Derek Prince - Satanic Forces Over Ethnic Groups
Excerpt from "Casting Down Strongholds"
Rather than speculate, I want to give you a passage from the book of Daniel which very clearly reveals that this is so. I’m not going to read the whole chapter but if you’re interested, you would do well to read the chapter for yourself later. Daniel chapter 10. This chapter relates how Daniel... set aside a period of three weeks for special prayer. And he did what we’ve come to call a Daniel fast. He didn’t give up all food but he only ate the plainest and simplest food and he drank no wine and he ate no meat. And he was mourning before God on behalf of his people Israel who were captives of a Gentile empire. And at the end of three weeks a very glorious angel came to him with the answer to his prayer, which was a revelation from God of what would be the future of his people, which consists of Daniel chapters 11 and 12. But, the angel said to him the first day you began to pray, your prayer was heard and I was sent with the answer to your prayer. But, he said, it took me three weeks to get through because somewhere between the throne of God and Daniel on earth, I was opposed by satanic angels. And I had to force my way through those angels.
So it’s very clear that at the time of Daniel, somewhere between God’s throne and earth there was this satanic kingdom. I believe it’s still there. It was still there when Paul wrote Ephesians 6:12, which was at least thirty years after the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. In other words, whatever the situation was, it wasn’t changed by the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Jesus ascended far above Satan’s kingdom but Satan’s kingdom still remained in place. And then the angel told Daniel, I’ve come with the answer to your prayer and when I leave I’m going to have to fight my way back through the same angels, and then I’m going to have to fight other satanic angels. The angel that came to Daniel said: On my way here the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days. So for twenty-one days these angels were battling in the heavenlies. And he also speaks about kings of Persia. In the language of the King James, which is used here, I understand the prince was the supreme ruler, the kings were sub-rulers. But they are all concerned with the kingdom or the empire of Persia, which at that time was the largest and most powerful empire on earth. It had 127 provinces.
So, Satan had one super-angel, who was responsible to him for the whole kingdom of Persia. But this super-angel had other angels that were responsible for different areas within the kingdom of Persia. This is no theory for me because I’ve seen in many instances and cases how this principle works. For instance, let’s suppose that there were major cities in the empire of Persia, which there were. I think there was one sub-angel over each major city. As I travel from city to city and place to place, I’ve learned that to be effective in the ministry in a certain city very often I have to identify the particular satanic power that’s at work in that city. And it’s different from city to city to city. Again, there were a lot of different nationalities in the Persian empire. And my observation is that many times there’s a particular satanic king, over a particular racial group. Taking the United States which is made up of many different racial groups, and where I’ve lived now for more than twenty years, my clear impression is that different racial groups have different satanic powers over them. And in dealing with those racial groups spiritually, it becomes important to identify the power that’s over them.
For instance, as everybody knows there are a lot of African Americans in America. I have no prejudice against black people, I love them, I have a black daughter. But they are the descendants of people who were taken there as slaves. I’ve shared this with black Americans. You find that most black Christians can only get so far, and something seems to stop them. I’ve shared my opinion that you came as slaves, you’ve been politically emancipated but you’ve never been spiritually emancipated. You’re still under a spirit of slavery. Now Paul speaks about a spirit of slavery in Romans 8 when he says: we have not received a spirit of slavery again but the spirit of the God which makes us sons and daughters of God. And when he’s talking about slavery, if you look at the context, he’s talking about religious legalism — people whose religion consists of sets of rules, do this, don’t do that.
My observation again is that nearly all black American churches are extremely legalistic. Hardly any of them know the real liberty of God’s grace. What is the reason? The reason is that that spirit of slavery has never really been dealt with. It still has a measure of control over them. They’re Christians, many of them, and some of them are very lovely Christians. But as a group they’ve never been set free. Take another group in the United States, the American Indians. Basically the United States is a country of liberty. Unfortunately, liberty has been carried much too far these days. It’s a country where almost anybody can prosper because of the nature of the economy and the laws and so on. You don’t have to have a doctorate in philosophy to prosper. In fact, you probably do better without it. But there’s one group that basically has never prospered: the American Indians. They’ve never prospered financially, they’ve never prospered socially, and spiritually, they are still in awful darkness. They are basically all practicers of witchcraft. And very powerful witchcraft. It's a tragedy. But my impression is that, until someone with vision understands the root problem of the American Indians and is prepared to do the spiritual warfare to release them, they’ll remain in bondage.
Now, I’ve been wise enough to take my examples from a distant land. But, I think if you ponder what I’m saying, in a little while you’ll begin to see that there are similar principles operating in Asia. Very strong principles. When the angel had finished telling Daniel about this, he said: when I go, I’ll have to fight again with the prince of the kingdom of Persia, and then after that I’ll have to fight with the prince of the kingdom of Greece. Why Persia and Greece? Well, because there were four Gentile empires that dominated God’s people Israel, and their land and the city of Jerusalem.
And you see, the battle is always most intense spiritually where God’s kingdom’s issues are focused. So wherever God is at work you’ll find that Satan will be at work also. His very name means the resistor. See? He resists God’s purposes and God’s people. He can’t help it, he’s a slave of his own nature. So, there were four successive Gentile empires that dominated Israel: Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. Now, in Daniel’s day Persia was still the dominant empire but the next one to follow it, would be Greece. And so we see that the spiritual warfare, in a way, relates to God’s people, God’s purposes, and in a sense, it’s necessary to carry out this spiritual warfare in order for God’s purposes for His people to be fulfilled. And Daniel is a marvelous pattern of somebody who by prayer and fasting and intercession changed the history of his people.