Spiritual Warfare

Daniel chapter 10 contains the most significant scripture passages related to spiritual warfare. The Bible does not offer much of a behind-the-scenes peek at the unseen battle for this world. But Daniel, by this time in his eighties, had a vision involving an angel. This angel had been held up in battle against the "spirit prince of Persia" for 21 days which corresponds to the amount of time that Daniel had been fasting. the angel was only able to break free of the battle after the angel Michael joined him. At that point, he was able to deliver the answer to Daniel's prayer, which had been uttered 3 weeks prior. What this passage indicates is that there are angels and demons battling in regard to the affairs of this world. There seem to be angels and demons designated to particular territories, though there is no mention in the Bible of personal guardian angels. His angels are said to protect us, but not on a one-to-one ratio as some believe. This passage also shows us that sometimes unanswered prayers are really delays dealing regarding what is happening in the spiritual realm. persistence in prayer is important, as Daniel learned when he finally got his answer.

The message delivered by this angel would take me months to unravel, but there is a verse by verse discussion of the fulfilled prophecies in the study notes of www.sonic light.org for those interested. Basically, it has to do with prophecy that was fulfilled by the kingdoms that overthrew Babylon, including Alexander the Great of the Greek empire, who is referred to as the "king who will do as he pleases...". These prophecies were fulfilled with such precision that skeptics believe the book of Daniel to be fraudulent, supposing it to have been written after the events themselves occurred. Approximately 350 years transpired between the issuing of the prophecy and it's fulfillment.

Tomorrow's reading: Haggai 2:1-23; Zech. 1-5:11