Participants: James Rafferty & Ty Gibson
Series Code: DBOTB
Program Code: DBOTB00011B
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00:01 Welcome back friends!
00:03 We are continuing our study 00:04 of Daniel Chapter 10. 00:05 We are learning some exciting 00:06 things here. 00:07 James, before we took a break, we were pointing out 00:11 that as Daniel continues to unfold, there is just a 00:15 huge Revelation that is given here in the book of Daniel 00:20 Chapter 10 regarding the great controversy between 00:24 good and evil. 00:26 How that spiritual warfare is literally transpiring all 00:29 the time behind the scenes. 00:31 We are allowed to peek behind the veil here, in Daniel 00:36 Chapter 10, because we see behind the scene. 00:40 We see what is going on really when a person 00:43 is engaged in prayer, when a person is engaged in a 00:47 relationship with God. 00:49 Yes, it is a powerful insight Ty, 00:50 that we have here in the book of Daniel. 00:52 In Daniel Chapter 10 it's 00:54 vital for us and our viewers 00:56 to understand this. 00:57 When we started this chapter Daniels said he was 01:00 praying for 3 full weeks, 21 days. 01:03 When we read verse 12 we understand what is going on. 01:06 Verse 12 and 13 it says, "then he said unto me," 01:09 "fear not Daniel," this is Gabriel speaking to Daniel. 01:12 "For from the first day that you set your heart to" 01:15 "understand and chasten yourself before God," 01:18 "your words were heard. " 01:19 So Daniel is praying and as soon as he prays, 01:21 his words are heard. 01:22 And I came forth for your words, so as soon as we pray 01:26 God sends forth angels. 01:27 God responds and He answers our prayers. 01:30 But verse 13, "the Prince of the kingdom of Persia 01:34 withstood me 1 and 20 days. 01:37 How long is the 1 and 20 days? Three weeks! 01:39 So Daniel was praying, God was hearing, 01:42 God was answering but there was another force, 01:45 and other power, that was seeking to hinder the answer 01:48 to that prayer for the allotted time 01:50 Daniel had been praying. 01:51 Then he said, "but lo, Michael, one of the Chief Princes," 01:56 "came to help me; and I remained there with the" 02:01 "kings of Persia. " 02:02 It is important to point this out and develop it James. 02:06 Often times we had the impression that when we pray and 02:10 an immediate answer does not come to our prayers, 02:13 we tend to assume that that is because there is a 02:16 reluctance on God's part, or somehow we haven't done 02:19 something just right in order to get 02:22 God to act in our favor. 02:24 But this reveals that God hears our prayers immediately. 02:28 That He is eager to answer our prayers. 02:31 In fact as soon as Daniel was praying, Gabriel explains 02:36 upon his arrival, that the delay had nothing to do with 02:40 a reluctance on God's part, but in fact there was a 02:44 spiritual warfare going on behind the scenes. 02:46 Daniel was praying for 3 full weeks. 02:48 This is vital that he continue to engage in the warfare 02:53 himself, but as he is engaged in the spiritual warfare 02:57 praying, Gabriel, God's angel, 03:00 is engaged in spiritual warfare 03:02 with a power that he refers to 03:04 here, as the prince of the kingdom of Persia. 03:07 Now this is fascinating. 03:09 We need to know, number one, God is eager to answer our 03:12 prayers and is immediately endeavoring to do so. 03:16 Secondly, if our prayers are not immediately answered, 03:20 this is no reflection on God's willingness. 03:23 God is eager, but there is something going on 03:25 behind the scenes. 03:27 Absolutely, in fact, we see this not only here in the 03:29 Old Testament, we also see it 03:30 in the New Testament. 03:32 For example in 1 Thessalonians 03:34 Chapter 2, Paul clearly teaches that there is a power 03:38 that is seeking to hinder his ministry and his work 03:43 among the churches. 03:44 He identifies what this power is and notice what he says 03:46 here in 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 2:18. 03:49 He is speaking to the church there and he says, 03:51 "wherefore we would have come unto you even I Paul," 03:55 "once and again," that is more than one time. 03:58 "But Satan hindered us. " Who hindered us? 04:00 Satan hindered us. 04:02 Now we know that the prince of the power of Persia is 04:06 Satan because Jesus tells us in John Chapter 12: 31, 04:10 that Satan is the prince of this world. 04:13 These Persian powers, these Media Persian powers and 04:16 Babylon, they are all powers of this world. 04:18 They are not God's kingdom, 04:19 they are the kingdoms of this world. 04:21 So the prince of the King of Persia, the prince of the 04:24 king of this world, is Satan. 04:25 Here he is identified clearly by Paul as the one who was 04:28 seeking to hinder Paul's ministry. 04:30 You have a great controversy taking place. 04:32 In Romans 1:13 Paul says the same thing. 04:35 We wanted to come to you often but we were hindered, 04:39 hindered, hindered. 04:40 So we have Jesus saying in the Lord's prayer of Matthew 6, 04:44 that we should pray that "God's will be done on earth 04:47 as it is in heaven. " 04:48 We should pray that we be delivered from evil. 04:50 We should pray that Satan would not be allowed to come 04:53 in and hinder God's work. 04:55 In our ministries and in our outreach and in our lives. 04:59 Amen, I think there is a delegation process that may even 05:02 occur in Satan's Kingdom James. 05:04 As you pointed out Satan is referred to by Jesus in such 05:10 Scriptures as John Chapter 12, 05:12 as the prince of this world. 05:13 The ruler of this world. 05:15 Also in the temptation of Jesus, in Matthew Chapter 4, 05:20 one of the three temptations is worded by Satan in this 05:24 way, "if you will bow down and worship me, I will give" 05:28 "you all the kingdoms of this world," because I can give 05:32 them to whosoever I will because they have been given to me. 05:36 So Satan lays claim to the kingdom of this world as a 05:40 whole but then, under Satan's over lordship, 05:44 the kingdoms of this world as a whole, 05:46 we know he has demons. 05:49 According to Revelation Chapter 12 there was 05:52 approximately one third of the angels that fell into 05:54 rebellion with Satan against the kingdom of God. 05:57 Satan has divided up his kingdom and delegated power. 06:02 It is highly likely that the prince of Persia is some 06:06 demonic force that has been placed over Persia and 06:09 later on when the prince of Grecia is mentioned, 06:12 some demonic force, some fallen angel that has been put 06:16 over the kingdom of Grecia. 06:18 Then we notice, very carefully here, that Michael 06:24 appears to add His strength to Gabriel's strength in 06:29 breaking through to answer Daniel's prayer. 06:32 You know over and over again in the book of Daniel, 06:35 Michael is identified as the Prince of your people. 06:38 He is identified as the Messiah, the Prince. 06:41 He seems to be the one that is delegated to God's people. 06:45 You have God's people, and that is why it is important 06:48 for us to recognize that even though Satan is the prince 06:51 of this world, Jesus has taken that from him. 06:55 It is up to us now to decide are we going to acknowledge 06:58 Christ, and God, as the prince of this world, or are we 07:01 going to acknowledge Satan as the prince of this world? 07:03 Whose allegiance, who are we going to give 07:05 our allegiance to? 07:06 Now you have pointed out that this terminology in the 07:10 book of Daniel regarding prince, when it refers to 07:14 Michael the Messiah is designated specifically to be 07:18 the Prince over Israel. 07:20 It is down in verse 21 James. 07:21 I just want to draw our viewers attention to this verse 07:25 in particular because in verse 21, it says, 07:28 "but I will tell you what is noted in the Scripture of" 07:33 "truth: no one upholds me against these," that is against 07:37 the demonic forces that control Persia and Grecia, 07:41 "except Michael your Prince. " 07:44 Michael is your Prince, Daniel. 07:46 Your Prince as an Israelite, as God's chosen nation. 07:51 He is the Prince of the children of Israel, where as 07:56 Satan and his demons have charge over the other nations 08:01 that are not in submission to God. 08:04 Yes Daniel 12:1, "that great Prince which stands 08:06 for the children, of thy people. " 08:08 Michael that great Prince stands 08:09 for my children, the people. 08:11 The Messiah the Prince of the covenant. 08:12 Now let's hasten to point 08:15 out that when we identify 08:17 Michael in the book of Daniel, 08:20 as Jesus Christ and His pre-incarnation, 08:24 before He came into this world. 08:26 We do not mean and Scripture does not mean in any 08:29 way to indicate that Jesus is a mere angel. 08:33 As in the sense of a created being, He is not! 08:37 Jesus is the self existent, Divine Son of God according 08:41 to Scripture, according to Philippians Chapter 2 He is 08:45 by his very nature God. 08:48 So He is not an angel in the sense of one of the angelic 08:53 beings that are created. 08:54 Jesus is the Son of God, but He is the Chief of the angels. 08:58 He is the head of the angelic armies of heaven. 09:02 In fact the Bible tells us in Revelation Chapter 12, 09:04 that it is Michael and His angels, 09:06 not Michael and the angels, but Michael and His angels. 09:09 They are His angels. 09:10 Being the Chief of the angels doesn't make Jesus a created 09:15 being any more than Him becoming a man makes Him a created being. 09:18 It doesn't make God a created being any more than the Holy 09:21 Spirit being likened to a dove makes Him a created being. 09:25 It doesn't make God a created being anymore then 09:26 it makes God and inanimate object of nature because He 09:31 appears in a burning bush. 09:32 So we need to recognize that Jesus' divinity is intact. 09:36 He assumes these different positions, and one of them is 09:39 Messiah the Prince, Michael the Chief of the angels, 09:43 the One who delivers God's people. 09:45 There is another reason why we know that Michael is, 09:49 in fact the pre-incarnate Jesus, and that is because the name 09:52 Michael itself has a meaning. 09:54 All names and Scripture have a specific meaning. 09:57 Michael means one who was like God. 10:00 Throughout the New Testament when Jesus comes to this world 10:03 as the incarnate Christ, the Son of Man, over and over 10:08 again, Jesus identified Himself specifically in John. 10:11 John records this line of reasoning a lot. 10:14 Jesus said for example, John 5:19, "I only do what I" 10:20 "see the Father do. " 10:21 Then again in John 14:9 he says, "if you see me," 10:24 "you've seen the father. " 10:27 Jesus is the perfect Revelation of the Father. 10:30 He is the one who in character is like the Father. 10:34 Michael means one who is like God, that is like God 10:38 in character and like God in nature. 10:41 Jesus is Michael in that sense. 10:44 Yes and so we see Him identified in verse 22 for example. 10:48 Chapter 11:22, as the Prince of the Covenant. 10:51 We see Him identified in Chapter 9:25 as Messiah the Prince. 10:58 He is the Prince of the Covenant, 11:00 He is the Messiah the Prince, 11:01 He is the one who delivers His people and here He has 11:05 come to help Gabriel in this spiritual warfare. 11:09 Why? Because an angel cannot do what Michael can do. 11:14 An angel cannot do what Jesus can do. 11:16 An angel cannot redeem what Jesus Christ can redeem. 11:19 Jesus Christ has redeemed us and He is victorious over the 11:23 prince of this world. 11:24 He can take from that prince, 11:26 things that angels cannot take. 11:28 He can claim victory in our behalf so that we can be freed 11:32 up to receive the communication that we need from God. 11:36 I think that in our modern, skeptical age where people 11:40 are so focused on those things that are tangible and those 11:44 things that science can actually verify, that we have in 11:48 our world a lot of skepticism and doubt regarding the 11:52 spiritual realm. 11:54 This gives us a very clear window into just how real it is. 11:57 There is a spiritual dimension to reality. 12:00 There are fallen angels that are allied against us under 12:04 Satan, there are unfallen angels such as Gabriel, who are 12:08 allied under Christ, under Michael in favor 12:12 of the human race. 12:13 This spiritual warfare is very, very real. 12:17 Yes, in fact in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy 12:20 it talks about the people of God worshiping devils. 12:23 The Devils come in the guise of false gods and false religions. 12:28 We see a spiritual significance to all of this. 12:31 There is a spiritual warfare friends, taking place all 12:34 around us and Michael is seeking to interpose in our behalf 12:38 to free us from the clutches and from the influence of those 12:42 powers of darkness. 12:44 Paul says in Romans that we wrestle not against flesh and 12:48 blood but against powers and principalities and spiritual 12:52 wickedness in dark places. 12:53 There is only one person that can release us from the 12:56 influence and the power of that spiritual wickedness. 12:59 That person is our Savior, Jesus Christ. 13:03 He comes to Daniel to release him from the darkness, 13:07 from the misinformation, the struggles that he is having 13:11 here in Daniel 10 and to bestow upon him a clear vision 13:15 of what is going to become of God's people, 13:17 Daniels people, in the end of time. 13:18 So be sure to join us next time as we continue this study. |
Revised 2014-12-17