INTRODUCTION
Christian humorist, Dennis Swanburg, loves to tell the story of an unforgettable baptism that took place in a little West Texas church. They were building a new sanctuary and it was almost finished. The new baptistry was functional even though changing rooms were not yet available. The pastor was so excited about the new building he planned a baptism in the new baptistry. Since the changing room didn’t yet have walls, they hung sheets up so those being baptized could change.
Since they didn’t have pews yet, they put folding chairs in the uncompleted building and the whole congregation gathered at the start of the service to watch the baptism in the new baptistry. Everything went well until the last person to be baptized made her way down into the water. This lady was terrified of water, but she had been assured there was no reason for concern. But she panicked in those final seconds before being lowered into the water, clawing the air for anything to keep from going down. Within her grasp was the curtain hung behind the baptistery, which formed the front barrier of the men’s changing room. She reached out to grab hold of anything and she pulled that sheet down.
Having just stepped from the baptistery, there stood a man wearing nothing but his underwear. Realizing something dreadful was wrong; he turned around, only to see the entire congregation gaping at him in embarrassed astonishment. Assessing the situation quickly, he did the only sensible thing he dived into the baptistery with the preacher and the panic-stricken woman! Dennis likes to say, “They just dismissed the service at that time.”
What’s the point of that story? In the tenth chapter of Daniel, the curtain is pulled aside and we are able to see things we’ve never seen before as it relates to Jesus and as it relates to spiritual warfare and prayer.
Let’s look at verse one to introduce this chapter: “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 this message came to him in a vision.”
By this time, Daniel was a very old man, well into his 80s and had been retired from government work for a couple of years. But even at this advanced age, he was still spiritually alive and sensitive. He possessed the same inner zeal burning in his heart as a teen even though he was an old man. This vision and prophecy Daniel received covers the final three chapters of this book. This is the longest and most complete prophecy in the entire book. This message will introduce this wonderful vision and the next two messages will deal with the content of the prophecy found in chapters 11 and 12.
I am dividing this chapter into two parts. The first part begins in verse 2. “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. On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, 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. I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; the men with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves. So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless. Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep, my face to the ground.” (vs. 2-9)
I. THE MAJESTY OF JESUS: THE PINNACLE OF ALL PROPHECY
Who was this person? Most biblical scholars agree this is one of the pre-incarnate visions of the Lord Jesus Christ. The entire point of prophecy is to present a clearer picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. People who are “prophecy-junkies” often read the Bible to try to find the details of the future so they can create a new chart or some new end-time prediction. They miss the whole point. The more you study prophecy, the more you see the pinnacle of all prophecy is Jesus. Don’t forget the last book in our Bible is not called “Revelations” as most people call it. It is correctly titled “The Revelation.” What is the rest of its title? According to Revelation 1:1 it is “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.” That is the point of all prophecy.
Now this was not the first time Daniel was exposed to Jesus. In chapter 2, Jesus was the “stone not cut by human hands” that crushed the kingdoms of this world. In chapter 7, Jesus was called “the son of man who is given an everlasting Kingdom.” In chapter 8, He is called “the Prince of princes” who comes to defeat the Antichrist. In chapter 9, Jesus is identified as “the Anointed One” who will be cut off 483 years after the decree goes forth to rebuild Jerusalem. And even in chapter 4, Daniel writes about the fourth man who walked in the fire with his three Hebrew friends.
The entire Bible is all about Jesus. You can find Jesus in Genesis 1:1 and all the way to Revelation 22:21 and on every page in between. If you read the Bible (especially the Old Testament) and don’t find Jesus, you’d better read it again, because you’ve missed the point.
But of all the visions of Jesus contained in the book of Daniel, this vision in the tenth chapter is the most majestic. Daniel was visiting a place on the bank of the river Tigris with a group of men, when he looked up and there standing before him was the most breathtaking sight he had ever seen.
This picture of the glorified, majestic Jesus was the same the three disciples saw on the Mount of Transfiguration. It was strikingly similar to what Saul of Tarsus saw on the Damascus Road. Before Saul of Tarsus became the Apostle Paul, was on his way to Damascus to bring the Christians of the city to Jerusalem to stand trial for their faith in Jesus. Suddenly, there was a light brighter than the sun shining around him and he saw the Lord Jesus. He fell to the ground. The men who were with him did not see the Person of Jesus but heard only the sound of his voice speaking to the apostle Paul. Paul reacted the same way as Daniel. He was overwhelmed, he fell to the ground, and had no strength left in him. Of course, there are some who try to explain what Paul experienced as nothing but an epileptic fit. When that was reported to the great English preacher, Charles Spurgeon, he said, “O, blessed epilepsy! Would that every man in London could have epilepsy like that!”
The same happens here with Daniel. Daniel alone saw this vision, the men with him were not granted the sight. The others were overwhelmed with the awe of the place and “fled and hid themselves.” But the main reason many scholar agree this is a vision of the glorified Christ is because this vision the prophet Daniel received when he was an old man is strikingly identical to the one the old apostle, John received on the isle of Patmos.
Compare Daniel’s vision to John’s in Revelation 1:13-15: “And among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, and white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.”
Paul, John and Daniel all had the same reaction to this vision of the majestic Christ. Paul fell to the ground, blinded by the intensity of the light surrounding Jesus. The Apostle John writes, “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as a dead man.” In verses 8-9, Daniel describes how he became weak and collapsed to the ground, landing face downward. Let me assure you when you see Jesus face-to-face that will be your reaction as well. You will fall to the ground in the presence of His awesome glory.
One Sunday after the church service in California, a man was waiting to speak to the pastor, John MacArthur. When the opportunity came, the man shared with him how he often saw the Lord, he had regular visions of him, Jesus talked with him often. He said, “For example, Jesus will come and speak to me while I am shaving.” John MacArthur, who was understandably skeptical, said to him, “I have just one question. When you see Jesus, do you stop shaving?” When the man said, “No.” John MacArthur said, “Then I seriously doubt that you really saw Jesus.” In the Bible, when God appeared to the prophets and the apostles; it was utterly devastating. They collapsed before him like a tree being felled. It was a revelation of the glory of God, and it was always accompanied by a message. The vision never came mute. Have you ever considered the awesome majesty of Jesus? Let’s look at Him together.
TURN YOU EYES UPON JESUS! HIS:
1. Clothing speaks of royalty
His white linen robe is a symbol of the Purity and Holiness of Jesus. In ancient times, only a king wore a golden sash. So we see Jesus pictured as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
2. Body is beautiful beyond description
The NIV describes His body as “chrysolite.” The King James uses the word “beryl.” The Hebrew word describes a very rare, precious stone that came from only one place on earth–modern day Spain. It was more valuable than diamonds; it was a transparent, shimmering stone. This just means the overall appearance of the body of Jesus was too beautiful to describe. It is still true today; the body of Christ, the church, is beautiful beyond description. Have you ever seen our “beautiful Savior?”
3. Face reveals His radiance
There is brilliant light associated with the countenance of Jesus. John writes in I John 1:5 that “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” In Exodus, when Moses is exposed to just the afterglow of God’s glory on Mt. Sinai, he comes down the mountain with a shining face; he probably looked like his face was sunburned a different color!
4. Eyes burn through any pretense
The eyes of Jesus as like flaming torches. That is, His eyes can “burn right through you.” In the gospel according to Luke we are told on the night Peter denied Jesus three times, Jesus was being moved from one area to another in the house of Caiaphas and Peter was still out in the courtyard. At that moment, there was a sound of a rooster crowing and the Bible says, “The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter.” (Luke 22:61) Whew! You talk about a look that burned into Peter’s heart! In that one moment of a fiery-hot gaze Jesus was saying, “Peter, I told you that you would deny me three times but hey, I still love you.” That’s why He went out and wept bitterly.
Today, the Lord is looking at you today and He is seeing what nobody else can see. He can see into the very depths of your heart. He really is saying, “I know who you are, and I know what you’ve done. I even know what you are contemplating doing.”
5. Arms are strong to comfort
His arms are described as burnished bronze; that speaks of strength. I love the picture when Jesus called the little children to Himself. The Bible says he picked them up into His arms and held them to show them He loved them. Those were the same arms that fashioned the universe into existence, the same arms that grew strong from working in a carpenter’s shop, the same strong arms that today holds the universe together, the same arms that reach out to you today, the same arms that were stretched out on a wooden cross and pictured Him embracing my sin and your sin. What strength! What tenderness! Is that what you need today? Do you need to feel His arms of love encircle you today and say, “Let the little children come unto me...and the let the teenagers come unto me...and the young adults...and the baby boomers...and the senior adults.”
6. Feet enable Him to walk over danger
Bronze also speaks of durability and protection. There are a lot of places where it is dangerous to walk but if your feet are like bronze it is no problem. I think of the beautiful feet of Jesus that walked the dusty roads of Galilee but how those same feet were able to walk over the stormy waters of the Sea of Galilee. And the Bible says in Ephesians 1:22 that “God has put ALL things under His feet.” So don’t be afraid if you are walking with Jesus, you will always be safe.
7. Voice is too loud to ignore
Daniel describes His voice as “like the sound of multitude.” Have you ever been in Texas Stadium when thousands of Cowboys fans yell? (They haven’t had a chance to do that much the past few years) It is a sound you’ll never forget. Sure, God sometimes speaks to us in a still, small, voice but the voice of the glorified, exalted Christ is louder than a hundred jetliners taking off–too loud for you to ignore.
Think about what has come from the lips of Jesus. Jesus said things no other person on earth could ever say. Could you imagine Plato, or Moses, or Albert Einstein saying, “Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest?” Buddha never said anything like that and neither did Mohammed. Those who study those religions would never even expect them to say something like that. But for Jesus to say it makes sense.
The prophet Daniel was being prepared to learn something remarkable from this majestic being. He has already seen the majesty of Jesus Christ; now he is to be taught something of the mystery of prayer. Look again at the text beginning in verse 10. “A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. 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.”
Now we believe this being is the angel Gabriel. We see Gabriel’s standard greeting, “You are highly esteemed.” Gabriel visited Daniel previously to explain a vision and he does the same thing here.
Daniel 10:12-14, 20-21. “Then he continued, ‘Do not be afraid, Daniel. 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. But the Prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days [We are not talking about a human prince here but a fallen angel–a demon]. Then Michael, one of the chief princes [a good angel, in fact, the archangel], came to help me, because I was detained there with the King of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come…So he said, ‘Do you know why I have come to you? Soon I will return to fight against the prince of Persia [did you know angels and demons fight?], and when I go, the prince of Greece will come; but first I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. (No one supports me against them except Michael, your prince.)’”
II. THE MYSTERY OF PRAYER: THE KEY TO VICTORY IN SPIRITUAL WARFARE
So the second thing I want us to consider in this message is the mystery of prayer, which is the key to victory in spiritual warfare. These few verses pull aside the veil and we catch a glimpse of what takes place behind the scenes of this physical world. We are enabled to look into the invisible spiritual world of how the good angels of God and the fallen angels of Satan often interact.
Several years ago I wrote a book on angels called Do Angels Really Exist? Several thousand copies have been sold around America and I still am called upon to conduct telephone interviews for radio stations. Why? Because angels are a fascinating topic and there is so much ignorance out there about them. The Bible teaches us in Hebrews 1:14 that angels are “God’s ministering spirits sent to serve those of us who are His children.” There are thousands of “angel stories” in which people believe God sent an angel to protect them.
During WWII, soldiers were often given Bibles to take into battle. I recall one veteran showing me his. A German bullet punctured it and traveled halfway through until it stopped in Psalm 91. What does Psalm 91:11 say? “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” The ministry of angels is continually occurring, though we are not aware of what is happening. What we think are ordinary coincidences are oftentimes the result of the ministry of angels.
So God sends this angel to Daniel to do two things for him. First, he comes to comfort and reassure him. In verse 12 and again in verse 19, he says, “Don’t be afraid.” I have an entire chapter in my book on angels about the three most common messages that angels deliver in the Bible. The number one message they bring is “Don’t be afraid!” Is that the message you need to hear from God today? Don’t be afraid. Faith and fear cannot reside in your heart and mind at the same moment; they are mutually exclusive. If you let Him, God will replace your fear with faith today.
The second thing the angel comes to do is to deliver the answer to Daniel’s prayer and in the process we learn something about the mystery of prayer critically important for us when we pray today. Daniel is a man of purity, a man of prophecy, and a man of prayer. Once again, we are going to learn some important facets of prayer.
POWERFUL PRAYER:
1. Starts with a burden (vs. 2-3)
Daniel is so burdened he begins a semi-fast. He stops eating meat, drinking wine, and he stops using body lotion to soften the effects of living in the dry desert. He is probably living on bread and water. Why is he burdened? According to the timing of this vision, the Jews should have started going back to Jerusalem and begin to repopulate Israel. History tells us many of them grew so accustomed to the Persian lifestyle they decided to stay. The entire book of Esther describes the Jews in Persia after they were given the right to return to their homeland. Daniel is so burdened because his people, the Jews, had fallen in love with the wrong world.
Are you really burdened for the moral decay that exists in America? Are you alarmed to see our culture slipping slowly but surely down the slope of degradation and moral filth? The American Dream has become the American Nightmare. Don’t tell me you are burdened until you start doing like Daniel. Are you so burdened you are regularly fasting and praying? That’s the problem: Too many of us aren’t even burdened because Christians are in love with this godless culture around us. Daniel fasted and prayed for three weeks, would you consider doing the same?
2. Prayer doesn’t stop until an answer comes (vs. 12)
Daniel doesn’t just pray once and say, “There, I’ve done my duty I’ve talked to God about this problem.” No, he humbles himself before God, and he is in a heavy spirit of mourning for three weeks. The angel reports to Daniel his prayer had been heard since the first day he prayed (10:12). However, the answer had not yet come, so he kept on praying in faith for three more weeks. “Give me understanding,” he had cried. Nothing came. He prayed on, knocking at heaven’s door.
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. The deciding factor was his perseverance and his determination to keep on praying until the answer came. The reason the Bible tells us to persist in prayer is not to overcome God’s reluctance but to prevail against Satan’s opposition.
I’m convinced too many of us stop praying before God sends an answer. We think just because we haven’t gotten an instant answer that “it’s not God’s will” so we stop praying. That’s not the Bible way of praying. We are told to pray and to KEEP ON praying. When Jesus taught his disciples about prayer he used a present tense verb signifying a continuous action. For instance, what Jesus said in Matthew 7:7 should be translated as follows: “Ask (and keep on asking) and it will be given to you; Seek (and keep on seeking) and you will find; knock (and keep on knocking) and the door will be opened to you.” Is there some area in your life in which you have stopped praying because you haven’t gotten an answer? Why did you stop praying?
3. Prayer is often resisted by Satan’s soldiers (vs. 13)
There are reasons why the answer to our prayers may be delayed. Verse thirteen gives us tremendous insight into the “battle of prayer” taking place within the invisible, spiritual world around us. We learn from this passage that our enemy Satan, is fighting to keep our prayers from being answered. The devil is real and he wants to make your life miserable. I never preach an entire message on the devil, because I don’t want to give him that much attention but I love taking the time to expose him to Christians.
In this passage the angel says he was delayed by the prince of Persia (a demon) and then he says that Michael (an angel), one of the chief princes, helped him. In verse 20, the angel says he is going to fight against the prince of Persia. That’s warfare language. Have you ever thought about the fact that the devil has a highly organized, demonized, mobilized army? That he assigns demons to certain nations and governments to try to influence them for evil? Just as there was a prince of Persia, I’m convinced there is a “prince of America” who devotes much of his attention to our political leaders in Washington. It is logical to assume there is a “prince of Russia” and a “prince of China” as well.
Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul in 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)
In his book, Engaging the Enemy: How to Fight and Defeat Territorial Spirits, Dr. Peter Wagner writes that as we move into the 21st Century, the Holy Spirit is calling the church to a spiritual warfare with territorial spirits–evil spirits, demons, principalities, powers, world rulers of this present darkness, spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places–which attach themselves to specific territories or regimes or institutions.
Pastor John Piper writes, “The New Testament tells us that this prince of demons ‘darkens the minds of unbelievers’ (II Corinthians 4:4), and that he ‘deceives the world’ (Revelation 12:9), and that he plants his weeds (unbelievers) throughout the world (Matthew 13:39), and that he takes people captive to do his will (II Timothy 2:25), and that he plucks up the seed of the word when it is preached (Matthew 13:4).” Since we know the prince of demons does all that, we may conclude this is what his sub-princes do as well. So then, I would conclude there are high-ranking demonic powers over various regimes and dominions and governments and realms of the world; and they work to create as much evil and corruption and spiritual darkness as they can.
Daniel 10 makes it clear spiritual warfare is a reality. When we read about the incredible atrocities of Hitler, Stalin, or the leaders of the Bosnian-Serbian conflict, we cannot escape the fact there is a Devil who is bent on the destruction of the human race. Satan has ruined everything he has ever touched. And he will wreck your life if you don’t resist him. Our only hope is God’s promise: “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)
I’m not one who sees a demon behind every tree and I’m not like some people when every time they hear someone sneeze they rebuke the demon of sneezing or when they hear someone hiccup they rebuke the demon of hiccups! But I am convinced there is an invisible of world of spiritual conflict that rages around us and our prayers are an important part of the battle plan.
Have you read C.S. Lewis’ classic book The Screwtape Letters? In it, Lewis proposes the idea that every person has a “demon” assigned to them. The book contains the letters from senior devil, Screwtape, to the young novice demon, Wormwood, who has been assigned to tempt and torment a certain man. In one section Screwtape writes: “The fact that ‘devils’ are predominately comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suggestion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that, he therefore cannot believe in you.” (Letter VII, p. 33)
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. 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. 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. The Devil’s assistants are more cunning than diplomats, and their servants are more beautiful than angels of light. The Devil has a delegation of sinister soldiers and they operate in every area, the entire world over. 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. That’s why prayer is spiritual warfare.
4. Prayer is our strategic weapon against Satan (vs. 20)
If you ever want to be victorious in the Christian life, you must learn this dynamic truth about prayer. The spiritual struggle we glimpse in this chapter is real. It continues to this day. Satan and his organized legions of angels are constantly working to obstruct the plan of God. As believers, our greatest weapon is prayer. It is logical to conclude, then, that we can expect our greatest opposition when we are on our knees. And, as Daniel teaches us, the fallen angels do not quit the battle until they must. The price we must pay for victory is persistence–praying until the answer is received.
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.” It is a military word meaning “a fortress” referring to an area where the enemy is entrenched. In spiritual terms it means an area of your life where the devil, our enemy, has discerned a weakness in your spiritual defenses and has erected an outpost, a fort, a stronghold. A stronghold may be an obsession, a fixation of thought, or some deep-set attitude or thought pattern keeping you from experiencing spiritual victory. It could be largely subconscious, like an iceberg, with only a small portion of it about the surface of your consciousness. It may be an unreasonable fear, worry, temper, hate, lust, aggression, or unrestrained urges and appetites. I think many addictions may be the result of a stronghold the devil has erected in the mind of a person. The nature of a stronghold isn’t nearly as important as HOW you can demolish it. We are told in this verse we have spiritual weapons to pull strongholds down and the best weapon is prayer. In fact, it is true the primary place spiritual warfare is fought is in the prayer closet.
I think the best example of this is found in a story in the Old Testament. In Exodus 17 the Israelites faced a formidable enemy–the Amalekites. This enemy said, “You aren’t going to proceed any further to claim what your God has promised you. We are here to stop your progress.” In the same way, you and I face an enemy who says the same thing. “You aren’t going to grow any more I’m here to stop you from claiming all the Father has promised you.” In Exodus 17 young Joshua led the army against the Amalekites down in the valley of Rephidim. Meanwhile, Moses positioned himself up on a mountain and began to pray. He stood on the mountain and lifted his hands in prayer holding the rod of God a picture of the Holy Spirit’s power released in our lives. As long as Moses lifted his hands in prayer, the Israelite army was winning but when he lowered his hands and stopped praying, the enemy starting winning. When Moses got too tired to keep lifting his hands in prayer, his brother Aaron stood on one side and a man named Hur stood on the other side and held his arms up so he could keep on lifting up the rod of God–a picture of prayer. And soon, the Israelite army won the battle against their enemy. Now let me ask you. Was the battle really being fought in the valley? No it was really being won or lost on the mountain of prayer.
What a lesson for us! We also have an enemy who stands in our pathway of progress. We must understand the real battle takes place in prayer. We have a spiritual weapon with “divine power to demolish strongholds.” Are you using this weapon? Prayer is where the real battle takes place when we get up off our knees, then we go out to enjoy the spoils of battle.
CONCLUSION
In 1990, Sadaam Hussein entered the small country of Kuwait and captured it. I don’t think he was quite prepared for the unified response of the free nations of the world. As you know by now, the Coalition of forces led by General Norman Schwarzkopf assembled to do battle with Iraq. At the beginning of the Gulf War, Iraq had a large, well-equipped army; some say the fifth largest in the world at the time. Sadaam predicted his army would be victorious in what he predicted would be “the mother of all battles.”
The strategy of the Coalition Forces was to start with an aerial assault, the magnitude of which the world had never seen before. On the first night, the stealth fighters slipped into the airspace above Baghdad to bomb the control and communications of the Iraqi army. That opened the way for thousands of air sorties into Iraq. We watched on television as the “smart bombs” tracked with precision accuracy right into their targets. After several weeks of this air assault, the ground operation began. History records there was once a 100-year war and there has probably been a few 100-day wars but the Gulf War ground operation lasted only 100 hours! The Iraqi soldiers literally ran toward the enemy with their hands up wanting to surrender.
What was the key? The bombing campaign made the difference. In spiritual warfare, prayer in the bombing campaign. As we bombard heaven with our prayers, victory is assured.
Is there anyone else in this room with me who wishes the Vietnam War had been fought with the same strategy as the Gulf War? The politicians running the Vietnam War made decisions based on the political ramifications of each decision. The philosophy of the Gulf War military strategists was, “if we are going to fight, let’s win and let’s win fast to avoid casualties.” Some of my friends died in Vietnam and I consider Vietnam vets as true heroes. I just wish our country had taken the same strategy into that war.
Here’s my point. Prayer is warfare. Some of you have a Vietnam War prayer life. You struggle constantly and you win and lose a battle here and there and you don’t even have any clear objective when you pray you haven’t even identified what your enemy is. You are clueless about the activity of demons and angels around you. How sad.
Your prayer life really can be more like the Gulf War. Put on the armor of God and start praying! Get a burden! Keep on until you get an answer! Realize there is an enemy out there who wants to resist your prayers. And start bombing his strongholds with your prayers of faith!
That’s when your prayer life will be effective in spiritual warfare.
