ALL Initiation in Heavenly Encounters Comes from GOD'S Side - NOT from Our Side

I am reminded of the famous Bob Dylan song, "Knocking on Heaven's Door". Unfortunately, Dylan got it wrong. The reality is, we don't knock on heaven's door when it comes to heavenly visitations (i.e. an angelic encounter). Heaven knocks on our door. 

Don't misunderstand me too soon - of course we can seek the Lord. We can and should pray about everything and even as the Scriptures exhorts us to do, to pray without ceasing (1 Thes. 5:16). God's Word exhorts us to seek, to knock and to ask. And that pursuit is directed to the Lord Himself and Him alone. And then HE will direct matters with regards to sending angels or taking a believer to heavenly places. 

But when an angel is sent to a believer, or when a Christian is "caught up" (2 Cor. 12:4) it has been because God has initiated the encounter, experience. We are not the initiators. 

So, why is the subject of initiation in heavenly encounters even relevant today? 

1. Because of a lot of Charismatic Christian practices today do NOT follow the Biblical models/examples. I ran in these circles for many years. We would have done all sorts of initiating in terms of having these "encounters". We would have meeting in order to be caught up, to visit heaven, etc. We would initiate dialogue with angels.

2. Because heavenly encounters are increasing and will continue to increase in the days to come. Some don't believe this. I am convinced that as we get closer to the time of the Lord's Return, followers of Christ will be encounters more angelic visitation - we will actually NEED them.

3. Because we need to understand God's role and our role in such encounters. Going back to my 1st point, there is a widespread confusion in terms of what God's role is in these types of experiences and what is our role. An exaggerated concept of our authority (including the use of 'keys'), arrogant ideas about what it means that we will "judge angels" and a misguided understanding of being "seated with Christ in heavenly place, has many Charismatic Christians think they can just go to heaven whenever they want, tell angels what they should be doing, etc. etc.

4. Because we need to know how to stay safe and be protected. A lot of the practices of Charismatic Christians proves to be spiritually dangerous. We can 'open doors' to other realms, and many get deceived thinking the door they opened is a righteous door. The practice of opening such doors is universally condemned in the Old Testament and amounts to "conjuring". I believe God has covered many Christians in their foolishness and in their presumption when it comes to these practices. I for one am so thankful that He has in our lives. And that we have not ended up like some Charismatic leaders have walking into apostasy due to their getting deceived by fallen angelic beings who were/are far smarter than they were. 

5. Because we need to be Biblically grounded. This goes without saying. But as we study the angelic visitations in God's Word, we can see the nature of these types of visitations. The Apostle Paul reminds us that "Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us" (Rom. 15:4). We are never to beyond what the Scriptures teach. Many today are going way beyond and advocating that others go way beyond anything we find in Scripture. 

I took a deep dive in a number of well-known angelic visitations - starting with Daniel's in Daniel 10, then moving to the New Testament - the Gospels, Acts and Revelation.

I looked at what the individuals were doing, how they were living, and the nature of the visitations. Who initiated? Who addresses the other first? Who gives the instructions? Who obeys? 

And looking at Daniel's encounter, Zechariah's encounter, Mary's encounter, the Apostle John's encounters, Cornelius' encounter, the Apostle Peter's encounter and one of Paul's encounters.

And before summarizing what these angelic visitation encounters TEACH US, I want to say something about Christians today that somehow, in their spiritual fantasy, believe they have greater access than the likes of Mary, the Apostle Paul, the Apostle John and/or the Apostle Peter. In short, YOU DO NOT. Your experiences, in spite of your 'belief' that you are accessing heaven as regularly as someone attends their gym, don't hold a candle to theirs. Your assignment, however important it is, isn't nearly as important as their assignments. Your role in history isn't as important as their roles. Let all come back down to earth if somehow in our "sanctified imaginations" that we have become convinced that we are spiritually greater than them. You may "see" a lot, but you have not and will not see more than they did. The arrogance and presumption found today is beyond alarming. 

So, what do we find??  

We find THE SAME PATTERN in all of these accounts of angelic visitations 

* Heaven initiates heavenly encounters - NONE of these aforementioned prophetic people were the one's to "knock on heaven's door". God opened the door. God sent the angel. God gave the message to the angel who delivered it. 

* Heaven initiates IN those encounters - angels ALWAYS speak first, and if there are any commands given, it comes from the angel side. Our role is to obey. The foolishness of many that spend time "thinking" they are commanding angels what to do is a level of presumption and arrogance that all of heaven scoffs at today. 

* We respond to heaven’s initiation - these great men and woman of God all respond to the angels question. They obey the angels' instructions. They are telling the angels anything. IN most cases they were terrified. Also the Apostle John doesn't decide to "come up", he is asked to. 

*We can position ourselves by living godly lives - lives of prayer and fasting and this makes us candidates for such encounters. This is OUR PART. This should be a sobering thought for many of us Charismatics. I have known a number of leaders and have even participated in their meetings/outreaches who were living horribly sinful lives and yet "claiming" multiple angelic visitations/encounters. They may well have been having some type of "encounter", but it wasn't a heavenly one! Living a godly, holy life is a Biblical prerequisite for any such encounters. We must not water down God's Word on this matter. God is rewarder of those who earnestly seek HIM (Heb 11:6). 

*We do not command angels! We were created LOWER than angelic beings (Heb 2:7). They are far more powerful than we are. They are far more intelligent than we are. Yes, I know we have God's Spirit living within us and that we have "the mind of Christ" (1 Cor. 2:16), but that being said, ALL of the Apostolic prophets that we see had these same things - the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Peter and the Apostle John and yet, the honor/respect/humility they show towards angelic beings should put the fear of God in many Christians today who interact with angels in such a way as to think somehow they are in charge. It is simply UNBIBLICAL and it is foolishness. 

*We ASK GOD - we TALK to Him - that is what they were all doing when they had their encounters. They were communing with God. They were in prayer. They were suffering FOR THE SAKE of the Gospel. And it was in those places that God sent an angel and/or "took them up". They were not "using their keys" to access heaven. 

This is for our own protection & I believe even for the angels' own protection. How have many of the holy, righteous angels fallen throughout time? Instead of directing mankind to the worship of God Himself, they decided to receive it for themselves. The Apostle John fell down at one point to worship the angelic being that was sent to him and that angel rebukes John identifying himself as a creation of God just like him. However, 

*We deal RUTHLESSLY with envy & jealousy of those who have 'seer' gifts we do not.

*Remember: God has covered many of us in our foolishness - I have done many of the things that I have just argued we should never do. And I am grateful that God covers us when in our own foolishness we imagined we could do things that He hasn't given us the authority to do. 

Let’s REPENT if we have tried to initiate encounters or have done any of these practices - like believing we had the right to command angels. Or if we have envied others who have had encounters that we have not.