Many Christians assume that heaven is a place of unbroken peace and harmony, beauty and worship. This may well be true of the third heaven, but it does not apply to the first and second heavens. Some Scriptures paint a very different picture of what is currently going on in the second heaven. As already stated, it is at times the scene of great conflict between warring angels—some serving God and others serving Satan. It is primarily in the heavenly regions that such conflict takes place.
It is here, too, that Satan pours out a stream of slanderous accusations against the Christians on earth who are serving the Lord. In Revelation 12:10, he is described by an angel as the “accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night.”
This Scripture goes on to predict that Satan will be cast down from heaven. But until this happens, it is clear that he still continues to occupy a place somewhere in the heavenlies and that he is filling the air with malicious accusations against God’s people.
A verse that follows is a warning to earth’s inhabitants as to what they may expect when the devil is ultimately cast down from heaven to earth: “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time” (Revelation 12:12).
The place of intercession was looked at extensively.
The Role of Intercession:
What excites me most about the incidents recorded in Daniel 10:1-4 is that the ministry of intercession played a decisive role. Heaven did not move until Daniel prayed. Heaven’s angels could not get through until Daniel prayed them through. But that demanded persistence. If we are praying a prayer that does not get answered immediately, it may not be because our prayer is not in the will of God. It may be because there is a satanic prince up in the heavenlies standing in the way of the answer. So what do we have to do? Pray him out of the way! Daniel did not leave the initiative with the enemy. He himself chose the battleground of prayer. When confronted with opposition, he persisted. Sometimes opposition from Satan is one of the best indications that we are praying in the will of God.
Any believer who gives himself to the ministry of intercession needs to be a diligent student of biblical prophecy because this is the primary basis of all truly effective prayer.
Effective praying tests our character. It demands single-hearted commitment.
Other exciting questions touched in the book include:
•What is the reason for all the conflict in our world?
•Have we accepted as normal something that is abnormal?
•Why are there wars?
•Why are there struggles, strife and disputes?
•Does Scripture give us any clear explanation of a real cause for all this conflict?
•Did it have a beginning and will it always be so?
The Bible teaches that all Christians must be prepared to encounter conflict and warfare in the spiritual realm.
The Christian life is not just sweetness and harp music; every committed Christian will find warfare to be part of his total experience.
It is a book worth studying!