Activating the Ministry of Angels
Angelic ministry
Are we conscious of the Spirit within us? Are we aware of the angels of God ministering along with us? How does fasting and prayer play a role? These two devotional elements in our lives are lethal to the enemy, explosive, being essential to the awakening of our spiritual senses and to the activating of angels. (Daniel 10:3,12-13) David tells us that prayer returned to his heart when he fasted. (Psalm 35:13) This tells us that it was more than words for David, but that the spirit of prayer was awakened within him. God’s Word is also awakened within us through this radical expression of devotion. As well, the angels of God are activated by the Word of God spoken in faith. (Psalm 103:20) Now more than ever we need to be awakened with bright eyes of faith not only to the Spirit within us but that the angels of God would find a place of activity in our midst.
We pray to God in faith but by virtue of Psalm 103:20, we are empowered to speak God’s word in faith and angels will obey. But they are not obeying us. I have to make this point very clear. They are obeying God. That is why Joshua 1:8 says that we should meditate on the word and that is why 2 Timothy 2:15 says we should study so we know how to “rightly divide the word of truth”. It not just angels that act thus way. Demons, Bow ONLY to the Word of God Spoken in Faith: “One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?”-Acts 19:15. In learning how to make prayers that register in heaven and initiate immediate angelic ministration, we must study and understand the time tested principle in Philippians 4:6 “do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God”. Look at the sequence: prayer, petition and thanksgiving. Now, the tendency amongst many Christians is to think this is a New Testament teaching. But the New Testament is only a fulfillment of the Old. Let us consider 1 Chronicles 16:4 “David appointed the following Levites to lead the people in worship before the Ark of the LORD–to invoke his blessings, to give thanks, and to praise the LORD, the God of Israel” (NLT). Notice the similarity? Now let us read Daniel 2:18-19 “he urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven”. Here you see Daniel practicalizing this principle. In Daniel 10:12 we see that Daniel’s prayer was directed at God but the answer was brought to him by an angel. “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them”.
So, the question is why do we often not get the results that Daniel got? Two things: doubt and fear. I have already addressed doubt now let me address fear. In the verse we just read, notice that the first thing the angel tells Daniel is ‘Do not be afraid’. In Luke 1:30, Luke 2:10, Judges 6:23 and Matthew 28:5 we see that angels said the same thing to those to whom they were sent to by God. Ministering angels go to great lengths to calm people of the shock of seeing them so that they are not frightened because fear repels the particular type of angels that minister to man. (There are other types of angels with power to destroy and enforce God’s judgment, I do not refer to those classes of angels).
Psalm 91:11 reads “He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways”. From this verse, it is clear that one of the benefits God gives to those who believe in Him is a guardian angel. We see that even more clearly in Acts 12:15 “you’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.” Now, it is not just people that have angels. Nations have angels as we see in Daniel 12:1”. At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people–everyone whose name is found written in the book–will be delivered”. To clarify, Michael is a prince amongst angels. He is what is known as an arch angel. There are hierarchies amongst angels. You have angels and you have arch angels (1 Thessalonians 4:16 “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first”.) There are seraphs (Isaiah 6:2 “Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying”). And then you have Cherubim who surround the throne of God as He sits ( Psalm 80:1 “Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. You who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth”). So, what is the point of all I have written about angels and their ministration? It is to equip the believer to know that angels exist, that they are unbiased, that they are moved to action by the Word of God spoken in faith and that if we do not understand these principles we will remain helpless whereas God has provided angelic help to His people as well as the means by which we can access that help via the Scriptures. Secondarily, it is to equip my readers to know that leaders are particularly vulnerable to the operations of the enemy and they should regularly be prayed for for the simple reason that when they make errors with strong spiritual significance, the consequence of those errors are borne by the people they lead.
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