Sensing Angelic Presence (II)

adapted from Youtube teaching “Sensing Angelic Presence Pt. 2”

Going Deeper with Angelic

So, I’ve talked about some of the ways I discern angelic presence in my own life. I am sure there are other ways but what I talked about is what I have enough experience with to know that it brings fruit in my life. Now, I want to talk a little bit about what we should do once we are sensing an initial presence or invitation from God. 

The point of experiences isn’t just to have cool experiences. The point of experiences is to reveal the kingdom of God to us. The kingdom of God is God’s way of thinking or being. External experiences support or bolster what Christ is doing in our hearts and minds. They make what God is doing within us real on the outside of us - they make God tangible. 

If you think you’re sensing some sort of angelic presence, the next goal is to interact. This is where angelic experience becomes unique because everyone experiences God in slightly different ways and there’s no one-size-fits-all formula.  

As I mentioned in the opening guidelines, the best thing to do is to invite the Holy Spirit/Jesus Christ into any experience and pray for direction or clarity at the moment. You need to have a developed prayer life and the ability to hear God’s voice before you move into angelic interactions. It takes time, dedication, patience to develop these giftings. My advice to you (and myself) is to work with what God has already given you. 

Let me give an example of what “moving deeper” might look like.  

Angels “deliver” messages from Christ through the Holy Spirit. Recently, I was at a men’s retreat with about 25 men and we were all praying over a particular brother. I asked God if He wanted me to say or pray anything specifically over this particular gentleman. To my surprise, I heard “have him say the ABCs.” What?! This seemed so random and strange, but in my gut, I knew that God was inviting us into an experience that might lead somewhere. 

“Hey, Steve (name changed), I want to try something. Are you down?” 

“Yes,” Steve replied. 

“Ok, I want you to say the ABCs,” I said in front of everyone. 

Steve proceeded to recite the entire alphabet perfectly in front of everyone. I had no idea what this could mean. Everyone, including me, sat silently. But a great sense of power began to manifest in the room. Then the angel (or the Holy Spirit) spoke to me again:

“Have him say it again like it’s a prayer,” I heard.

I turned to Steve. “Steve, what’s happening?” I asked. 

“I feel a tingling in my leg,” Steve said. Steve was praying for healing in his knee so maybe that meant something. 

“Try the ABCs again, but this time say it like it’s a prayer,” I said.  

“What does that mean,” Steve asked. 

I didn’t know how to respond. I said, “I don’t know. Pretend it’s just you saying it to God and do it again.”

Steve started to “pray” the ABCs. What I mean is that he was saying them but saying it like it was a prayer to God. He only got about six or seven letters in before he froze, unable to continue. 

“Steve, what’s going on?” I asked gently. 

“I don’t know, I can’t continue for some reason.”  

Hmmm. I wasn’t sure what God was getting at, but once the ABCs had turned into a prayer, Steve was really struggling, missing chunks of letters, and generally mentally paralyzed. But the power of God in the room seemed to be increasing. Interesting. I needed God to advise. 

“What do I do now, God? This isn’t going anywhere,” I prayed silently.  

I heard, “Do it a third time but as a group.” OK. 

“Okay, Steve, we’re going to do it with you one more time, but we’re all going to say it together with you.” We proceeded to recite the entire alphabet with him as a group. You could feel the brotherly affirmation and solidarity. I still had no idea what God was trying to get at. We then moved on and I couldn’t help but feel a little stupid.

Then, my friend leaned over next to me and whispered in my ear, “that’s really cool what you did. You must know the story about praying the ABCS.” 

“What? What is that?” I replied, surprised.  

“It’s the story of a father teaching his daughter the ABCS. The father tells the daughter to pray to God about learning the ABCs and God will help her learn. In the story, Jesus helps the girl remember the letters she forgets and she eventually learns the alphabet.” 

I was stunned, not aware of this story. Suddenly, the symbolism and meaning of the entire thing hit me like a ton of bricks. The entire experience was serving to highlight a spiritual reality in Steve’s life. When Steve experienced “gaps” in his spiritual or prayer life, Christ would fill them in, through the presence of other men in his life. This was about Steve finding wholeness through Christian brotherhood. Christ would ensure this would happen through the support, encouragement, and solidarity of the people in his life.   

Our “prayer” with Steve was more than a simple “Do it, God. Amen.” There was a spiritual reality that was coming to light through an experience happening in the natural. Christ and His angels were helping me facilitate this experience. My obedience to what I sensed happening in the angelic realm released the power of God and brought the kingdom of heaven into the room. Everything was a sign and symbol pointing to a spiritual reality. 

I did follow up with Steve after about this insight, and he completely agreed with me. It was unusual, yes, but it helped bring to light areas of need in his spiritual walk. None of this would have happened if I didn’t take the steps to act on what I was sensing or receiving from God.  

Life in the Holy Spirit is a language that, like any other language, takes time and effort to learn. Once we open ourselves to the fullness of God and strive to learn the mysteries of His ways, our lives become very exciting. This way of life requires risk. If we never act on what we think we are hearing from the heavenly realm, we will never know if we are hearing correctly. If we don’t act on what we hear, we will never grow into spiritual maturity. James advises us, “do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves, but do what it says” (James 1:22). James isn’t talking about the Bible, but the radiating witness of the inner Word - the indwelling Christ. If He speaks, we need to act on what we hear.  

I have looked like an “idiot” more times than I can count by acting on what I feel I hear coming from the angelic realm. There has never been a single time where I did not learn something by taking a risk at God’s prompting. The end results haven’t always been what I imagined them to be, but I have never been disappointed in the end. God doesn’t need perfection, but people with humble hearts who are hungry to know His ways and willing to make sacrifices to learn the mysteries of His kingdom. In regards to spiritual hearing, it is about the process, not the product. The key is stepping beyond our ego in order to touch God. 

Once, I was on a missions trip in Croatia and we were doing street ministry. In the city square where we met every morning, there was a young blind woman who would beg. The group I was with at the time decided to speak to this woman and maybe pray with her. We found out that when this woman was young, she had had surgery to repair one of her eyes. The surgeon botched the surgery, leaving her blind in one eye. I didn’t say anything and just listened to her story - which seemed to be very genuine. My heart broke for this woman. 

My companions, God bless them, were only offering her general consolations (e.g. “God loves you!” etc.) and you could tell this young blind woman did not give a rip about what we were saying to her. In fact, we were wasting her time. We were not helping her actual needs in any way, shape, or form. Annoyed, I started to ask God what He wanted me to do. A voice from the heavenly realm sounded clearly in my imagination. 

“Put spit in the blind eye.”  

I must have heard incorrectly. “Excuse me, God?” 

“Take a risk and put spit on her blind eye. Take a risk.” 

I knew I was hearing correctly but was terrified to act on it. I took a deep breath and stepped over to the young woman. I put my hand gently on her shoulder and asked, “Do you trust me? I want to try something and pray for you.” By this point, the group had established some basic positive rapport with her.

“Yes, I trust you,” she said, “what are you going to do?” 

Even though I was nervous, I told her what I was thinking. To my surprise, she agreed to let me pray for her. I took a deep breath, put my saliva-glazed hand on her left eye, and began to pray. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen and the looks of my companions told me they were somewhere halfway between horror and fascination. “Is anything happening?” I asked the young woman. Silence..then finally… 

“Something very strange is happening,” she said. She seemed to become agitated and I was worried that this risk was a terrible failure of international proportions. Suddenly, tears began to descend down her cheeks. “I feel warmth over my entire body and I see a shining light in my blind eye. Nothing like this has ever happened before.” 

I was secretly stunned and relieved that God was doing something. “This is the love of God,” I told the young woman, who seemed to shed her hopelessness and darkness as we continued to pray for her. It was a simple statement but I knew that is what the Holy Spirit was saying at the time.  

The woman remained in wonder and silence as we continued to pray. I was hoping to see this blind eye open for this young woman, but it never happened and I did not feel the grace to continue praying for her. We embraced her and went on our way.  

People ask me, “so what was the point?” The point was that God wanted to touch this young woman in a way that she needed so that she could feel His presence. It wasn’t about getting her soul “saved” or seeing a healing miracle, but about this woman experiencing the tangible love of God, probably for the first time in her life.  

My obedience to act on what I was hearing from heaven is what activated the kingdom of God in and through this young woman. I have no idea what this interaction meant for this woman after we left. I have no idea if she ever found healing or left the streets. What I do know is she felt the love of God in her darkness, and that is enough.  

Our obedience to act on what we hear from heaven is what manifests the kingdom of heaven in our experience. As I mentioned, learning to engage in the Holy Spirit takes time, practice, and experience. But, there is nothing preventing us from starting now. As we take risks, God meets our faith and grows us in the understanding of His ways.  

The testimonies I just described are just a few examples of what it’s looked like “going deeper.” in my experience. Remember, it’s about tuning in to what we are sensing and then acting on what we are sensing. I hope my stories help to at least encourage you so you can step out and have your own powerful and impactful experiences with God. 

Final Considerations

I want to round out this teaching by giving some final considerations and advice on sensing angelic presence. These are kind of like the guidelines I established at the beginning, but they just make more sense coming after the body of teaching than before it. This is advice that’s coming from my own personal experience that I really believe will be useful for helping you grow and nurture this particular gifting. 

Ask and be open to spiritual experiences, but don’t seek them. 

God does not send spiritual giftings and experiences if our hearts and minds are not open to them. As we open ourselves to God’s graces and giftings, we can receive them. It is just like a flower opening up its petals to receive the light of the sun. If our petals aren’t open, God’s sun can’t shine into our experience. 

For me, I open myself to spiritual experiences and I ask God to send them to me, but I try not to seek them out. What I mean by this is that I love experiences and expect them to happen, but I don’t obsess over making them happen. I do believe, for the most part, that God reveals things to us when He knows we are ready to receive them. God does not throw His pearls to pigs. 

We all know people who travel from place to place or teacher to teacher seeking certain kinds of spiritual experiences. I’m not convinced that this comes from a place of humility and maturity. It can become about seeking spiritual validation when you’re struggling with your own core identity. A lot of people make their spirituality the bedrock of their identity and will oftentimes run after experiences that validate their sense of purpose or meaning. Yes, I know that Christ invites us to “ask, seek, and knock,” but our seeking of certain kinds of experiences can become a snare and a trap.  

Experiences are not evil but, as I said at the beginning, they are not the be-all-end-all. Experiences support the work that God is doing in our hearts and minds and will oftentimes bring life to what we are learning from the Scriptures. They are a way of making the inner Christ manifest and tangible in our experience. As we open ourselves to this dimension of God’s kingdom, we will begin to have angelic experiences of our own. 

Spiritualize, but don’t over-spiritualize. 

I am often accused of “over-spiritualizing.” This term is often used by people who don’t access (and don’t want to access) spiritual reality in our natural experience, or who are intimidated by those who have spiritual experience.

The natural realm is energized by what is happening in the spiritual realm and vice versa. As Christians, our lives are indeed spiritual. Everything can have spiritual meaning, but that doesn’t mean it needs to.  

We need to trust that God will reveal spiritual meaning to us when He wants to. There is no need to exhaust ourselves by trying to find spiritual meaning or synchronicity (Carl Jung’s word) in everything that happens in our lives. Our spirituality can become an obsession that can distract us from reality and make us paranoid. We can stay grounded by not interpreting everything as a coincidence or God speaking. I promise God will reveal meaning when it is necessary or use others to do so. 

Guard your experiences with humility and wisdom.

Spiritual experience can be very exciting because we have the privilege of engaging with divine realities, even though we are on earth. However, just as God doesn’t reveal His mysteries to all, so we should not share our experiences with everyone. We can’t throw our pearls to pigs, and this is a lesson I have had to learn the hard way. I have endangered friendships and lost relationships because I did not always guard my experiences with wisdom and humility.  

We need to carefully discern if, how, when, and why in terms of sharing our spiritual experiences. I have shared the stories in this teaching because I feel I had permission from God to do so. Not everyone will be open to receiving these testimonies and I am okay with that. We need to remember that those who are new to spiritual experiences or angelic interactions can be easily frightened or confused by them.  

Nothing is more frustrating than a conversation with someone who goes on and on about their daily spiritual experiences or angelic encounters. We all know what I’m talking about - the kind of conversation that ended 20 minutes ago but you can’t escape from it because you don’t want to be rude. When I am around these people, I feel nothing but immaturity and lack of confidence. People like this find their worth in their spiritual experiences because they are insecure and ungrounded in other areas of their lives.  

In terms of spiritual experience, we need to be slow to speak and quick to discern what is to be shared and what is not to be shared. Use wisdom and caution. Of course, it is helpful and useful to process our experiences with those we trust who also value the experiential dimension of God’s kingdom.  

Stay grounded. 

I cannot stress this enough that the best way to stay healthy with spiritual experience is to ground ourselves by reading the Scriptures. Just as we can idolize the Bible, so too can we come to idolize experience. The written Scriptures and the indwelling Word operate together to bring us into Christ’s mature righteousness and fullness. If it is one or the other, we risk falling into idolatry or spiritual delusion.  

Another thing I like to do in my own spirituality is to work to stay connected to my physical body. I do this by exercising regularly, eating good food, and spending time doing “worldly” things like watching movies or playing games. This helps my mind stay balanced between heaven and earth. Too much spirituality too quickly can cause imbalances which lead to depression and anxiety. We need to live incarnationally - we are fully human but we also share the divine presence of Jesus Christ. Be human and enjoy life! 

This will close out my teaching on sensing and responding to angelic presence. This guide is just the beginning, but I hope it helps open you up to the idea of spiritual experience and gives you some tools that will help you in your own journey. I pray that God releases this gifting to you and teaches you the deeper ways of the Spirit so that His will may be done on heaven as it is on earth.