Summary of Visions, and False Visions Caused by Fallen Angels
The Abilities of Fallen Angels as Described in the Bible
Chapter 4 – Summary of Visions, and False Visions Caused by Fallen Angels
The Bible summarily teaches several things about Visions caused by angels:
1. A Vision can seem totally real to a single bodily sense (like sight) or to all of the bodily senses, and a person’s self-perception is usually that they are in their body.
2. A Vision can affect one person or multiple people, though they may perceive it differently
3. A Vision can occur in a waking state, or in a trance state
4. A Vision can be causes by a visible angel, or an invisible angel
5. A Vision can involve some physical effects that remain afterwards, such as objects that remain with a person, and bodily effects, even internal ones.
6. A Vision can involve manipulation of a person’s perception of time, like an hour in a minute.
7. A Vision can contain just about any landscape, or any sort of characters, and can seem to involve travel, even though the person doesn’t actually go anywhere
8. A Vision can seem so real to the bodily senses that it is indistinguishable from reality, even in the case of people who are experienced with Visions, though God knows and can reveal the truth
This level of power in the hands of fallen angels is staggering to conceptualize. I thank God that they are limited in what they can do, and who they can do it to, by God’s laws of spiritual authority grounds. A fallen angel can only attack someone if they have spiritual authority grounds and rights to do so. God places a “hedge of protection” around people, limiting whom the fallen angels can harass and harm, and limiting the level of harassment and the extent of the harm that they can do to a person. (See Job 1 and 2, also the New Testament is full of this concept. This also involves the concept of spiritual warfare, see Resources at end for further information.) It is also a relief to know that for every fallen angel, there are 2 Holy angels working for God and Jesus; and so the fallen angels are outnumbered two to one. Additionally Jesus Christ assures believers in Him: Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Luke 10:19
False Dreams and False Visions caused by Fallen Angels
We have covered Visions that were had by people who were prophets, or those with the gift of the Holy Spirit of prophecy, such as Daniel, John, Ezekiel, Peter and Paul. Even in the case of Joseph having a dream of an angel, telling him to flee to Egypt, this also was a prophetic warning given by a Holy angel. When Holy angels cause people to have a dream or a Vision they are delivering a message, but often these messages are classified by the Bible as “prophecy” and those who have them as “prophets”.
In the Bible, prophecy is heavily associated with a person having dreams or Visions. And as we have established, dreams and Visions can be caused by Holy angels, who are God’s messengers.
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” Acts 2:17
“And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, [I] the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, [and] will speak unto him in a dream.” Num 12:6
And so a person who has a dream or a Vision caused by a Holy angel is classified by the Bible as a prophet. And while an angel delivers a message to the prophet, the prophet in turn delivers the message on to other people. The Strong’s definition of prophet is a “spokesman, speaker”, and to prophesy is to “a) be under the influence of a divine spirit” or to be “b) a false prophet”.
The Bible also mentions false prophets. True prophets have true Visions that are caused by Holy angels sent by God. But the Bible teaches that false prophets have False Visions and Vain Visions.
“Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, The LORD saith [it]; albeit I have not spoken? Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I [am] against you, saith the Lord GOD. And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I [am] the Lord GOD.” Eze 13:7-9
Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart. Jer 14:14
False prophets have False Visions, and these are caused by Fallen angels who lie and deceive.
And he saith, `Therefore, hear a word of the Lord; I have seen the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of the heavens [angels] standing by Him, on His right and on His left; and the Lord saith, Who doth entice Ahab, and he doth go up and fall in Ramoth-Gilead? and this one saith thus, and that one is saying thus. `And a spirit came out, and stood before the Lord, and saith, I — I do entice him; and the Lord saith unto him, By what? and he saith, I go out, and have been a spirit of falsehood in the mouth of all his prophets; and He saith, Thou dost entice, and also thou art able; go out and do so. 1 Kin 22:19-22
In this passage the angels were around God’s throne, and an angel admits to having been communicating deception or lies to the false prophets. God permissively allows this deceptive angel to continue to do what the falling angel himself is able to do, and chooses to do. And so the Bible teaches that fallen angels do communicate lies and deception to false prophets. And this is by the method of false dreams and False Visions, which false prophets are reported to have.
Beyond false messages which fallen angels can communicate in False Visions or dreams, they can also use False Visions and dreams to simply harass and frighten people, to a terrible extent. While Job was under a series of attacks caused by Satan, a fallen angel, Job records:
When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint; Then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones. Job 7:13-15
And so the Bible teaches that fallen angels can victimize people with their ability to cause dreams and Visions, using these to scare and terrify, even to the point of severe traumatization from them. Job here experiences severe depression, longing to die rather than deal with these terrifying dreams and Visions. It seems various other psychological symptoms besides severe depression could result from these experiences as well, as Job’s account here shows they can be very traumatic, and different people handle trauma in different ways.
Along with this, fallen angels can also cause False Dreams and False Visions to communicate a lying or deceptive message, false information, to a person with the intent that the person might become a false prophet, who shares the false message as truth.
This is part of why the Bible warns that people must test spirits, not just believe them, as these fallen angels are at war against all of humanity, to deceive us:
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” (1 Jn 4:1) and as Jesus said, ″Many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many.” (Matt 24:11)
But even in the midst of this war followers of Jesus Christ can have God’s reassurance,
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities nor powers [fallen angels], nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 8:37-39
Paradox Brown