FBCD_FaithEssentials_June_FlipBook

Faith Essentials

As ministering servants, observe that angels provide . Elijah experienced this when he ran for his life from Jezebel. As the prophet lay sleeping under a tree, an angel came and provided a meal for him. This gave Elijah the strength to embark upon a lengthy journey of 40 days. The best example of ministering angels in the Bible takes place in the life of Jesus. After being baptized, Jesus underwent intense temptation from Satan, not to mention the fact that he had been fasting for 40 days. Once Satan left Him, “Angels came and began to minister to Him” (Matthew 4:11). The night before He went to the cross, agonizing through prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, “An angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him” (Luke 22:43). “The Greek word for strengthening is eniskuo, which means to make strong inwardly.” 4 While the disciples slept through their chance to attend their friend in His time of need, an angel came to assist. Also, had He only commanded it, angels would have come and taken Jesus down from the cross and saved His life. He knew, however, that He must endure such a death in order to provide payment for the sins of mankind. Three days later, an angel descended from heaven and rolled the stone away from Jesus’ grave (Matthew 28:2). Fifty days after that, two men in white clothing, no doubt angels, stood beside Jesus as He ascended back to Heaven (Acts 1:9-11). Billy Graham writes about the following: During World War II, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker and the rest of the crew of the B-17 in which he was flying ran out of fuel and "ditched" in the Pacific Ocean. For weeks, nothing was heard of him. The newspapers reported his disappearance and across the country thousands of people prayed. Mayor LaGuardia asked the whole city of New York to pray for him. Then, he returned. The Sunday papers headlined the news, and in an article, Captain Rickenbacker told what had happened. "And this part I would hesitate to tell," he wrote, "except that there were six witnesses who saw it with me. A gull came out of nowhere, and

95