Can We Command Angels To Do Spiritual Warfare Against Evil Forces?
Question : Can we command angels to do spiritual warfare against evil forces? Has angelic ministry been given to us at our disposal? If we do not give them command, will they remain without work and therefore are waiting idly for us to command them?
Answer : I believe that a lot of doctrinal errors has crept in to Christendom because of movements like faith-confession movement, prophetic and apostolic movement in its initial growing stages, prosperity gospel message of recent years teaching believers that we have direct authority over angels and that we need to command the good angels to do the warfare and they are waiting for our command. First of all turning in to Bible, we should ask ourselves this question, does the life of Jesus show anything related to this subject or has He expressed anything related to it.
Jesus Himself said, If I ask the Father, He will send twelve legions of angels immediately. That means only God can command and send angels to our rescue or to put them to work to fulfill His will and purpose, all we can do is to ask God first to send help to us through his angels (Matt 26:53). Satan took Jesus to the pinnacle of the Jerusalem temple and then said, “ 9...If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. 10 For it is written: ‘ He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you,’ 11 and, ‘ In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” 12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’”" (Luke 4:9-12). What do we see here in the above verse is, Satan wanted Jesus to act independently apart from God's will by calling him to do an act believing that he can control the activity of the angels which God has promised to give when ever there is a need, immediately Jesus by the Spirit of God understood that Satan was tempting Jesus to tempt God. Satan wanted Jesus to act outside of the will of God, so Jesus told to Satan, you shall not tempt the Lord your God, immediately his subtle way to deceive Jesus backfired against him and he left the place. Here we can learn that when we expect God to send angels by presuming that we are in the will of God all the time, and then try to show to others that we are something when we are nothing apart from Him (Gal 6:3; 1 Cor 8:2; Acts 8:9-11; John 15:5; 5:19, 30), we are tempting God. Or when we command angels when God has said in His Word, "He [i.e. God Himself] shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you", we are actually taking God's authority and by presumption are again tempting God.
We all know that angels are to minister to us, but can we give them instructions directly, or do we give them instruction through the name of Jesus (Heb 1:14; John 1:51; 14:12-14)? In other words, can we release the activity of angels directly?
I believe that there is not even one instance in the Bible where such authority to command over angels were ever given to mortal man, but in fact Jesus being God when He became one among humans became lower than angels which shows that man has no authority over them. Angels themselves being servants of God have been sent by God in assignment to serve humans who will inherit salvation which is one of their main purpose, and as spirit beings without material body were always invisible to human eyes, except when God opened man's spiritual eyes and sometimes were sent in the form of human for a particular assignment to help us humans, unaware of who they were, humans have entertained angels because of their love towards strangers for God's sake (Heb 2:7-9; 13:2). Angels according to the Bible are those who do His Word and heed the voice of His Word which shows that when we are in the will of God, they hear our words as we give voice to His Word expecting His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven (Psa 103:20; Matt 6:10; 21:21-22). Automatically angels encamps all around those who fear the Lord and delivers them (Psa 34:7). But this does not give us the authority over angel to command them to rescue us out of danger, when in danger we as God's children have the privilege of calling on to God who has the power to command his angels to rescue us from all dangers and destruction (Psa 50:15). As angels spirits are God's ministers who work as a flame of fire in appearance in their glory, they are all around us as we are God's children who fear Him (2 Kings 6:17-20). In fact when we ask angels to help us, command them to respond to us, we are deluded in to worship of angels unknowingly and we will lose our reward from God for doing things outside of his will as only evil angels appearing as angels of light will start to deceive us (Col 2:18-19; 2 Cor 11:14).
And therefore only God can command His angels to guard over us. We cannot do it according to the Bible and should not do it or else we will be deceived by evil angels. As I have already told that a lot of doctrinal error and demonic deception of false spirits deceiving God's people have come in to many movements that started well as genuine because of practicing commands to angels and other such things, therefore we should avoid such dangerous areas and should not go outside of the revealed Word of God to become deceived by demonic spirits. Yet in another way, we can say when we do not pray to God, we do not give angels the work that which we should have given them through God.
Believers on earth do not have control over the angels. As God's "holy angels" act and respond only to the command of God (Matthew 25:31; Revelation 14:10), no sinful sons of Adam by nature who have no good thing dwelling in their flesh can ever have authority over the holy angels of God.
Hebrews 8:6 says that we have a better covenant based on better promises than people had under the Old Covenant, this does not point to us giving commands to angels to do our bidding, but rather it points to us praying in Jesus name and seeing Jesus commanding the angels to work for us. Prior to the cross, if we say the scriptures taught that Jesus was "made a little lower than the angels," and of course the same scriptures teaches us now that he is "crowned with glory and honor," so that angels submit to Him and His name (see Hebrews 2:9, 1 Peter 3:22 and Philippians 2:10). This only shows that we we can go to the extent of commanding the situations that come against us within the will of God in Jesus name, to that Jesus has promised to respond in power and do what we have decreed in faith (John 14:13-14). Also if we ask in Jesus name, Father has promised to give us whatever we ask Him freely (John 16:26-27, 23; Rom 8:32). This only shows that angels when commanded by Father or Jesus, are always ready to do their command and fulfill their Word to help us in all things regarding our safety and protection on earth (1 Thess 5:23-24; Psa 103:21; 1 Tim 5:21). Also 1 Corinthians 6:3 only says that we will in the future judge angels, but not now.
In Matthew 18:18, Jesus gave the Church the keys of the kingdom of heaven which is the power that is deposited in His name. Jesus said, "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Also Jesus said, "Whoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God" (Luke 12:8). Comparing both these above verses, we come to the conclusion that when we bind evil forces in Jesus name, God through Jesus commands and loosens the good angels to work against the evil angels and destroy their works of evil on our behalf (Matt 10:32; Revelation 9:14-15; 1 John 3:8; Luke 10:17, 19-20; 2 Chr 16:9). In other words, Jesus declares to the angels what we declare on earth which shows that we have control over situation through angels only when Jesus commands them to take control of a particular situation within the will of God (Matt 13:41; 16:27; 2 Thess 1:7). Angels constantly watch us and also desire to look into salvation which they can't experience, but they desire to know more about it as it gives each believers a supernatural authority and deep communion with God, which actually reveals the manifold wisdom of God against the evil angels by putting the good angels to work against them (1 Cor 4:9; 1 Pet 1:10-12; Eph 3:10; Rev 12:7-9). But such times are seen only when we are praying in the Spirit the will of God through tongues of angels (Rom 8:27; 1 Cor 13:1; 14:15-16; Jude 20), and also sometimes God gives interpretation for the Church to understand the spiritual warfare that is happening behind the scenes in the Spiritual realm to edify and encourage us spiritually. But in this also we do not give command to angels but through us God gives command to the angels. In other words, the Holy Spirit in the will of God gives command through us in angelic tongues directly to the angelic hosts through us to line up to the will of God.
Our personal warfare against the devil is through taking our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ through the power of God which demolishes all high thinking that stand against God in our mind (2 Cor 10:4-5, 6; Eph 6:10-11, 12-13, 14-15, 16-17, 18), this warfare should not be confused with commanding angels doctrine which people falsely believe to thus command Satan and his demons to go in to the pit as some people funnily do in their commanding prayer against Satan and his demons. Satan and his demons will laugh at such people, because they know how much time is left for them, and only at the end of time they will be bound and be thrown in to bottomless pit for a thousand years, and then after being released for a short while, then they will forever be thrown in to the lake of fire with Satan himself (Matt 8:29; Rev 12:12; 20:1-2, 7, 10; Matt 25:41). Only Jesus had the authority over all angels both good and evil when He was on earth to send them in to bottomless pit at any time as the direct uncreated Son of God (John 17:5; Col 1:13-20; Heb 1:1-3; John 1:1-3, 10, 14, 18; 14:8, 10; Mark 5:6-7, 10, 13), so they pleaded with Jesus not to send them in to abyss before their appointed time, which is actually the time of the Millennium rule of Jesus and His saints on earth which will actually end this present age of evil rulership (Matt 8:29; Luke 8:28, 31-32; Gal 1:4; 1 Cor 1:20; 2:6-8; 2 Cor 4:4; Eph 2:2; Titus 2:12; Dan 7:21-22, 25-26, 27, 13-14).
Angels are powerful forces of God who execute judgment against wicked people. In Acts 12:19-23, Herod was struck dead by an angel. In 2 Kings 19:35, One angel killed 185,000 Assyrians. Throughout the book of Revelation, God uses angels to pour out judgment upon the earth. At the 2nd Coming of Jesus, the angels will come with Jesus to execute judgment upon on unbelievers (Jude 14-15, Matt 16:27, 2 Thess 1:6-10). The angels know who is saved and who isn't because they will gather the wicked for judgment (Matt. 13:30, 37-41, 25:31-32).
All we can do as great men of old did was to pray to God in faith and expect God to act through his angels like he did for them,
1) Moses spoke as one among the children of Israel saying that when they all "cried unto the LORD, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt" (Numbers 20:16).
2) Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they refused to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar's image by faith (Daniel 3:17-18), God in His mercy "sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him..." (Dan 3:28).
3) When Daniel by faith continued to pray to God not giving in to the demand of the deceitful local governmental law to ban him from praying, God "sent his angel" to deliver Daniel from the mouths of the lions in the den of lions (Daniel 6:22).
4) When the church in Jerusalem prayed for Peter when he was in prison (Acts 12:5), Peter was delivered and testified that "the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews" (Acts 12:11). Certainly if someone knew the authority of the Lord directly, learning from Jesus Himself, it must have been the Jerusalem Church, but we see that they could not command the angels to rescue Peter but only prayed sincerely to God who responded to their prayer and brought Peter out of the prison supernaturally.
5) When Jesus prayed sincerely to God for strength to fulfill God's will for Him to die for humanity on the Cross being denied the Father's Presence itself which has never even once had been denied or had happened in all eternity past He being equal to God in one essence (Matt 27:46; Isa 54:7-8; 2 Cor 5:21; Hab 1:13; Php 2:6-8; John 8:29; 16:32), through that very thought of it He got so drained of energy so that blood oozed out of his body along with his sweat, immediately God sent angel from heaven and strengthened him supernaturally, so that He could rise up from his prayer to do the will of God further (Luke 22:42, 43-44, 45).
6) We know from Matthew 18:10 that angels are pictured as “always” watching the face of God so as to hear His command to them to help a believer or infants when it is needed. Because they are continually seeing His face, the angels are at His disposal to help every one of His “little ones.”
From all of the above examples we see that we cannot command angels, only God has the authority to command them as they are his servants who are kept with Him to help His children who will inherit salvation on earth. So pray to God and He will send His angels to guard and watch over you in all your ways.
Thus I firmly believe we can't command angels according to the Word of God in Jesus name, but we can command situations to line up with what we believe, and God has guaranteed that He will do what we say with faith, we will have whatever we have said by faith without doubt (Mark 11:20, 23; Matt 21:19, 20, 21-22). Such faith can only be received within us through praying to God in advance believing that we have received it, and therefore we will have the unction to speak with that faith against situations (Mark 11:24). I believe that angels who are God's servants will respond automatically sent by God when we reach out to God by faith and receive the faith to speak against all situations that do not line up to His way and will.
Much Blessings....
Answer : I believe that a lot of doctrinal errors has crept in to Christendom because of movements like faith-confession movement, prophetic and apostolic movement in its initial growing stages, prosperity gospel message of recent years teaching believers that we have direct authority over angels and that we need to command the good angels to do the warfare and they are waiting for our command. First of all turning in to Bible, we should ask ourselves this question, does the life of Jesus show anything related to this subject or has He expressed anything related to it.
Jesus Himself said, If I ask the Father, He will send twelve legions of angels immediately. That means only God can command and send angels to our rescue or to put them to work to fulfill His will and purpose, all we can do is to ask God first to send help to us through his angels (Matt 26:53). Satan took Jesus to the pinnacle of the Jerusalem temple and then said, “ 9...If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. 10 For it is written: ‘ He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you,’ 11 and, ‘ In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” 12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’”" (Luke 4:9-12). What do we see here in the above verse is, Satan wanted Jesus to act independently apart from God's will by calling him to do an act believing that he can control the activity of the angels which God has promised to give when ever there is a need, immediately Jesus by the Spirit of God understood that Satan was tempting Jesus to tempt God. Satan wanted Jesus to act outside of the will of God, so Jesus told to Satan, you shall not tempt the Lord your God, immediately his subtle way to deceive Jesus backfired against him and he left the place. Here we can learn that when we expect God to send angels by presuming that we are in the will of God all the time, and then try to show to others that we are something when we are nothing apart from Him (Gal 6:3; 1 Cor 8:2; Acts 8:9-11; John 15:5; 5:19, 30), we are tempting God. Or when we command angels when God has said in His Word, "He [i.e. God Himself] shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you", we are actually taking God's authority and by presumption are again tempting God.
We all know that angels are to minister to us, but can we give them instructions directly, or do we give them instruction through the name of Jesus (Heb 1:14; John 1:51; 14:12-14)? In other words, can we release the activity of angels directly?
I believe that there is not even one instance in the Bible where such authority to command over angels were ever given to mortal man, but in fact Jesus being God when He became one among humans became lower than angels which shows that man has no authority over them. Angels themselves being servants of God have been sent by God in assignment to serve humans who will inherit salvation which is one of their main purpose, and as spirit beings without material body were always invisible to human eyes, except when God opened man's spiritual eyes and sometimes were sent in the form of human for a particular assignment to help us humans, unaware of who they were, humans have entertained angels because of their love towards strangers for God's sake (Heb 2:7-9; 13:2). Angels according to the Bible are those who do His Word and heed the voice of His Word which shows that when we are in the will of God, they hear our words as we give voice to His Word expecting His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven (Psa 103:20; Matt 6:10; 21:21-22). Automatically angels encamps all around those who fear the Lord and delivers them (Psa 34:7). But this does not give us the authority over angel to command them to rescue us out of danger, when in danger we as God's children have the privilege of calling on to God who has the power to command his angels to rescue us from all dangers and destruction (Psa 50:15). As angels spirits are God's ministers who work as a flame of fire in appearance in their glory, they are all around us as we are God's children who fear Him (2 Kings 6:17-20). In fact when we ask angels to help us, command them to respond to us, we are deluded in to worship of angels unknowingly and we will lose our reward from God for doing things outside of his will as only evil angels appearing as angels of light will start to deceive us (Col 2:18-19; 2 Cor 11:14).
And therefore only God can command His angels to guard over us. We cannot do it according to the Bible and should not do it or else we will be deceived by evil angels. As I have already told that a lot of doctrinal error and demonic deception of false spirits deceiving God's people have come in to many movements that started well as genuine because of practicing commands to angels and other such things, therefore we should avoid such dangerous areas and should not go outside of the revealed Word of God to become deceived by demonic spirits. Yet in another way, we can say when we do not pray to God, we do not give angels the work that which we should have given them through God.
Believers on earth do not have control over the angels. As God's "holy angels" act and respond only to the command of God (Matthew 25:31; Revelation 14:10), no sinful sons of Adam by nature who have no good thing dwelling in their flesh can ever have authority over the holy angels of God.
Hebrews 8:6 says that we have a better covenant based on better promises than people had under the Old Covenant, this does not point to us giving commands to angels to do our bidding, but rather it points to us praying in Jesus name and seeing Jesus commanding the angels to work for us. Prior to the cross, if we say the scriptures taught that Jesus was "made a little lower than the angels," and of course the same scriptures teaches us now that he is "crowned with glory and honor," so that angels submit to Him and His name (see Hebrews 2:9, 1 Peter 3:22 and Philippians 2:10). This only shows that we we can go to the extent of commanding the situations that come against us within the will of God in Jesus name, to that Jesus has promised to respond in power and do what we have decreed in faith (John 14:13-14). Also if we ask in Jesus name, Father has promised to give us whatever we ask Him freely (John 16:26-27, 23; Rom 8:32). This only shows that angels when commanded by Father or Jesus, are always ready to do their command and fulfill their Word to help us in all things regarding our safety and protection on earth (1 Thess 5:23-24; Psa 103:21; 1 Tim 5:21). Also 1 Corinthians 6:3 only says that we will in the future judge angels, but not now.
In Matthew 18:18, Jesus gave the Church the keys of the kingdom of heaven which is the power that is deposited in His name. Jesus said, "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Also Jesus said, "Whoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God" (Luke 12:8). Comparing both these above verses, we come to the conclusion that when we bind evil forces in Jesus name, God through Jesus commands and loosens the good angels to work against the evil angels and destroy their works of evil on our behalf (Matt 10:32; Revelation 9:14-15; 1 John 3:8; Luke 10:17, 19-20; 2 Chr 16:9). In other words, Jesus declares to the angels what we declare on earth which shows that we have control over situation through angels only when Jesus commands them to take control of a particular situation within the will of God (Matt 13:41; 16:27; 2 Thess 1:7). Angels constantly watch us and also desire to look into salvation which they can't experience, but they desire to know more about it as it gives each believers a supernatural authority and deep communion with God, which actually reveals the manifold wisdom of God against the evil angels by putting the good angels to work against them (1 Cor 4:9; 1 Pet 1:10-12; Eph 3:10; Rev 12:7-9). But such times are seen only when we are praying in the Spirit the will of God through tongues of angels (Rom 8:27; 1 Cor 13:1; 14:15-16; Jude 20), and also sometimes God gives interpretation for the Church to understand the spiritual warfare that is happening behind the scenes in the Spiritual realm to edify and encourage us spiritually. But in this also we do not give command to angels but through us God gives command to the angels. In other words, the Holy Spirit in the will of God gives command through us in angelic tongues directly to the angelic hosts through us to line up to the will of God.
Our personal warfare against the devil is through taking our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ through the power of God which demolishes all high thinking that stand against God in our mind (2 Cor 10:4-5, 6; Eph 6:10-11, 12-13, 14-15, 16-17, 18), this warfare should not be confused with commanding angels doctrine which people falsely believe to thus command Satan and his demons to go in to the pit as some people funnily do in their commanding prayer against Satan and his demons. Satan and his demons will laugh at such people, because they know how much time is left for them, and only at the end of time they will be bound and be thrown in to bottomless pit for a thousand years, and then after being released for a short while, then they will forever be thrown in to the lake of fire with Satan himself (Matt 8:29; Rev 12:12; 20:1-2, 7, 10; Matt 25:41). Only Jesus had the authority over all angels both good and evil when He was on earth to send them in to bottomless pit at any time as the direct uncreated Son of God (John 17:5; Col 1:13-20; Heb 1:1-3; John 1:1-3, 10, 14, 18; 14:8, 10; Mark 5:6-7, 10, 13), so they pleaded with Jesus not to send them in to abyss before their appointed time, which is actually the time of the Millennium rule of Jesus and His saints on earth which will actually end this present age of evil rulership (Matt 8:29; Luke 8:28, 31-32; Gal 1:4; 1 Cor 1:20; 2:6-8; 2 Cor 4:4; Eph 2:2; Titus 2:12; Dan 7:21-22, 25-26, 27, 13-14).
Angels are powerful forces of God who execute judgment against wicked people. In Acts 12:19-23, Herod was struck dead by an angel. In 2 Kings 19:35, One angel killed 185,000 Assyrians. Throughout the book of Revelation, God uses angels to pour out judgment upon the earth. At the 2nd Coming of Jesus, the angels will come with Jesus to execute judgment upon on unbelievers (Jude 14-15, Matt 16:27, 2 Thess 1:6-10). The angels know who is saved and who isn't because they will gather the wicked for judgment (Matt. 13:30, 37-41, 25:31-32).
All we can do as great men of old did was to pray to God in faith and expect God to act through his angels like he did for them,
1) Moses spoke as one among the children of Israel saying that when they all "cried unto the LORD, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt" (Numbers 20:16).
2) Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they refused to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar's image by faith (Daniel 3:17-18), God in His mercy "sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him..." (Dan 3:28).
3) When Daniel by faith continued to pray to God not giving in to the demand of the deceitful local governmental law to ban him from praying, God "sent his angel" to deliver Daniel from the mouths of the lions in the den of lions (Daniel 6:22).
4) When the church in Jerusalem prayed for Peter when he was in prison (Acts 12:5), Peter was delivered and testified that "the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews" (Acts 12:11). Certainly if someone knew the authority of the Lord directly, learning from Jesus Himself, it must have been the Jerusalem Church, but we see that they could not command the angels to rescue Peter but only prayed sincerely to God who responded to their prayer and brought Peter out of the prison supernaturally.
5) When Jesus prayed sincerely to God for strength to fulfill God's will for Him to die for humanity on the Cross being denied the Father's Presence itself which has never even once had been denied or had happened in all eternity past He being equal to God in one essence (Matt 27:46; Isa 54:7-8; 2 Cor 5:21; Hab 1:13; Php 2:6-8; John 8:29; 16:32), through that very thought of it He got so drained of energy so that blood oozed out of his body along with his sweat, immediately God sent angel from heaven and strengthened him supernaturally, so that He could rise up from his prayer to do the will of God further (Luke 22:42, 43-44, 45).
6) We know from Matthew 18:10 that angels are pictured as “always” watching the face of God so as to hear His command to them to help a believer or infants when it is needed. Because they are continually seeing His face, the angels are at His disposal to help every one of His “little ones.”
From all of the above examples we see that we cannot command angels, only God has the authority to command them as they are his servants who are kept with Him to help His children who will inherit salvation on earth. So pray to God and He will send His angels to guard and watch over you in all your ways.
Thus I firmly believe we can't command angels according to the Word of God in Jesus name, but we can command situations to line up with what we believe, and God has guaranteed that He will do what we say with faith, we will have whatever we have said by faith without doubt (Mark 11:20, 23; Matt 21:19, 20, 21-22). Such faith can only be received within us through praying to God in advance believing that we have received it, and therefore we will have the unction to speak with that faith against situations (Mark 11:24). I believe that angels who are God's servants will respond automatically sent by God when we reach out to God by faith and receive the faith to speak against all situations that do not line up to His way and will.
Much Blessings....
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