Angels and Demons | Angels Are Real

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Sign up at harvest.org. Angels are very involved in the life of the Christian. They can best be described as God's secret agents. Angels have been so theorized and fictionalized.

But coming up today, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us understand the biblical facts. Angels are real, and they may be real near. The Bible is filled with stories of people who were delivered by angels, sometimes comforted by angels. So there could be an angel around you right now. What do most people know about angels?

Chances are they don't know a lot, and what they do know comes from movies or TV programs or cartoons. Well, that's fiction, make-believe, but it would be a mistake to just throw out the concept of angels altogether. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out angels are real, and they're an important part of the plan of God. But we'll see not all angels are the good guys.

Reliable biblical insight is coming your way today. I heard a story about how God was wondering how things were going on planet earth. So He dispatched a high-ranking angel to earth to check things out and bring back a report.

A little time passed. The angel returned. He said, Lord, things are not looking good on planet earth.

I have to tell you, in all honesty, 95% of the people are bad, and only 5% are good. Lord said, I want to get a second opinion. He sends another angel to earth. The angel spent some time here, returns back to heaven, and says, Lord, it says the other angel said 95% of the people are bad, and only 5% are good. So the Lord wanted to encourage those who were good. So He sent them a text, something to keep them going. Do you want to know what that text said?

Oh, you didn't get one either? So that's a silly story, obviously, a fictitious one, but it reminds us of a very real truth, and that is simply that angels are real. Angels move back and forth from heaven to earth, and they're actively involved in our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. Right now, you and I live in a visible world.

We're in physical bodies, but just as real as this physical world is this spiritual world, just as real as the visible is the invisible, just as real as the natural is the supernatural. So I want to talk a little bit about the work of angels in general, but I want to look at what they were doing in the book of Acts. There's a story in the book of Kings, 2 Kings of the prophet Elisha and his servant Gehazi. One night it turns out that their enemies were closing in on them, and Gehazi saw this and began to freak out, and he woke up the sleeping prophet, and Elisha, probably a little bit irritated about being woken up in the middle of the night, simply said this, hey, don't be afraid, because those that are with us are more than those that are with them. And then he said, Lord, open his eyes that he may see.

And the servant's eyes were open, and 2 Kings 617 says, behold, the mountain was full of horses with chariots of fire all around Elisha. And that's my prayer for us as we contemplate this for a few moments together. Open our eyes that we may see. Okay, angels. How many angels are there?

Simple answer, a lot. Lots and lots of angels. Second question, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? You ever heard that? That's the dumbest question I've ever heard.

Who cares? What, you think angels want to dance on the head of a pin? There's lots of angels. According to the Bible, there's thousands and thousands of angels.

Now, here's the good news and the bad news. The good news is 2 thirds of the angels are on our side. Bad news, 1 third of the angels are on the devil's side. In case you've ever wondered where demons come from, God did not create demons, and for that matter, the devil himself, as he is. God created the devil as Lucifer, who was once a high ranking angel.

I'll talk about that a little bit more in a few moments. And demons, which are real and powerful, are fallen angels. Now, here's the thing that we don't realize about angels.

They're very important. They're mentioned in the Bible at least 300 times, but there's a lot of misconceptions about angels. They could best be described as God's secret agents. Or another way to put it is, angels are like Navy Seals, okay? So the Navy Seals, you don't know what they do most of the time. Because their job is to go in, complete an operation, come back, hopefully all in one piece.

We remember the stories of Seal Team Six going in and finding and killing Osama Bin Laden, and that's the way the seals roll. They do their job, they operate under cover, but they're very efficient in what they do. And in a similar way, that's the way angels roll. They do their job, they don't draw attention to themselves, they generally don't appear to us and identify themselves as angels, though occasionally they do, but they're out there doing the work of God. We don't realize how many times angels have actually stopped us, gotten us out of tight situations, or protected us from harm, or even spoken directly to us, and the book of Acts is filled with angels. In fact, the book opens with angels after Jesus ascended into heaven. We read the angels, say in Acts 1-11, men stood by in white robes, those were angels, saying, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. I was talking with my grandchildren the other day, actually only my granddaughters in this instance, and we started talking about angels, and they asked me, Papa, what do angels look like? I said, well, when they appear, and they do appear sometimes in the Bible, they always appear as men.

That's not fair, Papa. I'm sorry, that's what the Bible says. And when they do appear, they're as men as we just read, or after Jesus rose again from the dead, there were two men in the empty tomb saying that he is risen again. Here's a misconception about angels. Sometimes people think when you die, you become an angel. I've even heard it said, oh, well, the reason they died is God needed another angel in heaven.

That is false. Men and women do not become angels. Angels are created beings. They've always been created beings and would appear from scripture that they are eternal and never die.

So they have a lot of things that they're actively involved in. We read about them in Revelation, worshiping before the throne of God. We read of different categories of angels, like the cherubim and the seraphim. And we read of angels bringing judgment on certain occasions in the Old Testament, like the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah. But angels are very involved in the life of the Christian. Hebrews 1 14 says, are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation. The Bible is filled with stories of people who were delivered by angels, sometimes comforted by angels.

Psalm 34 verse 7 says, the angel of the Lord guards all who fear him and rescues them. So I'm gonna give you now 10 takeaway truths about angels and demons. 10 takeaway truths about angels and demons.

If you're taking notes here's number one. Angels sometimes deliver us from difficult situations. Angels sometimes deliver us from difficult situations. In Acts chapter 5 angels busted the apostles out of jail and they said go tell the people about this new life. Angels also got Peter out of prison.

Recently we read from Acts 12 and how James had been executed by King Herod. Peter was arrested and was chained to a lot of guards and behind a lot of closed doors. And we read that the church prayed. Constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. And the Lord dispatched an angel to deliver Peter.

The angel went in and actually the Bible says had to kind of smack him. I guess Peter was a deep sleep and he had the unique distinction of being smacked by an angel to wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.

Wake up. Peter wakes up. Come on let's go.

Let's go. They go through the open doors and now they're outside and the angel departs and Peter realizes he's been delivered by an angel. The angel had done his job. The best known story probably of angelic deliverance is the story of Daniel and the lion's death. A law was passed that no one could pray to any god except the king.

King Darius who was ruling Babylon. The king had unwittingly signed this decree not realizing he was condemning his favorite counselor Daniel to a certain death. Daniel heard a law had been passed you could no longer pray except to the king.

Daniel said interesting. Oh it's time to pray. He went home. He opened up the shutters of his house so if someone wanted to see they would see and he prayed as he always had prayed and he was arrested. And then he was sent into the pit of lions. Even the king couldn't overrule it. And the king was up all night worried about his friend Daniel. Daniel slept like a baby.

Why? Because as Daniel said on the next morning the Lord sent his angel to deliver me. By the way if the government ever passes a law like you can't pray or you can't read the Bible or you can't proclaim the gospel that's when we realize that is something that is overruled by the law of God right. As Christians we should be good citizens. As Christians as much as possible we should obey the laws of the land. And certainly as Christians we support those that serve us in law enforcement and we appreciate them right.

These are important things. But sometimes there's government overreach. Sometimes there's a government that is telling us to do something that is contrary to what the Bible teaches. And in that instance like Daniel we see like the apostles we must obey God and not man. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. It's such a blessing to hear from listeners who take time to express their appreciation. Pastor Greg magnificent. This is just one of the words that enters my thoughts after completing your book Revelation a Book of Promises. It has never taken me so long to read a book because I was just absorbing the information contained in each and every chapter.

I kept saying to myself I'm so glad I won't be here when the tribulation happens. Pastor Greg I love your preaching and I listen to you on the radio and to your podcasts. I'm sending you a very big thank you and I'm so happy that God blessed you with the calling to preach to his followers. We're so grateful to hear of the changed lives through the books and resources of Pastor Greg and Harvest Ministries.

If you have a story to share why not contact us and let us know. Email Pastor Greg. Greg at harvest dot org.

Do it today do it today would you? Again that's Greg at harvest dot org. Well Pastor Greg is offering biblical truth about angels today. His first point is that angels deliver us from difficult situations.

Let's continue now. Point number two sometimes angels stop us and other times they prompt us. Sometimes angels stop us and other times they prompt us. In Acts 8 we read about an angel of the Lord prompting Philip to go to the desert. We also just looked at the story of how an angel appeared to the man Cornelius the Roman centurion. Cornelius was seeking God but he didn't really know who he was yet. An angel appears and the angel says you need to get together with Simon Peter and the question arises why didn't the angel just give the gospel to Cornelius because that's not the job of angels. That's our job but the angel did his job.

You need to get together with Simon Peter and those two came together. The classic example of an angel stopping someone from doing the wrong thing is the story of Balaam and his donkey. One of my favorite stories in the Bible I have to say.

One of the funniest stories in the Bible too. So Balaam was a prophet for hire. I don't know where you'd find such a guy you know because google his name there's Balaam but he almost should have spelled the name prophet or the word prophet p-r-o-f-i-t because he seemed to be in it for the money.

So the king hired him a king that was opposed to Israel. He said I want to destroy the Israelites and I want you as a prophet to curse these people. So Balaam said yeah let's do it. He gets on his donkey and is on his way to do the thing God told him not to do.

The Lord said don't do this. Balaam said I'm gonna do it. So he's on his way riding his donkey in disobedience to God. So the donkey suddenly stops and and brushes up against the wall and crushes the leg of Balaam. Balaam is getting angry. He starts to beat the donkey and the donkey goes a little further and just stops. Well what Balaam didn't see and what the donkey did see was there was an angel standing in front of them with sword drawn. And so Balaam keeps kicking the donkey. Let's go.

Let's go. And then the Bible says the Lord opened the donkey's mouth and the donkey speaks to Balaam and says why are you beating me? Now that's amazing that a donkey spoke. This is not Shrek here folks.

This is a real Bible story. The donkey speaks and asked him why are you beating me? You've beaten me three times. Balaam says because you won't do what I'm telling you to do. And the donkey says haven't I been a good donkey?

Haven't I done what you wanted me to do? Balaam says yeah you've been good. Meanwhile the angel's like what is wrong with this guy? He's having a conversation with the donkey. You know people do talk to animals right. You talk to your dog.

It's funny how we use a different voice with animals. Go come here. Come over. Come over.

That sort of thing right. Talk any way you want to a cat they're like whatever. My wife can actually there's a cat in our neighborhood his name is Hopkins and and she can get this cat to come to her which I think is almost a miracle. And but you know we talk to animals with it. He's talking to an animal that's talking back to him again.

And then finally the angel reveals himself. He says you should be glad your donkey stopped. And he was also upset with Balaam for beating the donkey as well.

So that's where a donkey was seeing something that even Balaam did not see. So take away lesson. Don't talk to donkeys number one. Number two don't do what God has told you not to do.

Have you ever had the Lord put the brakes on something you were trying to do? I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna marry that guy. I'm gonna take this job. I'm gonna go do this thing. I'm gonna buy that other thing. I'm gonna say this.

I'm gonna do that. And it was like the door was shut in your face. And you're thinking what was that all about? Might have been an angel getting you out of trouble. So they prompt us.

Other times they stop us. But they're very involved in our lives. It's entirely possible you have even met an angel. Because Hebrews 13 2 says don't forget to entertain strangers for in doing so some have entertained angels without knowing it. I can tell you for certain there are angels in this room right now. Now we don't see them.

But what if there was an angel that was among us and it was a stranger and you were right next to an angel. So look around. Does anyone look? I don't see any feathers. No halos. No crumbs of angel food cake. There is a piece of devil's food cake over there that makes me wonder about what's happening. Yeah we you wouldn't know it.

But there could be an angel around you right now. You know virtual reality is so popular. Facebook has even changed their name from Facebook to meta. Because it's all about now this whole other virtual reality. And by the way meta is Latin for nerd. No not really.

But it's actually Latin for geek. But the point is is that you know you you put on the glasses and and the oculus glasses or whatever brand you have and you enter into the virtual world. I've done this a couple of times. I'm not that enamored with it frankly. But you know I was on a roller coaster in one and going through a forest in another.

You can get in fights and there's no way you can put those glasses on and look even remotely cool right. But this whole world that they want to introduce us to when in reality that world is not even real but the supernatural world is. If you were to see an angel. If an angel were to walk out on this stage and stand next to me we would all be amazed. And not only would we be amazed we would be tempted to fall down and worship the angel. This actually happened to the apostle John after the angel revealed certain things to him. And we read in Revelation 22. John says I heard and I saw these things and I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things and he said don't do it.

I'm your fellow servant worship God. Sometimes the question is asked do we have guardian angels. In other words do we have a personal angel that's assigned to us.

My answer is maybe. And I actually think there's a good chance of it because of a couple of verses in the bible. Matthew 18 10 Jesus speaking of children said don't look down on these little ones. I tell you their angels in heaven always see the face of my father in heaven. Notice he said their angels. So maybe kids have guardian angels. A lot of kids need guardian angels. They get themselves into so much trouble.

But then maybe we have one as well. Going back to Acts 12 after Peter was busted out of prison and he showed up at the house where they were praying for him and knocked at the door. A girl named Rhoda answers.

She sees him. She goes back and tells the apostles Peter's at the door and they said it's his angel. It's interesting it's his angel. Number one if anyone's angel knocks at my door I'm going to answer for sure okay.

But the point is maybe we do have guardian angels but even if we don't we know that we have angels actively involved in our lives. Some fascinating insight today in Pastor Greg Laurie's study called Angels and Demons. And there's more insight to come here on A New Beginning. And then Pastor Greg we're excited to announce your new book with the fascinating title Lennon, Dylan, Alice and Jesus. It's a deep dive into the lives of some famous names in music and where they stand or where they stood with the Lord. The subtitle is The Spiritual Biography of Rock and Roll. And it's interesting that a pastor is writing a book about rock and roll and rock musicians.

It seems like an unlikely pairing. Well let me just say that I've always loved music. I've always loved rock and roll to quote the great theologian Joan Jett. I love rock and roll. And so I've always been aware of rock. I've always listened to rock. I kind of became aware of it more as a young man watching the Beatles.

But in this book this is not glorifying rock music or rock musicians. This is a book that is exploring the lives of people that have basically experienced everything this world has to offer and have found it empty. It's sort of a modern version of the story of Solomon who had everything this world offers. And then he concluded it was all emptiness. It was like chasing the wind. It was like a bubble that bursts. And so you know when you've climbed to the top of the mountain and you've been all that and a bag of chips.

When you've been on a lunch box or on a t-shirt or people you know have your poster hung in their room you realize how empty all of that is. So I explore these stories. One fascinating section of the book is about the so called 27 Club.

Ever heard about that? These are artists who are very well known who all tragically died at the age of 27. Jimi Hendrix died at the age of 27.

So did Janis Joplin. You have to put Jim Morrison in there as well. Fast forward a number of years and you put Amy Winehouse in there along with Kurt Cobain.

People that had it all and yet died at the very young age of 27. So I sort of show the birth of rock, the growth of rock, the pinnacle of rock in the 60s and 70s, and then the just complete collapse of so many of these iconic people. But then I explore the lives of those rock stars who have come to Jesus Christ and are following him.

People I've gotten to know personally like Dion Demucci of Dion and the Belmonts, Richie Furet of the Buffalo Springfield and Poco and Alice Cooper who I've interviewed multiple times. This is a guy that has experienced all that this world has to offer and has found it empty and now is following Jesus Christ. So it's a book that shows what happens when you make the right and the wrong choices but ultimately it's a book that I think will offer hope and say to you there is no one that you know that is beyond the reach of God. Yeah it's full of great reassurance and powerful insights on where fulfillment is really found.

So can we send a copy your way? Again it's called Lennon, Dylan, Alice and Jesus. The subtitle is The Spiritual Biography of Rock and Roll and it's our gift to thank you for partnering with us right now. Your investments help these studies continue to come your way and they help us reach out with the gospel as we did several weeks ago at Boise Harvest.

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Or go online to harvest.org. Well next time Pastor Greg brings us more insight on angels. We'll uncover the biblical facts about the fallen angels known as demons. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and bible teacher Greg Laurie. Hey everybody thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to harvest.org and to find out how to know God personally go to harvest.org and click on know God.