Understanding Angels Among Us, Pt 1, Ep 2-25
Welcome back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing one of the ways we are enabled to conquer Unseen and even Seen Enemies and that is because of Heavenly Angels. We are going to look at how angels have been revealed to us through the Bible to understand who they are and their role. I will share a few stories of my experiences with seeing angels working and how it felt to be present during it all. There is a lot of information here and so we are going to do this in 2 episodes so here we go.
There are a lot of differing opinions on angels, and it is important we understand them from a biblical perspective. I was surprised to find that while as a world population, only 31% are Christian, when you ask about belief in angels about 70% of the overall population believe in angels, regardless of whether they are Christian or another religion. With that many people believing in these heavenly hosts, I think it’s important to spend some time discussing here.
To start off, let’s discuss who they are, where they are, how long they have been around, just get a general understanding of angels.
Angels are heavenly beings. They are superior to humans in strength, intelligence, power and character. They have supernatural abilities and far exceed our level of knowledge, but they are not all knowing, all powerful nor omni present as is God. They’re existence can only be in one place at one time, though they can travel at whatever pace is required but they can encounter obstacles in their travel. Angels were created by God, they were alive when creation was formed. They are holy and have always been holy. Originally there were 3 companies of angels which were each led by an archangel. Two companies remain and are led by archangel Michael or archangel Gabriel. They can be referred to as angels of light. Light angels will only ever appear as light angels.
The third company of angels are fallen angels and are led by Satan and can appear as light or dark, meaning fallen, angels. For the remainder of this episode, we are only discussing angels of the light.
Angels are known for their activities of praising, worshipping and carrying out God’s commands. Angels are interested in and many of their activities involve humans and our journey of becoming saved through our belief in Jesus. Angels do not need to be saved, they are already citizens of heaven. They already know God, Jesus is King and are opposed to anything that is against God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit. They can take the form of humans to accomplish the task that is required. They can remain invisible to our eyes, or they can allow themselves to be seen at differing levels, meaning, sometimes we can see a somewhat transparent or translucent figure but not necessarily a lot of detail to their form. They can also take over another form and we will go over an occurrence of this in the Bible.
In Christianity, there are considered 3 types of angels. There are others who will name many more than this, but I am only referring to what the Bible calls angels of light. We are not discussing the titles given to fallen angels because that is not our discussion on this episode, so keep that in mind. Also, our description in these next few minutes are angels in their heavenly state as opposed to how they appear to us on earth most frequently.
The three type of Angels in no particular order:
Seraphim are a type of angel only described in Isaiah. We are going to be discussing this in detail from the book of Isaiah in a few minutes so I will talk more about these angels then, but they are quite intriguing, and I look forward to having the opportunity to see them myself when the time comes.
Cherubim are winged beings that are referred to the most and are seen more frequently throughout the Bible, 92 times actually. They are first mentioned in Genesis 3, which we will discuss and are also mentioned in Revelation. So from the beginning to the end. These are the beings most often misinterpreted as chubby babies and silly caricatures are rampant of them looking sweet and quite frankly ridiculous and nothing could be further from the truth. A number of places in the Bible give a very vivid, while simultaneously hard to imagine description of their appearance. They are described as having 4 wings, four faces—that of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle with four feet like a calf. When we read of the cherubim first mentioned in Genesis 3:24, after Adam and Eve are displaced from the Garden of Eden, cherubim are stationed outside, this is what the scripture says: After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Living Creatures are discussed quite a bit in the Book of Revelation. Let’s read the description as given to us in Revelation 4:6, Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. When I read this I try to imagine it and I wonder all sorts of things, what color are the eyes? Are they all the same color? Are they identical? Do they all look in different directions? Do they need to blink? What is the purpose? What do they need to see so intently in heaven? Is that their only purpose? Are they small eyes? Large eyes?
Now we get a little more of a description in Revelation 4:8, Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.”
Alright, so we have a general understanding of angels. Now let’s take a look at some of the ways God uses them.
We will start with Genesis 19. Two men entered the city of Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot recognized them immediately. I find that interesting because these angels took the form of two men, how did Lot know who they were when he saw them? We know they looked like men because other men, young and old, in the town tried to get Lot to open his house and let them have access to these two men for sexual reasons. Lot tried to reason with these men but they became more angry and threatened Lot as well. My take on this is the enemy was behind the behavior of this mob of men. The demon of lust had control of that city we know because it was about to come under God’s judgment. So what did these two angels do, well, they saved Lot from the mob and struck all these men with blindness. These two angels then assisted Lot to get out of town before they caused the burning sulphur to rain down and destroy the area. Just from that one story we see angels provide protection, they can advise and they made adjustments to their plan because they chose to accommodate Lot who did not want to go into the wilderness but rather a nearby village to obtain refuge. Then the angles executed judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah as God required. When we think of angels, do we think of them in terms of all they are capable of, or just ornaments and creatures in a gown with wings and a harp? Why is it angels are looked at so weakly but even non-believers will characterize demons as hard and harsh, strong, almost venerating demons.
Look at this next angel and what God is using him for in Exodus 23:20. “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. 21 Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. 22 If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. 23 My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. As we read this we can see that God has given this angel the authority over that entire situation as the angel leads all the Israelites, no small task. We need to understand that these heavenly beings are incredibly important and we owe so much to their willingness to do everything asked of them. They do so much for us we cannot see or understand. We should respect them, not worship them, but respect them.
This next one makes me angry and makes me laugh, we are going to Numbers 22:21, but let me set the scene here. As the Israelites are making their way into their promised land, they are encountering other people groups and the people inhabiting those lands are afraid. They already know God moves with the Israelites so the King of Moab named Balak sought out a man named Balaam who was known as a soothsayer. Balak wanted Balaam to put a curse on the Israelites. Ultimately God forbid Balaam from doing that, so God did speak to Balaam even though he practiced divination and at one point as Balaam was traveling to Balak an an angel of the Lord stood in the way of Balaam as he traveled with his donkey. The donkey tried 3 times to avoid the angel of the Lord but Balaam beat the donkey for not obeying Balaam’s directions and further would have killed him if he had the sword to do so. That’s the part that makes me angry, beating an animal. That donkey was saving his life. As a result, God opened the donkey’s mouth and the donkey spoke to Balaam asking him why he was beating him. Now, my parrot speaks to me, asks me questions, but he does so because we have taught him or because he listens to us. So when I walk in the room and he says “What’s Up?” or as we sit down to eat and he says “Ready? Dear Heavenly Father…, yes my parrot knows how to pray. But if I owned a donkey and he started talking to me, I would have a moment of terror or freak out, something, I would not just respond to the donkey, I don’t know what world Balaam is living in but after he has a conversation with his donkey is when he realized the angel of the Lord was standing there. He then immediately fell facedown because he understood God was wanting to speak. God forbid Balaam from cursing the Israelites but instead he was to bless them. Balaam was later killed by the Israelites as God required of Joshua to clear the land of evil. God just chose to use Balaam for his purposes even though he was involved in evil practices. In this situation, this angel appeared, and the donkey was aware of his presence. Animals are sometimes able to sense supernatural activities when we are not, their senses are created differently, the nose of a dog will pick up if there is a scent associated with an angel or a demon, which is frequently described in experiences. A dog can smell 40 feet below ground and can detect a single drop of liquid in an Olympic size pool. I digressed, but the angel here again doing what the Lord required and it resulted in the Israelites being blessed multiple times.
So now we are going to go to Isaiah 6 and talk about the Seraphim, again this is the only place in the Bible where the Seraphim are discussed. After this we will discuss Ezekiel and I will share a bit about my experience with an angel before we end this part 1 discussion of angels.
Isaiah 6: 1-7, “In the year that King Uzziah died (733 BC), I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. (Remember that detail for later) 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 they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”Then one of the seraphim (Isaiah gives us this name or we would not know it) flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
So Seraphim have six wings. I again have questions, why are their faces covered? Is it only in the presence of God, does that have anything to do with it at all? Why were there feet covered? They are in heaven so everything is holy, so why, so that Isaiah couldn’t see it? If they can fly with 2 wings, why do they have 6? That’s just how my mind thinks because I know that with God every detail has a purpose. Nothing is done just because. From this we know that Seraphim were used for purification purposes of Isaiah as he began his ministry work for God. They are associated with the throne of God, but we could only assume their purpose in Heaven, so rather than assume, I will just leave you with what we have discussed up to this point.
We are going to take a visit to Ezekiel next, Ezekiel 10 to be specific. In this chapter Ezekiel is describing the glory of God leaving the temple and there are cherubim present. The cherubim were there to protect the Ark of the covenant. Gold depictions of them were included in the design of the ark above the mercy seat. So their presence being revealed to Ezekiel as he watches God’s glory depart is not surprising, but the description of them is truly other worldly. God’s creations are amazing. I’ll read from Ezekiel and then think about being in Ezekiel’s shoes trying to describe this. This is Chapter 10 verses 9-14.
I looked, and I saw beside the cherubim four wheels, one beside each of the cherubim; the wheels sparkled like topaz. As for their appearance, the four of them looked alike; each was like a wheel intersecting a wheel. As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the cherubim faced; the wheels did not turn about[b] as the cherubim went. The cherubim went in whatever direction the head faced, without turning as they went. Their entire bodies, including their backs, their hands and their wings, were completely full of eyes, as were their four wheels. I heard the wheels being called “the whirling wheels.” Each of the cherubim had four faces: One face was that of a cherub, the second the face of a human being, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.
Most accounts of people who have had experiences with what they believe to be angels don’t look anything like what we have discussed as cherubim or seraphim. For the most part my experiences as well as all accounts I am aware of the angels have a human form and that may simply be because they are interacting with us and it is easier for them to blend and to not terrify us. I have two stories I will share, one in this episode and the one in the next episode because in the next episode we are going to have New Testament examples and that is more fitting for what the angel was doing.
What I wanted to share today was about 12 years ago. At the time, we were living by the beach and every morning I would get up early, like 5 am to take my dogs on a walk on the beach before the day started. On this particular morning, the weather was wonderful, it was still dark, but not too cold. There was a little ocean breeze and I had walked about a quarter mile away from the house along the frontage road parallel to the beach. Because no one was awake and there were no buildings along the path I was walking, noise traveled through the air for quite a distance. I remember I was just reaching the point where my house was out of sight, it was so dark and the area only had one street light and it was by my house. As I was walking I heard a door slam and a weird noise after that. I can’t even describe it, but I knew it was not good. I don’t know why I didn’t have a cell phone on me, looking back that was pretty stupid, but I turned around and looked at my house. I couldn’t see anything, but I knew something was wrong. I ran as fast as I could back to the house and found my husband in his underwear outside on his knees on the asphalt, choking, trying to breath. He came outside looking for me to help him and when he didn’t see me he made the only noise he could. I tried to do the Heimlich, I was too short, I’m 5’2, he’s 5’11. I had him move to the steps by the door and I tried the Heimlich again on the steps, nothing. He was getting worse, just so you know 911 wasn’t an option where we were. I ran to the neighbor, banged on the door, we yelled through the door until he could open it and I told him what was happening and I needed him to come. He said he was in his underwear and I yelled I didn’t care as I ran away back to the house. As I ran back to my house and turned the corner of the side of my house to the front door I was taken back by what I saw and stopped. My husband was back on the asphalt but standing next to him was an angel about 9 feet tall, in a white robe, serious look on his face. I saw the angel take his arm and put it down my husband’s throat pull out what was obstructing his air flow and toss it aside about 10 feet. He waited to make sure he was breathing, and then he was gone. The second he was gone, the neighbor came running past me to give him the Heimlich but my husband was able to stand up straight at that point. Now there were two men standing there in their underwear and I was replaying in my head what I had just seen. I remember noting the look on the angel’s face. I don’t know why it stood out to me but there was no emotion, he did the job and once it was done, he made sure all was ok and that was it. Whereas the 3 of us were emotional and scared. The neighbor, bless his heart, was willing to do whatever was necessary. He was 6’4” so he was definitely able to do the Heimlich! How or why the angel showed up at that moment I have actually never asked God about, maybe I should. I was just astonished that it occurred. You don’t know when an angel intervenes in that way how it came to be that they are there when it is a sudden event. I was the only one who saw that angel that night, my husband had been struggling so long to breathe that he couldn’t think straight to recant anything except to say that all of a sudden what was causing the obstruction was coming up out of his body and he saw it get tossed out about 10 feet. We had to search for what it was because it was tossed. At the time my husband was getting dental work done and somehow a piece of his temporary dental work came loose in his sleep and he somehow managed to get it lodged down his throat. Imagine something like a retainer for braces, that’s similar to what went down his throat. Scary, but the Lord knew and had a plan.
Well that is all for this episode. Next week we will be going through some more angel discussions from the Bible, focusing more on the New Testament and I will share another story of being in the same room with an angel who was working for several hours.
I hope you have enjoyed our time discussing angels and I hope it has helped to build your understanding. We cannot fully conquer our unseen enemies until we understand everything the Holy Spirit makes available to us. If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.
As always let’s discuss our Top Show Points:
· Heavenly Angels
· Only 31 % of world’s population is Christian but 70% of the population believe in angels.
· They are superior to humans in strength, intelligence, power and character. They have supernatural abilities and far exceed our level of knowledge, but they are not all knowing, all powerful nor omni present
· They are holy and have always been holy, created by God. Originally there were 3 companies of angels which were each led by an archangel. Two companies remain and are led by archangel Michael or archangel Gabriel.
· The third company of angels are fallen angels and are led by Satan
· Angels are known for their activities of praising, worshipping and carrying out God’s commands. Angels are interested in and many of their activities involve humans and our journey of becoming saved through our belief in Jesus.
· There are 3 types of Angels: Seraphim, Cherubim and Living Creatures
· Genesis 3:24, we see Cherubim at the Garden of Eden
· Genesis 19, Story with Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah
· Exodus 23, providing protection to the Israelites in their journey
· Numbers 22, Balaam and his Donkey
· Isaiah 6, the only place the bible discusses the Seraphim
· Ezekiel 10 and the description we are given of the Cherubim
· My story of the angel who saved my husband when he was choking
We encourage you:
· To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment
· If you want to learn more about how to Hear God's Voice, take a look at my book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice. There is also a Study Guide available and two new devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book. One devotional is for women and one is for men.
· Class coming up 8/2 based on the Loving Conversations book on how to hear God’s Voice, sign up at lovingconversationssalo.com
I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!
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