Angels in the Prophetic

Lesson 1 Introduction to Angels, Seraphim and Cherubim By Teresa Seputis

Introduction 

I never thought much about angels in my early days of  Christianity. They just were not a part of my everyday Christian life. I knew the bible talked about angels, but I had never met one and I never expected to meet one. I knew they existed but they were not a part of my life, so I did not think about them. After I had been saved 3 or 4 years, I had a dream where I met what I think may have been a real angel. He did not have wings -- his appearance was very much like a man. He was cleaner and  brighter than your average person, and there was something about his eyes that I cannot describe. His eyes were deeply  penetrating, but at the same time full of love. My whole being was filled with joy when He spoke to me, bringing me a message from God. It was just a dream, but it seemed more real than any dream I'd had before. When I woke up from that dream, I knew that this person was an angel. I searched the bible for some sort of precedence of angels bringing messages from God in a dream. To my surprise, I found that angels in the bible actually did things like that... for instance the angel that spoke to Joseph, Jesus' step-father, spoke to Joseph and gave him instructions in dreams. That dream encounter got me intensely curious about angels. But back in the late 70s, there were not a whole lot of resource  books on the subject of angels. I eventually found one o ne book  written by Billy Graham on angels. That was helpful but it did

Lesson 1 Introduction to Angels, Seraphim and Cherubim By Teresa Seputis

Introduction 

I never thought much about angels in my early days of  Christianity. They just were not a part of my everyday Christian life. I knew the bible talked about angels, but I had never met one and I never expected to meet one. I knew they existed but they were not a part of my life, so I did not think about them. After I had been saved 3 or 4 years, I had a dream where I met what I think may have been a real angel. He did not have wings -- his appearance was very much like a man. He was cleaner and  brighter than your average person, and there was something about his eyes that I cannot describe. His eyes were deeply  penetrating, but at the same time full of love. My whole being was filled with joy when He spoke to me, bringing me a message from God. It was just a dream, but it seemed more real than any dream I'd had before. When I woke up from that dream, I knew that this person was an angel. I searched the bible for some sort of precedence of angels bringing messages from God in a dream. To my surprise, I found that angels in the bible actually did things like that... for instance the angel that spoke to Joseph, Jesus' step-father, spoke to Joseph and gave him instructions in dreams. That dream encounter got me intensely curious about angels. But back in the late 70s, there were not a whole lot of resource  books on the subject of angels. I eventually found one o ne book  written by Billy Graham on angels. That was helpful but it did

not satisfy my curiosity. I was frustrated for a long time and cried out to God to teach me more about His angels. But He did not seem to answer my prayer. I finally gave up and stopped asking. Little did I realize that it would be 20 to 25 years before He was to answer that prayer. I share my (above) story because I have discovered that angels are a mystery to the average Christian. We know that they exist, that they are powerful spirit beings who serve God, but many of  us don't know much more about them. We may have a vague idea that they are involved in certain types of activities. For  instance, angels seem to sometimes play a role in the prophetic. We know that some of the "big name" prophets have publicly shared how they have gotten some of their prophetic stuff from angels. So we realize that angels play some sort of role in the  prophetic. But most of us don't really understand precisely what role angels play in that. In fact, most of us don't understand or  know very much about angels. This teaching series is written to help people understand more about angels, the roles they play in our lives and how we can work successfully with them. Most of these insights shared in this series come directly from scripture. The bible is very rich in information about angels. Most of us have never really harvested that information, but there is quite a bit there about angels. Part of the teaching will be from personal experiences with angels (mine and some other people's). The series will focus on the various roles of angels. But angels are not the only creatures that compose the heavenly hosts. The  bible talks a lot about angels. It also mentions two other types of   beings: Seraphim and Cherubim. We will spend the next several

lessons looking at angels. But let us first look briefly at the Seraphim and Cherubim. Seraphim 

These are six-winged beings who live in the presence of God. Their ministry appears to be before God's throne and they tend to hover (fly) around God and sing worship to Him. They seem to be closely tied to God's holiness. When they ministered to Isaiah, their ministry was in the area of forgiveness and  purification. Seraphim are only mentioned twice in the Bible,  both in Isaiah 6. Isaiah 6:1-7 says, "In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of His robe filled the Temple. Hovering around Him were mighty Seraphim, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with the remaining two they flew. In a great chorus they sang, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty! The whole earth is filled with His glory!' The glorious singing shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire sanctuary was filled with smoke. Then I said, 'My destruction is sealed, for I am a sinful man and a member of a sinful race. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord Almighty!' Then one of the Seraphim flew over to the altar, and he picked up a  burning coal with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, 'See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven'" (NLT). This is the only passage where we gain definitive insight about Seraphim. We do not have any indication from Isaiah 6 that they ever leave the heavenly realm and interact with man in our 

world. They may reside only in God's throne room. However, a words study of the original Hebrew indicates that God may sometimes send them out to bring judgment for unholiness. The Hebrew word for Seraphim is "saraph" (pronounced sawrawf', Strongs number 08314). It comes from the root word meaning "to burn." The same word (saraph) is translated twice into Seraphim (a transliteration of the original Hebrew word saraph) to refer to the majestic heavenly beings that hover  around God's throne and sing of His holiness. However, the same Hebrew word is translated as "fiery serpent" and is used in reference to God bringing judgment against sin to the children of  Israel (Num 21:6, Num 21:8, Is 30:6). The passage in Numbers 21 is particularly interesting because when the Children of Israel sinned by grumbling against God in the wilderness, God responded by sending fiery serpents to bite them. And everyone who was bitten died. The people realized this was a righteous judgment of God, so they repented of their  sin and asked for God to spare them. In response, God had Moses make a bronze statue of a serpent and raise it on a high  pole and those who looked at it after they were bitten were spared. Could the statue of the serpents being raised up be symbolic of the Seraphim flying and hovering over God's throne? Is it possible that this judgment (poisonous snakes killing people) was the dispensed activity of the Holy Seraphim? The same Hebrew word is used in both cases. If so then the Seraphim, which represent the holiness of God, may also be involved in executing the righteous judgments of God against sin.

The Hebrew word Saraph is also used in Isaiah 14:29, which is in a judgment passage against Philistia. The verse says, "Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia, because the rod that struck you is  broken; for out of the serpent's roots will come forth a viper, and its offspring will be a fiery flying serpent" (NKJV). This is purely speculation on my part, but we see the word "fiery serpent" used in an evil way, arising out of a serpent. In the garden of Eden, Satan choose the form of a serpent to appear to Adam and Eve. In other words, the "Saraph" of Is 14:29 may be demonically influenced, and sent forth by Satan's direction as  part of his mission to kill, steal and destroy. (Of course, God is allowing this because He desires for judgment to come on Philistia. We know that God sometimes uses Satan and his demons as an agent for executing that judgment.) The same Hebrew word for Seraphim is used to describe the heavenly creatures and is used allegorically to describe demonic activity - could it be that Satan and some of his demons were Seraphim  before they fell? We know that Satan (a.k.a. Lucifer) is a fallen angel from Isaiah 14:14-15. Perhaps Satan used to be a Seraphim before he fell? Cherubim 

These are two winged angels that guard things (such as the entrance to the garden of Eden in Gen 3:24) and that usher in the  presence of God. Gold plated statues of Cherubim were on the ark of the covenant. There are several references to God being enthroned between the Cherubim, and it may be that the Cherubim actually guard God's throne. Also, Cherubim are majestic in appearance and not the cute chubby baby-faced  beings that medieval church artists made so popular.

In the book of Ezekiel, Cherubim appeared to be on top of some sort of vehicle that had four wheels and the Cherubim in Ezekiel's vision had four faces. But the statues of Cherubim on the ark had no wheels and only one face. However, the Cherubim carved on the temple walls had 2 faces (Ez 41:18). There are 63 references to Cherubim in the NIV version of the  bible, and 58 references in the New King James version. Only one of those references is in the New Testament (Heb 9:5). The majority of the Old Testament references to Cherubim are from Ezekiel's vision (recorded in the book of Ezekiel) or in detailed instructions for the tabernacle and temple decorations. The word Cherubim comes from the Hebrew k'ruwb (pronounced ker-oob). K'ruwb is used 91 times in scripture with the following meanings: 

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an heavenly being as guardians of Eden as flanking God's throne as an image form hovering over the Ark of the Covenant as the chariot of Jehovah (figuratively)

Most of the bible accounts of angels interacting with men were not about the Cherubim. They seem to be strongly associated with God's presence, but do not appear to function in a messenger capacity.

Lesson 2 Gleaning What The Bible Tells Us About Angels By Teresa Seputis

This lesson is going to go into a lot of technical details to examine what the Bible says about angels. The lesson is meant to give a basis and foundation to build subsequent lessons on. Those of you who are not academically minded may find this lesson a little on the dry side because it is the presentation of a lot of facts and details. So,  please accept my apologies in advance if you find this lesson "dry." But hang in there with this course, I suspect you will find the subsequent lessons more interesting. The word angel in the old testament is the Hebrew word "mal'ak' {Strongs 04397,  pronounced mal-awk}. It is derived from an unused root meaning to "dispatch as a deputy." The Hebrew word mal'ak is used 111 times as "angel" and it is used 98 times as "messenger" and it is used 4 times as "ambassador." The New Testament (e.g., Greek) word for angel is "aggelos" {Strongs 32, pronounced ang-el-os}. It is translated 179 in the New Testament times as "angel" -- however my Greek professor  at Fuller Seminary told us that the word "angel" is not a translation, it is a "transliteration." E.g., instead of translating the word by meaning, they simply choose a word that sounds a lot like the original Greek pronunciation. The meaning of the Greek word aggelos is messenger. By the way, aggelos is actually translated as "messenger" seven times in the New Testament. So, in short, when you hear the word "angel" think "heavenly messenger," and you will be very close to the intended meaning. Here are some statistics on the usage of Angel in the NKJV translation of the bible. It is used in 108 verses in the Old Testament, and in 181 verses in the New Testament. (If you compare these numbers to the counts for the usage of Hebrew and Greek  words you will notice it is substantially less. That is because the many verses mention the word "angels" in them more than once in the same verse.) Angels are mentioned in 39 verses in the writings of Moses (e.g., Genesis to Deuteronomy). There are 39 verses in the Old Testament historical books that mention angels. There are 52 verses in the gospels, 35 verses in the Epistles and 72 verses in the book of Revelation that mention angels. In other words, the Bible talks about angels a lot! Angels seem to perform many different types of tasks in the Bible. This is not an exhaustive list, but here are some of the tasks they perform: Angels Bring Messages From God To Men Or Women

Genesis 16:7-9, Genesis 19:15, Genesis 21:17, Genesis 22:11-14, Genesis 31:11, Exodus 3:2, Judges 2:1, Judges 2:4, Judges 6:11-12, Judges 6:20-22, Judges 13:3-13, 2 Kings 1:3, 2 Kings 1:15, Zechariah 1:13, Zechariah 3:6-10, Zechariah 4:1-7, Zechariah 5:5-11, Zechariah 6:4-5, Daniel 10:21, Daniel 8:1516, Matthew 1:20-24, Matthew 2:13, Matthew 2:19, Matthew 28:5, Luke 1:1119, Luke 1:26-38, Luke 2:10-15, Luke 2:21, Acts 7:30-35, Acts 7:38, Acts 7:53, Acts 8:26, Acts 10:3-7, Acts 10:22, Acts 11:13, Acts 23:9, Acts 27:23, Galatians 3:19, Hebrews 2:2, Rev 1:1, Rev 5:2, Rev 22:16. Angels Deliver Or Protect God's Elect Genesis 48:16, Exodus 14:19, Exodus 23:23, Exodus 33:2, Numbers 20:16, 2 Kings 19:35, 2 Chronicles 32:21, Psalm 34:7, Psalm 35:5-6, Psalm 91:11-12, Isaiah 37:36, Isaiah 63:9, Daniel 3:28, Daniel 6:22, Matthew 18:10, Matthew 26:53, Luke 4:10-11, Acts 5:19, Acts 10:7-10. Angels Fight In Spiritual Battles Against Demonic Forces Daniel 10:12-13, Jude 1:9, Revelation 12:7, Rev 20:1-3. Angels Bring Warnings And Execute Judgments Form God Numbers 20:16, Numbers 22:22-27, Judges 5:23, 2 Samuel 24:16-17, 1 Chronicles 21:12-27, 1 Chronicles 21:30, Psalm 78:49, Acts 12:23, Rev 7:1-2 , Rev 8:2 & 6-13, Rev 9:1, Rev 9:11-15, Revelation 14:8-10, Rev 18:1-3 & 21, Rev 19:1-2, Revelation 14:17-19, Rev 15:1 & 6-8, Rev 16:1-21, Rev 19:17-21. Angels Represent God's Presence Is 63:9, Zechariah 3:1-5, Matthew 16:27, Matthew 25:31, Matthew 28:2, Mark 8:38, Luke 2:9, Luke 9:26, Luke 12:8-9, John 1:51, Acts 6:15, 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 2 Thessalonians 1:7, 1 Timothy 5:21, Hebrews 12:22, Revelation 3:5. Angels Worship God Deuteronomy 32:43, Psalm 103:20, PS 148:2, Luke 2:13, Heb 1:4-13, Rev 5:11, Rev 19:6-8, Rev 22:8-9. Angels Minister To Individuals (such as feeding them, strengthening them)

1 Kings 19:5-7, Psalm 104:4, Matthew 4:11, Mark 1:13, Luke 22:43, Heb 1:14, Rev 1:20. Angels Are Involved In The Prophetic Genesis 16:10, Genesis 16:11, Genesis 22:15-18, Judges 13:3, 1 Kings 13:18, Zechariah 1:9, Zechariah 1:14-19, Zechariah 3:6-10, Daniel 8:15-16, Daniel 9:21-27, Rev 10:1-11, Rev 12:1-14, Rev 17:1-18, Rev 21:9-17, Rev 22:6. Angels Sometimes Visit And Observe Men Genesis 19:1, Judges 13:13-21, 2 Chronicles 3:1, Luke 24:23, Hebrews 13:2. Angels Are Sent To Provide Leading And Direction To Individuals Genesis 24:40, Exodus 23:20, Exodus 32:34, Numbers 22:31-35. Angels Gather Souls To Heaven And To The Judgment Seat Of Christ Matthew 13:39-49, Matthew 24:31, Mark 13:27, Luke 16:22, John 20:12, Revelation 14:14-16. Angels Minister Physical Healing John 5:4.

The Bible has a lot to say about angels. In fact, when Jesus walked on this earth, He talked about angels a lot. Angels are created beings who serve God. At one point angels had free will (like we do now) and some of them choose to rebel against God. According to tradition, those who did not rebel after some period of time have been transformed so that they are no longer capable of rebelling. We as human servants of God look forward to the same type of transformation after we die (or after  Christ comes again and takes His own unto Himself). Right now we have free will,  but at some point after our physical life on earth draws to a close, we will be transformed so much into His likeness that we will no longer have the option of  rebelling against God. Tradition is that then angels have already passed this point and have already been transformed. The Bible gives sketchy details of the fall of those angels who rebelled against God. We actually get some additional insights of this in the book of Enoch, which reads a lot like the bible but is not considered authoritative scripture. And some of this comes

down from Jewish tradition. I don't claim to be an expert on the fall of the devil and his angels, but here is the "bird's eye view" of it. Apparently Satan was called Lucifer (Is 14:12), and he was one of the angelic beings who was involved in worshipping before God's throne. He somehow decided that he wanted to receive worship instead of worshipping God and he fell. This is derived from the passage in Is 14:12-21, which is technically talking about the human king of  Babylon but is widely considered to also prophetically be speaking about the fall of  Satan. Several other angels fell with Him. Tradition has it that 1/3 of the angels fell and became demonic beings or demons. We will not focus on the demonic in this teaching series but I felt it was important to share that there are two types of angels: fallen ones and ones that serve God. The WebBible Encyclopedia (http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/home.html) shares some helpful information on demons. Here is what it says: Demon (daemon) - The Greek form, translated "devil" in the King James Version of  the New Testament. Demons are spoken of as spiritual beings (Matt. 8:16; 10:1; 12:43-45) at enmity with God, and as having a certain power over man (James 2:19; Rev. 16:14). They recognize our Lord as the Son of God (Matt. 8:20; Luke 4:41). They belong to the number of those angels that "kept not their first estate," "unclean spirits," "fallen angels," the angels of the devil (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 12:7-9). They are the "principalities and powers" against which we must "wrestle" (Eph. 6:12).

The word demon(s) does not appear in the King James Bible, which uses the word "devils" instead. The New King James Bible uses the word "demon(s)" in 72 verses. The only exorcist mentioned in the Old Testament is David (1 Samuel 16:23). In the  New Testament, both Jesus and his Apostles cast out demons through the power of the Holy Spirit. (Author: Paul S Taylor) This teaching series will concentrate on the angels who did not fall but who willingly serve and obey God.

Lesson 3 Angels And Jacob's Ladder By Teresa Seputis

The next two lessons are taken from a teaching that Randy Clark did on angels in Belem Brazil in Sept of 2002. As he spoke, God seemed to say to me, "Teresa, listen to this." Since God thought the teaching was important, I took notes, writing as fast as I could and getting as much of Randy's teaching as I could take down in my notes. Even though I am not the source of the content of these two lessons, I feel it is very important material and I want to share it with you. So I have "fleshed out" my notes from Randy Clark's teaching on angels to present to you as lessons 3 and 4. God has always intended for angels to co-labor with the church in furthering God's  plans and advancing God's kingdom. God set a foundation for this way back in Genesis 28, when Jacob had a vision of a ladder ascending into Heaven. Let's look at this from Genesis 28:10-15, and especially note verse 12: 10 Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of  the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. 12Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

13And behold, the LORD stood above it and said: "I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your  descendants. 14Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 15Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you."  Note that the following verses, 16 to 22 show the impact that this encounter had on Jacob. This divine visitation lead Jacob to a genuine conversion that actually changed his behavior. The schemer and manipulator suddenly made a deep and serious commitment to God, including a commitment to tithe. Encounters with God are usually life changing, and Jacob's certainly was!

This was a divine encounter where Jacob actually came directly into God's very  presence. And when God showed up, angels were also present. Did you notice the activity of the angels in this encounter. According to verse 12, they were ascending and descending the ladder that joined Heaven to earth. In short, God dispatched angels from Heaven to earth to do His business, and when they completed their assignment, they returned to Heaven (e.g, back to God's presence). Then He would send them down again to do more of His work. The picture of angels ascending and descending denotes a lot of angelic activity taking place on earth. It establishes angelic activity in our realm. Jesus enters into this picture way back in the time of Jacob. God, in this vision or  divine visitation, had spoken to Jacob. He made promises to him and told him of  things to come. He talked about the vast number of future generations that would come from Jacob to be the Jewish race, God's chosen people. Then He changed tense from plural to singular to talk about the "seed" (singular) that "all the families of the earth shall be blessed" by. This is a reference to Christ -- He is the one who descended from Abraham, who laid down His life as a sacrifice for man's sin and then rose from the dead, forever conquering sin and death. He is the one who made it possible for all  people, not just the Jews, to enter into a personal relationship with God. That was the  blessing that Gen 28:14 was talking about -- Salvation and right relationship with God. And in the midst of this promise of the coming Savior, we see the angelic activity. It was God's plan to release both salvation and angelic activity (angels working together  with the church) on the face of the earth since way back to the time of Abraham and  probably before.  Now let's jump forward to the time of Jesus. Keep in mind the Gen 28:12 (the ladder  with angels ascending/descending) as we go to John 1:48-51: 48Nathanael said to Him, "How do You know me?"

Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." 49Nathanael answered and said to Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" 50Jesus answered and said to him, "Because I said to you, "I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these." 51And He said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of  God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

 Note the repetition of the theme from Genesis 28:12 -- again we see the heavens opening. Again we see angels ascending and descending. In other words, the "greater  things" of John 1:51 than a prophetic word of knowledge (e.g., the operation of the  prophetic) was the presence and activity of angels working with man. Let me develop this a little. Angels ascending and descending from Heaven to earth paints a picture of angels ministering to and ministering with mankind. When Jesus walked on the earth, He took on human flesh.. He became a man. In fact, this was such a new thing to Him (being human) that He constantly referred to Himself as the "Son of man" in the gospels. Jesus had been God for all eternity, but He had only become a human being for maybe 30 years, it was new to Him, that is why He used the title "Son of man" so much. The point here is that Jesus was human (fully a man as well as being fully God) when He walked the earth. And as a human we have records of the angels ministering to Him. Angels came and strengthened Jesus after He was temped in the wilderness, after He had fasted 40 days (Matthew 4:11). They came and strengthened Him again when He went out to the Mount of Olives to pray. He looked ahead to suffering and dieing on the cross, knowing He would be tortured and beaten, knowing He would be separated from His Heavenly Father while He bore the sins of all humanity. It was such an intense struggle for Him to look at all this and say "Not My will, but yours be done," that He sweated drops of blood. He was in anguish (Luke 22:44). And in the midst of  all of this, Luke 22:43 tells us that an angel came and strengthened Him. And when Jesus was arrested, one of the disciples drew his sword to defend Jesus. And Jesus told him, in Matt 26:52-52, "Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?" This shows that Jesus had access to the heavenly resources of angels, and could call on them any time He wanted to, but it also shows that He would only call on them when their activity would be used to carry out God the Father's will. So now back to the passage in John 1 where Nathanael espouses that Jesus is the Christ. In John 1:47-48, Jesus operated in the prophetic and in word of knowledge. That, in and of itself, was enough to convince Nathanael of His Lordship. But Jesus does not simply accept the situation. Instead He said that (verses 50-51) that we will see God do more than just release the prophetic on His church. The "greater things" that we will see is the ministry of angels working with us (Heavens opening and angels ascending and descending). In other words, Jesus' coming to earth, His death

and resurrection not only opened a way for us to be saved, it also opened the doors for  the angelic to come and co-labor with us in spreading God's kingdom. We will develop this more in our next lesson.

Lesson 4 Angels Work With Us To Advance God's Kingdom By Teresa Seputis

Lessons 3 and 4 are developed from a teaching Randy Clark did in Belem Brazil on angels in September of 2002. Lesson 3 explored the tie between Jacob's vision of the ladder to Heaven with angelic activity and the first coming of Christ. We saw that angels ministered to and with Jesus multiple times as He walked on the earth. Jesus said in John 14:12 that we, as His believers, would do the same things He had done. So if Jesus worked with the angels, it stands to reason that His disciples would also work with angels. And scripture bares this out. Let me share a few examples really quickly. The apostles were arrested in Acts 5:17-20, and an angel was sent to open the doors to jail and bring them out -- e.g., to rescue them. Then in Acts 12:5-11 Peter is arrested and sentenced to be executed. The church prayed for him and God sent an angel to rescue him from prison. In Acts 27:23-27, Paul talked to an angel just  before he was shipwrecked and received a promise from God that no one would drown in the shipwreck. What about today? Those of us who believe in Jesus today are also covered by John 14:12 -- we are promised that if we believe in Jesus, we will do the same works Jesus did. So if Jesus worked with angels when He was on the earth, it follows that we will also work with angels. Heb 1:14 bears that out, indicating that angels serve with members of the church. The apostle Paul was talking about angels and he said, "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?" (NKJV). Back to Jacob's vision of the ladder in Genesis 28:12. In that vision, Jesus is the ladder, the one who creates the open Heaven. It is through what Jesus did on the cross that God can send angels to work with the church to advance God's kingdom and to do His will. Jesus accomplished a lot for us in His death and resurrection: 

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forgiveness of sin eternal life adoption into God's family physical healing freedom from demonic oppression God's power in our lives

But that is not all that He accomplished on the cross. To get all of the benefits of the cross, we also get the benefit of angels working with us. Let's develop that a little. Because God is God, He can do anything He wants any way He wants. Wouldn't you agree? And the message of salvation is very important to God, it is the whole reason Jesus came to earth, walked among men, suffered and died and then rose from the dead. Jesus paid a very high price for our salvation. He could have used any means He wanted to to get the message out. He could have appeared divinely to men from heaven and told them of the good news. He could have spoken to all unsaved people in dreams. But instead He choose to entrust the message of  salvation to the Church. It is our job to share the good news of what Jesus did with other people. If we don't tell them, no one will. God has shown a willingness to take important kingdom business and trust the execution of it to His creation. He doesn't do everything Himself, He chooses to work through His creation. In a similar manner, angels are also God's creation and He also chooses to work  through them. One of the ways God choose to use angels is in physical healing. We find an example of this in John 5:4, which says, "For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had." Isn't that interesting? God uses angels in healing the sick. Now, healing is an important part of the gospel. It is one of the elements in the gospel message of  Matthew 10:8 and of the Great Commission of Mark 16:15-18. The gospel has two  parts to it.. we share the good news of what Jesus did to restore man to God and we demonstrate God's power to back up the message we share. And physical healing is one of the primary ways that we demonstrate the reality of God's power. Rev 14:6 says something that is almost alarming on first glance. It says, "Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth--to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people." Rev 14:6 says that some angels have been given the gospel to share. But we know that the great commission of sharing the good news fell to man, not to angels. We see the angel appear to Cornelius in Acts 10. The angel does not share the gospel but rather  instructs Cornelius to send for Peter so he can hear the gospel. So we see the angels are careful not to speak the message of salvation, that task falls to men. And yet Rev 14:6 says that the angels have been given the gospel. That almost sounds like a contradiction at first. But it is not. You see, healing is a part of the gospel. It is not the speaking of the message of the gospel, but it is the demonstration of God's power to  back up the message of salvation. And we see in John 5:4 that angels are used in

 physical healing. The way that angels are involved in spreading the gospel is that they work together with man to spread the gospel by providing supernatural healings. Think of it this way: we know that the church is the army of God because the Bible tells us that. The angels are the air force. The army is the one that goes out on the offensive and takes the territory. But it is much easier for the army to win the battle when they have air support from the air force. Likewise, it is much easier for us to be effective in spreading the gospel when angels show up and help with the physical healings. An gels and F ir e 

The Bible associates angels with fire in many places. One of them is Heb 1:7, which says, "In speaking of the angels He says, 'He makes His angels winds, His servants flames of fire'" (NIV). This is quoting Ps 104:4.  Now look at Acts 2:1-4: When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

We know the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, because Jesus told His disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit and power from on high before going out to spread the gospel (Acts 1:4-5). But what are the mighty wind and the tongues of fire? Heb 1:7 and Ps 104:4 say that angels are "winds" and "flames of fire." Could the mighty rushing wind and the tongues of fire in Acts 2 be the presence of angels released to co-labor with the church? Might it be that we not only got the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, we also got a release of angelic on the church? Healing evangelists like Randy Clark and Benny Hinn tell us that when angels show up at a meeting, the anointing on that meeting increases. The more angels that come to a meeting, the more power there is in that meeting. And we know that worship of God is what attracts angels to a meeting. The angels are around God's throne worshipping Him. Worship ushers in God's presence because God dwells in the worship of His  people (Ps 22:3). And we know that angels carry and accompany the presence of God. That is why powerful worship is such an important part of the service for healing

evangelists. They want to usher in God's presence and they want to usher in the  presence of angels to co-labor with us in the area of physical healings. John The Baptist talked a lot about Jesus before Jesus started His public ministry. He said something very interesting about Him in Luke 3:16, "I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." Could the "and fire" be the presence of angels? In other words, does Jesus give us the Holy Spirit and also command His angels to come minister with us like fire? We know that God does a lot of important things through angels, and that angels sometimes appear in the form of fire. For instance, Exodus 3:3 tells us that it was an angel who spoke to Moses in the burning bush, not God. The angel spoke for God and Moses reacted as if he was speaking directly to God.. but God was actually speaking to Moses through an angel. And the form the angel took was indeed fire.. a bush that  burned and was never consumed. It seems to be a reasonable conclusion that God expects His Church to work with angels to be effective. If that is the case, then we need to learn how to work with them. Obviously we must make a place for them to co-labor with us. At the same time, we must not get wrapped up in angels and put our focus and our attention on them. Rev 19:10 makes it very clear that we are not to worship angels or overly elevate them. John writes, "And I fell at his feet to worship him (the angel who had been speaking to John). But he said to me, 'See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God!'" We should respect angels and cooperate with them. But we should not give an angel more honor than or respect than we would give another anointed human minister.

Lesson 5 Some Tasks and Characteristics of Angels By Teresa Seputis

When we think about angels, we tend to think of the most obvious things about them, things we have learned from the Bible. For instance, we might think of angels as God's messengers, such as Gabriel announcing to Mary that she would give birth to the Christ or the angels announcing Christ's birth to the shepherds. Or we may think  of the protection and guardian role that angels play in watching over God's elect -Psalm 91:11-12 says, "For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone." Or we may think of angels' role in bringing forth the Judgments of God; such as the Angel Of Death who slew all of the firstborn sons of the Egyptians, Or the angel who brought a plague to Israel when David sinned and numbered the people (from 1 Chronicles 21). Or we might think of the mighty warrior angels who are engaged in spiritual warfare against Satan's forces, such as Michael and Gabriel fighting the prince of the kingdom of Persia (Daniel 10). Or we might think of the angels in God's presence worshipping and praising Him before His throne (Rev 19:68). And all of these are correct and valid things to think about angels. The Bible describes each of them. But the Bible has much more to say about angels than just those five activities. Angels have some tasks and characteristics that may surprise you. Let's look at some of them. Did you know that angels are involved in gathering souls after a person dies? The righteous are taken up into Heaven by angels and the unrighteous are taken before the  judgment seat of Christ. In Luke 20:12, Jesus describes the angels as taking the poor   beggar to Heaven when he died. Matthew 24:31 and Mark 13:27 both talk about the angels gathering the elect from the four corners of the earth and taking them to the Lord's presence. Matthew 13:39-49 describes the angels gathering people to Christ's throne in the last day. Revelation 14:14-16 describes the angels gathering the end time harvest of souls. John 20:12 describes how angels watched over Christ's body in the tomb. We see, from these verses, that angels play a role in escorting souls when they die (or when Christ returns) -- they seem to escort both the saved and the unsaved to their proper destination. Angels don't just minister to mankind, they also minister to other angels. For instance, we see God using one angel to send a message to another angel who was currently "on the job" giving a message to a prophet. Zechariah 1:2-5 states: "Then the angel who

was speaking to me left, and another angel came to meet him and said to him: 'Run, tell that young man, "Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of men and livestock in it. And I myself will be a wall of fire around it," declares the LORD , "and I will be its glory within"'" (NIV). And angels minister to mankind in ways you may not have expected. For instance, angels assist in evangelism. We see this activity when an angel appears to unsaved Cornelius in Acts 10:1-6 and instructed him to send for Simon Peter in Joppa because "He will tell you what you must do." And, of course what Simon Peter told him to do was to receive Christ (Acts 10:44-47). Also, Rev 14:6 says, "Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of Heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth--to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people" (NKJV). Did you know that angels actually pray for us and they are involved in God hearing and answering our prayers? Just as we pray and intercede for each other, angels sometimes pray and intercede for us. We have an example of this in Zechariah 1:12. An angel has been talking to Zechariah about some prophetic things. Suddenly the angel broke into prayer for God to restore Jerusalem and the cities of Judah. The verse says, "Then the Angel of the LORD answered and said, 'O LORD of hosts, how long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which You were angry these seventy years?'" (NKVJ). And Rev 8:3-5 describes angels being involved in our prayers and bringing them before the Lord. In fact, angels appear to pay attention to what goes on in the earth and they take great interest in the activities of man. Zechariah 1:8-11 describes angels going through the earth and observing the state of affairs on it. Luke 15:10 tells us that the angels rejoice when a person is saved. 1 Cor 4:9 informs us that the angels observed life and activities of the apostles. 1 Timothy 3:16 tells us that the angels watched and observed Jesus' life when He walked on the earth as a man. And 1 Peter 1:12 tells us that the angels watch the spread of the gospel with interest and desire. In fact, angels and the heavenly host may very well be part of that great "cloud of witnesses" mentioned in Hebrews 1:12 that watch the activity of each believer as we serve the Lord. And Daniel, when interpreting King Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Dan 4:23 described an angel as "a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven." So clearly a part of  angels' activities include watching and observing what goes on in men's lives on this earth. Angels are also involved in physical healing. We developed this in some detail in lessons 3 and 4. John 5:4 shows angelic activity for physical healing: "For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever  stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had" (NKJV). The New International Version (NIV) translation omits this verse, but it

is present in most translations, including the King James (KJV) or New King James (NKJV) or New American Standard Bible (NASB) or the Amplified Bible (AMP) or  the English Standard Version (ESV) or the Contemporary English Version (CEV) or  the 21st Century King James Version (KJ21) or the American Standard Version (ASV) or the Worldwide English New Testament (WE) or the Young's Literal Translation (YLT) or the Darby Translation (DARBY). In fact, we see that the NIV version seems to leave out a lot of the power of God type of verses related to healing and deliverance. It also omits Matthew 17:21 and omits the phrase "and fasting" from Mark 9:29. The Bible tells us about some of the characteristics of angels: 

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Angels are powerful (2 Peter 2:11) Angels possess wisdom (2 Samuel 14:20) angels take on the physical form of fire and wind (Psalm 104:4) angels do not marry (Matthew 22:30 and Mark 12:25) Angels do not know everything (Matthew 24:36 and Mark 13:32) Angels don't die (Luke 20:36) Angels are subject to Jesus (1 Peter 3:22)

And here are some more miscellaneous details the Bible tells us about angels: 

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Angels eat Manna for food (Psalm 78:25) Angels have their own language (1 Corinthians 13:1) Angels travel between Heaven and Earth (Genesis 28:12) Angels will one day be judged by believers (1 Corinthians 6:3) Angels will not rule the "world to come" (Hebrews 2:5)

This is not an exhaustive list of what the Bible has to say about angels. But it begins to give you a little insight into the realm, characteristics and activities of angels.

Lesson 5 Enoch and His Interactions With Angels By Teresa Seputis

Gleani ngs F rom th e Book Of Enoch 

The bible mentions Enoch in Genesis 5:18-24 as a man who pleased God and then God took him up to heaven without his physically dieing. The only other person to have that experience (being taken to Heaven without dieing) is the prophet Elijah (2 Kings 2:11). Enoch lived on the earth for 365 years before God took him to heaven without dieing. That was a relatively short time span in those days, because people tended to live 800 to 900 years. Enoch going to heaven at 365 years would be roughly equivalent (these days where people live to be 80 to 85) of God taking him to Heaven when he was only 35! Why did God take Enoch to heaven without waiting for him to die first? Heb 11:5 comments on this, saying, "By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, 'and was not found, because God had taken him'; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God" (NKJV). Enoch wrote several books when he was alive on the earth. These are not considered as a part of the Bible, and His writings cannot be looked upon with the same authority of Scripture. But his writings are very insightful and they tend to agree closely with scripture in a lot of areas. And there is something in the New Testament that shows the believers considered the writings of Enoch to be authoritative, because Jude 1:1415 references writings from the book of Enoch. It says, "Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, 'Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him" (NKJV). However, we cannot give the book of Enoch the same type of authority we give the Bible. There are some questions as to whether the scrolls that constitute the book of  Enoch were really written by Enoch of if they were "forgeries" written by first century  believers. The book of Enoch reads a lot like the Bible. It is highly prophetic and there are  passages in there that track very closely with things that are in the Bible. For instance, the Book of Enoch Chapter 46:1-2 gives a vision of God the Father that looks very

similar to John's vision of Jesus in the book of Revelation, and a description of what sounds like Jesus standing next to Him: "There I beheld the Ancient of days whose head was like white wool, and with Him another, whose countenance resembled that of a man. His countenance was full of grace, like that of one of the holy angels. Then I inquired of one of the angels, who went with me, and who showed me every secret thing, concerning this Son of man; who he was; whence he was; and why he accompanied the Ancient of days. He answered and said to me, This is the Son of  man, to whom righteousness belongs; with whom righteousness has dwelt; and who will reveal all the treasures of that which is concealed: for the Lord of spirits has chosen him; and his portion has surpassed all before the Lord of spirits in everlasting uprightness." Here are some of the things we learn about Enoch from the Book of Enoch: 

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Enoch was a prophet and had many visions. Enoch had his first vision when he was a youth (when he was learning to write before he was married). Enoch interacted directly with angels on many occasions. The rebellious angels approached Enoch and asked him to intercede on their behalf, and he did, earnestly. God denied their petition, but Enoch did intercede for them. Enoch was an intercessor and he entered in to intercession when he learned that God was going to send a flood to destroy humanity. He prayed for God to spare a remnant and not destroy all of mankind. God responded by sparing his great-Grandson (Noah) and his descendents. Because of Enoch's holiness and relationship with God, his son was blessed to be the longest living human being and God held back the flood judgment until after his son died naturally. Enoch lived apart from his family in the valley of the righteous for a prolonged time and had many supernatural encounters with God and with angels. Enoch was sent back for a year to his family to instruct them in what God had shown them. (I am guessing that maybe he wrote his book during that time??) Enoch had a clear and accurate revelation of many events significant in church history, including God delivering the children of Israel from Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the coming of the Son of Man (Jesus), and that all humanity would appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Noah (Enoch's great grandson) consulted with Enoch when God commissioned him to build the ark. Enoch helped Noah to understand God's plans and commission.

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Enoch provides specific details on the fall of the angels who came down to marry the daughters of men, and on those angels who taught wicked things (occult practices, etc) to the children of man.

Enoch's Interactions With Unfallen Angels

Enoch interacted frequently with angels. He talks about angels as messengers who teach and instruct him about God's plans as early as verse two of his first book. He says, "Enoch a righteous man, whose eyes were opened by God, saw the vision of the Holy One in the heavens, which the angels showed me, and from them I heard everything, and from them I understood as I saw, but not for this generation, but for a remote one which is for to come..." He then proceeds with a vision that is similar to some of what the Apostle John described in the book of Revelation. He also talked about the angels looking at the decline of humanity (Chapter 9) with concern and they brought their concerns before God and discussed it with Him, which led to God destroying the earth by the flood and sparing only Noah and his family. Enoch seemed to be on a first name basis with many of the angels, and he shared the names of some of the "watchers" who were concerned about humanity's decline into depravity in Chapter 9, verse 1: "Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel." Enoch again mentions angels as holy watchers in Chapter 20. It says: "And these are the names of  the holy angels who watch. Uriel, one of the holy angels, who is over the world and over Tartarus. Raphael, one of the holy angels, who is over the spirits of men. Raguel, one of the holy angels who takes vengeance on the world of the luminaries. Michael, one of the holy angels, to wit, he that is set over the best part of mankind and over  chaos. Saraqael, one of the holy angels, who is set over the spirits, who sin in the spirit. Gabriel, one of the holy angels, who is over Paradise and the serpents and the Cherubim. Remiel, one of the holy angels, whom God set over those who rise." In Chapter 17, verses 1 and 2, Enoch described angels' natural appearance as a flame of fire, but they could take on the appearance of man any time they wished. In other  words, in their natural state, angels exist as what looks like fire, but they often choose to take on human appearance when they interact with men. Enoch chapter 18 refers to angels as "columns of fire" multiple times. In Chapter 14, Enoch sees cherubim in a vision. He describes them as, "And I went in till I drew nigh to a wall which is built of  crystals and surrounded by tongues of fire: and it began to affright me. And I went into the tongues of fire and drew nigh to a large house which was built of crystals: and the walls of the house were like a tessellated floor (made) of crystals, and its groundwork was of crystal. Its ceiling was like the path of the stars and the lightnings, and between them were fiery cherubim, and their heaven was (clear as) water. A

flaming fire surrounded the walls, and its portals blazed with fire. And I entered into that house, and it was hot as fire and cold as ice (verses 9-13). The vision of cherubim before God's throne continues in chapter 14 verses 16 to 24.  Note that the cherubim are directly in God's presence but the "regular angels" could not approach directly into God's glory. And in every respect it so excelled in splendour and magnificence and extent that I cannot describe to you its splendour and its extent. And its floor was of fire, and above it were lightnings and the path of the stars, and its ceiling also was flaming fire. And I looked and saw therein a lofty throne: its appearance was as crystal, and the wheels thereof as the shining sun, and there was the vision of cherubim. And from underneath the throne came streams of flaming fire so that I could not look thereon. And the Great Glory sat thereon, and His raiment shone more brightly than the sun and was whiter than any snow. None of the angels could enter and could behold His face by reason of the magnificence and glory and no flesh could behold Him. The flaming fire was round about Him, and a great fire stood before Him, and none around could draw nigh Him: ten thousand times ten thousand (stood) before Him, yet He needed no counselor. And the most holy ones who were nigh to Him did not leave by night nor depart from Him. Enoch chapter 18, verses 1-6 describes the angels as winds that God furnishes to His whole creation. These wind-like angels help keep the planets and stars in orbit and they help keep earth separated from the heavenlies. With a little stretch of  imagination, Enoch may be saying that the "force" of gravity may actually be the ministry of certain angels tasked to hold God's creation in order.

There is much more that Enoch had to say about angels. You can read the Book of  Enoch if you are interested. Our next lesson will look at Enoch's insights and interactions with the angels who, according to Genesis 6:1-2 says, "When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God [Angels] saw that the daughters of  men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose."

Lesson 7 Enoch's Interations With Fallen Angels By Teresa Seputis

In our last lesson we discussed that Enoch was a godly man who pleased God so much that God took him to Heaven without dieing. There are some books that were reported to be written by Enoch. These books are not considered as a part of the Bible, they are not to be treated as authoritative. We do not know if they are divinely inspired, the word of God. However, the writings in these books does seem to track closely with the Bible in a lot of areas. When you read the writings of Enoch you will feel a lot like you are reading Scripture, because much of the content matches things that are in the Bible. The book of Enoch also contains several details that are not recorded anywhere else in Scripture, including details about angels. These must be taken as secular writings about angels from a person who had many experiences and interactions with them. The writings of Enoch must not be taken as a part of the Bible and we must not assign that type of credibility to them. But they do provide some interesting insights about angels and that is why I am sharing them in this teaching series. En och' s Descri ption Of Th e F all Of Angels 

Chapter 19 verses 1-3 expand on an incident mentioned in Genesis 6:1-2. It says: "And Uriel said to me: 'Here shall stand the angels who have connected themselves with women, and their spirits assuming many different forms are defiling mankind and shall lead them astray into sacrificing to demons as gods , (here shall they stand,) till the day of the great judgment in which they shall be judged till they are made an end of. And the women also of the angels who went astray shall become sirens.' And I, Enoch, alone saw the vision, the ends of all things: and no man shall see as I have seen." He expands on this quite a bit more in Chapters 6 to 8, where Enoch says, And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.' And Semjaza, who was their leader, said unto them: 'I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and

I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.' And they all answered him and said: 'Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.' Then sware they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. And these are the names of their leaders: Samlazaz, their leader, Araklba, Rameel, Kokablel, Tamlel, Ramlel, Danel, Ezeqeel, Baraqijal, Asael, Armaros, Batarel, Ananel, Zaq1el, Samsapeel, Satarel, Turel, Jomjael, Sariel. These are their chiefs of tens.

And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for  himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another's flesh, and drink the blood. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones. And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and  bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Semjaza taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, 'Armaros the resolving of enchantments, Baraqijal (taught) astrology, Kokabel the constellations, Ezeqeel the knowledge of the clouds, Araqiel the signs of the earth, Shamsiel the signs of the sun, and Sariel the course of the moon. And as men  perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven . . . This stuff was apparently going on during Enoch's lifetime. He came to the fallen angels who had married human wives in Chapter 13 and prophetically pronounced a  judgment of God on them. The angels became afraid when they heard the judgment and they asked Enoch to intercede on their behalf. Enoch chapter 13, verses 3-7 describe this incident,

Then I went and spoke to them all together, and they were all afraid, and fear and trembling seized them. And they besought me to draw up a petition for them that they might find forgiveness, and to read their petition in the presence of the Lord of  heaven. For from thenceforward they could not speak (with Him) nor lift up their eyes to heaven for shame of their sins for which they had been condemned. Then I wrote out their petition, and the prayer in regard to their spirits and their deeds individually and in regard to their requests that they should have forgiveness and length. And I went off and sat down at the waters of Dan, in the land of Dan, to the south of the west of Hermon: I read their petition till I fell asleep.

When Enoch is asleep, God meets him in a vision and denied the petition of the fallen angels -- He refused to forgive them for their sins or to restore them to fellowship with God. Instead He gave Enoch a lengthy reprimand to deliver back to these fallen angels in chapters 14 and 15. Here are some portions of that rebuke "Your petition will not be granted unto you throughout all the days of eternity, and that judgment has been finally passed upon you: yea (your petition) will not be granted unto you. And from henceforth you shall not ascend into heaven unto all eternity, and in bonds of the earth the decree has gone forth to bind you for all the days of the world. And (that) previously you shall have seen the destruction of your beloved sons and ye shall have no pleasure in them, but they shall fall before you by the sword. And your petition on their behalf shall not be granted, nor yet on your own: even though you weep and pray."

Say to the Watchers of heaven, who have sent thee to intercede for them: "You should intercede" for men, and not men for you: Wherefore have ye left the high, holy, and eternal heaven, and lain with women, and defiled yourselves with the daughters of  men and taken to yourselves wives, and done like the children of earth, and begotten giants (as your) sons? And though ye were holy, spiritual, living the eternal life, you have defiled yourselves with the blood of women, and have begotten (children) with the blood of flesh, and, as the children of men, have lusted after flesh and blood as those also do who die and perish. Therefore have I given them wives also that they might impregnate them, and beget children by them, that thus nothing might be wanting to them on earth. But you were formerly spiritual, living the eternal life, and immortal for all generations of the world.

And therefore I have not appointed wives for you; for as for the spiritual ones of the heaven, in heaven is their dwelling." "You have been in heaven, but all the mysteries had not yet been revealed to you, and you knew worthless ones, and these in the hardness of your hearts you have made known to the women, and through these mysteries women and men work much evil on earth. You have no peace." Enoch had multiple visions of hell, where the fallen angels were to one day be imprisoned. Chapter 18 verses 12b - 16 describes one of them, "And beyond that abyss I saw a place which had no firmament of the heaven above, and no firmly founded earth beneath it: there was no water upon it, and no birds, but it was a waste and horrible place. I saw there seven stars like great burning mountains, and to me, when I inquired regarding them, The angel said: 'This place is the end of heaven and earth: this has become a prison for the stars and the host of heaven. And the stars which roll over the fire are they which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in the beginning of their rising, because they did not come forth at their  appointed times. And He was wroth with them, and bound them till the time when their guilt should be consummated (even) for ten thousand years.' In Chapter 21, Enoch is terrified of Hell and of the flaming abyss he saw there and called it a "spectacle of the pain." Again, we must view the writings of Enoch as a secular book and not as the authoritative Word of God. You can accept or reject the information about angels  portrayed here. I included this in the teaching as a historical secular book to give you some of the basis of where the Jewish traditions about angels came from. Our next lesson will look at the role of angels in the prophetic.

Lesson 8 Angels and the Prophetic By Teresa Seputis

My first exposure to the fact that angels can be involved in the prophetic came through hearing a story about Paul Cain. Paul Cain is a person who is widely recognized as a modern day prophet. He has given many very detailed and very accurate prophetic words, and has been able to prophetically tell people he has never  met some very specific details about their lives, such as the ages, sexes and names of  all of their children -- things like that. The Paul Cain story I heard was that an angel frequently showed up in the meetings were he ministered, and that angel gave him the specific details to share. Paul could see and hear the angel and occasionally others  present at the meeting could see the angel, but most of the people in the meeting were unaware of it's presence. The angel stood next to Paul Cain and gave him information as he prophesied to people -- and this was reported to be what enabled him to move in that incredible depth of accurate details. When I first heard that story (many years ago), it troubled me greatly. I had heard of  Paul Cain's reputation and believed that he was indeed a prophet of God. However, I thought that type of angel story was fabricated by people and not truth about his ministry. That type of angel story bothered me greatly, so I decided to do some research on angels in the prophetic. To my surprise, I discovered that there is actually a very strong Biblical precedence for the activity of angels in the prophetic. Later, I heard Paul speak in Toronto. He made a reference to the angel who used to come to his meetings and give him specific and detailed information. So it turned out that it was a true story. As I began to move more in prophetic circles, I heard similar stories from many different prophets, including some that I am in personal relationship with. So far, I haven't had an angel come speak to me while I am ministering in a meeting. But I have had angels appear to me in private to instruct me and to give me prophetic insights. The angels seem to play a real role in the prophetic. There are many examples of this in the Bible. Let's look at a few of them... An angel prophesied to Hagar about Ishmael and his descendents which would  become the Arab nations. We find this in Genesis 16:10-12: "Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, 'I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not  be counted for multitude.' And the Angel of the Lord said to her 'Behold, you are with

child, And you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction. He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his  brethren'" (NKJV). An angel brings a prophecy to Abraham about the nation of Israel that he will father. That happened just after he demonstrated his willingness to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, on the altar at God's command. We see this in Genesis 22:15-18: "Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: 'By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son-- blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice'" (NJKV). 1 Kings 13 is a troubling story about one prophet who was sent on a mission from God to deliver a prophetic word of judgment on the altar that Jeroboam set up for  idolatry. That prophet had been given a commission of God to not eat or drink  anything until he returned home, a several day journey. In the story there was a 'retired' prophet who heard about what the prophet had done and wanted the status of  having him as a house guest. So he lied to him and said that God sent him to bring him to his house and feed him. The prophet believed the retired prophet's lie and went home to eat with him, breaking the fast that God commanded him to be on. God  judged the prophet, who was lied to, for breaking his fast. God struck him dead. However God did not punish the retired prophet who lied. I may address this seemingly troublesome story in another teaching. But the part I want to examine now is the content of the lie the retired prophet gave in 1 Kings 13:18. "He said to him, 'I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, "Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat  bread and drink water."' (He was lying to him.)" The reason I bring this up is because the lie was convincing to the legitimate prophet. It demonstrates that it was normal for prophets to get directions and words from angels. In other words, angels were involved in the prophetic even back in the Old Testament times. Prophets were used to having angels appear to them and to give them prophetic messages to share. In Zechariah chapter 1, the prophet is given a vision to share with the nation of Israel. He does not understand the vision and an angel is sent to explain it to him so he can  prophecy from it. Verse 9 says, "Then I said, 'My lord, what are these?' So the angel who talked with me said to me, 'I will show you what they are.'" We see another 

example of angels explaining a vision to another prophet, to Daniel, in Daniel 8:15-16 and in Daniel 9:21-27. Zechariah 1:14-17, is where an angel tells Zechariah what he is to prophecy. E.g., the angel gives Zechariah the message from God that he is to turn around and give to men. The verses say: So the angel who spoke with me said to me, "Proclaim, saying, 'Thus says the Lord of  hosts: I am zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great zeal. I am exceedingly angry with the nations at ease; For I was a little angry, and they helped--but with evil intent.

Therefore thus says the Lord: I am returning to Jerusalem with mercy; My house shall  be built in it,' says the Lord of hosts, 'And a surveyor's line shall be stretched out over  Jerusalem.'" "Again proclaim, saying, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts: My cities shall again spread out through prosperity; The Lord will again comfort Zion, And will again choose Jerusalem.'" Zechariah 1:14-17 is very direct and clear. The angel was sent to give a prophetic message to the prophet, who was then to deliver it to the people. It demonstrates direct involvement of angels in the prophetic. Angelic activity in the prophetic is not limited to just the Old Testament. We see their  involvement in the New Testament as well, particularly in the book of Revelation. I am going to summarize a few of these for you and let you look them up at your  leisure. Rev 10:1-11 is the story where an angel gives the Apostle John a book of   prophetic words for John to eat. In Rev 17:1-18, an angel shows John the judgment of  the "great harlot" (Ancient Babylon and modern day Iraq). In Rev 21:9-27, an angel "shows" John the future state of the Church, telling him verbally that this is the Christ's 'bride' and showing him a vision of a city in heaven inhabited by "only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." John records this in the prophetic book of revelation where it gives hope to all generations of the church, including our generation. Finally, Rev 22:6 tells us that "God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place." In other words, the bible says point  blank that God sometimes sends His angels to give His prophets details about things that are going to take place in their future.

Lesson 9 Angelic Visitations By Teresa Seputis

People have been known to see and hear angels in visions. It is also possible to have a real physical visit from an angel. When this occurs, you are not having a vision "in the spirit," you are having a direct encounter with one of God's messengers. They come to where you are physically and they manifest to you and they interact with you. It is sometimes a frightening experience. There is often a sense of God's glory or of His holiness in the visitation, as angels tend to reflect God's glory. But there are also times when God causes the sense of His presence to be masked and you may not realize that an angel is appearing to you. Hebrews 13:2 says, "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it." But, most of the time, you will know it if you are visited by an angel. Scripture is filled with angelic visitations to God's people. In most cases the person was very frightened when they saw the angel and the angel's first words were "Fear  not," or "Do not be afraid." It is not surprising that angels are scary, we know that they wield great power and great authority. Tradition has it that God sent a single angel who slew all of the firstborn in Egypt on the first Passover (Heb 11:28). We know that God sent a single angel to kill thousands by plague when David sinned and numbered his soldiers (2 Samuel 24). It is clear that angels carry a great deal of power. And since angels come from the very presence of God, it is not surprising that they would carry some of His glory. We can see that they radiate God's glory from Rev 22:8-9, where John was overwhelmed by the angel's glory and wanted to worship the angel. John was corrected and told to only worship God, not His servants. Another example is from when Gabriel visited Daniel to interpret a vision he had been given. Daniel shared his experience, where he said in Dan 8:16-17, "And I heard a man's voice  between the banks of the Ulai, who called, and said, 'Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.' So he came near where I stood, and when he came I was afraid and fell on my face..." Daniel was a very godly man, but he found the angel's presence very frightening. That is a common experience. There are many incidents of angelic visitations recorded in scripture. An angel appeared to Gideon in Judges 6:12, bringing him a commission from the Lord. An angel appeared to Samson's mother in Judges 13:3 and gave her instructions on how to raise her son. Samson's father missed the original visitation and prayed for God to send the angel back to instruct him as well, and God honored his prayer and did so (Judges 13:8-21). An angel appeared to David at the threshing floor of Araunah the Gebusite just after God had released a plague on Israel as a judgment (2 Samuel

24:15-17). An angel appeared to Zechariah and spoke to him in Zech 5:5. An angel appeared to Mary to tell her she was going to be Jesus' mother in Luke 1:26-38. A great company of angels appeared to the shepherds to announce Jesus' birth in Luke 2:8-15. Angels even appeared to and ministered to Jesus while He walked on the earth as a human (Luke 22:43). An angel appeared to Cornelius and told him to send for  Peter (Acts 10:3). An angel delivered Peter from prison in Acts 12:7. Scripture is full of stories of God sending angels to interact with His children. Sometimes when angels appear to people, they just show up, as the angel that suddenly appeared when Zechariah was doing his priestly duty in the temple (see Luke 1:8-20). The Lord, accompanied by two of His angels, appeared out of thin air   before Abraham as he sat in his tent door (Gen 18:1-2). Other times, angels choose to appear to people in dreams instead of physically appearing before them. The angel who spoke to Joseph (Jesus' step-father) did this several times. This is recorded in Matt 1:20, Matt 2:13 and Matt 2:19. And angels might also walk up to you (or away from you) in a natural way. We see this in Gen 18:16 and Gen 18:22.... "Then the men [e.g., the two angels] rose from there and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on the way." "Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the LORD." The angels did not suddenly disappear, they simply walked away from Abraham towards Sodom until they were out of sight, just like a human person might do. I must emphasize that the presence or absence of angelic visitations is not an indication of an individual's holiness, anointing or call of God on their lives. Some  people with only minor roles in expanding God's kingdom have experienced them while others with very major roles and anointings have never had this type of  experience. For instance, the shepherds on the hillside received an angelic visitation when Jesus was born. The bible records that they came to see the baby Jesus, but after  that they drop out of the story.. they did not have all that important of a role, but they still received an angelic visitation. Angelic visitations are solely from the sovereignty of God for His purposes. We must not judge a person's spirituality or anointing based on these experiences or the lack of them. An geli c Vi sitations Today 

Until a few years ago, I had not had an angelic visitation. I had a few odd experiences in the past, where others saw angels but I did not. One time I was with some prophets in South Africa. They claimed that an angel was in the room. One could see the angel and the other sensed it and knew where it was in the room. Personally I could neither 

see it nor sense it's presence. I had seen angels in open visions, but I had not had one visit me in "real life" until November of 2000. I thought I understood how angelic visitations should work. They seemed quite straight-forward. I figured it would go like I always seemed to read about it in scripture. Suddenly an angel would be standing there, visible to the naked eye. I figured that maybe the glory of God would reflect off of them in some way. Maybe they would glow like the "actors" on "Touched By an Angel," or shine like Moses' face shined when he came away from God's presence. I figured that an angel would be roughly the same size and shape as a person, probably be clothed in white robes and may or may not have wings. First a person would see the angel and then it would speak to them and bring them a message from God. After the angel was done, it would suddenly disappear into thin air. That is how I thought an angelic visitation should work. In November of 2000, I had my first angelic visitation. And I was in for a bit of a surprise. The angel did not conform to any of my expectations. The encounter did not go at all like I expected. For starters, I could sense the angel's presence and I could hear it's voice, but I could not actually see the angel. I could see a bright light around me. (We were in Italy at a hotel at the time, and my husband was sound asleep on the  bed. I thought the light from the angel would wake him, but he continued to sleep soundly through the whole episode.) I had another surprise. I assumed that angels could only hear you if you spoke audibly, but I found that this angel responded to a question I had thought but did not voice verbally. The angel began to instruct me on some stuff related to a prayer journey I was doing through Italy. Some of what the angel instructed me on was related to things the Lord has set me to pray about. I did not think angels were sent to instruct people, so that experience set me to searching Scripture. I found that an angel had been sent to instruct Daniel in response to his  prayers for understanding. I have since had additional visitations from this angel. There has been some supernatural revelation that it has given to me (very detailed and accurate) but mostly the angel has instructed me or come with the answer to something I was desperately seeking God about in prayer. The first time I saw a bright light, but on the other  visitations, I could not see the angel at all.. I could hear it's voice. I don't think I was hearing it with my physical ears, but the voice was sharp and clear and distinct and unmistakable. For the first three or four weeks, I was afraid to tell anyone about my visitation  because it did not happen the way I expected. Who would imagine hearing the angel  but not seeing it? I kept very quiet about this because I did not want anyone to think I had gone "off of the deep end." But when I was in India, I shared this with my

teammate. He knew of another person who had an almost identical experience with angelic visitations. It was reassuring for me to find that I was not totally alone in this. About four weeks later, I spoke to one of the prophetic school leadership core members, Jim Paul. I was incredibly encouraged to learn that he has also had angelic visitations in which he heard the angel but did not see it. Sometimes we let our culture give us expectations of what a given supernatural experience should be like. But where we have the actual experience it may not line u p with our expectations at all. If you have an angelic visitation, don't assume your  experience will be like mine. Both God and angels appear to have a wide variety of  ways that they do things. For instance, I know one person who has seen and spoken to angels. While he could see the angels with his physical eyes, they were translucent.. e.g, you could sort of see through them, they were not totally solid. Others have seen the angel just as though they were a physical person, modernly dressed (jeans and  polo-shirt, not a white robe).

Lesson 10 Teresa's Angel Stories By Teresa Seputis

We have spent the last nine lessons looking at some of the roles angels play in God's kingdom and in the realm of man. Most of this has been gleaned directly from Scripture. Two lessons shared information about angels taken from the Book Of  Enoch -- which must be viewed as a historical secular writing detailing several of the ancient Jewish traditions about angels. I also shared a couple of my personal experiences with angels as God's messengers in lesson 9. For this last lesson, I would like to share some more of my experiences with angels. I would like to start by sharing two things that I learned about angels from an angelic visitation. Please do not take this as authoritative or with the same credibility as Scripture. But here are a couple of things that angels taught me about angels when they were instructed to come teach me in certain areas... The first is that the angels are God's servants. They are sent by God and their main  priority/objective is serving Him. While they interact with us, their main focus and  priority is serving God. They do not become emotionally attached to us to the point were they want our good over God's will. An angel that had been protecting a person for years would not hesitate to strike that person dead if God so commanded. Their  main focus is on serving and honoring God and obeying what He tells them to do. While they work and interact with us, they see themselves as God's servants and they focus on God's agenda. The other thing I learned is that angels sometimes have a latitude in how they do their   job. They may get an assignment, such as delivering a message to a person. The angel may choose to appear directly to the person (as an angel appeared to Mary in Luke 1:28). Or the angel may choose to appear to the person in a dream (as it did with Joseph in Matt 1:20, Matt 2:13 and Matt 2:19). In some aspects, angels are very similar to prophets, because they are given a message from God to deliver to someone. The big difference is that the clarity and accuracy of an angel's hearing is always 100% accurate. There are times when God dictates a message from a prophet word for word, leaving the prophet no choice in how to deliver it. But many times God will deposit a message in a prophet and give the prophet leeway to decide how to deliver and phrase that message. It is similar for the angels. They get their  assignments and their messages from God, but God will often give them leeway to decide how to carry out that assignment. Angels are not robots, they are cognizant  beings who love God and who gladly and willingly serve Him.

 Now I would like to switch gears and share a few stories that fall under the realm of  angelic protection, as per Psalm 91:11-12. It says, "For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone." In other words, one of the tasks that God gives His angels is to protect His elect from harm. One day in October of 2000, I had been sick and was recovering from the stomach flu. It had been raining outside and the dogs had been cooped up in the house all day. I was working on GodSpeak lessons all day and concentrating on that. The rain finally let up and I let the dogs outside for a few minutes to do their "doggie business." I did not intend to leave them outside very long because they have a tendency to get out of  the yard and cars zoom down our street very fast, it is not a safe neighborhood for  dogs to wander the streets unsupervised. As is my habit, I shut and locked the front door. I ran back to my computer to check e-mail really fast ... and soon I was caught in a lengthy e-mail "emergency" and temporarily forgot about the dogs. I was in the middle of something very involved when I felt strongly prompted to go check on the dogs. That type of prompting is often the Lord, so I would normally go do it immediately, no questions asked. But I was not dressed since I was home sick  that day. I decided I'd take five minutes to get past this really involved thing, then I would throw on some clothes and go outside to check on the dogs. So I turned my concentration back to the task. About three minutes later, I heard the front door open. I heard the jingle of the license and id tags on the dogs' collars which indicated that the dogs came in the house. My first thought was, "Oh good, Ed's home. I won't have to get dressed and look after the dogs." Then I remembered that it was muddy outside and I went running downstairs to wipe the dog's feet before they tracked mud all over  my carpets. I came barreling down the stairs and to my surprise, the previously locked front door  was wide open. I was still in my nightee, so I hoped no one would pass by. I went to close the door, and looked out briefly to see if anyone had passed by and seen me. No one was in eyeshot. But Ed's car was not in the driveway. I did not have any time to  ponder it, because the dogs were trying to run to the carpet. So I shut the door, grabbed the larger dog and began wiping it's feet with the towel we keep by the door. I asked the Lord how the locked door got open so the dogs could get in. He told me that He had sent an angel to let them into the house since I would not listen to Him when He told me to go downstairs and get them. They had gotten out of the yard and were in danger of getting hit by a car. I was able to verify the last part of the story by seeing muddy paw prints (the same size and shape as those in my entry-way) on the sidewalk outside of my fence at the area where they usually get out of the yard.

Here is another story that was sort of amazing. I had gone to the auto teller to withdraw the maximum amount I could take out, which was $200 cash. I did not want to spend a lot of time messing with opening my purse, taking my wallet out and my money in it because this was in a "seedy" part of town very early in the morning. There were a lot of derelicts around, some of which had been known to attack people at the auto teller for their cash. So I shoved it and my auto teller card into my jacket  pocket and walked quickly away from there. When I got about a block away, I glanced at my pocket and noticed it had a big hole in it. I felt a surge of alarm and looked in my pocket. It was empty! Just then a man tapped me on the shoulder and said, "excuse me. You dropped this." He handed me a wad of 20 dollar bills and the auto teller card. I said "thank you." I glanced down briefly at my hand to look at what he handed me. When I looked back up at him, he was totally gone. I only looked down for maybe 2 or 3 seconds and there was nowhere he could have gone in that short period of time to get out of sight. It was like he disappeared into thin air. I held the pile of money cupped in my hand until I got safely to the building where my office was in. When I counted the money, the entire $200 was there. I believe that an angel  picked this up for me and handed it back to me to protect me from loosing all that money. And here is one last story, which happened on Nov 19, 2002. I had to borrow my husband's van (an automatic) to take my dogs somewhere. I had been writing a lesson for this teaching series on Angels for the prophetic-school list just before I left with the dogs. I am used to stick shifts, not automatic transmissions. So I did not realize that there were two different settings that could cause the car to move forward. So I had it in low thinking I was in Drive. Everything was ok when I was on city streets for 2 or 3  blocks on my way to the freeway. But as soon as I hit the freeway and started to accelerate, the van began acting up. It all happened very fast. The van began to shake and jerk, the engine began making what I knew was a "very bad" noise and was not accelerating like it should. I found myself throwing out one of those "help Lord!"  prayers. I glanced at the gear setting indicator and realized I was in Low instead of Drive. I realized I had to shift it to drive. The engine sounded like it was going to explode and the noise startled me and I hesitated in reaching for the gear shift. Before I could compose myself and reach over to grab the gear shift lever, it moved on it's own from Low to Drive and the car settled down. I was a bit astonished. "Lord," I asked, "did you just shift the gears on my car for me in response to my  prayer?"

"Not exactly," the Lord replied, "I asked one of My angels to do it for you." He went on to explain that since I was studying and writing about angels, He decided to orchestrate an encounter with one for me. This is very interesting because the part I'd  been studying just before I left the house was the Scripture discussing the angels' role in helping and protecting God's elect! I have one last angel story to add to the collection that started about 20 minutes after I thought I'd finished writing this lesson. I went to get my check book to pay a bill  before my husband and I left to go to a sporting event. This was Saturday afternoon, two days after Thanksgiving. I thought I'd left my wallet in the car after I'd run to the grocery store on Thanksgiving morning to get some flowers. But it was not there. So I tore the whole house apart looking for it and could not find it. I knew the last time I'd seen my purse was when I paid for the flowers at the grocery store. So I asked my husband to drive me to the grocery store.. I wanted my purse back.. it had my passport in it, my personal and ministry check books, my credit and bank cards and over $300 cash. I knew that something left in as public of a place as a grocery store was not likely to still be there, so I prayed very hard for God to return the purse to me. We got to the store and the assistant manager said the lost and found would be in the office, so she took me there. We looked around the office.. no purse. The counters were clear, nothing on them. The cabinet they put lost and found items in was empty. They checked the two drawers in there as well. They found someone else's wallet, but not my purse. All this time I am silently praying for God to somehow get the important items back to me, like the passport and check books. I had already written off the cash and figured I'd have to report the credit cards as lost. As I left the office, the assistant manager suggested I leave them a written description of the purse and my contact info. I remembered thinking to myself "if you don't have it after two days, you wont' have it in a week", but did as she asked. There was a window to the office and a counter right outside the office. So she handed me a piece of paper and a pen. I began to write on the counter as she went back inside the office and closed the door. As I was finishing the note, she opened the door and came out looking sort of amazed. "Is this it?" she asked and held up my purse. I was so glad to get it back. Then she told me that suddenly there it was in a place where we'd already looked and did not find it! I believe that an angel was involved in this incident, because as I left the store, the Lord reminded me of how He uses angels to protect and He reminded me that I'd just  been writing a teaching on experiences where angels protected us. I felt like I was supposed to go back and add this story to this lesson.