The Cry That Heaven Responds to: Daniel 9 & Matthew 18!
As I sat with The LORD early this morning, before taking Communion, The Holy Spirit suddenly quickened me to turn to Daniel 9!
I Pray often using Daniel 9 as an “Intercessory Template” when Praying for The Nations, but this morning I had a beautiful and powerful encounter with The Spirit that broke open this powerful chapter in a new and fresh way!
You will note that Interestingly, Daniel 9 does not start with a Prophetic Declaration, but It opens with a deep lament — a Holy Cry of Repentance on behalf of The Nations.
” In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans …….
……. Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to The LORD my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.” Daniel 9:1,5.
Now, as I began to slowly read through the chapter, Praying, line by line and verse by verse, I began to cry out as Daniel had done on behalf of The Nations, and I saw how Daniel was not praying about “THEM!”
Daniel was not Praying at a safe distance — or even just simply “standing in the gap” — he was not analysing the failures of a previous Generation, or focused on the corruption of the current one, Daniel Cried out ”WE!”
Daniel refused to separate himself from the guilt of The Nation. He took his place first as an Intercessor before God — and then as a Prophet.
Daniel embraced the weight, burden and responsibility of Identifying with the sins and transgressions of his Nation/ People.
He owned the rebellion as his own, and he stood before The Holy One, not as an exception to the Judgment, but as a Representative of those under it!
🔥 I Submit — this is the Hidden Key of True Intercession!
Real Intercession is not the Praying of the Righteous over the unrighteous, it is the Righteous, deliberately stepping into the place of the guilty and crying out as one of them, for God to have Mercy!
Daniel did not say, “They have sinned”….
He said, “WE have sinned”….!
Here we see a powerful shift in the language, a clear difference between Religious Observation and Redemptive Identification!
It was only “AFTER” this deep and prolonged Travail and Identification with the gravity of the depravity of sin and the burden of it, that the Heavens responded and opened up.
🔥 And an Angelic Messenger, Gabriel was Sent forth to “Give skill to understand!”
Then, I came to Daniel 9:24. and suddenly The Holy Spirit spoke to me in such a profound way and He gave me a fresh perspective as I Prayed.
Daniel 9:24 says…
”Seventy Weeks are determined for your people and for your Holy City
to finish the transgression…
to make an End of sins…
to make Reconciliation for iniquity…
to bring in Everlasting Righteousness….!”
As I read those Verses, suddenly I had a rise in my Spirit and the first two words hit my Spirit…
”Seventy Weeks” = 70 x 7
Then immediately The Holy Spirit brought Peter’s question to Jesus to my mind, where in Matthew 18, Peter asks Jesus…
“LORD, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to Seven Times?” (Matthew 18:21)
“And Jesus answers, “I do not say to you, up to Seven times, but up to Seventy Times Seven…”” (Matthew 18:22)
► 70 x 7 = 490
And In that moment, I saw something I had never seen with such clarity…
Daniel’s Prophecy of “The Seventy Sevens,” is born out of the Womb of Repentance!
Jesus’ “Seventy Times Seven” is born out of a conversation with Peter about Forgiveness!
🎯 The Daniel Nine (9) Prophecy reveals Heaven’s Blueprint for the Redemption of Nations
🎯The Matthew Eighteen (18) Conversation with Jesus, reveals the Heart of those who have received that Redemption!
The numbers themselves are remarkable and speak!
► Seventy Weeks = 70 × 7 = 490
This is the Complete Redemptive timetable God SET for dealing with transgression, sin and iniquity through the coming Messiah.
🔥 I Submit — it is not a coincidental that in Matthew 18, that Jesus takes that same language… > FORGIVE > Seventy times Seven > {70 x 7) and He applies it to the daily practice of Forgiveness among His Disciples!
Friends this is far more than mathematics! This is the very Heart of Redemption!
> Daniel’s Prophecy reveals the Macro Blueprint for Nations!
🔥 God’s Redemptive dealings with a Nation and ultimately with Israel and The Nations…
Jesus then reveals the Blueprint to Peter in the Micro…
🔥 Echoing the Prophecy of Daniel, Jesus shows that the same Redemptive Mercy must now be worked out in the life of every Believer!
🔥 The Macro and the Micro….
The Nations — and then the Individual Believer!
► A Clear Redemptive Blueprint of Repentance > Reconciliation > Restoration and Forgiveness!
Daniel cries, “WE have sinned”! and God answers that cry with the Revelation of the Messiah who will:
- Finish the Transgression,
- Make an End of Sins,
- Make Reconciliation for Iniquity and
- bring in Everlasting Righteousness!
🔥 Then Jesus — the very Messiah whom Daniel foresaw, now calls His Disciples to become “Living Expressions” of that same Redemption, through the Power of Forgiveness without measure!
🔥 We can see how “The Redemptive Power of the Cross” stands at the centre of both passages, of Daniel 9 and Matthew 18:18!
Daniel points us toward it….
And Jesus reveals its Transformative Power and its Demand….
Here in these two Powerful Passages, they Reveal that there can be no lasting Restoration without True Repentance.
- There can be No True Reconciliation without Atonement!
- And there can be No Genuine Encounter with the Redemptive Power and Mercy of God that does not produce a People who extend that same Mercy to others!
And perhaps this is why, before God unveiled one of the Greatest Prophetic Revelations ever given concerning the Messiah, He first leads Daniel into one of the deepest travails through the Prayers of true Repentance for a Nation/s recorded in Scripture!
The Prophetic Word is not given to the detached — but It is entrusted to the broken and to the contrite Heart — those who have Identified!
I Submit that this is a powerful Prophetic Blueprint for True Repentance and Restoration, and it carries a deep and searching Word for the Body of Christ in this Hour.
May we once again become a Daniel 9 Intercessory Remnant, before we seek to become a Daniel 9 Prophetic Voice.
May we learn again to take our place, standing in the gap — not to expose the sins of our Generation — but to Identify ourselves with them before the Courts of Heaven, crying out, “WE have Sinned! God Have Mercy on us!”
Blessings to you all.
~ by Veronika West
Amen, the religious spirit cries judgement but Jesus cries mercy! As we choose repentance and forgiveness standing in the gap, it brings us in humility and gladness to the cross.He ever lives to make intercession for us and we join with Him.Amen Amen