Daniel 10:12

Prayer

I. There is a spiritual conflict raging in the universe around us.

A. It is a war against good and evil.

1. The prize is the control of the minds of men.

2. Thus you are thrust into the battle, like it or not.

3. Your life will be controlled either by good or evil.

4. We sometimes refer to this as the battle between the

flesh and the spirit, but in reality it is a battle

against spirit and spirit. The spirit of darkness and

the spirit of light.

B. Satan was at one time an angel of God. Angels are spirits, thus

Satan is a spirit.

1. When Satan rebelled against God, one third of the

angels followed him, and they comprise a powerful

spiritual force the world.

2. Their goal is to conscript you in the rebellion against

God.

3. They will stoop at nothing in order to destroy you.

4. They have a very strong beach head in your life, and

that is your flesh.

5. The thrust is to get you to live after the flesh, a

lustful, selfish, hedonistic, life.

6. Those persons who they have conscripted in the battle,

will stop at nothing to sway men into their camp.

C. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against

principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the

darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness, in high

places.

1. For the most part, nations are controlled by these

diabolical forces.

2. Look at the evil decisions that have come from the

Supreme Court of this land, since 1963.

a. The banning of prayer, or anything that has to

do with the Bible or Jesus Christ from the

public school.

b. The inability to define obscenity, thus opening

the door to all of the pornography that has

flooded the land.

c. The granting of abortion upon request thus

allowing 25,000,000 babies, thus far, to be

destroyed before they ever had a chance to

make a choice.

d. I wonder what those Supreme Court justices will

do when they have to stand before the judge of

the universe, and answer for the millions of

lives that have been destroyed because of their

decisions.

3. I cringe at the fact that Hillery Clinton now has the

opportunity to appoint a new Supreme Court justice,

just at time when it seemed that an equitable balance

was being developed.

4. This is what Paul was referring to as spiritual

wickedness in high places.

II. Our weapons against these awesome powers.

A. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through

God to the pulling down of the strongholds of the enemy.

IICor. 10:4

1. One of the most powerful weapons that God has place in

our arsenal is prayer.

a. This is a spiritual weapon that allows us to

become engaged in this spiritual warfare.

2. It is sad and strange that we are so anxious to meet

the foe on his turf where he has a decided advantage.

3. I think of the ministry of Operation Rescue and I

wonder how many more babies they might have saved had

they mobilized the people to pray rather than block

the doors of the abortion clinics.

a. That much fervor and energy in prayer would

have shut many more abortion clinics, I am

sure.

b. But people are far more apt to show up for a

demonstration than a prayer meeting.

B. Why do people find prayer so difficult?

1. Do you find it difficult to talk to someone that you

are madly in love with?

a. No, you call them at every opportunity.

b. You love to be with them, you love to hear

their voices.

c. Quite often I will call my wife or my

grandchildren, and when they answer the phone,

I will say, "I just wanted to hear your

beautiful voice."

d. No urgent reason for calling, just connecting

with someone I love.

e. We are commanded to love the Lord our God with

all our soul, mind and strength, how often do

you just connect with Him?

2. The reason you find prayer so difficult is that Satan

will do everything to keep you from prayer.

a. When you get down to pray, you will suddenly

remember a thousand urgent things that you were

supposed to do.

b. Or the phone or doorbell will ring.

c. The baby who is supposed to be napping begins

to cry.

d. Satan realizes that prayer is a deciding factor

in the spiritual battle, it is the weapon by

which he is defeated, thus he will fight hard

to disarm you.

e. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man

availeth much.

f. I think of how many things have been developed

to take us from prayer. If we would spend as

much time in prayer as we take watching T.V.

for instance, how much more we could see for

good in this world.

III. Daniel's experience in prayer.

A. It was in the third year of the reign of Cyrus, thus Daniel

must have been close to ninety at this time. He was probably

close to the time when the Lord would call his warrior to rest.

B. His prompting for prayer.

1. It was probably reports from those who had returned

from the captivity to the land.

2. There was very few who took the opportunity to return

which in itself must have been discouraging.

3. Those who did go back were discouraged and demoralized,

the high ideal of rebuilding the temple, was replaced

soon by desires for their own comfort, and they were

concentrating more on their own houses than the house

of God.

4.

The reports must have broken the heart of this man

whose heart was so completely after God, and he went

into mourning.

5. Mourning over the state of the nation.

C. His preparation for prayer.

1. He fasted from pastries, meat, and wine.

2. He did not anoint himself at all for this period of

time.

3. He continued steadfast in this commitment for three

full weeks.

D. His prayer was finally answered by a heavenly visitation.

1. He was informed by his heavenly visitor, that from the

first

day that he set his heart to chasten himself and seek

understanding from the Lord, God had heard his request

and had dispatched this messenger to bring to him the

answers.

2.

However the angel became engaged in a battle with the

powers that controlled the nation of Persia, who had

detained him for 21 days until Michael one of the chief

princes came to his aid, that he might continue with

his mission.

3. This prince of Persia is one of those spirit forces in

high places that Paul tells us that our true warfare is

about.

4. It is a well known fact that Hitler was the tool of men

who were deeply involved in the occult.

5. President Reagan's wife continually sought the counsel

of an astrologer.

6. Jean Dixon boasts of the many calls she received from

the different presidents.

7.

The heavenly messenger sent to Daniel declared that

when he left Daniel he was going to return to the

battle against the prince of Persia, and after him he

would be doing battle with the prince of Greece.

E. The forces that are against you are strong and sinister. They

are in control of this present evil world.

1. The only way you can possibly hope to stand against

them is in the Spirit, and the power of His might.

2. Carnal weapons are useless in this battle.

3. All of your count ten, or ten steps methods will ever

avail to bring you lasting victory in this battle.

4. You must arm yourself with all the spiritual armor

available.

a. Your strength is in the Lord, and the power of

His might.

b.

Your spiritual armor is righteousness, the

gospel of peace, faith, salvation, the word of

God.

5. Then what? "Praying with all prayer and supplication

in the Spirit, continuing with perseverance.

F. The real fighting comes on your knees, and that is where the

true victory will be found.