Only three archangels are mentioned by name
in the Bible. In the army of angels, they are the generals. There is Michael, who fights
for Israel. (See the book of Daniel); Gabriel, who announces great events; and Lucifer,
the one who became Satan.
The angelic being known as ‘common
angels’ are the most numerous. They are intelligent and wise, patient, meek, joyful,
powerful and mighty, obedient, heavenly spirit beings, not demons, not human, limited in
knowledge, higher than men and are always spoken as male beings, not as being sexless as
some teach. They have wills, spirit bodies with all bodily parts and passions as do men.
They need no rest, eat food, can appear
visible and invisible, and can operate in the physical realm, and can travel at
inconceivable speed. They can speak languages and do all things men can do.
They all have special work to do. They drive
spirit horses, guard gates, wage war in actual bodily combat, execute judgments, rule
nations, sing praise and worship God, lead sinners to gospel workers, direct preachers,
appear in dreams, bind Satan, guard the abyss, regather Israel, separate the good and bad,
bring answers to prayers, and do man other things for God and man.
Many times throughout Scripture, God Himself
appears as an angel to speak to people. He came to Abraham to announce he would soon have
a son in one instance. His walking with the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace is
another example.
Angels look like men in appearance, so one
never knows if one has entertained angels unaware.
Perhaps they are best known as guardian
angels, who attend to and protect those who believe and put their trust in God. They are
there to intervene when we pray to god for help, or when others pray for us. (1 Kings
19:5-7; Daniel 6:22; Matthew 4:11; Acts 10; Hebrews 1:14)
They were created by Christ before the Earth.
They are not to be worshipped. They are organized into principalities and powers with
thrones. (Colossians 1:16, 2:16; Roman 8:38; Ephesians 6:10-18; 1 Peter 3:22) They are
subject to God and are interested in earthly affairs.
Many people have had experiences with angels,
whether visible or invisible. They can appear as ordinary men. We never know when we may
encounter an angel.
Perhaps the man who held you back at just the
right moment to keep you from stepping in front of an oncoming vehicle and then
disappeared was an angel, or the airline ticket agent who told you over the phone there
were no more seats available on a certain flight of a plane that crashed. Perhaps it was
an angel’s voice that told you over the phone there were no more available on a
certain flight of a plane that crashed. Perhaps it was an angel’s voice that told you
to take a different way home and you obeyed, finding out later that the road you would
have taken had been washed out and several had been caught in the waters and drowned.
Almost all people who belong to God can name at least one experience of this type.
When I was eight years old, I lived in La
Jolla, which is a suburb of San Diego, California. My parents took me to the beach. I
didn’t know how to swim, but loved to collect all the interesting items one finds on
a beach, both in and out of the water. I kept going out farther and farther with my head
under water most of the time scanning the bottom for treasures. Before I knew it, I had
wandered out farther than I had intended and could not get my head above the water.
Suddenly a hand got me by the hair and pulled me up. A big man with a dark tan told me to
get back to my parents, do as they told me, and not wander out so far. I was too scared to
argue. I got out of the water. I looked back to see where the man was, but there was no
sign of him anywhere. I stayed on shore for a while, watching to see if he had ducked
under the water, but I never saw him again.
A couple of years later, when I was living in
Bakersfield shortly after World War II, I was taking a shortcut home from school near a
little stream. All I remember is that two older boys started following me, giggling and
jostling each other. I got scared and started to run. They caught up with me, pushed me
down, and dragged me to the stream, holding my head under the water. One was sitting on
me, and the other was helping to hold my head down. It seemed like an eternity had gone by
and I was in a panic. Suddenly the weight on my back and the hands disappeared and as I
came up gasping for air, I saw something disappearing out of sight at the edge of my
peripheral vision and the two boys running for their lives. I never actually saw what had
scared those boys off. I just ran home, glad to be alive and sobbing with relief.
All through my childhood, there were so many
occasions when I could have died or at least been seriously hurt that I can'’ even
remember them all.
One of the occasions I remember best occurred
when my children were small. My husband and I and the children were taking a trip from
southern Wisconsin to Minnesota. I was driving. It was night and everyone else in the car
was asleep. Interstate I-90 was in the process of being constructed. I heard a very loud,
distinct, and familiar voice calling me by name and telling me to wake up. I woke up just
in time to put on the brakes before going through a barricade and landing us all in a
river. When I thought about it later, I kept trying to place the voice. It was familiar
but, I never could identify it.
Fairly recently there were nine of us in a
car headed for church which was seventy miles away. We were cruising along a 65 miles per
hour. Something hit us on the right side, setting us into a spin that landed us in the
sand of an embankment next to the road. We then saw a red sports car take off and
disappear. This car had not been behind us. No one could figure out where it had come
from. We were in an area of the interstate that was near the exit where Satanic rituals
were rumored to go on all the time. At any rate no one was hurt. We managed to push the
car out of the sand and continued on to our destination with the right rear side of the
car all dented. For our car to be hit from that side, someone would have had to come up
out of the embankment to hit us.
God's 26 Guards
Here's a
message that will bring you chills. Have you ever felt the urge to
pray for someone and then just put it on a list and said,
"I'll pray for them later?" Or has anyone ever called you and said,
"I need you to pray for me, I have this need?"
Read the following story that was sent to me and may it change the
way that you may think about prayer and also the way you
pray.
You will be blessed by this....
A missionary on furlough told this true story while visiting his
home
church in Michigan . "While serving at a small field hospital in
Africa, every two weeks I traveled by bicycle through the jungle to
a nearby city for supplies. This was a journey of two days and
required camping overnight at the halfway point. On one of these
journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to collect money
from a bank, purchase medicine, and supplies, and then begin my
two-day journey back to the field hospital. Upon arrival in the
city, I observed two men fighting, one of whom had been seriously
injured.
I treated him for his injuries and at the same time talked to him
about the Lord. I then traveled two days, camping overnight, and
arrived home without incident....
Two weeks later I repeated my journey.
Upon arriving in the city, I was approached by the young man I had
treated. He told me that he had known I carried money and medicines.
He said, 'Some friends and I followed you into the jungle, knowing
you would camp overnight. We planned to kill you and take your
money and drugs. But just as we were about to move into your camp,
we saw that you were surrounded by 26 armed guards.
At this, I laughed and said that I was certainly all alone in that
jungle campsite.
The young man pressed the point, however, and said, 'No, sir, I was
not the only person to see the guards, my friends also saw them, and
we all counted them. It was because of those guards that
we were afraid and left you alone.' At this point in the sermon,
one of the men in the congregation jumped to his feet and
interrupted the missionary and asked if he could tell him the exact
day this happened.
The missionary told the congregation the date, and the man who
interrupted told him this story:
"On the night of your incident in Africa, it was morning here and I
was preparing to go play golf. I was about to putt when I felt the
urge to pray for you. In fact, the urging of the Lord was so strong,
I called
men in this church to meet with me here in the sanctuary to pray for
you.
Would all of those men who met with me on that day stand up?"
The men who had met together to pray that day stood up. The
missionary wasn't concerned with who they were, he was too busy
counting how many men he saw.
There were 26!
This story is an incredible example of how the Spirit of the Lord
moves in mysterious ways. If you ever hear such prodding, go along
with it.
Nothing is ever hurt by prayer except the gates of hell. I encourage
you to forward this to as many people as you know.
If we all take it to heart, we can turn this world toward God once
again. As the above true story clearly illustrates, "With God all
things are possible".
More importantly, how God hears and answers the prayers of the
faithful.
After you read this, please pass it on and give God thanks for the
beautiful gift of your faith, for the powerful gift of prayer, and
for
the many miracles He works in your own daily life... and then pass
it
on. Who says God does not work in mysterious ways
I asked the Lord to bless you as I prayed for you today. To guide
you
and protect you as you go along your way. His love is always with
you,
His promises are true, and when we give Him our cares you know
He will see us through.
So when the road you're traveling on seems difficult at best,
Just remember I'm here praying, and God will do the rest.
Pass this on to those whom you want God to bless.
Isaiah 12:2
"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid; for
the
Lord
Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also has become my
salvation."
^j^ ^j^
Heart Smiles
^j^ ^j^
"Life Is not measured
by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our
breath away." <"Helen
Steiner Rice">
What most people do not realize is that there
is a constant war going on around us that we cannot even see, but that directly affects
us. Devils and demons are the ones who kill, steal, and destroy. The angels of light are
fighting in our behalf. The cast of characters that inhabit this planet, both visible and
invisible is so vast that, were we to be aware of them all, one would be unable to live a
normal life for all the distractions.
Many people can tell stories of miraculous
escapes from death and injury and of having the feeling that God was intervening directly
on their behalf. God’s angels stay busy looking after those who belong to God and
those who are being prayed for by the saints of God. Prayer is our most powerful weapon.
FAITHFUL ANGELS AND THE SAINTS OF GOD
(Revelations 21:2; Ephesians 2:7; 3:11)
The faithful angels and the saints of God
will be helping God to administer the affairs of the universe from the Earth, which is to
be the eternal headquarters of His government.
The Millennium is not the end of it all, but
only the beginning. During the Millennium the natural descendants of Adam will learn to
live according to God’s laws. Those who are still in rebellion, even without the
influence of Satan and his cohorts, by the end of that time will join with Satan as he is
loosed out of the abyss where he has been chained for the thousand years of the
Millennium. These people will going with him in one last battle against God and His
people. During the battle the Earth and the heavens surrounding it will be cleansed by
fire. The Earth can be cleansed by fire with the natural people of God still living her.
By that I mean people who live in a natural physical body such as we have today can remain
unharmed. This will be covered in a chapter called "Fire".
We will then have a new heaven and a new
Earth that will remain in a state of perfection throughout all eternity. This will be
covered in a chapter called "Future World". We have a wonderful future ahead of
us. Some of our observers resent this.
They have plans of their own.
