Transcript
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One thing I do see constantly is when people are doing the things that God has designed them to do,
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angels are constantly partnering with them doing that thing.
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Let me ask you about this. You know, we read the Bible and we see several different instances
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where angels came with messages. There's like different types of angels and different
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classifications, I guess. Could you kind of unpack some of that as you're reading scripture?
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Yeah. Yeah. You know, I've run into a lot of books that try to create that kind of almost like
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taxonomy of angels categorization. And there is some of it is evident in scripture. And I'm,
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and I don't begrudge anyone doing that and diving into that. I have personally found
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that it can edge on trying to say more than the Bible saying about this. And it's funny,
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because when I do talk about this biblically with people, I've noticed that one of the things that
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at least I don't hear reflected back to myself very often is some of the kind of broader picture
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narrative of God revealing this aspect of his kingdom to people. And it's kind of fascinating
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if you go through really all of the books of the prophets, especially different, the book of
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revelation, different, you know, kind of revelation moments all throughout the New Testament.
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And the word that's most often used, at least in the Greek is actually apocalypse. Now,
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in modern language, apocalypse means like destruction or the end of the world or something
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like that. But the actual translation of that word is like an unveiling, a revealing or a revelation.
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And it's almost this idea of people having these moments. And there's again, an equivalent word in
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Hebrew that I'm not going to try to pronounce because I'm terrible at pronouncing Hebrew. But
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it's this idea of almost God peeling back the veil and saying, here's what my kingdom looks like.
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Here's what the inner workings of how I'm operating. And then that's where you get
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these moments like Isaiah seeing this vision of the train of the Lord's robe filling the temple
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and just continuing going, going, going. That's this picture of God's authority and power operating
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on the earth. There's this again, these pictures in Ezekiel, Hosea of God's throne being on this
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massive chariot being pulled by these creatures and it being kind of strange. There's these pictures
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of wheels within wheels. And it's funny, some of the things that I've seen, I kind of categorize
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broadly this way of some things are more designed to reveal the majesty, the mystery, the holiness,
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the bigness of God and other things are designed to reveal the intimacy, the relatability,
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the accessibility of God. To me, that's those extremes of, again, seeing God's throne on a
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chariot covered in fire, just these big dynamic, overwhelming images versus God showing up with a
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still small voice or an angel that looks, at least as I read the description in scripture,
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more or less like a person that shows up and just relays a clear message. And here's two quick
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stories, at least from my own life, that kind of draw that picture. So I remember I used to always
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see this one angel at our church. This was right after I learned that what I was experiencing was
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the results of a gift and I was trying to understand it to the best of my ability. And
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some stuff made intuitive sense. I would see angels that would dance during worship,
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they'd be carrying banners, they'd be almost moving with a coordinated choreography, almost like they
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knew what the music would be ahead of time and or just kind of partnering with the worship that
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was happening there. And again, that makes kind of intuitive sense. They're partnering with us as
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we're worshiping God, they're partnering with that worship. I would see sometimes maybe if we're
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praying for people, angels come by and lay their hands on people or remove things off of people.
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I remember one time our pastor was preaching about getting freedom in our lives. And again,
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as simple as it is, I saw angels with bolt cutters going around and cutting chains off of people.
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Again, it's very, very intuitive, makes sense and that seems pretty clear.
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Then another time I saw our pastor was praying for an impartation of the
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baptism of the Holy Spirit. And as he did, we had people lining up in the front.
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And I just saw this orange-ish, reddish, yellowish smear of light that was kind of solid and liquid
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and somewhat gaseous. And it came in, it swooshed through the people this way, swooshed through the
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people that way and then went out the window. I had no idea what that meant. That looked strange.
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It looked very hard to interpret and to understand. And so some stuff I would see made intuitive sense.
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Like when I look at it, I can understand it. And some stuff, it would be kind of out there.
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I remember I started to understand the difference between these two things with a couple of
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experiences. There's this one angel I'd always see that stood at the front door of our church,
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it's kind of the entry to the foyer and the sanctuary. And he looked like he was wearing
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this armor that was just immaturally taken care of in pristine condition. He had a spear in his
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hand. He was standing straight, looking into the middle distance. Looked like he was in his mid-50s.
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I don't know if angels can be in their mid-50s, but that's how he looked.
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Everything about him looks like a guard or a sentry or something of that nature. So that's
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pretty intuitive. But as I was looking at that, I was like, okay, well, does that mean that he
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is going to like fight a demon if it tries to come in through this door? Does that mean if
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that angel can overpower that demon, that God's plans or the enemy's plans come to fruition?
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And if that's the case, what, you know, again, I don't want to be rude, but what extra benefit
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does an angel staying there have versus the presence of the Holy Spirit being in our lives,
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the presence of God in the room as we worship him being covered in the blood of Jesus? You know,
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what extra protection would that provide? And as I was running all these things through my mind,
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I saw this short vision in the back of my mind. It was just like a short film that played on the
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screen of my imagination. And in it, I saw these two kingdoms and I saw the king of one kingdom
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send an ambassador to the foreign kingdom. And when he did, he sent this small honor guard,
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just a handful of soldiers to go with his ambassador. And as this ambassador approached
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the foreign kingdom, I saw there was hundreds of soldiers on the walls of this kingdom. And when
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they entered the kingdom, there was even hundreds more inside. And at first I thought to myself,
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well, gosh, if those soldiers decided to attack, there's nothing that the honor guard be able to
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do to protect. What's the point? But in that same moment, I realized, oh, it's not just about the
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practical protection that that honor guard provides, even though that might be part of the reason.
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It's also just as much, if not more about the statement that's being made, that this is a
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statement that that king is making. My power is going with this person. This is representative
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of greater power that rests within my kingdom. And in that moment, it's funny, the angel looked
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exactly the same, but every detail of his appearance just suddenly took on deeper meaning.
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That this idea that it wasn't just about the literal protection that would be provided,
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that angel fighting a demon if it came through, but that again, that he was standing so straight,
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that he was so focused and intent on his task, that I would see him week after week, unmoving,
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unflinching, standing there, even that he looked like he was in his mid 50s, spoke of age, of
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excellence, of maturity, of all these things. And so again, I realized, oh, it's one layer of a
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revelation of God's protection that he would anoint us with his son's blood, that we would be covered
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in that way, that we would adopt it into his family. It's another layer of his protection that
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his presence would go with us, but it's another layer, a different flavor of the communication of
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his protection, that he would send a servant to stand at the door and it would communicate something
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different about the value he had on what we were doing in that space. And so again, that stuff made
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intuitive sense, but it had this deeper meaning that pointed to something. And one other,
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one other, this kind of brief story to wrap up some of that more abstract stuff is, I remember
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one time, because I would often see things that were abstract and strange and didn't make intuitive
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sense and I didn't really know what to do with it. We were doing an all night worship night and
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we walked in and I saw this, there was just a couple of people playing acoustic music and it
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was late in the night. And I saw just this kind of, again, just this greenish, whitish,
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bluish sort of smear of light that was in the center of the stage. And it was just kind of
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oscillating back and forth, not in really any, to me, particular pattern. And I was frustrated
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to that point because I would see these abstract things. I'm like, am I supposed to share this?
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Am I not supposed to share it? What does it mean if I do share it? How is this helpful? How is this
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edifying? What does this mean? And why am I seeing this if I don't know what to do with them? So,
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with a somewhat bad attitude, I sat down and was frustrated. And as I looked around the room,
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I saw this woman that was in the front row. She was probably in her late 80s and she was kind of
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hunched over and leaning down. And I had this thought go through my mind. At that time, I and
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kind of the environment I was in had this really high value for really extravagant worship. And
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when we worship God, there was a real value for not being ashamed of displaying your love for the
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Lord, whether that's moving around or just being kind of more outgoing. But I realized that that
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good value had kind of put a bit of a negative mindset in me where I felt this internal judgment
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towards this woman pop up in my mind of, I guess she's not that engaged in worship right now.
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And as soon as I had this thought, I felt this sense of conviction. And then immediately,
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I looked in the spirit and I could see straight through her. I could see her skeleton. I could
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see her internal organs. And then my eyes kind of settle on her heart. And when I saw her heart,
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I saw this greenish, bluish, whitish little smear of light that was pumping through the four chambers
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of her heart back and forth in this pattern and an exact replica in miniature of the one that I saw
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on the stage. And as I looked around the room, I saw that exact same light in every heart
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inside the room. And I immediately heard the Holy Spirit say, I'm sinking their heartbeats to mine.
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And so it's interesting because I suddenly got a little bit more meaning out of this thing that
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was abstract, I got a little bit of a correction about an attitude that I had. But at the same time,
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I'm sinking their heartbeats to mine. What does that mean? What does that literally mean?
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And the more I've thought about it over the years, I realized again, there's things that
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are more tangible and practical about God that are relatable about him. And there are things that he
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does that are mysterious, that are hard to define, that are hard to express clearly and are in fact
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mysterious often. I think sometimes we see things in the spirit that are more reflective of the
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mystery of who he is and then other things that are more related to the tangibility of who he is.
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That was a very long answer to it.
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But that's great though. Any answer that I can get a story out of, I'm happy with.
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There's a couple things that I want to make sure that we touch on here and that's guardian angels,
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the ability to command angels and interacting with angels as well. You mentioned that you were a kid
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whenever you realized that this was a gift, you kind of came to that matrix and understanding.
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But have you interacted with them? I could just imagine seeing eight, nine year old Blake just
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saying, hey, Mr. Angel, how's it going today? Have you interacted with them? If so, what was that like?
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Yeah, so it's interesting. When I was younger, I for the most part didn't feel this compulsion to
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naturally interact with angels. The best way I can explain it is if I was at school or at church or
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something like that, I would naturally interact with my parents and I generally wouldn't interact
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with someone else's parents unless they engaged me for the most part. That's really just because
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of an intuitive sense of belonging, of order, if you will. Looking back, I can really see how I
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could feel that very organic sense of order with regard to the angelic things that I saw especially.
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There's a lot of characteristics that despite every angel I've seen is carried, but if there's
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two that really stand out, it's the intentness with which they do and value whatever task they've been
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assigned and also their very, very strong sense of respect for the relationships and
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roles that they have. A quick example is as we're talking about, every person I've ever met has
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what I call a personal angel. Some people call them guardian angels, just an angel that is with
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them all throughout their life. One question I'll commonly get asked is, does people get married?
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Do their angels interact? Do they work together? Well, I've seen examples of that. For the most part,
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I see that angel still be focused mainly on that person, that their one person and remain just
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really, really focused on this partner with the purposes of God and that individual's life. Again,
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not that that would be wrong or different for it not to be, but it's just that kind of focus of
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relationship. I actually didn't ever hear an angel speak until I was in my 20s.
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Really?
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Yeah. I would see them all the time, but I never heard anything auditory whatsoever until I was in
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my 20s. It's interesting. I've met a lot of other people who see in the spirit who have had
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slightly different experiences. I think even some of it might be due to my personality. My
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personality is a little bit more of an observational one. I like to look and see what's going on, try
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to understand things and even occasionally be maybe a little bit more disconnected and
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observational as I said. It could be some of that. I noticed for me personally that as I've grown in
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authority and responsibility in different ministry roles throughout my life, I have noticed that
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the interaction with angels has increased in those regards. There's a specific message for a ministry
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that I'm serving, a church that I'm ministering at, direction for the church where I serve now,
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things like that. That's where I'll run into that kind of conversation a little bit more.
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It's interesting this conversation of commanding angels does come up quite frequently and I've
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heard, if not passionate, at least strong arguments for either perspective of you should
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absolutely not command angels, you absolutely should be commanding angels. My experience would
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communicate something a little bit in the middle. My rule of thumb is one of the most beautiful
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facets of the gospel is that Jesus is our only intermediary between us and the Father.
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And of course, He is the Father in essence. And so, one of the things that again is so beautiful
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about the gospel is that we have actually been invited into a relationship with God
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and without intermediary. And I think I have seen angels very much respect that reality
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that they don't exist as an intermediary. They exist as a servant of the kingdom of God who is
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partnering with His purposes and His purposes in our lives as well. And so, I do hesitate to
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do anything that would put an angel between me and the Lord or feel like I have to do this,
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but rather than that, however, one thing I do see constantly is when people are doing the things
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that God has designed them to do, angels are constantly partnering with them doing that thing.
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That can be traditional ministry things that we think of like leading worship or preaching
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or praying for folks or things of that nature. But it's also in all the other,
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we don't always think of them this way, but the godly things that we're called to in our life,
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like working and operating in our families, interacting with others in the world, in our
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shopping experiences, in commerce, in our day-to-day lives. And again, many of us are called
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to be in the world, bringing God's kingdom to what we think of as non-ministry areas, even though
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the whole world belongs to God and doing anything good in the world is an expression of God's kingdom.
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And so, I see angels constantly partnering with that. And so, it's an interesting interaction of,
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to me, it's almost a moot question in some ways of, am I supposed to be commanding angels? I almost
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think in some ways that's the wrong question of if I'm partnering with the purposes of God in my life,
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he is undoubtedly prepared and sent angels to partner with those purposes in my life.
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And so, rather than being too concerned about, should I tell an angel to do that?
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I think it's more an aspect of, should I be doing that? Should I be stepping out an authority in
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this particular area? And so, there's a lot of nuanced cases in that, but I think that overall
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perspective and attitude, that's just the one I found to be the most helpful.