Tuesday, August 20, 2024
Angelic Intervention
For the angel of the Lord is a guard; he surrounds and defends all who fear him. (Psalm 34:7 NLT)
The world of angels is a vast, intelligent, powerful, invisible world of mysterious spirit beings. In the troubled times in which we are living, it certainly gives us hope to know there are angels around us, angels watching over us, and angels guiding us.
But the promise of angelic involvement is only for the child of God. The Bible says, “For the angel of the Lord is a guard; he surrounds and defends all who fear him” (Psalm 34:7 NLT).
Throughout the Bible we find stories of angelic intervention, and one of the most known stories of angelic deliverance is that of Peter, whom King Herod put in prison for preaching the gospel. Herod also had imprisoned James before Peter and had put him to death.
The great apostle found himself chained to guards in a Roman prison, and it was a relatively hopeless situation. So, what did the church do when they faced this crisis? Did they organize a boycott of all products made by Rome? Did they picket the prison? Did they organize a march?
No, the Bible says they began to pray. And in answer to their prayers, God dispatched an angel who literally opened the door for Peter’s deliverance. When we pray, God may send angels to bring the answers to us.
The Book of Daniel gives us an interesting behind-the-scenes look at angelic involvement in the prayer lives of God’s people. The prophet was praying on one occasion, and immediately his request was heard in Heaven and an angel was dispatched with the answer. But while the angel was on his way to Daniel, an apparently high-ranking demon power opposed him.
This angel sent from Heaven was unable to subdue this demon power, so the Lord called out one of the higher-ranking angels, Michael, and sent him to intervene and set the other angel free.
Meanwhile, Daniel wasn’t even aware of what was going on. All he knew was that he offered his prayer to God. But instead of getting an immediate answer, he waited and waited.
Sometimes we pray for something that we believe is the will of God, something that we think God should do, and then we wait and wait. We might be praying for the salvation of a loved one, for physical healing, or for divine guidance.
Yet we hear no answer. And we falsely conclude that God isn’t listening. But we never know what is going on behind the scenes. There may be an angelic battle happening, even while we’re praying.
For twenty-one days this angel was hindered, but finally the praying prophet received an answer. This Old Testament account makes clear that delays are not necessarily denials. If something doesn’t happen as quickly as we would like it to, it doesn’t mean that God isn’t listening. It just may be that something else is happening.
We don’t know how many times angels intervene in our lives, getting us out of tight situations, protecting us from harm, and even speaking directly to us. They are indeed, as Billy Graham referred to them, God’s secret agents.
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