Seeing Angels with New Eyes
2 Kings 6:15-17: "When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. 'Oh, my Lord, what shall we do?' the servant asked. 'Don't be afraid,' the prophet answered. 'Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.' And Elisha prayed, 'O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.' Then the Lord opened the servant's ees, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha."
The principal inhabitants of the unseen realm are angels. There are angels all around us. We need to meditate on the reality of this truth and ask God to give us a new perspective, as He did for Elisha's servant.
The servant despaired of hope as the armies surrounded the city. Elisha prayed, asking God to open the man's eyes. Suddenly, he saw the angelic army - not a dream or some symbolic projection, but a mountain full of horses and chariots of fire all around them. God did something to his eyes so that he was able to see what was actually there. Imagine his surprise and excitement, maybe even his fear, as the unseen world became real to him.
When the Bible speake of angels, three distinct roles are listed. Sometimes they are God's warriors. Daniel 10 and Revelation 12 talk about Michael, the archangel, who is one of the chief princes of these angels. Sometimes they are God's messengers. Gabriel, who brought messages to Daniel and later to the virgin Mary, seems to be their chief. Sometimes they are God's worshiping angels, whose task is simply to worship God.*
Food for thought: Do you only believe in what you see? How would you approach circumstances in your life differently if you truly believed in the presence of angels?
Further Reading:
Psalm 34:7: "The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and He delivers them."
Psalm 91:11-12: "For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone."
Daniel 10: In the third year of Cyrun king of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel (who was called Belteshazzar). Its message was true and it concerned a great war. The understanding of the message came to him in a vision. 2At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. 3I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over. 4On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, 5I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of the finest gold around his waist. 6His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, hil arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude. 7I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; the men with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves. 8So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless. 9Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep, my face to the ground.
10A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. 11He said, "Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I an about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you." And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling. 12Then he continued, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set yourmind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13But the prince of the persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. 14Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come." 15While he was saying this to me, I bowed with my face toward the ground and was speechless. 16Then one who looked like a man touched my lips, and I opened my mouth and began to speak. I said to the one standing before me, "I am overcome with anguish because of the vision, my lord, and I am helpless. 17How can I, your servant, talk with you, my lord? My strength is gone and I can hardly breathe." 18Again the one who looked like a man touched me and gave me strength. 19"Do not be afraid, O man highly esteemed," he said. "Peace! Be strong now; be strong." When he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, "Speak, my lord, since you have given me strength." 20So he said, "Do you know why I have come to you? Sook I will return to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I go, the prince of Greece will come; 21but first I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. (No one supports me against them except Michael, your prince.)"
Hebrews 1:14: "Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serv those who will inherit salvation?"
Revelation 5:11-12: "Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the loiving creatures and the elders. 12In a loud voice they sang: 'Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!' "
Revelation 12: A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. 4His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. 5She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. 7And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8But he was not strong enough and they lost their place in heaven. 9The great dragon was hurled down - that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. 10Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has beed hurled down. 11They overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. 12Therefore rejoice, you heaveds and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short." 13When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and a half of a time, out of the serpent's reach. 15Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overcome the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. 16But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon spewed out of his mouth. 17Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring - those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
*Sherman, Dean. Spiritual Warfare for Every Christian: How to Live in Victory and Retake the Land: YWAM Publishing, 1990.
