Evidently one reason this angel came to Daniel was to encourage him in his praying. Ronald Wallace, the Scottish pastor and teacher, comments on this passage,

Daniel's most intense agony, when he fasted and prayed with great conflict of soul, took place during the period of a great struggle in heaven between Michael and the prince of Persia (verses 3, 12). The conflict ended in victory for Michael, but the implication is that Daniel himself, in his sensitivity to what was going on in the other realm, was caught up into this conflict, was able to participate in it through his prayers, and thus to help to bring about sooner the successful outcome.

Is there any missions and evangelical significance to the apparent fact that Brazilian voodoo witches were offering sacrifices for the protection of Panama's chief of state, Manuel Noriega? Is there a "prince of Panama" to which these sacrifices were being made? Could he be discerned and opposed in concerted warfare prayer?

Was there a "prince" - a "principality or power" - behind the Nazi regime? Tom White of Mantle of Praise Ministries tells a story of someone involved.

In 1983 we worked with a new convert, a middle-aged German man who had grown up in West Berlin in the late 1930's. His grandfather and uncle had both been involved in the Nazi movement. He recalled secret meetings of German government officials in his home. With discernment and prayer, a stronghold of darkness was exposed, with an ugliness and intensity bound up with the very forces of anti-Christ that fed the diabolical schemes of Hitler. Though the earthly movement finally failed, the spiritual principalities of German witchcraft and hatred of the Jew are still present. Because of the strategic influence of this one life, we battled for our brother's freedom over the course of a year. In the final session, a strong, dark spirit manifested [itself], directly threatening my life. Holding firm in faith, with the sword of the Spirit, four other pastors and myself prevailed to break Satan's claim on this man. Today, he and his wife serve the Lord in Reno, Nevada, witnessing to the grace of God and setting other captives free.

I consider myself a beginner in this matter of "cosmic-level spiritual warfare." I have no program to put forward. I find myself being drawn from many sides into realities and struggles that I never even thought about five years ago. My aim in writing this article is to lay the matter before you for your consideration and prayer.

Who knows whether the intensification of spiritual conflict in the last decade of the second millennium will not take on dimensions foreign to our somewhat domesticated spirituality? Be on the alert! Let us not be ignorant of any of Satan's devices (neither personal nor cosmic). Let us learn how to "resist him, firm in our faith." And let us never forget the word of Revelation 12:11, "They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death."

John Piper