A Divine Revelation of Angels (18 page)

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I am so grateful that God has anointed me as His servant and has allowed me to see these supernatural visions in order to communicate the message He wants His people to know. I have shared with you only a part of the things I have encountered in the revelations God has given to me. But I want to assure you that the work of God’s angels is all found in His Word, and it is wonderful!

The purpose of this book is to encourage you in your faith. The study of angels provides us with a wonderful opportunity to come to know God and His ways better. As we learn about angels, we are not to place our focus on celestial beings themselves but on almighty God and the power and grace He manifests through His servants, the angels. Our knowledge of God’s special messengers and how He works through them can help to enlighten our doubts, solidify our beliefs, comfort us in sorrow, and give us peace. The ministry of angels on our behalf reveals that God loves us and is continually working to help us. What a comfort and joy that knowledge is to us!

One of the messages of A Divine Revelation of Angels is that God has angels for every need you have. You may not always see them, but God sends His angels to go before you, stand behind you, walk beside you, and be solid ground underneath your feet. There are hosts and legions of angels whom He can send to give you strength or any other blessing you may need. Believe what God says in His Word! He cares about you! “Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

Another message of this book is that the Word of God and the angels are always in action accomplishing His purposes. God is continually working out His plan of salvation, redemption, and judgment for the world. He wants us to know this and to participate in His purposes with Him. How can we best do this? The biblical examples of the nature and role of angels and the visions and revelations I have shared with you reveal these important truths, among others, for loving and serving God.

The Importance of Worship

The angels’ adoration of God underscores His majesty. Angels are an example to us of how we should reverence and worship God. As all of heaven and the universe echo with the praises of God’s angels, let us remember to honor and praise God, too. Heaven gives us this model for our worship:

The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.”(Revelation 4:8–11)

Amen and amen! Blessed be the Lord God Almighty!

The Importance of Believing

Second, learning about the ministry of angels on our behalf should give us confidence in God’s love and power and encourage our hearts that God is with us, no matter what we’re going through. Let us remember the words of Psalm 91:14–15:

Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him.

We need to trust God in all things and concentrate on loving and serving Him, for He is worthy of all our trust. Hebrews 11:33–35 encourages us that the saints of Bible times

through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.(emphasis added)

First Peter 1:5 says that we are “kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Let us exercise that faith in our daily lives so that we may accomplish all that God wants to do through us in the ministries and gifts He’s given us to build up His kingdom.

The Importance of Discernment

Today’s “angel mania” and the false ideas about angels that are being circulated in both religious and nonreligious circles show us the importance of using discernment when it comes to the use of spiritual gifts and encounters with spiritual beings. We should always remember that the devil is able to transform himself “into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14) in order to deceive us. Therefore, we must fill our hearts and minds with God’s Word as we test the spirits.

We should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, [we should] grow up in all things into Him who is the head; Christ.(Ephesians 4:14–15)

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses [“acknowledges” niv] that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess [“acknowledge” niv] that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.(1 John 4:1–3)

The Importance of Obedience

As I wrote earlier, God wants us to tear down the unclean altars in our lives and make ourselves altars of holiness to Him as we make a new commitment to love and serve Him. This means that we must repent of our sin, come before God in humility, and ask Him to cleanse and restore us through Christ. We must remember that His judgment is going forth in the world. Let us allow Him to discipline us by purging us with His fire and cleansing us by His holy Word.

Once, when I was in prayer, an angel brought me this vision. I saw two huge spiritual faces looking at each other—face-to-face and eye-to-eye. The faces had no bodies; they were just faces. Then, one of the faces kissed the other softly on the lips. I thought of the Word of God: “Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed” (Psalm 85:10). In the book of Psalms, God has much to say about mercy and truth:

The Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.(100:5)

But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.(86:15)

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; mercy and truth go before Your face.(89:14)

All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, to such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.(25:10)

God shall send forth His mercy and His truth.(57:3)

Then the angel took me back in time, and the Lord showed me another vision that I had seen years ago. God was sitting on His throne. Now, I didn’t see God; I just saw the outline of God. I saw the glory of God and the fire of God and the outline of a form sitting on a large throne somewhere in the universe. In each of His hands—His very large hands—was a large rope and a type of round object.

I couldn’t see what the ropes were fastened to, but they were in His hands, and He was trying to pull them together. It was as if a tug-of-war was going on between the two. Every time they nearly met, it seemed as if something would struggle against Him and something would pull the opposites apart. Just as He was getting ready to join them together, an invisible force always opposed Him.

Then I saw faces on the ends of the two round objects, and they were the same faces I had seen in the other vision—mercy and truth. I began to understand that, in this symbolic vision, God was trying to get mercy and truth to meet together in our hearts. God desires us to worship Him with integrity. Jesus said,

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.(John 4:23–24)

God wants our hearts and our minds to be holy and clean. In the vision, the angels seemed to be encouraging me in this truth. Suddenly, this Scripture came to me: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27). I thought,

O Lord, the enemy is planting so much unbelief and doubt in Your body all over the world. It’s almost as if, when You get us to join together in the heart, something happens to take away some truth or mercy You’ve given us. This is why we’ve got to dig in Your Word and believe Your Word, no matter what we get hit with. No matter what we think in opposition to Your Word, we must go forth and believe Your Word.

Truly, when mercy and truth meet together, how precious and wonderful the Lord is! God is calling you to a special place in Him. As you yield to Him and live a holy life (see 1 Thessalonians 5:23), He will use you mightily—and His angels will go with you continuously!

Once I was praying in preparation for preaching at a service, when I saw many large angels in the sky. They were working diligently at some task. It seemed to me that they were pulling a ropelike vine through a door into heaven.

Doors were open in the sky, and the vine went through one of the doors and up onto a table. Many angels were sitting at the long table examining the vine. If they found bad places in it, they would take a big knife and trim off the contaminated part before it did any further damage. I thought of how God prunes us, and I remembered Jesus’ words:

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.(John 15:5–8)

The vine of the Lord goes all over the earth. Some people are grafted into it, but some are cut off. It is very important for us to love the Lord and keep His commandments as best we can. It is essential that we obey Him, regardless of what He asks us to do.

Be encouraged in the work of God that you are doing. Knowing that angels are around you to assist and bless you will give you encouragement to hear from God. As you are strengthened in the work of God, He will begin to reveal special things to you. Ministers of the Gospel must believe that while Jesus is working through His Holy Spirit and through manifestations of power, angels are present to minister in the services and to the servants who really love God and keep His commandments.

Obey Him, and you will see a move of God in the land like you have never seen before. God is looking for a people who will love Him enough to obey Him and trust Him for who He is, and who will believe what the Word says. He is preparing just such a people. It is His will that we walk close to Him. God is getting ready to do some really great and mighty things in our lands. We have much work to do before Jesus comes again.

This is the hour for us to get ready for a move of God like we’ve never had before. The Lord imparts His gifts to His people. He gives freely and liberally to His own. God’s precious gifts are for the holy people of God so that they can train others to do the works of the Lord. I believe that He is preparing all who are open to Him, so that they can teach people and help them to understand how much God loves them.

The Importance of Perseverance

God’s holy, elect angels persevered in loving and serving Him even when Satan and many other angels rebelled against Him. They are a model for us of everlasting devotion to God and His ways. Let us take their example and persevere in our dedication and loyalty to God and in our work for Him. The Bible assures us that

God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
(Hebrews 6:10–12)

Remember what happened when Jesus battled Satan in a titanic struggle with temptation in the wilderness. Jesus faced His temptation alone, quoted the truth of the Scripture to the enemy, and defeated Satan. It was then that the angels came and ministered to Him.

Likewise, you and I often have to face our temptations without any human help. Many times, we do not have anyone to stand with us in the crucial hour. Yet God’s Word lets us know that the Lord never leaves us and that, when the battle is won, we will be ministered to by His angels. What a lesson we can learn from this! We do not go through dark days and trying times in vain. God has deliverance for us, and He will send His angels to strengthen and encourage us. Blessed be our God!

The Importance of Prayer

Finally, in chapter ten, we saw the role that angels have in answering our prayers and the importance of our intercession for God’s work of salvation and deliverance to go forth. God will deliver many through the prayers of the saints. Paul taught us in Ephesians 6:18 to pray “always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”

Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in your prayers. Romans 8:26–27 says,

The Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Let us seek God’s will and ask Him to bring salvation, healing, and deliverance as we intercede for our families, communities, and nations.