Daniel 10:12
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, they words were heard, and I am come for thy words.

In the world today, I sometimes wonder if our words matter. People not only do not listen, but rarely realize the impact of what a single word has on someone else. Life is filled with continuous words; about everything and anything but the bible shows us that life and death are in the power of the tongue. When we choose life, to speak God’s word over every situation, we release God to perform great and mighty things and he will come for our words.

When looking a little closer at the word “chasten” in the Merriam dictionary we find it means to correct, prune or purify ourselves. When we set our hearts to understand and purify or correct ourselves before God THEN he hears our prayers and sets his will in action. No one I know wants to correct themselves or be corrected but the fact is that God requires it of us if we want to be heard.

How do we purify ourselves before God?
Daily we must examine ourselves. We must examine our thoughts, motives, and the intentions of our heart before God. We must ask God to bring things to our attention that are not pleasing to him.

There are many examples of answered prayer in the bible from 1 Samuel 1:20 we read about Hannah and how she poured out herself in prayer for a child and God answered her. In Judges 16:28 Samson prayed for strength one more time to pull down the pillars on the Philistines before he died and God answered him. They set their hearts to understand and corrected themselves before God so they could be heard.

Once we get in that place of submission and correction, he not only hears us but also comes for our words, and sets in motion heaven and earth to fulfill his purpose in our lives.