Looking for Angels: A Guide to Understanding and Connecting with Angels

      

By Scott Guerin, PhD & Nichole Bigley

A Starting Point        If a movie were made focusing on how angels are portrayed in the Bible, it would rival any action movie ever made. The range of characters would include large multi-winged creatures with many faces, animal arms, and legs descending in a cloud of smoke and fire to terrify audiences. Angels with superpowers of flight and strength engaging in massive battles would compete with any character that Marvel or DC Comics has to offer. Other family-friendly angels would be depicted as regular people, offering comfort and guidance, or proclaiming good news to all humankind. This may seem dramatic, but as you will see, it comes close to the descriptions found in many of the world’s ancient sacred texts.      For some of you, these ideas will present a drastically different perspective of angels from what you have known. We propose that humankind is moving into a new phase of spiritual development. This phase will not be centered on a new spiritual leader or spiritual practice. It will not occur through a dramatic storm of change, but rather through a gentle breeze impacting vast numbers of people throughout the world at the individual level. People will become aware that they are fully human and fully divine, and they will experience this through more in-depth interactions with angels and their spirit teams.      Before we explain how we can have modern-day relationships with these divine beings, a good place to start is to briefly review what religion has taught us about the spirit world. The Bible references angels, spirits, and related terms hundreds, if not thousands, of times. The word angel is mentioned approximately three hundred times in the Bible. The English word angel is translated from the Hebrew word mal’ak and the Greek word angelos, both meaning “messenger.” The number of angels mentioned is actually much higher because other terms refer to angel-like beings: for example, the Hebrew words rûah, meaning “spirit,” or šamayim, meaning “heavenly ones.”      Ancient civilizations accepted the idea of angels, and they were a part of religious and cultural history throughout the world, with numerous stories and detailed descriptions of how angels interacted with humans. However, the presence of angels in society diminished over the centuries. The next question is, where did they go? Part of the reason why angels became less visible within society is that the Scientific Revolution initiated a shift in thinking that overturned thousands of years of Greek and religious worldviews by replacing a qualitative with a quantitative view of nature. This view sees the world as a machine rather than an organism. In other words, Newtonian laws revealed that the physical world is made up of mechanical objects with predictable movements and motions that are able to be manipulated. As a result, spiritual and nonphysical realities, like angels, took a back seat to more “rational” and “scientifically grounded” theories. There is no room for angels in a machine.      The lack of visibility and awareness of angels in modern times does not mean they no longer exist. As noted earlier, the belief in angels is a fundamental requirement of Islam. Notable Islamic theologian Ibn Taymiyyah stated that while many scoff at the idea of angels, “All of humanity has generally affirmed the presence of [both] angels and demons except a few rare cases in different nations. You would not find an entire culture deny them outright, only particular individuals or groups from amongst them.” Currently, numerous studies and surveys show a growing resurgence of spirituality worldwide, and with that has come a revival of interest in angels.      The modern-day understanding of angels explains that they are all here for the same reason: to help us stay connected to the Divine and navigate our life on Earth. Our angels and guides work behind the scenes to guide and help us, to reawaken our gifts and align our spirit with our higher self in order to achieve the mission we set for ourselves before we came here to this planet. Most people think they have one guardian angel or spirit guide, but we are not limited to just one team member. We have anywhere from five to upwards of one hundred or more around us at any given time.      Our spirit team is an eager and ambitious group because their soul purpose is to inspire and motivate us, reassure and console us in times of need, and even steer us away from danger when they can. In order to do this, they will send us messages and signs, remove obstacles, open doors, create opportunities, and offer solutions. Their job throughout all of this is to love and guide us during our life in order to embody the frequency of love. Being in the frequency of love helps you remember and return to your soul’s innate intuitive abilities and basic instincts.      Believing in, trusting, and acting on your spirit team’s guidance can make the difference between living a spiritual life and existence that is in flow and living a life in which you feel stuck and not in alignment. If you seek growth or change and rely primarily on positive intentions and thoughts, the Universe can only do so much on your behalf. Your team is engaged but can’t move things forward or even manifest all the possibilities the Universe has to offer. If you give them permission to interact with you and ask them for messages and signs— ask them to open those doors, to create opportunities, and to bring you solutions—you are removing yourself from trying to control the outcome and trusting in the Divine, which in turn generates results in ways that are in alignment with your higher self. There is a missing step in the saying “ask and you shall receive.” It should actually be “ask and be guided in order to receive.”