Lesson 8: Responding to Answered Prayer

Daniel 2:19-30 - Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
20 Daniel answered and said: “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might.
21 He changes times and seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding;
22 He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him.
23 To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of You, for You have made known to us the king’s matter.”
24 Therefore Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him: “Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; bring me in before the king, and I will show the king the interpretation.”
25 Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus to him: “I have found among the exiles from Judah a man who will make known to the king the interpretation.”
26 The king declared to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?”
27 Daniel answered the king and said, “No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked,
28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these:


29 To you, O king, as you lay in bed came thoughts of what would be after this, and He who reveals mysteries made known to you what is to be.
30 But as for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because of any wisdom that I have more than all the living, but in order that the interpretation may be made known to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your mind.

Daniel gives us four great examples of what we should do when we have prayed, and God has answered our prayers.
-First, Daniel’s first response was back to God, to thank and praise Him for answering his request.
-Second, Daniel did whatever he could to protect others in the situation about which he had prayed. In this situation, the lives of many other people were in danger. The king had demanded that those who had failed to give him his answer were all to be killed. Daniel hurried to the man in charge of this task and asked him to spare the lives of all these people.
-Third, Daniel followed the rules of the kingdom in how things were to be done. Rather than rushing into the king’s presence to announce that he had the answer, he went to the chief of the king’s guard and let him fulfill his duties.
-Fourth, when the king asked if Daniel could now interpret the dream, Daniel told him truthfully that the honor was not his but belonged to God.

*Memorize: 1 Timothy 1:17 - To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.