So I set my face toward the Lord God to seek Him in prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. / … / In those days I, Daniel, had been mourning for three full weeks. / I ate no desirable food, nor did meat or wine enter my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, until the three full weeks were completed. (Dan. 9:3; 10:2-3)
What would bring a person into such a fasting condition as Daniel had in chapters 9 and 10 of the book of Daniel? At the time of these later chapters, Daniel was no longer the young man we see in chapter 1; Daniel was rich in human experience. In his lifetime, he saw his people brought into captivity, the rise and fall of multiple empires, even visions. But Daniel’s state of being in these passages goes beyond the physical intake of food; actually, it is what lies behind that links us to him and the Lord’s move today.
In chapters 9 and 10, we see a person fervently burdened. What caused this condition? Daniel contacted God’s words in a direct, intimate way; those words revealed and impressed upon him the heaviness of the situation in his time — he was living in God’s words. This heaviness was a condition of fasting, causing Daniel to seek out the Lord in a very specific way (9:2-3; 10:1-3). In this burdened state of being, Daniel emptied himself before God. And God revealed more to him, saying “I will tell you what is inscribed in the writing of truth….” (10:21a). God found in Daniel a vessel seeking Him, aligning to His will, paving a way for His words to come forth.
Daniel’s experience from contacting God’s word is a condition God desires in His people so He can reveal His need and we can coordinate with Him. In Daniel’s condition of fasting, he found himself in God’s timeline — in God’s work: God showed him that He has an adversary and He is seeking man’s coordination on the earth for His move. In verse 20, God speaks regarding this enemy in His fight with the “prince of Persia,” a figure of the satanic authority in Daniel’s time. Daniel saw the spiritual battle between God and His enemy, so he fasted and prayed. This principle is echoed in the gospels regarding the same demonic warfare. The Lord Jesus tells us that “… this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” (Matt. 17:21). There is an urgent need for ones in such a fasting condition to coordinate with Him to deal with His enemy in each generation.
From Daniel’s age to today’s era as New Testament believers, our spiritual condition of fasting is to be one with the Lord for His warfare. The visions and spiritual insight experienced by Daniel could only happen when he was impacted by God’s words. Yet seeing visions is not the end goal of God’s interactions with man — God is seeking a people to be one with and stand with His desire on the earth.
Today, we, too, need such a condition. Have the Lord’s words been revealed in us, burdening us to seek Him fervently? In this condition of fasting and prayer before the Lord we are emptied and burdened to know His heart: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens” (Matt. 5:3). Through spiritual fasting and prayer, the Lord is establishing a foothold on the earth; we become His overcomers, joining His battle and ushering in a new age.
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 10/29/2023, not reviewed by the speaker.)