Angelic Risk

I have been wondering why God created the angels, given that the Holy Spirit is all-powerful and therefore able to do everything needing to be done. It was quite a risky move because humans were given full freedom and authority over the earth, so they had the potential to rebel and oppose him and seriously harm his world. That would be bad enough, but if some angels rebelled too, then they could do terrible evil if they could get control of rebellious humans.

Creating powerful angels with sufficient freedom to rebel was a hugely risky move because this would massively amplify the evil that would occur if humans rebelled too. That is what has happened, and the spiritual powers of evil have been able to do terrible evil on earth since humans gave them the authority to work on evil. God must have had sufficient good reasons for creating angels to justify taking these risks.

The angels worship God in his presence, but that does not seem sufficient justification for their creation because it leaves God looking a little egotistic, if it was the only reason.

Angels have the ability to move between earth and heaven (Gen 28:12: Job 1:6; Psalm 103:20). Although they are spiritual beings, they can appear in the physical world and change physical things (Acts 5:19; 12:23). The angels also seemed to have a role in the creation of the world (Job 38:7) God would only need the angels working on earth if there were some things that the Holy Spirit could not do, but which angels could do. Reading the scriptures, I note the following things that angels can do that the Holy Spirit is unable to do, because he is pure spirit.

1. The Holy Spirit can speak to people, but he cannot appear to them because he is spirit. Human eyes can see the effects of his presence, such as people falling down, but we cannot see him directly. So, when God needs his messenger to be seen by humans, perhaps because they need to be shocked into hearing, he will send an angel. Angels can speak and appear, which helped human listeners like Moses, Gideon, Mary, Zechariah and Cornelius (Exodus 3:2; Judges 6:12; Luke 1:11;2:26; Acts 10:3).

2. God uses angels to fight against the spiritual powers of evil. The Holy Spirit resists them by speaking, and his divine voice is so compelling that probably only the toughest government-spirits and world controllers would be strong enough to resist. They would whine that it was unfair and breach of their freedom if the Holy Spirit came against them with his full physical power, so God mostly uses angels when he needs to force them to stop doing something (Exodus 23:20; Rev 12:7; Dan 10:13).

3. The Holy Spirit is always present in all creation, sustaining its existence, so he cannot always deal directly with people and things in the physical world. God seems to use angels for that purpose. Angels wrote the Ten Words on the stone tablets (Gal 3:19). An angel closed the lion’s mouth for Daniel (Dan 6:22). A donkey saw an angel (Num 22:24).

4. For a similar reason, God often sends angels to strengthen people who are already full of the Spirit. Elijah and Jesus are examples (1 Kings 19:7; Mark 1:13; Luke 22:43).

The scriptures don’t give a complete outline of everything that angels can do for God because we don’t need to know. However, the reasons listed above are sufficient to justify the creation of the angels, despite the harm that some would do by rebelling against God and joining with human rebellion to do evil in the world.

Miracles (8) Angels

Angels can speak in a way that humans can hear (Judges 2:1; Acts 27:33).

• Mary and Joseph, the shepherds heard angels telling them what to do.
• Angels comforted Jesus (Matt 4:11).
• Angels can give people dreams.
• An angel spoke to Abraham (Gen 22:11).
• Angels can put thoughts in the mind of humans.
• Angels speak to prophets (2 Kings 1:3).
• Angels can speak to people who are rejecting God (Gen 16:8-10).
• Angels can speak to people who are seeking God (Acts 10:7).

Angels can change things in the physical world.

• When the angels appeared to the shepherd, they filled the sky with a bright light (Luke 2:9).
• An angel can open a locked door (Acts 12:8-10).
• Angels can rescue and protect people from human attackers (Gen 19:10).
• An angel can lead a person travelling on a long journey (Gen 24:40; Ex 23:30).
• Angels can destroy the enemies of the people of God (Ex 23:30 (2 Kings 19:35)).
• An angel can appear to animals (Num 22:22-26).
• An angel can help a human see into the spiritual world ((Num 22:31).
• Angels can destroy a plate of meat and bread by causing fire to come out of a rock (Jud 6:21).
• Angels can appear and disappear from view (Jud 6:21).
• An angel could destroy a city (1 Sam 24:16).
• Angels made and spread manna in the wilderness (Psalm 78:24-26).
• Angels can change the behaviour of animals (Dan 6:22).
• Angel’s can kill evil rulers (Acts 12:23).
• An angel can stir up water (John 5:4).
• Angels can shift large stones (Matt 28:2).
• Angels can release disasters on earth (Rev 8:7-12).

These things that angels can do are not examples of the laws of nature being suspended, they are examples of the normal interaction that occurs between the spiritual and physical world.

Large numbers of angels can gather together to exert immense power. Unlike the evil spirits that hate each other and fight against each other, angels are glad to join with other angels to obey Jesus.

Angels are servants, so they cannot make humans do things that they do not want to do. They have to wait until humans are willing to be served by them while doing God’s will. The angels are released to act and serve when God’s people are gladly following and obeying Jesus.

Angels and Spirits

When describing beings that exist in the spiritual world, the Bible uses words that we use to describe the physical world in which we live. It has to do this, because human language does not have words to describe the spiritual.

The word most often translated as “spirit” means breath or wind. (ruach in Hebrew and pneuma in Greek). The wind is unseen, but has a powerful effect. Breathe is associated with life. These words tell us that spirit being have powerful effects on life, but it does not tell us anything about the substance from which they are made.

The same applies to the word for angel (malak in Hebrew and angelos in Greek). These words are often translated as angel, but the basic meaning is “messenger”. Malak describes a representative or ambassador who carries a message or represents another person. Some malak are spirit and others are physical (human). Many of the malak in the Old Testament are human. See Jos 6:25, Jud 11:14, 1 Sam 11:3.

The word malak or angelos tells us what these beings do: they carry messages and represent another person. The name does not tell us about the substance from which they are made. Spiritual messengers represent God, who is spirit, so they are spirit too.

Because we have seen movies and read illustrated Bible stories, we have a picture in our minds of what angels are like. We tend to think of an angel as a man (sometimes a woman) with wings and face that glows brightly. Those pictures go way beyond what the word malak and angelos mean.

The angels in the Old Testament could make themselves appear like humans when they came to talk to people. That explains how they appeared, but it does not tell us what they look like in the spiritual world where they operate. It tells us that they can operate between heaven and earth.

The word angel tells us nothing about the moral character of a being. Paul was attacked by a messenger (angelos) of Satan (2 Cor 12:7). Angels can be good and evil.

The word “seraph” is interesting. It is a Hebrew word (saraph) with no English equivalent, so Bible translators transliterate it as seraph. In Hebrew, seraph means burning or bright. So, the word tells us that these beings are hugely different from physical beings on earth, because they appear to be brighter than any physical being.

Cherub is another transliteration of a Hebrew word – kruwb. This Hebrew word is rare and no one really knows what it means. Artists and illustrators have tended to portray cherubim as childlike creatures with wings, so that is how we imagine them, but that goes way beyond the meaning of the word.

The Holy Spirit has allowed many people to see events in the spiritual realms, but he has to reveal them in a way that can be understood by people whose minds are locked in a three-dimensional world. Humans we live in a three-dimensional world, so that is the only way we can think. So, people who see into the spiritual world see it as if was three dimensional. They see it that way, because the Spirit has to reveal it to humans that way. If we saw it as it really is, we would just see it a blur, because our imaginations cannot see in multiple dimensions.

Appearance of Angels

I believe that we cannot really understand what angels look like when they are operating in the spiritual realms. Our eyes and minds can only cope with a three-dimensional world. The spiritual realms are multi-dimensional, so we can’t even conceive what they look like.

When God lets humans see angels, he reveals them in a way that we can understand, and often the way that we expect them to be, so that we recognise them. Elijah’s servant saw riders on horses (2 Kings 6:17) That does not mean that angels ride horses. Rather God showed him the angels that way so that he would understand their power in battle. Isaiah saw them with three pairs of wings (Is 6:1). John in Revelation saw creatures that looked like a lion, an ox, a flying eagle. One had the face of a man (Rev 4:7-8). We see what God enables us to see, rather than what they are really like in the spiritual world.

When they operate on earth angels seem to take human appearance (Gen 18:2-8). They were able to walk, stand, eat food and eat, which suggests that they had legs, hands and mouths. Many of the biblical records of angelic visits to earth suggest that they appeared like humans. They were sometimes distinguished by bright clothing (John 20:12).

Holy Spirit and Angels (5) Authority

The spiritual powers of evil get their authority to act from the people. The people with the greatest authority in nations can give them the greatest authority. That is why they work through political leaders and human governments. If a human government has given them permission to be there, the prayers of the saints cannot force them out.

The prophets and intercessors give the Holy Spirit and the angels authority to work. If they are a minority and they are rejected and persecuted by the people of the nation, they have very little earthly authority. This means that the Holy Spirit and the angels only have limited authority to work. This is why, at times, evil is able to dominate a nation.

Before the spiritual change can occur on earth, there has to be a switch in authority. The political leaders who are giving authority to the spiritual powers of evil have to give up and lose their place. The people of the nation have to respect the prophets and intercessors and give them authority. This shift in authority on earth will allow a shift in the balance of power in the spiritual realms. The spiritual powers of evil lose authority and the Holy Spirit and the angels gain authority.

The key is to understand that authority flows from earth to the spiritual realms. The battle in the spiritual realms is not a power game. The Holy Spirit always has more power. There are always twice as many angels as there are evils spirits. The battle in the spiritual realms is an authority battle. The outcomes in the spiritual realms are the consequence of the authority situation on earth.

Christians assume that powers in the spiritual realm determine what happens on earth and so they pray against them. Their premise is true, but misleading. The outcome of the spiritual struggle is determined by the authority situation on earth. The people with the greatest authority on earth determine the outcome of the spiritual struggle in the heavenlies.

Political leaders have the greatest authority in the modern world, because almost everyone submits to their government. That empowers the spiritual powers that control and manipulate them, because by agreeing with them, they give them authority. They currently have more authority than Christian prophets and intercessors. This stalemate will be broken when human faith in their governments and their coercive and military power collapse. The result will be a power shift in the spiritual realm that releases the Holy Spirit and the angels to do great things on earth.

See Collapse of Human Government.

Holy Spirit and Angels (4) Spiritual Powers of Evil

The spiritual powers of evil work in a totally different way. Groups of spirits are controlled by government-spirits (attached to a nation) or by a ruler spirit (attached to a sin, like destruction, death). They use anger, power, force and fear to bully and manipulate the spirits they control. In turn, they are controlled by cosmos dominators, which control even larger groups of spirits that are fighting with each other.

Evil spirits and grouping of evil spirits are always shifting loyalties. The hierarchies are massive and oppressive, but they are also fluid, as disputes occur and loyalties and fears shift. There are constraint intrigues and wars at all levels in the hierarchies. The only thing that unites them is hatred of Jesus and his people, but they often get distracted by hatred and fear of each other.

The dominant emotions are anger, fear, jealousy and hatred. They manifest works of the flesh in Gal 5:19-21. Every bad attitude warned against in the NT exits amongst them.

The spiritual powers of evil have a communication problem. Spirits at the bottom level only know what to do as a message comes down the hierarchy, so they just do their own thing. The spirits at the top of the hierarchies are limited to place and time, so they are not all-knowing and omnipresent like the Holy Spirit, which means their communication and organisation is totally different. They have to use hierarchies of control. However, they cannot always see what their armies are doing, so their commands are often wrong. Their commands are often distorted by the time they pass down the hierarchy. It is easy for clever deceiving angels from God to slip in wrong commands. Communication is difficult, and lines of communications are often broken as loyalties shift.

The contrast between the operation of angels and the works of the spiritual powers of evil is stark. If more Christians understood the difference, they would realise how feeble their enemy really is.

Holy Spirit and the Angels (3)

The Holy Spirit and the angels operate in perfect unity. The Holy Spirit speaks to the angels and they gladly do what he asks them to do.

There is no hierarchy or control amongst the angels of God, as it is not needed.

Archangels are not ruler-angels. They are angels that specialise in dealing with ruler/government spirits, like Michael dealt with the Prince of Persia (Jude 1:9 and Dan 10:13). A hierarchy is not needed because the Holy Spirit is not constrained by space and time, so he can speak to any angel any place any time. He can always get an angel to do what he wants done. He knows where they are and what they are all doing.

Angels work together in teams as the Holy Spirit guides them along the same path. He puts them in teams with complementary skills and tells them how to work together.

Gods angels are peaceful and happy in doing their work. They constantly praise God and have fun working together with each other.

There is harmony of purpose and peace between them. They manifest the fruit of the spirit (Gal 5:22).

Holy Spirit and the Angels (2) Angels

Angels respond to the prayers and prophecies of the saints. They act when given authority by a person with authority on earth. Frank Peretti’s Piercing the Darkness is wrong when it gives the impression at the end of the book that more Christians shouting louder gives angels more power. One person with authority in a situation is sufficient to release angels to do the will of God. (The problem is that in many situations, there is no Christian with sufficient authority).

Whereas the Holy Spirit is spirit and needs a person to work through on earth, angels are spirits with the ability to do things in the physical world. In this context:

• Angels can prevent evil spirits of various kinds from acting (Dan 10:13).

• They can provide for protection for servants of Jesus (Dan 12:1).

• Some evil spirits can prevent angels from operating, if they have greater rank, ie many evil spirits are working for them (Dan 10:12).

• Angels can carry messages to God’s people.

• They can strengthen God’s people in their struggle (Matt 4:11). I presume by physically strengthening and chasing away harassing evil spirits.

• Angels can provide food and other physical needs for Gods people (1 Kings (19:6).

• Angels can deceive the enemies of God, people and evil spirits (1 Kings 22:22). The angels that gather the nations for battle are deceiving angels. They deceive the spiritual powers that control the nations. They also deceive the leaders of the nations.

• During a physical war, angels can disrupt the enemies of God’s people (2 Kings 6:17).
  

  • Blind them, so they go to the wrong place (2 Kings 6:18).
  • Stir up wild animals and dangerous insects (Deut 7:20)
  • Send down hailstones and other forms of bad weather (Jos 10:11).
  • Direct their weapons accurately (1 Sam 17:49).
  • Do things to makes soldiers fear and flee (Jud 7:13).
  • Cause soldiers to fight against each other (Jud 7;22; 2 Chron 20:23)).
  • Confuse military leaders to think the defenders are stronger than they are (2 Sam 5:24)/
  • Angels can set up ambushes (2 Chron 20:22)
  • Send sickness and plague amongst the enemy army (Is 37:36)
  • Cause rebellion against political leaders (2 Chron 32:21).
  • Angels can strike down enemy soldiers (2 Sam 5:24)

Holy Spirit and the Angels (1)

A reader asked the following question.

How do the Holy Spirit and the angels operate on earth?

I will provide an answer in the next few posts.

Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit works in people, who are have chosen to follow Jesus. He empowers them through the gifts, giving them knowledge about what is going to happen and wisdom to know what to do. He heals sick people and forces evil spirits to leave the people that they pray for.

He works more effectively in a body than in individuals acting alone.

The Holy Spirit also speaks to angels and tells them what to do. He articulates God’s will for them.

The Holy Spirit can put ideas into the hearts of kings (Ezra 7:27). If they are persuaded by the thought, they will act on God’s will, even though they do not know him.

Division of Labour

For a while, I have wondered about the division of labour between the Holy Spirit and the holy angels.

Who Does What?

The Holy Spirit is the sustainer of life. He does not resist evil spirits, because he has to sustain their life while they are doing their evil, so it would not fair for him to disrupt their power. He is committed to sustaining all life, regardless of whether it has fallen or not.

The angels resist the spiritual powers of evil on the Jesus behalf. They are skilled resisters. Apart from carrying messages, resisting is their main task. Michael resisted the spirit controlling Persia (Dan 10:20).

The Holy Spirit is creative. He does not destroy stuff. The angels destroy the junk that the spiritual powers of evil leave behind when they are pushed out of territory.

When healing cancer, the angels destroy the cancerous cells that the spiritual powers of evil have created. The Holy Spirit creates new cells to replace them.

The Holy Spirit undertakes creative miracles. He can restore limbs and organs. Angels destroy the viruses and bacteria and other junk that the spiritual powers of evil use to create sickness and disease.

God has destroying angels.

• A destoying angel killed the people of Jerusalem, when David sinned (2 Sam 14:15; 1 Chron 21:16).

• An angel destroyed destroyed Sennacharib’s army, including his cmmanders and officers (2 Kings 19:35; 2 Chron 32:21).

• An angel of the Lord struck down King Herod (Acts 12:23).

  The first born of Egypt were stuck down by a destroying angel (1 Cor 10:10; Ex 12; 33; Heb 11:28).

The Holy Spirit is loving and good. The angels do the dirty work that the Holy Spirit cannot do, because the has the character of God. He cannot touch evil.

The Holy Spirit cannot deceive, because he is the Spirit of Truth. God used a deceiving angel to draw Ahab to his death (1 Kings 22:22). This was a good spirit from the presence of God, not an evil spirt. It went out and acted as a lying spirit to deceive Ahab. Lying was not its natural character. The angel lied for God’s purposes. The Holy Spirt could not have lied in this way.

Angels will be judged (1 Cor 6:3). However, the standard of their behaviour will be different than for us. Followers of Jesus are accountable to his standard as outlined in the Sermon on the Mount. Angels can do stuff that we are not allowed to do. They can use force against evil. They do not need to turn the other cheek, but will be judged according to whether they have done God’s will.

Angels and Prayer

Daniel’s prayer was heard the moment he prayed, and an angel was sent to answer his question. The Prince of the kingdom of Persia resisted him for 21 days until Michael one of the chief princes came to help this angel (Dan 10:13).

When the Prince of Persia resisted, he was not alone. He had a host of spiritual forces with him. When Michael rescued the angel he was not alone. He would have had a host of angels with him.

Literally, they were “standing in front” of the angel. Michael came and “surrounded” (to protect, help) him.

We think in terms of physical realms. Only about four people can attack one person together. Any more attackers would get in each other’s way. The spiritual world is different. Spiritual beings can touch the same place in the physical world from different places in the spiritual realms. It seems like they spiritual realms are curved.

This means that one person can be attacked by a great host of evil spiritual forces, if they are a key player in history. It means that one person might need a host of angels to surround them and protect them.

When his eyes were opened top see into the spiritual realms, Elisha’s servant saw the hills fill of horses and chariots surrounding Elisha (2 Kings 6:17). These angelic beings were “surrounding” Elisha. They were there for one man. Elisha needed them for protection, even though he had a double portion of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit primarily operates within people who have been sanctified by the blood of Jesus. He speaks to them, so they can know Jesus will. He gives followers of Jesus gifts of the Spirit, so they can understand what is happening. He empowers them to speak with authority.

Jesus humbled himself and took the form of a man. The Holy Spirit has also humbled himself to working from within the followers of Jesus, while at the same time sustaining the universe. He teaches us God’s will. He flows out of us to touch unbelievers and heal the people we touch.

The Holy Spirit leaves responsibility for wrestling with the spiritual power of evil to the holy angels. Humans speak and remove the authority of the spiritual powers of evil. The holy angels force them to obey the words spoken in obedience to Jesus.

Guns or Angels

I find it hard to understand the obsession that Americans Christians have with guns. The nation seems to be under a strange corporate mental and spiritual stronghold.

I have never owned a gun. I have never fired a gun. In my 65 years, I have never been in a situation where I have needed a gun. If I had stayed on the farm I grew up on, I would have needed a gun to kill sick animals or old dogs, and to get rid of pests like rabbits, but not for killing people. But I moved to the city, where I do not need one.

The police on the streets of New Zealand do not carry guns. Yet it is safer here than in the United States.

Plenty of people here own guns. They use them for hunting and various forms of competition, but they do not seem to be an obsession.

If this nation is attacked, we will defend ourselves. The risk is not very high at the moment. The greatest risk to peace seems to be cowboys like George and Obama wandering round the world with their six guns looking for someone to shoot.

An invasion by an invading army is not the worst thing that can happen for Christians. If a Christian is killed, they go straight to glory, which is good. The church can survive a persecuting invader. The church grew rapidly under the ruthless Roman government. The fastest growth of the church ever was in China under a harsh communist government.

Persecution is not nice, but it does not stop the Holy Spirit from working. Jesus confirmed this when he said,

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matt 10:28).

The modern world has this the wrong way round. We fear those who can kill our bodies, but do not rear those in can destroy our soul and body. American Christians are passionate about their guns and marines, but they are strangely ignorant about spiritual protection.

The greatest threat to New Zealand is not an invading army. It is the spiritual forces of evil that are seeking to make their home here. We have cast off restraint, which has left evil unrestrained and constrained God’s ability to protect us. As our culture become more and more secular, they have more and more and freedom to inflict their evil on us. Strong spiritual protection will be absolutely critical in the next season.

The same is true in the United States. A great host of evil spirits are making their home there. They are experts on political and military empire. They are skilled in death and destruction. Guns will be useless against them. If American Christians could see into the spiritual realms, like Elisha’s servant, they would be shocked at the forces arrayed against them. They would stop worrying about guns, and be seeking to learn about protection from the spiritual forces of evil.

As society becomes more secular, the need for Christians to be spiritually alert increases. Unfortunately, we have compromised with the secular world view, and are unprepared for a season when the spiritual warfare will be extremely intense.

Many American Christians are more familiar with their guns than they are with angels. When under attack, whether physical or spiritual, I would sooner have and angel close by than a gun.

Spiritual Perceiving (3) Angels

Angels do not have physical bodies. They are not three dimensional beings like us. They live and move in a multi-dimensional spiritual world. This is why we usually do not see them. Our three dimensional eyes and minds cannot cope with the multiple dimensional spiritual realm.

Angels can sometimes appear in a three dimension formal, as if they have physical body. That was the situation when three angels appeared to Abraham.

Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby (Gen 18:2).

He offered them food and drink and offered to was their feet. Angels do not need to eat physical food, and do not need their food washed, but Abraham made the offer because they appeared to him like other men. He only realised they were angels once they had spoken to him on behalf of God. These angels had changed their appearance to a physical form, so that they were visible to human eyes.

Joseph seems to have been less spiritually aware, because the angels had to appear to him in a dream.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream (Matt 1:20).

This happened three times for Joseph (Matt 2:13, 2:19). In contrast, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary in a way that enabled her it see him physically (Luke 1:28-29).

When humans see angels in the spirit, we are not really seeing them as they are. We actually see a three dimensional representation of the angels, which are multi-dimensional spiritual beings. They Holy Spirit shows them to us in this way, because that is all our minds and imagination can handle.

When an object is translated to a reduced set of dimensions, it loses some of its glory and splendour. A sphere becomes a disc when it is painted onto a piece of paper. In the same way and angel loses some of its glory when it is represented to us in three dimensions. Gabriel reminded Zechariah that he stood in the presence of God (Luke 1:19). His natural home was the spiritual realms where God dwells. What Zechariah saw was a representation of that glorious existence.

Isaiah saw angels with six sets of wings. He saw them flying around the throne. This vision amazed Isaiah, but it was a reduction of true reality. Angels do not really fly through the air with physical wings. They can move instantly to any place in the physical world at any time, because they are spiritual beings and are not constrained by physical boundaries. Humans see them flying, because that is the only way that our human minds can cope with what they do.

Prayer and Authority (8) Angels

Our prayers also release the angels to do God’s work. Angels are spiritual beings who can pass between heaven and earth. They are limited physically, because they can only be in one place at a time. They receive their instructions from heaven and carry them out on earth. Once they come to the earth they can lose their connection with other angels and become uncertain about what to do. In this situation, they listen to the prayers of the saints to find out God’s will. When they hear Christians praying God’s will, they are able to implement it.

We should not pray to angels. We do not need to address them directly, because they are listening to our prayers and rush to do God’s will when we pray it.

Coping with Social Collapse (2) - Protection

God Protects in Many Ways
Our immediate response to thoughts of social crisis is that God will protect us. This is true. The scriptures are full of promises that God will protect his children.

God is our refuge and strength,an ever-present help in trouble (Ps 46:1).

I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress,my God, in whom I trust." (Ps 91:2)

Every Christian should meditate on these promises.

We should also be careful, because saying that “God is our defence” is a bit like saying “God will provide”. We need to put some content around these statements, or they just become wishful thinking. God sometimes works miracles, but he mostly provides and protects us through other people. To obtain his full protection, we must understand how he protects his people. The scriptures show a number of ways that this will work in practice.

Prayer
Prayer is essential for protection from evil. When Peter was thrown into prison, the church prayed all night.

So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him (Acts 12:5).

When Paul and Barnabas were in prison, they spent the night praying.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them (Acts 16:25).

In times of chaos and crisis prayer is our best weapon.

Miracles
God will sometimes work a miracle to protect his people. He parted the Red Sea to protect the children of Israel (Ex 14). This option will be relatively rare. We cannot just assume that God will send a miracle, but should understand the full range of ways that God works.

Angels
Angels sometimes provide protection for God’s people. Elisha opened the eyes of his servant to see the multitude of angels that were protecting them.

Then the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha (2 Kings 6:17).

Peter was released from prison by an angel (Acts 12:6-10).

Natural Events
God can manipulate natural events to protect his people. He sent a plague to destroy Sennacherib’s army.

That night the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there (2 Kings 19:35-36).

When Paul and Silas were in prison in Philippi, an earthquake shook open the doors of the prison. They did not take the opportunity to escape, but God used the earthquake to get them set free (Acts 16:25-28).

Angels and Prophecy

Angels are ministering spirits sent to serve God's children (Heb 1:14). They are sent by God. They serve God's people.

The LORD has established His throne in heaven,
And His kingdom rules over all.
Bless the LORD, you His angels,
Who excel in strength,
who do His word,
Heeding the voice of His word.
Bless the LORD, all you His hosts,
You ministers of His,
who do His pleasure. (Psalm 103:19-21).

Angels are created for obedience. They do not have the frienship with God that is opened up to us through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Angels often do not know as much about what is on the Father's heart as we do. They often "excel in strength", far more than they excel in wisdom and decision making.

Angels move between heaven and earth. When they are in heaven, they know what God is doing, because his Kingdom is established there. When they are on earth, they are dependent on other messengers from heaven to keep them up-to-date with what God is doing.

Angels are sent to earth tp serve us, but as events change develop, they often do not know what to do next. They sometimes have to wait for our prophetic declarations before they know what to do. When they hear the Holy Spirit's word through us, they do it. They recognise his voice and obey it. They listen to a prophetic word and work to accomplish it. That is one reason why God does nothing without first revealing his plan to his servants the prophets (Amos 3:7).

Speaking in the language of angels is good (1 Cor 13:1), because it helps the angesl to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying.