Daniel 10:5-21 | Men and Angels

Lord, we come to you as your children, come to you not because of our value and our worth, but because we have been made your children by the blood of Christ, and we say thank you for that.

We are also remembering today our brothers and sisters in Israel, and we do pray, Lord, for your hand of protection that you would bring peace to that region.

And as we continue looking into Daniel 10, we recognize, Lord, that you have angels who are there and who fight for us and who care for us, who speak to us.

We pray that you would now prepare Pastor Jeff with the words for our lesson today, in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen, turn with me to Daniel chapter 10. Last week we went with Daniel into his school of prayer.

With Daniel in the school of prayer. That was a play off of Andrew Murray's book, With Christ in the

School of Prayer. And of course, we're learning from Christ through his holy word in the example of Daniel.

So we're learning about prayer in verses one to four. A few things to remember.

There is an importance to setting aside time and place for prayer.

In 1 Thessalonians 5, we're told to pray unceasingly, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't also have dedicated times of consecrated prayer.

In the case of Daniel, in chapter 10, verses one to four, we see that he sets aside actually 21 days of consecrated prayer.

He, it's kind of a partial fast because there's certain things that he does not allow himself to eat during this three week period.

So he's strengthening his prayer in intercession with fasting.

He's praying according to God's word because he's learned from Jeremiah that they would be in captivity for 70 years.

And he's aware that that amount of time is coming to an end. So he knows prophetically by the word of God that things are about to change.

So he's praying according to the word. He's consecrating himself, he's praying, but where does he go to pray on this occasion?

The clue is in verse four, or the answer is in verse four. Why do you think he went over by the

Tigris River? It's beautiful, it's quiet, it reminds him of the glory of the creator of the

Tigris River. Remember the Tigris River flowed out of the Garden of Eden. It was one of the four rivers.

It's beautiful, it's grand. And when you go to a place like that, you can take consecrated time with God.

Practicing what I preached, what I preached last week, I decided that on Monday, a few days ago,

I would go by myself down the shore. And it just so happened to be 75 degrees, so it was just beautiful.

But I wanna tell you what that was like. To just sit by the ocean for a few hours and pray, and to seek his face, and to open the word.

I just had my Bible, my notebook, and a chair. And I just sat there and then walked and prayed.

I communed with God so much more closely than I tend to do in my office.

Can anybody relate to that? This is what Daniel did. I think he was down by the

Tigris River because he wanted to meet with God in a special way. And to consecrate this time.

Now, what we're going to see in verses five through 21 is the answer.

Because he sure does meet with God. And it is more than he ever could have asked, thought, or imagined.

I think he's going to encounter an angel here. Last week I shared that this person, this man that appears to him,

I don't think it's Jesus. And the reason I don't think it's a pre -incarnate Jesus is because this one has to fight for 21 days to get through to Daniel.

Jesus doesn't have to fight for 21 days. He's not resistant for 21 days. An angel versus a demon, that's a good match.

A fallen angel versus the highest of the angels, then they match pretty well.

But an omnipotent God could flick that little demon away like a flea.

There's a difference, a qualitative difference there. So let's go ahead and dive into the reading.

John has already prayed for us. So why don't we work kind of left to right around the room. And Bob, if you wouldn't mind, we're just going to do verses five and six to begin.

The visible world of men and the invisible world of angels are not disconnected.

But rather, the prayers that we offer here affect the state of the war there.

That's the big idea for this morning. The connection between men and angels, there is constantly a spiritual war going on around us that we cannot see.

And when we pray, we are entering into that conflict. Notice back, before you read,

Bob, notice what it says in verse one. And the word was true, and it was, what?

A great conflict. There is a great conflict raging at all times around us.

And has been ever since the fall of man. Really, the fall of Lucifer was the start of that spiritual war.

There is a great conflict, and we're about to see a glimpse of that conflict. So Bob, if you would, verses five and six.

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.

Now, obviously, Revelation picks up on this language in the description of Jesus, but I think the comparison here is to show us that even an angel, a created being, is far more glorious than anything that we're seeing in this created realm.

Even an angel, look at verses five and six. A man clothed in linen.

Okay, that's pretty normal. You'd like him to be wearing linen. But it says, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz.

What is Uphaz? Well, that was just a gold -bearing region. It's only mentioned in two places in the Bible here, and in Jeremiah.

It's a region that had much gold, and that's where his gold came from.

So interestingly, the angel has drawn this gold from the earth.

That's a strange interaction between a spiritual being and an earthly realm.

Rich pointed out to me something I hadn't thought about, but just mentioned today, that whenever an angel appears, they look like a man.

Anywhere in the Bible, they look like a man. And we're gonna see as we get farther in, we're gonna look back in Genesis where they actually somehow cross over into the realm of humanity to the extent that they actually have sexual relations with women.

And these Nephilim are born of that. So I think angels are fascinated by humanity.

In the New Testament, we learn that good angels, the ones who never fell, long to look into the salvation of men.

They marvel at the fact that God, when he became incarnate, did not become an angel,

Hebrews tells us, he became a man. And there's something about angels and men, the interplay between angels and men.

When angels appear, they appear as men. This particular angel has gold from Uphaz, from a particular gold -bearing region on earth.

So somehow he's wearing human clothes, linen and a golden belt.

That's interesting to me. It then says, with the belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist.

Now picture his body. His body was like beryl or, how did your version read, chrysolite?

Yes. Beryl or chrysolite comes from the same family of minerals from which we get emeralds.

So we all picture emeralds from the Wizard of Oz, right? This green mineral that's just glorious to look at and highly valued.

We're not sure if this particular body structure is green. I don't think so. But the comparison here is splendor, like an emerald.

It's chrysolite, it's beryl, it's glorious. Yeah. When things that amazing and exciting are seen throughout the

Bible, it's difficult and the words like and as are used a great deal because we're nothing to compare with.

Sure, that's well said. It's a metaphor. He's likening this, his torso is so impressive that it's like a mineral, this emerald body.

It just blows him away by the appearance. You're gonna see that he is reduced to a pile of rubble in the midst of this angel.

Body like beryl. His face like the appearance of lightning. Have you ever been in Florida for a major lightning storm?

I grew up in Florida and Florida, Tampa Bay is the lightning capital of the world. There are storms that roll in where lightning flashes every three to four seconds and it's just thunderously loud but it's so bright and it startles you.

I think the comparison here to lightning is brightness but also startling brightness.

When he looked at his face, it's just boom. Terrifying, like a lightning strike.

So it says. When you were in Florida. Yes. And you saw lightning, did you smell the ozone?

Did I smell the ozone? No, I don't know that I did. Lightning struck close to me once.

And that was the thing, you know, all this is bright, this flash, all that. I don't know that. Yeah, but the ozone, ooh, it is amazing.

So what do you mean the smell of it? The electricity going through the air.

It converts oxygen to O2. Correct. And that's where the ozone came from. And what you're saying is you've smelled it.

I smelled it, that's how I found it. Yeah, does it smell like sugar? It does not smell like sugar. Does it not smell like sugar?

Ozone has its own smell. Yeah. Reel it back in, come on people,

I don't know. But no, the idea here is sight and sound is all that's mentioned in these two verses.

But you can postulate that maybe he even smelled like ozone or chicken. The angel smells like chicken.

The smell overwhelms you. It's only there instantaneously, just like lightning. There could have been, yeah, the olfactory senses as well.

All we have given here is sight and sound. But his appearance is like lightning. Maybe he smells like lightning, too.

I think the idea, though, is that it's an overwhelming presence. His arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze.

So as my wife describes my arms and legs, that's how he's described as well. Why are you looking, you don't believe that?

You wanna repent to that one? I think John has the right look when he looks at you. I think

I've been described as spindles or pipe cleaners. We do know that you have insulation.

Yes, I do have a six -pack under that insulation. This angel, arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude.

Imagine a voice that, it doesn't sound like one person speaking. It's so robust, so full, that it sounds like this man has multiple voices coming forth.

The sound of a multitude. Like, yeah, when the whole crowd in the Eagle Stadium shouts the same thing at the same time.

Exploding voices. Well, there you go. You get the idea, though? It's a glorious being.

Now, let's look at, well, before that, I wanted to mention Hebrews 114.

It's in your notes. Sue, would you mind just reading that verse? Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

Do you recall the theme of Hebrews, and particularly with reference to angels?

Better than, better than. The whole first chapter of Hebrews mentions the angels again and again, and if an angel is so great, how much more the son?

He has the inheritance. The son is greater than angels, and then Hebrews 1 concludes with this thought, verse 14.

Are not all angels ministering spirits sent out to serve those who are inheriting eternal life?

An angel is a servant. But now, remember

Hebrews 1 with reference to this angel. If you saw an angel, you would describe this angel this way.

If he was displayed in all his glory. Now, some angels appear and minister among us, and we're entertaining them unaware, because they've so masked that glory that they just look like Joe or Bob, right?

Yes? What's the first thing a human says when they see an angel? Well, what's the first thing an angel says when they approach a human?

What is it? Fear not. Fear not. They have to say fear not, and you'll see that comes up here.

He has to do the same with Daniel trembling. Point being, if angels are this glorious, what are our eyes about to see when we look upon the glory of the

Lord? He's better than. The glory of Jesus makes the glory of this angel look like insignificance, nothing.

We are going to see the glory of the Lord, and this is the glory of the angels.

Imagine how glorious it would be to see the six -winged seraphim hovering around the presence of the

Lord, and they're just there to sing holy, holy, holy. When they see his glory, what do they do with two of those wings?

They cover their faces, and they cover their feet for holy ground. So the idea here is even this angel is this glorious, but when we get to the

New Testament and see who the Son of God is, the Jehovah's Witnesses will say, Jesus is the archangel

Michael. They have no idea how glorious Jesus actually is. His glory makes that glory look like child's play, like ordinariness, just nothing.

Pale in comparison. So we go on. Verse seven. Sandy, would you read that for us?

Now I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, while the men who were with me did not see the vision, nevertheless, a great dread fell on them, and they ran away to hide themselves.

Okay. Did they see the angel or not? It says not.

It physically tells us they did not see the angel. Did they hear him?

The implication is no. He hasn't said anything that they're hearing, and yet some sense of dread and trembling comes over them.

To be described here, yeah, as terror. They do not see it, but a great trembling falls on them to the point where they flee and hide themselves.

What an interesting picture of the interplay between angels and men.

Is it possible to sense angels in the room? Yeah.

Evidently it is, because they just did. They sensed angels in the room.

Angels somehow, at times, manifest themselves in a way that maybe by a sixth sense were able to perceive, just somehow spiritually aware.

Have you ever been, I know John's told stories that he has, in a situation where you could sense demonic activity in the room?

Have you ever been around someone, and you don't know that she's a witch, but you just sense that there is something spiritual going on here?

I think all of us have. There is an awareness somehow. Remember when

Peter was in jail. An angel came and let him out.

He was physically in the presence of an angel. He thought he was having a vision while an angel walked him out of the prison.

Conversely, you can be in the presence of an angel and not see him, but somehow think that you do.

How present can angels become in the world of men?

Well, let's read in Genesis six. I'll read this. Genesis six, why don't we ask you,

John? Would you read Genesis six, one to four out of the notes? This is a very interesting appearance of angels in the world of men.

When man began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive, and they took as their wives any they chose.

Then the Lord said, my spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh. His days shall be 120 years.

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of man, and they bore children to them.

These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. There are two schools of thought in interpreting this passage.

The first is that the sons of God refers to the godly line of Seth.

That sons of God is not referring to angels at all, but these are the godly remnant, whereas the descendants of Ham, not

Ham, of Abel, went awry. Abel actually is dead, but Cain, Cain, right,

I'm sorry. Cain, the killer of Abel, his children went awry, and followed in that kind of, you know, as Cain would be avenged seven times,

I would be avenged 77 times, right? This wicked line.

And then there's godly people on earth who still call upon the Lord, and that's the descendants of Seth.

Am I getting that right? Yes, okay, now I've got it right. So the godly line of Seth remains faithful, but then, eventually, even that line falls.

They begin to go to the daughters of men, this is the ungodly line, and now there's nothing but wickedness all the time.

That's one interpretation. That was the view I was taught in seminary by my professors, and I held it until a couple of years ago.

What convinced me of the second view was the connection to sexual immorality given to us in the book of Jude.

So Jude, I think it's verse six and following, let's actually just go there, let's take a minute to do this.

The second to last book in the Bible, I'm convinced that the sons of God here are angels.

Just like in the book of Job, the sons of God are angels that present themselves before God.

They are fallen because Lucifer himself presents himself. In the same way,

Jude six and seven says, and the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.

I always held that their leaving of that dominion might just be some form of rebellion, where they overstep and where they're doing something wrong.

But look at verse seven. This is what convinced me. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Just as likens the fall of these angels to the sexual rebellion of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Think about this for a minute. When the men of Sodom lusted after other men, that unnatural desire,

God destroyed them because of unnatural sexual relations. God had created the order that male and female would lay together, but now you have male with male.

And interestingly, the two angels that came to them in the story of the fall of Sodom, I think it's

Genesis 18, the men lust after the angels. They think they're men, but they're lusting after angels.

Very interesting. Jude verse seven likens the fall of these angels in verse six, likewise indulging in sexual immorality and pursuing unnatural desire.

Therefore, what we have in Genesis six, I think, is that account. What happens there?

The sons of God are contrary to nature, God's natural created order, these angels are lusting after physical human women.

And somehow they transgress and are able, in the form of men, to sleep with these women.

And children are born to them. That seems really bizarre.

But I think that's what Jude is telling us, and I think that's the natural reading. In fact, that was the understanding of most of the early interpretation, the rabbinical teachings surrounding

Genesis six. So that story is often then tied into Revelation when the demons that are being held captive are released and come out with a vengeance, that that's these angels that did what they did, and according to Jude, have been in chains.

And now they're coming out, and their nose is bent out of joint. That could very well be the same angels.

I don't know for sure there. But they were put away here in Sodom and Gomorrah, it falls right in line with John's claim.

Yeah, yeah, I can see that. That they were put away and out of release, instead of those same ones that were put away here and in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Yeah, so big picture here. I titled this particular message, Men and Angels, because they occupied separate spheres, right?

The angel is in the spiritual, they don't have corporal bodies, and men are here.

And yet Hebrews tells us sometimes we entertain angels unaware. We learn from Daniel, again, let's go back there, chapter 10, verse seven, that their presence, even if they don't see, can somehow, we can sense them when there's spiritual war going on, or some kind of spiritual event.

These men run away trembling. And I think we learn from Genesis and from Jude that this actually, angels were able to fall and transgress the natural order, resulting in these

Nephilim, these men of renown, and God actually destroys the world to rid the world of these half -human, half -demon creatures.

And so, obviously, Noah and the eight that come from that family line are not contaminated that way, so there's no more of them left in the world when the earth is repopulated after the flood.

Genetics aside, you would have to destroy the entire race and portion thereof to make certain it doesn't rebound somewhere else.

That entire line of half -human, half -demon men of renown, these wicked people that are nothing but evil all the time, the thoughts and imaginations of their heart are evil all the time.

God destroyed it all and started over with Noah. I think that's what happened. You know, I don't think that we can be so dogmatic on that,

Dr. Bayliss, who taught the line of Seth view, I don't think it's heretical.

There's enough ambiguity there that others can differ, but that's where I'm, where are you on that? Have you thought about that for a while?

Because of the tie -in to Revelation, I go to the fact there are angels, Jude, so that seems to be consistent in Scripture.

Yeah, so we hold the same view on that. All right, so verses eight and nine. Candy? So I was left alone and saw this great vision, and no strength was left in me.

My radiant appearance was fearfully changed, and I retained no strength. Then I heard the sound of his words, and as I heard the sound of his words,

I fell on my face in deep sleep with my face to the ground. Okay, how much does your inherent strength your human strength contribute to the angel wars?

Oh, sure, I'm gonna jump right in. Yeah, you got, well, what about Gladiator from the movie 300, or William Wallace, or Hercules?

How about Heaven's War? I saw that one recently. I don't know about that. How much human strength do we contribute to the angel wars?

In the fictional world or in the real world? In the real world. The only thing that we can put out is our prayers to God.

You're going where I'm going next. So look at verse eight. The answer is absolutely nothing. We can't arm wrestle an angel.

We can't put him in a headlock, and we can't, we have, there's no, look at Daniel in the presence of an angel.

I left alone and saw this great vision. No strength was left in me.

I like how he describes his pre -angelic visit appearance as being radiant.

He's not so humble there. My radiant appearance. He's just saying that he, remember earlier in the book, he was described as being more attractive than everybody else, more healthful, because he didn't eat the king's food.

He was filled with the spirit, and the radiance of God was on his face physically. Normally Daniel was described as being lively, kind of like David was described as ruddy, healthful.

There's life in his flesh, but now he's just flushed. He just turns white like a ghost.

His radiant appearance is fearfully changed. I retain no strength. He's just like a puddle.

Then I heard the sound of his words, and as I heard the sound of his words, I fell on my face.

He just kind of goes limp in deep sleep with my face to the ground.

Now this does not justify the charismatic past, kind of like pastime, of slaying in the spirit.

The man on stage with the coat, waving things wildly and drumming up emotion who gets people to fall over and lay lifeless on the ground.

Is doing what the world can do on a college stage, because I saw that at Eckerd College by a hypnotist.

That's psychosomatic. That's manufactured. That's working the emotions of a crowd, and that's learned behavior.

If the world can emulate it, then there's nothing all that impressive about it, right?

But what happens here to Daniel is the presence of God, of holiness.

Here it's through an angel, vicariously. And in that presence, he is just knocked out.

Verses 10 to 21, I kind of took as a chunk because I needed to show that by degrees,

Daniel retrieves his strength. And I think that's instructive to us.

I put it like this. We are by degrees brought to strength in the spiritual war.

So here's the comparison I'm setting up. Daniel in himself, your strength, what you have in yourself is nothing.

He brings nothing to the table. He's just reduced to nothing. But look how

God, by degrees, brings him to strength. So I'm just going to ask, who's up next?

Okay, I have a question for you before you read it. Yeah, we're going to read 10 to 21, yeah. You have the angel.

Yes. You have Daniel. Yep. And a multitude. Because there's a multitude who sensed it, got frightened and left.

They fled. They fled. Daniel, he professes that he spent three weeks in prayer.

So spiritually, he's prepared. Yes. And when the angels come, he reacts as a man would in fear and trembling.

And then he gets those beautiful words in verse 12, fear not. Yeah. The multitude was sensed of something frightening.

They fled. They never heard the words. Right. Fear not. Oh, wow.

So Daniel brought into this event a heart of prayer.

Yes. And this is actually where the final connection I'm going to make, which is that our prayers, that 21 days when

Daniel was praying, actually was engagement in the spiritual war. That if he had just not been praying, if he had just been laying out by his pool and not even thinking of anything spiritual, this event doesn't happen.

It's somehow connected. That's the connection we're going to see at the end. That this angel we're going to learn was deployed because Daniel was praying.

And that is so instructive to us. So Carol, would you just read it? And then we'll make those, really there's going to be two points.

One is that we are brought to strength by degree. And then secondly, that our prayers actually do affect angels.

Somehow we're in this war, not by physical strength, but by the might of our spiritual intercession.

I have the New Living Translation by the way. That's good, yeah. Just then a hand touched me and lifted me, still trembling, to my hands and knees.

And the man said to me, Oh Daniel, greatly loved of God, listen carefully to what

I have to say to you. Stand up, for I have been sent to you. When he said this to me,

I stood up, still trembling with fear. Then he said, don't be afraid Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your

God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in to answer your prayer.

But for 21 days, the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way.

Then Michael, one of the archangels came to help me and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia.

Now I am here to explain what will happen to your people in the future, for this vision concerns a time yet to come.

While he was speaking to me, I looked down at the ground, unable to say a word. Then the one who looked like a man touched my lips and I opened my mouth and began to speak.

I said to the one standing in front of me, I am terrified by the vision I have seen my

Lord and I'm very weak. How can someone like me, your servant, talk to you my

Lord? My strength is gone and I can hardly breathe. Then the one who looked like a man touched me again and I felt my strength returning.

Don't be afraid he said, for you are deeply loved by God. Be at peace, take heart and be strong.

As he spoke these words, I suddenly felt stronger and said to him, now you may speak my

Lord, for you have strengthened me. He replied, do you know why I've come?

Soon I must return to fight against the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia and then against the spirit prince of the kingdom of Greece.

But before I do that, I will tell you what is written in the book of truth. There is no one to help me against these spirit princes except Michael, your spirit prince.

I have been standing beside Michael as his support and defense since the first year of the reign of Darius of Nene.

Wow. I wanna pull on these two threads separately because both of them are so interesting.

One is in the spiritual war, Daniel's prayers, activating this angel to come and then by his perseverance in prayer, another angel comes to break through in the spiritual war.

That's one thread, we're gonna save that for second. First, I really wanna focus on this and pull this thread first.

That we are by degrees brought to strength in the spiritual war. I think the way

Daniel spends 11 or 12 verses here recounting this story is meant to instruct us about our spiritual progress and our spiritual growth in the spiritual war.

You start off in spiritual war completely lacking strength.

You're born into the world physically. You're born again as a baby requiring spiritual milk, not solid food.

But you train the powers of your discernment by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Hebrews 5 .14. You're growing, you're becoming a mature man. Picture Daniel in his encounter in the spiritual war.

He has to be brought by degrees up to a place of strength. Where does he begin?

He's laying on the ground. He has to first of all, verse 10, be brought to his hands and knees.

Just trembling, not even able to stand. Verse 11, there's a second stage here.

He's able to stand upright by the command of this angel. You see that? But although he stands there from verses 12 on, he can hardly breathe.

It's almost like this heavy, wet blanket laying over him as he stands in the presence of the angel.

He can hardly get air. He can hardly understand and participate.

Although he's standing in the presence, he's still weakened and just overcome. Verse 18, again, one having the appearance of a man touched me and strengthened me.

You see that? Verse 18, and he says again in verse 19, fear not.

So the first time he says fear not is verse 12. Then again, fear not, verse 19. Peace, be strong and of good courage.

Church, listen, we by degrees are brought into courage in the spiritual war.

We grow in our ability to be at peace with God. Our anxious minds are brought to a peace that passes understanding as we're sanctified and we learn to rest in him.

Our strength rises as we grow. So when you're born again, you're a little threat to the enemy because you don't know the word of God.

You don't have a sword in your hand. You don't wear the full armor of God. You haven't learned how to put that on.

But as you grow as a man or woman of God, you are gaining strength for this war.

Look what it says then. Let my Lord speak for you have strengthened me, verse 19.

God brings us to strength and this, I think, is a picture of our growth for the spiritual battle.

Verse 20, then he said, do you know why I have come to you? But now I will return to fight.

The angel war is gonna rage on after these 21 days. But now we pull the second threat.

Is there a connection between Daniel's 21 -day fast in prayer and his special time by the

Tigris River and what was happening in unseen spaces? Is the world of angels and man completely disconnected or is there some spiritual, not physical strength, but spiritual connection between the prayer meeting on Sunday night and what happens in this church?

Of course, to the one who's read Daniel 10, you know this. And if you've been in the church a long time, it's of course there is.

Yes, there is. But our naturalistic, humanistic, post -enlightenment worldview separates these two things out.

The naturalistic worldview, which is the water in which we swim, being Americans, right? Very much separates the unseen world as just a land of make -believe and private belief.

And the real world of science, of cause and effect, of Newton's laws of physics and Einstein's laws of physics.

There are accounts of missionaries who come back with a report of miraculous things that God has done, deliverance, only to find out that at that exact moment there were prayer meetings standing up for them.

It would be interesting to find a chronology of this church's prayer life in June and to be able to match that into the totally unexplainable sense of peace that Jeff had while we were at Fullerton.

Amen, 100%. The church was fasting and praying and I felt nothing but peace when having to confront the denomination.

Real quick, yeah. I heard a story, David Jeremiah just told a story about the Patins, who are a missionary team, right?

And they were surrounded by the tri -team who intended to kill them and they didn't.

They didn't, right? And later, the chief of that tribe became a Christian and Patin asked him, why didn't you guys try to kill us?

He said, there were thousands of men surrounding your mission. I've heard that. Yeah, right. Rich, you get verse 13 for me.

Barb, would you get verse three? Three? Yep, reread that again for me. 10 -3.

10 -3. I ate no choice food, no meat or wine touched my lips and I used no lotions at all until three weeks were over.

Okay, three weeks. Rich, read verse, what did I say?

13? 13, yes, 13. 11 -13, okay. 10 -13. 10 -13. Oh, 10 -13.

All right, okay, 12, I'll read 12 and 13.

Just 13. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood the 21 days.

Stop right there. You see the connection between verse three and 13?

What's the connection? 21 days. 21 days. Daniel started praying, he started fasting.

And this went on, what if Ephesians 6 .18 meant nothing to Daniel?

Ephesians 6 .18, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance.

We can only conjecture kind of the counterfactual of what would have happened if Daniel got tired of praying after 14 days.

We don't know that. But the implication here is what he did, God instrumentally used in the spiritual war.

For 21 days, Daniel prays on earth and this angel breaks through, can't do it.

There's spiritual war happening. God deploys another angel, Michael, the archangel, to break him through and bring the answer that ultimately

Daniel gets and John will teach next week in chapter 11. Isn't that amazing?

Yeah, John. There's also a parallel. Daniel's in prayer, but he still is sinful.

And as such, he does need the touch of God. And it says in verse 16, behold, one like the likeness of children of man touched my lips, then

I opened my mouth and spoke. And you go back to Isaiah 7.

A man of unclean lips, the angel took coal and touched his lips and he was able to speak.

The cleansing touch, that somehow the angels, as emissaries of God, are able to bestow upon us when we're there in prayer.

Amen. I'm gonna call on you to pray and close this just in about one minute. Let me just wrap it up with a few

Bible verses about the spiritual war. In 1 Timothy 4 .1,

we're told in the last days, people will divert from the faith for what?

The teachings or doctrines of demons. It's a spiritual war. In Deuteronomy 18, verses nine to 13, we're warned against witchcraft and contacting the dead, sorcery, because all of these things really do contact demons.

There's real things happening when kids play with Ouija boards, okay? In 1

Peter 5, verses eight and nine, we're warned about a roaring lion. 1

Peter 5, verses eight and nine, we're warned about a roaring lion who prowls about seeking someone to devour.

That is a real spiritual foe, the devil. In Mark 5 .9 and Acts 16, we see direct confrontation between demonized people and human beings.

In Paul's case in Acts 16, the little girl had a spirit of divination. There was a demon inside of her teaching her how to tell the future and to give these false words to people, and Paul directly confronted that demon.

In Ephesians 4 .27, we are warned not to even give the devil a foothold, which means to not even give room in our lives for him to have any opportunity by opening that gate.

Get thee behind me, Satan. So the conclusion is, like Daniel, we need to be people of consistent prayer, consecrating times, whether that be the

Sunday night prayer meeting or prayer in your community group or with your family. With my family, we pray once in the morning and once in the evening.

On the way to school, we pray over the kids, plead the blood of the lamb over their heads because we know we're in a spiritual war, and before bed, we pray with each of the kids.

Consistent prayer. This needs to be a part of your family life, your own private devotions, set aside time maybe to go to a place where you can communion with God because you are in a spiritual war.

Hold to the sound doctrine, the true word, and live a holy life. I don't think we need to be the kind of people running around looking to cast demons out of everybody.

That's more the exception than the rule, but what we're called to and exhorted to is consistent prayer, sound doctrine, a holy life.

This is how we battle in this spiritual war, and Daniel set this model for us. John, could you close us?

Lord God, we need you. Yes. Ephesians 2 says that in the flesh, we follow after the prince of the power of the air, spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, but we need you and we have you.

Lord, we come to you because through you, we have the strength to say no to the world.

We come to you in prayer. We acknowledge the ministry of your angels that come to help us because we need you, dear

Lord. I thank you for these words of encouragement to have a season of prayer, an attitude of prayer, a submission of prayer that comes to you, and then you build us up ready and equipped for the spiritual war.