There is a spiritual world that exists around us, and there are occasions when God allows humans to see or listen to this spiritual realm, but as a general rule we go about our lives not seeing, hearing or even thinking about this spiritual world that exists around us. Paul tells us about the experience of a man who was allowed to listen in on this spiritual realm, “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know-God knows. And I know that this man-whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows-was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell” (2 Corinthians 12:2-4). Many people believe that Paul is speaking of his own experience.
The king of Aram sent his army to Dothan to take Elisha prisoner. When Elisha’s servant went out early the next morning he saw that this army had surrounded the city. He called to Elisha, “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha (2 Kings 6:16-17). I do not know if Elisha could see these angelic beings before he asked the Lord to reveal them to his servant, but he knew they were there. He knew that God would not desert him in this time of danger.
David wrote, “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them” (Psalm 34:7). During the exodus of the Hebrew people from Egypt God sent His angel to guard them on their travels, even though this angel was not visible to the people (Exodus 23:20). Although this spiritual world that is around us is mostly invisible to humans, it plays an important part in our lives. But it is a mistake to think that angels are our servants. They are not our servants; they are God’s servants for the benefit of the church. Angels minister to the saints, but they take their orders from God.
There are many instances where God has allowed humans to see into this spiritual realm. It was angels that told Lot to leave Sodom because God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of the evil within these cities. It was an angel that told Manoah and his wife that they would have a son (Judges 13). When Daniel was thrown into the lions den, it was an angel that shut the mouths of the lions and they didn’t harm Daniel (Daniel 6:22). When the apostles were thrown into jail, during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out (Acts 5:19).
Philip was chosen to be one of the deacons by the apostles, they were to be in charge of the distribution of the food to the poor. Later Philip went to a city in Samaria and proclaimed Jesus Christ there. He did many miracles and many were healed of various diseases. While he was there an angel of the Lord came to Philip and said, “Go south to the road-the desert road-that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch and this man was reading the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. The Spirit said to Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” Philip ran up to the chariot and asked the man if he understood what he was reading and the man told him that he needed someone to explain it to him. Philip explained it to him and the man became a believer and Philip baptized him (Acts 6-8).
What is amazing about this story is that a man who started in the ministry serving tables ended up being a great evangelist. He had learned to use his spiritual eyes and ears. He was tuned to what the Lord wanted him to do and the Lord used an angel and the Holy Spirit to guide him. It is a good lesson to all of us, if we are faithful in the small things, God will use us to do great things for Him. All we have to do is look, listen, and be available.
King Herod had Peter put in jail, but during the night an angel stood beside Peter and woke him up and the chains fell off Peter’s wrist. Peter put his clothes on and followed the angel out of the jail and down the street and the angel vanished. At first Peter thought that he was seeing a vision, he didn’t believe that what was happening was real. Peter then realized that God’s angel had rescued him from Herod’s clutches (Acts 12). I’m sure that all of us can remember an experience when it looked like there was no way out, but by some miracle, we were rescued.
Angels are doing their work all around us and the reason we don’t see or hear these spiritual happenings is that we are so dominated by the physical things of this world that we forget and ignore the spiritual. To see and understand the work of God we must learn to develop spiritual eyes and ears. If we would seek the spiritual things more often, and with more sincerity, then God would reveal more of this spiritual world to us. Miraculous things are happening all around us; angels are with us constantly, you may have talked to one and didn’t know it, “some people have entertained angels without knowing it” (Hebrews 13:2).