Good morning, I want to take a little time today to talk about one of the most interesting
topics in scripture, and that is angels.
I could probably do five or six broadcasts about angels, but to just get things rolling
this morning, I want to talk about the importance of studying what the Bible says, because we
can have supernatural encounters with God, but we want to make sure that whatever we're
doing or whatever we're encountering is actually biblical.
There's a wonderful scripture in 2 Timothy 2.15, and it says,
Be diligent to present yourself approved of God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
So what does that mean?
Well, people can wrongly divide it, correct?
And so I had an encounter with something very supernatural when my father passed June 12th.
I was next to him, and I was worshiping God.
My heart was breaking.
It was sad.
It was hard to hear.
It was hard to listen to.
It was difficult for him.
It was difficult for me.
And yet, I knew that God was where I needed to run to.
I needed to worship him and trust him in my pain.
So I began to sing, and I began to worship.
And that was fine for a while, and I was rocking back and forth, and I was holding his hand.
But at the end of it, sort of everything changed.
And it changed when I began to sing about the holiness of God and how holy and beautiful
he is.
And I started singing, and I started worshiping.
And suddenly something came in the room, and it was so powerful, and it went up, and
my dad was laying in the bed, and his eyes flew open, and he was like in shock.
And I was shaken because it was so holy, I was afraid.
And ever since that time, it's really kind of bothered me.
I've wanted to get into my Bible and to prove scripturally, theologically, what was it that
happened?
What was that?
Have you ever had anything happen with God that you just didn't understand, didn't make
sense?
I'd never, ever experienced God's presence where I was afraid.
And yet, when I began to go through and study worship and actually angels, I got some incredible
answers.
Now, what are angels?
Well, angels are spiritual beings.
They've been created by God.
They are basically staff in the kingdom.
They work for God.
They deliver messages.
They are about the Father's business.
They don't randomly interfere with men.
They are involved in kingdom business.
They come when the Word of God is prayed or sung in faith, glorifying Jesus.
We are never to worship angels, we are to worship Jesus.
When we worship God, when we worship Jesus, and we glorify Him, that pleases angels and
they respond.
Not only that, they respond when we sing scripture, when we sing biblical truth.
They respond to the Word.
So I started digging in my Bible this week and I pulled out a book.
One of them was Understanding Angels by Terry Law, which is, I think, one of the best ones
out there written about angels.
And then I just got into the old concordance and started looking for scriptures.
And when someone passes away, it is biblical that the angels come to comfort and to guide.
And that reference, I found it, finally.
Luke 17, 22, so the beggar died and he was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom.
The rich man also died and he was buried.
This is from Lazarus and it gives you that biblical example that we need scripturally
that proves that
When someone passes away, it's a very holy thing.
It shouldn't be taken lightly.
When God comes, he comforts the righteous.
It's a holy thing when you've loved God and you've served God and you're stepping into
glory.
And he will come and he will comfort and he will guide you.
Probably, well for me, it was one of the most painful things you'll ever go through
is the death of a loved one, especially a parent.
It's heartbreaking.
But you have to be careful because when someone has a spiritual experience, it's very tempting
to somehow try to turn that into some sort of a doctrine when it doesn't really line
up with scripture.
You know you need to go to church.
You need to read your Bible.
You need to sit under a pastor who can teach you the word of God and who can help strengthen
you and answer those questions that you're going to have when you experience things.
So I began to go into scripture and I just saw some beautiful truths.
Do you love worship?
I do.
I love praise and worship and I love studying biblical music over the course of human history.
I was a music major in college and there's a big connection between worship and the
angels and it's also interesting now in modern contemporary worship that some of the most
anointed praise and worship songs that have been written in probably the last 20 years
are songs that take portions of scripture that are biblically and theologically sound
and those are put to music that empower the body of Christ to sing and worship Jesus.
And there's some cool examples of that and the first one, of course, when I was looking
at the angels are when Jesus was born in the hills in Bethlehem.
Now think about that.
There's two things that have happened there.
Number one, the first thing the angels say is, fear not.
And they begin to give instruction that in this day in the city of David is going to
be born to you, your Savior.
And then they go into in Luke 2, glory to God in the highest and peace on earth, good
will towards men.
When George Friedrich Handel wrote The Messiah, an oratorio, he was headed for bankruptcy
and he wanted to write something that would turn his life around because he was in big
trouble and he was crying out to God and he sat down and he wrote The Messiah.
It was either within 10 or 14 days.
It was like a download from heaven when he wrote that.
One of the most beautiful portions of that oratorio is that chorus.
I love the Hallelujah chorus, but I also love that glory to God in the highest portion that's
in there as well.
Another beautiful example in scripture comes out of Revelation 5.
Now there's a lot of beautiful examples of worship.
We see examples of what happens in heaven in the book of Revelation.
When you study what's actually happening in heaven, we're to pray that according to the
Lord's Prayer that God's will be done on earth as it is in where?
Heaven.
Well, what's going on in heaven?
Worship.
The angels are worshiping Jesus.
They're worshiping God.
A lot of people take the first portion of the church service, praise and worship, as
kind of casual.
They'll show up late.
They'll roll in the back seat and slide in kind of like, well, we haven't missed anything.
It's just praise and worship.
Praise and worship is sacred and holy to God.
When you go to church, you need to be there.
You need to worship.
Number one, it's what's healthy for you.
It's kind of like taking your vitamins.
Worshiping God is going to give you strength.
It's going to give you actually power.
Why?
Because when you're in God's presence, that's when you're going to hear from him.
And a lot of times, I don't know about you, but it takes me a while to kind of shut down
the world and what's happened this week.
I have to really think about, okay, Leanne, don't think about all those other things.
I'm here to worship Jesus.
I'm here to love Jesus.
I'm here to focus on his goodness and his greatness and his bigness and his glory.
is glory, and not about all the dumb little petty things that are going on in my life.
When I do that, I enter His presence.
Biblically, it says we shall enter His gates with thanksgiving in our hearts.
We will enter His courts with praise, and that's connected to the tabernacle of Moses.
That's how you get into God's presence, is through praise and worship.
Revelations 5, 11-14 Then I looked, and I heard a voice of many
angels around the throne, living creatures and elders.
And the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,
saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who is slain, and worthy
is the Lamb who is slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and blessing.
And every creature, that's including the angels, which is in heaven and on earth and under
the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying, Blessing
and honor and glory and power to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever
and ever.
And then the four living creatures, okay now these are the four living creatures that are
in heaven, they have the face of the man, the lion, the ox, and the eagle, and they're
covered with wings, and they have eyes covering those wings.
It's a wonderful study, go look at it at Revelations 4, my Bible classes used to draw
it for me in Bible class.
And these creatures as well, they all say the same thing, Amen.
And to the twenty-four elders, which are the twelve we believe potentially, the twelve
apostles and the twelve disciples, yes, or the twelve tribes, I'm sorry, and the twelve
apostles, they fall down and they worship Him who lives forever and forever.
So that portion of Scripture shows you right there that heaven, the throne room, that's
what we're going to be doing for eternity.
We're going to be worshiping Him with the angels.
So it would make sense that when we worship on the earth, when we go to church and we
put away our daily lives and we close our eyes, we don't focus on the band or the music
or whatever, we focus on Jesus and we corporately sing praise and worship.
You can sing and worship in your car, you can sing and worship in your living room,
but there's something powerful when you step into a corporate worship setting where people
are singing scripturally, biblically, and honoring God.
It's not about the musicians, never.
It's about Jesus and our focus is on Him.
And when we do that, we bless the Lord.
That's our job first and foremost in praise and worship is to bless the Lord.
And when we do that, that's when the angels come.
Another portion of scripture, fear not, for behold, I bring you great news, great joy
that will be for you and for all people.
It's just another example of when you come into the presence of God or when the angels
are there, we're not to fear that they have a job to do and they do that when we are worshiping
Him.
So when that angel, I'm back to when my dad passed, when that angel came in the room,
I was terrified.
I was instantaneously aware that I was not worthy, that I was a fallen person.
I was not worthy to be in the presence of the holy thing that was in the room that day
with my dad.
But he was doing something that was so holy and so, I'm so thankful for what he did and
how he did it looking back now.
And it also produced fruit in me to want to study the Word and to want to go back into
my Bible and then to prove what had happened to me theologically and scripturally.
You know, I think we're living in a day now where a lot of...
People are going to be deceived. They're going to have fake encounters. They're going to have
what I call the new age encounters with things that aren't biblical.
They're just not real. What do you do? Well, what you do is what I just did.
You go back to, can you give me scripture for that? Can you back it up theologically?
Can you test it to the word of God? If you can, it's God.
Another thing, we are not to worship angels or we're not to worship encounters that we have.
Now, this is from Revelations chapters 19, starting in verse 10.
Then I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said, no,
he's talking about John who's having this encounter with this angel. He said, no,
do not do that. For I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony
of Jesus. Worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Now, this book of prophecy, Revelation, would become one of the most significant books of
prophecy next to the book of Daniel, which parallels that. Zechariah also has prophecy.
Daniel also has prophecy. But Revelation is really kind of the New Testament book that
ties all of those things together. It confirms what is in the Old Testament.
So, we want to study the whole counsel of God's word when we study.
Then when we go back, we want to make sure that what we're experiencing and what we're
looking at scripturally and theologically, that it really lines up. I don't want to be deceived.
I want to walk in biblical truth. I want to walk in the word of God, the blessing of God.
I don't want to be deceived, and I do not want to deceive anyone that listens
to the broadcasts or to the channel.
Thank you for listening today. It's important. If you've ever had an encounter with an angel,
I would appreciate it if you would leave me a testimony today. On my YouTube channel,
I'm going to post some additional videos there that pertain. I think they're important
encounters with angels. They're important teachings regarding angels. They're voices
that I trust, and then also some good resources for you to study those things so that we can grow
up in the knowledge of God and we can show ourselves approved, rightly dividing the word
of truth. Thank you for listening. Have a great day.