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Stage 1: Level 2 - Class 1
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Copyright © 1998 P.F.(Simon) Measures
Paul the Apostle prophesied,
Understand this, that in the last days will come perilous times of great stress and trouble (hard to deal with and hard to bear).
2 Timothy 3:1 - Amplified Bible.
I don't suppose you have any problem relating to that prophecy. I'm sure you've had your own stressful or troublesome times that have been hard to deal with and difficult to bear. You could probably tell me half a dozen stories to illustrate what perilous times we live in. It would seem you could hardly have a better description than that for our days, wouldn't you say?
As we read on from that first sentence, Paul's prophecy begins to sound more and more like a word-picture of our days. He continues,
There will be men (in these last days) who love nothing but self and money. They will be boastful, arrogant and abusive. They will have no respect for parents, and no gratitude to any man. They will be without reverence to God and without natural affection to men. They will be implacable in their enmities and slanderous words. They will be intemperate and savage. They will see nothing to love in goodness. They will be treacherous, reckless, inflated with conceit. They will love pleasure more than they love God. They will retain the outward conventions of religion, but they will consistently deny its dynamic.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 - Barclay's Translation.
Doesn't this make you wonder sometimes how on earth you're ever going to make it through these days? Don't you just know though that Jesus must have foreseen these days coming and made provision for us in them?
Jesus knew well of all that we would be up against in these days we now live in. For this reason He asked His Father to keep and protect you in this world from the evil one.
I have given them (My followers) Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
John 17:14-15 - NJKV.
The "evil one" Jesus asked the Father to protect His followers from was the devil. The devil is the destroyer. The devil is a thief and Jesus says,
The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy.
John 10:10 - Amplified.
The devil uses people he's caught and held captive as tools of his horrific trade. It seems almost regularly these days news comes of people committing horrendously wicked acts. We all wonder how they could ever do such things. The answer is because of "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience." Ephesians 2:2 - NKJV. In other words, as someone eloquently expressed it, "Behind every iniquity is an iniquitous spirit."
Who then can be in any doubt that in our times we need our Heavenly Father's protection. How has God answered the Son's prayer for this protection? What action do you think He's taken? For one thing, He's assigned to us body guards - special agents to keep a round-the-clock watch over us!
Testimony of angelic intervention
I'll never forget when I was living in Holland and went to pick up our mail from our ministry post box. I opened it immediately and began reading one of the letters as I walked towards home. As I walked down a quiet street I was totally absorbed in its contents. So absorbed, that I reached the street's end without even realising it and stepped out into the busy main road - right in front of a bus!
What then occurred was awesome! Seemingly of themselves my feet came together and I rebounded backwards off the road onto the pavement. I had the distinct sensation of being picked up under the arms. The bus screeched to a halt some distance farther on and there I was standing in safety!
I am convinced an angel or angels had intervened! The angels God the Father had assigned to take charge over me had faithfully carried out another mission of protection. The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that angels are ministering spirits sent to minister for the "heirs of salvation" (KJV).
Who are the heirs of salvation? We are! God's children, His new creations by the new birth are the heirs of salvation.
Are not the angels all ministering spirits (servants) sent out in the service (of God for the assistance) of those who are to inherit salvation?
Hebrews 1:14 - Amplified.
Angels are ministering spirits. They minister for the sons and daughters of God. They minister to the needs of God's children. They minister wonderfully in protecting and helping them.
In Psalm 91 we hear God's promise,
In their hands they (the angels) shall bear you (those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High) up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
Psalm 91:12 - NKJV(words in brackets added for clarity).
It was this promise of God that impelled my assigned angels to pluck me up from before the oncoming bus!
Angels are on assignment
Angels are assigned to you by God. Their assignment is to minister for those who are heirs of salvation.
Again in Psalm 91 we read,
For He shall give His angels (especial) charge over you to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways (of obedience and service).
Psalm 91:11 - Amplified.
Angels are our attendants. They are not of a status to rule over you and me - the heirs of salvation. In the spectrum of God's creation angels are not superior to born again men and women. They do not come into the God-class of beings as we - the heirs of salvation - do. Angels minister for us.
Angels at work
I always get excited by the accounts in the Bible of angels ministering to save God's men and women! In the New Testament, for example, Apostle Paul experienced many miraculous deliverances. In most cases we can only speculate as to the degree of angelic involvement. One thing is certain though in spite of all he came up against at the end of it he was able to say,
Out of them all the Lord delivered me!
2 Timothy 3:11.
Peter could have made the same declaration. In the Bible we have the account of his deliverance from Herod's prison. He was chained up with a total of 16 soldiers guarding him and from that the Lord delivered him. We are told an angel appeared, loosed the chains and led him right out into the street of the city! (Acts 12)
What a powerful example of angelic intervention on behalf of one of God's children! It was just as God promised,
The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them.
Psalm 34:7 - NKJV.
You might ask, "How can I know this kind of deliverance - this angelic intervention - in my life?"
First of all, you can pray to your Heavenly Father for it in the name of Jesus. He will respond to your call in faith and instantly provide you with all the help of angels you need.
Secondly, you can get started laying up God's precious promises from the Bible in your heart and learn to voice those promises in every circumstance. The psalmist David declared,
Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word.
Psalm 103:20 - NKJV.
Look closely at that verse of scripture and you will discover a wonderful truth. Angels give heed to the voice of God's Word!
You can give the Word a voice. You can voice the Word coming out of your heart and by doing so you give that Word a voice. Angels hear and respond to this "voice of His Word".
God's Word declares a thing and when the angels hear this given voice they perform it. Angels do whatever that Word you have given voice to declares and they excel in strength in doing it! In this way there is deliverance for you by the hands of angels because you voiced His Word.
In this regard angels are like soldiers; when they hear a directive - a voiced phrase or promise from God's Word - they go into action excelling in strength to deliver!
They went on full alert, ready at a moment's notice to go into protective action, when they heard the voice of Jesus requesting full protection for us of His Father. (See John 17:11) Now they respond instantly when you voice God's Word. They excel in strength on your behalf ministering unfailing protection when God's promises start coming from your mouth!
Say it! Speak out God's Word! That's what the Bible tells you to do,
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy.
Psalm 107:2 - NKJV.
You will get those who will say, "The intervention of angels does not seem very evident in the lives of very many Christians!"
My response to that would simply be; what - if anything - are those Christians giving angels to act on? What do you hear coming out of their mouths? Proverbs tells us,
Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
Proverbs 18:21.
Have you heard of that horrendous airline disaster in Tenerife in the 1970s when two Boeing 747s collided on the runway? There was an almost total loss of life. Do you know what was voiced by one of the pilots just before impact? It was recorded on the plane's flight recorder. He said, "God, we're all gonna die!"
What could angels have possibly done with that? That was not a directive they could act on! And to think that it's God who so often gets the blame for the lose of life in these disasters.
What a different story it might have been if the pilot had cried out (as I often have), "The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him and delivers them." Or prayed, "Father, in the Name of Jesus, command your angels to minister protection for us!"
Think back to the last time you were in a crisis. What came out of your mouth? In crisis the mouth speaks from the heart and Jesus said,
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
Matthew 12:34 - NKJV.
What you've spent your time getting your heart filled up with is exactly what will come out of your mouth! In time of crisis your mouth will speak what's in your heart in abundance.
Start working today on getting your heart filled with God's Word! Get those "angel directives" into your heart in abundance! In this way, no matter what comes at you, there'll be an outburst of Word from your mouth activating angels that excel in strength on your behalf! Get yourself protected in the Danger Zone!
Copyright © 1998 P.F. (Simon) Measures
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This class is part of High Impact Christianity - now available as a five part book series!
Next class: Risen To Eternal Life - A lesson on water baptism.
Previous class: The Joy Of Salvation - A lesson on the gift of righteousness
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