Spiritual Warfare in Prayer

Pastor Dan Walker, PhD, MDiv

Introduction

This is the final message in our series “Teach Us To Pray.” We certainly haven’t exhausted everything the Bible has to say about prayer, but we’ve covered some very important topics. Personally, God has taught me some important lessons as I have studied what Jesus taught on prayer. You may have a read a passage before, but God can open your mind up to it in a new way, in a way that brings change to your life.

That’s what God has done for me as we’ve gone through this series. He’s given me a new faith in the power of prayer. He’s also given me some new ideas to keep my prayer life more organized and consistent.

And He’s reminded me of the importance of humbling oneself through fasting when praying. My prayer is that for each one of you, God has spoken something that has directly impacted the effectiveness of your prayer life. Today, my concluding message in this series is entitled “Spiritual Warfare in Prayer.”

As people living in the 21st century, we are so accustomed to simply living by what we can interact with with our 5 senses. If we can’t see something, we tend to live as though the unseen is of no importance. So, today, I felt it important to strip away the veil the hides the unseen supernatural world for us, so that we can see what is really going on in prayer.

As always, we’re going to stick to exactly what the Bible says and not go into all kinds of wild speculation, as some have done on this topic. The Bible takes the unseen, spiritual realm very seriously. In fact it is just as important, if not more so, then the seen realm.

Ephesians 6:12 (NIV) For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

The Greek word for struggle literally means “wrestling” or even “fighting.” In the paragraph in which this verse is taken from, prayer is mentioned 4 times. So prayer is definitely one arena where our struggle is.

In prayer, we wrestle against dark and evil supernatural powers that seek to hinder our prayers and the advance of God’s Kingdom. We tend to see our struggle as against flesh and blood, which is other people. But God’s Word tells us here that our enemy is not other people, but these evil unseen forces.

As we go on in our main passage this morning, we’re going to see how this description of the struggle of prayer applied to the prayers of a believer in the Bible. I believe God’s Word will give us an answer to the question of “Why aren’t my prayers immediately answered?” Or “Why should I keep on praying if the answer doesn’t come quickly.”

Quite frankly, the Bible speaks of the strength of the forces of evil becoming stronger in the last days in which we are living. So, how can we resist? The answer is through prayer, through spiritual warfare in prayer, we can overcome those forces and see God’s answers come.

Our passage today comes from the book of Daniel in the Old Testament.

Have a proper prayer attitude

Daniel 10:1–3 (NIV) In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel (who was called Belteshazzar). Its message was true and it concerned a great war. The understanding of the message came to him in a vision. At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.

In our story, we see that Daniel entered into a 21 day period of prayer and fasting. Quite frankly, we’re not sure if Daniel planned to fast for 21 days or if that’s simply the period of time it took for his prayer to be answered. Daniel’s fast was a partial fast of eating very basic foods and no meat at all.

Later on in the passage we learn what Daniel’s attitude was in this intense time of prayer.

Ask God for understanding

As we’ll see in a minute, God sent an angel to answer Daniel’s prayer. And that angel gives us insight into Daniel’s attitude in prayer.

Daniel 10:12a (NIV) Then he continued, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding …

So we see that in prayer Daniel set his mind to gain understanding from God. A initial revelation had been given to Daniel by God, by he did not understand what it all meant, so he sought God’s help. Daniel understood that he himself did not know everything and could not foresee the future for himself or for the nation of Israel.

So he sought God for a supernatural understanding. Notice the verse says that Daniel set his mind. That was a deliberate act, to focus his mind on praying a specific prayer for wisdom from God until the answer came.

Humble yourself before God

Daniel 10:12 (NIV) … you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, …

The second thing that Daniel did was to humble himself before God with fasting. Often in the Scripture, fasting is described as humbling oneself or mourning before God. In fasting, a believer makes a decision that humbling oneself before God is more important than eating food.

In fasting, God is given the priority in your life, so that you can pray more intensely and more effectively. When one is hungry, when one makes a decision to deny oneself something you may desire, it is a humbling experience. You feel weak, you feel the need for God’s strength in your life.

That is the proper prayer attitude that Daniel had and that God wants us to have.

Taking prayer seriously when the stakes are high

What’s the application for our lives? When we have serious issues in life to confront, we need to take prayer seriously. We need to set our minds to seek understanding from God and humble ourselves before God in fasting and prayer.

We are currently in a 40 day period of prayer and fasting for God’s blessing on our church’s future and the StarBridge counseling center. Continue to pray for our September 11 service to be held at StarBridge Christian Center this coming Tuesday at 7 pm. We ask everyone in the church to attend and seek God in this service.

Believe God responds to your prayer

Daniel began praying, but nothing happened after the first 7 days. He prayed another 7 days, but nothing had happened after 14 days. He continued to pray for another 6 days, but nothing had happened after 20 days.

Still, Daniel continued to pray and on the 21st day, something happened.

Daniel 10:5–6 (NIV) I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of the finest gold around his waist. His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.

None of the other men with Daniel could see the angel, but they were so filled with terror that they fled. Daniel felt his knees buckle and fainted with fear.

God sends angels to answer prayers

Hebrews 1:14 (NIV) Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

Angels are sent as ministering spirits to serve believers. In this case, the angel was sent to give Daniel a complete understanding of God’s revelation to him. This passage in Hebrews tells us that angels are not sent to everyone, but to those who will inherit salvation, that is believers.

Listen to what the angel said to Daniel.

God hears your prayers

Daniel 10:11–12 (NIV) He said, "Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you." And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling. … Since 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.

The angel gave Daniel the strength to stand up and began to speak to him. The angel didn’t say, Daniel, God had you in the heavenly answering machine and just now got to your call 21 days late. He didn’t say, Daniel, God was busy with other things of higher priority and only now got to you on His to-do list.

No, the angel said that on the very first day that Daniel began praying, God heard his request and sent an angel to respond to his request. Let that sink it. On the first day you pray a prayer, God hears and the answer is on it’s way.

When you pray, believe God is responding to that prayer.

Trusting that prayer sets heaven in motion

So now we begin to see the power of prayer. When we pray, our prayers are heard by God and incredibly powerful beings, angels, are sent to answer those prayers. We can’t see them, most of the time, but they are real, nevertheless.

Our prayers are not just empty words, they rise to the throne of God who dispatches the answer through His heavenly army of angels. Now, you and I cannot command those angels, but when we pray to God, He does.

So, why did Daniel have to pray for 21 days before the angel appeared with the answer? Why do our prayers often seem to take a long time to be answered? If angels are real and so powerful, why can’t they just make the answer come immediately?

Understand spiritual warfare

We’ve already seen from Ephesians 6 that angels are not the only unseen supernatural beings. There are also other unseen evil beings. The Bible teaches us that at some time in the past, there was a rebellion against God in heaven led by Satan.

At that time, Satan and 1/3 of the angels were cast out of heaven and came down to earth to wreak havoc. These fallen angels, of various rank and power, are what we fight against. These fallen angels are also called demons and can directly oppress or possess people.

Demons resist God’s angels

Daniel 10:13a (NIV) But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days.

The prince of the Persian kingdom was not a human being, but a demonic power that sought to thwart the angel from bringing God’s answer to Daniel. This heavenly battle lasted for 21 days. This unseen spiritual warfare is the reason that the answer to Daniel’s prayer was delayed.

There is a fierce conflict in the supernatural realm over every prayer that is prayed in accordance with the will of God. Satan sends his forces to delay the answers to our prayers. Why? Because he knows that if the answer is delayed long enough, we may quit praying and the answer will never come.

Persistent prayer brings victory

Daniel 10:13b (NIV) … Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.

Who is Michael? The Bible tells us that Michael is an archangel, one of the most, if not the most powerful angel in heaven. Here, he is described as one of the chief princes, so there must be other archangels.

As the angel who was fighting to get to Daniel could not break through on his own, Michael came and together they broke through the defense of the Persian demon and brought the answer to Daniel.

Daniel 10:21 (NIV) but first I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. (No one supports me against them except Michael, your prince.

Then the angel began to tell Daniel the answer to his prayer, which had to do with the future of Israel in God’s plans and was written in the Book of Truth. What would have happened if Daniel had stopped praying on day 20? I don’t believe the answer would have come.

The battle is ongoing

Daniel 10:20 (NIV) So he said, "Do you know why I have come to you? Soon I will return to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I go, the prince of Greece will come;

So now we see, that the spiritual warfare is ongoing. This angel is going back to fight against the prince of Persia demon and also has to contend with the demonic prince of Greece. Apparently, each nation has a head demonic prince that rules over a multitude of lesser demons and battles God’s angels.

The point here, is that the spiritual warfare battles are ongoing. When one battle has been won, the next is ready to take it’s place. You see, every prayer you pray involves you in spiritual warfare.

Some battles are bigger than others. Some answers take longer to come. Sometimes, those battles can directly affect your own life.

But we know, from this and other passages, that God’s angels are stronger than the evil forces and will ultimately prevail as we persist in prayer.

Standing firm when God is doing something big

Now, let’s think about this topic of spiritual warfare for a minute. When do you think that spiritual warfare will be the most intense? Obviously, it will be the most intense when there is the most at stake, when God is going to do something big.

I believe that right now, Life Church is in the middle of some pretty intense spiritual warfare. Why? Because God is up to something big with us. God has brought us into this building for a purpose far bigger than most of us can imagine.

So, pray and pray hard right now, as God leads us as a church into new areas of partnership and ministry for Him. Those that work with God in this will reap a huge blessing in their lives and families.

Conclusion

Prayer is much more than simply speaking to the ceiling. In prayer, we not only communicate with God, we also get involved in the struggle of spiritual warfare. So, a humble attitude in prayer that seeks understanding from God.

Believe that God responds to prayer by sending angels to answer. Understand the dynamics of spiritual warfare in prayer, with God’s angels and Satan’s demons fighting over the answer to your prayer. Finally, believe that persistent prayer in faith will see God get the victory.

📘 Continue the Journey

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