In the third year of King Cyrus of Persia, Daniel — now an elderly man who had spent most of his life in exile — received a vision that troubled him deeply. He did not understand what it meant. So he did what he had done throughout his long life when he needed God to speak: he fasted.
Twenty-One Days of Mourning
Daniel set himself to a partial fast for three full weeks. No choice food. No meat or wine. No anointing with oil. This was not a hunger strike or a performance — it was the quiet, sustained discipline of a man who had learned over decades that some answers only come through persistent seeking.
For twenty-one days, nothing happened. No vision. No voice. No clarity. Just silence.
The Angelic Encounter
On the twenty-first day, Daniel was standing beside the Tigris River when a figure appeared — a man dressed in linen with a face like lightning and eyes like flaming torches. Daniel's companions fled in terror even though they could not see the figure. Daniel himself collapsed, his strength gone.
The angel told him something remarkable: "From the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days."
Daniel's prayer had been answered on day one. The fast sustained him through twenty-one days of invisible spiritual warfare. The breakthrough was happening in a realm Daniel could not see.
What This Means for You
Daniel's experience reveals something most people miss about fasting: it is not about the speed of the answer. Sometimes the answer has already been released, and the fast is what sustains you through the resistance. If you are fasting and nothing seems to be happening, Daniel's story says: keep going. The silence does not mean absence. Something may be breaking through right now that you cannot yet see.