The Agenda of Angels
The psalmist wrote, “Bless you the Lord, you his angels …” (Psalm 103:20); and in the next verse, referring to the angels, wrote, “Bless ministers of His who do His pleasures.”
Broadly stated, this is the angels’ agenda, to do God’s pleasures.
And what are these pleasures?
Luke 12:32 says it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom.
All the abundance for both here and hereafter are included in God’s good pleasure.
Deuteronomy 30:9 says that God delights in prospering us. Psalms 1:3 speaks of all that we do prospering. The Spirit of God says in III John 2 that he wishes above all things that we prosper and be in health even as our soul prospers.
Financially, physically, spiritually, the angels are available for assignment to meet your needs and mine in all three areas!
Oh, I know, we tend to exclude financial prosperity. Scripture doesn’t.
Have we ever contemplated this wide agenda God's holy angels could execute on our behalf?
Have we ever ventured past an occasional, whimsical thought and believed for this?
It makes sense to say that when we start believing in the ministry of angels, we’ll see more manifestations of their ministry.
Yes, it is true, we cannot command angels; that is the prerogative of God. But since these angels listen to God’s Word, then it makes sense to say that as we speak his Word and commit to obey his Word, this gives a green light for God to assign angels to help us.
Serious attention must be given to this specific matter of speaking his Word, whether in praise, prayer, or in a verbalized faith transaction with God.
Romans 10 says that salvation came to us when we 1) believed with our heart and 2) confessed with our mouth (Romans 10:9).
Moreover, Colossians 2:6 says that the same way we received salvation, continue in that! So how did we receive it? By believing in our heart and speaking with our mouth.
Did you know that the more you believe, the more you’ll speak?
Matthew 12:34 says, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” This means the more you speak, the more established you will be to launch faith.
A.B. Simpson said, "Faith is not only believing but confessing with confidence.” We are to verbalize before fulfilment that promise from God’s Word that will come to pass in our life.
Again, though it is not our prerogative to give angel assignments, prayer is a factor here. In Acts chapter 10, we see that Cornelius’ prayer brought an angel to his doorsteps, and in Acts chapter 12 we see the prayer of God’s people resulted in an angel getting Peter out of prison.
Again, the angels are here to help you when you need to be helped with things you can’t do.
Many years ago, I inadvertently took sleep medicine, thinking it was a different type of medicine. I didn’t realize what I had done.
Later that night I drove to a store prior to its closing time, and everything seemed normal. But on the way home, without any symptom of an onset of drowsiness, I fell asleep. There was no prior nodding, no prior attempts to shake myself awake; suddenly, I was out like a light—and didn’t wake up until after I arrived home.
When I finally woke up, safe at home, still in my car, I was stunned! How did I get here? What just happened?
I didn’t know, but I knew this: The trip of several miles and several turns happened without me; I had no memory of any of it!
It then dawned on me what the answer had to be—an angel drove me home.
This isn’t a great story to tell, I know. I could wish my angel deliverance occurred on a mission field, or during some daring mission for God. It didn’t. The fact is, I made a mistake. But even so, an angel delivered me.
Some years before, one of my sons, small in stature at the time, began to attend a high school in Georgia with an enrollment of more than 5,000 students. Unbeknownst to him at the time, there was one location in that large complex that school bullies considered their haunt, their hangout.
One day, a teacher sent my son on an errand to deliver a message. Before he knew it, he was quickly grabbed, held high for group taunting, and was about to receive the beating of his life when suddenly, and quite inexplicably, the muscular six-foot, five-inch guy holding him, dropped him—and, like the others in that gang, ran away, terrified, crying out, “Don’t hurt us! Don’t hurt us!”
Stunned, but safe, my son returned to class as quickly as he could. Now, it had been our custom then, as it is today, to pray Psalm 91 over the family, but we never envisioned fulfillments like this! That psalm does say that God will give his angels charge over you (verse 11).
As for the bullies who ran away, I don’t know what they saw, but Matthew 28:4 says of the angels who guarded the tomb, their faces were like lightning. Not sparkling little faces that light up a room with cheer but faces that caused career-calloused soldiers—who had seen many ghastly, horrible things before—to faint dead away.
The agenda of angels, for Jesus and for us, is also to help us in times of temptation.
In Matthew, chapter 4 we are made to know that these temptations weren’t easily deflected, requiring little from our Lord. What occurred there in that place called the Devastation was an ordeal of such magnitude, angels came to strengthen Jesus.
The same thing occurred in Gethsemane, the angels were there to comfort and strengthen in such a way that the Master soon arose from his blood-sweat agony to stride across the garden in complete control.
In each instance, there was victory; in each instance the angels ministered.
And will they do that for us? They will, and they will do it effectively!
Demons aren’t going to outsmart these angels, overcome these angels, evade these angels and invade us. As I Corinthians 10:13 put it, God is faithful who will not allow us to be temped beyond what we are able.
We would be remiss in our reflection on the angel’s agenda not to mention their presence during very significant events in Scripture, each obviously meaningful to God.
They were there, for example, to celebrate creation (Job 38:7).
They were there to commemorate the law given on Sinai (Deuteronomy 33:2; Galatians 3:19; Hebrews 2:2).
They were there to announce the Messiah’s birth (Luke 2:13, 14).
They were there to announce the resurrection (Matthew 28:5-7).
They were there to announce the ascension (Acts 1:11).
And they will be there to gather the elect from the four corners of the earth (Mark 13:27) and to announce the second coming of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 25:31).
However, we should add one other significant event celebrated by the angels that bears mentioning. It is that moment in time when you gave your heart to the Lord Jesus (Luke 15:10).
The Bible says just then the angels responded with joy.
If only you could have seen that … these mighty angels, millions of them, so overjoyed about you!
You can be sure this wasn’t an officious act on their part whereby they rendered an obligatory OO-RAH in regiment, or clapped politely on cue. This was real joy!
And do these eternal beings feel less joy now? They do not! Their joy is abounding to this day!
That’s why the angels guarding you today don’t show up disgruntled, as soldiers sometimes do.
They care about you!
They want this assignment! And they particularly want to report back to God with a mission-accomplished report on your behalf.
Be grateful for that!
Be encouraged by that!
You’re not alone! You’re not defenseless!
God has included in your deliverance, angels so amazing that if the news media could see one of them now that would be their biggest story ever.
