As you can see by your handout tonight, we're going to be taking at the title of this is Glimpses of the Spiritual Realm. And so we're going to take a look at the spiritual realm and see what the Bible has to say about that. So why this subject? When I was asked to teach tonight by Pastor Sean a couple months ago, we had just gone over a couple of messages on the prophet Elijah and Elisha. And it was during one of these messages about Elijah and Elisha that we have an interaction that caught my eye. And it's in 2 Kings 6, 15-17. And Elisha, Elisha's servant, wakes up and sees that the town, that the walled city that they're in, Elisha and his servant are staying in, are surrounded by an army. And Elisha tells the servant, as he comes back, what are we gonna do, what are we gonna do? Elisha tells the servant, the forces that are with them, the forces that are with us are stronger than the forces that are with them. And I just saw this look, I just imagined this look of total confusion and disbelief at this statement. So Elisha prays that the servant would have his eyes open and he caught a glimpse of the spiritual reality of the situation. This site is recorded for us and we're going to take a look at it tonight. And we're going to look at some other glimpses here and some descriptions of what's going on. in the spiritual realm. So as we look at this, the question that popped into my brain was, was the prophet Elisha able to see the spiritual realm the whole time? Or was this just for a glimpse? And if it was, if he was able to see the spiritual realm and the physical realm at the same time, what an amazing and fantastic life that must have been. I do not know for sure if Elisha saw the spiritual realm all the time, But we do know, as we look at these verses, that it kind of implies that he saw this army of the Lord, as we'll see, and that he, because of the way he prayed for the servant to have his eyes opened. We're also going to see tonight that Elisha and his servant were not the only people to have experiences. In fact, there are many times throughout the Bible that the spiritual realm was seen by a person or a group of people. And luckily, it's recorded for us in the Bible. The few interactions and descriptions that I'm gonna look at tonight were chosen because they're very detailed, either of the actual angel or the inhabitant of the spiritual realm, or they're very detailed in their description of what's going on. So let's take a look at Elisha in 2 Kings 6. Don't fail me now. Okay, for a little background here, Elisha was a prophet of God in the nation of Israel. And he started out by following or training under Elijah. And Elisha was a witness to Elijah's departure from this earth. Second Kings 2.11 states, So we see here that this scenario with Elisha and his servant isn't the first time that Elisha caught a glimpse of spiritual things here. And due to our younger audiences here tonight, we have plenty of pictures tonight to keep them interested. So here's a drawing, an artist's rendition of horses of fire and a chariot of fire taking Elijah to heaven. Next, we'll see that Elisha's servant is going to see the army of the Lord. This is recorded for us in 2 Kings 6, 15-17. So we answer, do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. It is suggested in this case that, anyway, that Elisha saw the angelic army of the Lord that his servant could not see. Because if we look at Elijah's prayer in verse 17, we see that Elisha asked for his eyes, the servant's eyes, to be opened. so that he could see the angelic army that had surrounded and outnumbered the Syrian army that had surrounded the city. Both of these sightings have one thing in common. Both describe chariots and horses of fire, and we see from 2 Kings that the angelic army of fiery horse and chariots not only had the Syrian army surrounded on the high ground, but they had the Syrians outnumbered. We are not told how many chariots and horses this angelic army had, but we know from Psalm 68, 17 that there's enough to do the job. Psalm 68, 17 says, the chariots of God are 20,000, even thousands, thousands. The Lord is among them at Sinai in the holy place. Now, if you do the math, you got 20,000 times 1,000 times 1,000. Well, that's 20 million. or 20 times, it's either 20, the number is either 20,000, 20 million, or 2 billion, if you do the math. Now my, what I understood, most of the people that talked about this first said, this is a way of saying it's unnumberable. Just like seven, you know, seven times 70 type of thing, quit numbering them, there's way too many. So we know from the scene here that the Syrians were outnumbered and in the low ground. And as far as they look, this aligns with Psalms 104 verse 4, which states, who makes his angel spirits, his ministers a flame of fire. This backs up both accounts of the angelic army having the appearance of fire, and we see from Psalms 34, 7, the reason the angelic army is there is the angel of the Lord encamps all around them who fear him and delivers them. This experience Elisha and his servant had is not unique to them. There are many other people who saw with their own eyes the spiritual realm, and some of them are recorded in great detail for us in the Bible. Please turn in your Bibles to the book of Daniel. The book of Daniel is an Old Testament book that contains a massive treasure trove of information about the spiritual realm, because Daniel himself had four separate visits from angels. And we are going to study three of these tonight and gleam a lot of information out of them about what it looks like and what's going on up there. Daniel chapter 6. And we know from Daniel 6, verse 21 through 23, this is Daniel in the lion's den. And we'll pick it up. The king has come to the mouth of the lion's den and is asking to see if Daniel is still there. And Daniel answers in verse 21, it says, then Daniel said to the king, O king, live forever. My God has sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth so they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before you, and alas, and also, O king, I have done no wrong before you. Now the king was exceedingly glad for him and commanded that they should take Daniel out of the den. Daniel does not go into a great description about this visitor in the lion's den. But we do know about three more angelic visits recorded for us in Daniel, and we are going to look at them. We do know from the angel Gabriel visits Daniel on two separate occasions. And elsewhere from the Bible, we know a couple things about, we can glean some information about Gabriel. First of all, he is one of the few angels that we know by name. We know Daniel 9 verse 21 says, speaking, Verse 20, now I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people of Israel and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God. Yes, while I was speaking a prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in a vision at the beginning, was being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering. So we know him by name, and we know that he has the ability to fly, and not only that, fly swiftly. We don't know the mode of transportation, how he's able to fly, but we do know he's able to fly and get someplace in a relatively short order. What else we know about Gabriel is he stands in the presence of God. We know from Luke chapter 1, verse 11, when Gabriel announces the birth of John the Baptist, He visits Zacharias, a priest in the temple, and basically tells him, even though you're old, your prayer has been heard, and your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son, and you shall call him John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will joy at his birth. And it goes on to tell him about John the Baptist. And Zacharias said to the angel, How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in ears. And the angel answered and said to him, I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. Gabriel seems to have the job of delivering specific messages to people, as we just saw. in his message to Zacharias. We also know Gabriel is the one that visits Mary with the message of Jesus Christ. Luke 1, 26-31, now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city in Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you and blessed are you among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and you call his name Jesus. The other thing I noticed about Gabriel is, back from Daniel chapter nine, is Gabriel makes sure that the message is understood. Daniel 9 verse 22, and he informed me, this is Gabriel talking to Daniel about the visions that he had, and talked with me and said, oh Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand. At the beginning of your supplications, the command went out, I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved and therefore consider the matter and understand the vision. So Gabriel here is an angel that we know the name of. We know he's able to fly. We know he's sent as a messenger to deliver specific messages from the throne room of God. And he makes, I get the idea, he makes sure that these people understand what the message means before he leaves. So let's take a look at Daniel and Gabriel's visit. Daniel chapter eight, verse 15. This is one of the visits Gabriel Daniel had. Then it happened, when I, Daniel, had seen the vision and was seeking the meaning, that suddenly there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Oliah, who called and said, Gabriel, make this man understand the vision. So he came near where I stood, and when I came, I was afraid and fell on my face. But he said to me, understand, son of man, that the vision refers to the time of the end. Now, as he was speaking to me, I was in a deep sleep on my face to the ground. But he touched me and stood me upright and said, Look, I am making known to you what will happen in the latter time of the indignation. For at an appointed time, the end shall be. He goes on to explain the vision. And in verse 27, we have Daniel's reaction either to the meaning of the vision or his visit with Gabriel. And I, Daniel, fainted and was sick for days. Afterward, I rose and went about the king business. I was astonished by the vision, but no one understood it. The second encounter Daniel has with Gabriel is found in chapter 9, verse 1. I'm sorry, the timing of it is in verse 1, it's in the first year of Darius, the son of Azarhaerus, in the lineage of the Medes. And Daniel has, in verse 3, Verse two, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified in the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make a request by prayer and supplications with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And we drop down to verse 20. While I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin, the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord for the holy mountain of my God, yes, while I was speaking a prayer, the man Gabriel, who had seen in the vision at the beginning being caused to fly swiftly, reached me at the time of the evening offer, and he informed me and talked with me. O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand at the beginning of your supplications the command went out. For I have come to tell you that you are greatly beloved and to consider the matter. So that's Gabriel's second visit. Daniel's, and we see that twice here, well I've read it twice, but he was sent to explain the meaning of both visions. And then we'll also see a third visit that we'll look at tonight, and it's called A Glorious Man Visits Daniel. And this is in chapter 10, Daniel chapter 10. And we have the timing of it, 10 verse one. In the third year of Cyrus, the king of Persia, a message was revealed to Daniel. The message was true, but the point in time was long, and he understood the message and the understanding and the vision. And in those days, I, Daniel, was mourning for three full weeks. I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, till three full weeks were fulfilled. Now on the twenty-fourth day of the first month, I was by the side of the great river that is the Tigris. I lifted up my eyes and looked. Behold, a certain man, clothed in linen, whose waist was girded with the gold of Abhaz, His body was like beryl or crystalline, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color, the sound of his words were like the voice of a multitude. And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision, but great terror fell on them, and they hid themselves." So some commentators think that this is a physical description of Gabriel, There's no way of knowing for sure. We do know that this was an angel of some sort and we have his physical description described for us in Aaron Daniel. He was clothed in linen and he had a belt of fine gold. this gold of Upaz or Upaz, whatever how you describe it, that was a city at that time known for its gold and its craft as it was like a craftsman city for gold. So this wasn't just some rock you found in a in a river beaten into a belt. This was high, high quality stuff. Down at the jewelry stores type of stuff. We also see that his body has the body of the color of a precious stone. I searched around for this barrel or whatever they call this precious stone and there's no nobody really knows for sure what Daniel is talking about but here is pictures and shades of this precious stone. So we have this blue, we have this green, we have a dark blue. So if you can imagine that, for whatever reason, Daniel used this. He didn't specifically say which color, but this is what he was, that's his body. His face has a startling brilliance to it. Says his face was like lightning. Then we'll see his arms and feet gleamed like burnished brass. This is kind of a, if you don't know what burnished brass looks like, it's kind of, it's not like a highly polished brass, it's kind of a dark brown brass. So, and his voice sounded like the voice of the, the voices of a huge crowd. It took about 20-30 minutes to try to find a picture of this glorious man as described in Daniel 10, and most of them were pretty cheesy. This artist's rendition here comes to the closest thing that I could tell. We don't know if this angel had wings. I highly doubt he had a cross on his chest, but at least he's Everything else was very, very, didn't even come close to the actual description of what this guy would look like. So this is the drawing I found based on and found in Daniel. Now even with this artist's picture, I have a really hard time picturing this guy in my head. So how does a person take a picture of that Daniel and picture this in your head of what Daniel's describing here? It's really hard, but I do like how the mother of Samson describes her encounter with an angel. Judges 13.6 says, this is referring to Samson's mother, and the woman, she's visited by an angel telling her that she's gonna have a son, and she was barren, so she runs to her husband and says, so the woman came and told her husband, saying, a man of God came to me, and his countenance was like that of the countenance of angel God, very awesome. But I did not ask him where he was from, or he did not tell me his name. First thing I thought is, when I read this verse, very awesome, I thought, like, awesome. I thought that was like a totally 90s thing. But apparently, awesome also works back in the Bible days. We're also gonna see from Daniel here that this angel that's visiting Daniel here has some duties. We saw his detailed physical description, and we're going to find out that there's a conflict that happens in the spiritual realm, and we can glean from it that this angel tells Daniel what this conflict and a little bit about this conflict. We know from this conflict that angels are assigned to certain areas of the earth and nations, or have responsibilities for both holy and fallen angels, and that this conflict is continual and ongoing. We are made aware of this conflict that goes on from this angel in this discussion. So his duties. The duties of this angel are, one, he was sent to answer Daniel's questions. Daniel 10 verse 12, then he said to me, do not fear Daniel, for from the first day you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard and I have come because of your words. So this angel had a specific task and that was to answer Daniel's questions. The question I'm going to ask and answer here is, what did this angel have to deal with and accomplish this task? The answer is this angel had to get past the fallen angel that was assigned to the kingdom of Persia. He had to literally get by him. In order to do that, he had to battle the fallen angel assigned to the kingdom of Persia for 21 days. Daniel 10 verse 13 says, but the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days. And behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. This word withstood means to get in front of or stand opposite of. This means for 21 days this angel was trying to get to Daniel and the fallen angels whose job was to, whose responsibility or area of responsibility was Persia would just stand in his way. and they were fighting each other, and this angel would not have made it through unless he got help from Michael. I thought about this as I grew up playing hockey, and as a defenseman, when a forward was coming down on me, his job was to get to the goal, and my job was to get in his way. If he went one way, I went the same way. My job was to physically stop him to get into the goal. So I just imagine this going left and this one angel going left and going right and going up and going down and doing this for 21 days. And anyway, it says that they fought each other for 21 days for this angel to get to Daniel. And we also will see from verse 20 that once he's done doing Anselm and Daniel's questions, he has to return to this battle. After the Prince of Persia, he will go back to continue the battle with the fallen Prince of Persia. Verse 20, Daniel 10, 20, then he said, do you know why I've come to you? Now I must return to fight with the Prince of Persia. And when I have gone forth, indeed, the Prince of Greece will come. So after the Prince of Persia, this angel will battle the fallen Prince of Greece. So we can see from this information that these angels have specific duties and physical areas of the world they are assigned to, and that there is continual conflict going on in these areas. We also see this angel needed some help from another angel to help him or else he would not have been able to do the job assigned to him, deliver the message to Daniel. We also see the fact that Michael came and helped. This indicates a military-like ranking of angels involved in this conflict because Michael is called a chief prince. After the Prince of Persia, he would battle the fallen Prince of Greece. So if you know your history, after Persia, the kingdom of Persia faded, it was Alexander the Great and his kingdom in Greece that came over and took over this area of the world. So this angel that's talking to Daniel right now in Daniel 10, it looks like he's staying where he's staying, but he knows that Once he's done with, once Persia fades, here comes Greece, and I'll have to deal with that guy. We see some information about Michael here. It's mentioned here in Daniel chapter 10 and from the other parts of the Bible. Michael is an archangel. He's one of the chief princes, indicating he has princes under his command and is tasked to watch in the nation of Israel. Jude 9 says, yet Michael, the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he was disputed about the body of Moses. So we hear from Jude 9, Michael is an archangel. Revelations 12, 7 through 8, tells us in the future, in the vision that John, the Apostle John was seen as, He relates to us, and a war broke out in heaven, and Michael and his angels fought the dragon, and the dragon and angels fought. So we see here that Michael is in charge of angels, a certain group of angels. So that just about covers it for the Old Testament. Oh, wait a minute. Back in Daniel chapter 12, we see that Michael is assigned a responsibility. Excuse me, Daniel 12 verse one. At that time, Michael shall stand up, and this is one of Daniel's visions, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people, and there shall be a time of trouble. So we see that Michael is tasked with watching the nation of Israel. So from Daniel, we see that not only do we have a detailed description of what at least one angel physically looks like, but we learn a little about the conflict that has happened, and will continue to happen in the unseen spiritual realm. Let's take to another time when the angels of the spiritual were seen by people in this world, and this is the life of Christ. The life of Christ sees many angelic interactions with humans, first at his birth, some during his earthly ministry, and a lot as his death and resurrection. I've already talked about Gabriel and him delivering messages to the parents of John the Baptist and Mary. So let's go take a look at another group of people that saw angels. Luke chapter two, verse eight through 14 tells about the shepherds who were delivered to the message that the Lord was, the Savior was born. Luke 8, Now there was in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over the flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by them. stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid. For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Verse 13, Then suddenly there was an angel with the angel, a multitude of heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill to men. Well, what this really looked like really does not go into detail here, but looking back at other scriptures, we can get an idea what these shepherds saw. We saw the angel of the Lord in his natural state because the verse says, in the middle of the night, the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. This term, glory of the Lord, is found and described for us in Exodus 24, verse 16 and 17. Now the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called Moses out of the midst of the cloud. The sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. So these shepherds just saw this consuming what I would describe as this mass of angels, and it just looks like a bunch of fire. This angel delivers a message that Jesus Christ, the Savior, is born. Oops, sorry. Wrong button. And the term here, heavenly host, means rank of angels, indicating that there's all sorts of different types of angels or ranks of angels at this, in this heavenly host. These angels in this field, these shepherds, I'm sorry, sorry. These shepherds that night were able not to see one angel, but a whole multitude. of angels, probably close to what something's Elisha's servant saw back in second Kings, or what the children of Israel saw on top of Mount Sinai. Next angelic, next sight of glimpse of the spiritual, I want to talk about when Christ was walking this earth. We will see that some of his disciples were privy to see Jesus Christ prior to his death on the cross as he transfigured from ordinary looking man to the son of God that he is. So three disciples see Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Matthew 17, one and two. Now after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John, his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves, and he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, his clothes became white as light. Matthew and Mark describe this in different ways. Mark 9 verse 3 says, his clothes became shining, exceedingly white like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. This description of the glorified Jesus Christ is recorded for us by others, but here's an artist's rendition of the Transfiguration. We'll also see that Paul sees the risen, glorified Christ also. In Acts 9, we see that Saul, who will later turn into Paul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciple of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked for letters for him to the synagogues of Damascus. And as he journeyed to Damascus, suddenly a light shone around him from heaven, and he fell to the ground. And he heard a voice saying, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. So he trembling and astonished, Lord, what do you want me to do? And the Lord said to him, arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do. Acts 26, 12 through 13 records Paul explaining to somebody what he saw, and on this road to Damascus. While thus occupied as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priest, at midday, O King, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me. So here it is, midday, high noon, this light that's brighter than the midday sun hits Saul. And it just happened to be funny for me because I just studied this part of the message and that afternoon I was making supper on the grill and I just happened to be looking towards the sun. And here it is, it's September sun, sun's going down, but it's still up in the sky and I look and I close my eyes and all I can see is just bright flaming red, you know. And I'm just trying to imagine what Saul saw here. That's just the sun and what it did to me. No, I'm not saying go look at the sun. I'm just saying, it was just bright red. I mean, it just looked like, you know, as I closed my eyes. But here's this light Paul describes as brighter than the midday sun. To me, it just struck me as that, that has to be bright. I don't, I couldn't even imagine, so. I thought this picture did a pretty good one. You see that bright blue sky type of thing, yet this light that's shining on Saul here is actually brighter. We also see from the New Testament, the Apostle John sees the risen glorified Christ. In the book of Revelation chapter 1, 13-16, we have a description of the risen glorified Christ in heaven. Verse 13, and in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the son of man, clothed with a garment down to his feet, girded above the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were as white as wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like fine brass, as refined in the furnace. His voice is the sound of many waters. He had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength." Jesus, the Son of God, is described here as brighter than any midday sun by Paul and along with the Apostle John. This adds up with what the disciples saw this transfiguration to, so we can get a general idea, if you can picture in your mind, what Jesus Christ looks like right now. Next, I want to focus on some other angelic visitors and descriptions of them. And this is based around the resurrection of Jesus Christ. An angel tells his disciples that he is risen from the dead. Matthew 28, one through six records this sighting, this spiritual realm sighting here. Now, after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb, and behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, came back and rolled away the stone from the door and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, his clothing as white as snow, and the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. So we can see here a description of the angel that was at Jesus' tomb at his resurrection. Of all the pics that I could find on the internet or pictures that kind of just, this was the only one that came close to face like lightning, white bright clothes. And so I had to put it in here. I thought it was the closest thing that some artists came up with to physically try to draw this angel. Angelic visits or glimpses of angels did not stop after this. We have a couple recorded for us in the early church. An angel was sent to answer Cornelius's prayer. Acts chapter 10. Verse 3 and 4 says, So we see that this devout religious soldier, a Gentile at this time, well, he's a Gentile, but at the same time this is happening, Peter is in a town a couple days away, and he's getting the visions of the bedsheet was full of unclean animals, and he's told to rise and eat. And then a couple days later, we see that in Acts 10 verse 21, then Peter went down to the men who had been sent for him from Cornelius and said, yes, I am he who you seek. For what reason have you come? And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, one who fears God and has a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews, was divinely instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house to hear words from you. So we see that an angel was sent to answer Cornelius's prayer. We also can see from the early church that Peter is delivered from prison by an angel. Acts 12, 7 through 11. Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him. Peter's in jail now. They were spreading the gospel. And they started getting thrown in jail, and now it's Peter's turn to be in jail. And I believe that at this time, one of the apostles was beheaded already, and it pleased the local religious establishment, so the authorities did it again, and they went after Peter. So in verse 12, verse 5, it starts out, Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. And when Herod was about to bring him out that night, Peter was asleep and bound with two chains between two soldiers. The guards before the door were keeping the prison. Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison. He struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, arise quickly. And his chains fell off his hands. Then the angel said to him, gird yourself, tie your sandals. So he did. And he said, put on your garment and follow me. So he went out and followed him, and did not know what was done by the angel was real, but he thought he had seen a vision. And when they were past the first and second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened up automatically for them. This is well before pressure pads and RF, automatic doors to the grocery store type of thing. So, and they went out, went down the street and immediately the angel departed. And then Peter came to himself and said, I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people. So we see that Peter had an angelic glimpse here. And I want to make some observations of what we studied so far. First observation is a praying Daniel started an angelic struggle. Daniel had a prayer. An angel was sent to answer that prayer or answer that question, and it involved a 21-day battle between two angels. There seems to be certain fears of influence assigned to angels by both holy and fallen angels. The nations and the kingdoms of the world have fallen angels attached to them, and as their nations grow, so does their area of influence. Holy angels have jobs in areas of this world that they are responsible for. Sometimes during these conflicts, another observation, these angels need help from other angels to do with their job. These angels are hard to picture as they are described in detail for us. One thing I did notice in all these interactions is everybody that has an interaction with an angel is terribly afraid, faint, run away, or fall down in a trance, or fall down like a dead man. We from the Bible, We know from the Bible that angels are part of this history of church and have been used to answer prayers for not only the saved members of the Jerusalem church, but they also answer prayers for, as we saw, Cornelius. So why is this important? First of all, we are affected in a negative way by the result of the conflict going on in the spiritual realm, whether we see it or not. The first and biggest result of a spiritual conflict that affects us negatively is sin. Sin was introduced into this world through the fall, which was a deception of Satan to Adam and Eve. Romans 5.12, therefore, just as one man, sin entered the world and death through sin, thus death spread to all the world because all have sinned. So minus the rapture of saints, we will all eventually die as a reductive result of sin that has come on mankind. because Adam and Eve believed a lie told to them by Satan instead of believing God. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. A sin in your life earns a person death, because the penalty of sin is death. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through our Lord. There's nothing we can do to help ourselves out in any way. Isaiah 64 6, but we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are like filthy rags. We fade as a leaf. Our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. All the righteousnesses we can do are useless. Luckily for us though, Romans 5.19 states, for by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous. We can be declared righteous. by one man obedience, Jesus Christ, 100% man, 100% God, coming to this earth expressly to die on the cross to save sinners, we can be declared righteous. 1 John 2.2 says, because he paid for that penalty. He himself is the propitiation, the satisfactory payment of our sins. not for ours only, but the whole world. God's justice was satisfied, so therefore God's love, in his love, he can give us eternal life in heaven with him. In this love, and part of this, at the moment of salvation, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit, and we cannot be separated from God. Ephesians 4.30, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye are sealed till the day of redemption. Based on these two facts alone, we can know that we are held by the Holy Spirit and nothing can separate us from God. But Paul says in Romans 8, 38-39, For I am persuaded that neither life nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor other created things, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So we can see that there's nothing in this present or spiritual world that can separate us from the love of God. So why would Paul, question I had, is why would Paul include angels, principalities, and powers on this list of things that cannot separate us from the love of God? The reason these things are included on this list is because we are part of the ongoing spiritual conflict that affects believers today. Today, what are we to do? We are part of this conflict. So we are to put on the whole armor of God. So please turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians 6, 10 through 20 talks about the whole armor of God, and I'll read verse 10. Be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. The most famous example of... So we are to put on the whole armor of God to stand against the wiles of the devil. Now what's wiles mean? Wiles means crafty scheming with the intent to deceive. The most famous example of this crafty deceiving is Job. In the interest of time, I will fast forward through Job. Job was, other than to highlight what it says in Job 1-7, Now there was a day when the sons of man came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, from where do you come? So Satan answered the Lord and said, going to and fro from earth and walking back and forth on it. Satan is walking around looking like a lion, as it says in 1 Peter 5.8. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, our adversary as believers, is the devil, who walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, knowing that the same sufferings that you experience because of this are by your brotherhood in the world. We are to put on the whole armor of God, as it says in, because we wrestle against the spiritual enemies of God. We wrestle against all the spiritual enemies of God. And this word wrestle means to engage in an intense struggle involving physical and non-physical force against strong opposition. Verse 12, "...for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and against rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places." Principalities are inherent in authority that comes with a position of prominence. The best example I could think of is the principal of the school has power because of the position, not because they're inherently powerful, therefore they're the principal. You're the principal, therefore you have certain power. Powers mean have the authority to rule or a jurisdiction, a sphere of authority. Keeping with the principle of a high school, the principal of Grand Rapids cannot go over to Hibbing and start bossing people around. It's out of his jurisdiction. Rulers. Rulers are leaders of natural or supernatural. This word is translated as chief, authority, official, or prince. wicked spiritual beings in the spiritual realm. This list covers all the spiritual dynamism of God. Not only of God, but of believers, because prior to salvation we are under the authority and control of these wicked spiritual beings. But now we, at the point of salvation, are conveyed into the kingdom of God, of Jesus Christ. Colossians 1.13 says, for he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us to the kingdom of his Son and his love. Ephesians 1 talks about this too. Chapter 2, verse 1. I'm sorry, chapter 2, verse 2. in which you also once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power there, the spirit of who now works in the sons of disobedience. Among also we have once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and were by nature children of wrath, just as others. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love in which he loved us, even though we are dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ and raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3.20, for our citizenship is in heaven, where we are to eagerly await the Savior. Put on the whole armor of God and stand. Be aware, be involved in the spiritual bladdle that is going and understand that the devil, his domain, his angels, have not stopped what they're doing with Daniel. They are doing their best to stand in the way, to fight against the work of the Lord. We are part of this conflict when we seek to give out the gospel, the only message that can save, and we get pushback. We get, this is the only message that can save a soul from hell. We're also part of this when we get pushback from standing on, making a stand on the Word of God. and saying, I'm going to do what the Word of God says because this is what the Word of God says and nothing else. We know 2 Corinthians 4.4, from 2 Corinthians 4.4, the minds, talking about unbelievers, whose minds and the God of this age is blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel, the glory of God, who is the image of God, should shine on them. We have the message of hope and eternal life, and we know there is resistance to this message. The resistance to this message goes from the individual all the way up to the top. I recently saw my daughter say something to her grandmother about the gospel, and there was a chuckle and an individual resistance there. And it reminded me that this is part of the ongoing battle. We have a message of hope, and when an individual, and you give them a message of the gospel, and they react negatively to it, this is why it's a spiritual battle. This resistance can be individual, and we know it is in many levels, starting with the individual, working its way up to the highest government officials of any given country, area, or region on this earth. Satan and his angels are set up, and their job is to get in the way of the work of the Lord being accomplished. I thought about this, the fallen prince of Persia, and I looked up countries where the Bible is illegal. and speaking of countries and regions of the earth. But if you look that up on the website, it is basically Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, that whole area. It is illegal to have a Bible. It is illegal to gather and try to study God's Word. So, and you think that's just a coinkydink or a coincidence that that it's the Bible that's outlawed in that region of the world. This is a, we are involved in a conflict in a spiritual realm, and we may not see it, but we're part of it. And we, you know, when we do stuff like make a stand on the word of God, or give out the gospel, that negative feedback again is, again, it's part of the conflict. In conclusion, the Bible records for us glimpses of the spiritual realm. We have described for us the armies of the Lord, the physical appearance of at least one angel, what his responsibilities and jobs are for both holy and fallen. We have seen events in time where members of the spiritual interact with human beings in the physical world. We can see how this spiritual conflict is going on and has very real consequences in our world, not only in the past, but today. When I started out this study to find recorded interactions between the physical and spiritual world and what they look like, I was very much, I ended up being very aware of the unseen but very real conflict that takes place in the spiritual. And I'm ashamed to say that I've been distracted by the physical world in which I live and dwell so much that the spiritual realm and that conflict rarely cross my mind. This study has made me much more aware of the spiritual realm, what's going on, and how we are part of it, and what to do in light of all the information we are given. The verse, 2 Corinthians 4.18, really stood out for me during this study. Well, we do not look on things which are seen, but at things which are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal. It was a fascinating study to start out basically as a trivia, get really good at angelic sightings in the Bible for trivia to find out being, to see and understand and be reminded of what's going on in the unseen spiritual world and that conflict and how it's been going on, what's going on, how long it'll go on and how we are a part of that. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the information that you've given us in the Bible concerning the unseen spiritual realm. We know through the Bible the spiritual realm exists, that this realm is powerful, powerful beings called angels. We know some by name. We know what they look like. We know what their responsibilities are in this unseen world. We also know that there's a conflict that has been and is taking place, and it affects the physical world we live in. We know that from the Bible that we as believers are a part of this conflict and we have supplied us with all that we need to be successful. In Jesus' name, Amen.