Ministering Angels
Close your eyes and bring your attention to your body. Let go of any tension you are holding in your face, jaw, head, neck, shoulders, upper arms, forearms, hands, fingers, chest, stomach, hips, seat, thighs, calves, feet, and toes. Lean your torso slightly from front to back and side to side until you rest into a comfortable posture where you feel centered, balanced, and relaxed.
Now bring your attention to your breath. Inhale deeply, hold for two seconds, now breathe out all the tension, stress, or negativity you might be feeling. One more time. Breathe in deeply, hold, exhale slowly all the way.
As your breathing returns to normal, gently turn your thoughts and attention toward the topic of ministering angels.
In both Hebrew and Greek, the root word of angel is “messenger.”[1] And we learn in D&C 130 verse 5 that “there are no angels who minister on this earth but those who belong to it.”[2] So a ministering angel is a person who has once lived or will live on this earth and is sent to bring a message to someone or some group of people currently living on the earth.[3]
Moroni taught that just as miracles have not ceased among us, angels have not ceased “to minister unto the children of men.”[4] And angels in fact “minister according to the word of [God’s] command, showing themselves unto them of strong faith and a firm mind in every form of godliness.”[5] The Aaronic Priesthood, which was restored to the earth when John the Baptist ordained Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdrey, and which will never again be taken from the earth, holds the key of the ministering angels.[6] This means that we have angels who minister to us throughout our lives.
Consider all of the family members who have come and gone before you on this earth—distant relatives or close loved ones, those known to you or those lost to history. Maybe you have learned some of your ancestor’s names and stories. Maybe you don’t know anything about your family history. Whether you know them or not, you have many, many family members who are potentially ministering to you from beyond the veil. Ponder this concept and what it means for you.
In April 2006, President James E. Faust said that “We do not consciously realize the extent to which ministering angels affect our lives.” President Joseph F. Smith taught that “our fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters and friends who have passed away from this earth . . . may have a mission given them to visit their relatives and friends upon the earth again, bringing from the divine Presence messages of love, of warning, or reproof and instruction, to those whom they had learned to love in the flesh.” [7]
Can you think of a time in your life when you felt the presence of deceased loved ones, known or unknown to you? Or times when you have received messages of love, warning, reproof, or instruction from beyond the veil?
Try to open yourself to any feelings of love, support, faith, comfort, or other messages that your ministering angels may be trying to communicate to you right now.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has explained that “[f]rom the beginning down through the dispensations, God has used angels as His emissaries in conveying love and concern for His children.”[8] He taught that “[u]sually [ministering angels] are not seen. Sometimes they are. But seen or unseen they are always near. . . . most often [their assignment] is to comfort, to provide some form of merciful attention, guidance in difficult times.”[9]
Ponder the following quote from Elder Holland:
In the course of life all of us spend time in “dark and dreary” places, wildernesses, circumstances of sorrow or fear or discouragement. Our present day is filled with global distress over financial crises, energy problems, terrorist attacks, and natural calamities. These translate into individual and family concerns not only about homes in which to live and food available to eat but also about the ultimate safety and well-being of our children and the latter-day prophecies about our planet. More serious than these—and sometimes related to them—are matters of ethical, moral, and spiritual decay seen in populations large and small, at home and abroad. But I testify that angels are still sent to help us, even as they were sent to help Adam and Eve, to help the prophets, and indeed to help the Savior of the world Himself. Matthew records in his gospel that after Satan had tempted Christ in the wilderness “angels came and ministered unto him.” Even the Son of God, a God Himself, had need for heavenly comfort during His sojourn in mortality. And so such ministrations will be to the righteous until the end of time.[10]
Elder Holland boldly declared the following testimony: “I testify of angels, both the heavenly and the mortal kind. In doing so I am testifying that God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face. “[N]or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man [or woman or child] upon the face thereof to be saved.”[11] On occasions, global or personal, we may feel we are distanced from God, shut out from heaven, lost, alone in dark and dreary places. Often enough that distress can be of our own making, but even then the Father of us all is watching and assisting. And always there are those angels who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal.”[12]
Ponder the promise from an apostle of the Lord, and from the Lord himself, that we are never truly left alone. How can you use this knowledge next time you feel alone or are facing big decisions, heavy trials, or even just the mundane challenges of everyday life?
Now ponder times when you have felt inspired to be a mortal ministering angel to others. What did that inspiration feel like? Is there anyone in your life you feel prompted to minister to right now?
Let’s end with a final word from Elder Holland, who said, quoting D&C 84:88, “May we all believe more readily in, and have more gratitude for, the Lord’s promise . . . “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, … my Spirit shall be in your [heart], and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.”[13]
When you are ready, take a final deep breath and slowly turn your awareness back to your body. As you open your eyes and return to your surroundings, take a moment to jot down any thoughts, promptings, or questions that came to mind while you were pondering. And, if necessary, make a plan to act on those things.
_________________________________
[1] See James Strong, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1984), Hebrew and Chaldee dictionary section, 66, Greek dictionary section, 7.
[2] D&C 130:5.
[3] “Angels” Bible Dictionary, 591. (“[Angels] are messengers of the Lord and are spoken of in the epistle to the Hebrews as “ministering spirits” (Heb. 1:14). We learn from latter-day revelation that there are two classes of heavenly beings who minister for the Lord: those who are spirits and those who have bodies of flesh and bone. Spirits are those beings who either have not yet obtained a body of flesh and bone (unembodied) or who have once had a mortal body and have died and are awaiting the Resurrection (disembodied). Ordinarily the word angel means those ministering persons who have a body of flesh and bone, being either resurrected from the dead (reembodied), or else translated, as were Enoch, Elijah, etc. (D&C 129).”)
[4] Moroni 7:29.
[5] Moroni 7:30.
[6] D&C 13:1; D&C 84:26; D&C 107:20.
[7] Gospel Doctrine, 5th ed. (1939), 436.
[8] Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Ministry of Angels,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2008, 29.
[9] Jeffery R. Holland, “The Ministry of Angels,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2008, 29.
[10] Jeffery R. Holland, “The Ministry of Angels,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2008, 29-30.
[11] Moroni 7:36-37.
[12] Jeffery R. Holland, “The Ministry of Angels,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2008, 31.
[13] D&C 84:88.