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Some discount the difficulty of the Lord’s life, the power he wielded, or what he accomplished by believing that he had frequent interaction with heaven that made this easier than it would be for anyone else. Many Christians assume that the Lord’s interactions with heaven came only because he was the Christ, and that they were far more numerous than those described in the gospels. Under such assumptions, the value of the Lord’s life as an example to follow in seeking and obtaining interactions with heaven is lost. The truth is that the Lord’s life provided an example of incremental interactions with heavenly visitors at significant and appropriate times during his life, and serves as a template for all others to follow.

If Jesus received so many angelic visitations, why are only three recorded? The first recorded instance of Jesus being visited by angels was after his long fast and temptation in the wilderness. The only other two stories of Jesus interacting with angels was his interaction with Moses and Elijah on the mount and an unnamed angel in Gethsemane. What if these were the only visits by angels he experienced? There are many people who have entertained angels more than three times. Some of them are alive today.

Many assume that Jesus must have had many angelic visitations because he was the most righteous man who ever lived. While righteousness is a criterion for angelic visitation, it is not the only one. The more righteous you are, the fewer the angels you need to visit you, and the fewer there are who have anything to offer you. What, exactly, could any angel do to help Jesus? The angels who ministered to him after his fast could have brought him food. Moses and Elijah did not minister to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, but rather the reverse. The angel in the Garden provided information to him that he did not have, which helped him decide to finish taking upon himself the sins of the world and sacrificing his life.

Jesus did not have greater access to angels than you or I. If anything, the conditions under which they could visit him were more constrained, not less. Angels are limited in their ability to visit those for whom their visit would deprive the opportunity to exercise additional faith, making them less likely to visit Jesus for at least two reasons. First, he had grown incrementally to have greater power than anyone else and, second, any angel who visited him would have given him additional witnesses of his identity and mission, if only in their obeisance to him. On both counts, angelic visitations would have prevented his expression of faith. Angels don’t come to make hard things easy for you. They come to make the impossible possible. Angels will not come to do for you what you could do yourself. This is why angels did not minister to Jesus during his trial with Satan, only after.

Jesus did not have special access to angels. He obtained interactions with angels the same way anyone else does. Because the same laws are in play for all, you can receive angelic ministration if you follow the example of Jesus. Exert yourself to your full capability. When you exhaust your resources, God will provide more, and he will use heavenly angels to do so whenever no earthly angels are available with sufficient capabilities and willingness.