The angel had been resisted by the Prince of Persia. Now who or what is the Prince of Persia and what does this tell us? The prince of Persia is a demonic spirit exercising some influence over Persia. Now there is a lot of stuff around about "territorial spirits", how does all this fit in? Well it does tell us that we cannot just dismiss the concept of territorial spirits out of hand. We see here a glimpse into the spiritual battle that is going on. However, we need to take account of the whole of Scripture and what Scripture consistently teaches us.
The Bible does not to tell us to engage in warfare against territorial spirits. We do engage in spiritual warfare, and there is a battle going on in the heavenly realms, but we do so by following clear Biblical commands. In the Old Testament the people are told to "act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God" (Mic 6:8), this is the repeated and consistent message of the Old Testament. In the New Testament we are told to continue to do this, and we are also to proclaim the gospel, live the gospel, and make disciples of all nations.
So is this territorial spirit stuff just a distraction or an irrelevancy? No. We are given occasional glimpses into the heavenly realms, into the greater battle that we are a part of. Ephesians is the New Testament book that speaks most of this. We need to know that we are part of a greater battle, and that the forces of heaven are on our side, but we are not to get distracted from the clear commands that the Lord has given to us.
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