“But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” Hebrews 1:13-14

It seems that increasingly in our culture the realities of the unseen spiritual world are being emphasized. Whether portrayed in a movie or conveyed in song, the supernatural is becoming more commonplace in the minds of many Americans. This can be a good thing. We need to be more mindful of the things beyond the veil. Those realities are more “real” than what we can see with our physical eyes because many of those things are eternal, whereas many of the things of this world are temporal. With that said, sadly, the negative forces of the supernatural seem to be stealing all the limelight.

It makes sense that the world would venerate the demonic though, right? Even with this, the renewed interest in the supernatural gives us all the opportunity to remind ourselves that beings other than humans dwell on this planet and are at work for their respective masters.

Brothers and sisters, at our core we are spirit beings. Sure, we inhabit a natural world at this time, but there is a vast Creation beyond the one we see with our natural eyes that we are a part of. By understanding this and learning how to interact with that world, we can be more successful in this material realm. You do realize that is one of the reasons God gave us the Bible, right? It’s a guide to not only inform us of the truth of God’s greater Creation but to also show us how to navigate both the spiritual and natural during our time on this planet.

Now, as you read through your Bible you begin to see all manner of interaction between mankind and beings of other origin, most notably, many dealings between man and angels. I mean, descriptions of angelic interaction are everywhere in both Old and New Testament books! Scripturally speaking, angels are undeniable, but most today don’t really have a Scripturally informed understanding of these beings. What are angels? Where do they come from? What do they do?

Sure, there’s a lot of information out there about angels—movies, books, YouTube videos—but unless we get our facts about angels from the Bible we might go all our lives believing that they are dead loved ones or invisible outfielders for the major league baseball team that bears their name!

So, as you survey the Word of God there are some things that become very evident about angels, things that we’ll bring to your attention, and, I’m sure, there are many things about these beings that we aren’t privy to, things we’ll find out only after this life, but to be sure, the only things we need to know right now about this class of God’s Creation is found in the pages of our Bibles. We don’t need Hollywood or any other media to teach us about angels. God put all we need to know in the source of absolute truth!

With that said, according to Scripture, what is the origin story of angels? Where do they come from? What’s their primary function on this earth? Hebrews Chapter 1 gives us answers to these important questions.

In Hebrews 1, we read some very revealing information about angelic beings. There in verse 7, and again in verse 14, we read that they are created beings, created by God to be ministers (translated in our modern tongue as “servants”) for those who shall be heirs of salvation. In other words, angels are servants of God sent to accomplish His will in the lives of His children!

The primary function of angels in this Age of Grace is to work on behalf of God’s children on this planet—to respond to our faith in God’s Word and to do the work in the realm of the spirit that is necessary to bring those things to pass in the natural. Angels are the army of God, that we’ve heard, but did you realize that they’re at work for you? According to the Bible they are!

Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.