The Spirits That Battle Over Your Prayers

Have you ever prayed with everything you have — poured out your heart, fasted, begged God for an answer — only to be met with silence for weeks or months? In this video we open Daniel 10 and discover that your prayers reach God instantly and unblocked, but the answers sent by His messenger angels can face real opposition from fallen angelic beings in the unseen realm. Using the Divine Council Worldview, we walk through cosmic geography, territorial spirits (the Prince of Persia), God’s self-limitation, free will, and why steadfast persistence is how we partner in the battle until breakthrough comes.

Includes key passages: Daniel 10:12-13, Ephesians 6:12, Deuteronomy 32:8-9, Psalm 82, Matthew 7:21-23, Luke 11:5-8

Full length videos here https://youtube.com/@archivedrift1?si=Fpm2cuvpVCQ42-fr

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Hey y'all. So tonight I'm going to talk about the answers to prayers actually getting blocked in the spiritual realm. The response to your prayers that God sends by his angels, the messenger angels, sometimes are actually getting blocked by fallen angelic beings in the spiritual realm. And this is something that I'm going to back up with the scriptures. This is not some happenstance, weird, uh crazy idea. This is something that's taught in Daniel 10. Um and one of the few things about the how about what the possibility that prayers actually sometimes get blocked or hindered. So I mean, I would say, have you ever prayed, poured out your heart, you've fasted and asked God for an answer only to be met with silence? Now, sometimes answers come quickly, but sometimes weeks turn into months, months turn into years for some. But the and the answer that you desperately need never seems to come. Now, of course, some things are absolutely God's timing, and that's purposeful by Him. But there is another part to this that needs consideration in Daniel 10. You begin to wonder, did God even hear me? Uh, is he ignoring me? Or is there something happening behind the scenes that I just can't see? I cannot see. Now, tonight I want to, we're we're going to open a passage, open up Daniel 10. Um, that to be fair, most people read past without realizing how important it is. I did it too. It it's and what it shows is about how prayer actually works in the unseen realm, is not is it's not something I would wager is taught in mainstream circles. And that's what I like to do here. Um, I mean, we definitely I definitely talk about mainstream stuff, but I like to I like to focus and talk on the things that don't often get mentioned or they get glazed over and not much attention is given to them. So so your prayers reach God instantly and are unblocked. Okay. Now, what I'm going to focus on is the downward answers, meaning the answers to prayer. Um, the these answers travel through angelic messengers that can face real opposition in the unseen realm. And that is why persistence in your prayers is not an optional thing, okay? It's it's how we partner in the battle until the answer comes. So let's walk through this together. So look at Daniel 10, I believe it's verses 12 to 13. So the angel tells Daniel, he says, From the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was with was withstanding me for twenty-one days. Then, behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me. So that was the end of the text. Right there in the text, prayer reaches God immediately. There's the example. No interception whatsoever, no cosmic filter blocking access to the throne. This lines up with what the New Testament says in Hebrews chapter 4, and I believe and I believe in 1 John. Um, so genuine, humble prayer from God's people lands at the throne on day one. But notice the delay here that in in prayer is not uh the delay in prayer is not on the way up to God, it's on the way back down to the one praying, the answer back down to the one praying. And so the messenger angel faces opposition on the way back to Daniel. Now, the territorial power called the Prince of the Kingdom of Persia, with it says he withstood the angel for 21 days until Michael, the archangel, who which was Israel's chief prince, steps in for reinforcement. Now, you will need to watch some of my earlier videos that explain the divine council worldview framework and um and bring you up to speed here. So I'm just for the sake of brevity, I'm not gonna go into that. But so in the divine council worldview, the scene in Daniel 10 is cosmic geography at work. Now, rebellious Elohim or spirit beings and principalities, the the ones allotted nations at Babel. Remember, this was in Deuteronomy 32. Now, they actively resist Yahweh's interventions in their territories that they that they run or that they they operate. So Daniel's prayer threatened Persian interests over Old Testament Israel. So the pushback was was immediate and intense. And so this is not random or punitive, excuse me, but it shows that prayer enters an active war zone described in Ephesians chapter six. The um the enemy does not waste any time opposing prayers that don't matter. I mean, what's what where's the value in that? There's no ROI. So in the Divine Council worldview, the the unseen realm is not passive at all. Um, fallen members of the divine council still hold limited authority over regions and nations and systems and things like that. Okay. But exactly as we see in Psalm 82 uh Daniel 10, the the prince of Persia and the coming and the coming prince of Greece are not human rulers. You make sure you get that. They are supernatural entities that are fiercely guarding their domain. Crazy stuff. Delay happens because these powers can temporarily temporarily resist God agent his agents in the heavenly realm. This does not undermine God's ultimate omnipotence, doesn't detract from him whatsoever. Okay, don't get scared. So God allows the the battle and allows the battle and sends back up like the Archangel Michael. It's real conflict in the cosmos is still partially under enemy influence until the final judgment. So the 21 days matched Daniel's fast exactly. The opposition lasted as long as the intercession on earth did. Does that make sense? So the enemy was trying to frustrate God's larger purposes, um, including the revelation about empires in Daniel chapter 11. Now, Daniel's persistence created the opening for the answer to his prayer when the angel was finally able to get to him. Okay, able to get to him. This is why some answers can feel unheard. One of the one of the reasons, anyway. Um, your prayer collides with unseen territorial realities, personal strongholds, uh, regional influences, even, um, or even larger kingdom purposes. So God did not create a puppet show where he overrides everything with instant results, right? No Thanos snapping fingers. Um, can he do that? Sure. I mean, obviously, but however, he built the world with consistent, reliable order, natural laws, spiritual authority structures, and rules of engagement in the unseen conflict itself. And so God himself operates inside those rules by his own choice. Remember that. This is self-limitation for genuine relationship and moral reality. God delegated real authority to human imagers and to divine council members, the Elohim or spirit beings, remember? Now that authority creates actual territorial areas where rebellious powers can resist, um, exactly as we see in Daniel chapter 10. Rules of engagement apply even to royal angels. So God could end the opposition instantly, but he doesn't. He does not, because that would remove the order that he established for a real battle between good and evil. God does not have to cheat. He's not cheating, doesn't need to. Well, and plus, this is really this is really important. If God did just end it all with a snap of a finger, uh snap of his fingers, Satan would undoubtedly undermine Yahweh's rulership and his authority in the same way that he did in Job in front of the entire divine order, the entire divine counsel, by saying this, by saying to God that he has has to force everything to get it to work the way he does. Now, the conflict in Daniel 10 only exists because God is not, he's not exercising raw omnipotence at every single moment. Okay? He doesn't need to. The enemy has genuine, though limited, freedom within the parameters that both sides have to follow. Um, that's my take. I think God does this very on purpose, especially with what we know from the exchange between God and Satan concerning Job. God and Satan concerning Job. God follows his own rules for love and relationship. Now, a world without real opposition or free choice would make prayer, faith, perseverance, and partnership with Yahweh just meaningless. I mean, it's just empty. So think about it. So do we really think God needs, capital needs, to manipulate everything so that it works in his favor? Like in Reformed theology or Calvinism? God has always wanted genuine hearts, not robots. Okay, he purposely self-limits himself to a degree by his own choice, so our participation carries weight. Um, humans, I mean. Daniel's persistence mattered because it aligned with and reinforced the heavenly forces inside those rules. So free will of the person praying and of the spiritual beings is the other key element here. So in the divine counsel worldview, um, both humans as God's imagers and divine council members have genuine free will. They're not robots, it's not divine determinism. The ability to choose loyalty or rebellion, persistence or quitting. The person's praying, the person praying's free will directly shapes outcomes. Daniel could have stopped on day 20, but he didn't. The 21 days of steadfast prayer and fasting lined up exactly with the answer, with the breakthrough that he had. If he had quit early, the answer might never have arrived in that form or at that time. We don't know the ramifications had he quit. Continued choice to pray, excuse me, fast and trust, keep spiritual pressure on the unseen battle. So if you quit early, it hands the default win to the opposition. Free will makes perseverance and stri it makes perseverance strategic. And that means that your prayers have meaningful impact, hugely meaningful impacts on the future. I do not believe that the future is settled. It's oh it's open and has real consequences. So your prayers are extremely, I cannot stress that enough, are extremely important to the to you, but to the kingdom itself. Your prayer may clash with a whole web of free will decisions, yours, others, and the spirits in the spirit realm. Um, God honors that web of decisions rather than overriding it constantly. Okay, he doesn't need to. He things are free. There are other elements that could, I mean, also be at work for unanswered prayer. So even for believers, free will choices such as like unconfessed sin, doubt, or wrong motives, even can hinder answers, like it says in James 4. It says that you know, you ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly, so you can spend it on your passions. And then I in Isaiah 59, it says, um, it says, Look, the the Lord's hand is not too weak to deliver you, but and his ear is not too deaf to hear you, but your sinful, your sinful acts, your sinful deeds have alienated you from your God, and your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers. And so Daniel 10 shows that um it shows that a praying, faithful person can still face external opposition. Does that make sense? So the person's ongoing decision to keep believing and praying is the hinge. It is the hinge point. And now, so like, think about it. How many prayers get shoved aside because they were viewed as not important to the divine counsel or to Yahweh, since they were only prayed one time? Now, I'm not saying that just because you pray one time, it's a valueless prayer, but one and done prayers can be sidelined because persistence is one of the key elements here that keep pressure on in the heavenly realm, in the spirit realm. Okay. Daniel did not pray once and then wait passively. He mourned, he fasted, he humbled himself for the full 21 days in Daniel 10 and um and in Daniel 12. That timing was not coincidence, okay? It's the continued prayer adds a sustained pressure in the unseen realm and aligns earthly intercession with heavenly forces. Now, believers participate in the battle through steadfastness in prayer, though, though being persistent and faithful, okay, now that persistence can be the factor that releases uh reinforcement, such like like Michael was, or other angels that we don't even know about. I mean, for that matter. Now, you just you never know. So if Daniel had quit on day 20 or day 10, the answer might never have come. You we just don't know. This idea of your prayers' answers prevents premature surrender. Does that make sense? So the enemy's the enemy's strategy is often to turn delay into a denial of of many things. Um, steadfast prayer refuses refuses those claims. Now it tra it, think about it, it trains endurance. It it obviously deepens dependence on God. And Jesus, Jesus told the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18 to teach us how to pray, excuse me, to teach us to pray and not give up. Now, this little part is just a theory, this next part is just a theory of mine, and I can't back it up. But what if your constant prayers also motivate the angels to keep going? I mean, I imagine that they are affected by the battle that rages within the spiritual realm once they think about it, once they leave the heavenly kingdom with their orders, they get charged with their orders, they leave, and then they start on their mission or their journey, whatever that might be. Now, whether to help you or someone else. Now, I mean if if they can be persuaded to rebel, then it would only make sense that they are affected emotionally and cognitive, cognitively by the realm around them. Is that made? You see what I'm saying? So, like from what we can tell, they are in a in a war with the fallen spirits. Now, that was an aside, but back back to our subject though. So you remember the man whose neighbor needed needed bread for a late-night guest? Remember that in that passage? Remember, he kept knocking until the friend got up and gave him what he needed, not out of friendship really, but because he was actually annoyed or aggravated. But it was because of the man's persistence that he received the bread. And that parable reflects the same point. So like prayer, prayer answers can face opposition, but persistence gets it, it gets it gets the results ultimately. So like the delay is not wasted. It refines faith, humility, and alignment with God's will. Daniel's 21 days prepared him to receive and record the end times revelation that followed. I gotta make sure this thing's still working. Okay. Sometimes it cuts off um the mic. I mean, um, so steadfast prayer is not about twisting God's arm. It's how we contend alongside the divine counsel's um loyal members until the victory comes. So the the Matthew 7 connection, this is important. This is important you get this. Um upward prayers reach God instantly and are unblocked. Okay. Downward answers travel through contested territory and face opposition. That's what we've established here. So therefore, persistence is required to partner in the battle until the answer to your prayer comes through or come uh returns. So this connects to the warning in Matthew 7. It says, remember what it's kind of a terrifying verse. It says, Lord, Lord, uh people cry, Lord, Lord, and Jesus says he never knew them. Uh depart, depart from me, you you who practice lawlessness. Now, these may be people who once professed faith, but whose prayer life and relationship basically wilted away or atrophied until the intimacy was gone. So true relationship with Jesus is ongoing and shown by fruit, as in, I believe it's John 15, uh James 2. Um, when someone stops praying, stops abiding in Christ, and stops persevering, the the knowing, the knowing can disappear. And a dried-up prayer life can be both symptom and cause of the I never knew you verdict that Jesus gives to that to that person at judgment. So Matthew 7 is not explicitly about prayer volume or even stopping at some point, but the context um it describes false disciples who performed impressive things like they were prophesying, they were casting out demons, they were uh doing things in Jesus, doing miracles in Jesus' name. Yet they lived themselves and lived in lawlessness. I he says, I never knew you, and that's a language of a covenant relationship with someone. It warns against empty vain professions, so uh not jobs, profession. But still the point holds as a warning. Um, prayer is the is the is the relational lifeline that keeps us in the battle and brings answers despite there being opposition and a a life that treats prayer as optional or abandons it altogether, it shows that the relationship was never genuine. So, like the the Lord, Lord, that it says their people had bursts of outward activity, but there was no enduring commun communion. Um, the the same result as if Daniel were to stop prayer when the Prince Prince of Persia appeared. Um, so prayer is a real partnership in the world and in the spiritual. You're not a passive recipient, your your steadfastness participates in the battle. It's real and it means something. So delay, delay shows that your prayer mattered enough to provoke resistance. Think about that. As long as your prayer is within the will of God, it will be answered somehow. The win is the question. So now, obviously, if you're praying for something incredulous or ridiculous, like make me famous or give me money, make me a millionaire to pursue my own vices. Now, God will personally not answer that. He might to punish you, but it's anyway. Another thing is that delay is not necessarily a denial, it is evidence of a living war. Now, God's self-limitation that I talked about earlier creates space for genuine conflict. This refines your faith, your endurance, your dependence on him. It trains you to trust the unseen reality over visible things that we see or over visible circumstances. And this is essentially what faith is: the it's the hope in the thing that is unseen. In this case, the hope for answer prayer, the hope in Christ. So God's sovereignty, and I don't mean the Calvinist version of sovereignty, I mean his sovereignty, his being king is magnified, not diminished. He could rule by force, but he chooses a relational order with real stakes here. This makes the final victory and our part in it far more meaningful. Um, so free will raises the stakes and and the hope with this. Choices absolutely matter. And so perseverance can shift heavenly outcomes. Think about that. It means that we must resist discouragement, we must resist discouragement when answers are delayed. Okay, the Matthew 7 warning fits here. So abandoning personal, not personal, persistent prayer reveals a relationship that was, I mean, it was possibly never truly intimate to begin with. Intimate to begin with. Um when an answer feels blocked, remember that your prayers are heard by a good father. So keep praying. The same God who heard Daniel on day one is hearing you now. So the the reinforcement, like the archangel. Angel Michael coming to aid your messenger angel is on the way precisely because you are remaining in the fight. You are being steadfast in prayer. So, all that to say, keep knocking on that door like the man at midnight that we talked earlier. Okay? So may the Lord bless you. May the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance to you and grant you peace. Good night.