Prayer Power & Spiritual Warfare Unveiled Series

One of the most intriguing, mysterious, ignored and probably abused topics in all of Scripture is the matter of spiritual warfare.

One of the most important but puzzling issues in all of Scripture is prayer and spiritual breakthrough. It’s puzzling because we all have questions about prayer. How come some prayers don’t get answered? How come some answers to prayer are very delayed? And is there a key, or is there a secret to spiritual breakthrough?

And this morning we have one of the wildest passages in all of Scripture where the topics of powerful prayer and spiritual warfare intersect. I’m talking about Daniel 10 in which Daniel has his most jaw-dropping and spiritually exhausting vision yet, the fourth and final great vision of the book of Daniel, which encompasses the totality of three chapters, and is the most detailed and extensive apocalyptic vision in all of the Bible this side of the Book of Revelation.

And at the outset at least, it’s a lesson in the kind of prayer that God hears, the kind of prayer that results in spiritual breakthrough. What we should learn from it is this: Humble, fervent, persistent and even courageous prayer is the key to spiritual breakthrough. Now I know that’s a mouthful, but all those characteristics of prayer are important. They need to be humble; they need to be fervent, they must be persistent and even courageous, and they must actually be prayers of a godly man (or woman). Then, and perhaps only then, does spiritual breakthrough take place.

It's now 536 B.C. Daniel 10 identifies it as the third year of the reign of Cyrus the Persian. In other words, the Medes and the Persians who had defeated the Babylonians have now been in power for a total of three years. Cyrus is the great Persian King who in his first year issued the decree which permitted the return of the Jewish exiles to Israel from Babylon. And the first group of those exiles has now left for Israel from Babylon, leaving Daniel behind. Finally, the 70- year captivity of the Jews has come to an end, as a result of Daniel’s prayer of confession in Daniel 9. Daniel is now likely about 85 years old, and he is still in prayer. Actually he is in mourning and prayer. Daniel 10, verses one through four, describe for us his spiritual activity late in his life. He had not tasted any tasty food; he had not had any wine; he had even neglected his personal grooming because he was so intensely involved in this modified fast for 21 days in seeking God for His people Israel. Now at the outset, Daniel doesn’t mention why he is in mourning. That doesn’t become evident until verse 14. Daniel had still been concerned for his people Israel, what would happen to them now that they had been released from exile. He might be a little sad that he had come to the end of this life and for reasons not revealed, perhaps his age, perhaps his work, had been unable to return to the Promised Land after all these years of longing for it. But apparently, in light of the answer about to be brought to him by this great angel, his mourning and concern had been for the future of his people Israel, as well as perhaps his own future, in the Promised Land. Now, God does give him an answer with regard to His own future in the Promised Land in this vision, but it’s not mentioned in chapter 10 or 11. It doesn’t come until chapter 12, and God gives him hope. God tells him he will be resurrected to his allotted inheritance, obviously in the Promised Land, at the end of the age. With regard to Israel’s future, well, there’s lots of trouble ahead, and part of the reason is the spiritual warfare going on in heavenly places that has great impact on earth and human history.

But the lesson of verses one through nine is this: The humble fervent fasting of the godly gets God’s attention. You want to get God’s attention. You want an answer to your prayers. You want God to show up for you. Then dare to be a Daniel. Dare to do what Daniel repeatedly did. Pray, Pray, and then fast and pray. Humble yourself before God in intense prayer demonstrated by the fact that you neglect the pleasures and sometimes even the necessities of life in order to seek God’s face, that you might hear from on high, and God often shows up.

On this occasion, for Daniel, it happened after 21 days of fasting. Again, we see the pattern of sevens. This time it’s again a multiple of sevens, three times seven, on the 21st day of his fast, on the 24th day of the first month of the Hebrew calendar, as he’s standing next to the river Tigris, 35 miles north of Babylon, that he lifts his eyes and he sees a certain man dressed in linen, verse 5, whose waist was girded with a belt of pure gold of Uphas, his body was like beryl, his face had the appearance of lightning, his eyes were like flaming torches, his arms and feet like the gleam of polished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a tumult.