involvement of angels in the work of God through out the ages, as recorded in
Scripture.
Side note: I also believe, after some careful study, that pursuing knowledge (researching, reading books, getting teachings on the subject) on matters such as the "Nephilim" is very dangerous. There appears to be a whole body of knowledge and teaching within the Church on this subject - which is strange - since this subject is only briefly mentioned in Scripture, the term Nephilim being taken directly from the Hebrew in Genesis 6. To me it seems as if there is a concerted effort to build a whole doctrine around one verse in Genesis 6, based on the tradition that these "beings" were either fallen angels, or the offspring of such, produced out the union between fallen angels and women. I believe that this is an example of the "doctrines of demons" that we are warned against in the New Testament. My advice is to stay far away from this type of teaching. If you are interested in more about why I believe this, please read my post on the "Deception of the Nephilim"
Now let us get tot he core of this teaching I have assembled on the role of angles in Scripture, and in the life of the Church.
In 2 Chronicles 32 an angel cut down every man of valor in the Assyrian army. According to 2 Kings 19:35 this angel annihilated over 185,000 men in one night.
In 1 Kings 19 an angel cooked Elijah a meal, and fed him, twice.
According to Psalm 78:49, God dispatches angels of destruction at times to destroy Israel's enemies. Since we are under a better covenant, I do not believe it would be unreasonable to expect God to do the same for us.
If you read the book of Zechariah, he had a number of very close encounters with a number of angels, who spoke with him and prophesied over him, including the well know statement:
“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel:
‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’
Says the Lord of hosts. [Zechariah 4:6]
This was prophesied to Zechariah by an angel!!!
According to both Psalm 91:11 and Luke 4:10, God has placed angels in charge over each of to protect us. Small children, according to Jesus, have guardian angels, and we can assume that we all do also.
In Matthew 28:2 we see that an angel rolled back the stone in front of the tomb for Mary and and the other women to be able to go in. Two angels spoke to the women to tell that Jesus had risen [John 20:12].
In Luke 2 we have the account of the angels appearing and visiting the shepherds to
announce the birth of Jesus.
Angels were intimately involved in Jesus' ministry, from the time of His conception onwards, with angels appearing to various people involved in His life, (John the Baptist's father Zacharias,Mary and Joseph, Mary Magdalene, Salome, Mary the mother of James/Joses, to list a few).
Jesus told Nathanael:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” [John 1:51]
An angel rescued the apostles after they had been put in jail [Acts 5].
An angle appeared to Philip and told him to go down the road to Gaza to meet the Ethiopian eunuch [Acts 8]
An angel appeared to the Roman Centurion Cornelius, telling him to send for Peter [Acts 10] - as a result of this encounter, the first Gentiles joined the Church.
An angel brought Peter out of the jail, to prevent him from being killed by Herod [Acts 12]
Paul had a visitation from an angel whilst on the ship carrying him to Rome, just before it was shipwrecked [Acts 27:23]
According to Galatians 3:19, the Law of Moses was handed down via angels, which is confirmed in Hebrews 2:2.
According to Hebrews 13:2, some have unwittingly entertained angels.
According to Revelation Ch2-3, every church has its own angel.
In John's Revelation, he recounts how he interacts with many angels. He also visited the Third Heaven, whilst "in the Spirit" - see Revelation 4:1.
According to Revelation 14:6, angels will be used to propagate the Gospel during the Great Tribulation.
According to Revelation 22:6, God will send angels to us to to show His servants the things which must shortly take place during the end-times
As regards the Third Heaven, this is exactly where Paul also went - see 2 Corinthians
12.
The Third Heaven is where God resides - so if you are "in the Spirit" (the place), which we are commanded to be in - we are actually commanded to pray, live and walk in the Spirit at all times, this is where you can go.
So, without making any comment on Andrew Strom's report, I think it behoves us to carefull consider what the Word of God says regarding angelic visitations. If we really are in the last of the last days, which I think most of us agree on, I would expect not only that there would be a great increase in demonic appearances, but also that we would very likely see a correspondingly great increase in visible manifestations of angels.
I do not, repeat, do not think any one should go seeking anglic visitations, the enemy is only too willing to oblige, but if someone has a visitation, we need to be careful NOT to jump to the conclusion that it is of the devil, anymore than we should be saying that tongues and other manifestations of Holy Spirit are not for today, and as such are of the devil.
Remember Jesus' words:
28 “Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter;
29 “but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”—
30 because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.” Mark 3:28-30]
The context of this warning is immediately following the Pharisees refusal to accept that the miracles Jesus was doing were of God - in fact they outright said that they were of the devil.
As far as Todd Bentley is concerned, if you research his past, he is a young man (late twenties?) who comes out of a lifestyle of drug and alcohol addiction. He was also delivered from a lifestyle involving criminal activity, youth prisons, drugs, sex, satanic music and bondage. and who was gloriously saved and filled with the Spirit, and who appears to be being used by God in miraculous ways. Anyone coming from that kind of environment is more than likely to look a little strange and have tattoos. We might think that facial piercings are ungodly, but before you judge a person, check out what the Scripture says about this [see Exodus 35:22]. Women wear earings - what's the real difference between that and a nose or chin piercing?
As Jesus said, if the tree is good, it will give good fruit. Todd is only a young man both naturally, and more importantly, in the Lord, and like all of us will make mistakes, get led off target by his flesh, but when was the last time you laid hands on someone and they were miraculously healed, or glorious saved when you preached the
gospel.
As Lori (Campsmore) reported, as well as my pastor, things are a bit wild in Florida - I personally would expect that - but people ARE getting saved, healed and delivered by the power of God.
Don't always rush to judge someone on the basis of hearsay, which much of Mr. Strom's report seems to be based on. If you really want to find out what is going on, visit Florida yourself.
John
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