UBBS 9.25.2022

Ministering Angels Through UBM (10)

(Audio)

David Eells - 9/25/22

Victory to Get the 'Respect the Angels' Teaching Transcribed

Testimony by: Terri McGinley - 9/14/22

This was a very interesting teaching and I feel very, very blessed to be able to transcribe these, as I learn so much while I'm doing it!

P.S. When I first set out to start this transcription, my computer just wouldn't turn on. It was plugged in, and I couldn't find anything that was disconnected. I checked my breaker box and everything. It was only the computer. I texted my husband (the computer expert) but he was busy. Then I remembered that I have authority over this stuff so I commanded it to work in Jesus' Name and it came on! It has been working just fine ever since. Praise the Lord!!!

The devil has really been warring against these messages of the angels in this Ministering Angels Through UBM series.

Well, I hope everyone listening has their Bibles handy for this study because you’re going to need them.

 

Respect the Angels

David Eells

I would like to begin by looking at 2 Samuel 24:15. This is an impressive revelation about angels. So many people see angels as a little bit more than robots. Unless you look at a lot of verses about them and the Lord helps you to straighten it out in your mind, you won’t get much understanding of them. But I’m beginning to realize how great they are in how much they do, how they have the nature of the Lord and represent Him to us. They do many, many things that are done in the earth by the power of the Holy Spirit. In 2 Sa. 24:15, the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel, because the Lord was angry with Israel, and He moved David, a good king, to do something wrong and to go number Israel. Sounds strange, doesn’t it?

God was angry with Israel, so he moved David to number them. You may ask, “What’s so bad about that?" Well, God doesn’t want us to count on our own strength. That is a dangerous thing if you want the power of the Lord because in our weakness, He’s going to be strong. If you’re counting on your own strength, you’re not going to get the power of the Lord. It makes God angry. It did in this case, so the Lord sent a pestilence because of David’s mistake.

(2 Sam.24:15-17) …from the morning even to the time appointed; and there died of the people from Dan even to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men. 16 And when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough; now stay thy hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17 And David spake unto the Lord when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned...

Here’s the point I would like to make: The Lord is speaking to the angel of the Lord and He said, “That’s enough.” Now, why did God need an angel if God Himself was there? Why did He need an angel to strike these 70,000 men of David? Have you ever thought about that? He could have done it Himself, right? Well, God uses vessels. Rich and important men could do things themselves, but they choose to have servants to do those things. God’s Spirit uses vessels to do things, quite often. And in this case, that is what He did and He stopped the angel when enough was enough and the angel stopped.

The same instance is recorded in (1 Ch.21:15-16) And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was about to destroy, the Lord beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the destroying angel, It is enough; now stay thy hand. And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 16 And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. And in verse 27: And the Lord commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof. In this instance, it is even more plain that the Lord was speaking to the angel of the Lord and that they’re not one and the same as many think.

This is important, in my mind, because in the Old Testament, the angel of the Lord does so many fantastic miracles, appears at really important times in the history of Israel, and saves Israel, relieves Israel, and everybody thinks that’s the Lord. If you really want to study and know the nature of the angels, you have to look and see what they do. What I am discovering is that these are angels that are being used of the Lord and they must be greater than what we’ve thought of angels.

Even though men were made a little lower than angels, as they mature into sons of God and speak God’s Word, they are over the angels and ultimately a higher creation. Heb 2:6-9 But one hath somewhere testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man, that thou visitest him? 7  Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him with glory and honor, And didst set him over the works of thy hands (including the angels): 8 Thou didst put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he subjected all things unto him, he left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we see not yet all things subjected to him. 9 But we behold him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God he should taste of death for every man. As you will see from this next verse, we will judge  angels.

1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more, things that pertain to this life?  He’s talking about the fallen angels. The angels who didn’t fall don't need judging, they do what’s right. I’ve heard people say that we command the angels. And that’s not totally true. They only listen to the Word of God. Pastor Roland Buck who wrote the book Angels on Assignment said the same thing. Link: Angels on Assignment Free PDF Download He asked the question of the angels, "Do you do what we command?” And the angels told him that they only obey the voice of God. But how does that work?

When we speak in agreement with the Lord and we confess Him before men, the angels move on that because, when we’re speaking in agreement with the Lord, we’re speaking the Word of the Lord. Jesus said if you confess Him before men, He will confess us in two ways: “before My Father in heaven and before the angels.” He said that both ways, in Matthew 10 and Luke 12 and Revelation 3:5. He said in,(Rev. 3:5) He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments; and I will in no wise blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. (Mat.10:32) Every one therefore who shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven. (Luk.12:8) And I say unto you, Every one who shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God:

So what happens? When you speak in agreement with the Word of God, Jesus is our High Priest Who offers the offering of our confession. Hebrews says He’s the High Priest of our confession. He offers this before the Father, Whose Holy Spirit is the One Who guides the angels, Who directs the angels, and tells them to move on our behalf. We think this must be a long drawn-out affair, but it can happen in an instant. When we speak in agreement with the Word of God, we loose the angels in a round-about way, going through the Father and through the Son.

We release the angels to administer salvation in our circumstances. And when we speak in disagreement with the Word of God, we release the devil in our circumstances and all of that goes in a round-about way too, but it only takes a second. The Holy Spirit is here. He’s in God and He monitors everything in all of God’s creation and He can manifest it in a moment of time. Someone had a dream about beams of light that came out of heaven to each individual believer. I believe that this symbolizes the Holy Spirit ministering through the angels to each individual believer.

I remember Pastor Buck asking an angel, “When we call for help, do you come?” And the angel said, “If we waited until you called, it would be too late.” It is so true, because we don’t find out something’s happening until those demons are upon us and have done their dirty work. The angels are there to protect us because we believe in Christ; because we are in covenant with God and because we’re delivered from the curse. They are there to protect, to deliver, to administer salvation in every circumstance.

Now, let’s look at another verse, in (1 Ki.19:5) in which Elijah was led to Horeb. And he lay down and slept under a juniper-tree; and, behold, an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. Verse 7 says: And the angel of the Lord came again the second time. So here’s an instance where it says “an angel”, not any particular angel, just an angel, and then he says that the angel of the Lord came a second time, meaning “the angel of the Lord” is not a title for a certain angel, it’s just an angel. In the Old Testament, angel is translated from “malak” which means “messenger” and in the New Testament, “angelos”, which means “messenger”. If it would have been translated as “the messenger of the Lord”, we could have understood it even better. Many people have thought of “the angel of the Lord” as a title for a certain angel. Well, that’s not so. In this case, he’s showing that “an angel” is an angel of the Lord.

Now let’s turn over to (2 Ki. 19:35) And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. When you think about one angel doing that to a 185,000 men or one angel closing the mouths of the lions for Daniel or the angels pushing down the walls of Jericho, you realize that one angel is very powerful.

Daniel said that the Lord sent His angel and closed the mouths of the lions. These are the same lions that ate up all the people in the rebel's families before they could even fall into the bottom of the pit. These lions broke their bones in pieces. This one angel shut the mouths of them all. And this one angel in 2 Ki 19:35 killed 185,000 men. It says right here, “the angel of the Lord”, but if you look at the same instance in 2 Ch. 32:21, the Lord sent an angel who cut off the mighty men of valor and the leaders and captains, that was the 185,000 men right there.

Let’s look at another aspect of these angels. Look in Genesis 48. What I wanted to point out in the verse we just looked at was that an angel, any angel that is sent to you, is an angel of the Lord. Why? Because he is a messenger of the Lord to you. Israel was blessing the sons of Joseph in (Gen. 48:16), where it says, the angel who hath redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads;… Isn’t that an amazing statement? The angel who hath redeemed me from all evil. Have you ever thought that it was an angel with you that redeemed you from all evil because of your faith in the blood of the Lamb? Well, if they are the ones, according to Hebrews 1:14, who administer salvation, that means deliverance or healing or whatever it is that delivers you from the curse, that is what the Greek word, soteria, means, which is “deliverance from the curse.” Our angel administers all of that for us. I tell you, after I started doing this study, I thought, “I sure would like to meet my angel. I’d like to shake his hand." But angels don’t receive our thanks they always want all thanks to go to our Father.  

I’d like to point something else out; Jesus is the Way. He is that ladder that goes up to heaven. He said in, Joh 1:51  ...Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. Their ministry to us is made possible by the Lord. And when you agree with the Lord, they are released to minister unto us. But here it says in (Gen.48:16) …the angel who hath redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them,… That’s powerful. All through the Scriptures, the angels get credit for doing the mighty works of God.

Now let's look at (Num.20:14) And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us: 15 how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians dealt ill with us, and our fathers: 16 and when we cried unto Jehovah, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and brought us forth out of Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border.

The Lord sent an angel and brought the children of Israel out of Egypt. Notice it says, “an angel”. You would think that’s a pretty good undertaking, to lead the children out of Egypt, but he sent “an angel”. It makes you respect those angels. Everybody thinks that the Lord did it. Well, the Lord did do it. We’re not denying that the Lord did it. But by what vessel did He do it? By just Moses? No, by Moses and an angel. God uses vessels to do what He does, and in this case, He chose to do it through an angel. Another instance is (Psa. 91:11-12) For he will give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Isn’t that amazing?

How many times have we been protected by angels and didn’t know it? I know I have. I think I was translated out of a car before I was even saved. We couldn’t figure out how in the world that could happen. I had to have been dematerialized, going right through the middle of a car. I never figured it out until I got saved. If you read the rest of this chapter in Psalm 91, you see amazing promises. He will deliver me from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence, thou shall not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day, nor for the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand shall fall by thy side, ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee.

I’ve seen youtube videos of angels translating people out of the way of oncoming vehicles. Here is a link: https://youtu.be/bOOOEUT-zHc

How does all this come to pass? (Psa. 91:10-12) says There shall no evil befall thee, Neither shall any plague come nigh thy tent. 11 For he will give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. 12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. People think this was spoken only about Jesus because it was quoted by Jesus in the New Testament. But it’s talking about any believer. It’s talking about how the angels redeem us from such circumstances. It’s the angels that are there that listen to the Word of God and if you speak faith you release them or others who are believing for our security. I remember a testimony of my friend Bolivar and his wife on a narrow mountainside road. Their vehicle began to slip off of the edge of the road and it was an angel that picked the car back up and put it back on the road.

It says in (Psa.34:7) The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, (That is, the Lord) And delivereth them.  That’s a messenger of the Lord that camps round about them that fear Him. All of God’s people who fear Him are encamped about by the angel of the Lord. So that would lead you to believe that there is more than just one “angel of the Lord". Those that fear the Lord are protected by the angel of the Lord. He protects them and he delivers them and he fights their enemies for them. Speaking of the enemies of God’s people, it says in (Psa. 35:5-6) Let them be as chaff before the wind, And the angel of the Lord driving them on. 6 Let their way be dark and slippery, And the angel of the Lord pursuing them. Notice that everyone has access to "the angel of the Lord" so there are many.

The angel of the Lord fights against our enemies for us. He can even smite our enemies unto death, like the 185,000 men. We have been told by the Lord that some are going to die because they factioned against us. In this study I was really impressed with the importance of angels and the respect that we should have for them. I notice a lot of the prosperity people don’t seem to have respect for the angels the way they order them around to go do this and go do that, never mind the will of God. But hey, that's like ordering the Lord around. The angels have the nature, the character and the authority of the Lord. It’s just like having the Lord standing there beside you in an angel. But this angel will not act against the will of God. Just like Jesus spoke about Himself in the Father and us in the Father. (Mat.25:40) Whatsoever you have done to the least of these my brethren, you’ve done it unto me. (Mat.10:40) He that receives you, receives me, Jesus said. And he who receives Me receives Him that sent Me.  

In other words, in the receiving of angels and their messages, you’re receiving God. When you’re hearing what the angel says, you are hearing what God says. And in respecting him, you respect God. And what he says is the Word of the Lord, just as any other Word of the Lord. You know in reading these verses, you come to the realization that the angels are doing an awful lot. Even though we may not see them, they’re doing an awful lot around us and are preparing this world according to God’s plans. They’re changing circumstances around us, they’re blessing us and redeeming us in circumstances and bringing salvation to us in circumstances. It’s not that you have to address them, you may just pray to the Lord, but they are His vessels to carry it out.

Once the Lord said to me, “Send the angels.” I said, “Send the angels to do what Lord?” Then I flipped my bible open with my eyes closed and put my finger down on, “David, do all that is in thy heart, for God is with thee.” from 1 Ch 17:2 and I put my finger down on, “David” and then read on.

Also a way that God has perfect communication with each individual believer besides the Holy Spirit is through His angels, because the Holy Spirit moves through them. Sometimes the angels speak to us in the Name of the Lord and we say, “The Lord spoke to me" which is still correct. A question that the lady asked the Lord who had the dream about the “light shafts” coming down from heaven was, “How do you have such perfect communication and know what’s going on with all the individual believers?” And the Lord showed her those shafts of light that came from the Lord down to earth. I think that’s our angels, that’s our ministering spirits that speak to us for God, that minister unto us for God, that save us in circumstances, that go out and do the things that we speak in the Name of the Lord. I’m convinced that they do the healing when you speak in the Name of the Lord like, “Be healed in the Name of Jesus.”

When you cast out demons, they are the authority behind those demons being cast out and so on and so forth. In Rev.12, God’s angels cast down the devil’s angels, but they took their authority from the confession of the saints. Rev 12:7-11 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels going forth to war with the dragon; and the dragon warred and his angels; 8 and they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven.

9 And the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, he that is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world; he was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him. 10 And I heard a great voice in heaven, saying, Now is come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accuseth them before our God day and night. 11 And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death.

...I think the Lord used an angel to dematerialize me out of that car before I knew the Lord when I got in that wreck. I was going so fast that I hit another car. I hit the left side of the car from front to back and I got thrown out. Between the time I hit the car and it scraped by the door, in just a fraction of a second, and I was out of the car. My friend in the car said, “I felt myself sliding across the front seat and hitting you and then you were gone"… Things went so fast I didn’t see what happened. My car continued going forward and slid sideways and I just saw myself sitting on the concrete, sliding up to the door of my own car.

The elbows of my jacket were ripped off from sliding down the concrete on my back but I wasn’t scratched up in any way. A man that was looking out of the burger place, nearby, saw me going by said to me, “I thought you were riding in a go-cart.” My hands were still in the position of holding a steering wheel. But when I got up and looked at the car, there’s no way I could have gotten out of the door or out of those windows and my friend agreed. At the time, I was a lost man, and I didn’t know how this could have happened. And it wasn’t until later, that my friend in the car, who was used later to bring me to the Lord, said, “God is how you got out of that car.”

And I thought about it and said, “Yep, that’s how I got out of that car”. He said, “There’s no way you were thrown out of that car. You would have been cut in two if you had been thrown through the door because that door was jammed closed by the other car. It mashed by it and sealed it. It was amazing to me, but somehow the Lord got me out of that car and protected me so He could save me and use my life for His kingdom. (I think I was the original Duke of Hazard. Lol.) If the devil were permitted, there would not be any of us alive. God's angels are ministering spirits and they are stronger than the devil. It doesn’t make any difference because it’s ultimately God Who does it.

When we are ministering healing to someone, we command it done because that is the only example we have in the Scriptures. Because Jesus paid the penalty and it’s an established fact that He has taken away the curse so we can command healing but, the way God carries it out is His business.

I had a lady testifiy to me how that she was in a wreck and she was talking about how the car went this way and that way and how the Lord really gave her peace. She asked me, “Do you suppose an angel ministered to me this peace and saved my car in the circumstance?” And I said, “Well, probably the Holy Spirit gave you peace from within and the angel from without.” Because the Lord from within can give you peace and an angel from without can save you. God’s got us really surrounded, doesn’t He? God has a ministering spirit there that perfectly represents Him as an extension of Him. God moves through His Holy Spirit to change circumstances and He can move through our own heart to move things and change circumstances.

The Holy Spirit within a person has the power to heal that person. And the angels have this power too. Just as we read in places where angels made the people sick with the plague; they also healed. The angels manifest the gifts in circumstances. We know it’s the Holy Spirit because it’s the Holy Spirit that gives the gifts. In 1 Co.14:12 it says So also ye, since ye are zealous of spiritual gifts. It says in the original language “you are zealous of spirits.” What spirits is he talking about? He’s talking about the angels because they can administer gifts. The angels spoke through prophets with the voice of the Lord.

Well, there are no manuscripts that said that. All of them seem to point to the fact, and there is a numeric pattern in “zealous for spirits”. In fact, mine’s got a Greek note here that says “spirits,” not “spiritual gifts,” Back to 1 Co. 14:12 ...seek that ye may abound unto the edifying of the church. 13 Wherefore let him that speaketh in a tongue pray that he may interpret. 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. I think that the angels can manifest different gifts for us because I have prayed over people that weren’t filled with the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus did, and then these people went out and prayed over other people and they got healed.

We should thank the Lord for everything. We’re definitely ungrateful to Him and we take the angels for granted. It says in (Mat.18:10) See that ye despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven. You may ask, “What little ones is that?” Well, I think it’s the little ones that Jesus just got through talking about, saying those who were His disciples. If you go back in verses 2-4, the little ones were in the midst of them and He said Verily I say unto you, Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me:

So He’s talking about His disciples being these little children. We’re the little children of God and what He was saying when He said their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven?  The angels always behold the face of the Father because they have the nature of God.” I remember in Angels on Assignment, how Pastor Buck said he really felt the fruit of the Spirit in these angels. He really felt the nature of God in them. The fruit of the Spirit, that’s what they were full of, the fruit of the Spirit.

So, I’ve been meditating on the idea that the reason they see the face of the Lord is that they think, speak, and act godly. I guess they can’t really help it because they have an advantage over us. Number one, they see in the spirit realm and know what’s going on and number two, they don’t have any flesh. They’ve been created by God to be good and they are very familiar with God. They ministered for God to man, at least, we know scripturally, for 6,000 years. None of them has ever died because there’s no death in that realm, so they have to be very familiar with the Lord and with His ways, and they have to represent the Lord. You know, when you send somebody, which is what an angel is, an angel is… “angelo” meaning “messenger”. If you’re going to send somebody who will represent you, first of all it has to be somebody that really knows you. They’re going to say what you want them to say. They’re going to get across the thought and the words and everything you want to get that across to the person that you’re sending the message to.

Angels always see the face of God even while they are sent out. They are perfect. If you send somebody that’s imperfect, they’re not going to represent you, they’re going to misrepresent you. These angels are very familiar with God and so they can represent Him in an ultimate kind of way because they’re not subject to flesh and they’re not like us, who don’t understand sometimes who we’re hearing from. The angels always know who they’re hearing from because they’re in the spirit realm they see the demons, they see what goes on in the spirit realm, and they know who they’re hearing from. And they know for whom they’re speaking. They don’t make any kind of mistakes that way. You know, in the New Testament, the word, apostle, means “one sent forth” which is somebody who is sent by God and Paul said in 1Co.9:1 ...am I not an apostle? have I not seen Jesus our Lord?

It seemed like, in the early church, if you were going to be an apostle or “one sent forth", you had to see the Lord. In Acts chapter 1 when they chose somebody to replace Judas, they chose somebody who had walked with the Lord and had seen the Lord. That was the condition. They wanted somebody who had walked under the Lord’s ministry and had seen the Lord. It seems obvious from this verse that an apostle is somebody who has seen the Lord. Now, I’ve known some apostles and every one of them has seen the Lord, not physically but in visions.  (Num.12:6) And he said, Hear now my words: if there be a prophet among you, I Jehovah will make myself known unto him in a vision, I will speak with him in a dream. This is speaking of a prophet, but I think it’s true of apostles in the New Testament.

There’s people who have said they are apostles and they aren’t, of course, but an apostle is one that is sent forth and he is somebody that’s seen the Lord and the same is true of angels. Look at (Gen. 32:24)  Somebody who has seen the Lord is somebody who has come into His nature. “Maturity" in Scripture, seeing God face-to-face, is somebody who has come into His nature. The nature of the Lord is in His angels. When we hear from them, we hear from the Lord. Jesus said, “He that receives you receives Me.” In other words, a disciple is somebody that has been created after the image of their Lord and when you hear from a disciple you are hearing from the Lord.

Then He said, “Whatsoever you do to one of My disciples, you do it unto Me.” So they represent the Lord. And an angel, in a greater way, manifestly, represents the Lord. Because they don’t have flesh and because they see in the spirit realm, they cannot be deceived. They see all of the deception in the spirit realm, so they cannot be deceived, and they don’t have flesh to filter out the truth and pervert and divert the truth.

Now let’s look at (Gen. 32:24): And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. 25 And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was strained, as he wrestled with him. 26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. 27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. 28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for thou hast striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed.

Notice that he said, “striven with God.” He wrestled with this man, but he said, “you wrestled with God.” 29 And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. 30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for, said he, I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

Okay, now if you didn’t have any knowledge of what the rest of the Scriptures said, you’d say, “Well, Jacob wrestled with God,” wouldn’t you? Because he saw God face-to-face and this man that he wrestled with (because he calls him a man) said, “You’ve striven with God.” But let’s look at another verse in (Hos. 12:3-4) because he didn’t really wrestle physically with God according to what Hosea said. He’s talking about Jacob and he said, In the womb he took his brother by the heel; and in his manhood he had power with God: 4 yea, he had power over the angel,… See that? And since we know the Scriptures can’t be wrong, he must have wrestled with an angel who most perfectly represented God. If the angel sees God face-to-face, what does it mean? It means he represents God, doesn’t it? If an angel sees God’s face, it must mean his face is like God’s face.

Jesus said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” Does that mean He looked like the Father? A 33-year-old man? No. It doesn’t mean that at all. It meant that in His nature, character, actions and thoughts, He represented God perfectly. What I’m seeing is that the angels see the face of the Father, which no man can do. Jesus said in John 6 that no man has seen the face of the Father. Only He that is from God, has seen Him. Well, that would be who? The angels have seen Him because they were sent from Him. Jesus has seen Him. Our born-again man can see Him because he’s born from God, right? The flesh can’t see Him because the flesh is not from God, according to what Jesus said.

So, what I feel the Lord is showing me here is (in verse 4 of Hosea 12) that he had power over the angel and back in Genesis 32; this angel that he wrestled with obviously had the face of God and spoke most perfectly for God because if you were to wrestle with Jesus, for instance, you’d be wrestling with God, wouldn’t you? Because Jesus said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” And He said, “I and the Father are One.” In other words, Jesus saw Himself as an extension of God.

These angels so perfectly represent the Father that they are just an extension of Him, not physically speaking, but spiritually speaking. The Word of God can’t be broken, so who wrestled with Jacob had to be an angel and it had to be one that most perfectly represented God in that he saw, or at least he thought that he saw, God, face-to-face. In other words, this angel would have to have the nature of God. Can we physically wrestle with God? Remember Uzzah only touched the Ark of His Presence and died. 2 Sa 6:6-7  And when they came to the threshing-floor of Nacon, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen stumbled. 7  And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God.

Okay, now look in (Exo. 23:20-21) Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee by the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. 21 Take ye heed before him, and hearken unto his voice; provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgression: for my name is in him. Look at that! What does the word, name, mean in this verse? It's God's nature, character, and authority. The word, “shem”, in the Old Testament is the word, “name”, just like “onoma” is the word for “name” in the New Testament. And it means character, authority, nature. He said, “for My name is in him.”

They represent someone who has the nature or the name of God. Verse 22: But if thou shalt indeed hearken unto his (the angel's) voice, and do all that I speak; Notice that. You’re hearkening unto the angel’s voice, but you’re doing what God is speaking. So the angel is doing the talking, but God is talking through him. So you see that the angels are perfect prophets. I’ll get to that a little bit later, but here’s the point: These angels have the name of God in them. They have the nature of God. They have the character of God. And when they speak, they’re speaking from God, but it’s their voice.

That’s how it is with a prophet. A prophet speaks with his own voice, but he’s speaking from God, if you put aside two things: the flesh and the demon spirits. Of course, angels are perfect prophets because they have neither one of those problems. It’s not being spoken through the deceptions of the flesh. Jesus said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” That’s the way it is with the angels. They’re full of the fruit of the Spirit. So they have the character of God. They have the nature of God, and so they can be trusted to be, like I said, perfect prophets, because they’re not going to be deceptive or lead you astray.

Okay now let’s look at (Isaiah 63:9) The angel was the one that was going to lead them against their enemies. You know, we always thought it was just God. Well, it was God, but it was God through angels, who led them through the wilderness to conquer their enemies. And here it says in verse 9: In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence (look at that) saved them: The angel of his presence. Do you mean God is present through an angel? Certainly! Jesus said, “The Father in Me doeth the works.”

He was always talking about the Father in Him. God was present through Jesus by the Holy Spirit, wasn’t He? Well, God is present through the angels by the Holy Spirit. …and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. Again, you can see it: “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father,” in these angels who are perfect prophets.

Look in (Gen. 22:11-17) And the angel of Jehovah called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. 12 And he said, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. Now, you would think, as I thought years ago, that this was God, because He spoke in the first person. But we see in verses 14-15: And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. 15 And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 and said, By myself have I sworn, (Now, wait a minute. You’d say, “That’s really God,” wouldn’t you? But look at the next couple of words there: saith the Lord,… Who does that? Who identifies the words that they say as the Lord’s words? Prophets do. And why do they do it? So that you know the word is not coming from them, it’s coming from the Lord. He made it plain. You wouldn’t say this if you were speaking from yourself. You’d only say it if the words which you’re speaking are coming from someone else.

So He said: By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, 17 that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed… Now, I used to think, years ago, that the angel of the Lord was the Lord, because they really fit in the description and they spoke in the first-person. But what I came to realize was that they spoke in the first-person because they were perfect prophets and in perfect in communication with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit personally spoke through them. You cannot be a messenger of the Lord and be the Lord at the same time. So, “angel” means “messenger”. If they would have translated this word, it would have meant “messenger of the Lord.” It’s somebody who has been sent forth to speak a message. That’s what a messenger is. So, that’s another way that this cannot be the Lord. Even though there are many verses that have caused people to believe that "the angel of the Lord" is the Lord.

I remember, one time, my wife had a vision of an angel that appeared to her and gave her a message from the Lord, and she said, “The Lord was speaking, but the angel was the one talking.” In other words, the angel was speaking with the Lord’s voice. You would think that would be very easy for any angel to do because of those two problems I mentioned: no flesh to restrain them, and seeing in the spirit realm perfectly so that they cannot be deceived by the demon spirits. That’s one of the prophet’s problems is that you never know whether he’s speaking from the Lord or not, and that’s why He tells us to judge the prophecy because they filter their prophecy with their flesh.

So, here is another one to look at (Ecc.5:6). And he’s talking about promising or vowing and he says: Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thy hands? In other words, God gives authority to that angel. And, just as whatever you did to Jesus, you did the Father, and whatever you do to us, you do to God; whatever you say before that angel is what you’re saying to God. And he said if you said something that was not correct to that angel, God could destroy your works for it. So he said to be careful how you talk to that angel. And every one of us, by the way, according to Matthew 18, has “our angel” who always beholds the face of God. So he says, “Be careful what you say before that angel.” Why? Because that angel has authority.

For instance, go to Luke 1, I will show you the authority that an angel has. An angel appeared to Zacharias, in verse 11,. (Luk.1:11) And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. Now, go on down since now you know that it’s an angel of the Lord, to verse 18. Zacharias questioned the promise that the Lord gave him through the angel of the Lord. 18 And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. 19 And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and I was sent to speak unto thee, and to bring thee these good tidings. (Notice that Gabriel stood in the presence of God while he spoke to Zacharias.) 20 And behold, thou shalt be silent and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall come to pass, because thou believedst not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season. (Notice, Gabriel said, “my words” but it was serious because they were also God’s words. So, you see, we need to respect the angels.)

So, Zacharias was struck speechless by this authority that was in the Lord's angel. Because this was Gabriel whom he was calling the angel of the Lord, right? Not the Lord, but an angel of the Lord. And Gabriel had instant authority here, to speak a judgment upon Zacharias, and the judgment was that he was not going to be able to speak. I felt like the Lord told me that the reason that he was struck dumb was that because of his unbelief he would have spoken against the promise.

Speaking against the promise is what causes God to destroy your works. You have to agree with the Word of God which is spoken to us through angels. If you go to  Luke 12 it says, (Luk.12:8): Every one who shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: So we see that what we’re supposed to be saying before these angels is what Jesus has spoken because the word, “confess", is Homologeo, which means “to speak the same as”.
 

When we speak what God speaks and agree with what God says before these angels, then Jesus is going to confess us before those angels. But, “He who denies me in the presence of men, shall be denied in the presence of the angels of God.” So these angels have authority and it is given to them by the Lord, Jesus Christ, when we speak in agreement with the Word. We saw that a while back. In Genesis 28, Jacob had an instance of being confronted by angels in verse 12, when he dreamed and he saw a ladder that reached up from the earth to heaven, and God was at the top of the ladder. And up and down on the ladder, angels were ascending and descending.

And Jesus gave us a revelation of that when He said, “you shall see heaven opened and angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” Jesus is the ladder that enables the angels to minister to us and that ladder only works when we confess His name. If we confess Him before men, the angels are enabled to minister to us and to bless us. And, as we saw from Psalm 103:20, they are the ones who fulfill the Word of God. They are the ones that do the works of God according to Psalm 103:2, far more than we realize.

I’m convinced that many Christians believe that the Holy Spirit just supernaturally materializes things and I think, far more than we realize, the Holy Spirit does do that, but He does it through the angels. The angels are the ones, according to Hebrews 1:14, are sent forth to serve, to do service for them that are heirs of salvation. They are, more than anything, the vessel that the Holy Spirit uses to save, to deliver etc.

For instance, in Exodus 3, there was the story of the burning bush. Let’s look at that. Moses came to the mountain of God in verse 1 and in (Exo.3:2): And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. Now, most everybody believes that this angel of the Lord had to be God speaking to Moses out of the midst of that burning bush, but we have an instance where it says “the angel of the Lord” (or “messenger of the Lord”) recounted in Acts 7.

The reason I’m pointing this out, is because you wouldn’t think much of it, if that was God physically speaking out of the midst of the bush and performing miracles, but if that was an angel, it would change your whole idea of angels, wouldn’t it? (Act.7:30): And when forty years were fulfilled, an angel (Notice it just says “an angel”. Some versions add, “of the Lord,” but there’s no numeric pattern in this.)

So an angel appeared to Moses in the wilderness of Mt. Sinai in a flame of fire in a bush. It was just an angel. No particular angel. But it appeared in that bush and spoke to Moses in the first-person. He spoke the Word of the Lord to Moses as though he was God. Verse 35: This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? him hath God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the hand of the angel that appeared to him in the bush. Verse 38: This is he that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel that spake to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who received living oracles to give unto us:

Who was it that gave Moses those oracles? Who was it that spoke to him? It says here it was an angel. Well, we know, and if you watched The Ten Commandments, that it was God? It was God who spoke to him. And what I’m saying is, "Yes, that is true; it was God that spoke, but He spoke through an angel, just like He speaks through a prophet.” Verse 53: ye who received the law as it was ordained by angels, and kept it not. “As it was ordained by angels.” It is surprising the way an angel could speak to Moses in the wilderness and Moses received it as God.

Of course, some people probably wouldn’t agree with me but,  you have to accept all of the scriptures, not just part of them. You can’t just make up your mind by picking and choosing scripture. It’s line upon line, here a little and there a little that you receive the truth. But this was both an angel and it was God. Again, these angels, for 6,000 years have been speaking for God to man. And have been acting for God to man. The angels couldn’t possibly be serving God for that long, without knowing Him perfectly.

A husband and wife that have been together for a few years,  begin to predict what one another is going to do. And here are angels, who perfectly know God, that are able to speak for Him and have authority. If the Name of God is within them, then they have authority to speak for God. In fact, many times, I’m convinced, people who say, “The Lord said this, and the Lord said that,” are right, but it was an angel that spoke to them. Many times it’s that way.

Look at  Jos.5:13 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? 14 And he said, Nay; but as prince of the host of the Lord am I now come… And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant? 15 And the prince of the Lord’s host said unto Joshua, Put off thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.

If it was “Jehovah of hosts” it would have said, “Jehovah of hosts,” but it didn’t say that. Jehovah of hosts is “the Lord of the hosts”. But this is the prince of the Lord’s. host meaning he is one who rules over His hosts of angels. Now, you’d say, well, that would have to be the Lord. But in Exodus chapter 3, where "an angel" spoke out of the bush, he said the same thing, “This is such a holy place, you better take off your shoes so you are not separated from holiness. This is holy ground, take off your shoes so your feet can touch it and you will be holy. Walk holy and you will be holy and acceptable to God.”

For earthly ground, you’re supposed to have shoes on so that you’re separated from the dirt. God rebuked the shepherds because the pastors broke the sheep’s hooves off. On holy ground, you’re supposed to have your shoes off because God doesn’t want you separated from holy ground, but on earthly ground, you’re supposed to have your shoes on because God wants you separated from this world; to be sanctified of this world.

I remember reading Angels on Assignment about this particular prince of the hosts of the Lord and one of the angels that visited pastor Buck, his name was Chroni, and Chroni said that he was the one who appeared unto Joshua. In Exodus chapter 3, the same thing was said by that angel. The Scripture said it was an angel; the same thing was said by that angel: “Take your shoe off your foot, this is holy ground, stand on this holy ground.”

Another instance is Zechariah chapter 1, where we can clearly see the prophetic nature of angels. Also…reading Angels on Assignment, in Zechariah 1:12, it says “…the angel of the Lord.” And there, Gabriel spoke to pastor Buck, and he told him that he was that angel of the Lord.

Now, we read in Luke chapter 1 where Gabriel was that angel of the Lord over there. And some people think that the angel of the Lord must be one person. No, it’s not really meaning that. This is not a title, it just happens to be the angel of the Lord that was there; the angel that spoke for the Lord in that place. It’s not the angel of the Lord as a title. So, it’s a messenger of the Lord, that’s all.

So in verse 12, it says, Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts,… So that proves he’s not the Lord of hosts, doesn’t it? Because here is the angel speaking to the Lord of hosts. … how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? 13 And the Lord answered the angel that talked with me with good words, even comfortable words. 14 So the angel that talked with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts:… So here we have an angel, speaking prophetically for the Lord, and speaking through this man with the voice of the Lord.

This angel is instructing this man, as a prophet, to say, “thus sayeth the Lord of hosts.” …I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. 15 And I am very sore displeased with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction. 16 Therefore thus saith the Lord:… We have the angel of the Lord speaking with a “thus sayeth the Lord” in a prophetic term. I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies; my house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem. 17 Cry yet again, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts: My cities shall yet overflow with prosperity; and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.

So here we have an angel, who, in the book Angels on Assignment, said he was Gabriel. He was speaking in the first-person to a man, and telling him to speak in the name of the Lord. In verse 12, the angel of the Lord is speaking to the Lord. “The Lord” there, the word, “Lord” is “YHWH”, it is His personal name. So the angel of the Lord is speaking to the Lord of Hosts in verse 12, proving that the angel of the Lord is not the Lord, but a messenger of the Lord.

Back when I was believing that the angel of the Lord was the Lord because there were so many verses, several witnesses came to me against that theology, and I rejected them at first.

One of those that I read was Kenneth Hagin’s testimony that the Lord appeared to him, and someone behind the Lord appeared to him when he was believing that the angel of the Lord was the Lord. And when he asked the Lord, “Lord, who is this that with you?” He said, “That is the angel of the Lord.” And when I read that, I said, “Hmmm, something’s wrong here. I’ve already read too much about the angel of the Lord to not believe it’s the Lord.” Because it was so plain to me that the angel of the Lord was the Lord. But Kenneth Hagin’s book said that the Lord straightened him out by saying, “That’s the angel of the Lord.”

 

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