What exactly are Angels?

Joan: It’s probably easier to explain what they aren’t. Angels are NOT the spirits of people who have died, nor are they “earning their wings….” Often you will hear people saying, “My dad is in heaven and now he’s our family’s guardian angel.” It’s a beautiful thought. However, angels have never been human, and human beings do not turn into angels when we die. The Bible says we will become “LIKE angels,” which usually is interpreted that we will become spirits.

Angels were the very first creation God ever made. They are pure spirits, although they can take on human form (our towtruck driver) when necessary to carry out God’s plan. They predate humans by however many years old the world is. In the Book of Job it says that angels sang and celebrated when they saw what God had made. And of course when the Garden of Eden was closed, God posted an angel at the entrance. In Revelations it explains that there was an enormous fight in heaven, long before anything else existed, and fully 1/3 of all the angels God had created were driven out of Paradise. These are the demons that “roam the world, seeking the ruin of souls.”

But… (there’s always a but) this does not mean that your loved ones in heaven can’t watch over you, and do beautiful things for you. The same God who made the angels made humans, and when we get to heaven, we are simply a different group than angels, and we are usually referred to as saints. I have tons of stories about little hugs from heaven and other comforting events that people have experienced from their loved ones in heaven. It’s just important to define our terms so we are all talking about the same thing.

Tagged as: angel stories, angels, joan wester anderson, pure spirits