Spiritual Warfare (Daniel 10:4–10)

On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river (that is, the Tigris) I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude. And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled to hide themselves. 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. And behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees.
– Daniel 10:4–10

…And he began to speak to Daniel. You’ve got to read this chapter. And there is so much discussion and even disagreement among Bible believing scholars about some different parts of this chapter, and really a variety of these dreams in the book of Daniel.

Daniel 10:4–10 shows that prayer engages invisible spiritual realities.

But in light of what we prayed about in Daniel 9, and now Daniel 10. Where Daniel has this vision of some say Jesus pre-incarnate. Others say this is an angel. There’s no question the rest of Daniel 10 describes heavenly warfare happening between angels and demons.

It’s fascinating and mysterious. And a reminder to us that when we pray, we are engaging in spiritual battle, in spiritual warfare. There’s one point later in this chapter where Daniel is told, “Days ago, when you started praying, there was movement happening in the heavenly realms in response to your prayers”.

And I just want to encourage you today to realize that when you pray, there is movement happening in the heavenly realms, in spiritual forces of good and evil under the sovereignty of God in response to your praying, in my praying. Prayer is spiritual battle. When we are praising God, we are declaring the glory of the one true God in a world where there are spiritual forces of evil who are actively working to defame the one true God. When we confess our sin… Which is much of what Daniel is doing in Daniel 9 and 10… We are fighting spiritual battle.

When we pray for ourselves, for others. When we intercede on others’ behalf, we’re fighting spiritual battle for them. And I just want to remind us, encourage us, help us see in a fresh way today, that your prayers are affecting movement in the heavenly realms. And I don’t understand how all this works. There’s a mystery to how all this works.

Daniel 10:4–10 teaches us to pray with spiritual awareness.

But this is why we’re commanded to pray continually and to pray like this in the words of Jesus, Our Father in Heaven, we want to engage in spiritual battle right now. We want to pray for your Name to be hallowed in all the Earth. We are asking, praying for your kingdom to come and your will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Just like we see in Daniel 9 and Daniel 10. God, help us to realize that we are in a spiritual battle today as we’re praying.

Help us to realize that there are invisible spiritual beings all around us that are just as real as the visible physical world that we see. But with far greater power in ways that brought Daniel to his face, trembling. So God, we pray, help us to faithfully fight spiritual battle in prayer all day long. With all the adversary’s attempts to pull us away from you, to tempt us with thoughts, desires, words, actions that would not be honoring to you.

God, help us, we pray all day long to fight spiritual battle in prayer against spiritual forces of evil coming at us. Lord, we want to step in and pray God for people around us who we love, who we know we will interact with today. God, we pray for their protection. We pray that you would help us to be an encouragement to them, to spur them on toward Jesus, to fight spiritual battle even in our prayers right now, and in our interactions with them. Help us to work for their good.

Prayer for the Digo People

And God, we pray this for the nations, for the spread of the gospel among all the peoples. Among the Digo people of Kenya and Tanzania. For 769,000 of them who are held captive right now in Islam to lies about who Jesus is. God, we pray that the truth of Jesus would spread among the Digo people of Kenya and Tanzania. Please, oh God, cause the truth of your gospel and your grace and your glory to spread to the Digo people, to all the peoples in the world. And God, we pray that you would help us much like Daniel did to faithfully fight spiritual battle through prayer. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.