Monday, August 25, 2014
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Well our mail came today, and yesterday, and the day before yesterday. Big deal, right? It comes most days. It's a big deal. Yeah, the post office has this
motto and they try their best to follow through on it. It's a promise to keep, and it's not an easy one. You know, "Neither rain nor sleet nor snow nor
darkness of night shall stay these couriers from their appointed rounds." Things that need to get through to you usually do. And these people do their best
to keep their promise to get it there no matter what's in the way.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What's Keeping the Courier?"
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Daniel 10. The Bible occasionally pulls the curtain back and gives us a peek at what's going on in the
spiritual world that surrounds our own. There's this unseen realm of spiritual battles between the forces of God and the forces of darkness. It's a realm
we can't see, but it's affecting our everyday lives.
Well, in this instance, Daniel knew that God had a message; a vision for him that was to be proclaimed to his generation and to ours through the Scripture
that he wrote. But it wasn't coming. Verse 2, "At that time, I Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food, no meat or wine touched my lips. I
used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over. Then on the twenty-fourth day of the first month as I was standing on the bank of the great river,
I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen with a belt of the finest gold around his waist." And the Bible goes on to describe this
magnificent, angelic figure.
In verse 12 that figure says, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your
God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them." Okay, then what was the delay? He says, "The prince of the Persian Kingdom resisted me 21
days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me because I was detained there with the King of Persia." It's a pretty extraordinary passage.
"Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come."
Okay, here's what's going on here. Daniel prayed for the message he needed. God, according to the angel, granted that immediately, gave it to His courier
angel to deliver.
And a messenger from hell, referred to here as the prince of the Persian Kingdom, battled the messenger from heaven to keep him from delivering it. So God
sent reinforcements and Satan's grip was broken.
You know what made the difference? Apparently it was because Daniel used supernatural weapons to get his answer, not even knowing the unseen forces who
were fighting over it. What does this have to do with you and me right now? Well, it may explain what's happened to your answer to prayer. Why something
God wants you to have has not yet been delivered. Because the Devil may be determined to stay God's courier from delivering what God has already granted to
you.
Now, we can't see. We probably shouldn't even try to guess what's happening in the war between God's angels and hell's hinderers. But we should learn from
Daniel what our part is in the battle: intense, focused, relentless, sacrificial prayer and fasting as God leads us, to focus just on God and His power.
Honestly, sometimes we have to break the hindering hold of Satan and only prayer can do that.
So if you sense that it's time for a breakthrough in your church, or in your life, or in your family, commit yourself to a season of extraordinary prayer.
Because, as Jesus promised in Matthew 18:18, "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in
heaven." Although Satan is our primary enemy, don't focus your praying on him. No, you focus on the Lord, Jesus Christ, the power of His name, the power of
His shed blood, and the power of His resurrection. We are in this battle together with Him.
And remember, for those who wage war under the banner of Jesus and His death on the cross, nothing can stay God's couriers from their appointed rounds.