So the angel said, “Do you know why I have come to you? Soon I will return to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I go, the prince of Greece will come; but first I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. No one supports me against them except Michael, your prince.”
(Dan. 10:20-21)

Daniel 10 is one of the rare passages in Scripture which pull back the veil to reveal more details about the unseen war that is going on at a global spiritual level. The ‘prince of Persia’ who is referred to in Dan 10:13 represents a demonic power influencing specific territories and nations.

For those of us who know and rejoice that the earth and its fulness belong entirely to the Lord, it might be easy to assume that God has only to raise His hand and everything will work out just as He wants it to. The Scriptures give the lie to that; His work on the earth is actually very hard, to convert hardened sinners, and to keep demonic powers on a sufficiently restrained leash. Daniel’s vision, for instance, shows God’s messenger being delayed 21 days by a demonic prince until Michael, the Archangel, comes to the rescue.

The Iranian regime has a very specific view in mind. From the days of Ayatollah Khomeini onwards, it has been intent on exporting its Shia Islamist revolution (‘Baghdad to Jerusalem’ is the catch phrase) and then to the rest of the world. It is quite prepared to exterminate any enemy, whether internal or external, who stands in its way.

In his insightful book, Iran, Open Hearts in a Closed Land, Mark Bradley comments that,

‘Violence is justified in the eyes of committed Shi’ite believers not least because of their fervent belief in the return of the Mahdi. They consider that they have a duty to prepare not just Iran, but the whole world for this eschatological event.

. . . [By] killing heretics and infidels who will burn out anyway, [they] hope to establish the Islamic system also hastens the return of the one who will restore peace and justice, then the use of violence is perfectly logical.’

There is nothing superficial about this Shiite belief in the return of the Mahdi, who is believed to be a descendant of Muhammad who will appear at the ‘End of Times’ to rid the world of evil and injustice. Going hand in hand with the preparation is the expectation that worldwide catastrophe and turmoil will be the sign of his imminent return.

This belief has certainly made the Iranian approach to foreign policy more confrontational, for, as someone wrote,

‘if you believe that a Muslim prophet will ultimately rule the world, why should you pretend to be entering into a dialogue with other civilisations? This kind of mentality makes you very strong. If I think Mahdi will come into three or four years, why should I be soft? Now it is time to stand strong, to be hard. It would insult the glory of Islam to be thought soft.’

This form of Shiite Islam sees democracy as being completely incompatible with its beliefs, and not unsurprisingly, cultivates hatred and suspicion of the democratic and ‘Christian’ West.

No words can adequately convey the misery and oppression the Iranian regime has inflicted on its own people. The devastation of shooting thousands of its own unarmed citizens is proof of a heartlessness that comes straight from the dark heart of the prince of this world.

Pray for the Holy Spirit to shine through in Persia. In another of his books, Too many to jail – The Story of Iran’s new Christians, the language of the people of Iran is not the language of their religion. We are once again speaking of a spirit that the Lord longs to rid the nation of. May the Lord help the bruised and battered people of Iran to look beyond the suffering the Islamic Republic has imposed upon it, so that people will sense the presence of the living God, and come to know Him in unparalleled numbers and beauty.

Pray too for the work of converting grace to prosper in Iran, even in the midst of a new generation of leaders who are less spiritually idealistic than their predecessors, and who have, in the words of Vasli Nasr and Nargas Bargholi:

‘. . . separated revolution from statecraft. At home and abroad, they neither espouse revolutionary grandiosity nor advocate revolutionary activism. The new leaders are establishment actors: pragmatic, hardened nationalists operating with a clear-eyed assessment of Iran’s capabilities and vulnerabilities.’

That phrase ‘hardened nationalists’ stands out. It leaves very little room for manoeuvre. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/

Trump’s war in Iran

In promulgating his unholy war against Iran, therefore, President Trump has been targeting the wrong enemy. You cannot fight spiritual forces with flesh and blood – no wonder Iran will not do deals with him. And his initial assumption that a suitably battered Iran (and how utterly foul it was when he spoke of bombing Iran back to the Stone Age ‘where it belongs’) would willingly submit to America retrieving its supplies of enriched uranium. (Quite disregarding the fact that with modern centrifuges, Iran would be capable of processing fresh supplies of uranium, and the whole cycle would begin again, effectively leaving the world no safer.)

When one thinks of the incredible lengths that the Allies went to in order to forestall Nazi Germany from developing an atomic bomb, however, (think for example, of the true story behind the film, The Heroes of Telemark in which immense and sacrificial efforts were made to prevent heavy water reaching Germany), it is clear that Iran’s nuclear capacity is no small matter of concern for America, nor the rest of the world.

Our job, as ever, is to be intercessors at work behind the scenes, partnering with the Lord and influencing what happens.

China

Then there is China, which has a very particular relationship with Iran. The newly emboldened Xi believes himself to be the leading superpower and the ‘glue’ that holds the world together – not least as the result of hosting visits from Trump and Putin – and of China owning possessing something like 90% of certain of the rare earth minerals on which modern life deepens.

The more the world sees of Donald Trump’s outrageous actions and plans, the brighter China’s apparent stability shines. But no one should underestimate its determination to undermine and destabilise the West.

Russia, Ukraine, and technology

Instability threatens the world via Russia’s war with Ukraine, too, as well as the huge upheaval for those who live under its direct impact. New drones are being invented almost every month, with first one side and then the other pulling ahead. Ukraine has found its way to long range targets within Russia, but Russia is hitting back hard.

While lives are being destroyed in as devastating a way has as has always been the case in war, the forces of war are employing rapidly advancing technology to enlarge their scope – and that reach extends into the technologies we depend on in everyday life.

For instance, at the moment, banking and such services are protected by heavily encrypted passwords that would take years for a computer to crack. But with the soon-coming advent of quantum supercomputers, what would have taken years to crack may take only hours. What uses will such power be put to? It is never too early to pray into these matters.

Britain’s top intelligence chiefs continue to vigorously flag up Russia and China as posing serious cyber and sabotage threats to Britain, but let’s not underestimate the threats in that direction from Iran and North Korea too.

Lord, Lord, stir up Your intercessors and stretch out Your hand to rebuke the undoubtedly very strong powers at work over Persia at this time and the Gulf States. Direct and overrule both the American and the Chinese leadership teams now in this brief summit, but in the whole way in which Sino-American relationships develop. In Jesus name we pray.

You may find this powerful track from our second Reawakenings album helpful in shaping your prayers – and with it your heart – along these lines.