Command His Angels
(by Justin Lippiatt, May 2025)
I am seeing a great deal of extra-Biblical teaching around angels that I feel is leading to the creation of false doctrine, confusion, and dare I say, deception through idolatry.
Humans cannot command angels to do their bidding.
Angels are God’s servants, not ours. They respond to God’s commands and His Word, not personal directives from people.
What Scripture Says
1. Angels Obey God’s Word – Not Human Command
“Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word.” (Psalm 103:20 NKJV)
- Angels are empowered and activated by God’s Word, not by human will.
- When we declare Scripture, we align with the voice of God, which angels respond to.
2. Jesus Submitted to the Father in Calling Angels
“Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and He will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53 NIV)
- Even Jesus, God incarnate, said He would ask the Father, not command angels Himself.
- This demonstrates a divine order and authority structure.
3. Angels Are Sent by God to Minister to Believers
“Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14 NIV)
- Angels are sent by God, not summoned by us.
- They serve us as God directs, not as we dictate.
What We Can Do Instead?
1. Pray According to God’s Will
- Ask God to send His angels:
Father, I ask that You assign angels to guard and protect my family today, according to Your promise in Psalm 91.
“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” (Psalm 91:11 ESV)
2. Declare the Word of God in Faith
- Angels respond to the voice of God’s Word. When we speak Scripture, we release the authority of heaven.
Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’” (Matthew 4:10 NKJV)
3. Live in Alignment with God’s Kingdom
- Walking in righteousness, humility, and obedience positions us under God’s covering, where angelic protection is part of the covenant.
“The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and delivers them.” (Psalm 34:7 ESV)
Warnings from Scripture
1. Do Not Attempt to Control or Worship Angels
“Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you.” (Colossians 2:18a NIV)
- Trying to command or overly fixate on angels can lead to deception.
2. Keep Jesus as the Focus
- Angels are fellow servants and messengers. Worship and direction belong only to God.
“Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you… Worship God!” (cf. Revelation 22:9 NHEB)
Key Summary
- Angels obey God’s voice, not human command.
- We can pray and declare the Word, inviting God to act, including sending angels.
- We must not attempt to control, summon, or worship angels.
- Angelic help comes from God, and our focus must remain on Him alone.
Keep your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith (Hebrews 12:2), and trust God to command His angels concerning you.
Celebrating 10-year Anniversary of Proclaiming Pentecost
(by Lilian Schmid, vision holder of “Proclaiming Pentecost” from 2015 to 2021)
This year 2025 we commemorate the tenth Anniversary of Proclaiming Pentecost. In the first Pentecost nearly 2000 years ago, 120 people met in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, and in 2015 also 120 leaders from across church denominations in Sydney came together under one roof to celebrate the feast of Pentecost. You can read the report for 2015 here (PDF).
How the Story Began in March 2015
The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost
“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” (Acts 2:1-4 NIV)
In a divine revelation from the Holy Spirit, the Lord spoke to me in March 2015 and He told me to assemble His people at Pentecost. With His grace and power, God brought Sydney together at Pentecost Eve in 2015 when Christians came together from all denominations to the inner-city suburb of Newtown in the heart of Sydney. That evening, Sydney experienced a divine anointing and a huge move of the Holy Spirit at Newtown Mission, followed by a move of the Spirit which swept across all regions of Sydney.
In the following years we celebrated Proclaiming Pentecost in different regions and in churches of different denominations (read the reports here). All welcomed us with the love of Christ. As we moved from region to region, we witnessed the power of the Holy Spirit sweeping across our city, bringing holiness, renewal, righteousness, healing, and forgiveness through the power of prayer.
Each year, some of the clergy, priests, pastors, ministers, intercessors and prayer leaders from the region where the Proclaiming Pentecost celebration was held in the previous year came to pass on the baton and bless the leaders in the current region hosting the celebration. This blessing was followed by an act of repentance led by the leaders from the host region; confessing and asking God for forgiveness for the issues in the churches and the community of their region that God had laid on their hearts. This was and still is an important act of humility, authority, and love, and it ensures that the fire of Pentecost is spread from region to region until all cities and towns are covered with the Fire of Pentecost.
With love and honour, we want to thank those who supported us and believed in what God bestowed upon us to serve Him in obedience. We also want to honour all the prayer movements in our cities and towns.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34 NIV)
Pentecost is of Critical Important for the Church
This year we are celebrating Pentecost on the 8th of June 2025. Why is it so important for the church to maintain a humble attitude of celebrating Pentecost in unity?
Revivals and awakenings: each is divine in nature and often contrary or external to the programs of men (believers and unbelievers), and they have a profound effect and legacy on the communities that experience them. There are seven principles or characteristics of revival (from Flashpoints of Revival by Geoff Waugh – PDF available at Renewal Journal):
- Gods’ Sovereignty (His timing – Acts 2:1)
- Prayer (Acts 1:14; 2:1)
- Unity (Acts 2:1)
- Obedience to the Spirit (Acts 2:4)
- Preaching (Acts 2:14)
- Repentance (Acts 2:37-38)
- and Evangelism (Acts 2:41)
For the church to continue to have the impact on our communities like the early church did – cultural and moral transformation – we need to demonstrate to each other and to the world this transformation is real, valid, and relevant today. Pentecost was the birth of the church – it unleashed God’s transformative power through His people to individuals, families, cities and towns, and nations.
The prophet Jeremiah foretold the events of the first Pentecost in this way:
“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (Jeremiah 31:31-33 NKJV)
Gathering as one body, one church before our King Christ Jesus, and putting aside our differences of opinion and revelation to publicly recognise and worship the one true Lord and our Bridegroom moves us toward fulfilling Jesus’ prayer in John 17, It also unlocks transformational blessing over our nations and cities, for God’s glory. Amen!
Lilian Schmid
Prayer Coordinator
Spheres of Influence
www.prayerstrategy.org
https://prayerstrategy.org/books/
PROCLAIMING PENTECOST
(by Des Higgs, January 2018)
In 1973 Dr Herbert Lockyer published a commanding book of 528 pages entitled “All the MESSIANIC PROPHECIES of the BIBLE” (Zondervan Publishing House). All these prophecies proclaimed two of the three most significant events enshrined in the annual Christian calendar, viz. Christmas, to commemorate the birth of Jesus, and Easter to commemorate the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. That is two of them, so which one is missing – the third one?
Among these prophecies I did not find one about the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, which is often referred to as the birth of the Christian Church. Surely that deserves equal recognition.
Perhaps the promise made by Jesus in Luke 24:49 immediately before his ascension, about “waiting in Jerusalem for the ‘Promise of MY Father’ until you are endued with power from on high” could be included. Also Jesus said to his disciples just before his ascension, “but not many days from now you will be baptised by the Holy Spirit.” Acts 1:5. And a more descriptive prophecy was quoted by the Apostle Peter on that day from Joel 2:28, “That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh: Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.” These are relatively vague in the absence of specific details.
To view the most accurate and descriptive forecast of this day of Pentecost come with me to the Jordan River where John the Baptiser is addressing two crowds of people. On our left, at the top of the steep bank is a small rowdy, rude and crude crowd of noisy people shouting abuse at John. They are the Scribes and Pharisees.
On the right bank, stretching out of sight is a long line of earnest and honest people seeking righteousness. The Journalist reporting the event that day said (Matthew 3:5) “Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him [John] and were baptised by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.” Allowing for the hyperbole (obvious extravagant statement of exaggeration for effect), saying ‘all Judea’, tells us that there must have been a massive work of God going on when it seemed like everybody was seeking baptism.
John turns to the rowdy hypocrites on the left bank and shouts at them in righteous anger, “You offspring of vipers, who has warned you to run away from God’s impending wrath ?” Part of the irony in this question is that John knew they were not there because they were warned to run away from their sin , but because of their arrogant resistance to God’s revelation. “Prove that you are genuine by turning away from your sins and stop relying on Abraham to save you. God is about to chop down unfruitful trees and throw them into the fire.” This fire is the fire of God’s judgment. See how John will contrast this fire with another fire (the fire of cleansing) when he addresses the group of genuine penitents on the other bank.
The Reporter of the event on the day does not stop long enough to explain what John is doing as he swings around and addresses the genuine seekers on his right. We can soon hear the difference in his message when he says, “I indeed baptise you with water as you submit yourselves to repentance but there is coming another kind of baptism of cleansing by fire. It will be administered by One coming after me who is mightier than I am. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie his shoe laces. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit AND WITH FIRE. His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor, and gather his wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” The clear inference was that this baptism of fire to be administered by a Greater One will be a greater baptism.
This brief speech by John is a brilliant metaphor. He is using it to describe the true purpose of the day of Pentecost and this prophecy is the most accurate description of that event. Compare his forecast with the facts as described in The Acts of the Apostles.
From the Complete Jewish Bible:
The festival of Shavu‘ot arrived, and the believers all gathered together in one place. 2 Suddenly there came a sound from the sky like the roar of a violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire, which separated and came to rest on each one of them. 4 They were all filled with the Ruach HaKodesh and began to talk in different languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.
5 Now there were staying in Yerushalayim religious Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd gathered; they were confused, because each one heard the believers speaking in his own language. 7 Totally amazed, they asked, “How is this possible? Aren’t all these people who are speaking from the Galil? … How is it that we hear them speaking in our own languages about the great things God has done?” 12 Amazed and confused, they all went on asking each other, “What can this mean?” 13 But others made fun of them and said, “They’ve just had too much wine!”
14 Then Kefa stood up with the Eleven and raised his voice to address them: “You Judeans, and all of you staying here in Yerushalayim! Let me tell you what this means! Listen carefully to me!”
(Acts 2:1-7,11b-14 CJB)
We need to unlock the metaphor about winnowing the wheat to see the brilliance of this prophecy.
Before industrialisation the stalks of wheat were beaten violently on the threshing floor to separate the grains of wheat from the stalk. Each grain of wheat is still covered by a thin horny protective covering called chaff and has to be removed. The usual method is to beat the wheat with a flailing pole which is a long rod to which is attached a small square of thick, flexible leather. The winnower throws the threshed wheat in the air, or spills it gradually from a can held overhead, and any prevailing wind blows the falling chaff to the side. This chaff is swept up and thrown into a fire. When there is no wind the winnower throws the threshed wheat in the air with one hand and creates wind with a fan in the other hand.
This explains John’s statement, “whose fan is in his hand.” The wheat is ‘cleansed’ of the offending chaff and ready for the Master’s use. So, John is saying that Jesus’ redeemed Disciples who will be commissioned to ‘disciple all nations’ must be cleansed of the offending ‘chaff’ of carnality (on the Day of Pentecost) by the Holy Spirit, before they are ‘fit for the Master’s use. Isaiah 52:11, “Be clean you who bear the vessels of the Lord.”
And so, on the Day of Pentecost, they heard the mighty rushing wind from the hand of the Holy Spirit’s winnowing fan, and saw the cleansing fire which burned up the chaff (sin of the ‘self-life’) – their inward disposition or proclivity to sin (as described in Romans 7) and were ‘delivered’ – Romans 7:24. God immediately attested to His mighty cleansing with the demonstration of wonders in the prophecies, tongues to at least 16 languages and many ministry gifts. The Disciples were powerfully changed from being social status seekers and pyramid climbers, land owners or cowards and self-seekers, to bold, selfless and fearless martyrs.
Years later, the Apostle Peter, who was called to explain his experience in the gentile household of Cornelius to the Jerusalem Council, was forced to condense his explanation of Pentecost to the most significant and enduring result, simply said (Acts 15:8,9), “So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them [the Household of Cornelius] by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us, [at Pentecost,] and made no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.”
Charles Wesley writes in one of his hymns:
O that in me the sacred fire might now begin to glow.
Burn up the dross of base desire and make the mountains flow.
O that it now from heav’n might fall, And all my sin consume.
Come Holy Ghost, for Thee I call; Spirit of Burning come.
Refining fire go through my heart, illuminate my soul.
Scatter Thy life through every part, and sanctify the whole.
Zacharias, father of John, when his tongue was released, said at the dedication of his eight day old son, “The oath which he swore to our father Abraham: To grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life. And you, child, will be called prophet of the Highest.” (Luke 2:73 and on). Thirty years later, after John’s martyrdom, Jesus said that there is none born of woman greater than John.
I am excited, contemplating the revival of this very significant Day of Pentecost.
Des Higgs (deceased)
HolySpiritRestoration.org (inactive)
Formerly Elder on the Board of Transforming Sydney Movement (inactive)
Rest in eternal peace in the arms of Christ dear Des.