This is the first of four
successive talks on the theme of The Enemies We Face. I trust that all of us who are
committed to Jesus here this evening do realize that
we face enemies, because it is a very
dangerous situation to have powerful and active
enemies working against you and not even be aware that
you have those enemies. The enemies that we face are
not persons of flesh and blood but they are invisible
spirit beings. The theme that we are going
to deal with in these talks concern things which are not
discerned by human senses. The Bible speaks about things which
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into
the heart of man, things that are
invisible and spiritual. The things we are
going to talk about can only be understood
through the Scriptures. There is no other source
of reliable information. A lot of people imagine,
I think, that the things we see, touch, hear and taste are
the truly real things. Actually, all through the ages
philosophers have come to the conclusion that they are not truly real. They are temporary,
they are impermanent, and they are very
often deceptive. You cannot rely
on your senses. It is amazing how many
different philosophers down the ages have come
to that conclusion. The Bible
says the same. Paul says that the things
that are seen are temporary; the things which are
not seen are eternal. In other words, the things of the
sense world are only temporary. They are only partly real;
they do not endure. But the things of the spiritual
world that we cannot see, that we cannot perceive with our senses,
are the truly real things. They are the things
that endure. So when we come to
a theme like this we have to begin by
making a mental adjustment and say to ourselves: I’m not going to
limit myself to the things that I can see
and touch and hear and taste, but I’m going to open
my heart and mind to the revelation that
is given me in Scripture through the Holy Spirit to things
that are of a different world. Paul prayed for the
Ephesian Christians that God would give
them a spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of Him and I pray that
for us here that God may grant us, as we open our
hearts to His Word, a spirit of wisdom
and revelation, because we are
dealing with things that can only be known
by revelation. What we are going to
deal with in essence is two kingdoms,
two opposing kingdoms that are at war
with one another. But they are not
natural kingdoms, such as Britain and
Sweden or other nations, but they are invisible
spiritual kingdoms. One is the
kingdom of God and the other is the
kingdom of Satan. I would like to begin by
reading from Matthew Chapter 12, just two verses,
26 and 28. Jesus had been accused
by the Pharisees that He was able
to drive out demons because He was in league with
the prince of the demons, who is called
Beelzebub. And He pointed out to them that
was a very illogical explanation and it could not
possibly be true. In pointing that out to them,
He said these two things. First of all
in verse 26: If Satan
casts out Satan, he is divided
against himself; how then will
his kingdom stand? So Satan has a kingdom,
as Jesus Himself has indicated. A lot of Christians, I think, find
it difficult to understand that, but here it is
clearly stated. And then two verses
further on Jesus says: But if I cast out demons
by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of
God has come upon you. There is the other kingdom,
the Kingdom of God. So here are two invisible
spiritual kingdoms, the kingdom of God and
the kingdom of Satan. And Jesus points out that there is one
particular aspect of His ministry that brings the two
kingdoms out into the open and that is the driving out of
demons by His power and authority. The demons, invisible spirit beings,
represent the kingdom of Satan. Jesus, and then those who are His
servants and follow His ministry, represent the Kingdom of God and in the driving
out of demons the visible clash of
the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan is
brought out into the open. Also the fact that Jesus and His servants
can drive out the demons of Satan is convincing evidence
that the Kingdom of God is more powerful than
the kingdom of Satan. Personally I believe that is
why Satan particularly dislikes and opposes
the ministry of deliverance, because it brings out into the open
things which he would rather keep secret and it also demonstrates that the kingdom of Jesus is
more powerful than his kingdom. Now I want to speak
in this talk about the nature and the
structure of Satan’s kingdom and we will turn to Ephesians
Chapter 6 and verse 12, which is, I think, the main
verse that brings this out. And again, I want to remind you we are now talking about things you
cannot perceive with your senses. I will read from
the New King James which is like the old King James
but a little bit modernized. Ephesians 6:12: For we do not wrestle
against flesh and blood but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of
the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenly places. The word places is
in inverted commas. It is put in
by the translators. I think it is better to say
in the heavenlies. Somebody commented
once that most of the church has
punctuated that verse wrong. The way they read
it is like this: For we do not wrestle.
Full stop. That’s not
what it is saying. I want to give you the Prince
version of this particular verse. I studied Greek since
I was 10 years old and I am qualified to teach
it on university level. I do not say
that to boast but at least it gives me
the right to give my opinion. I do not mean I am right but
I’m entitled to an opinion. I like to begin by taking a
phrase from The Living Bible which says: Our wrestling match is
not against persons with bodies. I think that
is very vivid. It is extremely important to understand
that we are dealing with persons. Until we grasp that we are
really like a blindfolded boxer. We are dealing
with persons but they are persons without
bodies, spirit beings. Now we’ll go on. . . . For our wrestling match. Again, I would point out that
this is a very intense conflict. I think of all the forms
of interpersonal conflict, wrestling is the most intense. It is one person totally
pitted against another person. It is no accident that
Paul uses that phrase for our warfare against
Satan’s kingdom. It is total
warfare. Our wrestling match is not
against persons with bodies. Now here comes the
Prince version: But against rulerships with various areas and
descending orders of authority, against the world dominators
of this present darkness, against spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenlies. What I want to point out to you is
that Satan’s kingdom is no jumble; it is a highly-organized kingdom,
for which he gets no credit because he was, I believe,
(and I will deal with this in a few moments) one of the chief angels in charge
of a large section of the angels. And as such he had a divinely
given organizational system. And when he rebelled against God
and led his angels in rebellion he simply took the system with him
but turned it against God. So don't imagine that Satan does not
have a highly organized kingdom. For which, as I said,
he gets no credit. The credit
goes to God. But let us take into
account the fact that he is
no simpleton. He is a very astute,
powerful and evil being. Let us now go briefly
through the revised version, the amplified version
that I gave you. Against rulerships. I say rulerships because
the Greek word is abstract. It is not rulers, although most of
the modern translations say that. It is rulerships. There is a certain level
of the spiritual authority in Satan’s kingdom which
is the level of rulerships. And under these rulers are sub-rulers
with various areas of authority. And under them are sub-sub-rulers
with smaller areas of authority. So one ruler has a
major area of authority. Under him are lesser rulers, each of
whom has a small area part of that. Under them are sub- lesser-lesser rulers that have
smaller areas of authority. All right, that's the first
picture and in a little while by turning to the Old
Testament I will give you some very clear examples
of how it functions. Then it says: Against the world
dominators of this present darkness. I deliberately chose to
use the word dominate because it is
a satanic word. God never dominates. Where you encounter domination,
somewhere behind it is Satan; and Satan’s ambition,
desire and strategy is to come to the place where
he dominates this entire world. But he will dominate it
with a system of darkness. You see, God's Kingdom
is a kingdom of light; Satan’s kingdom is a
kingdom of darkness. Those who are in God's Kingdom
know Whom they are serving and they see pretty clearly
what they are doing. Those who are in
Satan’s kingdom, most of them do not even
know whom they are serving, nor do they know what
they are actually doing. And then the
third phrase is: Against spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenlies. Whole armies of wicked, powerful,
rebellious spirit beings in a realm which is
called the heavenlies. It has been a sort of accepted
tradition in the church that Satan
is in hell. Most people
think that way. My comment on that is:
It would be nice if it were true, but it isn't. And there is no warranty whatever
in the Scripture for assuming that. Now we will come back to
that in just a few moments, but let us consider briefly how this
satanic kingdom came into being. I want to turn to Isaiah Chapter 14
and read a few verses there. These verses deal with
a being called Lucifer. The word Lucifer, which is
from a Latin root, means the one who brings
light; a shining being. The Hebrew is ḥêlel ta shaḥar
which is the morning star. At any rate, whichever
form or name you use, it means a very bright,
shining, glorious person. Now the word arch,
again from a Greek root, don't worry about all
that, means ruling. So an archangel is a ruling angel;
an angel who rules others. The same word occurs
in archbishop. An archbishop is a bishop
who rules other bishops. And here we have, I believe,
a picture of one of the main archangels in God's
heavenly hosts. His name
was Lucifer. He was called that because he
was so glorious and so beautiful. But he made
a sad error. He turned in rebellion
against his Creator and sought to make
himself equal with God. Very interesting,
we have a comparison between Lucifer on the one
hand and Jesus on the other. Lucifer was a created being,
not equal with God. He sought equality
with God and fell. Concerning Jesus it says
in Philippians, Chapter 2: He did not think equality with
God something to be grasped at. He had it by
divine right. But He humbled Himself
and God exalted Him. Now let's look at this little picture
here, beginning in verse 12. How you are fallen
from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the
morning [morning star]! How you are cut down to the ground,
you who weakened the nations! Now we get the motivation
of Lucifer’s rebellion. And in the following verses we get
the phrase: I will, five times. It's the will of the creature
set against the will of God. The key word
is rebellion. For you have said
in your heart. Remember that God knows
what we said in our hearts. You said in your heart I will ascend
into heaven. [I'm going up.] I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God. I will also sit in the
mount of the congregation on the farther
sides of the north; I will ascend [you notice,
the whole thing is going up] above the heights of the clouds;
I will be like the most High. The most High
is Almighty God. And the word means also
I will be equal to God. So Satan’s ambition
was to elevate himself to a position of
equality with God. He was motivated because he
was so wise and so beautiful and so glorious that he said to
himself: I could be like God. My personal opinion, and
this is just an opinion, is that he motivated the angels
who were under his charge to join him in rebellion. And I just picture this . . . if you can imagine this kind
of thing going on in heaven. All this started
in heaven— believe it or not,
but it did. I can imagine him going
around to the angels who were under his
charge and saying: Now, you really have talent;
you are unusually gifted. God does not really
appreciate all that you have. But if I were in charge,
you see, I would give you the position
that you really deserve. And apparently . . . again, this is not necessarily,
it is a matter of inference, he undermined the loyalty of
one-third of the angels to God. And drew them with him in his
rebellion and in his fall. And so God says: You shall be cast down
to the sides of the pit. Let us look also to what is
said in Ezekiel Chapter 28, where we get another picture
of this same remarkable being. Ezekiel chapter 28
has got two sections. Each of them is a lamentation
or a pronouncement of woe. The first is on
the prince of Tyre. The second is on
the king of Tyre. Now if you study the chapter in detail—
which we do not have time to do— you'll find that the prince
of Tyre was a human being. It is very clearly stated he was a man,
even though he claimed to be god. On the other hand,
it is very obvious as we read the description
of the king of Tyre that he was
no human being. And we have here a little
interesting picture of how Satan’s
kingdom operates. We have the human ruler,
the prince of Tyre, but behind him in
the unseen realm we have the satanic ruler,
the king of Tyre. And in a sense the human ruler is
really not much more than a puppet who moves as the strings from the
unseen realm dictate his moves. When you begin to
see these truths, history and politics take
on a very different meaning. I think many, many of the
so-called great men of history were simply satanic puppets
who were moved by invisible strings from the kingdom of Satan
to do the things they did. Anyhow, let's look
at a little of what the Word of God says
of this second being, beginning in
Ezekiel 28 verse 12: You were the seal of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden,
the garden of God; every precious stone
was your covering, the sardius, topaz, diamond,
beryl, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise,
emerald, with gold. A totally glorious
resplendent being. The workmanship of your timbrels
and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created.
[Also a master musician.] There are quite a lot of Bible
teachers who believe that Satan, let's say Lucifer, he hadn't
yet changed his name then, Lucifer was responsible for
orchestrating the worship of heaven. I think it is important to know
that Satan, as he is today, knows a lot
about music and he uses music as one of
his means to captivate people. Going on in
verse 14: You were the anointed
cherub who covers. Who covers what? The throne of God. See, the Scripture
makes it pretty plain there is a cherub,
or there are cherubs who with their
outstretched wings cover the very
throne of God. What a position
of honor, glory! You were on the holy
mountain of God. You walked back and forth in
the midst of the fiery stones. This is no human being.
You can see that. You were perfect in your ways
from the day you were created. God reminds him:
you were created. You are not God,
you are a created being. You were perfect in your ways
from the day you were created till iniquity was
found in you. I prefer to use the word rebellion. Till you became
a rebel. And then we read
in verse 16: By the abundance
of your trading. Now the same word in the book of
Proverbs is used of a tale-bearer. It is used of a trader, because
a trader goes to and fro presenting his wares
and selling them. But is used of a
tale-bearer because a tale-bearer goes to
and fro telling tales. Now that's why my thought
is that Satan went around just telling his angels,
Well, look, if I had that position,
you would really be appreciated. I would promote you. You would get
the authority you really deserve. So that's just my opinion.
But let's say: By the abundance of your manipulations,
your scheming, your plotting, you became filled with
violence within and you sinned. Therefore I cast you as a profane
thing out of the mountain of God. And I destroyed you, o covering cherub from the
midst of the fiery stones. Notice the therefore. What does the
therefore indicate? God's judgment
on rebellion. And then we get the real
motivation of Satan, or Lucifer. Let's call him Lucifer
until he becomes Satan. Verse 17: Your heart was lifted up
because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom
because of your splendor. What was the initial
motivation of Satan? What was the
first sin? Pride.
That's right. We need to
remember that always. The first sin in the universe took
place in heaven, not on earth. It was not drunkenness, it was not
adultery, it was not even lying. It was pride. And believe me, it is still far the
most deadly and dangerous of all sins. And lots of churchgoers who would
not commit adultery or get drunk, are very easily
enticed into pride and don't even realize
how dangerous it is. Now I want to deal
with a question that comes up in many
peoples' minds. They say: Well, if Satan was
cast out of heaven, how can it be that he's
still in the heavenlies? The answer
is very simple. There is more
than one heaven. The heavenlies
are plural. In the first verse of the Bible
heaven is presented as plural. In the beginning God
created the heavens [plural], . . . the earth [singular]. And if you trace it all through the Bible:
heaven is presented as plural. We will just look
at two Scriptures. In 2 Corinthians,
chapter 12, verse 2, Paul is talking about people
who have had remarkable experiences in the supernatural realm, and he says: I know a man in Christ
who fourteen years ago (whether in the
body I do not know or whether out of the body
I do not know, God knows) such a one was caught
up to the third heaven. Now before I became a
preacher I was a logician. Someone once misheard me say I
was a magician, but that's not so. And logic has still stuck with me
and my logical mind tells me: If there is a third heaven,
there has to be a first and a second; you cannot have the third of
anything without the first two. So if there is a third heaven,
as Paul indicates, then there are at
least three heavens. Heaven is plural. One other Scripture, just to confirm
that, in Ephesians, chapter 4, verses 9 and 10. Speaking about what happened
between the death of Jesus on the cross and His
resurrection and ascension, it says:
Now that He ascended, what does it mean that
He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?
[This is talking about Jesus.] He who descended is
the one who ascended far above all the heavens
that He might fill all things. You notice the phrase
all the heavens. Again, it is not correct
to use the word all of less than
three of anything. That is the minimum. Years ago, when I was
principal in a college for training African
teachers in Kenya, one of my students
came to me and said: All my parents have
come to see me. So I said: I understand
what you mean, but you cannot say that because
in English you cannot use ‘all’ if there are only two.
It has to be at least three. And so when Paul says,
Jesus ascended far above all heavens, again, the minimum that
will qualify is three. Personally, I think that is the total.
That is my personal opinion. You do hear people say sometimes,
not so often these days, I was in the seventh heaven. I would suggest you could
probably better not use that. I understand the phrase comes
from the Koran, the Islamic book, and I don't think
there is any Biblical authority for
more than three heavens. So if you're feeling
really happy, it is all right to say,
I was on cloud nine because the Bible indicates
there is a lot of clouds. Now I'll offer
you an opinion. This is simply something
that seems probable to me. You don't have
to believe it. You can go to heaven
without agreeing with me. I believe the third heaven into which
this man Paul knew was caught up, is the heaven of God's
Presence, God's dwelling. And there, he says, he
heard unspeakable words. The very words
of God Himself. Now I'm inclined to
believe the first heaven is the visible
heaven that we see. So the second must be between
the first and the third, somewhere between
our planet and the heaven of God's dwelling
there is another heaven. This is again
my opinion. I think there are a lot of things
in the Bible that confirm it, and in our
experience. So between us and God
is a satanic kingdom. I think this has a lot to do with
things that happen in our lives. I'm sure you have heard the
phrase praying through. Praying
through what? I know, when I first
sought the Lord, as a person who
did not know Him, I tried to pray for an hour
and could not utter a word. I was earnestly
seeking. And then somehow
I broke through. I believe, looking back,
I broke through satanic forces that
were opposing me coming into direct personal
contact with Jesus. That was the turning
point in my whole life. So don't laugh at the
old-time Pentecostals who talk about
praying through. Some of their methods may be
a little bit unconventional but the truth
is there. This is part of our
spiritual warfare. I'll give you a few examples
in just a few minutes, but I think if you
begin to realize that there is an opposing
kingdom between you and God, it will make a lot more sense
in your spiritual experience. It will teach you
lessons in prayer. I want to turn now
to the book of Daniel which contains a great deal of
useful information in these areas. And I want to take an
incident in the life of Daniel which, I believe,
illustrates the principals that I'm
trying to bring out. The chapter that I want
to turn to is chapter 10. And if you are
really interested, in your own time you need to
study this chapter carefully, but to economize on time I'm not
going to read the whole chapter, I'm just going to give
you a brief background. At a certain point, when Daniel
was a very mature believer, he gave himself to fasting
for 21 days (3 weeks) with what has become
called a Daniel fast. He did not abstain
from all forms of food, but he ate only very simple
basic food and he took no wine, no fancy drinks. As it says in The Living Bible,
Of course no desserts. He was earnestly
seeking God for an understanding of the
future destiny of his people, the Jewish people. And for three weeks he
prayed and nothing happened. See, this is the illustration
of what I'm talking about. And then a marvelous,
mighty, heavenly being came with the answer
to his prayer. So powerful was the
presence of this being that the other people with Daniel
simply fled in terror. And Daniel was left absolutely
bereft of physical strength, just almost like John later
when he saw Jesus after the resurrection and ascension, and
he fell at his feet like one dead. But this angel had come with
the answer to Daniel’s prayer. He had been
sent from God. The point that I
want to emphasize is: The first day Daniel started
to pray the angel was sent. But he did not arrive
till three weeks later because on the way
from God's throne to Daniel’s
presence on earth he encountered
satanic opposition. The opposition he encountered
was not from human beings; no human being can withstand
an angel like that. It was not
on earth, it was not in
God's heaven, but it was in some area between
the heaven of God and earth. I believe, the area
of Satan’s kingdom. In other words, the angel had to break
through Satan’s kingdom to arrive with the message
that God had sent him with. And this is
what he says, and he's going to be talking
about certain beings, one called
the prince of Persia, others called
the kings of Persia, and later
the prince of Greece. And as you look at these, you'll find
that none of them are human beings. They are all angelic beings,
satanic angels who did their
best to oppose the coming of the
angel to Daniel. Let me point out something
that, I think, is thrilling. Daniel’s prayer set
all heaven in motion. It set the angel
of God on his way and it stirred up the
angels of Satan to oppose. And Daniel had
to pray through; he had to hold on for 21 days
before he got the answer. So, dear brothers and sisters,
sometimes when you are praying and you don't
get an answer, it's not because you are
praying for the wrong thing. In fact, it is because you're
praying for the right thing, but there is
opposition. And one of the things
we'll be seeking to look at in these
talks is how to overcome
the opposition— how to pray through,
how to break through, how to win the victory
over these forces. Anyhow, let's look at what
the angel said to Daniel in verses
12 and 13. That's Daniel 10,
verses 12 and 13: Then he, the angel,
said to me, do not fear Daniel, for from the first day that you
set your heart to understand and to humble yourself
before God . . . How did he
humble himself? By fasting!
Bear that in mind. Fasting is an appointed way to
humble ourselves before God. From the first day that you
set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before God,
your words were heard and I have come
because of your words. In other words, God sent me the
first day you started to pray. Why didn't
he arrive? Not because
the journey from God's throne to earth takes an angel
21 days, that's not the reason. Now verse 13: But the prince
of the kingdom of Persia withstood me,
resisted me 21 days. Who is the prince of
the kingdom of Persia? Probably Satan, but at any
rate, it is the satanic angel whom Satan has set
over the Persian Empire to work out
God's purposes– I mean, to work out
Satan's purposes– to resist God's purposes
in the Persian Empire. Now let me pause
for a moment. Why was the Persian Empire
important at this time? Well, if you study
the history of Israel, there were four
successive Gentile empires that dominated the
Jewish people after they had turned against
God in rebellion and been exiled
from their own land. The first was Babylon
which took them into exile; the second was
Medo-Persia or Persia which was the one that was
in power in Daniel’s time; the third
was Greece; the fourth
was Rome. And all God's purposes for the human
race centered in the Jewish people, because only from the Jewish people
could come the Messiah, the Savior. And because God's purposes
centered in Israel, Satan’s opposition likewise
centered in Israel. In other words: when you're in the
center of God's plan, that's where you have the
most satanic opposition. It is important to
bear that in mind. So what Satan was seeking to do was
to keep the Jewish people, Israel, under bondage and away from
returning to their own land. What Daniel was praying for was the
return of Israel to their own land. So this satanic prince of the
kingdom of Persia withstood him. And then the
angel goes on: And Michael, one of
the chief princes, or one of the archangels,
came to help me. So this angel could not
break through on his own. This is really a
fascinating picture and why did
Michael come? What is Michael’s particular
job amongst the archangels? He has one very
important assignment. Keep your finger
in Daniel 10 and turn for a moment
to Daniel 12 verse 1. Daniel 12
verse 1: At that time Michael
shall stand up, the great prince
[that's the archangel], who stands watch over
the sons of your people. Who are the sons of your people
when Daniel is being addressed? The Jewish people,
that's right. So any time Michael
is in the center, you can be sure that the Jewish
people are center stage in history, because his particular
task is to watch over them, protect them from Satan’s
attempts to destroy them which have been, as we
all know, very numerous. Going back to Daniel
chapter 10 and verse 13, the angel
concludes with: I had been left alone there
with the kings of Persia. Now kings
is plural. And I think, contrary
to our usual usage, the prince was the supreme ruler
and the kings were under him. So there was one prince and
under him a number of kings. That's what I said, Rulers with various areas and in
descending orders of authority. What were the jobs
of those kings? We have no word from God
but I personally believe that for instance, let's
take Great Britain, Satan has a prince over Great
Britain which I don't doubt he has. By no means do
I doubt that. Under that major prince
there are lesser rulers who probably dominate each of
the main cities of Britain. As a preacher going round I
have learned by experience to put out my antennae
when I come to a city and try to discern what is
the particular satanic power over that
particular city. Then in the Persian kingdom there
were many different ethnic groups and I'm inclined to believe
that there's a satanic power over each major
ethnic group. If I can say this without
offending anybody, I think this is particularly obvious
in the case of the American Indians, which is a very
tragic story. Because in all the spiritual and material
blessings that have come to America, the American Indians have
hardly tasted any of them. And they are extremely
deep in witchcraft. And I personally believe that
that particular satanic person to whom has been assigned the task of
keeping the American Indians in darkness and bondage has prevailed
basically up to this time. We could go through many other ethnic
groups but time does not allow us. Then, of course, there were
also in the Persian empire a lot of different
religions and I'm inclined to believe
each religious group or cult or sect had a particular
ruler over it. So here was
God's angel being resisted by a whole
group of satanic angels opposing his
coming to Daniel. However, when Michael
came he broke through, delivered his message,
but he said to Daniel, I want to tell you what’s
going to happen when I go back. So we go on now to verse
20 of Daniel chapter 10: Then the angel said: Do you know why I
have come to you? Now I must return to fight
with the prince of Persia. In other words, the battle with the
prince of Persia is not finished. What would happen to
the Persian empire when the prince of Persia
had been dealt with? In all probability
it would collapse, which it did a
little later. But it was not
the last empire. And so he says: And
when I have gone forth, indeed the prince
of Greece will come. The satanic ruler over
the next major empire. Under Alexander the Great
the Greek empire totally crushed and defeated
the Persian empire and assumed dominion over a tremendous
area of the earth’s surface. And Alexander
in ten years conquered from Greece in the
West to India in the East, including
also the area of the South coast
of the Mediterranean, one of the most tremendous
feats of military conquest. But there was
another person. There was a
prince behind him. I’m really inclined to believe
that most of the major events in human history can only be
fully explained in those terms. And then he says, the angel,
in verse 21: But I will tell you which is
noted in the Scripture of truth. In other words, I really came to
tell you what the Word of God says. And you’ll find the next
chapters contain that. And he says: No one
upholds me against these, except Michael,
your prince. And then he goes on in the
first verse of the next chapter which is part of
the same talk: Also in the first year
of Darius the Mede, I, even I stood up to
confirm and strengthen him. Now Darius was the
first Medo-Persian ruler that crushed the
Babylonian empire and moved in and
took its place. Now Darius, and
Cyrus after him, opened the way for
the Jewish people to begin to return
to their own land, so in a
certain sense the defeat
of Babylon by Darius was a major
spiritual victory in the purposes of God
and this angel says: I was the one that
strengthened Darius. Again, we see that human
rulers and human commanders don’t operate in a
vacuum on their own. Behind them are
unseen angelic forces, But remember, in this
particular situation nothing happened
until Daniel prayed. I don’t know of anything that
challenges us more to prayer than this
revelation. And it seems to me, although
this may seem strange, that Daniel’s prayer was
one of the forces that enabled the angel
of God to break through. So brothers and sisters, maybe
you’ve been underestimating the possibility of what
your prayers can do. Now So Satan, fallen from
being Lucifer, having set up his rival rebellious
kingdom in the heavenlies, rules there over a host
of rebellious angels. The key word to describe Satan
and those who are with him is the word rebel. Rebellion
against God. Now Satan also
has a lower, shall we say stratum,
of his kingdom on earth. And again, the key word
that describes those over whom he rules on
earth is the word rebel. This is made plain in
Ephesians chapter 2. We are talking now, not about
Satan’s kingdom in the heavenlies, but about those over
whom he rules on earth. Ephesians chapter 2 — and these
words are addressed to Christians — And you God made alive, who were
dead in trespasses and sins... Now he describes
how people live before they are converted
and come to serve God. In which you once walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air. Who is the prince of
the power of the air? Satan,
that’s right. The spirit who now works in
the sons of disobedience. What is the word that describes
the sons of disobedience? Rebels,
that’s right. Anyone who is in
rebellion against God automatically comes under
the control of Satan. You understand? It is not enough to go
to church and sing hymns. You have to lay down your
rebellion against God and submit
yourself to Jesus. That’s when the
change comes. Lots of churchgoers
are still rebels. And as rebels they are actually
being controlled by Satan. Now Paul goes on
saying in verse 3: Among whom also we all
once conducted ourselves. Any of us who
disagree here? One thing I know,
I certainly did. I have no doubts
about where I was before the
Lord found me. I was a rebel
and in the kingdom of rebels. I did not know it. I thought I was very
clever, very successful. I thought I had all the
answers to everything. Until I started to read the Bible,
and then I discovered I didn't. I cannot go into that
but I just want to say... Paul said: We apostles,
including I, Paul, we were all in
that category, rebels being
manipulated by Satan through spiritual power
which we did not understand. We did not know who was
pulling the strings. We just moved as our
strings were pulled. Among whom also we all once conducted
ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of
the flesh and of the mind. Notice it is not only
the desires of the flesh, but our minds are alienated and in
enmity with God until we surrender. The intellectuals are some of
God’s most fervent enemies. And then he says: We were by
nature the children of wrath, just as others. So that’s
a description of the lower stratum of
Satan’s kingdom. Humanity on earth.
All human rebels, regardless of their race or
their denominational label. Unless they are truly
submitted to Jesus Christ, God’s appointed
ruler, are rebels; and Satan, by spiritual
power, controls them. Now there is a very
interesting phrase there. He says, He is the
ruler of the power in the realm of
authority of the air. I cannot dwell on this, but there
are two main Greek words for air. One is aer, from which
we get the word air; the other is the word aither,
from which we get the word ether. Now we are not concerned with
the words that come from them but the fact is that
aer is the lower air contiguous with the
earth’s surface; aither is the
higher, rarer air. Which word do you
think is used here? The lower air. In other words, Satan rules
the surface of the earth. That’s his realm. There’s a lot of
interesting speculations, because when Jesus comes it says we
will be caught up to meet Him in the air. Which air? The lower air. We cannot go into all of
that; there’s a lot we could theorize about that but we
will restrain ourselves. Let me just give you one
remarkable picture of Satan which you may have never
noticed in the book of Job, chapter 41. Now the whole
of this chapter deals with a creature
named leviathan, which is some kind
of marine monster. We don’t know very much
about the leviathan but do you think that the Bible,
which is so economical, would devote 34 verses
just to a marine monster? No. The truth is, leviathan is a
type or a picture of Satan. You can study this
carefully and see this. I only want to point out to
you the closing statement, in Job 41:34 He beholds every
high thing. He is extremely
proud and he is king over all
the children of pride. That’s Satan. Wherever pride enters
the human heart, for that’s the influence that
caused Satan to rebel against God, pride brings us under
the control of Satan. It doesn’t matter
whether we are Pentecostals, Baptists,
Catholics, that’s not the issue. The issue is, what’s our
heart attitude toward God. And unless we have a heart
that is truly submitted and surrendered to God
through Jesus Christ, we can use all sorts of
nice religious language, and lay claim to all sorts
of titles, but the fact is that we are under the
king leviathan. Because he is king over
all the children of pride. How many sermons do
you hear against pride? You don’t need
to answer that. Basically, I think the church
today is majoring on minors. I know when I was
a pastor years ago I was right down on
people’s smoking. That was terrible. The problem was we
would not have people in our congregation at
that time that smoked. But we did not say anything about
people that quarreled with their wives. And I felt such a
hypocrite when I told a young man that he could
not be a member because he smoked. And I knew there were
people in the congregation that were very wrong in their
attitude and relationships to their wives or
to their husbands. See, things like smoking,
drinking and drunkenness are just little
branches on the tree. But you know
what the root is? Rebellion. And the Gospel of Matthew,
in introducing the Gospel, causes John the Baptist to say:
Now also the ax is laid to What? ...the root of the tree.
That's right. That’s what we
should be aiming at. Alright, now I want to give you
just a little closing summation of Satan’s
ambitions, his purposes. He has very
definite purposes. He has two main
ambitions: to dominate the
whole human race. You remember one of the
phrases used in Ephesians 6:12: The world dominators of
this present darkness. And his second purpose
is to receive worship. We need to
understand this. You see, he laid claim
to equality with God, but was
disqualified. But he has not
given up the claim. And there is one way he
can still assert the claim. What is that? By receiving
worship. Because worship is
due only to God. So whenever Satan
receives worship, he is saying, There you are.
You see? I still am god. And when you really analyze
anything Satan does, his ultimate purpose is to receive
the worship of the whole human race. And in my judgment,
from a prophetic perspective, he is very near to
achieving his ambition. Satan and his angels
in the heavenlies were, I believe,
the gods of paganism. All gods recognized
and worshiped by all pagan
societies and races are just different ways of
describing Satan and his angels. Zeus, Hermes,
Poseidon, all the Greek gods that I
used to know so much about, and care so
little about now, are just different labels
for satanic angels. And as you look through all the
cultures of human race you see different titles,
but the same beings. And when they worship,
what are they worshiping? Satan and
his angels. And there is one
particular way that fallen man
has to relate to a satanic
kingdom. The generic word
is witchcraft, which is prevalent in all pagan
societies under different forms. You can hardly go to any major
section of the human race which still has some
kind of pagan background without encountering a person
who is called a witch doctor. You will find a different name in
different languages but the same person. The witch doctor, in a certain
sense, is Satan’s priest. He is the one who enables people to
get in touch with Satan’s kingdom. Why do they
want that? Two main reasons: first of
all, they are terribly afraid of the disasters that Satan
would bring upon them; and most of their
sacrifices and their rites are to propitiate these very
cruel and temperamental beings. And secondly,
they want power and witchcraft is
a means to power. I tell people in
foreign mission fields: Don’t ever go to
Africa or India and tell people that
Satan is not real. They all
know he is. Demons are real.
They know them well. What you have to tell
them is demons are real, but Jesus is real,
and He has defeated the demons. And He gives us
power to defeat them. So ultimately witchcraft
as a religious practice is an expression of man’s
rebellion against God. Witchcraft is the
natural religion of fallen man and it permeates
the whole human race. It is not something
very strange or unusual. And the last thing I want to say,
and it is important in our days: Witchcraft is making
a determined come-back. It is like where
Christianity came, the satanic beings
were forced back, but they were never
totally defeated. And now they are saying,
It is our turn. We are coming back.