Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting

In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. DANIEL 9:2–3

If one book of Derek Prince’s deserves to be remembered above the rest, it is probably Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting, first published in 1973. Its claim is bold. Ordinary believers — not only statesmen, generals and prophets — have been given authority by God to influence the course of nations through prayer. When they humble themselves, fast, and pray on the basis of God’s promises, history moves. Prince did not offer this as a theory. He had watched it, he believed, in his own lifetime, and it was the steady conviction of his old age.

A kingdom of priests

Prince grounded the teaching in the calling of the church. Peter calls believers a royal priesthood; John says Christ has made us kings and priests unto God. A priest stands between God and men, bringing the needs of the people before Him. A king exercises rule. Prince took both words seriously. The church, he argued, has a priestly and a governing office in the world, and it exercises that office chiefly in prayer.

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 1 PETER 2:9

From this he drew a practical priority. When Paul instructs Timothy about the worship of the church, the first thing he urges is prayer — and prayer specifically for rulers.

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 1 TIMOTHY 2:1–2

Prince noticed the words first of all. Before evangelism, before teaching, before any programme, the church is to pray for those who govern. He thought many congregations had inverted this order. They complained about their governments and prayed for them rarely, if at all. He believed that the condition of a nation was, in some measure, the responsibility of the Christians in it, and that they would give account for whether they had prayed.

Daniel, the pattern

The figure who stood behind the whole book was Daniel. As an old man in exile, Daniel read in the prophet Jeremiah that the captivity of Jerusalem would last seventy years. He did not conclude that, since God had promised it, he need do nothing. He concluded the opposite. Because God had promised it, he set his face to pray it into being, with fasting, sackcloth and confession of his people’s sin.

Prince saw in this the relationship between God’s promises and our prayers. God’s purposes are sure, but He has chosen to accomplish them through the prayers of His people. The promise is not a reason for passivity; it is the ground of intercession. Daniel prayed because he had read.

Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. DANIEL 10:12

Fasting

Prince gave fasting a place in Christian life that most Protestants in his day had quietly abandoned. He noted that Jesus said when ye fast, not if; that He said His disciples would fast after He was taken from them; and that the early church fasted when seeking guidance and when sending out workers.

As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. ACTS 13:2–3

He taught that fasting is a way of humbling oneself before God — not a hunger strike to force His hand, nor a means of earning His attention, but a deliberate setting aside of appetite so that the soul may be quieted and the spirit may seek Him. He gave a good deal of practical counsel on how to fast safely and wisely, and those who knew him said the teaching came out of his own practice.

Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. MATTHEW 6:16

He also stressed, following Isaiah 58, that fasting without justice is empty. The fast God chooses is one that looses bands of wickedness and lets the oppressed go free.

Reading history by faith

Prince illustrated his thesis from events he had lived near: the desert campaign in North Africa, in which he had served; the founding of Israel, which he had witnessed; the end of the Stalin era; the coming of independence in Kenya. He read each of these, in faith, as something the prayers of God’s people had helped to shape.

Here a caution is proper. It is one thing to believe that prayer changes history, which Scripture plainly teaches. It is another to know which particular events were changed by which particular prayers. Prince offered his readings as testimonies, and they may be received as such. But the believer should hold them humbly. God is sovereign over nations; He removes kings and sets up kings. We are invited to pray, and assured that He hears. We are not always told what our prayers accomplished, and we need not be. Christians of equal faith have sometimes prayed with equal fervour for opposite outcomes, and a prayer movement that becomes the servant of one political party has forgotten whom it serves.

The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will. PROVERBS 21:1

Standing in the gap

With that caution, the heart of this teaching is a summons every church needs. God looks for intercessors.

And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. EZEKIEL 22:30

Prince believed that God is still looking, and that the most consequential thing an ordinary believer can do for his nation may be done on his knees, in secret, with an empty stomach and an open Bible. He was influential in the founding of Intercessors for America, whose work drew on this book, and many prayer movements since have owed something to it. Whatever else is said about him, he called a generation to pray, and many answered.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 2 CHRONICLES 7:14

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. When did you last pray by name for the leaders of your nation and your town? Begin this week, and include those you did not vote for.

2. Read Daniel 9 and notice how much of Daniel’s prayer is confession — not of other people’s sins but of the sins of his own people, himself included. Pray for your nation in the same way.

3. If you have never fasted, plan a simple fast of one meal this week, given to prayer. If you have health concerns, take medical advice first.

4. Find one promise of God concerning His purposes in the world, and pray it back to Him daily for a month.

5. Examine whether your prayers for your country are shaped more by Scripture or by the news and your political loyalties.

6. Consider joining or starting a small group that meets to pray for your nation.

A PRAYER

Lord God, You change the times and the seasons, You remove kings and set up kings. I confess that I have complained about my nation more than I have prayed for it.

Make me one who stands in the gap. Teach me to humble myself, to fast without display, and to pray Your promises back to You as Daniel did.

Keep my prayers free from the spirit of party. Let me seek Your kingdom and not my own preferences.

Hear the prayers of Your people, forgive our sin, and heal our land. For the glory of Jesus Christ, Amen.