“As to how we are brought in touch with God’s great nature, we have not been left to speculate, for every great truth has been recorded in some form in that wondrous book, the Bible. The apostle in his letter to the Hebrews said: “But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.”
Here the apostle, either by vision or by revelation, is given to understand the order of the heavens and announces it by speaking of “just men made perfect”, and of the “church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven.”
It has been given us to know – and reason substantiates the fact – that according to the grade of development is the nearness of the soul to the throne of the everlasting Father, so that there are in the spirit-world at the present time, not only the wondrous body of Yahveh Elohim, but there are angel-spirits ranking in gradatory order from the highest sphere down to the border-land, between the mundane and the spiritual.
Therefore, when Yahveh Elohim has a message to send to the sons of earth, it is sent through the angel messengers, through “the spirits of just men made perfect”; and we have reason to believe that it is sent from one to another until a messenger is reached whose potentiality enables him to meet the capacity of man who is to receive the message. For there are angels so highly developed that their words would be to man a consuming fire. Therefore, the word of Yahveh Elohim must be passed down through the mind-organs of those who are nearer to man, in order that he may be enabled to receive it without injury.
The Lord Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you” (John 14:2). In Jacob’s vision “He dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it; and behold, Yahveh stood above it” , (Genesis 28:12-13).
Thus, this gradation is, as it were, a ladder set up on the earth (man), whose top reaches to heaven, Yahveh being at the head of the ladder, and each rung of the ladder from Yahveh down to man a stage of unfoldment, of spirit-life. And all the angels upon these varied planes are, as the Apostle Paul said, “ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation.” These ministering spirits minister to man according to his unfoldment.
The ministering spirits – ministering to those among men who are sufficiently developed to receive heavenly truths and to put them into practice – have overcome, and entered the realm of immortality. In other words, they are souls that are not bound to the earth-sphere, but live from the heavens.
There are, however, multitudes of souls that are earth-bound, that know nothing of the realities of a spirit-existence; these are they that spiritualists – so-called – are dealing with, and among these earth-bound souls there are as many malignant, evil-designed personalities, as there are in the physical body among men – yea, more.
For when we come to deal with souls that are earth-bound, we come in contact with that quality of human consciousness that is no longer restrained by culture or society; we are in touch with the impulses and passions that arise from the lower nature or a lower organism. Because of this, these earth-bound souls were called by the Lord Christ “demons”, devils. For, as it is written, “the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.”
These earth-bound souls are at enmity with the law of God, and when a person enters into covenant relation with God to seek God and righteousness with all his heart, and has decided to overcome generation and to live henceforth in the regeneration that he may attain immortality, these souls at once become to him pestiferous enemies, to hinder; to deceive; to mislead, and to destroy.”
Hiram Butler
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 