spiritual warfare: praying in Laurel's Prosebox journal book

There are so many great examples of prayer warfare in the bible; David is just one phenomenal example. Today I’d like to highlight Daniel chapter 9 as an encouragement and model for us at this time.

In this prayer Daniel is praising God, admitting corporate sins, confessing iniquity, wickedness, rebellion and disobedience to His commandments. He admits to God that they have not listened to His servants the prophets. After this he begins his supplications, asking God for mercy, appealing to His great compassion, asking for the Lord to, “let Thy face shine on Thy desolate sanctuary”.

That desolate sanctuary was them, and it is now us. As Daniel stated next, he was speaking and praying, and confessing his sins and the sins of his people Israel, presenting his supplications (requests) before the Lord. While he was still speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel came to him in his extreme weariness, about the time of the evening offering. The next section is incredible with Gabriel telling Daniel, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding.”

Ponder the words of verse 20: “Now while I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplications before the LORD my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God…”

Confessing our sins and making supplication for ourselves and others are types of prayer many of us remember being taught. But God is showing us here that He would like us to also confess “the sin of my people Israel”. We need to also confess to Him the sins of “my people” and that would be all the Christians. The ones in your local assembly, in your city, in your nation, and worldwide.

Spiritual warfare involving prayer is a huge topic. There are many, many ways this is done powerfully and effectively. Today I wanted to simply highlight the spiritual warfare of confessing not only our own sins but also the sin of “my people Israel”. It was right at the moment of this exact kind of prayer, that God commanded Gabriel to go to Daniel (again) to give Him a prophetic message as well as instruction, insight and understanding.