angels and God speaking to us

I find it interesting that the secular media is confounded by Sarah Palin's comment that "God speaks to her" as she is making major decisions and that she prays about situations in her life.

We as followers of Christ understand that - to us it is second nature. Almost like breathing. We hold conversations with God throughout the day; all in an attempt to keep connected with the divine.

Someone once said, "we consider talking to God prayer; when God speaks to us we call it schizophrenia."

Yet God does speak to us, maybe not in an audible voice but with inner promptings and leadings that direct, guide and comfort us.

I believe people in our country are now, more than ever, concerned about supernatural things.

In the USA Today, Cathy Lynn Grossman writes, "A new survey of the USA's religious beliefs and practices finds 55% of all adults — including one in five of those who say they have no religion — believe they have been protected from harm by a guardian angel.

"I would never have expected these numbers. It was the biggest surprise to me in our findings," says sociologist Christopher Bader of Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Baylor today will release results of its second national survey on religion.

The survey, based on interviews with nearly 1,700 adults in fall 2007, updates Baylor's 2006 findings on religious affiliation and views of God by adding new questions on topics such as gender and politics, the environment and beliefs about evil.

Members of almost every major religious group sensed angels running heavenly interference: evangelical Protestant, 66%; black Protestant, 81%; mainline Protestant, 55%; Catholic, 57%; Jewish, 10%; other religions, 49%; no religion, 20%.

"People's sense of the divine is remarkably widespread and tangible, even if they don't call it God. Clearly, there's a sense of the sacred prevalent throughout society," says Matthew Gilbert of the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Petaluma, Calif., which studies subjective experiences using scientific techniques.

Just as people have many different images of God, so they have different ways of interpreting "guardian angels" or God's voice, says Kenneth Pargament, a psychology professor at Bowling Green (Ohio) State University who has written on spirituality and the psyche. When people think of being protected, "they may not be envisioning an angel with wings so much as a loved one who has gone before them and is looking after their well-being," Pargament says.

Many respondents said they have "heard the voice of God" or "felt God speaking to me." That too can be an internal spiritual sense, not literally words in their ear, says Pargament."

We who read and follow the teachings of the Bible have known that for a long time. The question is not "does God speak to us," the question is "are we listening."

And yes, I believe that there are angels surrounding us (Psalms 91), protecting us as ask God for their protection.

John Paton was a missionary in the New Hebrides Islands. One night hostile natives surrounded the mission station, intent on burning out the Patons and killing them.

Paton and his wife prayed during that terror-filled night that God would deliver them. When daylight came they were amazed to see their attackers leave. A year later, the chief of the tribe was converted to Christ.

Remembering what had happened, Paton asked the chief what had kept him from burning down the house and killing them. The chief replied in surprise, "Who were all those men with you there?"

Paton knew no men were present--but the chief said he was afraid to attack because he had seen hundreds of big men in shining garments with drawn swords circling the mission station.

Have you ever sensed a time when angels were watching over you?