Angels on Assignment

NAR teachers make much of the power and authority of the believer. This authority extends, they tell us, even to the spiritual beings called angels. They often speak of “angels on assignment.” Type those three words into your favorite search engine, and you’ll see a huge number of articles, books, images, and videos. Here’s one example of many adverts:

(This one from my home town may be my favorite.)

What does “Angels on Assignment” mean?

It comes from the idea that every believer has an assignment from God that he or she has been put into the world to fulfill. Kris Vallotton writes,

…whether God’s commissioned you to be responsible for a multi-billion dollar business or empowered you to mother the next generation in your home, once you take ownership of that assignment on your life…, you will step into true spiritual authority which releases the supernatural aid and resources God has placed on that assignment for your success.

Once you submit to the assignment God has given you, you will find that among the resources available to you are angels:

Paul teaches us that angels recognize true spiritual authority (1 Cor. 11:4, 10). True spiritual authority happens when you have come into submission, and therefore you’ve been commissioned to have angelic help.

Before going into details about “angels on assignment,” NAR teachers usually first teach their students to “discern the invisible realm;” that is, how to know when spiritual beings are present and active. Kansas City Prophet Bob Jones taught about this, and his teaching was passed on at the school of ministry operated by Rick Joyner’s Morning Star Ministries, as Justin Perry relates in this video.

Most NAR figures who teach about angels and spiritual warfare also teach about “three heavens.” The first heaven is the sky above us, or the natural atmosphere of our planet. The Bible does not speak directly of a “second heaven,” but since it speaks of “heavens” and a “third heaven” (2 Corinthians 12:2), some have reasoned that there must be a second heaven, which is the invisible realm where good angels and evil spirits are active. The proof text for this is Ephesians 6:12: “ For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” The third heaven is the dwelling place of God, where evil spirits have no presence or power. The believer is also seated in the third heaven, according to a peculiar but popular understanding of Ephesians 2:4-6, “But God… even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…, and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places…” Because believers are already seated in the third heaven, they have power and authority over second heaven beings. Vallotton teaches, “We are not going to solve a first heaven problem that was caused by second heaven devils, without taking our third heaven seat.” NAR figures encourage Christians to seek “third heaven solutions” and exercise “third heaven authority” (here, here, here, here, and here).

In addition to power, the various heavens are also sources of continuing revelation.

According to these groups, “second heaven revelations” are false visions coming from Satan in an attempt to deceive God’s prophets on earth. Prophets must learn to distinguish between “second heaven revelations” (from the devil) and “third heaven revelations” (from God) (source).

Even though none of this is part of traditional Catholic teaching, the Catholics teaching at the Encounter School of Ministry present these ideas in two classes. The first treats “The Invisible Realm“ and presents the “three heavens” framework. Students learn that “discernment of spirits” is a way “to become aware of the invisible realm,” as they perceive what is happening in the “unseen realm;” i.e., the “second heaven.” The next class is called “Partnering with Angels.” In it the students are told that an angel is assigned to every believer to engage in “spiritual warfare” on their behalf, and that they should enlist the angel to go to war on their behalf in the second heaven, rather than trying to take on evil spirits themselves. They also learn that angels “bring revelation from the third heaven to us,” and that they should ask for angelic support in their “prophetic ministry.” As an example of this, they listen to this audio clip, titled “Angel Prophetic Word.”

Patrick Reis, co-founder of Encounter Ministries, devotes a section of his 2022 book Supernatural Saints: A School of Ministry from the Saints to “Angels on Assignment.” He writes, “The key to understanding our relationship with our angels is knowing that they are assigned to us by God and that we are able to send them.”

What is the authentic Catholic response to all of this?

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the angels are not our employees, nor are they waiting for us to give them assignments. Their attention is elsewhere:

With their whole beings the angels are servants and messengers of God. Because they "always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven" they are the "mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word…"

Christ is the center of the angelic world. They are his angels:

The angels watch over human beings, but are not at our beck and call. Each believer has a guardian angel, who is not a servant of the believer, but a servant of God, acting as a protector and shepherd of the believer, leading him to eternal life. They do not exist to execute our commands in the “second heaven.”

The teachers of the “angels on assignment” concept have turned Scripture on its head. Instead of saying, with Psalm 91:11, “For he will give his angels charge of you,” they say, “For he will put you in charge of his angels.”

A Closing Thought

In 1983, the Holy See’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith forbade the Catholic group Opus Sanctorum Angelorum (Work of the Holy Angels) to propagate theories about the personal names of angels and their functions based on alleged private revelations. The decree also said: “The same provision applies to any other Institute or Association recognized by the Church.” Faithful Reader, don’t you think that the teaching about “angels on assignment” and “second heaven warfare” reviewed in this post seems more problematic than the practices which led the Catholic Church to take disciplinary action against Opus Angelorum?