Top of the morning to you. Yes, I have my computer back! I'm so excited – thank you Lord. My computer has been out all of this past summer. But just as school is about to start up, my computer just began to start working again. Before, it would crash every few minutes that I would have it turned on. Then my monitor wouldn't show what the computer was doing. For some reason Windows 7 would not tell me what the problem was. But after lots of prayer, cleaning the dust-balls covering the inside of the computer case, and re-connecting a wire, my monitor was working again. But it kept crashing. Then one day, it started working again – I'm so happy. It may have been the cooler temperatures, it may have been my running 'Checkdisk' which caught a few problems on the hard drive, who knows? But one day it started working again when the day before it was not, and it is working almost as well as when it was new.
The blessing of this past summer is that I have not been sitting on my computer for hours a day. Mostly I have been spending more time with my 10 year old son. I coached his baseball team, we have watched a lot of Twins baseball together, and we are enjoying Monday night wrestling. I also took our three of our children on a four day road trip through South Dakota. I have always wanted to take my family to see Mount Rushmore, and we were able to do this on this road trip, along with a number of other good sights and stories – if you see my son, you may want to ask him about what he thinks of motorcyclists (it was the start of the Sturgis weekend). All in all, even without my computer it's been a great summer.
I wanted to get back into the swing of things by writing a post on the role of Angels in answering prayer. There is a lot of spiritual warfare involved in this post, and so I hope that you are ready for this exciting topic. The centerpiece of this topic is contained in the Book of Daniel, chapter 10, which says:
…"Don't be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. 13 But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia. 14 Now I am here to explain what will happen to your people in the future, for this vision concerns a time yet to come." … (Daniel 10:12-14, NLT).
So from this we see that Daniel prayed to God, God heard his prayer and immediately dispatched Gabriel to answer Daniel's prayer. But because the "spiritual prince of the kingdom of Persia" blocked the Angel Gabriel's way, he was delayed three weeks in answering Daniel's prayer. Only because the Arch Angel Michael came to help was Gabriel able to come to Daniel. A similar battle is also seen in the New Testament where the Arch-Angel Michael and Satan fought over Moses' body in Jude 8-9.
Does this mean that all prayers we pray to God may be delayed because of satanic opposition? Does it mean that God is not able to just break through this demonic opposition by His own power? Although the Bible contains lots of information about Angels, it gives us scant more information about this unseen battle that could be taking place around us. But there is some additional wonderful information that we can glean about Angels from the Bible:
Angels - Angels are superhuman or heavenly beings/individuals who serve as God's messenger. Hebrew: Mal' āk (so the OT Book of Malachi means messenger) – The Greek word for Angel is angelos. Angels are mentioned almost 300 times in Scripture. So being God's messenger appears to be the primary way in which the enemy can block the work of the Angels as we see in Daniel Chapter 10.
But what about prayer – is there a connection between prayer and the work of the Angels? If we look at the story of Jesus' birth, I think the answer is Yes! Here is the story of Zechariah in Luke Chapter 1:
One day Zechariah was serving God in the Temple, for his order was on duty that week. 9 As was the custom of the priests, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. 10 While the incense was being burned, a great crowd stood outside, praying. 11 While Zechariah was in the sanctuary, an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the incense altar. 12 Zechariah was shaken and overwhelmed with fear when he saw him. 13 But the angel said, "Don't be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John. (Luke 1:8-13,ESV).
So it looks like Luke was drawing a connection between the people's prayers and the appearance of the Angel. And again, as in Daniel Chapter 10, we see that that the Angel communicates that God has heard Zechariah's prayer, and that the Angel is telling him that his prayer is answered.
Second, please allow me to bring in a source from outside of the Bible. In the book of Tobit, an ancient Jewish writing that is included in the canon of Scripture in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. It is considered apocryphal by the Protestant Church. So take this portion of the book of Tobit for what you will:
Then Raphael called the two of them privately and said to them, "Bless God and acknowledge him in the presence of all the living for the good things he has done for you. Bless and sing praise to his name. With fitting honor declare to all people the deeds of God. Do not be slow to acknowledge him. 7 It is good to conceal the secret of a king, but to acknowledge and reveal the works of God, and with fitting honor to acknowledge him. Do good and evil will not overtake you…
11 "I will now declare the whole truth to you and will conceal nothing from you. Already I have declared it to you when I said, 'It is good to conceal the secret of a king, but to reveal with due honor the works of God.' 12 So now when you and Sarah prayed, it was I who brought and read the record of your prayer before the glory of the Lord, and likewise whenever you would bury the dead. 13 And that time when you did not hesitate to get up and leave your dinner to go and bury the dead, 14 I was sent to you to test you. And at the same time God sent me to heal you and Sarah your daughter-in-law. 15 I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who stand ready and enter before the glory of the Lord." (Tobit 12:6-7, 11-15, NRSV).
What we see in this portion from Tobit is about an Arch-Angel named Raphael. In verses 6 and 7 we see him glorifying God and his instruction to Tobit and Tobit's son Tobiah that if God has blessed you, you should acknowledge and reveal the works and deeds of God. This is good stuff.
But then we see that Rafael tells Tobit that he is one of the seven Angels who stand before the glory of God (v.15). And that he was the Angel who brought Tobit and his daughter-in-law Sarah's prayers to God. And Raphael was the one sent by God to heal Tobit and Sarah. (v.14). So from this portion of Tobit we see that God sends Angels to answer prayers for healing. Could Angels be delayed in answering prayers for healing because of their battles with other fallen angels, as we saw in Daniel Chapter 10? Perhaps. But to me it looks like another bit of helpful information to include when we examine Daniel Chapter 10's description of the spiritual warfare taking place around us.
Praise God the Lord of Hosts, for his power and mercy. God bless you and your walk with Jesus this upcoming week. /s/Tom Wolff
1 comment:
On angels,
It seems clear that angels can't be in more than one place at a time. They aren't omnipresent as God certainly is. They are at His beck and call as servants of the Most High (to use a phrase). I personally lean toward them being messengers to us, versus taking prayers back to God at you pointed out in the Tobit text. I can imagine them conversing with God about this prayer or that, but I would think it is in the context of "what answer do you want me to take back to him or her?" versus "Here's one You haven't heard yet...".
It is interesting that whenever angels are interacting with people, they are fully equipped for all situations that might arise. In Zechariah's case, if he had shouted praise for the news of a child, then all would have been well as we saw with Mary's response, but the angel was prepared immediately to respond to doubt. Given we have the freedom to make choices, it would seem reasonable that angels are prepared and empowered by God to deal with whatever comes up.
In that same vein, we know there is opposition to God and his plans. And given, again, that angels can only be one place at a time, I believe it is perfectly reasonable to assume that they may have to battle their way through to deliver a message or provide care for someone and those battles take place today just as is indicated in Daniel. Why wouldn't Satan or his demons do all they could to cause confusion and doubt among God's people. I have been subjected to spiritual attacks and I believe they come when we start getting "close" to the true nature of Jesus, whether in thought, word or deeds. I need the Holy Spirit to get through those times and I think angels get involved in those battles. We aren't allowed to see that particular spectrum and I believe it is because we would be so overwhelmed, we would be totally frozen with fear and awe. We have a full enough plate just to deal with this world, let alone the "real" one.
Consider the shepherd's response to the announcement of Christ's birth by the angels or just about any encounter that humankind has with angels. There is a reason that angels first say when they show up, "Don't be afraid". They must be quite unworldly in appearance in most cases, though there are certainly times, as with Abraham in the old Testament, they look a bit more ordinary.
So, to your questions about whether angels might be involved in answering all prayers, I don't think there is a definitive yes or no answer. They may be directly involved in some way or standing guard to ensure the answer makes it there. We know they take on many roles, messenger, healer, protector and provider. We don't know how many angels or demons there are. We don't know if there are major battles being fought in that realm or whether it is more guerilla warfare. Again, if it was good for us, God would reveal that world. It remains mostly hidden from us for a reason.
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