This month let’s look at how angels work as protectors in your life. David writes in Psalm 34:4-7, "I sought (inquired of) for the Lord, and required Him [of necessity, and on the authority of His Word], and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him, and were radiant; their faces shall never blush for shame or be confused. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The Angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him – who revere and worship Him with awe; and each of them He delivers."*

David praises the Lord because of his deep confidence and assurance that He will always deliver him from trouble. David was accustomed to the Lord sending help at his most desperate moments. He knew the Angel of the Lord encamps around those who love God. Encamps! To encamp means to lodge in a camp; to establish a settled or fortified camp. You open your heart and mind to the Holy Spirit and the gift of faith, and angels want to hang out with you. Angels are drawn to you because they, too, are created beings who love and trust God. Angels can’t resist faith in God, just as the Lord can’t resist those who have faith in Himself. All of heaven soars and rings with faith. Faith leads to praise, just as David praises the Lord in Psalm 34: "I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth" are the words he cried out with complete trust and conviction.

Angels will always be there to deliver and protect you. David knew this fact and trusted it. He knew experientially the protection God sent through His holy angels. He teaches us in Psalm 91:11-12: "For He will give His angels [especial] charge over you, to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways [of obedience and service]. They shall bear you up on their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone."

Our problem is, we read these words and sigh with gratitude, but we might not entirely realize the magnitude of what David is telling us. If you were to stop for a minute and imagine two enormous angels, (by enormous, I mean a couple stories high) who have your protection as their 24-hour a day special assignment – would it make an impression on you? Angels don't always show up as two-story high beings or as shining creatures in white with wings, sometimes they show up as human beings. The Bible is full of such accounts.

Angels appeared to Abraham and Lot warning of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis l9. Actually, in many instances, the Angel of the Lord is the pre-incarnate Lord Himself! Genesis 16 tells us the Angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar, Sarai’s handmaid and asked where she was going. Then he gave her a promise for the future of Ishmael. In the book of Judges we read about Manoah and his wife who were visited by the angel who told them they would bear a son (Samson) though the woman was barren. The couple thought the angel was a man and invited him to have dinner with them, which he refused. When Manoah offered a goat and grain offering on the altar, the flames went up toward heaven and the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. Manoah and his wife fell on their faces to the ground and thought they were going to die because they had seen God.

Daniel told King Nebuchadnezzar that the reason he and his friends weren’t torn apart by the den of hungry vicious lions they were imprisoned with was because, "My God sent his angel and shut the lion’s mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him..." (Daniel 6:22).

See what I mean? Angels can’t resist faith. I’m talking about true faith – not panicked faith, terrified faith, quasi-faith, pleading & begging faith – but true faith. Faith that sings out loud and clear, "O taste and see that the Lord [our God] is good! Blessed – happy, fortunate [to be envied] – is the man who trusts and takes refuge in Him" (Psalm 34:8).

We sing those words regardless of what our natural eye tells us, regardless of what things look like around us. Things may look bad, even desperate, but we choose to see and think in the Spirit. We choose to think and speak the language of angels, which is the mind of Christ.

Angels are called to protect us in all our ways to the moment the Lord says it’s our time to make the journey heaven-ward. Remember, angels are created beings and under the authority of God. They are under God’s law and must answer to Him. They have a free will. The protect you because they want to. Angels can decide whether or not they will do what God wants them to do. They are not robots, as we are not robots. No servant of God, angelic or earthly, is devoid of choice.

Life is not without suffering and hardship, as you know. And angels are there to help you in the dark hours of adversity. The Lord will send you an angel to comfort you at the critical hour. After the birth of my second child, I became miserably and deathly ill. Without going into details, the situation was grim. I was delirious with fever and my ex-husband and my sister knew I was dying. I lay alone in the bed half conscious in pain and suddenly I heard a voice. Though I was alone in the room, I heard a beautiful voice loud and clear, a voice I shall never forget. The voice said simply, "Rest." I immediately fell asleep and from that moment my healing began. In only a few short weeks, I was completely restored and able to care for my beautiful newborn child, my 16-month old child and my home. I amazed everyone. My teenage sister, who thought she was going to have to care for two motherless children, rejoiced in the Lord at witnessing a miracle.

Heavenly beings are very much with us in the world today – They are sent by God Himself to protect, console, encourage, and help us live dynamic lives of faith. But they do much more!

Next Month: How angels are sent to tell us of things to come and warn us of danger.