Do angels help people? How have wicked spirits influenced humans? Do we need to fear wicked spirits? Getting to know a person usually involves learning something about his family. Similarly, getting to know God includes becomes better acquainted with his angelic family. The Bible calls the angels "sons of God." Read Job 38:7. So what is their place in God's purpose? Have they played a role in human history? Do angels affect your life? If so how? The Bible refers to angels hundreds of times. Let's consider a few of these references to learn more about angels. Where did angels come from? Read Colossians 1:16 and you will find that by means of Jesus Christ all other things were created in the heavens and upon the earth. Hence, all the spirit creatures called angels were individually created by God through his Son, Jesus. How many angels are there? The Bible indicates that hundreds of millions of angels were created, and all of them are powerful. Read Psalm 103:20. God's Word, the Bible, tells us that when the earth was founded all the sons of God began shouting in applause. Read Job 38:4-7. Angels thus existed long before humans were created, even before the creation of the earth. This Bible passage also shows that angels have feelings, for it says that they joyfully cried out together. Note that all the sons of God rejoiced together. At that time, all the angels were part of a united family serving God. Ever since they witnessed the creation of the first humans, faithful spirit creatures have shown keen interest in the growing human family and in the outworking of God's purpose. Read Proverbs 8:30, 31; I Peter 1:11; 12. With the passing of time, however, the angels observed that most of the human family turned away from serving their loving Creator. No doubt this saddened the faithful angels. On the other hand, whenever even one human returns to God joy arises among the angels. Read Luke 15:10. Since angels have such deep concern for the welfare of those who serve God, it is no wonder that God has repeatedly used angels to strengthen and protect his faithful servants on earth. Read Hebrews 1:7, 14. Consider some examples. Two angels helped the righteous man Lot and his family to survive the destruction of the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by leading them out of that area. Read Genesis 19:15, 16. We know he and his daughters followed their instructions although his wife didn't. Centuries later, the prophet Daniel was thrown into a den of lions, but he escaped harm and told that his own God had sent an angel and shut the mouth of the lions. Read Daniel 6:22. An angel freed the apostle Peter from prison. Read Acts 12:6-11. Moreover, angels supported Jesus at the start of his earthly ministry. Read Mark 1:13. And shortly before Jesus' death, an angel appeared to Jesus and strengthened him. Read Luke 22:43. What a comfort that must have been for Jesus at those very important times in his life! Although today angels may not always appear visibly to God's people on the earth, God's powerful angels still protect his people, especially from anything spiritually harmful. Even if they are not invisible to human eyes the Bible says the angels of God are camping all around those fearing him, and he rescues them. Read Psalm 34:7. Why should those words be of great comfort to us? Because there are dangerous wicked spirit creatures who want to destroy us! Who are they? Where do they come from? How are they trying to harm us? To find out, let us briefly consider something that happened at the start of human history. We have spirit creatures who are our enemies. One of the angels developed a desire to rule over others and thus turned against God. Later this angel became known as Satan the Devil. Read Revelation 12:9. During the sixteen centuries after he deceived Eve, Satan succeeded in turning away from God nearly all humans except a few faithful ones, such as Abel, Enoch, and Noah among them. Read Hebrews 11:4, 5, and 7. Other angels rebelled against God. They put themselves on the side of the Devil who became the ruler like a prince of the demons. Read Matthew 9:34. In fact, with the help of these demons, Satan is misleading the entire inhabited earth. Read Revelation 12:9; I John 5:9. How is mainly that the demons use methods designed to mislead people. Read II Corinthians 2:11. Let's consider some of these methods in how demons mislead. To mislead people, the demons use spiritism. The practice of spiritism is involvement with the demons, both in a direct way and through a human medium. The Bible condemns spiritism and warns us to keep free from everything connected with it. Read Galatians 5:19-21. Spiritism does for the demons what bait does for fishermen. A fisherman uses a variety of baits to catch various kinds of fish. Similarly, wicked spirits use different forms of spiritism to bring all sorts of people under their influence. One type of bait used by the demons is divination. What is divination? It is an attempt to find out about the future or about something unknown. Some forms of divination are astrology, the use of tarot cards, crystal gazing, palmistry, and the search for mysterious omens, or signs, in dreams. Although many people think that practicing divination is harmless, the Bible shows that fortune-tellers and wicked spirits work together. For instance, Acts 16:16-18 mentions a demon of divination that enabled a girl to practice the art of prediction. But she lost this ability when the demon was cast out of her. Another way that the demons mislead people is by encouraging them to inquire of the dead. People grieving over the death of a loved one are often deceived by wrong ideas about those who have died. A spirit medium may give special information or may speak in a voice that seems to be that of a dead person. As a result, many people become convinced that the dead are really alive and that contacting them will help the living to endure their grief. But any such comfort is really false as well as dangerous. Why? Because the demons can imitate the voice of a dead person and give a spirit medium information about the one who died. Read I Samuel 28:3-19. Many have been misled by wicked spirits and are acting contrary to the will of God. Read Deuteronomy 18:10.11; Isaiah 8:19. Therefore, be careful to reject this dangerous bait used by the demons. Wicked spirits not only mislead people but also frighten them. Today, Satan and his demons know that they have only a short period of time left before they are put out of action, and they are now more vicious than ever. Read Revelation 12:12; 17. Even so, thousands of people who once lived in daily dread of such wicked spirits have been able to break free. How did they do this? What can a person do even if he is already involved in spiritism? The Bible tells us both how to resist wicked spirits and how to break free from them. Consider the example of the first century Christians in the city of Ephesus. Some of them practiced spiritism before becoming Christians. When they decided to break free from spiritism, what did they do? The Bible says how quite a number of those who practiced magical arts brought their books together and burned them up before everybody. Read Acts 19:19. By destroying their books on magic, those new Christians set an example for those who wish to resist wicked spirits today. People who want to serve God need to get rid of everything related to spiritism. That includes books, magazines, movies, posters, and music recordings that encourage the practice of spiritism and make it seem appealing and exciting. Included, too, are amulets or other items worn for protection against evil. Read I Corinthians 10:21. Some years after the Christians in Ephesus destroyed their books on magic, the apostle Paul wrote them and told them that they were wrestling against the wicked spirit forces. Read Ephesians 6:12. The demons had not given up. They were still trying to gain an advantage. So, what else did those Christians need to do? Above all things Paul told them to take up the large shield of faith, with which they would be able to quench all the wicked one's fiery darts. Read Ephesians 6:16. The stronger our shield of faith, the greater our resistance to wicked spirit forces will be. Read Matthew 17:20. How, then, can we strengthen our faith? By studying the Bible. The firmness of a wall depends very much on the strength of its foundation. In the same way, the firmness of our faith depends greatly on the strength of its base, which is accurate knowledge of God's Word, the Bible. If we read and study the Bible daily, our faith will become strong. Like a strong wall, such faith will shield us from the influence of wicked spirits. Read I John 5:5. What other step did those Christians in Ephesus need to take? They needed further protection because they were living in a city filled with demonism. So Paul advised them with every form of prayer and supplication to carry on prayer on every occasion in spirit. Read Ephesians 6:18. Since we too live in a world full of demonism, earnestly praying to God for his protection is essential in resisting wicked spirits. Of course, we need to use Jesus name in our prayers. Read Proverbs 18:10. Hence, we should keep on praying to God to deliver us from the wicked one, Satan, the Devil. Read Matthew 6:13. God will answer such earnest prayers. Read Psalm 145:19. Wicked spirits are dangerous, but we need not live in fear of them if we oppose the Devil and draw close to God by doing His will. Read James 4:7,8. The power of wicked spirits is limited. They face their final judgment in the future. Read Jude 6. Remember, too, that we have the protection of God's powerful angels. Read II Kings 6:15-17. Those angels are deeply interested in seeing us succeed in resisting wicked spirits. The righteous angels are cheering us on, so to speak. Let us therefore stay close to God and his family of faithful spirit creatures. May we also avoid every kind of spiritism and always apply the counsel of God's Word. Read I Peter 5:6, 7; II Peter 2:9. Then we can be sure of victory in our fight against wicked spirit creatures. If you do God's will and oppose the Devil, Satan and those led by him will flee from you. Take up your shield of faith today, as you faithfully study God's Word and pray.