Craig Groeschel - When God Seems Slow
Is there anyone here today that you've been praying for something, asking God for a miracle, believing that God is going to work and He hasn't answered your prayer yet? Would you raise your hands today? Those of you online, you can type in the comment section, I'm praying and I'm waiting. What I wanna do today is I want to talk to those of you that are waiting. And this is a very intimate message and a very personal message to me, and I believe we'll speak to many of you.
And I wanna talk to any of you who may even be a little bit spiritually discouraged. If you are, you're trusting God and asking Him to do something, He hasn't. You're thinking, "Why hasn't He"? I'll shoot real straight with you. Sometimes God is frustrating to me, and I don't mean that to be disrespectful. It's kind of almost too early in a message to get that real. But I'm gonna go ahead and get that real with you. Sometimes He's frustrating to me and it's not because I don't have faith in Him, it's because I do have faith in Him. It's because I'm praying and I'm believing, and I know He can and sometimes He doesn't.
And I know that there would be many of you that may be there as well. There's something on your heart. You're seeking God and you're asking Him, would you heal, or would you answer, or would you provide or would you show up, would you do this? And I believe you can, and He hasn't. So you keep praying and you keep on waiting. I've talked to a lot of you that are going through something similar. Just in my little circle, I've got a close friend, he's been praying and believing that God would send him a godly spouse, and praying and seeking and looking, and praying and seeking and looking. And whenever someone worships and they're attractive, he looks to see if there is a finger on the hand, and is sincerely believing that God will do it, and He hasn't done it yet.
I've got several friends that are believing God for a financial miracle that are in a very difficult place for one reason or another. I've got two friends that are just begging God to work in the lives of one of their children. They both have children that were walking with Jesus and are now not walking with Jesus and living in a very destructive way. I've got another close friend that is begging God to heal her from anxiety. It's like a crippling anxiety.
And then in our own lives, Amy and I have been praying for a long time that God would do a physical miracle in the lives of our daughters that are struggling with ongoing issues. And all of us, we believe that God can do what we're asking Him to do. And we've been been believing that He will do what we're praying for Him to do and He hasn't. And so, if you can relate to that, I wanna show you a very, very powerful portion from God's word that I believe will speak directly to your heart and encourage you while you're waiting.
So Father, we thank You for who You are. We thank You for Your character, Your nature, Your sovereignty, Your goodness. And I pray, God, that Your living word would minister to Your people today. God, build our faith while we're waiting and while we're trusting. And God, we thank You that You are always faithful. Even when we're faithless, God, we praise You because You are always faithful. So we put our faith and our trust in You. We pray this in Jesus' name. And everybody said, amen.
Online type it in the comment section, amen. Just let us know that you're with us today. We're in the book of Daniel, and today, we're gonna be in Daniel chapter 10. Daniel chapter 10, just for context, Daniel is an older guy now. Mike Tyson, Daniel. He's an older guy now and he's actually like 84 to 90 years old. So his legs are wobbly, right. He is an older guy now when we see him have a vision before God. And I'll show you this vision in Daniel chapter 10. Daniel says this, "In the third year of the reign of King Cyrus of Persia, Daniel, also known as Belteshazzar, had another vision. He understood that the vision concerned events certain to happen in the future, times of war and great hardship".
The text goes on, "When the vision came to me, I, Daniel had been mourning for three whole weeks. At that time, I'd eaten no rich food, no meat or wine crossed my lips. I used no fragrant lotions until three weeks had passed". What was going on here? If you remember years and years ago, King Nebuchadnezzar... Boo. Very good, very good. I got four people who remember. All of our campuses, King Nebuchadnezzar... Boo. The the evil king of Babylon, if you remember, he had conquered Judah in 597 BC and he captured the best and the brightest young men and took them out of Judah, out of Jerusalem, and indoctrinated them with the evil Babylonian culture.
One of those young men that he captured was Daniel. So here we are, 70 years later now, and the King of Cyrus comes from Persia and now conquers Babylon. So it's like a little fish swimming along. This is Jerusalem and then a bigger fish, Babylon, comes along and eats the bigger fish. Now Persia comes along and conquers Babylon. And that's what we've got going on today, which was kind of good news for the Jewish people because the King of Persia said, Cyrus, he said the Jews can now return back to their homeland. You can go back to Jerusalem, you can rebuild the temple. And so this would've been really, really good news. Daniel, he's happy about that, but he was really concerned because the people of Israel continued to sin against God.
So what do you do when you're concerned? Well, Daniel did, and even what we see in the New Testament, we're taught to fast and to pray, and to seek the God of heaven. So for three weeks, that's what he'd been doing. He was denying himself certain things to pursue the heart of God. He was fasting and praying, and he had a vision of some stuff that was to come and it was gonna be bad stuff.
Now, what I want you to notice is that Daniel was deeply moved by God. He was very close to God. And because of that, he was very spiritually sensitive. In fact, I can tell you right now that I can almost always tell how close I am to God or not by what moves my heart, by the state of my mind. In other words, when I'm not kind of pressing into God and making Him the first priority and pursuing Him with all of my heart, I'm upset by little things like slow internet. This throws me for a loop. We're out of wasp spray and I've got wasp everywhere.
When I'm not close to God, I get really messed up about dumb things like that. But when I'm close to God, I am bothered by other things. I'm bothered by people that are hurting. I'm bothered by brokenness that I see in the church. I'm bothered by division. I'm bothered by spiritual apathy. When I'm not close to God, the things that matter most don't bother me as much. So Daniel's burdened about the important stuff. He's burdened about the people's posture and relationship with God. And so, what does he do about it? Well, he didn't worry about it. He didn't gripe about it. He didn't stay up at two in the morning rattling, "What am I gonna do about it"? No, he sought God about it.
And for three weeks, he's fasting, he's praying, he's mourning. And then we're gonna see him on the bank of the Tigris River. He's got some other people around him and he sees this vision. Watch what happened. He sees it and the people that were with him don't see the vision. Verse five, we see this. He said, "I looked up and I saw a man dressed in linen clothing".
Who do you think that could be? Let's just keep reading. I see this man, this vision, "Dressed in linen clothing with a belt of pure gold around his waist. He looked like a precious gem. His face flash like lightning and his eyes flamed like torches. His arms and feet shone like polished bronze. And his voice roared like a vast multitude of people". He has this vision and he says, "Only I, Daniel, saw this vision. The men with me saw nothing, but they were suddenly terrified and ran away to hide. So I was left there all alone to see this amazing vision".
So if you can imagine, he sees this vision, and Daniel's like, blah, whatever. And maybe they see Daniel acting strange, but they run off and he's the only one left there to see this vision. Now, who was that man in linen? Who was he? Well, he was either Jesus or an archangel. And so scholars debate. He was either Jesus, and this would've been called, does anybody remember the word from last week? It's a theological term. It starts with Christ and ends with ophany. Christophany. Christophany, very good. What is a Christophany? A Christophany is an Old Testament appearance of Jesus. The theological term is this, an appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ.
Remember, what is God? God is the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the beginning there was God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Jesus had always been there. He just didn't become flesh until God sent Him to earth. So scholars think this might be a pre-incarnate Christ. A Christ means Jesus, phany means appearance. It's an Old Testament appearance of Jesus. Or it was a high ranking angel, like Gabriel. So whatever we know is this is an angelic being. And in verse seven tells us, Daniel was the only one who saw the vision and the others didn't see the vision.
This is powerful because this is what's gonna happen to some of you today. God had something special for Daniel, just for Daniel. It wasn't meant for the other people. Maybe they weren't prepared for it. Maybe they didn't have the faith for it. Maybe they just weren't there for it. But in the very same way, I believe that God will have something special for some of you today. And you're gonna experience Him in a very rich way. It might have been for some of you that it happened already.
That when we were singing worship to God, you just sense God's presence there with you. Maybe it was his divine comfort for you, or it might have been like He was speaking to you in that moment. It could have been that the verse of the day, you opened up the YouVersion Bible app, you're like, oh, that's for me. That's from heaven for me. I don't know about the other hundred million people reading that verse today, but that one was for me. Or it may be a phrase in this sermon, it may be something I'm not even planning to say that God may prompt me to say, not for the other tens of thousands, but just for you. That's right.
Or it might be when you're praying, you have a vision of something that gives you hope, or a song comes on the radio and you realize that song was speaking to me. It may be something special for you, just for you that others don't understand. And for some of you today, God is gonna speak to you in a very, very personal way. And you're gonna experience His presence and there's gonna be like a word from God for you. And you're sitting next to someone else who hears the same thing, sees the same thing, they're just enjoying their free coffee and you're in the presence of God. And I'm not even saying that like in a demeaning way.
Like, enjoy the coffee. Coffee is good, coffee is from God, but the person sitting next to that person enjoying the coffee may enjoy the presence of God in a very, very real way. And this is what Daniel says, whenever God reveals himself in verse eight, Daniel said this, he said, "My strength left me. My face grew deathly pale and I felt very weak". So he's in the presence of this angelic being, probably the pre-incarnate Christ. And he says, "I heard the man speak and when I heard the sound of his voice, I fainted and I lay there with my face to the ground".
This is powerful. He's in the presence of this being and he's face down. He couldn't even stand. Why? Because the strongest of us cannot bear the weight of the glory of God. Woo. Yeah. In the presence of this angelic being, his strength leaves him and he falls face down to the ground. And I would ask you today, I would ask those of you online, I wonder if any of you have ever experienced God in this way, where you just were just overwhelmed by him.
I can tell you about two different times in my life. The first time was when I was not following Jesus. And I was reading the word and being drawn to God. And I read Ephesians 2 about the grace of God. And went out all by myself, just totally hurting, broken, feeling just horrible guilty for all the bad stuff I'd done. The horrible way I had treated people, felt too far from God. And I went to this little softball field and I knelt down and was just crying out, "God, if you're there, God, if you're there, I need you".
And I didn't even know who God was. And it is hard to describe. I was determined, should I say it out loud or not? Because some people wouldn't believe it. I didn't try to get up like physically, but in my mind, like I kind of knew I couldn't get up. It was just like so strong. Like I just, like I couldn't get up, like didn't want to get up. And finally, I just cried out, "God, if you're there, just take my life, take all of my life". And it was my salvation moment. And when I prayed that I was different, like different. The old was gone, the new was there. I mean, in the presence, I was in the presence of God and was completely transformed by the grace of God.
And that was a dramatic moment. And then, and I'll tell you right now, this doesn't happen to me every day, like not even often, but it was maybe a month ago or so in my quiet time in the morning in the kitchen, I just was reading God's word and I started worshiping. And suddenly, I just couldn't sit at the table. I had to get down on my knees. And then I couldn't just get down on my knees, I had to get down on my face. And at my campus today, we sang the song, I don't know if you did it at yours or not, but the words were, "All my life, you have been faithful," and I was just singing that out to God. All my life, you've been faithful. All my life, you've been so, so good.
I'm just face down, just crying out to God, with every breath that I am able, I will sing of the goodness of God. Yes. And just for the longest time, I'm just in the presence of God, just crying out to Him. And this is Daniel. He's on his face before God, on his face. And Daniel said in verse 10, he said this. He said, "Just then, a hand touched me and lifted me, still trembling to my hands and knees. And the man said to me, 'Daniel, you are very precious to God.'"
God is so holy, and God is so good, and God is so kind. Daniel's fasting, he's praying, he's afraid, he's burdened, he's overwhelmed. And he said, "A hand from heaven touched me and lifted me and said, 'You are so precious to God.'" And I love this. First, the hand lifted him, he lifted him. God is a lifter, God is a lifter. Some of you're down today, God is a lifter. King David said, when he was running for his life, he said, "But you, oh Lord, you're a shield about me. You're my glory, you are the lifter of my head". God is a lifter. God is one who lifts your head. God lifts those that He loves. And God loves you.
If you're down today, His presence will lift you. He is the lifter. "You are a shield about me". Our God lifts those He loves. And then the voice says, "You are precious to God". And for some of you today, you will hear from heaven, you'll hear the whisper of the spirit of God that you are precious to him. You'll hear it. And the guy next to you will sip coffee. But you'll hear it. And He'll tell you that he loves you, and that He's for you, and that He's with you. That He's never left you, that He knows your pain, and that He hears the cries of your heart. Because in verse 12, and this is where it gets cool, "Then the angelic being," Jesus or the archangel, whatever it is, said, "Don't be afraid. Daniel," watch this, "Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and humble yourself before your God, since the first day you began to pray, your request has been heard in heaven. And I have come to answer your prayer".
Three weeks ago you prayed, and now I'm here today. And this is a word for some of you who've been praying for a long time. And I'm talking about those of you who've been praying for so long, you feel stupid. Like, why bother pray anymore? Can anybody be that honest? Have you ever been there, 'cause I have? Like, God, I've been praying for the salvation of this person for the long time, and I don't think they're ever really truly gonna come to you. I'm gonna try to keep praying, but I don't see it. I don't believe it. I don't even know if you're listening to me anymore. This is never gonna change. And you keep trying to pray. And the angelic being says, "Since the first day you began to pray, God heard your prayer".
There's somebody here, you've been praying for a long time and I want you to know from the moment you prayed for the very first time, God heard your prayer. And Daniel, he's been praying and fasting and he's hurting and he's afraid. And for three weeks, he saw nothing. For three weeks, he's praying and nothing. Then verse 13 says this, "But for 21 days," this is where it gets weird and it gets cool, stay with me. "For 21 days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way".
Wait a minute, God sent this being. And then there's this war going on in the heavenlies, this spirit prince blocked my way. "Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia". So Daniel's praying and nothing's happening. And this angelic being is coming to help, but there's this spirit prince blocking his way. So God sends reinforcement, the archangel, and there's just battle going on. There's a lot in that verse right now. But it's one of the greatest pictures in the Old Testament of the spiritual war that is going on every single day.
'Cause Paul told us this in Ephesians 6:12, he told us, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but it's against the rulers, and against the authorities, and against the powers of this dark world, and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms". In other words, when you are praying, there's more going on than you see with natural eyes. That's right. When you're praying, God hears your prayer in heaven. And God may have already unleashed angelic beings who are doing warfare against the forces of darkness. The spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia was blocking his way...
What is the kingdom prince of the spirit of Persia? What is this? Well, bible scholars say that this is likely some demonic force or a fallen angel. And the archangel who is the protector of God's people comes in and says, "Hey, we're here to take you down". Because the power of God is always greater than the power of darkness. And reinforcements are sent in the heavenly battle, and this angelic being is released to reach Daniel. And this is so powerful. For those of you that have been praying and waiting and seeing nothing, Daniel prayed and saw nothing, but just because he didn't see anything, didn't mean that God wasn't working. That's right.
Lemme say it again. Just because he didn't see anything, didn't mean that God wasn't working. And that's why for someone here, this will be an encouragement that will build your faith. You've been praying and you've been waiting, you've been praying and you've been waiting, and you've been praying and you haven't seen anything, and you've been praying and you're still waiting. I want to tell somebody here that while you're waiting, God is still working. While you're waiting, God is still working. While you wait, in the heavenly realms, because our battle is not against the people driving you crazy, our battle is not against the natural things of this world, but we're fighting a battle that goes on beyond the visible eye in the spiritual realm.
That's why, as people of faith, we don't walk by sight, but we walk by faith. That whenever we are weak in our own body, it's His spirit that makes us strong. And I'm afraid today, perhaps, in the more modern church, we've become so practical, we've forgotten sometimes the spiritual side, a very real warfare that's taking place for the child you're praying for. Warfare. Warfare coming against your marriage. And you wonder why he's so difficult or why won't she whatever. Well, maybe there's forces of darkness doing battle. When you pray, God hears your prayer. The first time you pray, the first time you pray, the first time you call out, heaven hears your prayers.
And so, Daniel, he's overwhelmed, he's got no strength. He's like, he's on his face. And then the being lifts him and speaks to him. Verse 18 tells us this, "Then the one who looked like a man touched me again" and watch this. "I felt my strength returning". Somebody today, you're gonna feel your spiritual strength returning. You've maybe lost some faith, but it's gonna be coming back. You've lost some strength, but God's bringing it back. When you are at your weakest, His strength is made perfect. "My strength was returning". And the being says, "Don't be afraid, for you are precious to God". The second time he says, "You're precious to God".
Someone here, you didn't hear it the first time, you need to hear it a second time. You are precious to God. Yes. You need to hear it again. You are precious to God. He cares about you. He hears the cries of your heart. You are precious to God. You're very precious to God. "Peace, be encouraged, be strong". Daniel, he's physically weak. He's worried and concerned about the people. They're sinning against God. He's got a spiritual burden and God's doing battles in the heavenly. And God sends a message to him and says, "You're precious to me. Peace, be encouraged, be strong".
And for those of you that will listen, not to my words, but listen for the voice of the Spirit of God, for some of you, He'll speak to you today. He'll speak to you. And He will tell you, you are precious to Him. You're precious to Him. He cares about you. He's with you. He's heard your prayer, He's working on your behalf. And He'll tell you, be at peace because there is a peace that goes beyond our human ability to understand. When you cast your cares on Him, when you cry out to Him, when you're not anxious about anything, but everything with prayer and petition, you take your request to God, there is a peace that goes beyond our human ability to understand.
And the spirit of God may tell you, be encouraged, be encouraged, be encouraged, be encouraged, be strong. You're precious to God. Just say it. Say, I'm precious to God. I'm precious to God. Say it and feel it. I'm precious to God. Type it online. Say, type it in, type it. Put it in caps, exclamation points, the whole thing. I am precious to God. You are precious to God. You're precious to God. You're precious to Him. So let's take a step back and let's review where we've been over the last few weeks.
How do you live with conviction in a culture of compromise? Well, Daniel, he resolved, remember? To be faithful to God, no matter what. He determined, he made up his mind that he would not compromise his values to blend into the culture, but he would honor God with everything that he did. Why? Because you may live in Babylon, but Babylon doesn't have to live in you. He distinguished himself. Remember the word Manitza? Manitza? He excels, he stands out. No matter what we do, we do it for the glory of God. No matter what the world says, when we show up, faith walks in the room, hope walks in the room, light walks in the room, love walks in the room. We will not be divided. We will not be angry. We'll not be hateful. We tell the truth. We treat people with integrity. And we'll always show the love of Jesus.
When we tell the truth, we always do it in love. And we cry out to God. We cry out to God. We believe that He's faithful. We know He's faithful. And because we believe He's faithful, what do we say? We say this, we say this. Say it with me. We say this, we say, "God, I believe You can. And God, I believe You will. But God, even if You don't, I still believe". One more time. "God, I believe You can. God, I believe You will. But even if You don't, God, I still believe".
And so, today, for those of you that may be spiritually discouraged because you've been praying and you've been waiting, and you've been praying and you've been waiting, I get it, because I'm there too. And I have to remind myself that God heard the cries of our heart and that our faith actually pleases Him. And just because I don't see anything, doesn't mean He is not doing anything. And God may speak to some of you today and say, "Don't be afraid". You are precious to God. God is holy, and God is good, and God is kind. From the first day you prayed, God heard your prayer in heaven, and He's released angels to war against the forces of darkness on your behalf.
And what I want you to know, I want you to feel, and I want you to believe that if God is for you, who can be against you? "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world". And remember our key verse, we started, we learned it in week one, Daniel 2:28. "There is a God in heaven. There is a God in heaven". No matter what you're going through, no matter what you're experiencing at this moment, no matter how much pain you're enduring, no matter how much doubt you may be feeling, remember, there is a God in heaven and He hears the cries of your heart.
And while you're waiting, God is working and He's working right now because our God is a good God. He is always faithful. Even when we're faithless, God is faithful. He's worthy of our praise, He's worthy of our lives, He's worthy of our trust. He's worthy of all that we have and all that we are. He is the only one worthy of all of our praise.
So we worship you today, God. We thank You for who You are.
Today at all of our churches or those of you online, those of you that are asking God, trying to trust God, waiting on God, believing God for a miracle, that you're praying for something, hoping for something and you haven't seen it, would you lift up your hands right now? Just lift them up online. You can type in the comment section, I'm waiting on God, just, I'm waiting on God. And if you wanna even leave your hands up, you're welcome to, if that feels natural to you. Just like worship to God.
We're just gonna just talk to God right now and just tell Him you, you trust Him. In your own words, just "God, I trust you" and tell him that you need him. And I want you to just listen in a moment and just feel the power of what God is doing. He's heard the cries of your heart. And there is a battle going on. There's a spiritual battle. And God's angelic forces are fighting on your behalf. While you're waiting, God is working right now.
And so God, we put our faith in You. God, we believe for our children to serve You faithfully. God, we believe for our marriages to be strong. God, we believe for mental health, not just a healthy mind, but a Christ-centered mind filled with the truth of God. We believe for strong self-esteem, God. We believe for spiritual unity, God. We believe for spiritual growth, God. We believe for salvation of those that we're praying for. God, we believe for financial miracles. We believe, God, for healing miracles. We trust You, God, we trust You, God, we trust You, God. We thank You that You are faithful. God, build our faith as we cry out to You. God, show, show your people just how precious they are to You.
As you keep praying today, nobody looking around, I wanna talk to those of you who like going, "Ah, man, that sounds pretty good, but I kind of feel like I'm doing life without God". What's interesting, I'm talking to people all over the world, especially online, in my part of the world, sometimes you can like, you just like grow up around the things of God and you kind of go to church every now and then, but you don't really know Him. You don't really depend on Him. There are others of you in other parts of the world, like, you're not even really sure who He is. And lemme just tell you about Him. Our God is a loving God, He's a patient God.
What I want you to know is you may be waiting on God or you may be waiting on something, God may be waiting on you, like literally waiting on you. Scripture says that He is patient and He doesn't want anyone to perish. He doesn't want anyone to be without Him. And because of His love and because of His patience, God sent his son Jesus. Who is Jesus? He's part of the Trinity. He's the son of God. He was sinless and perfect in every way. Why did Jesus come to Earth? Not to condemn the world, but to save the world. He came for broken and hurting people just like me and just like you. And Jesus lived the perfect life. He was without sin. And He died on a cross for the forgiveness of our sins. And three days later, God did a miracle.
They had to wait, they had to wait. While they were waiting, God was working. Three days later when the stone was rolled away, Jesus was risen from the dead so that anyone, and this includes you, who calls on His name, would be saved and transformed. Today, there are those of you here, there are those of you at churches, there are those of you online that you know you're walking and doing life without God. We're gonna step away from our sin. We're gonna step toward Jesus. When you call on Him, He'll hear your prayer. He'll make you brand new today. There are those of you that, today, God's been waiting on you. Today is the day of your salvation.
All of our churches online, those who say "I need Him, I need Him". Today, I'm stepping away from my sin. I'm surrendering my life to Him. He's waiting on me, I'm coming to Him by faith. I give my life to Jesus, that's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now, all over the place, and say, yes, that's my prayer. Lift your hands and say yes, right over here, God bless you. Over here as well, praise God for you. Right up here in this section. Come on up here high. Oh, come on, church. We thank God. Right up here, praise God for you. Others today, say, "Jesus, I need you, I need you". Right back over here. Oh, come on. Online, type in the comment section. I'm surrendering my life to Jesus. Just type that, I'm surrendering my life to Jesus. And let's just take a moment and pray. Pray:
Heavenly Father. Thank You for Your patience. I surrender to Jesus. As the savior of my life. And as my personal Lord. Fill me with your spirit. So I could know you. So I could serve you. So I could do your will. My life is not my own. I give it all to you. Thank you for new life. You have all of mine. In Jesus name I pray.