Christians are worshipping angels like never before—What’s going on?
The worship or adoration of angels and saints is nothing new for Christians—it goes back many centuries. The Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church both have extensive histories of honoring, adoring, and praying to angels and saints, the saints being purified believers now present with God in heaven. It is thought that each person has a guardian angel who is actively engaged in guidance and protection through granting answers to prayer and miraculous intervening in real time. Additionally, the purified and holy saints in heaven are considered able to interact with believers living today.
Though the Christian Scripture does not endorse or promote the worship of angels or saints, the traditions of these churches do, and they trump whatever proscriptions might be found in the Bible itself. Therefore, if the church sanctions angel and saint worship, then it is permitted for the individual believer.
The foregoing is well understood. However, some Protestants (maybe the term should rather be “neo-Protestants”) are beginning to embrace the concept that angels are or should be involved in the life of the believer.
When Heaven Invades Earth
Bill Johnson, pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, California, wrote a book with the above title and the focus is on the Holy Spirit pouring out a new, and end time, powerful movement centered on those who are desperately hungry for radical submission to God. A key phrase from Johnson is, “The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” When people by prayer and worship are able to reach into heaven and acquire spiritual then kingdom power is unleashed and manifested with virtually unlimited scope and power. 
Christians, Johnson teaches, may now avail themselves of the power of the Spirit and the angels. 
Pastor Johnson of Bethel Church appeals to Matthew 10:41: “The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward.” The context of the passage is plain enough. Jesus outlines the fact that those who will receive or hear the message of His representatives or followers are then receiving He Himself and will be rewarded with hearing the message of the Gospel. But Johnson makes the passage mean something else entirely. 
Johnson’s warning
Bill Johnson certainly knows that his view is not broadly shared in the Christian community, so he therefore issues a warning. A clever tactic indeed, bringing up and negating the argument Johnson knows will be used by biblically based Christians 
Certainly, the Scripture is the barrier that Johnson must overcome. In chapter 6 of his book, Johnson concludes with this most revealing statement: “Those who feel safe because of their grasp of Scripture enjoy a false sense of security. We all have the Holy Spirit, but to follow Him, we must be willing to follow Him off the map—to go beyond what we know.”
For Johnson it is not the Word of God but the new move of the “Spirit” that matters. It is all about power and not faithfulness to the Scripture. Christians who adhere to the Bible are then belittled as being stuck in old revelation and not able to follow the leading of the Spirit into new regions. So, let the Scripture go, follow the new anointing, receive the new impartations, all to become empowered to receive prophecies and perform healings.
How did it come to this?
For people who have accepted the idea that God is doing new things in the “last days,” any new direction is possible. Everything then appears to have changed, because the end is near, and it is by a display of power that the kingdom will come. Christians must then travel “off the map” if they really want to tap into what God is doing—and Johnson, among others, position themselves as direction-givers on that new map to tell us exactly what God is doing now. Amazingly, thousands are believing this, and the numbers are growing. These concepts have exerted considerable influence not only in America, and not only among charismatics and Pentecostals, but in Latin American and in Africa. It is impossible to underestimate the influence of these ideas.
One note: How is it that one can be certain that the last days have come? Declarations that the end of history has come is nothing new. There is simply no way to know what God has determined by His own counsel. Anyone can make a claim or utter a “prophecy,” but experience and wisdom teach us that it is better to wait and see and not be pushed into adopting ideas that have a proven failure rate, which is 100%.
Why are these non-biblical ideas taking hold? Power, new anointing, new improved truth—the same old errors are at work once again. It is heady, it is powerful, for there is real power; miracles do happen—there is a real spirit at work, and when you see the power, you may well be convinced. What is crucial to understand here is that not all spiritual power is from God. The power gurus of Hinduism, like Osho or Muktananda, performed amazing power miracles. Power is deceptive. The magicians of Egypt were temporarily able to imitate the power of God demonstrated through Moses. 
Are those who propound communion with angels in order to acquire their power evil persons bent on misleading the people of God? Not necessarily. But, demonic deception and human error are both real. 
Angel of light
In the church at Corinth Paul realized there were men who had a ministry that was running counter to that which he had been commissioned by Christ to preach. From the reports that Paul had received he understood the dangers involved. Here is how Paul described the situation:
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising
themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan
disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his
servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.
2 Corinthians 11:13-15

“Angel of light”—who would not be deceived, especially if one thought that the last days had come and everything had changed and we were “off the map”? With angels of light you can imagine there would be amazing knowledge and power. It may be that those who are sure they cannot be tricked are most vulnerable to being tricked.
Summary and conclusion
Realizing the need to write this has not been pleasant, but as a pastor I am obligated to warn and protect the flock God has given me. I intend this also for a wider audience, because our part of the world has already been impacted by the false teaching described in this article.
We are not to be united with angels. As born-again followers of Jesus, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and have the written Word of God to instruct us. We have all we need. And God will bring in His Kingdom in His own time.
To be clear about this, my conviction is that communication with angels is actually trafficking with demons. It is a base deception to suggest that Christians are to seek empowerment from angelic appearing beings. 
We are not to seek out or pray to or worship angels (see Colossians 2:16-20. In addition recall that when Jesus taught His disciples to pray the key words were “Our Father in heaven” and not an “Our angel” or “Our saint”) No, we are to be faithful followers of Jesus who are already empowered with the Spirit to proclaim the Good News of the cross and resurrection. This is our work, whether Jesus will return for us tomorrow or in a thousand years.

Kent Philpott
January 2010