0:00:00 - 0:00:27 So some time ago, I was, I gave one of these rants about relationships and someone I made the point that in today's world, a high quality woman needs to make herself known to high quality men because there is no direct way for that man to find her. And this is different than historic times for various 0:00:26 - 0:00:50 reasons. And and so someone replied to that saying, yeah, but couldn't a high quality woman make herself known uh to the public, you know, in a youtube video or something and not, obviously, the video wouldn't be, hey, you know, my name is so and so and I'm a high quality woman. It would be demonstrating 0:00:48 - 0:01:16 the fruit of your life like the queen of Sheba did to Solomon. But in a modern context where you would, you would put on display the attributes of your character. And I responded to this trying to explain briefly that I don't think that that can work. And the reason is any mildly attractive woman doing 0:01:15 - 0:01:41 anything on youtube, she's going to get tens of thousands of male simps haranguing her just, just tons and tons of comments and, and everything else and even if a woman were willing to do that, that's what the response would be. And so you create this haystack of garbage in the, which you're hoping to 0:01:41 - 0:02:06 find a needle and that doesn't solve the problem. It just shifts it around a bit. So now how is she gonna sort through all of that? Because there's no mechanism for sorting. How can I explain this if your objective is to climb a mountain? It's pretty clear what you need to do. You need to go up and so 0:02:06 - 0:02:27 whatever way in which you, you do this, it's clear what your overall strategy is, you might have to take some switch backs, you might say, well, there's a boulder here. I need to go around it, whatever, but you need to go up. What is the sorting mechanism? The filtration mechanism? If you're, if you 0:02:27 - 0:02:56 have a haystack of attention that you have to sort through because there's no direct implementation of up there, right? Because what you need to do is somehow know something about these people that can't possibly be conveyed in the comment or on the picture or, you know, maybe that person's name links 0:02:56 - 0:03:16 to a youtube channel that they've spent years developing. And even that, are you going to spend hundreds of hours watching content saying, who is this person? No, the the best thing you'd be able to do is to say is this person attractive or not, which by all means, hopefully they are right. And that's 0:03:16 - 0:00:00 not a bad thing to think about, but it's insufficient. There are plenty of attractive people out there, very, very few high quality people. So this is not a video on dating, by the way, it's on angels definitions when I say angel, I mean, the literal sense of the ancient language language is I mean, 0:00:00 - 0:04:14 a messenger from God, someone on the Lord's errand. This does not need to be a heavenly being in heavenly form. It could be a mortal person. So finishing the set up here, my response to the person who said, well, why couldn't you just contact some female who had made a video on youtube? What the heck 0:04:14 - 0:04:42 would you say in one comment that could possibly convey what you need to, to get the kind of reaction you need to. There isn't anything, there's nothing you can say. So anything you would need to say would be way too long to take seriously and would absolutely give the impression that you're some kind 0:04:42 - 0:05:12 of a freak. Do you understand why that is? So how would you distinguish yourself from those people? It's a puzzle without a solution from, from the other people that you would be mistaken for? It can't be done. So that's why I say that the w the women have to look for the men. Now, all they have to do 0:05:12 - 0:05:35 is make themselves known and then the men can take care of the rest. But that has to be the first step. Now, what does any of this have to do with angels? Everything? Because that is a specific instance of the general problem. The general problem is receiving angels. The specific problem is if you're 0:05:35 - 0:06:02 a high quality woman, how do you find a high quality man? And hopefully that piques your interest because it sounds so strange and how could these things be connected? So where to go next? Ok. Maybe the next place to go is to talk about the ministry of Angels very briefly, specifically how very few people 0:06:01 - 0:06:24 have interacted with angels as far as they know. And there's a reason for this, of course, modern Christianity just sort of waves their hands and, and says, well, God doesn't do that anymore. He doesn't need to, we have the Bible. Well, you know, it's so interesting how it's so convenient how modern 0:06:23 - 0:06:48 Christianity has all these wonderful explanations for why they are less than ancient Christians. And of course, they point the finger at God. Oh, he has just changed. He doesn't do things the same way anymore. Now, we could dismantle the, the Bible is the end argument very easily if you say, well, we 0:06:48 - 0:07:08 don't need prophets anymore because we already have the Bible. Yeah. But in the Bible after Jesus, there were prophets go read the book of Acts, it says prophets, there were prophets, one of them was named Agabus. You probably didn't even haven't heard of him. It's right there in your Bible. Maybe you 0:07:08 - 0:07:30 should actually think about what you're reading instead of just take other people's word for it anyway. You could say, well, there's no need for angels because after Jesus, there's no need for angels again. Go read the book of acts, they needed angels. Why don't we? And on and on and on that, this, these 0:07:30 - 0:07:50 things didn't end with Jesus. They ended when people stopped being worthy of them. When people stopped living that level of the gospel. You know, one of the stories with angels in the book, facts is when Peter gets put in prison for preaching the gospel, if you're not the kind of person that would preach 0:07:50 - 0:08:17 the gospel in places that would land you in prison, then why should you expect angels? I have preached the gospel in places where it was illegal in one place at least. And I have seen angels. So how's that for evidence that maybe you're doing something wrong anyway? So there's definitely a need for angels 0:08:16 - 0:00:00 today. But why have so few come? There are several answers to this question and I am not going to talk about all of them and I don't claim that I'm even going to address the most important ones here. I, I want to stay on the topic I intended to talk about. So I'll, I'll focus on that. So what, what, 0:00:00 - 0:09:08 what's one reason that, that overlaps this track of conversation Well, let's talk about what would happen if an angel did visit you. And in all of this, I'm talking about visible ministry because angels can do things without you knowing. So, and they do it all the time, every day. So what would happen 0:09:07 - 0:09:30 if a being of glory appeared to you right now with where you are as a person? We don't have to speculate about this. You have all the information, you need to be quite confident about the answer. So if you go and read in the book of Daniel about Daniel's experience with the being of glory, he had a few 0:09:30 - 0:09:53 people visit him, few different kinds of angels, few different angels and the one that's described in glory, his reaction. Now this was Daniel mind you, this wasn't some run of the mill Schmo. This was a very righteous man. You could enumerate all the stories in his life that are in the Bible and put 0:09:53 - 0:10:14 yourself into his situation and honestly ask yourself what you would have done. And that will be a little, a good little measuring stick to find out if you would react better than him in this situation. But his reaction to this being of Gloria Ping was basically that he, he, he collapsed. It it seems 0:10:13 - 0:10:40 from the text that he probably died. He may have died, but he was in big trouble no matter what he was physically in shock. And so another angel with less apparent glory, had to come and help him so that he could stand in the presence of this other. Well, just survive in the presence of this glory, glorious 0:10:39 - 0:11:06 angel. So this just flies in the face of what most Christians believe about. Most things. They think that, you know, you can say the sinner's prayer and all of a sudden stand in the presence of God. And that's just not how it works among many other problems here, right? So if Daniel struggled with this 0:11:05 - 0:11:27 , so we could go through this in more examples, we could talk about Isaiah, we could talk about other people. But if Daniel struggled with this, how do you think you would react poorly in a, in a word poorly? So is God going to send you a glorious angel if doing so would kill you? Now, you might say 0:11:26 - 0:11:54 , well, Daniel made it out, ok. God works through faith. If you think you have the faith of Daniel, then you, it's fair for you to think that you could be spared as Daniel was miraculously in this experience. But if you don't, then you shouldn't, you don't have a reason to believe that except wishful 0:11:53 - 0:12:17 thinking and that won't get you very far. Ok. So if glorious angels are out, what other options does God have? And this is another thing that people don't think about that. They should. What kind of a window are you giving to God through which he can give you the things that you say you want. And I don't 0:12:16 - 0:12:46 mean like an Xbox, although, hey, if you really want that, he says, pray for what you want, right? But I'm talking about big important things like your eternal state or major aspects of your life, whatever you need, whatever you really want and really need. What kind of a window are you giving him in 0:12:46 - 0:00:00 ? Malachi? We read about the windows of heaven and the Lord says that the people have robbed him and they say, well, how have we robbed you? And he says, in your tithes and offerings. And so most people think that this is about cutting a check to their pastor. It's so much bigger than that. He says, 0:00:00 - 0:13:34 he says, basically give to God. What is God so that there could be meat in my house. What the heck does that mean if you want the windows of heaven to be open to you, the way you get them open is by opening them on your side. It's a two way connection. So many people think that all they have to do is 0:13:33 - 0:13:57 sort of lob this request up to heaven and God will find a way to get it back down to them. It turns out that we put all kinds of constraints on God in terms of what we're willing to receive from Him. It's not that he can't get it to us. It's that we've jacked it up so much that any option he has open 0:13:56 - 0:14:19 to him would cause us more harm than good. And he's not in the business of harming us. Everything he does is for the greatest benefit. And so in asking him for certain things while having a posture that prevents him from doing that in a way that wouldn't harm us. We're asking him to go against his character 0:14:18 - 0:14:44 in fulfilling our requests and that is not something he's going to do. He is who he is and he has to be that way. And so we have to align with that rather than expecting him to align with us. It doesn't work that way. And so it's a two way connection. It's a two way connection and we have to open our 0:14:44 - 0:15:17 side of that portal. If we want him to send what we're asking for from his side, what does this have to do with angels? Everything, everything God. So many Christians think of God as if he's all that. There is He is the apogee of all that. There is He is the beginning and the end. He is in all things 0:15:17 - 0:15:57 through all things round about all things. He's the what and the why and the how but he is the king of kings and the lord of lords. And that specifically is talking about Christ, the son, he has a father. This is not about one being alone. He operates through a hierarchy of angels. He has a set of kings 0:15:57 - 0:16:23 . Those are the kings he's king over and they're not worldly kings, they're kings in his kingdom. He is an emperor. He is a king of kings. He has kings, he has prophets, he has priests, he has servants and it's a big kingdom. When Jesus was going through the ordeal at the end of his life, he mentioned 0:16:22 - 0:16:46 how he could call upon his father and have a legion of angels to support him. Some of those angels came to him. We read specifically on two occasions off the top of my head. One, when he ended his fasting in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry, it says that angels came and ministered to him 0:16:46 - 0:17:06 . We know that he went to the mount of transfiguration. I actually, I have three instances mount of transfiguration where he saw Moses and Elijah who were angels that's using the definition, they were servants of God doing his work. And then there was an angel in the Garden of Gethsemane who strengthened 0:17:05 - 0:17:36 him during his trial. So angels matter. If they mattered in the life of Christ, we probably need them more than Jesus did. Wouldn't you agree? So what does our window look like? How do we put meat in his house, by the way, in scriptural, in a scriptural sense, a house isn't just a house, it's also a 0:17:36 - 0:18:00 family or an organization. So the house of David, the king would not just be his Children, which he had a lot of wives and a lot of kids. So that's already a really big group of people. It was also all of his servants, including the officers in his court, which he had many officers as well. People in 0:18:00 - 0:18:25 charge of his army, people in charge of other aspects of the kingdom, subordinates who reported to him and they all worked together to do what he needed to do. And so meet in his house is a really interesting phrase because it, it, it very much treats how we interact with, become a part of and align 0:18:25 - 0:19:01 ourselves with God's kingdom, which is a K A kingdom of angels, the kings, priests, prophets and servants are all angels. So if on earth, we don't see a network of angels. If we can't see the world like that, it means we're not very aware of His kingdom. It's a bold statement. So getting back to this 0:19:00 - 0:19:29 , this uh this idea of windows and now mixing it with this idea of just dropping a youtube comment to try to get someone's attention. God. There, there are immense benefits in God sending you a mortal angel. It's too much to fully explore. This whole video is just barely touching on many things but the 0:19:29 - 0:20:03 flesh that were clothed in here. What it does is it acts like like lead does to radiation. It shields God's glory from within. If these are new ideas to you, that probably seems quite bonkers but let me talk about it a little in terms of some ancient imagery and then maybe it'll make more sense. So we 0:20:03 - 0:20:28 believe that we have a soul, right? A spirit. And we understand that God's spirit can operate within us. Well, it turns out that glory is a continuous attribute. It, it exists on a slider like a, like a light dimmer. There's a range at the top of that range is the Lord Jesus Christ. At the bottom of 0:20:28 - 0:21:05 that range is darkness. But in life, the souls of men and women, they can be of any degree of glory between those two extremes. They can't be at the bottom because life and light are coupled, they, they co occur, but there is a minimal amount to be alive and there's a maximal amount that a person can 0:21:05 - 0:21:31 have in mortality. And that maximal amount was demonstrated by Jesus who was here as a man during his mortal ministry. He was in a mortal body. So if you look at the Ark of the covenant, the language that's used to describe it is that the wings of the Cherubim that these two angels on the roof of the 0:21:30 - 0:22:00 Ark, they faced each other and their wings were very long and they shape, they were shaped in a way to hide what was in the middle of it. And that is called the mercy seat. It's where the glory of God appeared inside the Tabernacle and then temple and so that light when it appeared that radiating presence 0:21:59 - 0:22:23 , there were shields there and those shields helped protect everyone else from that. Now, furthermore, in the Tabernacle, there were, there were a series of heavy curtains and drapes over that area. It was, it was pitch black inside of the Holy of Holies where the ark of the covenant was except for the 0:22:23 - 0:22:54 light that was coming from the ark. There were no candles or anything in there, no sunlight, but there were coverings that shielded that all the way out to the, to the outside. So like those coverings, our flesh covers the glory of our spirits. And so if you were uh going back to this, this glorious 0:22:53 - 0:23:28 angel that appeared to Daniel. If that angel came as a heavenly being from heaven, we know that Daniel was overcome by that. But the other angel that was there with him was a mortal and that angel also had glory. But because it was enveloped in the flesh, it didn't bother Daniel in the same way or to 0:23:28 - 0:24:00 the same degree. Now, can the glory of mortal angels bother people? Absolutely. Absolutely. But it will come in the form of what they say and do not just from their presence, not to the same degree. Anyway, I'm trying to be careful with this. You see is very important for us to all understand that the 0:24:00 - 0:24:29 spirit, it operates as a field like radiation. Uh You can think of his energy or heat, I should say not as but like energy or heat. So if you get hot uh close to a hot stove, you can feel the heat, the closer you get, the stronger it is. So this is why when, when King Saul went among the prophets, he 0:24:29 - 0:24:53 began to prophesy, he was still a doofus. But being around the these people in whom the spirit of God was operating strongly, he, he came into this field and it changed him temporarily until he left again. This is also the answer to the question of how it was that Elisha's bone healed a man. So they 0:24:53 - 0:25:16 were carrying Elisha's bones and he had been dead for a long time. His bones were there and one accidentally touched someone and healed him. This is why it says in the book of Acts, when Peter passed by a sick person and his shadow touched the person, the person was healed, it wasn't his shadow, it was 0:25:16 - 0:25:41 the radiation of the spirit within him. And so that happened without Peter trying to do anything or thinking of anything. It's the same thing that caused the woman with the bleeding issue to be healed when she touched the hem of jesus' garment. Now, in that case, the woman had faith and that increased 0:25:40 - 0:26:10 her susceptibility to that field. It wasn't that everyone that got close to Jesus was healed. So there you have it and faith incidentally, it's a condition that exists independent of specifics. It's not just the case that you would have to have faith in Jesus. That's not the only way to have faith when 0:26:09 - 0:26:33 I've talked about this in another video. But when Peter and I believe he was with James and John went into the temple in the Book of Acts and they saw the man, the crippled man outside and he was begging for money. And they said, look at us. And Peter said, uh, well, Peter, Peter said, look at us and 0:26:33 - 0:26:54 he said, silver and gold have I none. But what I have I give to you. And he said in the name of Jesus rise and walk and it worked. It doesn't mean that that man believed anything about Jesus or even knew who he was. Although he probably did know who he was. He wasn't looking at Peter because Peter was 0:26:54 - 0:27:21 a disciple of Christ. He was looking at Peter because he wanted some money. But faith is not just specifically something that, that has to do with God. It's a general principle. If you don't understand that you could read a book I wrote called through faith. So angels in the Flesh do radiate the spirit 0:27:21 - 0:28:03 of God to the extent that they have it. However, it is not the same as the unbridled glory that attends a heavenly being that comes down from heaven. So it's very, very, very rare for a person to be so overcome by mortally veiled glory that they die. However, it is almost always the case that mortals 0:28:02 - 0:28:27 in the presence of heavenly beings are overcome to the point of death. That's why they don't come to more people because it would kill them. You have to have faith to withstand that. You have to, you have to host a certain measure of the spirit of God because it protects you from that experience to a 0:28:27 - 0:28:49 degree, to the degree that you have it anyway. So this is the importance of mortal angels. There's so many things, you know, mortal angels, they're not the Walmart version of angels. They're not like when I was a kid, we were poor and I'd ask for, for, for like Nike's or something. I don't know that 0:28:48 - 0:29:09 I ever did this but brand name, clothing or shoes. And I'd get the version that had like the reversed icon or the goofy knockoff name. That's not what mortal angels are. They are the real thing and more often than not, they're better than what people think of as the real thing because there's so much 0:29:09 - 0:29:43 more that they can do that heavenly beings cannot do. Now. They are heavenly beings. It's just they didn't come to earth. The way those we think of as angels do, they come to earth through being born as babies. The way that Jesus was, for instance, the way that Noah was the way that Moses was any of 0:29:42 - 0:30:13 you could stand face to face with the man, Noah or Moses. If those men were on a subway in New York City, only those with a high level of spiritual discernment would have any idea they were sitting next to them. They would, they would be indistinguishable through normal metrics. I want to be careful 0:30:12 - 0:30:40 about this. If you got to know what the metrics are, what I call hidden holiness, you'd, they'd stick out like a sore thumb. But those are things that people know. So they'd be indistinguishable to you. And the blessing is that you could rub shoulders with these people and learn from them. Anything that 0:30:40 - 0:31:13 can be conveyed in the interactions you have with them because none of those things could happen if they were to come to you as glorified beings because you're not ready for that. You can't handle it yet. So some people can who, well you read all about it in the scriptures, go read uh Maroni seven. So 0:31:13 - 0:31:41 some people or Alma 13, some people have are more prepared for this because they've lived their lives in a way that they have more light. They have more glory. These are windows, windows of glory and you can only withstand or perceive what is just beyond where you are and how you are, but you can perceive 0:31:40 - 0:32:09 everything below you. That's the way it works. All right. So if you can't perceive what lies very much beyond you, how are you supposed to notice these angels. Well, we're told in the scriptures, but like many verses, it's so mangled in the English version that I have never seen one. Explain this or 0:32:08 - 0:32:32 catch this lesson that I'm about to share with you. So in Hebrews 13 2, we read be not forgetful to entertain strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. This is an often spoken about verse and yet I tried, but I have not found anything that anyone has ever said about this that's worth 0:32:32 - 0:32:57 reading. That's a strong statement. Now, why is that? I would say that right now as far as I know the the best key to understanding what this verse is really about and what Paul would explain to you if he were sitting with you, hopefully not as a glorified angel because that would be bad for you. But 0:32:57 - 0:33:27 we it's, it's the idea that Jesus shared in John 1335 he said by this, shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another, now, that's not the full solution to the puzzle because the world does not understand what love is. So the definition that I've given for love is your willingness 0:33:26 - 0:34:00 to suffer for the benefit of another person. That's your love. For them. Using that definition, you'll know the disciples of Christ because they will suffer for you the way that the Lord would if he were here. And so you need to know something about Jesus. But once you develop, as you develop that picture 0:34:00 - 0:34:31 , you superimpose it on to life and you think what would this look like more important than that? You open your eyes to recognize the situations when that overlap is happening in people who are interacting with you. So I think that if Paul were sitting here, if we had him on a on as a guest, and I said 0:34:30 - 0:35:02 , Paul, what were you trying to say here? I think he would say something like this. Don't fail to notice opportunities to give and receive love. For willingness to give far more than is received is the token by which the Lord's servants are known. Let's pull this apart a little bit. First off, this is 0:35:02 - 0:35:44 bidirectional. If an angel is a servant of God, then all of us are called to be angels. One way of thinking about this is that all angels are humans and all humans are meant to be angels. But very few act that way. If you profess to be a Christian all the time, you should be thinking, what would the 0:35:44 - 0:36:11 Lord do if he were in my situation? If, if, if I were some kind of a drone and he had remote control and he took control right now, what would he do? And that's what you should do. And in every case, you're going to find that what he directs you to do is what is for the greatest benefit of the world 0:36:10 - 0:36:54 and very often that is going to include unmerited suffering in behalf of others, just as he described and demonstrated throughout his life. I said it's bi directional, let's flip it around and take it from the other side. How can you detect a mortal angel who's interacting with you? They're going to 0:36:53 - 0:37:33 exert what you detect as an overabundance of a willingness to do things that help you, but we can clean that up and make it even clearer. You see what the help that comes from. God is very rarely recognized as helpful. When Jesus was hanging from a cross, it was visible. He was lifted up. What percent 0:37:33 - 0:38:15 of people do you think recognized that as any kind of service to them at all? And in reality, it was the greatest thing that anyone could do for them or for us ever in this world. So God's help is not always obvious and this is where the suffering is the key. We are really bad at judging good from evil 0:38:15 - 0:38:49 . One of the chief reasons we're here is to get better at that. But one thing we're really good at is recognizing suffering and it's not too hard to recognize suffering that's done for us, even if the helpfulness is an open question and not something that's totally obvious to us. Do you think it's obvious 0:38:48 - 0:39:16 when you meet someone who's willing to die for you? How would you know that? It's a weird thing, Jesus said is a rare thing to be willing to die for even a good man. It's in the New Testament, I believe Jesus said it. It might have been in one of Paul's letters. I think it's when he was saying that greater 0:39:15 - 0:39:46 love hath no man than this than to give his life for his friends. So how would you be able to tell if someone were willing to suffer for you? Much more than you were willing to suffer for them? Remember to give far more than is received is the token by which the Lord servants are known, there'd be an 0:39:46 - 0:40:21 outsized effort. You would look at what they're doing and you'd say this is too much, this is too intense. This is more than I would do. It's a higher cost than I would pay. It's for a longer time than I would deal with. And that's how you'll know. I mentioned the example of the Lord on a hill nailed 0:40:21 - 0:40:53 to a cross. Very few people recognize that as a loving gesture at the time. And yet he said others will know that you are my disciples. If you love one another and in another place, he says, as I have loved you, other people will know you're my disciples if you love them, like I love you. And so if his 0:40:52 - 0:41:26 example was not obvious to those contemporary to him, why would you assume that angels today would be obvious to you? They will be obvious in the same ways that the Lord was meaning the better you get at actually seeing what's in the scriptures, the better you will get at seeing it in real life. But 0:41:26 - 0:42:03 it's not easy and it's not automatic. So I invite you to open your eyes to these things. And the reason is because that is required for you to open it. It's what it means to open the windows of heaven from your side. And as you do, you will find you give the Lord many more opportunities to send much 0:42:02 - 0:42:11 more of what he would like to, into your life and to more fully give what you're asking him for.