and say a few words, there's something lacking in my reality. Daniel, oh boy, what a beautiful prayer. Regular. That's good. That's very good. That's excellent, Daniel. That's marvellous, Daniel. I'll tell you something. If we cannot humble ourselves and be submissive in the presence of God, how are you going to humble yourself in the presence of men? It's a thought for you. If you can't be submissive to God, how are you going to be submissive to men? If you cannot esteem God, how are you going to esteem others greater than yourself? By realising the wonder, the awe, the majesty, the purity, the awful power of God, and by seeing in contrast your own weakness and awful sins and pride, by seeing that, you get an estimation of yourself. And the more you pray, and the more you see God, then the more you see yourself as a sinner. And you can truly say, I am the chief of sinners. You can truly say, I am the least in my father's house. You can truly say, I am an unprofitable servant. Now, if you can do that in prayer, if you have that attitude of prayer, then when you come among men, you'll find there's love there, and whatever their weakness is, you'll miss them, and you'll see the good points. It's a wonderful tonic, you know. Whatever anybody does to you, ignore it and look for all the good points in them. You'll find plenty. You'll find plenty, because there's good in everybody. I knew a man, he was the worst villain you could imagine in the Airborne, in the training centre at the Isle of Wight. He was an absolute villain. He once threw a hand grenade into the RSN's bedroom to try and blow him up. Terrible man. You know, I used to talk to that man, and he had another side turn that was as tender as a lamb. You wouldn't believe it, but he did. So, look for all the good points in them, and ask God to bless them, and leave the other part with the Lord, and then your heart stays sweet. And then when they come to you, if they do, pray God they will, and say, I'm sorry, I've made a mistake. That's tremendous if you do that. Then, instead of saying, well, I want to see it, you say, oh, that's tremendous. Come in, put on the robe, kill the farried calf, give the ring, forgiveness. A conscience void of offence towards man and God. That's how you get it, in prayer. I don't know about you in prayer, but bodily attitude counts. I'm sure you've had this at times when you felt so, I don't know what you'd call it. It's not hard, it's not a burden in many respects, but you feel so much for the souls of men that you can't speak. You must have had it, I'm sure. And you can't pray. And I've found at times when I've knelt, I've just had this impulse. I don't know where it's from, but I believe it's probably from God. And I've just flung myself on the floor, and lay prostrate for half an hour. Couldn't speak, couldn't do anything. But at least I'm lying between the porch and the altar. At least I'm a prayer warrior between the lost and at least I put myself there anyway. I can't speak, I don't know what to say. It's so great sin and so powerful, and the city's going into destruction. What can I do? Well, I can't, but God can pray. The body's important, and I think it's not wrong in your private place. We're talking about private prayer. I don't think it's wrong to get a nice comfortable chair on occasion, and sit down, and get very comfortable, and just rest in God. You see the body again, you're resting in God. So you can't rest on your knees very well, certainly when you're prostrate you couldn't rest. But if you want to get the peace of God, do you want to enter into his rest? Cease from your own works. There are times in prayer when you can sit in an easy chair, comfortable. Just sit in a nice posture that you're relaxed, and then just let God's presence be around you and fill you, and enter into his rest. Don't strive, don't try to pray, forget all your worries. My, that'll give you 10 years on your life. I'm going to believe to live to be 140, did you know? Ah, no. But you know what I mean, don't you? So attitude, he kneeled three times. Now the fifth thing we can learn is that he prayed three times a day. He formed a habit. I once heard that the brain, when you do a thing regularly, for the sake of an illustration, if you do a thing regularly at the same time every day, if it's only a small thing, if it's only one minute, if you do it regularly, it causes a kind of a little furrow to go in a certain part of your brain. This is just to illustrate. And every time you do it, the furrow gets deeper until it becomes automatic. It's so engraved into your mind that you go there automatically. Now if you start to pray, where people make a mistake, they go and pray and say, I'm going to start to pray. So they go and pray for four hours, you see, and the next day they say, it's going to be a bit of a job, but I'll pray, and it's three and three quarters. And the next day they say, well, I've got to keep it up, and they do three hours. And after a week, they give up altogether. Now that's extreme. And there's other people who say, I don't need to pray. Thank you, Jesus. He looks after me. He knows all about everything. Well, that's wrong too, isn't it? But I'll tell you how to learn to pray. Would you like to know? It's vital. Form a habit, and if you don't regularly pray, I'll tell you what to do. Get a place, get a time, make sure you can get the right attitude, and then say just a small prayer if you don't regularly pray. It doesn't matter, just a small prayer, a couple of sentences will do, but do it every day without fail at the same time. And do that in the afternoon and at night. Now, you'll be able to do that easily, because it only takes a few minutes. Same with the Word of God. Just read a scripture, one verse, and do that every day. It doesn't matter whether you get anything out of it initially. And what happens over a period of time, you'll find that your prayers will begin to lengthen, your reading will begin to lengthen, and you'll channel it accordingly. But you'll form such a habit that you'll always pray. Whatever circumstances come, whether you're blessed, whether you're persecuted, whatever happens, it's a habit. And the value of that is that whatever you feel like, whatever the circumstances are, you go. I remember when my mother died, and I told you. As soon as I heard, I felt terrible. You know, immediately, I didn't even have to think. I went out of the room when I was in the prayer and I knelt down. And within 10 minutes, I was okay. It's automatic. I didn't go on the feelings. So, those are things we can learn from Daniel's prayers. Regular prayer. Let me just repeat them for you quickly. It doesn't matter on the circumstances or your feelings. He knew it was signed, but he went to pray. He had a regular place to pray. He looked towards Jerusalem. We look towards heaven where the power of God is. He kneeled down. We have a good attitude. And he prayed regularly as a habit, three times a day throughout his life. What was the result? You know the story. They got the occasion. God didn't stop him having the test. Because you pray doesn't mean you won't be taken to the limit. In fact, you probably will, so you can grow in faith. And he was allowed to be thrown into the lion's den. But because he'd prayed all those years, he was full of confidence. And God sent an angel and stopped the lion's mouth. God does that for those who pray. And if God had taken him, well he was in a better place anyway. And he probably wouldn't have felt the lion's teeth because he prayed. They wouldn't enjoy it either. And what was the end of it? Let me read it you to close. And then our elder will come when we've had a hymn and an offering. We'll have a break in the bread. Look at this. Then Darius wrote unto the people, nations, languages that dwell in all the earth. Manchester, you're a small thing. All the kingdom, the nations, and the languages of the earth. And he said, peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree. The devil made Darius make a decree, but now God was making him through Daniel. In every dominion of my kingdom, men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. Oh praise God. That's beautiful, isn't it? When men say, you better watch that man. You'd better watch that kingdom. You'd better watch that church. You'd better watch the Christian faith. Their God is powerful. We've got a lot of gods around here, I'll tell you. For he is a living God, steadfast forever. And his kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end. Oh, didn't God get glorified because Daniel prayed and had faith. When the fire was on, Daniel came through as the purest gold, mostly fine silver, greater than ever. He delivereth and rescueth, and worketh signs and wonders in heaven and earth, who have delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. The world of Satan is delivered. John, Hazel, Pamela, from the power of the enemy, because they prayed. So this Daniel, oh I like that, very, very important person. Oh this Daniel, God puts in his word, this Daniel, behold he prays. This Daniel, look on Michael, Gabriel, you may have done it your part, but he did his as well. This Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus. In fact he prospered in the reign of four kings. They all died and Daniel was still going on. And we remember him today. Let us learn to pray.