The Alternative

Dr. Tony Evans: God will either give you what you asked for, or he will give you angelic strength to deal with what he wants.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans says you can expect help from the angels when you put the will of the Father first. So if you're waiting for God to come through for you, while you're waiting, say thy will be done, angelic strength will be yours to strengthen you.

Guest (Male): This is The Alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.

Guest (Male): Because we have free will, we can demand our own way. But today Dr. Evans points out that if we want more help from the heavenly host, self-interest isn't in our best interest. Let's join him as he explains.

Dr. Tony Evans: Now I'm going to tell you how to activate angels using one word. You activate angels on your behalf through worship. The Bible says, you don't have to turn there, but it says in Hebrews 12:22, that when we come to worship, we join a myriad of angels.

Now, the theology here is very simple. Angels were created for the worship of God. And when we join them in doing what they do best, God activates them on our behalf. It's as simple as that. Turn your bibles to Isaiah 6. In Isaiah chapter 6, it's a bad day because King Uzziah has died. Now, that may not mean much to you, but it meant a lot to Isaiah, because under King Uzziah, Israel had finally flourished.

It had finally become a power to be reckoned with. It had finally taken wings to soar. And yet, Uzziah had died. Now I know, as I speak to you right now, some of your Uzziahs have died. Some things in life you were counting on to keep things steady. It could be a job Uzziah. It could be a health Uzziah. It could be a circumstance Uzziah. But it's died. It's gone.

And the hope you were placing in that thing, or that set of circumstances, is no longer available. When your Uzziah dies, join the angels. That's what Isaiah did. Because it says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple. Seraphim, one of the branches of angels, stood above him, each having six wings.

And with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. Now guess what they're doing. And one called out to another, saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory." One of the fundamental things that makes worship worship is the centrality of praise. And when Isaiah goes to the temple, on earth he is transported to the temple in heaven.

Guess what he sees. He sees angels, seraphim. And guess what he sees these seraphim doing? Doing in heaven what he came to do on earth. Worship. And whenever you and I go to worship, we join angels because that is non-stop activity. So he goes into worship. And when he goes into worship, something happens, verse 4, the foundations of the threshold tremble at the voice of him who called out.

So this wasn't no little whispering worship. The place was shaking. The foundations were shaking, and it was filling with smoke. And now the most spiritual man in Israel, the prophet Isaiah says what? Woe is me. I was good till I came here. Yeah, I sing my little songs, but I don't sing so that the threshold shakes. Yeah, I believe in God, but I've never seen him high and lifted up like this.

He got to see God as he really is. He saw how unlike God he was, even though he's a great guy. Because when you get to see God, you get a new view of yourself, and it's not pretty. Then. Then when? After he joined the angels in worship, after he let worship define his circumstances, and not what the newspaper said about Uzziah to define his circumstances, guess what?

The angels moved. Verse 6. "Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and a burning coal in his hands, which he had taken from the altar with tongs, and he touched my mouth with it and said, 'Behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven.'" He got purified in the temple. How did he get purified? By an angel.

In other words, when he went to worship God, God gave an angel the responsibility of putting hot coals to his lips in order to clean his life up. Why? Verse 8. "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send, and whom will go for us?' Then I said, 'Here I am, send me.'" Now he gets a mission. He now finds out what he's supposed to do with his life. He now finds out which direction he's supposed to take. He now finds out which area he's supposed to go in.

Because he went to the temple to praise the Lord. He went to the temple to see the Lord. He went to the temple to worship the Lord. He wound up joining the angels. God let the angels purify him so he could hear the voice of God directing him. When you need to know which way God wants you to go, and you're unclear, worship. When you need to make a turn in life and you reach the fork in the road, you don't know which direction to take, worship.

When you're utterly confused because your circumstances are falling apart, praise him. You say, "But I'm confused." Praise him for the confusion. Say, "Why should I praise him for the confusion?" Because you're praising the one who can make the confusion unconfused. Praise him. Praise is the mechanism of worship that led to angelic activity.

A second area of worship that you need to know about is sacrifice. Sacrifice. What is sacrifice? Sacrifice is giving something up of value to you for God. Sacrifice is taking something of value, something that has value to you, and giving it to God. That's sacrifice. Regularly throughout the Bible, God calls his people before he blesses them to sacrifice. Why?

Because that is an act of faith. Do I trust God enough to give something up of value to me? A lot of us want free worship. That is, a lot of us want the blessings of God without any sacrifice for ourselves. It's amazing how we will sacrifice for other things in our lives that are important. We'll get an education because we want to become a doctor or a lawyer or some other.

So we'll sacrifice that, or long hours at the office in order to get the promotion, or to get the raise, or we will make sacrifices in our lives because of the value we place on the thing we want. Sacrifice unto the Lord. Give up something that is of value to you for the glory of God. Now that could be time. It could be a sacrifice of time where you decide to cut off the television set and spend that time with the Lord rather than just for your own entertainment.

It could be any number of things, but worship includes sacrifice. So it includes praise, and it includes sacrifice. A third way that you activate angels, praise, sacrifice, we've alluded to it already, but prayer. Whenever you see God sending angels to men, a lot of times they are on their knees praying. They're talking to God, just like Zachariah had been praying.

In Acts chapter 12, we said this earlier, you don't have to turn there, but in Acts chapter 12, Peter is released from prison miraculously by an angel, because it says that the church was praying. In fact, the church was shocked that the prayer was answered. Look at Daniel chapter 6. Daniel was in a lion's den. Look at the kind of man Daniel was, verse 10.

"Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, that he couldn't pray to his God, he entered his house. Now in his roof chamber, he had windows open toward Jerusalem, and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God as he had done previously." So Daniel is a praying man. Notice something, prayer does not keep him from getting thrown into the lion's den.

All right? People think because I pray nothing should happen. No. Because you pray, you're not alone when something happens. If you have an impossible situation in your life, if you have a situation that you cannot take care of yourself, as most of us do, just maybe God can do a better job than you can through his angelic host. And so it's prayer.

Please notice, even Jesus understood this, because Jesus had to function as a man. Luke chapter 22, verse 41. Garden of Gethsemane. But look what happened. Jesus is in the garden, and he withdrew from them, verse 41 says, "about a stone's throw, and he knelt down and began to pray, saying, 'Father, if thou art willing, remove this cup from me. Yet not my will, but thy will be done.'"

He was facing something he didn't like and didn't want to face, and he asked God to remove it. Tell God what you want. Be specific in prayer. Jesus was saying, "Let this cup pass from me." What cup? This cup of suffering that I'm getting ready to enter into, going to the cross. Let this cup pass. I prefer not to have to deal with this. But not my will, but thy will be done.

Now, I know what you're saying. Well, suppose it's his will to do his will and not my request. Step in, angels. Verse 43. "Now an angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him."

Guest (Male): Dr. Evans will return in just a moment. But first, I want to remind you that the lesson we're hearing today comes from his eye-opening two-volume teaching series, Angels, Good, Bad, and Ugly. Across these 12 full-length messages, Dr. Evans is providing biblical insight into some of our most important questions about angels, demons, spiritual warfare, and the unseen activity shaping events in our world and in our personal lives. You learn what these supernatural beings can and cannot do. How spiritual battles affect us every day. And why understanding God's invisible kingdom can strengthen our faith and confidence. And to help provide you with the actionable steps to overcoming spiritual conflict, Tony has written a powerful companion book called Warfare: Winning the Spiritual Battle. In it, he explains how to recognize the enemy's tactics and rely on God's authority to overcome your fears, temptation, discouragement, addiction, and more. When you make a donation to help support the ministry of The Alternative, we'll send you the double resource package containing all 12 messages in the Angels sermon series, as well as the Warfare book, along with our thanks. Get the details at TonyEvans.org. Or call our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-800-3222. That number again, 1-800-800-3222. We'll return to Dr. Evans with more of today's lesson right after this.

Guest (Male): Life moves fast, and sometimes the most important thing you can do is slow down. You're invited to join Dr. Tony Evans for a Caribbean cruise designed to help you rest, reflect, and renew. Beginning February 28th, set sail on a seven-day journey round trip from Fort Lauderdale. Visit stunning destinations like Nassau, Grand Turk, Amber Cove, and even a private island in the Bahamas. But this journey is more than scenic beauty, it's a time to reconnect with God and with others. You'll experience life-changing teaching, uplifting worship, and moments of peace that are hard to come by in the middle of everyday life. Whether it's a quiet morning on deck, or a shared moment of praise with fellow believers, every part of this cruise is designed to refresh your body and your soul. Make plans now to step away so you can step back renewed. Visit TonyEvans.org for details and reservations. That's TonyEvans.org.

Dr. Tony Evans: Let me tell you what God will do. Always, one of two things. God will either give you what you asked for, or he will give you angelic strength to deal with what he wants. So if you're waiting for God to come through for you, while you wait, say, "Thy will be done." Angelic strength will be yours to strengthen you. So, prayer is another way of activating angels.

Next, fourthly, this is a key one, part of worship that gives you angelic assistance, is submission. Submission. Angels always, always, always operate under authority. Submission means coming underneath the appropriate authority. You will never, never, never get angelic help from God if you're bucking legitimate authority. To put it another way, if you're a child bucking the authority of your parents, when you pray to God, you won't get angelic assistance from God.

If you're a husband and you're bucking the legitimate authority of Christ over you, then you will never, never, never get assistance from God's angelic help for you. Because angels only operate under authority. And they know when we are or are not operating under authority. Acts 19. Let's look at verse 13.

"But also some of the Jewish exorcists, people who exercise demons, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, saying, 'I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.' And the seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. And the evil spirit answered and said to them, 'I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?'"

"And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them and subdued all of them, overpowered them so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded." The angelic realm knows when you're functioning under authority. And they knew that this person had no authority to be doing what he was doing, to be talking what he was talking, because he was not connected to Jesus like Paul was.

So they said, "Now, Jesus we know, we don't fool with him. Now, Paul we know, we don't fool with him because he fools with Jesus. But you don't know Jesus or Paul. So we're going to mess over you." If you're not under authority, here's the principle, you do not have authority. That's the principle. If you're not under authority, you possess no authority. And many Christians are powerless because they're not under authority.

You have to be under authority in order to get authority. This is a powerful principle. That's why Michael in Jude chapter 9 told Satan that it is by the power of God that I resist you. He recognized authority. Now, listen to me. Always with authority comes responsibility. Authority carries responsibility and follows responsibility. So if you're not fulfilling your responsibility, you cannot exercise authority.

Look at what James chapter 4, verse 7 says. "Therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you." Most people start that verse with, "Resist the devil." No, "submit to God." Come under authority. Why? Because until you've submitted to God, you won't have the power to resist the devil. Submit to God first, which gives you the power to resist the devil, which the devil can't handle because you're now operating under God's authority.

So when you're facing something that's impossible, the first thing you do is not act in your own strength. The first thing you do is to submit to a greater strength. Submit to God. He's an authentic man, an authentic godly man. Nathaniel said, "How do you know me?" referring to Jesus. Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." So look at Nathaniel's response in verse 49.

"Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel." You're the son of God, you're deity, you're king, you're in charge. Now look at Jesus's answer. "And Jesus answered and said to him, 'Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these.'" And isn't that what you want? Don't you want to see something greater? Verse 51.

"And he said to him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, you shall see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.'" There it is. What is it saying? It is saying, Jesus Christ is your link between heaven and earth. And the way that heaven and earth is connected is by Christ, and based on Christ's will, angels move up and down from heaven to earth carrying out his program.

But guess what he says to Nathaniel, "You will get to see it." Isn't that what some of us want to see? We want to see the angels of God moving up and down the ladder of Jesus, bringing the answers from heaven to our needs on earth. He says, "Nathaniel, you will get to see it because you believe in who I am. You recognize my authority." When you recognize the authority of Jesus Christ, when you come under that authority, and when you act under the responsibility that is yours underneath that authority, then listen to me, you have authority.

And when you have authority, God will let you see the angels coming up and down your commitment to Jesus Christ, addressing your needs on earth from the solutions in heaven. You'll have power in prayer, access to God. Let me say one other thing in closing. A fifth thing is your witness. Luke chapter 12, verse 8 and 9. If you keep it quiet about Jesus Christ, he's not going to send any angels to help you.

"And I say to you, everyone who confesses me before men, the Son of Man shall confess him also before the angels of God. But he who denies me before men, he will be denied before the angels of God." Why didn't he just say, "You will be denied before God," or, "You will be confessed before God?" He says, "You will be denied or confessed before the angels of God." Why? Because they're the ones who are going to be sent with the answer.

So, if you say, "Lord, I'm sick and need healing. Now, I know I've not brought your name up all year long. And I know I'm a secret agent Christian. And I know that I don't want anybody else to know I belong to you, but me and you, 'cause this is a private sort of thing. And when they bring you up, I know I shy away, but I need you, Lord, like I've never needed you before." The angels are standing there waiting for their instructions about your problem.

Jesus says, "He denied me before men. So I deny him before the angels." In other words, no angelic assistance granted. But he says, "If you confess me before men, you're not ashamed to be identified with me before men. You don't mind other people knowing that you belong to me before men." He says, "Then I will confess you before not just God, the angels of God." Why? 'Cause they're the ones who are going to bring the answer. That's why.

So let's close with two verses. Psalm 103, Psalm 103, verses 19 to 22. "The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his sovereignty rules over all. Bless the Lord, all you his angels, mighty in strength, who do what? Who perform his word, obey the voice of his word. Bless the Lord, all you his hosts, who serve him, doing his will. Bless the Lord, all you works of his in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, oh my soul." I believe that's worship.

Angels, bless the Lord. Now what about you? Revelation 22, verse 8 and 9. Last passage. Revelation 22, 8 and 9. "And I John, am one of the ones who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things." I saw this, this angel was tough, I had to worship him. Verse 9.

"And the angel said to me, 'Do not do that. Get up. I am a fellow servant of yours. And of your brethren the prophets, and those who heed the words of this book, worship God.'" He says, "Worship God. Don't worship angels. Don't worship angels." He said, "I am your fellow servant. I serve God like you do. So do what I do and you get what I get. Worship God." It is in worship that angelic activity is dispensed to God's people.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans, with insights today on the activation of angels. Part of his two-volume series on spiritual beings called Angels, Good, Bad, and Ugly. There are 12 messages in this collection, exploring the reality of spiritual warfare and revealing what scripture says about angels, demons, and the unseen battle taking place around us every day. As I mentioned earlier, when you make a donation to help support Tony's ministry, we'll send you the entire audio series, along with Tony's companion book on the subject called Warfare: Winning the Spiritual Battle. These resources work hand in hand to help you better understand the spiritual conflicts you face and how to experience victory through God's power. To take advantage of this special double offer, visit TonyEvans.org to get the details and make the arrangements. That's TonyEvans.org. Or you can call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222. Where a friendly team member is ready to help with your request. That's 1-800-800-3222. And one final reminder, you can hear Dr. Evans in a completely different setting as he hosts in-depth conversations with special guests on his Unbound podcast, available anytime, wherever you get your podcasts. We enjoy hearing about the powerful, positive influence angels can have in our lives. But not all angels are cheering us on. Be sure to tune in Monday and listen as Dr. Evans uncovers the dark side of the heavenly host.