INCONTROVERTIBLE
As believers, what we know for a fact is: Angels are an integral part of the worlds we inhabit. That is, the physical and the invisible worlds. We may not see them all the time, but our blindness to their presence does nothing to the stubborn fact of their existence. They are not human-mind dependent; their existence does not depend on our intelligence or awareness.

We can reasonably say angels are everywhere around us. The thirty-fourth Psalms asserts in part that “the angel of the Lord surrounds those who fear Him.” In the grammar of the New Testament, the spiritual ecosystem within which the believer lives is populated in part by “an innumerable company of angels.” But our penchant for the mundane, acquired at the fall, makes us naturally apprehensive if not scared of the blazing realm these spirit-persons call home.

Yet, our ongoing spiritual experience as Christians is a spectacular motif being procured – behind the scenes – by a curious interface of an array of spirit entities: Thrones, Demons, Watchers, Seraphim, Wheels, Cherubim, Archangels, etc – all under the sovereign government of the Godhead. Sure, the unseen world of the spirit is a colossally dynamic arena, bustling with schemes, counter-schemes, combats, covert missions, coups, and intrigues. We miss out on a lot of the intended grandeur of the Christian experience if we localize our strides to this broken world of touch, taste, and everything natural.

The thrills, the burdens, the education in the spirit world where angels are domiciled are cupious, are profound, and we are meant to profit by them. That realm and its holy actors invade our consciousness if we sustain the right disposition of mind and are furnished with the proper code of conviction. When this unseen realm and its native actors so invade our consciousness, they train our spiritual senses – senses activated at the new birth – positioning and enabling us to maximize the profund possibilities of that luminous spirit ecosystem.

ISSUES…
I have hinted at a certain propensity of many believers to congregate at extremes of either Angel-obsession or gross indifference to the reality of the angelic order. The subject of the authority structure in the spirit realm is hugely important, too. By that, I mean, can a believer command angels into action? Do these Instruments of God’s providence look up to saints for instruction? Some Christians would say an unconditional Yes. Others would say a confident No. And I guess a significant demographic would be undecided. While there is no section of the bible devoted to a systematics on angels, we can make crucial conclusions from the largely descriptive data we have. Let’s explore.

COMMANDING YOUR ANGELS?
Now, to the question. Do angels take instructions from believers? The simple answer is no. There is no record in scripture of anybody sending angels on errands; not even the Lord Jesus Himself during His earthly sojourn. I guess, and it is a wishful guess, that we may have been able to do so (send angels on errand), if humanity, in Adam and Eve never fell. But we fell.

Daniel, explaining how he happened to remain alive despite spending a night with untamed lions in their underground cafeteria, said “MY GOD SENT His angels and they shut the lions’ mouth.” Father Abraham, in Genesis twenty-four, assured the servant he sent to seek out a wife for Isaac that the project would be successful. He was confident that the “Lord would send His angel” ahead of the servant to lead him to the right lady for Isaac. During the arrest of Jesus in Matthew twenty-six, He chided Peter for attempting to go physical in His defence. Jesus said “Do you think that I can not appeal to my Father, and HE WILL AT ONCE SEND me more than twelve legions of angels?”

To be continued…

–Gideon Odoma‎