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While men may only guess about the things that are actually happening in the heavens;
A mighty messenger once gave the Prophet DaniEl a remarkable insight into the unseen power struggles that have been going on there, in Daniel chapter 10.
This messenger (likely GabriEl) went on to explain to DaniEl that his arrival had been held up for 21 days by someone whom he described as ‘the ruler of the kingdom of the Persians’ (Greek: ho archon baseleias Person).
Who was this highest ruler?
Well, the only individual powerful enough to stand in the way of a spirit messenger of God is another spirit person, and this one wasn’t friendly. From the context, we can see that this particular individual actually had the heavenly title of being the (unseen) ruler over the Persian Empire.
Where did this spirit person get such power?
The great opposer of God, who is also called Satan and the Devil in other Bibles, once offered Jesus ‘all the kingdoms of the world,’ if he would just bow down before him (see Matthew 4:8, 9). So he obviously has great power over this world and its human kingdoms. And it appears as though he has used this same offer of power to other spirit sons of God in order to bring them under his influence and ways.
Also notice in this same account, that God thereafter allowed His mighty messenger (yes, possibly GabriEl) to bring a war between the kingdoms of Persia and Greece. And then, it is likely that a new unseen ‘highest ruler’ would have taken power over the following empire of Greece.
What does this mean for us?
So from this, we must assume that all great world powers and all their wars have been under the direction of unseen spirits, which would explain a lot. For while we humans always think that we are in charge and that we control our own destiny, too often, unexpected and unseen things happen (which we call ‘fate’) that alter history.