Saint Basil said, "It is a teaching of Moses that every believer has an angel to guide him as a teacher and a shepherd." The early church fathers held that every city, town and village -- even every parish and family -- has a special guardian angel. The Hebrews and some early Christians taught that even nations have their own guardian angels.

Islamic tradition says there are four guardian angels assigned to protect each of us, two during the day and two at night. (They must be working on round-the-clock shifts!) Other angels are described as "pious travelers," who scan the country and report back to Allah all that they observe. In Zoroastrian tradition, the Amesha Spentas, comparable to the JudeoChristian archangels or Kabbalah's sefirot, personify divine attributes and work to defeat evil and promote good.

Some people say, "If there are all these angels waiting to help us, then why haven't they already done something about this problem in my life or in my neighborhood?" But what they don't realize is that the universe doesn't work in a top-down management style; it's based on free will and team work.

When God created us, he gave us free will so we could exercise our individuality. God doesn't go back on his word. He respects our free will. You can think of earth as a laboratory where God has given us the freedom to experiment and evolve. If, like an indulgent and overbearing parent, God sent his angels to rush in and stop us every time we were about to make a mistake, we wouldn't experience the results of our good and bad choices -- which is how we learn our lessons and grow spiritually.

So, according to universal law, we need to ask God and the angels to intervene in our affairs. When we do ask, we are giving them the power to act on our behalf and do what's best for us. We are entering into a partnership with the divine, a union of heaven and earth-team work.

I have received many letters over the years telling me how angels saved the day. Someone once wrote and told me that he was returning home with friends from a seminar when he ran into some car problems. "When I was driving home," he said, "my car developed a problem and began to seriously overheat. None of us had any money to spare and were going home 'on a wing and a prayer' -- literally.

"Each time the needle started creeping up hotter and hotter, I would make fiery calls to the angels. I told the people in the car to hold the visualization of snow, of crystal clear, cold mountain streams and ice all around the whole engine. Then we would watch the needle immediately go right back down as the temperature dropped to normal. It was such a wonderful testimony to the power of the spoken word and the intercession of heavenly helpers."

At times we may not be aware of an impending danger, yet without asking for their intercession the angels work overtime to warn and protect us. This is especially true if we have established an ongoing relationship with the angels and we have a momentum on inviting them into our lives. The angels can also come to our aid if someone has been praying on our behalf or if we have earned a special protection in return for something good we have done in the past.

That was no doubt the case in this incident a woman related to me. One night she suddenly awoke with her hand wrapped around her breast, her fingers grasping what turned out to be a four-inch tumor. "I felt an angelic presence next to me at my bedside," she wrote. "'Wake up! We have work to do!' was the message. I was instantly awake, every cell of my body alert. My first thought was, 'This is not going to be fun. It's cancer and it's going to be hard.' It was true. It was cancer and it was hard."

From time to time along the way, she again felt that angelic vibration that had awakened her in the middle of the night. "It seemed to be leading me onward," she said. For example, the day before she was to have surgery, she was scheduled to go to a doctor's appointment. She had been sleeping only two or three hours at night and was not digesting her food. "Do I have the strength to go to this appointment?" she thought as she lay in bed. That was when she saw the angels enter the room.

"As many as twenty came toward me," she wrote. "It seemed that I was raised up off the bed about eight inches as they approached. The angels ministered to me, lined up on both sides, ever so gently moving their hands in waves over my body. I felt great love flowing to me. As they withdrew, it seemed that I was lowered back to the bed.

"As I roused myself to go to the appointment, I realized I was strong and light as a feather. The angels had come to strengthen me. I negotiated my interview with the oncologist with finesse and sailed through the surgery the next day."

Especially touching are the accounts of angelic assistance to children, like this one describing an unforgettable intervention that had taken place years before. "I was about ten or eleven years old," the letter began. "It was a hot summer day. My father had just picked up my sister and me from our summer camp and we were driving home. I was exhausted and sleepy -- so sleepy that I thought it would be wonderful to lean my head up against the car door and fall asleep. As I was about to do this, a strange yet beautiful thing happened.

"I heard a voice. I shall never forget that voice. It was a female voice -- firm yet gentle, commanding yet soothing. The voice spoke to me and said (if I may paraphrase), 'No, do not lay down your head. Wait until you get home.' "I do not have the words to describe the beauty of this voice or the depth of this being's care for me. I instantly obeyed her command and raised myself to a more upright position. Shortly thereafter -- seconds or minutes -- our car was hit broadside by another car. The side on which I was sitting was completely smashed in. "If I had laid my head down as I had intended, I may have incurred severe head injuries and perhaps died. The angels are such amazing helpers."

Fortunately, we don't have to wait for miracles like this to happen. The more we learn about how to work with angels, the more they can help us create miracles -- every day. There is no problem too big or too small to assign to the angels, whether it's retrieving something you've lost, giving you strength to let go of old hurts, helping you find a new job, or even stopping war.

Although we tend to think that all angels look and act alike, Origen of Alexandria taught that all beings are assigned respective offices and duties based on their previous actions and merits. Even the archangels and their angelic assistants specialize in certain jobs, and we can call upon different bands of angels to help us in the various areas of our lives."

This doesn't have to take long. Whenever you are feeling burdened or are faced with a problem, you can offer quick spoken prayers to bring the angels right into your home or your workplace or wherever you are at that moment. God wants us to take command of our world and use our free will to forge a divine partnership with Spirit. That's one of the reasons we're here on earth.

How long does it really take to direct the angels into a situation of need by naming the specific conditions we want them to tackle? About thirty seconds. How different the world would be if at the top of each hour we would all take just thirty seconds to compose a quick prayer and send the angels on their way! When you're watching the news, you can even turn down the volume during commercials and give your calls to the angels.

As one young woman told me, "By using the science of the spoken word, I can do something for the good of the world wherever I am -- at home, in a car or hiking in the mountains. I can make the minutes of my life count for something as I invoke protection and assistance for those in need."

Remember, when you say these spoken prayers, don't be meek. You can give these calls as dynamic commands. The greater your fervor, the greater will be the response from heaven.

How many days do you have to concentrate on a specific prayer before you see results? It depends on how severe the situation is and how much of God's light is needed to displace the darkness.

For years a dear friend of mine used to rise every single morning to give prayers and decrees on behalf of the youth of the world. And she would still be doing it today if she were here among us. On the other hand, sometimes one fervent, heartfelt call can turn things around.