"Keep Circling"
Daniel 12:5-9
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Series: "The Circle Maker" by Mark Batterson

Introduction: A few years ago, after my dad died, my brother, sister, and I divided up many of his things. One thing that I took was his stationary bike with the thought that I’d someday use it. How many people have exercise equipment that they never use? Many, many people! The truth is, for a couple of years it just sat in my bedroom, unused. Then one day at a doctor’s visit my doctor told me I needed to get my heart-rate up for about 30 minutes a day. So, I decided to start riding the stationary bike. The next morning I got on the bike and started to ride. As I started to ride I found myself wondering if I could do this for thirty minutes. Three minutes into it I was already winded and wondering how I was going to make it for 30 minutes. Then I realized it was more in my head than in my body. I decided I would take it one minute at a time. And in that way I made it 30 minutes!

When we have a dream or a promise from God, it might seem impossible. But if we circle it, and take it one prayer at a time, we can live according to the words of Philippians 4:13: “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” With each prayer we are closer to the answer! Today we finish our series “The Circle Maker” talking about the need to keep circling.

I. God Answers Every Prayer-

a. In God’s timing- One of the great things about this series is that it has

reminded me that God doesn’t answer our prayers in our time frame. So often we want God to answer our prayers ASAP. That shouldn’t be our agenda, because quick answers could cause us to take God for granted and to mishandle the blessings. When the answers come too quickly, we often take the credit instead of giving God the glory. Even more, we need to understand that often times our prayer request doesn’t hit the bull’s-eye of God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will. So we must keep circling, and keep praying.

When you live by faith, it often feels like you are risking your reputation. What if you pray for something and God doesn’t come through? However, this is not you risking your reputation. This is you risking God’s reputation. It is about God’s faithfulness because God is the one who has made the promise. The battle doesn’t belong to you but to God. Since the battle is God’s, so is the glory.

Drawing prayer circles isn’t about proving yourself to God. It is about giving God the opportunity to prove Himself to you. I can’t promise that God will always give you the answer you want. I can’t promise He will answer you in your timeline. But I can promise that God will answer you every time, and He will keep His promises. That is who God is, and that is what God does!

Example- Many years ago there was an architect and visionary named Daniel Burnham who once said: “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood.” Daniel Burnham was the principal architect for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. He then set himself on the goal of Washington’s Grand Terminal.

It took an army of laborers an entire year, and four million cubic yards of fill dirt just to fill in the swamp that would become the foundation of what is now known as Union Station. Five years and $25 million dollars later, Burnham’s vision became a reality as the Baltimore Ohio Pittsburgh Express whistled into Union Station at 6:50 a.m. on October 27, 1907. He had made big plans, believed that this was what he was called to do, and he accomplished his big dream.

b. God is not surprised- Sometimes we act as though God is surprised by

the things that surprise us, but by definition, God, who is all-knowing cannot be surprised. God is always a step ahead, even when we feel like He’s a step behind. God has always got a holy surprise up His holy sleeve for you and me.

It is not unlike God to keep from answering our prayer for a time because not only does God want to take care of the situation, but He also wants to make sure we are prepared for the answer. In this time of waiting we can get discouraged. You might even be working like it depends on you and praying like it depends on God, and still God makes you wait. This is because God wants you to pray through; God wants you to trust in Him and pray with perseverance.

In these times of discouragement, we need to go back and analyze our motives. We need to look at our expectations. We need to analyze our timeline. We need to seek God for wisdom to see if our dream and prayer is in line with God’s will. We need to remind ourselves that God is not surprised by the fact that this is taking longer than we expected.

We should even put our situation into the proper perspective. What I mean by this is that if we have a dream, which has come out of our prayer time, and we circle this prayer, and we pray consistently, we can’t forget that we have now placed it in the hands of God. Once it is in the hands of God it will be taken care of by God in God’s own way. To get impatient, frustrated, or discouraged is really to try and take it back from God!

In these times I encourage you to remember a time when you prayed for something, and had to wait a long time for it to happen. As you think of this time you will then remember God’s faithfulness. As you remember God’s answer to you, you will then be able to rest in God’s peace knowing that all things will work out for the good!

II. Sealed Up to the End of Time- (Daniel 12:5-9; Genesis 1:3; Psalm 56:8; Luke 2:52; Psalm 84:11; Deuteronomy 33:16)

a. When the time comes- We see in our reading from Daniel, chapter 12

Daniel is experiencing this concept of thinking long, which we talked about last week. In this final vision that he has, he asks a question we all want an answer to: “My Lord, what will the outcome of all this be?” God gives Daniel an answer, but like God’s answers sometimes, it is a straight answer. Why is this? Sometimes it is far too complicated for our brains to understand, or maybe it is not for us to know.

So here is the answer that is given to Daniel: verse 9 says, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end.” God is basically saying to Daniel that when the time comes (the time of God, not the time of Daniel), the prayer will be unsealed and the answer revealed.

This leads us to understand that each prayer we pray is sealed and opened at the appropriate time. Our prayers never cease to exist because they aren’t subject to natural laws, but exist in the time frame and laws of God. The supernatural laws of prayer defy the natural laws of time and space. And even more, our prayers accumulate through eternity.

According to the Doppler Effect, our universe is still expanding. The significance is this: The four words that God spoke at the beginning of time, “Let there be light,” are still creating galaxies at the edge of the universe. If God can do that with four words, then what are we worried about? There is nothing that God cannot do. Don’t forget, God created everything out of nothing.

As God’s words never return void, so our prayers do not return void, especially when we pray the word of God and the will of God. The same God who hovered over the darkness and chaos of our planet at the beginning of time is hovering over your life and mine. The Lord is watching over His word to perform it.

So it doesn’t matter how long ago you prayed a prayer, God has not forgotten it. It doesn’t matter that you might have written it off long ago, if it is in God’s will, God will make it happen. This is the beauty of faith, and the beauty of prayer!

b. Collected tears- One of the most beautiful and powerful images in

Scripture is found in Psalm 56:8. It is one that begs us to circle it, and pray it, and not forget it. Let me read it to you from the New Living Translation: “You have collected all my tears in your bottle.”

There are many different kinds of tears that we cry. There are the tears shed by the mother of a sick child. There are the tears by the father who is getting ready to walk his daughter down the aisle of her wedding. There are the tears of the person who has just received notice that they have lost their job. There are the tears of a family who has just lost a loved one. Then there are the tears shed in prayer.

Each and every teardrop is precious to God. God does not take our tears lightly. They are eternal keepsakes to God. I have a folder where I keep all the cards and drawings my kids have given to me. God has a jar where He collects all of our tears. The day will come when He will wipe away every tear in heaven. Until then, God will move heaven and earth to honor every tear that has been shed. Not a single tear is lost on God.

SOMETIMES I STRUGGLE WITH FEAR.

My greatest fear is that my kids might someday walk away from the faith. I have learned to rebuke this fear because I can remember Luke 2:52, “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” I can circle this verse and pray it for my kids.

SOMETIMES I STRUGGLE WITH DOUBT.

I struggle with the thought that I will mishandle the blessings of God. Then I remember Psalm 84:11, “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.” All I have to do is stay humble and stay hungry.

SOMETIMES I STRUGGLE WITH FAITH.

I can be concerned that God is done doing miracles in my life. Thanks be to God for Deuteronomy 33:16 which tells me: “The favor of Him who dwelt in the burning bush” is upon me. I have no idea what the future holds, but I know who holds the future. Your life, and my life, and our church, is in the hands of God. Our prayers will be unsealed in God’s time, and He will answer them. All we have to do is to keep circling and keep praying.

III. It Only Takes One-

a. Honi- In the book Antiquities of the Jews, historian Josephus notes

the deeds of Honi the circle maker. He documents the first-century drought and points to Honi as Israel’s only hope. Josephus makes one statement that punctuates every turning point in history: “now there was one.” Josephus says,

“Now there was one, whose name was Onias (Honi), a righteous man

he was, and beloved of God, who, in a certain drought, prayed to God

to put and end to the intense heat, and whose prayers God had heard,

and had sent them rain.”

Honi stood alone. Then he knelt down in the circle he had drawn. And that is all it takes to change the course of history. Because at this point, Honi was the ONLY ONE who believed God would answer the prayer for rain. In the words of theologian Walter Wink, “History belongs to the intercessors.”

After the rain fell and the dust settled, Simeon ben Shatah, the ruling head of the Sanhedrin, who threatened excommunication, wrote to Honi:

“Were you not Honi, I should decree excommunication against you… But what can I do to you, for you act petulantly before the Omnipresent and He does whatever you want for you…A generation that was shrouded in darkness did you illuminate through your prayer…A generation that was sunk down you lifted up with your prayer…A generation that was humiliated by its sin you saved by your prayer.”

b. One Prayer Circle- Never underestimate the power of one person

praying. When you dream big, pray hard, and think long, there is nothing God cannot do. When you draw a circle and drop to your knees, you never know what God will do in and through your life. Prayer changes the forecast of your life. Prayer leads you to live out the will of God in your life.

You can’t overcome a fifty-foot wall, but you can march around Jericho. You can’t shut the mouths of lions, but you can drop to your knees and pray to the God who can. You can’t make it rain, but you can draw a circle in the sand and pray like it depends on God!

Don’t let what you cannot do keep you from doing what you can. Draw the circle. Don’t let who you are not keep you from being who you are. You are a child of God. You are beloved by God. You are the one Jesus died for on the cross. You are the one Jesus promised to never leave nor forsake. You are a circle maker!

You might ask, who me? I would answer, why not you? And even though one person can be a prayer warrior, it doesn’t hurt if you get others to pray with you. Israel had an army, so you can invite others to fight the battle with you through prayer. Together you can form a prayer circle.

At the end of our prayers we say, “Amen.” This means “so be it.” It signifies the end of a prayer. Don’t forget, the end of a prayer is the beginning of a dream. It is the beginning of a miracle. It is the beginning of a promise.

Conclusion: So we come to the end of our series. It has been a wonderful series. A reminder that prayer matters. A reminder that prayer is powerful. A reminder that God wants to tell us His dreams as we pray, and that He wants us to pray through these dreams. It has been a time of learning about what it means to dream big, pray hard, and think long. It has led us to understand that God is a big God, and wants us to prayer for things that are beyond us; beyond our resources; beyond our capabilities. It is the lesson that God calls for us to persevere in our prayers and to not give up until God has fulfilled His will in us. It has been a time where we are challenged to pray for things beyond our lifetime for the generations that follow us.

So, I hope that this series has challenged you in a way that leads you to pray for faithfully, more thoroughly, and with more intensity. I hope you will start seeking God’s will for your life and our church in and through your prayers. And I hope that it leads us to pray more as a church together. So let’s not forget:

DREAM BIG; PRAY HARD; THINK LONG. Amen.