Vietnam War Strategy or Gulf War Strategy? Daniel 10
- Powerful Prayer starts with a burden (vs. 2-3)
History tells us many of them grew so accustomed to the Persian lifestyle they decided to stay. Daniel is so burdened because his people, the Jews, had fallen in love with the wrong world. The American Dream has become the American Nightmare. Daniel fasted and prayed for three weeks, would you consider doing the same?
- POWERFUL Prayer doesn’t stop until an answer comes (vs. 12)
No, he humbles himself before God, and he is in a heavy spirit of mourning for three weeks. The prayer had been heard but not answered… For three weeks he petitioned God–wrestling, agonizing, weeping, waiting–all the time unaware of the battle raging somewhere in the unseen realm of the heavens. Daniel experienced a delay because Satan’s forces fought against the answer to his prayer. If Daniel’s persistence in prayer had not outlasted this period of delay, he would have been defeated.
- Prayer is often resisted by Satan’s soldiers (vs. 13)
Ephesians 6. “Put on the whole armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 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 …And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” (Vs. 11-12, 18a) Satan has ruined everything he has ever touched, and he will wreck your life if you don’t resist him. FACT: Satan and his demons don’t want you to recognize their existence or worship them they want to make sure you are not a faithful servant of Christ a prayer warrior. FACT: The Devil is not omniscient. But though he does not know everything he is highly organized: He has an intricate network. Nothing is left haphazard, even to the smallest detail. FACT: Demons are not like dogs let loose in a park, chasing butterflies, sniffing at this bit of grass and at that tree trunk. They plan. They are structured. FACT: The Devil’s assistants are more cunning than diplomats, and their servants are more beautiful than angels of light. FACT: The Devil has a delegation of sinister soldiers and they operate in every area, the entire world over. FACT: He stirs up prejudice against the church of Christ, always seeking to resist the spread of the gospel and the building of God’s kingdom.
- POWERFUL Prayer is our strategic weapon against Satan (vs. 20)
II Corinthians 10:4-5 says, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”