Before God created the heavens and earth, he created the angels.

The Bible teaches in nearly 300 places that God has countless angels at his command. Scripture tells us that they are genderless.

These angels are commissioned by God to help us as believers with our struggles against Satan.

We have to believe in their existence because our Bible (the word of God) says they exist. Psalms 91:11 says: “Truly he will command his angels concerning you in all your ways.” Angels have higher knowledge, power and mobility than humans and visible appearances of them is rare, but does happen.

Angels were created by God. We read in Colossians 1:16-17, “For by him all were all things created, that are in Heaven and that are on the earth, visible and invisible. This creator Jesus is before all things and by him all things exist.

Hebrews 1:14 calls Angels ministering spirits. Although they don’t possess physical bodies, they can appear that way to perform a task for God.

Mark 12:25 tells us that they have no ability to reproduce.

Hebrews 12:22 tells us that the company of Angels is innumerable.

In Deuteronomy 33:2 we read that when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, a myriad of angels were present.

John tells us in Revelation 5:11 that he saw ten thousand times ten thousand angels ministering to the Lamb of God.

John also tells us that armies of angels will accompany Jesus at the Battle of Armageddon when he returns to defeat his adversaries.

The duties of an angel vary from warning us of God’s coming judgment to showing us God’s love and intervening when there is a desperate need.

Psalm 91:11-12 reads, “For He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.”

We must be careful not to confuse Angels with the Holy Spirit which is God himself in dwelling in us as part of the Triune God. Angels are not to be worshipped, they are inferior to God and have no attributes of the Godhead. They are merely messengers. Also the Holy Spirit can be everywhere at the same time (omnipresent) where angels can only be in one place at a time.

One thing is certain, the Holy Spirit and Angels are on the same mission. That is to do the work of God. When we see God’s work at hand, we can’t always be sure if it is the Holy Spirit or His Angels doing the work.

Rick Jones lives in Mahoning Valley and writes occasional articles for the Times News.