Fight the Good Fight

October 28th, 2025
by John Thweatt

In Disciple’s Prayer Life, TW Hunt shared a prayer that he prays every day, “Lord, open my eyes to see spiritual reality and open my ears to hear your voice.” That resonated with me today…especially because of the chapters my Bible reading plan had me read the other day.

First, in 2 Kings 6 we find Elisha telling the King of Israel the battle plans of the King of Syria. The King of Syria thought he had a spy in his ranks, but a servant told him, “Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom”. God supernaturally told Elish the king’s plans.

Instead of repenting and being in awe, the king takes his army and goes to Dothan to capture the prophet. The great army surrounds the city and when Elisha’s servant went out, he said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do.”

Elisha simply said, “Don’t be afraid, there are more with us than there are against us.” I’m sure the servant thought Elisha was out of his mind, but then the prophet prayed that God would open his eyes to see and the servant saw “the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

Then I turned over to Daniel 10 where Daniel is distraught over the vision God had given him. He fasted and prayed for three weeks and then an angel appeared to him. He told Daniel that God has sent him the moment he began to pray for understanding…his prayer was heard, the “prince of Persia withstood him (the angel) for twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me.”

The prince of Persia had to be a demonic being and he was doing all he could to stop the angel from getting to Daniel. It took an archangel to hold him back. A little later he spike of another demonic being, “the prince of Greece,” who would come after Persia, but there was a spiritual battle going on in response to Daniel’s prayer.

Here is the point…there is more to this world than meets the eye. We have to learn to pray and to fight the good fight. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6 that we “do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present dankness, against the spiritual forces in the heavenly places.” In that context we are given Spiritual Armor and the last piece is “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.”

There are indeed “territorial spirits” that fight against us. There is no other explanation for what happened in Daniel 10. John Piper preached a sermon on this passage, you can find it, https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/angels-and-prayer, but let me share his conclusion,

“So I conclude from this that there is good biblical reason for thinking that there are powerful evil spirits with special appointments from Satan over kingdoms like Persia and Greece. In Luke 4:6 the devil took Jesus up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and then tempts him with these words: “To you I will give all this authority and their glory; for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.” He has an inflated notion of his power in relation to the sovereignty of God. But under God it is true that Satan is “the god of this world” (2 For 4:4). And it is probably true that he gives his power to those who worship him (Rev 13:2). He is the “prince of demons” (Mark 3:22).

Since the New Testament tells us that this prince of demons “darkens the minds of unbelievers” (2 Corinthians 4:4), and that he “deceives the world” (Revelation 12:9), and that he plants his weeds (unbelievers) throughout the world (Matthew 13:39), and that he takes people captive to do his will (2 Timothy 2:25), and that he plucks up the seed of the Word when it is preached (Matthew 13:4), and that he thwarts missionary activity (1 Thessalonians 2:18), and that he throws ministers in prison (Revelation 2:10)—since we know the prince of demons does all that, we may conclude with good reason that this is what his sub-princes do as well.

So then, I would conclude that there are high-ranking demonic powers over various regimes and dominions and governments and realms of the world; and that they work to create as much evil and corruption and spiritual darkness as they can. They strive to interrupt Christian missions and ministry as much as they can.

That is why the prince of the kingdom of Persia tried to hinder the messenger from reaching Daniel from heaven. The messenger was bringing a message of truth. Verse 21: the messenger says to Daniel, “But I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth.” But Satan is a liar and a deceiver from the beginning. The main aim of all his princes is to keep the book of truth from being known and believed. The truth frees people (John 8:32) and sanctifies people (John 17:17). So the territorial spirits like the prince of the kingdom of Persia do their main work of corruption and destruction by blinding the people of their area from the truth.”

As we pray, recognize that there is more to this battle that we can see, and pray the Word of God in the power of the Spirit of God, and fight the good fight!