Some years back, I was preaching in a village, and on my final night at the meeting, I did a biblical survey of the ministry of angels. Because I happen to be quite acquainted with the tempo of that territory, I wasn’t surprised at the hesitation that grew and seized the atmosphere. There was palpable reluctance to accept the block of my message about angels.

I agree: talking about angels must always be a careful exercise in balancing. So, I sympathize with my apprehensive audience that night, whose response, to be fair to them, is in no way exceptional. My studied opinion is that much of the Evangelical bloc in this clime revel in a cultivated indifference to, and pious ignorance of the unseen, spiritual order. The result is that a lot of Christians are unschooled in matters angelic – particularly – and matters invisible – generally. Responses from honest surprise, to unease, all the way to undisguised resistance are to be expected when this subject is put on the table.

True, angels are not to be a Christian’s obsession. They are created beings. They are servants, ministering spirits. Apart from their direct service to God, they are also sent to, in the language of scripture, ‘minister for those who are heirs of salvation.’ By that designation, they are meant to attend to us. Point is, God remains the eternal focus and locus of all genuine spiritual engagements. It is the Lord we seek. Angels are a part of His show and must never be portrayed or positioned as sharing in that glory or story befitting for the Great Monarch alone.

Nevertheless, we may not shy away from talking and teaching about angels if only for the fact that the bible has a lot to say about them. They are part of the detailed, extensive architecture of the spiritual realm – a realm all believers are called to be privileged stakeholders in. The spirit landscape that hosts the angelic order and other spirit beasts and beings is the same turf to which we were freely admitted as bona fide players at the new birth. It is neither biblical nor commonsensical to be ignorant of our spirit allies, for by His Majesty’s decree, angels are our spirit allies.

NAMING NAMES
What is an angel? The word itself describes an activity. It is more of a job description than an ontological referent. The word ‘angel’ in both testaments means Messenger. Different kinds and categories of spirit beings exist. But no matter the category, whenever God sends a spirit being on an errand, that being, on that account, is a messenger, that is, an angel. The Pre-incarnate Christ, for instance, appears and is referenced on occassions in the Old Testament as “the Angel of His presence.” Of course, there is an angelic order, i.e., beings who exist primarily as messenger-personnel in God’s invisible royal service. Yet, this clarification – that angel has no ontological particularity but is simply a job description – is a crucial clarification, as will be seen by and by.

TO MY PREVIOUS POINT
Believers, in negotiating their posture towards angels, usually fall into one of two extreme categories. Some Christians, out of a legitimate fear of over-emphasizing the relevance of angels and possibly worshipping them, recoil wholesale from any consideration, and I mean consideration, not even contemplation of spirit-beings who are nevertheless part of God’s spirit ecosystem. On the other hand, some believers interpret the repeated reference to angels in scripture to mean an invitation to angel-obsession. Both camps miss the mark. While we must not be oblivious to this fraternal legion in the spirit world, loosely called angels, we also must not patronize them. There is a healthy balance.

To be continued…

–Gideon Odoma‎