The Ministry of Angels

We have been looking at the way of blessing and how God's power is released into the earth through human vessels. 

We saw that the power and the forces of the spirit are released through words that are spoken into the earth. But once that word has gone forth and a creation is taking place, there are other forces that come into play. 

If God's power is to manifest in the earth, there has to be a physical manifestation of that power. When God first spoke a Word of creation into the earth, the Scripture says He did it by His Word.

God's Word was a whole lot more than just a voice going out into the earth. God's Word was a tangible manifestation of the presence of God in the earth and the presence of God in the Word. 

In John 1:1 to 3 we read this. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.

In the beginning was the Word; the logos. If you read through the rest of this chapter in John, you see that the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us. This is speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ. 

When God manifested Himself originally in creation, He created through the Lord Jesus Christ. He created through the Word or the logos. Logos was a manifestation of God in the earth.

The Angel of the Lord

As we look back at the Old Testament we see that when God revealed and manifested Himself to man, He did so by a manifestation or presence.

When God appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai there was thunder and lightning. Moses and Joshua and the elders of Israel walked up into the mountain, and the Bible says,

And they saw the God of Israel.

But the Bible also says,

No man has seen God at any time.

There seems to be a contradiction here. How could they have seen the God of Israel if God cannot be seen? 

As we read the New Testament, we see that God gave the law through the mediation of angels. There is also a term that occurs throughout the Old Testament. It is The Angel of the Lord. 

God manifested His presence in the earth through what is known as a theophany, which means a manifestation of God; an appearance of God in some form. The Angel of the Lord was that form. 

The Angel of the Lord appeared to all the patriarchs of old. And whenever God appeared to man in the Old Testament it was in the form of the Angel of the Lord. 

The Scriptures tell us that Jacob wrestled with a man. When he asked Him His name He said,

Do not ask me, because it is Wonderful.

It was a secret. The prophecy concerning Jesus says,

And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God.

Who do you suppose Jacob wrestled with? Later as Jacob laid his hands on Joseph's sons Ephraim and Manasseh, he said,

The Angel that redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads.

What was he referring to? He was speaking about the Angel of the Lord. Whatever God does in the earth, He does by means of His special messengers or His angels.

However when He acts directly upon the creation, He does it by that special manifestation known as the Angel of the Lord. 

Seen in Both Testaments

You can see in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that there was a manifestation of the Angel of the Lord when God came to do something tangible in the earth. In Acts 12:7 we read,

And behold, the angel of the Lord came upon [him], and a light shone in the prison: and he struck Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Get up quickly. And his chains fell off from [his] hands.

Peter was in prison and was scheduled to be killed the very next day. The Scripture says that the Angel of the Lord appeared in that prison and loosed his chains, took him out of prison and brought him right out into the open. 

It was a miraculous physical intervention in the earth by the power of God, and it was carried out by the Angel of the Lord. 

In Revelation 1:1 when John writes concerning the revelation that was given to him he says,

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, to show to his servants things that must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified [it] by his angel to his servant John:

He sent it by His angel. 

What did John see? Revelation 1:16 to 18 says,

And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his face [was] as the sun shines in its strength.
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand on me, saying to me, Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last:
I [am] he that lives, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of Hades and of death.

It was Jesus speaking, but John says it was the Angel of the Lord. Jesus was manifesting His presence to John in a theophany, or a physical manifestation of the presence of God. 

The Angel of the Lord is a very special angel. When God acts in our situation, He acts upon the creation to supersede the natural laws and actually cause a physical change to take place.

If it is a creative act or something miraculous in the sense of superseding the law of nature, God will intervene directly by that manifestation of the Angel of the Lord.

The Angels of Heaven

God also works through the angels of Heaven. I want to look at that in this chapter. 

In recent years there has been a lot of preaching and teaching on angels. There is a resurgence of interest in them, and in some quarters people are being caught up in the worship of angels.

They are often more preoccupied with what angels are doing than what God is doing. 

We need to be very careful. We need to understand how angels work, what they are supposed to do, and how they operate and function. That is some of what I want to cover here. I want to show you how the angelic system is set up. 

We will consider how the angels work, what they look like and what groups they fall into. We will see the kind of work they do, how we are to respond to them, and how they will respond to us.

We will see how they function with us in the earth to cause the blessings that we speak forth to actually manifest in the earth. 

The Scripture speaks of several different groups of angels. There is so much in the Bible on angels, that it is very difficult at times to put it all together and come to a full understanding on the subject.

It is as though a curtain has been placed over the subject. The only look we get at angels is with the odd angelic appearance in the course of the Bible.

In the Old and New Testaments we read about angels appearing. We can learn a little about them from how they appeared and the kinds of things they said. 

To understand the angelic realm we have to look at what the Scriptures teach. We also need to look at what we have experienced with regard to angels. 

I will therefore be sharing some of my own personal experiences with angels and what God has shown me in the Spirit. Some of these I cannot necessarily give you chapter and verse for, but there is plenty of evidence in the Scriptures to support what I will share. 

Messenger Angels

The Scriptures show us that there are several different types of angels and I believe that there are three main groups. 

The first of these main groups is what I would call the messenger angels. The leader of this group of angels is the Archangel Gabriel. 

We have all heard of Gabriel because the Scripture speaks about him many times. He appeared in the Old Testament to some of the prophets and various other people. 

Gabriel is also recorded as having appeared in the New Testament. He is the same Angel Gabriel mentioned in the Old Testament.

I have personally also seen him in the Spirit. He is often sent by God to announce new plans and purposes of God that involve the Body of Christ and God's purposes in these end times. 

What do messenger angels look like? They look pretty ordinary, and when Gabriel appeared he was sometimes referred to as 'the man Gabriel'.

He looks like a normal person. When he appeared in the past it was not immediately obvious that he was an angel, except perhaps by the way he was dressed. 

The Scriptures do not describe the Angel Gabriel. But from both the descriptions of the events of Scripture and my own experience of him, it seems that he appears very plain and unassuming. 

When he appeared to Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist, Zachariah even argued with him. So it appears that he did not carry a sense of awe. He rather but looked like an ordinary person, but he wields great authority as a messenger of God. 

I know from my own personal experiences and having seen these angels, they are generally pretty ordinary looking. They are mostly average height, average build, average sort of people, and I have always seen them dressed in clothing slightly different to what we wear today. 

There are however some of them that are huge. These are usually the ones that have been assigned to men as guardian angels. Guardian angels are a special type of messenger which we will consider shortly. 

The Scripture speaks about angels having appeared to people. When the angels appeared to Abraham, those three angels looked like normal men because he immediately said,

"Let's get a meal ready and entertain these people. They are strangers and they must be entertained." 

When the angels arrived at the house of Lot he did the same thing. He said,

"Come into our home and we will entertain you. We will care for you and feed you." 

They looked like normal visitors and normal people. 

Bringing Messages from God

What do messenger angels do? They bring messages from God. The angel appears and brings a message from God. 

The Angel Gabriel was always sent to bring a message from the Lord. He appeared to Daniel. And he appeared to young Mary to tell her that the Holy Spirit was going to come upon her, that she was going to conceive, and that she was going to become the mother of the Savior of the world.

They were very normal looking angels. We also read about an angel appearing to Cornelius as he was praying. We are not told that it was the Angel Gabriel, so it was likely another messenger angel, or perhaps it was Gabriel and Cornelius did not know it. 

There was also the angel that appeared to Joshua as he was about to conquer Jericho. He identified himself as the Captain of the Lord's Host. 

Perhaps he was the Angel of the Lord or perhaps he was simply an angel that was in charge of the armies of God. Joshua thought he was a soldier, because he was ready to attack and kill him if he was one of the enemy. 

Messenger angels bring messages, decrees and guidance. When we see them in the Spirit, they will often appear with a scroll in their hands. It is a message from Almighty God, or a decree that needs to be issued in the earth.

Those who by the gift of discerning of spirits are able to look into the spiritual realm are able to see angels and to identify them. 

Most people do not see angels and are not even aware that an angel is there, but yet the messenger angels still operate. They come at times to impart thoughts into the mind. Or they bring a spiritual influence without you even being aware of it. 

When God wants to send forth a decree or a message into the earth, He often does it by the mediation of angels, just as He did on Mount Sinai and as He has done throughout history.

Whenever God has wanted to send something into the earth, He has brought it to man. 

You may ask, "Why must the messenger angel bring it to man?" 

It is because man must issue the decree. Man must open his mouth. He must speak forth and send the Word of God into the earth. It is man that has the authority in the earth to speak forth God's Word and His message. 

I used to wait for God to send forth His decree. I used to wait for the angels.

I can remember the very first time I saw an angel appear to me with a scroll in his hand. He held it up and there was something written on it, and I thought,

"The angel is going to speak it to me."

The angel did not speak though and I wondered,

"How am I supposed to know what the angel has said?" 

Then the Spirit of God moved upon me and I found myself bringing an utterance. In that utterance came a prophetic word that issued forth the words of the decree that he brought to me. 

You may ask, "But why does God need an angel to do that? Why doesn't He just inspire you by the Holy Spirit to do that? Why couldn't God just reveal it to the prophets and to Daniel when he was praying? Why did He have to send an angel? 

When Zacharias was praying at the time of the offering, why didn't God speak to his heart? But God sent an angel and the angel appeared to him." 

To tell you the truth I do not have all the answers to this. But I know from experience and from the Word that it is true. I know there have been people who have seen an angel come and they have been afraid. They say,

"It must be a spirit of deception. This must be Satan posing as an angel of light and coming to bring me a message from the Lord. Why couldn't the Lord just tell me Himself?" 

That is why the gift of discerning of spirits is so important.

Why We Need Angels

Here is one explanation that I have come up with concerning this. 

God moves in the earth by the agency of angels and by His Holy Spirit working in and through our spirits. However you sometimes need a stronger influence than the inner revelation of the Spirit.

This is because a lot of people do not listen to what comes out of their spirits, or they are unable to listen prophetically. If God were to speak in their spirits they would not hear. 

God is speaking 24 hours a day in your spirit, but how many people hear His voice?

Not many do, so God sends an angel from without. He comes to imprint his message upon your mind and your heart by bringing an external influence to bear on you. 

That may not be the only reason that God would work in this way. But I know that He always has done this in the past, and He still continues to do it today.

Sometimes man needs the manifestation of an angel before he will hear the message and the Word from the Lord. 

Warrior Angels

There is a second group of angels which I call the warrior angels. They are obviously involved in warfare.

They carry out spiritual warfare in the heavenly realm. They are also involved in coming into conflict with the spirits of darkness; the battle that takes place in the heavenlies. 

The Scriptures tell us that these angels also have a leader, an Archangel that is above them. He is the Archangel Michael. You have heard about him. He is mentioned many times in Scripture. He is the leader of the warrior angels. 

What do the warrior angels look like? The Scriptures do not tell us much. I have not really found a clear description in the Bible of what a warrior angel looks like. 

I would have thought that a warrior angel would be a big, hulking giant; an awesome looking person that would terrify you. However the warrior angels that I have seen are usually smaller than a messenger angel. 

They are short, stocky guys, holding a sword in their hands and with a fiery look on their faces.

Do not underestimate their power. This is the kind of angel that wiped out half of the camp of Israel when they had sinned, and David had to offer a sacrifice to stay the angel. 

The warriors are a very powerful force of God and are involved in the warfare in the heavenlies. These angels are sent to fight on our behalf. 

We will be discussing this further as we look at some of the demonic realm and how Satan launches his attacks against us. You will understand then why we need angels to fight on our behalf, to do warfare for us in the heavenly realm. 

Warrior angels can sometimes be sent forth and commissioned.

An angel will sometimes appear and wait for a man to send the word of authority for him to go forth and to do what he is supposed to do in warfare. We will see shortly why that is necessary. 

Worship Angels

There is also a third group of angels that I call the worship angels.

The closest description I have seen in Scripture is the one that you will find in Isaiah 6. This was where Isaiah had the vision of the Lord being high and lifted up and His train filling the temple. 

Isaiah saw angels called the cherubim flying with wings. Notice in Isaiah's vision that the angels began to worship and cry out,

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is filled with His glory.

Worship angels are the only angels that I have seen with wings. 

A Scriptural occurrence of both messenger and worship angels was when the angel appeared to the shepherds on the night of Jesus' birth. They came to give the good news that a Savior had been born. 

It says that the angel was joined by the heavenly host. It was a messenger angel that came to them at first. And then suddenly that messenger angel was surrounded by a crowd of other angels who were all singing out in glory.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

They began to sing and to worship. That is what the worship angels are for.

They come into our presence as we enter into worship. They surround us in great numbers, bringing a spirit of worship and causing our spirits to rise up in praise and worship. 

They cause a motivation and a stir within us that we get caught up into the presence of Almighty God. And if you are able to listen in the Spirit you will sometimes hear them sing.

They sing with the most beautiful harmony and melody that you have ever heard. They are like a heavenly choir. 

Leader of the Worship Angels

Who is the leader of the worship angels? We know that there are messenger angels, and the Scripture tells us that the Archangel Gabriel is the leader of the messenger angels. 

We know that there are warrior angels and we know that the Archangel Michael is the leader of those angels. However when you look at the worship angels, you find that the Scripture does not tell us who the leader of the worship angels is. 

Who leads the angels in worship in Heaven? Who leads them and takes charge of them when they worship God?

The Scripture does tell us that there was one who led them in times past. He was known as the Star of the Morning. He was also known as the Light Bringer or Lucifer. He was the anointed cherub that covers, the Scripture tells us. 

I am not going to go into a lot here on Satan and his origin. But as we look at and read some of these passages concerning Satan, the Scripture makes it quite clear that he was the archangel in charge of the worship angels. 

He was the archangel who led them in worship and praise to Almighty God. He was the archangel in charge of music in Heaven and in charge of praise and worship. 

He knows all about the power that there is in praise and worship. He knows about the power there is in music and in song, in bringing the presence and power of God.

But he wanted that power himself. He wanted to be worshipped and to take God's place as the object of all worship, so he was cast out of Heaven and all his angels with him. 

The Scripture says that when Satan fell, he took one third of the angels of Heaven with him. 

There are three groups of angels: messengers, warriors and worship angels. When Satan fell he took with him the worship angels of Heaven. One third of the angels followed him because they were under his control.

When Satan was cast out of Heaven he took with him those angels that were under his control. They became the demon forces that are in operation in the heavenlies and in the earth today. 

The Bible does not tell us whether God created new angels to take their place. But I know that I have seen worship angels and the Bible tells us that there are worship angels.

So once again, we must make an assumption based on evidence rather than the clear teaching of Scripture. 

It would seem that God created angels to take the place of the angels that fell from Heaven with Lucifer. But the Bible does not tell us if God also appointed a new archangel to lead them in worship.

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