Well, morning you guys. As you've obviously figured out,
I'm not Pastor Nick and that's probably a bad thing, but we'll
get through today. Pastor Nick is wisely taken
today off. He's celebrating his anniversary
and seeing his daughter and they're celebrating their
anniversary together, which is always a good thing.
So he'll be back next week. I'm not sure where he's headed.
I talked to him a week or so ago and he wasn't sure, as far as,
you know, which book of the Bible, because we got through
James. And so I guess we'll all find
out together maybe next week when he comes back, but I know
it will be an anointed teaching. So he told me when he when he
asked me about talking today that he said whatever the Lord
leads you to talk about. And I said, OK, it's almost in
some ways easier to go through the the books of the Bible.
Will, the Lord gave me a very interesting passage and we're
going to talk about it. It's got a lot of applications
for us, but it's a crazy one and we're going to flush this thing
out. But I was really a little bit
concerned about it because I thought, why did you give me
this passage, Lord? And then I heard his message
last week and I heard his Christmas message when I wasn't
sleeping and he I think it's going to fit well.
So let's start by going to the Lord in in prayer and asking for
his presence here today. Father, we just we come here
today. We're seeking you and we're
seeking your presence, Lord, we ask you into this presence into
into our fellowship. Lord, I know that represented
today in this physical building and online are people that are
facing all sorts of trouble. Every trouble that can be said a
human being is probably representative word health
problems, marital problems, money problems.
Lord, I just ask that you would touch these people that you
would bless them that you would help them know that you were
here and that how much you you love them so much and you would
anoint this message. Lord, because I believe that
it's it's so important to understand what's going on in
this passage. We ask this in your name.
We thank you for today. Amen.
So we're going to read a long passage here and it's out of the
book of Daniel, but I'm not here to teach Daniel.
I'm probably not competent to teach Daniel, but we're going to
talk about it and probably I'm going to, it's really, it's an
amazing passage. So I'm going to read the entire
thing. And if you're new to the book of
Daniel or if you haven't had studies in it, it's crazy.
So let me just read it and we're going to come back and we're
going to break it down. This is Daniel 10, and we're in
the new King James. Thank you, Pastor Nick.
In the third year of Cyrus, King of Persia, a message was
revealed to Daniel whose name was called Belchesar.
The message was true, but the appointed time was long and he
understood the message and had understanding of the vision.
In the In those days I, Daniel was mourning 3 full weeks.
I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine came into my mouth, nor
did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were
fulfilled. Now on the 24th day of the first
month, as I was by the side of the great river that is the
Tigris, I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold a certain man
clothed in linen, whose waist was girded with gold and up has.
His body was like barrel, his face like the appearance of
lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet were
burnished bronze in colour, and the sound of his words like the
voice of a multitude. And I, Daniel alone, saw the
vision, for the men were with me.
The men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great
terror fell upon him, so that they fled to hide themselves.
Nothing like good friends, huh? Therefore I was left alone when
I saw this great vision, and no strength remained in me, for my
vigor was turned to frailty in me, and I retained no strength.
Yet I heard the sounds of his words.
And while I heard the sounds of his words, I was in a deep sleep
on my face with my face on the ground.
Suddenly a hand touched me, which made me tremble on my
knees and on the palms of my hands.
And he said to me, Oh Daniel, man greatly beloved, understand
the words that I speak to you and stand upright, for I have
now been sent to you. While he was speaking to me, I
stood trembling. Then he said, and this is the
core of our our message. Do not fear, Daniel, for from
the first day that you set your heart to understand and humble
yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have
come because of your words. But the Prince of the Kingdom of
Persia withstood me 21 days. And behold, Michael, one of the
chief Princess, came to help me, for I had been left alone there
with the kings of Persia. Now I have come to make you
understand what will happen to your people in the latter days,
for the vision refers to many days yet to come.
When he had spoken such words to me, I turned my face towards the
ground and became speechless. And suddenly one having the
likeness of sons of men touched my lips.
Then I opened my mouth and spoke, saying to him who stood
before me. My Lord, because of the vision
my sorrows have overwhelmed me and I have regained I've
retained those St. strength. For how can this servant of my
Lord talk with you, my Lord, As for me, no strength remains in
me, nor is any breath left in me.
Then again, the one having the likeness of a man touched me and
strengthened me. And he said, Oh man greatly
beloved, you're not peace, be with you.
Be strong. Yes, be strong.
So then when he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, Let
my Lord speak, for you have strengthened me.
Then he said, Now listen to this.
Then he said, do you know why I've come to you?
And now I must return to fight with the Prince of Persia.
And when I have gone forth, indeed the Prince of Greece will
come. But I tell you what is noted in
the scriptures of truth, no one upholds me against these except
Michael, your Prince. OK, let's let's go ahead and go
back to prayer again. Father God, we just ask you
would anoint this message again and, and help me to explain
this, this crazy passage. And this is one of these
passages that's maybe a block long, but it's miles deep.
Or please anoint this, we ask this in your name, Amen.
Well, if you're not a little confused, you've either had a
lot of good training or you weren't listening, which I
wouldn't blame you, but this is a crazy, crazy passage.
I mean, what in the world is going on when what's happening
here is we've got a lifting of the veil and one of the passages
into the spiritual battle that's occurring in the world, And this
passage has a great amount of information in it.
We're going to go back in and we're going to take a look at
it. Now people tend to get really
uncomfortable about this and just thought that there's this
battle going on and there is, there has been, it's going on
now and it's going to continue until the Lord says yet we're
done. But what's going on with this
spiritual battle is that there, there's these forces at work and
we're involved in it, although we can't see them.
And I think probably the fact that we can't see this going on,
it is probably the most unnerving part of it or the part
that causes most people not to want to deal with it.
But the fact is it's going on and it's going to continue to go
on. So what, what's going on here?
Well, in its simplest form, this is the forces of good and the
forces of evil in the spiritual world fighting.
And they're they're battling over us.
And that's, that's literally what's going on.
And, and we're going to, we're going to break this down so that
we can come to the this is not the actual point of the message,
but you have to have this understanding to get to where
we're headed. So we've got this battle going
on yet you have to remember that Satan was, you know, he's one of
God's angels. I mean, he sounded like he had
great authority before he fell and he actually got to the point
where he started to think that he could be like God.
He never, as far as I can see, ever thought he could be God,
but he thought he could be like God.
He got pretty full of himself and he's still full of himself
and now he's delusional. And So what happened was he
revolted, as you guys know, and he took, I think it was a third
of the angels with him and, and they were cast out.
And so you've got these two warring factions, that is the,
the angels and the, the people of God and the Lord.
And you've got Satan and his demons and the, and the people,
the human beings that are there in this background doing this
battle. And that's what this passage is
telling us is that this is going on.
So, you know, I, I suspect that you know, you, you've heard this
before. Satan absolutely hates humanity.
He hates every one of us. And I suspect what he's happened
with him is that at the time of the crucifixion of Christ, he
probably thought he had it made because he had killed the Son of
God. He knew he had killed the Son of
God. And I just, I, I mean, this is
just me. I'm weird.
But I mean, I'm thinking on the night of the crucifixion, I just
have this vision of some dark place where these demons hang
out that, I mean, Satan's up there.
He's in an elevated little, little area.
And these guys, these demons, they're making toast to him and
telling him about he's just the smartest dude ever.
And they're all, you know, worse than a company picnic, you know,
and they're just, oh, you're so the smartest guy.
And that went on for 36 hours. But I also have this vision of
this demon kind of creeping in through the back door with his
head down, and he goes to whoever he's subject to and
whispers in his ear. And that message kind of gets
up, starts heading towards Satan.
And he finds out Satan maybe asked what's going on.
And they said, well, we just left the tomb and the stones
rolled open. And Satan says, well, where's
the body? And they said, there isn't a
body. And at that moment he had to
realize that he had failed. And from that point on, he has
literally brought hell against the Lord and his people.
And that's what this passage is telling us in here.
And I suspect it's it's based in large part over jealousy,
jealousy of humanity. I mean, he literally hates us
and we can't lose the fact that the first killing, the first
homicide in the Bible was over jealousy, the Cain and Abel.
So, you know, this is this is there's a lot of stuff going on
here. So just to kind of understand
who these these people are in this passage in Daniel 10, we
got the forces of good and evil. And, you know, I've discussed
who they were God's people versus team Satan.
They have better jerseys, but they're they're going to lose.
And then we've got Daniel. Now a lot of people know about
Daniel. I mean, he's taught me, if you
were a little kid that was brought up in in Bible school,
you know, you have the felt pictographs or whatever they
call those things. And you know, he's taught.
But just so you understand, this is about 600 years before the
birth of Christ. And what we know about him is
that he was a Jewish noble. And I would say, well, who cares
except for he was probably very well educated.
And I think it's pretty obvious he was pretty sharp and he was
living in Jerusalem when he was taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar.
And so, you know, they came and they cleaned out most of of
Jerusalem and Israel. And at some point Daniel got
identified as being a pretty sharp guy.
And he ended up acquiring great status within Nebuchadnezzar's
Kingdom. And we all know about his
ability to to interpret these dreams that that he was having
and other people were having. But Daniel had a, a huge
problem. He was a good Jew following the
edicts that he had been taught as a good Jew.
And he had a heart for the Lord. And he was stuck in probably the
one, one of the most hedonistic, horrible societies that you can
imagine. And so we know the story and I'm
not here to teach Daniel, but we know that he ended up getting
thrown in alliance Dan because of his refusal to worship an
idol. And he had a lot of other
problems. There was a lot of people that
were out after him, the, the non Jewish people that the members
of the, the court were always looking to trance and, and cause
him harm. But we know that the Lord
protected him and we know that he was faithful to the Lord.
He is faithful to the, the faith that he, he kept the diet and he
kept, he had a, he just had a heart for the Lord and he had a
heart for the Lord's business. And so what's so important about
this is that we know and at least one at one time, Daniel
was faithful even to the point of death being thrown in a
lion's pen. And and the Lord greatly loved
him for that. And so here we have him.
You know, there's speculation, Daniel, at the time that that
this passage I wrote was written, he was around 90.
My suspicion is that he was in pretty good shape and certainly
his mind was very, very sharp. But so we have this Daniel, this
character that's been through a lot, faithful to God up to the
point of death, and he's about the Lord's business.
And then we have the messenger. Now it's not actually the
messenger is not actually named the one who's talking to Daniel
in this passage, but it's generally considered to be
Gabriel because he's in a chapter Daniel and he's
identified there. I mean, it just makes sense that
that's him. But in any case, he's obviously
a spiritual being and he's doing the delivering a message for the
Lord. And then we've got another guy
mentioned, Michael the Archangel.
And you know, we know that Michael was God's warrior and
protector of God's people. He is literally God's right hand
man and his Angel warrior. He's not a guy to be messed
with. And I suspect now this again is
my weirdness, just my weirdness. But I imagine that Michael is
just like every time he has to be near or around Satan or his
people, he just wants to take that sword and and wank them.
But he's gotten told by God, not yet.
And that's got to be just grinding him.
And, you know, Gabriel knows who these people are, who these evil
spirits, they, you know, they, who knows how long they were
together before the fall, the, the angelic bodies.
I mean, so the, everybody knows everybody.
And there's got to be, there's got to be some strong feelings
there. So what in the world is going on
in this particular passage? So he's Daniel said in those
days, I, Daniel was mourning 3 full weeks.
I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine came into my mouth
during the night. I anoint myself at all until
three whole weeks were fulfilled.
So why what was going on? Well, I'll tell you what was
happening was Daniel was grieving over Jerusalem and the
fact that Jerusalem was not being reoccupied and the temple
was not being fixed. And when I this is again another
example of his concern for the business of God.
He just could not stand. And he talks about it here and
I'm going to read what he says. He just cannot stand the fact
that Jerusalem's in disrepair and and nobody wants to go back
to Jerusalem. I mean, by this time these
people have kind of gotten into the culture.
I imagine a lot of them are not following the the dietary edicts
or, you know, doing what they should be doing, what the Lord's
commanded them to do. And most of them have probably
fallen away. And so we see it in the chapter
before Daniel says, Oh Lord, according to your righteousness,
I pray, let your anger and your fury be turned away from your
city, Jerusalem, your holy mountain, because for our sins
and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your
people are a reproach to all those around us.
Now, therefore, our God, hear the prayer of your servant and
his supplications, and for the Lord's sake cause your face to
hear or shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate.
It's referring to the temple, obviously.
Oh my God, incline your ear and hear.
Open your eyes and see our desolations and the city which
is called by your name. For we do not present our
supplications before you because of our righteous deeds, but
because of your great mercies, Oh Lord, here, oh Lord, forgive.
Oh Lord, listen and act. Do not delay for your own sake,
my God, for your city and your people are called by your name.
So this is a guy who is pouring his heart out and and you can
tell that he's pleading with God to in grieving over the city and
over the fact that the temple hasn't been rebuilt.
And he's, he's about the guy, he's about the Lord's business.
And, you know, obviously it looks like the people lost their
love for the Lord and, and don't have a fire for the Lord.
And So what is this telling us? Well, it's telling us that first
of all, the Lord heard Daniel's prayer on the first day, Amen.
But that there were spiritual beings that prevented Gabriel
from coming and giving the prophecy and the information
that he was charged to give to him for 21 days, which of course
matches what Daniel tells us in this passage.
And as Daniel says, the Gabriel says.
But the Prince of the Kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days.
And behold, Michael, one of the chief Princess came to help me.
So what's going on here in this spiritual battle is that
Gabriel's trying to get the message that he was given he was
charged with to Daniel, but that because of the forces of evil,
this spiritual battle that we can't see, he got delayed for 21
days and it took Michael to come in and help him get away.
The take away point from this, and none of you are going to be
shocked by this, is that there are spiritual beings and evil
men that are involved in frustrating God's plans on this
earth and specifically with each or with countries.
And so we have the Prince of Persia and then later he talks
about the Prince of Greece. I mean, what Gabriel's saying is
I'm going to go do battle with the Prince of Persia and I got
to go fight the OR deal with the Prince of, of Greece.
And that hasn't changed. And if you think that there
aren't entities, demonic entities and men, humans that
are involved in this along willingly, then you're you're
mistaken because it's still going on.
And I mean, look, look at our country, but look at 2025.
I mean, here we've got the, you know, this Epstein thing and we,
you know, all these revelations and, and all these things that
are coming out where there's allegations of different, you
know, this deviant sexual activity by our world lever
leaders and that, you know, some, some pictures are
appearing. It tells you that this, if
anything, it hasn't gotten better.
It's gotten worse. But we also know that there are
those godly angels and and the people who are supportive of the
Lord humans who are also involved in this battle.
So there's there's just a tremendous amount that's
happening here. And so we know that Satan is
here to continue to frustrate us until the very end.
But then we have a mess, a passage from Paul, and it's
Ephesians 610. Do you mind throwing that up?
Finally, this is Paul, the New Testament back of the book.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
Put on the full 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, the authorities, against
the dark or the powers of The Dark World, and against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
This is spiritual warfare. This is it.
True, it's here in this world, this dimension that we see, but
there's a whole lot going on in the other dimension.
Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of
evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you
have done everything to stand. Stand firm then with the belt of
truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of of
righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the
readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
In addition to this, take up the shield of faith with which you
can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil 1 Take the
helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is
the word of God. And then here's here's where
we're at and and what's going to be the main take away point
today. And pray in the Spirit on all
occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all
the Lord's people. Pray also for me that whenever I
speak, words may be given to me so that I will fiercely make
known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in
chains. Pray that I may declare
fearlessly, as I should. So I'm not here to teach Daniel,
but I'm here to tell you that there's a spiritual battle
that's going on that we can't see.
And it involves, as crazy as it sounds, demonic forces and
angelic forces of the Lord. And the whole battle is over us.
And it's for our hearts, it's for our minds, and ultimately
it's for our souls. Because at this point, Satan has
nothing, nothing that he's going to do that's going to change
anything other than bring some more people into hell.
And so my, my whole point in giving this message is if we
look at what Daniel was doing at this time, he first of all was
about the Lord's business. He had a heart for the Lord.
Secondly, he was in fervent prayer for three weeks.
And he was, you know, he, he makes sure, he tells us 3 weeks,
3 weeks. He tells us twice.
It was 3 weeks. OK, Daniel, we get it.
It's three weeks. But he also wasn't eating it,
you know, his normal food. He was, he was, he was in
fervent prayer about the about God's business and what
happened. He's told first of all that he's
favoured he's Lord loves him. You know, imagine having the
Lord say that about you. Isn't that amazing?
Can you imagine that? Secondly, we know that the Lord
heard his prayer the first day he made it, but this passage has
been at times used to raise the question of whether or not
people or whether the Lord is more strong than Satan.
But the the take away point here is that it's all in God's time.
Satan has lost this battle. There are people that have
actually questioned their own faith.
Well, if if Satan was able to delay him, well, there's a
spiritual battle going on. But that doesn't mean that God
is not all powerful. And it's in God's time that this
happens. And So what we see is we see
that the fervent prayers of a righteous man, even though it
took three years or three weeks, were answered.
And So what does that tell us as, as Christians, first of all,
we need to understand at this spiritual battle is going on and
it's going on for our, our, our minds, our hearts and our souls.
And that if, if we're truly disciples of Christ, we need to
be praying fervently all the time for each other, for our
country, for our leaders. And recognise that, especially
me, because I, I get really wound up when I see this stuff.
You know, knowing the evil that's going on, that this is,
this is spiritual warfare, that that's actually what we're
seeing and that this has been going on.
And that the weapon that we used to fight this is not flesh and
blood. It's not going and punching
somebody as much as that might be satisfying for a moment.
It's prayer because that is the weapon.
Fervent prayer is the weapon that we can defeat Satan with.
And so in in concluding that I all I can tell you is if you are
a believer, you need to be praying all the time and you
need to be about God's business. I'm, I'm telling you, if you
start praying, the Lord is going to lay people on your heart and
you're going to have to have a, a, a list of people unless you
got a really good memory. I mean, because you're going to
just think when you go to prayer.
Now, I'll tell you something right now.
A lot of times when you go to prayer, you know, you're, you're
about to have some effective prayer because the dog will barf
up on the couch, you know, or the worst distractor of all,
your phone will go off or you'll get a text.
You need to go to a quiet place where you can't hear the dog
barf or your phone going off and, and get that time with the
Lord. I think the mornings are
probably the best. I mean, that's just me, but so I
would encourage you, don't be discouraged by what's going on
in the world. We're heading into a new year.
More bad stuff is coming, but you know what, God's got it, and
we can be a positive factor in all this and we can actually
make a difference by our fervent prayers.
All right, Father, I just, I pray a blessing upon these
people. I know that Sherry is going to
come back up and sing again. I just pray that you would grant
them comfort, that you would know that you are here and that
you are the Lord and you are in charge.
We just ask this in your name. Amen.