12 Biblical Points About Talking with Angels
Everyday Supernatural
In Scripture, we see that God uses angels to direct, encourage, protect, and instruct His people. Just like He uses dreams to bless us, God uses angels in our lives. And far from being random occurrences that happen once or twice in our lifetimes, angelic intervention is, in fact, God’s modus operandi. He created angels. God Himself designed the spiritual landscape to include angels—it was His original intention.We usually think of angels appearing in our church services, and that is great. We may see them during our worship times or prayer meetings. Praise God! We are so thankful for these ministering spirits caring for us who have inherited salvation (see Heb. 1:14).
However, most of us don’t spend our entire lives in church. We go to work. We attend school. We enjoy time with our families at home. Are angels with us then? Surely it is outside the four walls of the church that we need them most.
So, what would that look like? We have been blessed by testimonies of angels in our meetings on Sunday morning, but where are they on Monday morning in our office building? Or on Saturday morning when we are at the gym?
We want to take our Christianity outside of our church services and live the Bible every day, in our everyday lives. If we engage the supernatural and expect to follow scriptural examples of angelic encounter and assistance—what does that actually look like?
Better Than the Counterfeit
Some of this may sound New Age to you. However, Titus 1:15 tells us that “to the pure all things are pure.” So when I talk about interacting with angels, that does not sound New Age to me at all. Instead, it sounds like Zechariah. It sounds like Daniel. It sounds like Jesus in the Gospels and John in the book of Revelation.
I am not really familiar with the New Age Movement or what New Age followers believe. I do know they have books and even classes on angels, but I have never read those books or attended the classes, so I am not aware of what they teach.And I prefer it that way.
I actually take it as a wonderful confirmation that unbelievers are counterfeiting the truth that I live in. That shows that what I am experiencing is authentic and valuable. Nobody counterfeits $1.00 bills. They only counterfeit what has great worth.
Also, it is significant that there are no counterfeit $3.00 bills either. Why is that? Because in the United States there are no real, legal $3.00 bills. Therefore, the fact that the New Age is counterfeiting angelic experience proves two things: angels are real and interacting with them has value.Instead of studying other faiths, I just stick to reading my Bible. There are over three hundred verses on angels found there, which is more than enough to offer a strong scriptural foundation and precedent for my own angelic experiences.
It is interesting to note how banks train tellers to recognize counterfeit currency. They do not have them study fake money or examine counterfeit bills. They do the opposite. They simply have them focus on legal tender, the legitimate, true bills. As a result, they are so familiar with the authentic that they immediately recognize anything that is not genuine.So it is with our supernatural experiences.We want to focus intently on the Word of God, the Bible. We want to be so thoroughly familiar with what God Himself has said about angels, with how He has used them in the lives of His children for millennia, and how He’s shown us in the book of Revelation that He will continue to use them in the future, that we don’t doubt it anymore. We understand Father’s heart and His intention for angels to bless us, to minister to us, to help us.But how can angels do that when we are afraid to interact with them? The New Age did not invent angels. God is the one who imagined angels, created them each individually, and assigned them to us. They are God’s idea.
My co-author and I fully explore these truths (and many more) in Everyday Angels, but below is a glimpse of God’s heart on the subject as revealed through His Word. These Scriptures, while far from exhaustive, do give us a preliminary understanding of the strong biblical basis believers have for engaging the angelic realm.
12 Biblical Points About Talking with Angels
1) Elisha prayed that his servant’s eyes would be opened to see angels (2 Kings 6:17). This was a prayer specifically initiating his servant into the realm of the angelic in order to alleviate his fears. That’s why seeing angels is a blessing – we realize we’re not alone and we move out of fear. If we are in fear, we’re not in faith. Anything not done in faith is sin and without faith it is impossible to please God (Rom. 14:23; Heb. 11:6). Therefore, angels help us avoid sin, minister to God and please Him.2) If God had intended to caution us about angelic interaction, He would have been straightforward about it. After all, He knows how to lay down the law. Throughout Scripture we have no trouble finding direct and clear commands of what to do and what not to do. It’s remarkable that nowhere in the Bible does Father ever specifically warn His precious children of the “perilous risks” of angelic interaction. Doesn’t He love us? Doesn’t He care? Or, is it that angelic interaction is not as dangerous as we’ve made it out to be?3) While some Christians are afraid of being deceived and accidentally worshiping a fallen angel, there is NO record in Scripture anywhere of any believer actually doing that. Therefore, biblically speaking that fear is not justified.4) On the contrary, we should listen to angels, because the clearest teaching we have anywhere in Scripture on not worshiping angels, was delivered by an angel himself (Rev. 19:10 and 22:8-9). Jesus was right there when John almost accidentally worshiped a holy angel. Jesus saw the whole thing! He was not offended, disappointed, angry or hurt. Jesus allowed the angel to continue to share heavenly secrets with John (Rev. 22:10-11). Jesus continued telling John wonderful revelations and promises (Rev. 22:12ff).
This was a worst case scenario – falling down to worship an angel – and there were NO NEGATIVE REPERCUSSIONS whatsoever. Satan has twisted these verses to make us afraid of God’s judgment, when really they are powerful glimpses into His heart of love and compassion for us. These verses are a wonderful promise from God Himself showing us that He will not allow His children to be deceived. If we believe satan’s power to deceive us is greater than our Father’s ability to protect us, we are deceived already.5) There are only two verses in the entire Bible that say anything negative about engaging angels – and that involves worshiping them. We are not worshiping them, and make that crystal clear. We also thoroughly examine those Scriptures in the book and DVDs in light of Gnosticism, which had heavily influenced the culture to which Paul was writing. That is, the people mentioned worshiping angels in Scripture were not believers and they were not deceived into worshiping angels. They were doing it on purpose, because they believed God was too lofty and unknowable for humans to worship Him directly.
Obviously since we are teaching the 5 Scriptural Safeguards for Spirit Realm Navigation which includes, most importantly, being saved by Jesus and entering the spirit realm by His cleansing blood, this Gnostic teaching does not apply to us. Again, there is no example anywhere in the Bible of a Christian being deceived into worshiping a fallen angel. This is significant, showing our fears are not biblically based, but seeds of fear from the enemy. We must take all 365 Scriptural references on angels into consideration and not allow 2 seemingly negative verses to outweigh the other 363. We would be allowing satan to steal entire chapters and books of the Bible from applying to our lives! May it never be.To be clear, this is how we teach you to enter the sacred supernatural:
Through JESUS. He is the way, truth and life (Jn. 14:6). He is the door and through His blood we enter the spirit realm safely (Jn. 10:9).
We must believe the Bible is God’s inerrant Word, therefore all our spiritual experiences must align with biblical principles.
We demonstrate our love for God by reading and knowing His Word.
We have an attitude of submission to God by obeying His Word, living in a way that demonstrates He is Lord in every area of life (ie, not just believe it, not just read it, but LIVE it and allow the Living Word to transform our lives).
We always submit to our multitude of counselors, sharing our spiritual experiences with them for confirmation and adjustment because in them are wisdom and safety (Prov. 11:14; 2 Cor. 13:1).
6) Jesus did nothing on His own initiative; only doing what He saw Father do in the spirit realm (Jn. 5:19-20, 30). He was constantly tuned into the supernatural world. If we live like Him, looking into the spirit, we’ll also interact with angels, just like He did (Matt. 4:11; Lk. 22:43).7) When God tells us to take the initiative and set our mind on the spirit (Rom. 8:5-6), keep seeking the things above (Col. 3:1-3) and look at things that are unseen (2 Cor. 4:18) it is clear He wants us to proactively engage the supernatural. When we look in the spirit, angels are there (Ps. 34:7; Ps. 91:11-12). We would have to close our spiritual eyes in order to not see them, and we know Paul prayed that the eyes of our hearts would be opened (Eph. 1:17-18).8) Jesus said that no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born from above, born of the Spirit (Jn. 3:3). Therefore, because we have been born of the Spirit, we can see the Kingdom of God. Jesus tells us to initiate interaction with the spirit world when He says to “Seek first the Kingdom of God” (Matt. 6:33). It is a spiritual Kingdom full of spiritual beings of angels. If He did not want us to interact with them, it would be like my suggesting, “Seek first the beach! But don’t engage the ocean. Seek the sand and the seashells, but whatever you do, don’t look at the ocean and definitely don’t listen to the ocean.” Obviously, the ocean is a key feature of the beach’s landscape.
So, too, God has made angels key players in the spiritual landscape. If we are seeking Heaven, we are going to see them and hear them, unless we are spiritually blind and deaf. Angels are part and parcel of the Kingdom. They are right here with us – angels encamped about us, given charge over us and ministering to us (Ps. 34:7; Ps. 91:11; Heb. 1:14). Do we really believe God prefers we ignore the ministering spirits He has sent to assist us?9) Hebrews 1:14 reveals that angels are ministering spirits sent to serve us. A housekeeper or waiter serves us, and we speak to them telling them how to assist us. This is not disrespectful to God. God is not insecure nor is He threatened by our relationships or conversations with others. He calls Himself the Lord of Hosts, thereby identifying Himself with angels. He created relationship and family and designed the relational dynamics of the Kingdom. Why create angels and have them guard us in all our ways and minister to and serve us, but expect us to marginalize and overlook them, pretending we’re blind to their assistance? We honor God when we appreciate the gift of angels He has assigned to us. We dishonor God when we ignore the spirits He’s sent to minster and serve, protect and help us.10) Where does God say not to initiate angelic encounter? We know we can’t build an argument from Scriptural silence. For example, just because there is no verse in the Bible about God protecting us from car accidents, we can still pray in faith that He will. There is no verse saying He’ll heal cancer, but we know He will. His nature is revealed in Scripture as Protector and Healer, so we know that these requests line up with Scriptural principles, even though not specifically stated word for word. We know that if the Bible isn’t explicitly clear, we see what aligns with Scriptural principles and God’s character. The question we ask is, Are we violating any biblical principles? Is there anywhere in Scripture that God told us not to initiate conversations with angels? No, there is no Scripture telling us that.
We are allowed to initiate conversations with people and pastors. Pastors are only mentioned one time in the Bible. We have 364 more references to angels than pastors and many more records of conversations with angels as well. Does this mean we should not initiate conversation with our pastors, since there is not a verse that tells us to? Clearly we know that we’re not violating any biblical principle, therefore we are safe to confidently engage both our pastors and our angels.In fact, God tells us to resist the devil and cast out demons – these are direct Scriptural commands to speak with angels, as satan is a fallen angel. We seem to have no trouble with spiritual warfare, which is essentially an angel-focused ministry. We have focused exclusively on the fallen instead of the faithful and should give at least as much attention to God’s holy angels as well.11) Initiating angelic conversation was done by several biblical heroes. Scripture declares angels encamp about us and guard us in all our ways, so they are always with us. These men spoke to the angels with them first:
Zechariah (Zech. 1:7 – 6: 15) – First 6 chapters of Zechariah are a two-way conversation between him and an angel. He talked to the angel first, initiating the conversation (Zech. 1:9).
Daniel (Dan. 7:15-28; 8:13-27; 9:20 – 10:21) – There are extensive angelic conversations in Daniel, and he too initiated the conversation, speaking with the angel first (Dan. 7:16).
John (Rev. 10:9-10) – John initiated angelic conversation and interaction and spoke with the angel first.
Abraham (Gen. 18:2-3) – He spoke with the angels first, initiating the conversation.
Lot (Gen. 19:1-2) – He too was the first to speak and initiate conversation with the angels.
It’s also interesting to note that when Mary didn’t understand God’s plan, instead of asking God Himself her question, she asked the angel (Lk. 1:26-38). Therefore we see that many in Scripture engaged in angelic conversations and the fact that New Agers do too is confirmation that what we are doing is genuine and valuable. The enemy can’t create anything new. He can only counterfeit, and he only counterfeits what has value. 12) John used his godly imagination to precipitate a visionary encounter in Revelation 4. In Revelation 3:20 Jesus shows him a door, then the vision ends and he is no longer in spirit. So, in order to get in spirit and begin having another supernatural vision, he uses his previous vision as a steppingstone.
We see this in Revelation 4:1 as John decides to picture a door using his godly imagination. He is not in spirit; this is not a vision. Then, after he primes the pump, God takes over and in verse 2 we see that then he is in spirit. At this point in verse 2, his godly imagination is transformed into a supernatural vision – the door disappears and now God is showing Him His throne.This is a Scriptural example of picturing biblical truth with our godly imagination, having God transform that picture into a supernatural vision, which then leads to 18 chapters full of angelic interaction, conversation and engagement. If this is acceptable for John to do, it is acceptable for us to do, because the Bible is meant to be lived!