Spiritual Warfare - Part 1 — David Ravenhill

Spiritual Warfare in High Places

Flying, you know, jumbo planes across the heavens in California to deal with the spiritual wickedness in high places. So in order to deal with the spiritual wickedness in high places, you've got to be in the high places.

At least that was the theory. And so they literally rented planes and did that. I've seen others climb up in the Himalayans because they felt that there was some strong man up there and somebody made a movie of the whole thing.

They're up above the tree line up to a place where there are, you know, nothing but ice and they discover that there's, you know, some sort of demonic stronghold in this huge block of ice. And the guy is there with a, you know, one of these ice picks flailing away trying to destroy this principality.

And, I mean, I've seen it all. So let me say this, be a good Berean. Be a good Berean. I always get a bit of a kick out of that if you don't know what a Berean is. The Bible says the Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica because they searched the Word of God daily to see if these things were so.

What is so amusing to me is that their teacher was the Apostle Paul. How, you know, imagine the audacity of saying, Paul, I'm not going to believe what you say until I check it out in the Word. Now, if they did that for the Apostle Paul, you certainly have my permission to check out what I say.

You know, so be a good Berean and make sure you get into the Word of God and substantiate it. If not, just toss it out. Let's begin in Matthew chapter 12. I'll read a portion of scripture there. Beginning, I won't read the whole thing, verse 25.

Binding the Strong Man in Matthew 12

And knowing their thoughts, he said to them, any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and any city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself.

How then will his kingdom stand? And if I, by Beelzebul, cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Consequently, they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

And then verse 29 is the verse that I want to focus on. Or how can one enter into a strong man's house and carry off his property, unless he first bind the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.

In other words, Jesus is saying, just as he is the shepherd of his sheep and he looks after his flock, the enemy likewise has his house and he looks after his own. And the only way that you can set those captives free, so to speak, is to bind the strong man and then go in and plunder his goods.

But you'll notice that it is a priority, unless he first bind the strong man. Not as a last resort, but as a first priority. And as I mentioned this morning, and you can turn to it if you like, in 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 4, Paul makes a statement.

Spiritual Blindness and Evangelism

He says, the God of this world, verse 4, in whose case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving. That they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is in the image of God.

The God of this world, in other words, another name for the devil, has blinded the minds of any unbeliever. So like I mentioned this morning, if you were in the first session, that whether you are praying for a unsaved loved one, husband, wife, child, daughter, whatever the case may be, whether you're witnessing to a friend at work, whether you're doing mass evangelism, child evangelism, door-to-door evangelism, whatever it is.

If you are dealing with unbelievers, the God of this world has blinded the minds for one simple reason, lest the light should penetrate. So we are involved in spiritual warfare in any type of evangelism.

The enemy does not want to give up his goods, so to speak. He guards, he protects his own. And so Jesus said, you've got to bind the strong men. So for a little while now, we're going to look at some strong men.

I'm going to look at a strong man over an individual, strong man over a group of individuals, strong man over a city, and a strong man over a nation. And so let's begin in Mark chapter 5, and this is a familiar story, I'm sure, to many of you.

The Strong Man Over an Individual: Legion

It's the story of the Gadarene demoniac. Jesus, of course, arrives, crosses over the sea. Here is this man that is going crazy, basically. Everybody's tried to control him. They've tied him up with chains, bound him with chains.

He's got supernatural strength. He tears the chains off, and so on. Jesus comes upon the scene. Find the scripture here. And it says in verse 6, and seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up, and he bowed down before him.

And crying out with a loud voice, he said, what do I have to do with you, Jesus, the Son of the Most High? I implore you by God, do not torment me. For he had been saying to him, come out of the man, you unclean spirit.

And he was asking him, what is your name? And he said, my name is Legion, for we are many. I want you to notice that little phrase, my name, singular, is Legion, but we are many. In other words, I am the strong man.

I am, if you like, a Roman legion, supposedly, we're somewhere between 2 ,000 and 6 ,000 troops. I can't remember exactly how many, but many, many. And of course, there would be a commander, if you like, in charge of that.

This man, this demon is saying, listen, I am the number one man. Under me are thousands. In this case, we know for a fact that there were 2 ,000 demons because Jesus cast them out. They went into a herd of swine and plunged into the sea, and we know that there were 2 ,000 swine.

So whether they all had a few each, I don't know. Or we got one each, but we know there were at least 2 ,000. But notice what Jesus does. He deals, first of all, with this principle of strong man. He doesn't go to some little dude, so to speak, and say, you know, I'm going to cast you out first because you're going to be easy, and then I'm going to work my way up to the strong man.

No, he deals with the strong man, and once he binds the strong man, the others basically are ready to go. It would be like me walking down the street, and this is purely an illustration, but here are 10 men that are going to accost me and beat me up or something.

One of them is obviously the leader. He's a great big guy, you know, 6 foot 8 or 9, weighing 300 pounds of pure muscle, and I go up to him, and the other guys are all 6 foot plus, but this guy is extremely tall, and with sort of one blow, I take care of him.

You know, the rest of them are going to flee, and that's purely an illustration. You know, the day that happens, you know, you'll read about it on CNN. But in other words, I bound the strong man. The other guys think to themselves, wow, if he can take care of the chief, we don't have a chance.

And so Jesus binds the strong man, in that case, his name is Legion, and all the rest have to leave. So there you have a strong man, if you like, over an individual, one demonic entity that was in control, and once he was bound, Jesus could go in, if you like, and set the others free or chase them out.

The Strong Man Over a Group: Paul and Elymas

Then over into Acts chapter 13, and this is an interesting little instant here in the life of Paul. Paul and Barnabas are on the island of...where are they now? Cyprus, verse 6, and they come across in verse 8, a man by the name of Elamus, the magician, for thus his name is translated, who was opposing them.

Now, let me go back. Verse 6, and when they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the procouncil.

Procouncil is simply a provincial governor. We would call him a governor today or a mayor. And it says, who was with the procouncil, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, and this man summons Barnabas and Saul, and he sought to hear the word of God.

So here is the situation. They're on the island of Cyprus. One of the provincial governors hears about them, and he takes the initiative, and he invites Barnabas and Saul to come and talk to him about the word of God.

It's not very often that you get a phone call from some politician saying, listen, would you mind dropping by my office sometime? I hear you're a Christian. I'd like to know a little bit more about the word of God.

But that's the situation. So this man is obviously hungry. He's obviously desirous of hearing what Paul has to say. But when they get there, along with this provincial governor, is a magician by the name of Elemas, a Jewish false prophet.

Now, notice what happens. It says, but Elemas, the magician, for thus his name is translated, verse 8, was opposing them, seeking to turn the procouncil away from the faith. So this man is bent on doing one thing, and that is stopping this provincial leader, this governor, from hearing the word of God.

And that is his assignment, if you like, a demonic assignment, and he is doing everything he can. It goes on to say, but Saul, who is also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze upon him, and he said, you who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?

Now, if you meditate on that a little bit, you'll notice that there is a period of time that has gone by. Paul here is doing everything he can to make the word of God, as it says here, to make it straight, to make it simple, to make it direct, to make it understandable, and this man, every time Paul opens his mouth, he's twisting what Paul says.

And Paul, obviously, is growing frustrated. Now, if you muse on this, that's the conclusion you have to come to, because eventually he recognizes, this is a demonic thing that I'm up against, and so he turns to this man, and he says, how long, meaning this has been going on, how long will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?

So there's a period of time that has gone by where Paul, you can understand, is trying his best to convert this man, to lay out the plan of salvation or whatever, and this man is twisting it, and so finally, he comes against him, and he binds his spirit.

Now, let me go on. It says, go back to verse 10, you who are full of all deceit, your deception and fraud, obviously, he's a son of the devil who was a liar from the beginning, so he's one that is full of lies, fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?

In other words, quit twisting everything that I say, and now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time. And immediately, a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand.

Then, underline that word, then, if you believe in underlining your Bible, then the procounsel believed when he saw, number one, what had happened, and being amazed at the teaching of the Lord. Two things convinced this man, the power of God, and then the word of God.

He was amazed at the teaching of the Lord. That's what Paul was trying to get through, but this man was twisting and distorting everything that Paul said, and it was going on and on and on. So you can see, a strong man can have an influence over a group.

In this case, even the apostle Paul and Barnabas, two great men of God, came, if you like, under the spirit of this thing to the point where finally they realized, we're not wrestling flesh and blood here, but principalities and powers, if you like.

This man is the son of the devil. He's an enemy of all righteousness, and we've got to take care of him, bind the strong man, before we can affect his goods. But the moment the strong man was bound, they believed.

I shouldn't say they, this man believed, being amazed at the teaching of the Lord. So that was, you know, Paul's message was a great message, but the enemy was distorting it. And so we need to learn a lesson from that.

Evangelism and Spiritual Opposition in New York

I will never forget my wife and I, when we first got married, worked with David Wilkerson in New York City. And we were assigned the first week we were there to work with Mom Wilkerson, David's mother, who ran the coffee shop in the middle of Greenwich Village.

And we would go down there three nights a week from about 7 o 'clock at night till maybe 11, 11 .30, and we would serve coffee and donuts. It was a subterranean coffee shop that they would come to, and we would sit down at a table and just share the gospel.

People would drop in, especially in wintertime, we'd serve sometimes, you know, 200 people a night. The free coffee and the donuts would bring them in, but we would witness. And I remember one night, it was somewhat quiet, and a couple came down.

I can't remember now if it was a couple of guys, and they seemed very interested in what I had to say. And I was sharing the gospel. They were asking all the right questions for the right reasons, you know, genuine, well, what about this and what about that, not to try and trip me up, but, you know, genuinely wanting to hear what I had to say.

And then a couple of other people came down and sat down at the same table and got involved in the conversation. And one of them in particular repeatedly kept, you know, sort of, we would say, throwing red herrings into the situation, you know, what about this and what about that, just to try and trip me up.

And I sensed, you know, just a frustration that all of a sudden, you know, he'd taken the conversation away from me and was beginning to put doubt in the minds of these men. And I will never forget, a young Christian at the time, just out of Bible school, but silently, under my breath, I took authority over Satan.

I said, Satan, in the name of Jesus, I just looked at the guy without verbalizing anything, I take authority over you and I bind the spirit of confusion. And literally, and I've never had it happen quite this quickly before, but within a matter of moments almost, he sort of scratched his head and he said, I can't remember what I was going to say.

And turned the conversation back. Now, that doesn't always happen quite as clear as that. I think God was, you know, just showing me something as a young Christian. But nevertheless, we are up against, you know, strong men.

And they are enemies of righteousness and enemies of the kingdom of God. So you've got a strong man over an individual, strong man over a group of individuals. And then if you go over a few chapters into Acts chapter 19, we have a strong man over a city.

The Strong Man Over a City: Ephesus

In this case, it's a strong lady. But anyway, whether demons have got gender or not, I don't know. But we'll see. Now, the city of Ephesus was a place where Paul in his writings makes statements like this.

There's a wide and effectual door of ministry that is open to me in Ephesus. In other words, there is tremendous interest in the gospel. But, he says, there are many adversaries. So there's a wide and effectual door, but there are many adversaries.

Another place, he says, I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus. Now, we have no record of Paul being in some sort of arena, you know, fighting with lions and so on and so forth. I believe that those were spiritual entities that Paul encountered.

I have a friend who, for many years, worked with the assemblies of God in Rome. And he is just a real plain-Jane sort of guy, not one of these, you know, funny, you know, crazy charismatics in the extreme sense.

He's a very solid guy. And he told me this story. He said, one day I was walking across the Vatican grounds, and he said a shadow went over my shoulder. And he said, I thought, initially he said, I didn't think too much about it.

And then he said, it happened again. And he said, I was right in the middle of the Vatican Square there. And he said, this shadow went over. And he said, I turned around and I looked. And he said, there were no buildings or anything that was sort of casting a shadow.

He said, I couldn't quite understand it. He said, he walked a little further, and again the shadow came. And he looked up, and God opened his eyes, and he saw these huge winged creatures, you know, black, like huge eagles or whatever, flying.

And God said, this is what you're up against here. Now, you know, I remember Nicky Cruz was still at Teen Challenge when my wife and I were there, and his mother was into exorcism. I can't remember now if it was good exorcism or bad.

It seems to me it was bad exorcism. I think his mother was into witchcraft. If I remember, don't set that in concrete. But he said it was not uncommon to see animals running through the house. In other words, animals, demons expressing themselves in animal form.

There's a word for it, a fancy word, lycanthropy, I think it is. You can look it up in the dictionary if you can spell it. But it means a demon that transforms itself into an animal. I am not condoning the Harry Potter series.

I've never read a book and never been to a movie. But I remember when the first advertisements came out, you remember the school teacher where the cat, I think it is, is sitting on the desk, and the cat jumps off, and in the process is transformed into the teacher.

I have met missionaries, and it's not uncommon in different mission places for them to experience these demonic entities. I believe that when Paul says, I wrestled or I fought with wild beasts, it was literally a wrestling where he says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities.

Paul had that encounter. I could tell you some stories that would put goose bumps on you from people that have experienced those sort of things. But here we are in the city of Ephesus. Let's pick up the story in verse 17.

And this became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus, and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus Christ was being magnified. Many of those who believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices.

And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together, began burning them in the sight of all, and they counted up the price of them and found it to be 50 ,000 pieces of silver. Now, Paul was having a tremendous response to the gospel.

As a result of that response, people were coming, and they were bringing their books. Now, you've got to understand, books were not rolling off printing presses in those days. This was long before Gutenberg and long before the printing press.

These were manuscripts that were written out by hand and so on, and the pile was so big, just one single bonfire, that it was worth 50 ,000 pieces of silver. I don't know what the price of silver is these days, you know, $16 or $20 an ounce, but you can imagine 60 ,000 pieces of silver.

How much that would translate into? Possibly millions of dollars. I mean, that shows you the state of the city of Ephesus. They were involved in all types of witchcraft, and primarily it had to do with a woman, a spirit by the name of the goddess Diana or Artemis, and they believed that this goddess came down out of heaven, and she established her throne in the city of Ephesus.

You'll notice that because of Paul's effective preaching, the trade, people would come from all over the known world, and they would pick up these little shrines to Artemis, just like you go to Paris and pick up a little Eiffel Tower or whatever, and they would take these shrines back, and they would bow down, and they would worship, you know, these demonic entities and so on.

And because Paul was being so effective, the trade fell off. People were not buying these little shrines, and so all the silversmiths got together. This is the first union meeting in history. First recorded union meeting, silversmiths incorporated.

Let me read it to you. It says they came together, verse 27, and they said, Not only is there danger that the trade of ours fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis, or Diana, be regarded as worthless, and that she whom all of Asia and the world worship should be dethroned from her magnificence.

In other words, Ephesus was the center of a worldwide religion. This goddess Diana, you know, had a major impact on all the surrounding nations and so people would come, like they go to Rome today or they go to Mecca or wherever, they'd come on their pilgrimages, pick up these little shrines and so on.

These guys are getting upset because they're not selling them, but they're also concerned that this goddess is going to be overthrown, that no longer are people going to be worshiping this goddess. And so they start a riot in the streets.

It goes on for hours and hours, and they're crying out, Great is Artemis, you can read about it in verse 28. Finally, we go to verse 35. After quieting the multitude, the town clerk said, Men of Ephesus, what man is there after all who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is guardian of the temple of the great Artemis, or Diana, and of the image that fell down from heaven?

So they believed, again, that this city, they were the guardians. Here you then have, if you like, a strong man over a city. In other words, this stronghold influenced everything that went on in that city.

Now it's interesting, out of all of Paul's writings, and of course he gave us the letter to the Ephesians, and well, I'll deal with the Ephesians. He gave us a rote to the Romans and the Corinthians and the Thessalonians and the Galatians and Colossians and so on.

But it's when he writes to the people in Ephesus, the Ephesians, that he deals with spiritual warfare. Isn't that right? Because he's speaking firsthand. So turn with me, if you will, to the book of Ephesians.

And let's begin in chapter 5. Now many, many years ago when my wife and I were pastoring in New Zealand, I was asked to write a paper for a Christian magazine. And the topic that they gave me was Ephesians chapter 6.

Submission, Righteousness, and Spiritual Warfare

And I thought to myself, you know, what more can be said about Ephesians 6 that hasn't already been said? You know, we all know about Ephesians 6. When I was a kid raised in church, whenever somebody said, turn to Ephesians 6, two verses immediately came to mind.

Children, obey your parents. Conviction always came. Or we wrestle not against flesh and blood. And I used to think that those two had nothing in common whatsoever. You know, that Paul's sort of riding along, he's dealing with this whole thing of children, you know, submit to your parents and so on and so forth.

And then he's running out of parchment or something, or his candle's getting low, and he says, oh my goodness, you know, I meant to say, you know, finally let me change topics. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities about.

And I thought it was just a sort of a, you know, a break, if you like, and a brand new topic until I realized when I started reading this that really Paul is laying a foundation for what he's about to say.

So let me pick it up. If we go back, remember there's no chapter divisions in the original. These were letters, the way you would write a letter. And unless you write awfully long letters, you don't divide those letters into chapters, nor do you divide them into verses.

Some monk or monkey somewhere put them in later on so we could find our way along. So we go back into the previous chapter, verse 22. Wise, be subject to your husbands. Ask the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is also the head of the church.

And so he deals here with this whole area of submission to authority. Now I don't want to get into the husband and wife situation, other than to say God always protects the one that is under authority.

In other words, you know, he doesn't say to husbands, you know, do whatever you want with your wife, you're the boss. He says, remember, I'm over you. And you need to love your wife as I love the church.

And so he deals with this area of submission. Then he goes into the family and he says, children, obey your parents. And then to protect the children, he says, parents, don't threaten your children. In other words, don't discipline them out of anger or anything else that, you know, don't do that because I, you know, I'm going to be watching you, so to speak.

And then he speaks about slaves and he says, you are to obey your masters. But then he also says, masters, remember, you too have a master in heaven. In other words, you are not the final authority. I'm the final authority.

Parents, you're not the final authority. I'm over you and I hold you responsible for the way you deal with your children. Husbands, I hold you responsible for the way you love or you don't love your wife.

Masters, I hold you responsible for your servants. Servants, you are responsible for your master, but, you know, I'm also out to protect you. Those masters are under my authority. Now, why does Paul do that?

And then he changes gears, it would seem, and he says, my Bible keeps flipping around on me here. Hold on a second. I'll give you the right verse. Verse 10, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

Put on the full armor of God. Now, it would seem that, again, Paul is sort of changing gears here. I don't believe that anymore. I believe Paul is laying a foundation. We are now going to enter in, he says, to spiritual warfare.

And in order to be effective in spiritual warfare, you have to have a submissive spirit. Because if there's an inch or a smidgen, to use Obama's term, if there is a smidgen of rebellion in you towards your parents, towards your husband, towards the Lord, towards your master or whatever, you have already aligned yourself with the root of how Satan became Satan.

He rebelled against authority. He said, I don't want to be in a place of submission. I want to take my throne and put it above your throne. In other words, it's like a wife saying, I don't want you to be the head anymore.

I'm going to be the head of the house. After all, I earn more money, and I've got a degree, and you don't, and so on and so forth, so I'm going to be in charge. That sort of rebellion is what Paul is dealing with here, and he says, if there's any sort of rebellion in your spirit at all, you've already lost the battle.

You've already aligned yourself, as we would say, you're already in cahoots with the devil. And therefore, you are powerless to do anything. That's why the centurion says, I too am a man under authority, and I say to this man, go when he goes.

So as long as we are in a place of submission to the lordship of Christ, then we have the authority necessary to deal with the powers of darkness. Now, we also need to throw in there, and I don't have time to develop this, but we need to understand too that sin in our life makes us ineffective.

I have literally in my old Bible, this is a new binding on this one, but my old Bible that I wore out, I've got about maybe 50 scriptures that deal with Israel in particular in the Old Testament. One of them, of course, is when Achan went and he stole something that was under the ban, remember, and they can't figure out, they've already defeated Jericho, major city, and the next little city on the map is a little place called Ai, and they think we don't all have to go.

This is an easy place to defeat, and they get walloped, they get beaten, and they come back with their tail between their legs sort of thing, and they fall down, and Joshua in particular cries out to God, and he says, Get off your feet, Israel has sinned, therefore they cannot stand against their enemies.

In other words, sin in our life renders us powerless. We have to put on part of the armor, is the armor of what? Righteousness. The Bible says in righteousness he wages war. The Bible says God's throne is established in righteousness.

So it's important again that not only are we in a place of submission, but we are in a place again of righteousness before God. If there's sin in our life, again, we've already aligned ourselves with the enemy.

So here we are now back in the city of Ephesus, and out of all the letters that Paul writes, it is to the Ephesians in particular that he mentions this whole area of spiritual warfare. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers.

Spiritual Princes in Daniel 10

So we've had a strong man over an individual, strong man influencing a group, and now a strong man, if you like, over a city. Now turn with me to the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter 10. Some of you are familiar obviously with this passage.

It's one of the very few times in the Bible, if not really the only time, where we have a little bit of a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes, so to speak. There is a very real spiritual realm that unless we have understanding and revelation, we are blinded to it.

There could be angels all over this building, and yet we can't see them unless we've got spiritual understanding. There may also be demonic entities here trying to destroy this meeting. There's a realm out there that you and I are not aware of, but it's just as real.

And Daniel, of course, is in Persia, and there's been a prophetic word from Jeremiah that 70 years are going to pass before they're going to be set free, and Daniel is praying and seeking understanding from God concerning what is going to happen to them.

So we pick it up in verse 2. In those days I, Daniel, had been mourning for three entire weeks. I did not eat any tasty food, nor did meat or wine enter my mouth, nor did I use any ointment at all until the entire three weeks were completed.

So Daniel is doing what we call a Daniel fast. That's where we get it from. It's a partial fast, and he says, I wasn't eating any tasty food, so he gave up sweets and so on and so forth. He didn't eat any meat, no wine entered his mouth.

He didn't use any aftershave or whatever ointment is until the three weeks were completed. At the end of the three weeks, an angel shows up. We pick it up in verse 10. Then, behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and my knees.

And he said to me, Daniel, man of high esteem, understand the words I am about to tell you, and stand upright, for I have been sent to you. And when he spoke these words, I stood up trembling. And he said to me, do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this, on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words.

Now, here we have a little bit of a problem. This man has been fasting and praying for three weeks. At the end of three weeks, an angel shows up, and he says, God has sent me, I'm the answer to your prayers.

And from the very first day that you started to pray, I was sent. I was commissioned by the throne of God, if you like, to bring you the answer to your prayer. And so the question is, why does it take an angel three weeks to find its target?

It simply proves that angels are males, and they don't like asking directions. There, ladies, you have a theological problem solved. You've always wondered, why won't my husband pull over? We don't have to do that now.

Thank God some lady invented the GPS, I think. But the reason was, he goes on to say, but the prince, verse 13, but the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for 21 days. Now notice, Daniel is in the kingdom of Persia.

And in this kingdom, we have this prince, this demonic prince that says, this is my territory. But also in that kingdom, you have another man, Daniel, who is part of God's kingdom. And he is wanting revelation, he's wanting understanding, and this prince is basically saying, not on my watch.

The kingdom of God is not going to be advanced under my watch. I'm not going to let you get through with this revelation. And so for three entire weeks, this angel is interrupted by the prince of the kingdom of Persia.

Finally, it says, again verse 13, but the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me for 21 days. Then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me. For I had been left there with the kings of Persia.

So finally, God sends another prince to meet a prince. In other words, you've got a prince now dealing with a prince. It's Michael who is obviously associated with the prince over the children of Israel.

And God dispatches from the throne Michael. And this lesser messenger, if you like, this angel, gives an understanding to Daniel that he's looking for. And then we pick it up again in verse 20. And then he said to me, Do you understand why I came to you?

But now I shall return to fight against the prince of Persia. So I am going forth, and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come. So he says, I'm leaving you, and I'm going back to fight against this prince of Persia.