Satan’s Strategy for Your Life #24: Between the Seen and the Unseen
“Then he said to me, ‘Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. 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, and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come.’"—Daniel 10:12-14
C.S. Lewis once said, “Humans are amphibians—half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, as animals they inhabit time.” We are fleshly spirit beings that are between two worlds, the seen and the unseen. We are residents of the world of flesh, rooted in time, experiencing reality through the five senses: taste, touch, sight, hearing and smell. But we are also spirits—part of an unseen world, an invisible world. It is a world that angels and demons inhabit.
Spirit beings such as angels and demons dwell in an invisible world although they can manifest themselves in our physical world (Genesis 19:1; Hebrews 13:2). The connecting point between the visible and invisible, the seen and the unseen, is our faith as seen in prayer. When the king of Syria sent an army to seize the prophet Elisha, the army surrounded the city of Dothan. Elisha and his servant woke up early in the morning to find themselves surrounded. His servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” (2 Kings 6:15). Elisha responded, "Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (2 Kings 6:16). And then what did he do? He prayed.
“Then Elisha prayed and said, ‘O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.’ So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha”—2 Kings 6:17.
His prayer opened the world between the worlds. And our prayers do the same. Our faith enables us to battle in the invisible world that also leads to results in the visible. Satan knows this and desires to keep us from tapping into the tools that enable us to cross between the two. Satan knows the battle is not in the physical world, but in the invisible.
“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”—Ephesians 6:12.
In today’s passage, an angel comes to the prophet Daniel to deliver a message: his prayer had been heard by God, but to keep the prayer from being answered, Satan sent one of his agents of evil, to keeping it from being answered. He said,
“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, and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come”—v. 13.
The prince of Persia is a metaphor for one of Satan’s agents, and Michael, the archangel, came to help the angelic messenger to Daniel. Our passage is a clear illustration that our battle takes place not in the physical realm but in the spiritual. That is why Paul could write, “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds”—2 Corinthians 10:4.
Satan knows that we have been given a tool that can destroy his strongholds, and Daniel used that tool in the midst of Persia. We, too, have the same tool at our disposal as Daniel did, and Satan knows that we can hurt his kingdom with it.
We must understand that we exist between two worlds and it is through prayer that we can battle in the unseen and affect the seen, but we also must realize that God only will respond when we pray in faith. What is keeping us from using this powerful tool? What is the area of unbelief that is keeping us from using this tool effectively? May God give us faith to wield this tool so that He may receive glory and our joy may increase in Him. Amen.
C.S. Lewis once said, “Humans are amphibians—half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, as animals they inhabit time.” We are fleshly spirit beings that are between two worlds, the seen and the unseen. We are residents of the world of flesh, rooted in time, experiencing reality through the five senses: taste, touch, sight, hearing and smell. But we are also spirits—part of an unseen world, an invisible world. It is a world that angels and demons inhabit.
Spirit beings such as angels and demons dwell in an invisible world although they can manifest themselves in our physical world (Genesis 19:1; Hebrews 13:2). The connecting point between the visible and invisible, the seen and the unseen, is our faith as seen in prayer. When the king of Syria sent an army to seize the prophet Elisha, the army surrounded the city of Dothan. Elisha and his servant woke up early in the morning to find themselves surrounded. His servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” (2 Kings 6:15). Elisha responded, "Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (2 Kings 6:16). And then what did he do? He prayed.
“Then Elisha prayed and said, ‘O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.’ So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha”—2 Kings 6:17.
His prayer opened the world between the worlds. And our prayers do the same. Our faith enables us to battle in the invisible world that also leads to results in the visible. Satan knows this and desires to keep us from tapping into the tools that enable us to cross between the two. Satan knows the battle is not in the physical world, but in the invisible.
“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”—Ephesians 6:12.
In today’s passage, an angel comes to the prophet Daniel to deliver a message: his prayer had been heard by God, but to keep the prayer from being answered, Satan sent one of his agents of evil, to keeping it from being answered. He said,
“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, and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come”—v. 13.
The prince of Persia is a metaphor for one of Satan’s agents, and Michael, the archangel, came to help the angelic messenger to Daniel. Our passage is a clear illustration that our battle takes place not in the physical realm but in the spiritual. That is why Paul could write, “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds”—2 Corinthians 10:4.
Satan knows that we have been given a tool that can destroy his strongholds, and Daniel used that tool in the midst of Persia. We, too, have the same tool at our disposal as Daniel did, and Satan knows that we can hurt his kingdom with it.
We must understand that we exist between two worlds and it is through prayer that we can battle in the unseen and affect the seen, but we also must realize that God only will respond when we pray in faith. What is keeping us from using this powerful tool? What is the area of unbelief that is keeping us from using this tool effectively? May God give us faith to wield this tool so that He may receive glory and our joy may increase in Him. Amen.
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