I Send an Angel before Thee
JEREMIAH 29:11
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. (This word “expected” means - the outcome that you hope for)
PSALM 34:7-8
7 The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him (have respects and reverence towards God), and delivereth them.
8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
EXODUS 23:20
20 ¶ Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.
Two things that this angel does for you:
1. To keep you in the way
2. To bring you to the place that he has prepaired for you.
REVELATION 22:16-17
16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
17a And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come.
This word “come” is the Greek word “erchomai” {er'-khom-ahee}
… to appear, make one's appearance, like a physical appearing of a person of when we meet the physical Lord Jesus in the air as promised by the scriptures.
MATTHEW 24:27-28
27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. This word “coming” has a slightly different meaning in the Greek.
This word “coming” is the Greek word “parousia” which is not necessarily the physical appearing of the person but the presence of the person in another form. Just like when you talk to someone on the phone, they are not physically there with you in body form, but they are present with you because of their word form that you are in communication with.
**And that is what the bride’s relationship with Christ is at this time; we are in communion with the person of Christ by the coming of His word through a prophet’s ministry in this hour.
**And so it is the Angel that God has sent before us in this hour that makes all the difference between us and the denominations.
MALACHI 4:5-6
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
**We know that in the book of Daniel – there are two main accounts of an angel being sent during a time of intense public persecution that came about by the changing of laws against the elect of God who had been taken captive in that Babylonian system, just as we find ourselves captive amongst the same Babylonian system today. So this history is repeating itself in this age.
Case Study 1.
DANIEL 3:28a In Daniel 3 we find that the three Hebrew children had to stand up against the command and law of king Nebuchadnezzar regarding worshiping an image that he had set up of a holy man (Daniel), this is a type of a denominational spirit of putting man over man that the whole world would come to worship that spirit. But when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow down to that image and were thrown into the fiery furnace, we see that the Angel of the Lord is there waiting for them.
28 ¶ Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him,
We find the same with Daniel in the lion’s den. It was the law that was changed on Daniel by wicked scheming men to make him a criminal because of the way he believed.
*Notice the way that God responded in the Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego case and also in Daniels case – God didn’t get the enemy to change the law at the last minute, he let the situation advance to its worst possible condition, and then he came on the scene and brought the deliverance. This is often God’s ways of doing things, and it is important that we understand that so that we will know how God will sometimes deal with us and let situations in our lives get to their worst possible state, and then He brings us out of that trouble with a great victory.
DANIEL 6:20-22 - Case Study 2.
20 And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: and the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?
21 Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live for ever.
22 My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt.
ACTS 12:5-11 - Case Study 3.
5 ¶ Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.
6 And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison.
7 And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands.
8 And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me.
9 And he went out, and followed him; and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision.
10 When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him.
11 And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, 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.
EXODUS 23:20 opening scripture
20 ¶ Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.
Notice again - Two things that this angel is sent before you to do:
1. To keep you in the way (so you won’t be destroyed in the process)
2. To bring you to the place that he has prepaired for you.
Let us see this played out in Case Study 4 with Jonah.
JONAH 1:1-3
1 ¶ Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
In other words – he purposely refused to walk in the “way” of the Lord’s will for his life, this is showing us that when we also fail the Lord by our disobedience to his commandments (like Jonah we will also pay a price for that), God will still bring us out and guide us to the place that he wants us to be.
JONAH 1:17
17 Now the LORD had (Past-tense) prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
So in God’s great foreknowledge in knowing what Jonah would do, He had already gone ahead and had prepared a great fish with some sort of system in its stomach to produce oxygen so that Jonah could breathe and stay alive for 3 days and 3 nights, and then also God had to have that same fish in exactly the right place at the right time in that vast ocean to swallow Jonah down.
***In other words, the trial that Jonah would have to endure because of his disobedience to the word had already been prepaired by God well in advance before Jonah had even sinned.
***All our mistakes in life are pre-known by God in every possible detail, so he goes ahead and designs things before you get there and actually make the mistake so that He can keep you in the way and ultimately work it all out for your good in the end, even your disobedience to his word.
So we notice that this trial for Jonah was design by God not to destroy Jonah, but to keep Jonah in the way and to bring him to the place that God had meant for him from the beginning.
***So all your trials are foreknown by God, and so God has assigned an angel that he has sent before you for your specific case to keep you in the way and to bring you to the place that God has planned for you regardless of your situation.
**Remember that you will pay for your disobedience just as Jonah did, but Jonah’s disobedience did not stop the deliverance and the plan and purpose of God for his life.
A.MAN.RUNNING.FROM.THE.PRESENCE.OF.THE.LORD_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-8 WEDNESDAY_ 65-0217
42 Now, many of you, in your Bibles, I want you to turn to the Book of Jonah. It's a... We always talk so much about Jonah being a backslidden and everything. I've always took up for Jonah. I do not believe that Jonah was backslid. I--I do not believe that. I believe it's just... We just sometimes use it, say, "He's a Jonah." But if we... I've already spoke on it, in another way, in telling how that I thought, Jonah, what took place.
… 46 And Jonah here was called on, as this, one of the minor prophets of the Bible, to go down to this city.
And here we find an example of all of us. Every one of us, we always are running from something. We run from trouble. We run from responsibilities. We, we're all prone to do that. We, we are, we are more prone to run than we are to stand and face it out. See, we just... We--we--we find ourselves running.
Sometimes we find ourselves prone to run from work. We don't want to, we don't want to work. Some people just thinks they can make their living without working. But, I think, Solomon it was that said we could find here the answer, in watching an ant.
47 You know, a little ant, they tell me if that (every) ant doesn't work and lay in, that ant doesn't eat that winter, either. So, everybody has to--to work.
48 We got so many things we have to do, so much responsibility that we have to face. Everybody has got to face a certain responsibility.
Notice these four stories.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace
Daniel in the lion’s den
Peter in the prison house
Jonah in the fish’s belly
**What trial would you pick if you had a choice? –
The fiery furnace, the lion’s den, being chained between two guards in a dungeon with a possible death sentence the next day, or the fish’s belly?
**Notice that all these situations are about as extreme as you can get in life, but in each case we see that an angel from the Lord was sent on ahead of the situation, God knew all about it way in advance and prepaired a plan of deliverance for every one of their situations.
***He sent His angel before them, and He has also sent his angle before us to take care of us also, and to personally protect you during your hour of need, and to bring you out, and to guide you to an expected end.
That is what he is showing us by these examples in the Bible, that He personally cares for us and is dealing with us in the same way of deliverance because His ways are always the same.
Let us be encouraged to know that he has sent his Angel before us.
EXODUS 23:20
20 ¶ Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.