God’s Blessing to Us
God exerts His power and love in our lives in many exceptional ways. He blesses us for humble obedience. Those blessings come in many forms: understanding His will in a matter, correction to get us back on track, wealth, rain in due season, physical healing, trials to prove our faith, happiness and peace of mind. We could go on and on.
We need God’s blessings always, but it is even more obvious to us today, given the rapidly growing evil in the world. Civil unrest driven by open hatred makes for a great deal of volatility right in our own communities. The same is true on the international level with nuclear weapons now being a part of common conversation. The spirit that is in the world is feeding the danger that blankets this planet.
Among God’s blessings to His people is something right out of the spiritual realm. Spirit beings – holy angels – were created by God for a very specific purpose. “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14). They were created to minister or to serve those whom God would call. Their service is frequently in the form of providing physical intervention or protection. We can recall from the account of Elisha and his servant, how, when they awoke one morning to find themselves surrounded by the Syrian army, the servant was terrified. Elisha told him not to fear that which he could see. “And Elisha prayed, and said, ‘Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (2 Kings 6:17). The young man saw the greater reality of what God can provide through His holy angels.
An additional reality is that God created a vast host of angels. The Apostle Paul wrote, “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels” (Hebrews 12:22). God has an innumerable company of faithful servants eager to do His bidding at any given time, who are ready to protect or intervene for His begotten children at His own discretion. There is considerable comfort in the reality of their presence, their purpose, and in knowing they are a vast host ready to do our Father’s bidding according to His will.
There is a great caution in the midst of all this positivity, however. Many in the world today have fallen, for lack of faith, into the worship of angels. It can happen among believers too, as we see in the Apostle John’s example. “Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then he said to me, ‘See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God’” (Revelation 22:8–9). God alone is the one who can give us the blessing of service through His holy angels.
Marshall Stiver
