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About the Book
"Putting Your Angels To Work" by Norvel Hayes is a practical guide on how to tap into the power of angels for protection, provision, and guidance in everyday life. The author shares personal stories and biblical principles to help readers understand the role of angels and how to activate their assistance in various situations. Hayes provides actionable steps and affirmations to help readers connect with their angels and experience divine intervention in their lives.
Elizabeth Elliot
âI have one desire now â to live a life with reckless abandon for the Lord, putting all my strength and energy into it.â Elisabeth Elliot, an inspirational woman who remained faithful to God, and the calling he had laid on her heart, through many trials and tribulations.
ELISABETHâS EARLY YEARS
Elisabeth Elliot was born on December 27, 1926 in Brussels, Belgium, where her parents served as missionaries. Before she was a year old they moved to America to Germantown, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia. Her family grew when they came to America, and Elisabeth gained four younger brothers and one younger sister.
While they lived in Germantown, Elisabethâs father was the editor for the Sunday School Times, which was a weekly journal that contained Sunday School lessons that were used simultaneously in several Sunday School classrooms to keep the teaching and learning cohesive in churches throughout the country.
CALLING TO ECUADOR
A true pioneer in the world of Christianity, Elisabeth went to Wheaton College and studied Greek, because she desired to translate the Bible for the remote regions in the world. While at the college, she met Jim Elliot. After graduation, Elisabeth went on a missionary expedition to Ecuador with other students from Wheaton, including Jim Elliot.
In the first year of their missionary journey, Jim and Elisabeth worked in different regions. A year after entering Ecuador, Jim joined Elisabeth in the Quichua Indian tribe. In 1953, Jim and Elisabeth were married and continued to serve in Ecuador. They had a daughter, Valerie Elliot Shepard. When the Auca tribe in Eastern Ecuador killed Jim Elliot and his missionary partners, Elisabeth refused to give up on the people in that tribe. She continued to live in the region with her daughter and Rachel Saint, the sister of another one of the missionaries that the Auca tribe killed. They lived among the Quichua tribe.
While living in the Quichua tribe, two Auca women lived with Elisabeth for one year. During that year of living with the two Auca women, Elisabeth came to understand why the tribe killed her husband and the other missionaries. The tribe feared that outsiders were going to come into their tribe and take away their freedom. With that understanding, Elisabeth and Rachel Saint were able to go to the Auca tribe and build relationships with them. They led the people of the tribe to Jesus. The tribe saw and understood the forgiveness and grace that Elisabeth and Rachel extended to them.
Elisabeth wrote two books while she lived in Ecuador that contained her experiences and Jimâs experiences with the Auca tribe. She wrote Through the Gates of Splendor, which gives an account of her and Jimâs experiences with the Auca tribe.
ELISABETHâS RETURN TO AMERICA
After spending two years with the Auca, Elisabeth came to America with her daughter in 1963. Elisabeth and her daughter, Valerie lived in New Hampshire when they returned to America. Elisabeth met Addison Leitch, a theologian professor at Gordon Conwell University, and was thrilled to marry him in 1969. During their marriage, Addison and Elisabeth toured the United States with speaking engagements. Elisabeth never limited her message to women. She would inspire other Christians to live their lives, both men and women, with a passion to live for God.
Four years after they were married in 1973, Addison lost his battle with cancer and died. Valerie was thirteen when Elisabeth married Addison and was excited that God gave her a âDaddy.â When he died, Valerie was devastated to lose the father that she knew. She knew about Jim Elliot her biological father, but she knew Addison as a father who was present with her.
ELISABETHâS LOVE REDEEMED
After Leitchâs death, Elisabeth had two lodgers in her home. One of the lodgers married her daughter, and the other lodger, Lars Gren, married Elisabeth. Lars Gren was a hospital chaplain. Lars and Elisabeth were married until her death.
At the age of 89, on June 15, 2015 Elisabeth Elliot died. As her soul resides in heaven, her legacy lives on earth with her writings and stories.
ELISABETH ELLIOTâS BELIEFS ON FEMINISM
Elisabeth was never afraid to tell where the womanâs place was. She believed that women in the military needed to be in non-combative places because they would be needed at home, even if they were single. Also, she believed strongly that a married woman, especially to a pastor, was to support his ministry and not begin her own career. Her beliefs came because she counseled so many women whose marriages were falling apart because the women insisted on working outside of the home. Also, she studied the Bible and understood what it meant for women. Elisabeth didnât like addressing the issue, but she was very bold and forthright in her answers.
Elisabeth knew how to answer the question of women speaking in the church. She declined speaking on Sunday mornings to a congregation. If she were asked to speak at a Sunday School class or another meeting at a church, she would only oblige if a man who was a leader turned over the meeting to her. She understood the Bible to be clear that women are not to usurp authority over men. She knew that the Bible didnât discriminate between Sunday mornings and Sunday evenings, but she also knew that she could not usurp authority over men. Her beliefs gained her respect, and men and women listened to her and read her books.
BOOKS WRITTEN BY ELISABETH ELLIOT
In her lifetime, Elisabeth wrote and published twenty-four books. She continued to travel and speak all over America sharing her story, her knowledge, and wisdom of Godâs Word until her health stopped her in 2004. Her most popular books were Through the Gates of Splendor and Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Godâs Control.
Through the Gates of Splendor tells the story of Jim Elliot and their encounter with the tribes in Ecuador that eventually took his life. Passion and Purity: Your Life Under Godâs Control is a book that deals with dating for single Christians and how to honor God in their romantic relationships. It was published in 1984. In a world where everyone is doing whatever they please, she gives her own examples of love, heartache with the deaths of her husbands, and romance with all of them, while maintaining a pure relationship with them and before God. Elisabeth used her theological knowledge in her books and speeches.
QUOTES FROM ELISABETH ELLIOT
âGod never denies our heartsâ desire except to give us something better.â
âI have one desire nowâto live a life with reckless abandon for the Lord, putting all my strength and energy into it.â
âLeave it all in the Hands that were wounded for you.â
âFear arises when we imagine that everything depends on us.â
âWe cannot give our lives to God and keep our bodies to ourselves.â
âAnd underneath are the everlasting arms.â
Be Content with What You Have
Contentment is not simply about settling for what we have, but trusting in what God has said. Both anxiety and greed rise in our hearts as Godâs words fall. When the author of Hebrews wanted to teach his readers about contentment, he told them an old story with a familiar refrain. He quieted their fears and quenched their greed by reminding them what God had said . âKeep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said , âI will never leave you nor forsake youââ (Hebrews 13:5). Which prompted Charles Spurgeon to ask, Will not the distresses of life and the pangs of death, will not the internal corruptions and the external snares, will not the trials from above and the temptations from beneath all seem but light afflictions when we can hide ourselves beneath the bulwark of âhe has saidâ? The seed of unnecessary fear in the heart of a Christian is forgetfulness â an inability to remember and trust what the God of the universe has said and done. No one has ever had any grounds to accuse God of not following through on his word. Not even one phrase in any sentence in any statement he has ever made has failed (Joshua 21:45). We will only be truly content with what we have when we know that we have him. And we will remember that we have him when we hear and believe his voice. God Has Said When God said, âI will never leave you nor forsake you,â he was speaking to Joshua before little Israel went up to take the whole land of Canaan by force. A nation of nomads was about to invade a land filled with enemies bigger and stronger than themselves. Not one army, but many (Joshua 3:10) â and not our turf, but theirs. Israelâs only confidence was that God had told them to go. He had said . What did he say? The foreign land you are about to enter is already yours (Joshua 1:3). No enemy, no matter how many or how strong, will be able to defeat you (Joshua 1:5). And most promising of all: âI will not leave you or forsake you.â âI Will Never Leave Youâ âBoth anxiety and greed rise in our hearts as Godâs words fall.â This great promise will fall flat if we think mainly in terms of geography and not fidelity. Of course  God will never leave us because heâs everywhere all the time. âIf I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!â (Psalms 139:8). But we see Godâs fidelity  in the very next verse, âIf I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold meâ (Psalms 139:9â10). If you are his, he will not leave you; he will lead and protect you. When Joshua stared out into impossible circumstances and enormous opposition, God said, âI will not leave you or forsake you. . . . Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.â (Joshua 1:5, 9) When the author of Hebrews saw what followers of Jesus would face, and how they would be tempted to wander, he went back to those same words (the only time this promise is quoted in the New Testament), âHe has said, âI will never leave you nor forsake youââ (Hebrews 13:5). You will never be alone. No matter how desperate and alone you feel, no matter how much opposition you face, no matter how precarious your circumstances become, he has said, I will be with you.  His presence can calm any fear â if we donât forget that heâs there, heâs near, and heâs attentive. What You Donât Have The author of Hebrews, however, wasnât warning about Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites. His readers, who were Jewish converts, were facing intense persecution, but from within their own nation â from their own communities, even their own families. And as the scorching friendly fire fell, an even more threatening enemy emerged within their hearts: their own cravings and desires. He says, âKeep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, âI will never leave you nor forsake youââ (Hebrews 13:5). When Western Christians today read, âBe content with what you have,â we might assume the Christian has enough. We may hear, âDonât long for more than you need.â But many of these young converts were being thrown out of their families, cut off from all provision and protection. To follow Jesus was to embrace abandonment and accept poverty. So, many of them were being called to be content with what they did not  have. âThe seed of unnecessary fear in the heart of a Christian is forgetfulness.â Discontentment suddenly doesnât seem so unreasonable. Some of them went without food â for Christ. Some of them had only the clothes on their back â for Christ. Some of them lost their homes â for Christ. Some of them âjoyfully accepted the plundering of [their] property, since [they] knew that [they themselves] had a better possession and an abiding oneâ (Hebrews 10:34). If they  could be content with what they had, and didnât have, how can we not learn to be content with what we have? Grace Enough Be content with what you have.  Are there six more terrifying words in a culture like ours? They certainly land on me like six sharp cannon blasts. Donât let your heart endlessly pine for what you might have one day, but cultivate satisfaction in what God has given you for today. The word for content  is the same word in 2 Corinthians 12:9, when Jesus says to the apostle Paul, âMy grace is sufficient  for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.â Paul responds, âTherefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strongâ (2 Corinthians 12:9â10). Paulâs message is not like so many contentment gospels: If the Lord gives you less, make lemonade. Rather, he says, If Christ gives you less, boast in your less, because you get to see more of him in your less.  His grace is sufficient to cover any deficiency in us. If God is that big, and grace that sweet, then we are able to say what the vast majority cannot say: âIf we have food and clothing, with these we will be contentâ (1 Timothy 6:8). We will not be simply appeased, but pleased, because our deepest joy does not rise and fall with what we have (Philippians 4:11). How Silver Kills a Man If we want to be content with what we have, however, we have to be free from the love of money. As Paul warns, âThe love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangsâ (1 Timothy 6:10). And through this craving, many have forfeited contentment and forgotten what God has said. Intimacy with God loses its value as we fall deeper in love with our currency (and all it buys for us). âWe will only be truly content with what we have when we know that we have him.â If we keep flirting with money, we will make ourselves sons of Judas, who traded God himself for thirty pitiful pieces of silver (Matthew 26:15). But even before he died, Judas knew he had been had (Matthew 27:3). He had grossly overestimated money and misjudged the love that no amount of silver could buy: âI will never leave you nor forsake you.â Could he not see how murderously unhappy the Pharisees were (Luke 16:14)? Still he couldnât shake his cravings for more, even if they cost him everything. If we could feel the horrible realization he felt after trading Jesus away for money, would we not race to give away every possession necessary to have God? Would we not gladly have however little in this life to gain him in the next and forever? Content and Courageous What does contentment sound like? True contentment does not sound cheap, shy, or docile because it often requires profound strength and lionhearted courage. Hebrews continues, âHe has said, âI will never leave you nor forsake you.â So we can confidently say , âThe Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?ââ (Hebrews 13:5â6). As he looks out on this small army of Jesus-followers, facing want and need and worse, he turns from Joshua 1 to Psalm 118, which goes on to say, It is better to take refuge in the Lord      than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord      than to trust in princes. (Psalm 118:8â9) Courage ties Psalm 118 to the promise from Joshua 1 because God says to Joshua three times, âBe strong and courageousâ (Joshua 1:6â7, 9). And before Joshua heard those four words, Moses had said to him, âBe strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake youâ (Deuteronomy 31:6). When you are tempted to worry about how much you have, set your mind on what he has said . If the true God is your God, he goes with you. He knows what you need (Matthew 6:32). And knowing all you need, and all you will face, he will never leave you nor forsake you. Therefore, we can be courageous wherever his hand leads us, flee the shiny promises of silver, and rejoice in what we have. Most of all, we can rejoice that we have him.