ANGELS GODS MINISTERING SPIRITS

 

 

On March 30, 1981 President Reagan was shot and wounded by John Hinckley in Washington DC. Hinckley believed the attack would impress actress Jodie Foster with whom he had become obsessed with. Reagan was seriously wounded by the bullet that punctured the lung causing serious internal bleeding. He was close to death upon arrival at the hospital but was stabilized in an emergence room. Reagan knew that doctors and nurses were working on him feverishly to save his life but he was still having trouble breathing. Later he recalled looking up from the gurney trying to focus on the square ceiling and praying.

While he was lying there half-conscious, he realized someone was holding his hand. He wrote in his autobiography “It was a soft feminine hand, I felt it come up and touch mine and then hold on tight to it. It gave me a wonderful feeling. Even now I still find it difficult to explain how reassuring and how wonderful it felt. It must have been the hand of a nurse kneeling very close to the gurney, but I could not see her. I asked “Who is holding my hand?” I did not hear any response. Although I tried afterward to learn who the nurse was, I was not able to find her. I   wanted to tell her how much her touch had meant to me but I never was able to do that”.

Reagan had experienced a similar event when he was critically ill with viral pneumonia many decades before. He had written about this encounter in his earlier autobiography (Where Is The Rest Of Me) “Days and nights went by in a hazy montage in which I alternated shivering with chills or burned with fever. I was lying in bed wrapped up in blankets waiting for the fever to end, but instead the temperature just kept getting higher. Finally I decided I’d be more comfortable not breathing. I don’t know what time of the night it was when I told the nurse I was too tired to breathe.  

‘Now let it out’, she would say. ‘Come on now, breathe in once’, ‘more’ this went on over and over with her urging me into another breath when all I wanted was to rest and stop making the effort. Wherever she is, whether she remembers our midnight contest or not, I don’t suppose I’ll ever know, but the memory is vivid to me. She was so nice and persistent that I let her have her way and kept breathing out of courtesy. The sweat came and washed me back down the divide I’d been climbing. Were these mysterious nurses whom Reagan could never find actually angels sent by God to help him survive in his hours of desperate need?

President Reagan‘s daughter Patti recounts seeing her father in the hospital the morning after the assassination attempt in 1981. He actually did not look frail, he looked almost ethereal. There was a light in his eyes that made me think then, and still, that he saw something. He woke up after the doctors had operated on him and saw figures in white standing around him. My mother and I discussed how logical it is to assume the figures in white were the doctors and nurses. But maybe he saw angels. Then I repeated it to a nurse friend who pointed out to me that no one in the recovery room or in intensive care is in white, they are all in green (The Faith Of Ronald Reagan)

References to angels occur at least 116 times in the Old Testament and 175 times in the New Testament. These references are found from the very first book (Genesis) to the last book of the Bible (Revelation). Jesus referred to them a number of times (Matt. 22:30, 26:53). They are an innumerable host (Heb.12:22, Dan. 7:10, Rev.5:11) created before the creation of the earth. Although we are not told when they were created, in the book of Job we are told that they were present when the earth was created (Job 38:4-7).

Angels are spiritual beings created by God (Psalm 148:5) to serve Him (Ps. 103:20-21), though at times they have been given the ability to reveal themselves in the form of human bodies as in Genesis 18:3. Angels do not have material bodies; they are “spirits” (Heb 1:14). Jesus asserted that angels do not marry (Matt. 22:30) and do not die (Luke 20:36).  As created beings, angels have limited wisdom (Matt. 24:36) but their wisdom is far greater than man’s (2 Sam.14:20).  Although they are not as powerful as God (Dan.10:13) angels have greater power than man (Matt. 28:2; Acts 5:19; 2 Pet.2:11).

Angels are awesome in many ways, but they are not divine. They are created beings that are expected to worship God with the rest of the creation (Psalm 148: 1-5, Neh. 9:6). Worship of angels is explicitly forbidden. God alone deserves our worship because all miraculous power has its source in him (Ps.72:18). We are not to pray to them or trust in them. Even though God may use them to minister to our needs in various ways, they do it under His power.

On two occasions the apostle John fell on his face in worship, but the angel quickly told John “Do not do it, I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold the testimony of Jesus, worship God!” (Rev.19:10, 22:9). In Acts 12:11, Apostle Peter recognized it was the Lord who delivered him even though the instrument of deliverance was an angel. He said “Now I know without doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches.”

Since they are spirit beings, Angels are usually not seen, unless God gives the ability to see them. Balaam could not see the angel standing in his way until the Lord opened his eyes (Num. 22:31) and Elisha’s servant could not see the host of angels surrounding him until Elisha prayed for his eyes to be opened (2 Kings 6:17). When angels have been seen as recorded in Scripture, they were often mistaken as men (Gen 18:1-22,19:1-16; Judges 13:1-6; Mark 16:1-5; Luke 24:4). Hebrews 13:2 tells us that when we meet strangers we should be careful how we treat them because God sometimes send angels in our way but we mistake them for just fellowmen.

God created angels for many purposes. The most important role of angels is praising and glorifying God. There are millions of angels in heaven, encircling Gods throne praising and worshiping him (Heb. 12:22, Rev 5:11-12). They are also sent by God into the world as his servants to do his will (Ps.103:19-22). Angels are ministering spirits sent to serve those who are going to receive salvation (Heb 1:14).

The most known ministry is as “guardian angel.” Matthew 18:10 says that God assigns angels to protect his little ones. In addition, the verse also tells us that the angels have direct access to God. It’s amazing how babies sometimes survive terrible accidents unscathed while the parent’s bodies are badly mangled. While no passage specifically states that every person has a guardian angel, the Bible does teach that angels do guard or protect.

In Exodus 23:20, 21 God promised the Israelites that they would be guided and kept in their way through the wilderness to the Promised Land by an angel. Psalm 91:11-12 says that God commands his angels to watch over those who take refuge in him in all their ways.  Psalm34:7 say “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him”. Twice God sent angels to set the apostles free from Roman prison (Acts 5:17-21, 12:1-10).  While Scripture does not state that angels will rescue us from every danger, we know that angels are watching over us.

God uses angels to strengthen and encourage believers at their lowest moment when they can easily give up. He sent an angel to strengthen Jesus before his suffering and death (Luke 22:43). He sent an angel to give assurance to Paul when he was in a serious crisis at the sea (Acts 27:23-24). When we get to Heaven, we will probably be amazed to discover just how often Gods’ angels protected us or intervened on our behalf. Though we may not see them or know they are there, angels are watching over us at this very moment.