The Most Important But Forgotten Role of Angels
The Most Important But Forgotten Role of Angels.
When someone says the word "angels" immediately our minds jump to the winged angels of Hollywood or to the heavenly messengers from the scriptures and church history. The bible dictionary teaches that angels have two classes, those with resurrected bodies, and those without (spirits either not yet born, or awaiting the resurrection), it teaches that these angels are "heavenly messengers sent forth to minister to the inhabitants of the earth." When someone asked you, "Have you experienced the ministering of angels?" Most members would pause and need to think. They often are thinking "have I seen or heard something from an angel before?" This pause is because the most important role of angels, while taught, it is often not understood.
Angels Deliver Messages For The Holy Ghost.
Have you ever noticed how everyone in the room can say they 'felt the Spirit' but each person felt it differently? Have you ever wondered how the Holy Ghost, a member of the Godhead who has a spirit body, can minister to everyone in the whole world? Or have you ever wondered what Nephi meant in 2 Nephi 32:3 when he said, "Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost?" The answer to these questions is actually all the same. Angels are the messengers who convey the messages of the Holy Ghost.
Nephi explained this to his brothers in 1 Ne. 17:45 when he told them that the Lord sent an angel to them who spoke unto them in a "still small voice" though they were "past feeling" and "could not feel his words." Here are a few quotes on this topic by the prophets and apostles:
"From the beginning down through the dispensations, God has used angels as His emissaries in conveying love and concern for His children…Usually, such beings are not seen. Sometimes they are. But seen or unseen they are always near."
Jeffrey R. Holland
"The action of the angels, or messengers of God, upon our minds, so that the heart can conceive … revelations from the eternal world"
John Taylor (Gospel Kingdom, sel. G. Homer Durham [1987], 31).
"The ministering of angels can also be unseen. Angelic messages can be delivered by a voice or merely by thoughts or feelings communicated to the mind."
Dallin H. Oaks
"I testify that angels are still sent to help us."
Jeffrey R. Holland
"Most angelic communications are felt or heard rather than seen."
Dallin H, Oaks
Elder Holland stresses this point to the Church Education System when he gave a CES Fireside and said: “May I suggest to you that one of the things we need to teach our students, and one of the things which will become more important in their lives the longer they live, is the reality of angels, their work, and their ministry: “Obviously I speak here not alone of the angel Moroni, but also of those more personal ministering angels who are with us and around us, empowered to help us, and who do exactly that. …Perhaps more of us, including our students, could literally, or at least figuratively, behold the angels around us if we would but awaken from our stupor and hear the voice of the Spirit as those angels try to speak. …I believe we need to speak of and believe in and bear testimony to the ministry of angels more than we sometimes do. They constitute one of God's great methods of witnessing through the veil.”
Jeffrey R. Holland, “A Standard unto My People,” CES Symposium, BYU, 9 Aug. 1994, 11–13
All these quotes and teachings are clear, over the pulpit and just make sense! Add to the fact that everything in the church is done via delegation; IE Heavenly Father created the world through Jesus Christ. It just makes sense that the Holy Ghost, who has a spirit body and can only be at one place at a time, uses angels to minister and deliver messages to people all over the world. And the fact that those angels are unique individuals who are custom delivering their messages easily explains a possibility as to why we all feel the same Spirit differently. But more important than how the message is delivered is the fact that we have the gift of the Holy Ghost to receive messages!
The Keys of The Ministering of Angels
The Aaronic Priesthood "holds the keys to the ministering of angels" (D&C 13:1). But unless you understand that the ministering of angels is one of the main ways that we can feel the Spirit, that makes little sense. However, once you understand the connection between feeling the Spirit and the ministering of angels, then you can finally realize the link: The Aaronic Priesthood administers the Sacrament. The Sacrament cleanses us, renew our covenants, and to enable us to “may always have his Spirit to be with [us]” (D&C 20:77). aka the Sacrament is the key to having the Spirit in our lives. Therefore the Aaronic Priesthood holding the key to the sacrament means they also hold the key to the ministering of angels! President Oaks taught this clearly when he said: "Those who hold the Aaronic Priesthood open the door for all Church members who worthily partake of the sacrament to enjoy the companionship of the Spirit of the Lord and the ministering of angels."
Who Are The Angels?
Once you realize the simple truth that the majority of the time we are feeling the Spirit that the message is being delivered by an angel, the next question becomes: "Who are the angels who minister to me?" The answer once again is simple and just makes sense! The angels who minister to us, are those who are concerned with our welfare, IE Ancestors who have a vested interest that we are worthy and do their work, or descendants who have a vested interest that we make and keep temple covenants so that they can be born into the covenant.
President Joseph F. Smith gave us some insight about angels who minister to those on the earth: “When messengers are sent to minister to the inhabitants of this earth, they are not strangers, but from the ranks of our kindred, friends, and fellow-beings and fellow-servants. The ancient prophets who died were those who came to visit their fellow creatures upon the earth … In like manner our fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters and friends who have passed away from this earth, having been faithful, and worthy to enjoy these rights and privileges, may have a mission given them to visit their relatives and friends upon the earth again, bringing from the divine Presence messages of love, of warning, or reproof and instruction, to those whom they had learned to love in the flesh.” (Gospel Doctrine, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1970, pp. 435–36. bold and italics added)
Within Family History the notion that our ancestors are helping us is commonly talked about and accepted, but it applies outside Family History also. My Mission President once told us, "No one joins the church without their ancestors helping them." It just makes sense! If their ancestors have accepted the gospel on the other side, then they are the ministering angels who have a vested interest in making sure one of their descendants joins the church and does their work. Who better to delegate the task of delivering a prompting to than someone who deeply cares about the person?
Direct Access To The Godhead.
Whereas prayers are often answered via ministering angels, it is vital to understand that we do not need to petition an angel, pray to a statue or cross, or even a saint to intervene on our behalf! We have Jesus Christ, the great intercessor, mediator, and advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ commanded us to "pray unto the Father in my name" (3 Nephi 18:19) and implores us to "Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him" (D&C 45:3 ). Because He is our advocate. Yes, He may delegate tasks to others, but the task of being our advocate is one task that can not be delegated.
"The Savior forgives, heals, and advocates. He is our helper, consoler, and intercessor—attesting to and vouching for our reconciliation with God."
Dale G. Renlund
Special thanks to Brian Kershisnik for allowing me to use his artwork: She Will Find What is Lost, and Annie Henrie for allowing me to use Angels to guide thee, and Angels among us.
Great Article. I would change one thing though. The Holy Ghost does not have a body of flesh and bones. See D&C 130:22.
I did not say he had a physical body, rather a spirit body.
One above paragraph states that the holy ghost has a body, which he does not. ???
He has a spirit body.
Nice article, but the Holy Ghost does not have a body, and he is the main communicator between God and man, not angels. D & C 130: 22:
... but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell within us.
The Spirit does have a spirit body. And with one He can only be in one place at a time. And all these quotes have proven that the Holy Ghost uses angels to delever his messages to us.
Wow!!! Just Wow!!!
Can this whole message be sent to my email?? I am not very literate with technology. Please, help me get this awe inspiring message!
Copy and paste the web link and send it to yourself in an email. That will do it.
Another option....click on the envelope to the left of the page. It's for email. You can then plug your email address in there and send it. Good luck.
Very enlightening, thank you. In a couple places you have used the word 'decedents' where the word 'descendants' would be appropriate. The first means one who has died and the second means our children, their children, and so on.
Oops, thanks for the catch! Grammer is not my strongest subject. Thank you.
I find it odd that ads for VUSE nicotine vape products by RJ Reynolds are showing up on this article. Does not seem to be the right audience for that.
The ads are based off your google analytics profile (sites visited, google searches, etc). The ads I see are about family and religion, I am sorry if you see others. Please if you see anything you don't like click the report button as I have prohibited ads items against the word of wisdom.
And thank you for understanding that without ads I would not be able to host my site.
Thanks for doctrine and experience regarding role of Angels in our daily lives ffor both leaders of our church and members. All are our Fathers children and he loves us using various means to communicate to us.
Very nice article. Yes indeed, the Holy Ghost has a spiritual body, just as we all had in the our pre-mortal life, our life we had prior to coming to this earth, and still have clothed with our physical body now. Our spirit is fashioned after our Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother, male for male and female for female. Thanks be to the restoration of the Gospel and the truths contained therein that came through the prophet Joseph Smith and all prophets of God since. Thank you once again.
I really enjoy and believe what was written here! All my life I’ve had angels around me helping me so so many times. Thank you for posting this! Right now in my life I’m looking for Gods understanding. Thank you
Thank you for your insights! I lost my mom 9 months ago and have since been on a journey in the scriptures to identify the role of ministering angels. I am so grateful for your insights and grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ that sheds light into the concerns of our hearts! I would like to believe that my mom had a special role in the prompts that lead me to this article.
I have been struggling with this. My sister passed away and in my blessing it says that I will have her as an angel to watch over me, but I never understood until now.
With tears in my eyes I know she has been around far more than I ever thought. Thank you for sharing this... My testimony has been fortified and strengthened.
Who is the author of this article and could I use it in a talk in a ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?
I am, and yes you can feel free to use anything and everything.
This is a beautiful article.
Thank you for outtingninto words whay I have learned for myself. My husband passed in 2006 and I spent years looking for answers. These talks and scriptures and many others bore witness to me that the feelings and sightings and dreams I had were real. My loved ones who have passed have guided and protected me . I still feel and acknowledge there help daily. Bless you for putting this out here.
Memorial for Unborn Children, sculpture by Martin Hudacek
This is why I am LDS. I completely believe everything in this article. Many years ago an angel spoke to me, warning me of danger. I will never forget that voice.
Angels We Have Heard
By David A. Edwards
Church Magazines
Because “angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost” (2 Nephi 32:3), it’s possible that when we perceive the voice of the Spirit in our lives, it may be the result of angelic ministration. Of course, the Holy Ghost can and does speak directly to us and can dwell in our hearts (see D&C 8:2), but it seems that angels always deliver their messages through the medium of the Spirit, whether they are unseen and speaking in a “still small voice” or standing before our eyes and speaking with a “voice of thunder” (1 Nephi 17:45).
I love this article. I truly believe in angels. I feel them close, mostly my mother. I know that they are real and that we can ask His to send them for specific reasons. I have actually done it and seen the changes take place. I will beat testimony of it.
Thank you Jeremy. Great article in thought, substance and spirit.
Thanks, beautiful article. Makes one to think deep. The Gospel is true.
Could you please tell me the name of your mission president? I love his quote, and would like to use it in the future for teaching purposes. Thank you! Wonderful article!
David Wilkey.
This makes so much sense to me. Since my oldest son died 2 years ago, I still feel the spirit but when I get clear thoughts and direction, I have felt my sons presence as if he is the one guiding me along. I felt bad wondering if I was ignoring the spirit because thoughts from my son are so clear to me...but now I get it. Now he's the spirits mouthpiece to me. What an amazing bit of insight and revelation. Thank you so much.
very uplifting thsnkyou Jeremy
Do you think these angels can physically do things to protect us? Not just warn us, but actually could could help us out of a dangerous situation? Could they touch us? Can we feel them? For example, if something is lost could they help find it and bring it to the surface where we can find it? Other than whispering or communicating with our spirits, how can they bless us?
My 17-yr-old daughter was suffering from serious depression. In all of my praying and pleadings for her, I began praying that her room would be filled with light and love from righteous angels who could minister to her in the private of her room in the specific ways that she needed, and that evil and darkness would be cast out so that she could find happiness again. Shortly after I said these prayers, a huge change happened within her and she began changing for the better. I feel that her angels guarded her room against darkness so that she could have a safe place for peace and hope and light, so that she could have the space to develop a communication and love between her and her Heavenly Father. I believe in the power of angels.
I love this! I know that angels are real and I have felt and had experiences with them. I know that angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost, however I don’t feel that that is the only way we can feel the Holy Ghost. He is our constant companion (when we choose him). He can be in more than one place at a time. It’s not right to say that he can only speak to us through angels.
If the Holy Ghost "can only be at one place at a time" and this is used as reasoning for how he "deliver[s] messages to people all over the world", I see a couple of potential flaws in this thinking: #1, it presumes that the delivery is the time consuming part with no logical reason as to why, and that by Himself the Holy Ghost could only deliver one message at a time, and #2, it presumes that somehow telling millions of angels what messages to actually deliver is somehow very quickly accomplished and resolves this inefficiency. I just think there needs to be some more pondering here. Lots of other good thoughts and research though. I think much of your theory is probably true.
@Christopher, that was the one comment in this article that made me pause. I was taught that the Holy Ghost is like the sun, his influence can be felt by many all at once.
When something is done via delegation, it is as if the person delegating it did it.
That is how the Priesthood works, when we perform an ordinance, it is as if Christ did it.
So therefore, logic dictates that if an angel was delegated to minister to you, then that would be as if the Holy Ghost Himself was doing so.
Great article by way...very good!
Interesting article! I was beginning to think I was the only member of the CJC who had similar thoughts. I have read a number of books dealing with "guardian angels" and it certainly gets you thinking about that being the "working" aspect of the Holy Ghost network. I've been a convert for 30 years, now, and this is the only explanation I can come up with that explains how 7 billion people can have constant personal oversight by Heavenly Father. I suspect that each of us who kept our first estate is assigned an angel to guard over us throughout our lives to act as a motivator, explainer, warner, helper, and question-answerer within his/her assigned guidelines. I'm assuming the guidelines are strict enough to limit communication to certain events and circumstance and in one of maybe 2 ways. There must be a way of just transferring a thought to our minds that really seems like it originated from our own mind, and the other is perceiving that voice in the head we are told is "the still, small voice". I have experienced the former hundreds of times a day every day all my life. I just can't seem to differentiate between it and Satan's and my own thoughts that I DID originate. (Or maybe someday we will find out there is no such thing as an original thought!) The latter I have heard only once in my life shortly after I joined the Church. I did not recognize it at first because I was awakened by it from a deep sleep and thought I actually heard the voice of a person calling my name from nearby inside or outside the apartment. It took me a couple of weeks before I remembered what had happened to the boy, Samuel, in his sleep. But I only heard it one time and never since. But I know what I heard and how I heard it and how it sounded, and how it felt, and how it is described in 3 Ne 8. I will now know instantly what it is the next time I hear it and respond properly.
One of those books' authors described being told that she had 2 guardian angels, one who served as such, and the other to record the history of her life. (I'm not sure why that couldn't be the same angel!) If true, that would explain how each of us will have a "Book of Life" out of which each of us will be judged.
In some of the "near-death-experience" books I've read, when a newly "deceased" spirit has arrived at the end of the tunnel of 'light', that their life is flashed before them as the contents of the book are "shown" to both the Lord and yourself and that you re-experience everything you ever did in life, both good and bad, and relive it with the Savior watching also. NOT only do you "see" it reoccur, but you feel the same emotions again and ALSO the emotions felt by the other person(s) affected by this experience. With each relived experience simultaneously feeling both sides of the situation you "understand" why a decision was good or bad and you learn! I haven't really found anything in scripture to verify this, but there is certainly circumstantial evidence to indicate it! At least until we are shown otherwise, this works to give me a frame of understanding of why things are the way the are.
There is an awful lot we don't know, I am just thankful for what we do know.
Woud you please site your source that angels have a spirit body?
Everyone has a spirit body, even Satan. The real question is who has a physical body.
Very insightful. Thank you. A friend sent this link to me. I have seen angels and had near death experiences, but I was taught that we are not to discuss deeply spiritual events. I was told in a blessing that I am to write a book. Trying. May I inquire as to what your last name is?
I really appreciate your efforts to enlighten. As members of the church we are allowed to “Petition the Lord for special wisdom and inspiration.”
Members need to remember to stay out of the mists of darkness. They need to
"Keep an eye of faith on the Lord and things will work out for your good"
I could feel the spirit the whole time while reading this telling me this is the absolute truth.
What a wonderful article! So much information is packed in here that I did not know, or hadn't even thought about! What great insight. Thank you.
The Holy Ghost can be in many places at once. He does not just sit up there passing out messages for angels to give us. Much more of a divine role than that. There definitely are angels among us, helping us along the way.
Is not the entire temple a masterclass in delegation? Is it not divine to follow the example of the Father? I never said that the Holy Ghost 'just' hands out messages. But it is clear that delegation of messages is the divine pattern. And would that not make sense? Would it not make sense if the Holy Ghost followed the example of how the Father operates?