As I read some of the great prayers of the Bible I cannot help but ask, “Why can’t God’s people pray like that and with that kind of power today?” Maybe I should ask, “Why don’t we pray like that and with that kind of power today?” Look at the prayer in our text. Peter and John had been arrested for preaching Jesus. They were released and told never to preach in His name again. Peter and John reported to the Jerusalem church what had happened, and look at what vs. 24 says: “And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is . . . ” They began to pray! But notice, “. . . they lifted up their voice . . . WITH ONE ACCORD . . . ” Can you imagine that! Here is a united church, all praying at the same time, and all praying for the same thing! Imagine the power! And if you can’t imagine it, look at vs. 31: "And when they had prayed, THE PLACE WAS SHAKEN where they were assembled together; and THEY WERE ALL FILLED with the Holy Ghost, and THEY SPAKE THE WORD of God WITH BOLDNESS.” Why can’t we have a prayer meeting like that today? We can, but too many of God’s people . . . 1) Are out of fellowship with the Father; 2) Or, are not serious in their praying (praying for the wrong things); Or, have a lack of real faith in the Lord; Or, are unwilling to obey God. The fact is that we can have an earth shaking prayer meeting, but it is going to require some real commitment on our part - commitment to God, to Christ, and to God’s Word. We cannot “play church” and have that kind of prayer meeting. We cannot be like many churches today - just going through the motions - and have that kind of prayer meeting. We cannot try to be like everyone else, fall in with the status quo, and expect God to bless us with that kind of power. There IS power in prayer! The Scripture tells us of Elijah in James 5:17-18. It says that Elijah prayed “that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. (18) And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.” But notice how he prayed, “Elijah prayed EARNESTLY . . . ” EARNESTLY = (Webster) “characterized by or proceeding from an intense and serious state of mind.” The language says, “Elijah prayed with prayer.” Quite literally it is saying, “Elijah ‘got with it’ in his praying. He wasn’t playing around. When he prayed Elijah meant business with God.” And note what it says about the one who was doing the praying. Elijah “was a man subject to like passions as we are . . . ” He was not some “super saint.” (Remember his depression when Jezebel threatened him?) But vs. 16 says it is the “effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man” that “availeth much.” EFFECTUAL FERVENT = (energeo) active, energetic, efficient; at work, active in operation. Think of the Gethsemane prayer of Jesus. Hebrews 5:5-6 lets us know that the writer is speaking of Jesus. Then in vs. 7 he says of the Lord: “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications WITH STRONG CRYING AND TEARS unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared . . . ” (STRONG = forcible. There was some force or power behind it. It is translated in other places as “mighty, powerful, valiant.”) (CRYING = from krazo to scream, to call aloud (translated “to cry out”). Hear what Luke 22:44 says about the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane: “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (AGONY = anguish ; MORE EARNESTLY = more intently; fervently.) Have you ever prayed in agony? Where you were so burdened that you fell to your knees (in your heart and in your flesh) before God, able only to cry out with a loud voice, exclaiming “God, help me!” (Ever been there? I have!) You will do that when you’re told that your mother has brain cancer and has maybe two months to live, and she has asked you to preach her funeral! You will do that when the weight of the world is so great upon you that you have to have some relief, and you know that the only One who can give it is God. You will pray that way when you feel the burden of the entire church and her future upon you. And you will do it with strong crying and tears, also. I fear that way too many of the prayers of “the saints” today are weak and ineffective. Prayers that come (only) from the head up are often that way. The Lord’s churches and this “God bless America” of ours are in a crisis today and they need the effectual prayer, fervent, foundation shaking prayer made with strong crying and tears of God’s people. “One of these days soon, if we do not change, we’re going to wake up and find the America that we once knew and the liberty we once enjoyed as the Lord’s churches are gone.” For the remainder of this message we are going to look at the prayer Daniel prayed in Daniel 9. Daniel had been give the vision of what is referred to as Daniel’s 70th week. He declares in chapter 8 that he did not understand the vision. Vs. 27 says: “And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.” Daniel prayed for two things - deliverance and understanding. Deliverance from the Babylonians and understanding of the vision. We could/should be praying for those two things today. Deliverance - America has been taken captive by the world, the flesh, and the devil. Understanding - That the eyes of God’s people would be opened and they would understand that we are, indeed, living in the last days. But we’re not going to look so much at the content of Daniel’s prayer as we are at the construction of it - not what he prayed for, but how he prayed. If we want to pray with power we need to follow his example. We must:

I. PRAY WITH SERIOUS CONCENTRATION -- VS. 3.

II. PRAY WITH STEADFAST CONFIDENCE -- VS 4.

III. PRAY WITH SINCERE CONFESSION -- VV. 4-7.

IV. WE ARE TO PRAY WITH SPIRITUAL CONCERN.