Two weeks ago, we learned that when we pray, we affect the heavenly realms.  We ran through just a few examples of the many cases when people prayed and the heavenly realm was engaged in direct response to those prayers. 

Tammy reminded us last week of the angel that appeared to Moses through a bush that was on fire, but didn’t burn up and how the Lord spoke to Moses through it when he chose to walk over to it.

Most commonly, God sent angels to accomplish His will.  What are angels, though?  In our culture, we seem to have lost an awareness of the spiritual realm around us.

Although we have wine and spirit stores where spirits are sold, we don’t often consider what those spirits actually are. (spirits are distilled instead of fermented; higher alcohol content/distinct flavor) 

Throughout Biblical cultures, angels are referred to often (angels, not angles).  Specific classes of angels are written about as if everyone reading simply knew what a cherubim or seraphim or archangel were and even knew what they looked like as they were symbolized within the temple. 

We find angels referred to 216 times in the Old Testament (Hebrew word mal’āḵ) and 188 times in the New Testament (Greek word angelos or archangelos).  Although angels are referred to so frequently and are such an integral part of God’s miraculous works on earth and interactions with humans, very little seems to really be know about them in our culture.

It’s kind of like if I write a text or direct message to you about hot dogs.  We both are very familiar with what a hot dog is and so we aren’t going to go into any level of detail describing what a hot dog is within our communication at all.  From reading our communication with one another, it would be difficult to really figure out what a hot dog is and to get a complete and accurate understanding of hot dogs.

If someone who had never saw nor heard of nor eaten a hot dog read our messages, they would be confused and uncertain about what in the world we were talking about.

I believe this is no different when it came to the writers of the Bible.  The one writing and the ones initially reading the writings just knew what angels were and so little is written to describe them in detail.  It was unnecessary.

However, for us in the western world reading those writings thousands of years later, we have lost the understanding of the reality of the heavenly realm around us.  When we read about angels, we don’t have the same common understanding that existed when they were first written about and even the same level of understanding of spirits in the heavenly realm as even exists in the eastern side of the world today.

I believe that God desires to begin to awaken our senses and to increase our awareness of what is happening in the spiritual realm around us and for us to become familiar once again with the angels around us and their critical role within the Kingdom of God and within our personal lives.

It reminds me of this Old Covenant encounter with the heavenly realm that released peace in the midst of the fear of what appeared to be certain death in the natural realm.  This encounter also clearly reveals the interaction between the natural and heavenly realms as we pray.

2 Kings 6:8-20

8 Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, “I will set up my camp in such and such a place.”

9 The man of God (Elisha) sent word to the king of Israel: “Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there.” 10 So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.

11 This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Tell me! Which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?”

12 “None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the