If you keep your spiritual eyes open during certain seasons, you’ll see the Lord directing his messengers to remind his Bride of certain spiritual truths. I believe we’re in one of those seasons, and the message the Lord wants to remind us of is that we have spiritual authority through him.
In Part 1, we discussed Jesus’ authority. In Part 2, we discussed the authority of spiritual powers in the Kingdom of Darkness. In Part 3 I mentioned this section would be broken into several parts. The first was:
- How Spiritual Forces fight against us and our authority over them.
The second was:
- How spiritual forces can inhabit those under the dominion of the Kingdom of Darkness (Luke 8:26, Acts 16:18)
Then, to wrap things up, in this last part, we’re dealing with:
- How spiritual forces can have dominion over a country, state, city, town, or household (Daniel 10:13-21, Rev. 2:13, 3:9)
Today’s primary verse is:
“The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia,” Daniel 10:13
“Then he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? But now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia; and when I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come.” Daniel 10:20
There are a few things we need to discuss concerning verse 13.
First, the “prince of the kingdom of Persia” is not a human ruler. He is a ruler in the spiritual kingdom of darkness. We know that for a few reasons. I’ll touch on those briefly.
Looking back to Chapter 10, verse 1, we find this statement, “In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia…”
There is a literal king, not prince, over Persia; his name is Cyrus. The prince is not named.
Secondly, verses 5 and 6 of Chapter 10 describe the messenger’s appearance, which cannot be attributed to a human ruler. He was an angel hindered from reaching Daniel.
Thirdly, Michael, the Archangel, ruler, and prince over Israel, had to come to help the other angel overcome the Prince of Persia.
So, very simply put, we’re dealing with a spiritual force as described in Eph. 6:12: For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
The word “prince” in the title Prince of Persia is the same title used for the Archangel Michael, so we can deduce that their respective positions were equal, albeit in different kingdoms.
Okay, so we have an example of a ruler over the Persian empire. I would suggest there are spiritual rulers over many countries, imposing their will upon the human rulers and oppressing the people of the land.
On a smaller scale, I can attest that there are powers over certain parts of the country. Around 2010, a friend and I traveled from Fairfield, California, south toward Irvine, CA. Things were going great when suddenly, we must have crossed some sort of spiritual territorial line because we both instantly felt a heaviness pressing in on us from all directions. We started praying, and about ten minutes later, the feeling passed.
When I returned to Fairfield, I asked a guy from that area why there would be a wicked spiritual atmosphere in this certain area. After some discussion, he told me that the area was where pornography was filmed. May God quickly rid the earth of that wickedness!
Consider this: In Eph. 6:12, Paul said one of the spirits we war against is called “spiritual wickedness in high places.”
I. The word wickedness in Greek is defined as depravity, iniquity, and wickedness, according to Strong.
I believe my friend and I entered a territory controlled by a spirit of wickedness empowered by pornography or who was empowering pornography.
Not only can countries, states, and territories be influenced by spiritual powers of wickedness, but homes can be dominated by lesser spirits when people open themselves up to those forces.
I have several testimonies of personal experiences that I cannot share in this blog, but perhaps there is one example that would help us.
While living in Spain, I was invited to a Bible study in a local city. During that Bible study, we were told about strange spiritual events frequently occurring within the house. At first, we attributed the events to witchcraft, which was prevalent in the area, but the Spirit of God revealed a different issue.
I won’t get into how we found out, but their house was filled with rebellion. The wife rebelled against the husband, and the daughter rebelled against the father and mother.
The Lord told them that if they’d repent of rebellion, they’d be free of the spirit they’d open their doors to.
Consider this:
1 Sam. 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.”
Another translation says: “Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols.”
I find the connection interesting. The point is that they were having spiritual issues in their home because they were rebelling against God’s order for their home. Once they repented, the wonderful presence of Jesus entered the room and flooded the place with joy and peace.
This concludes our teaching on spiritual authority.