Life in the Lord is never boring. Or at least it shouldn’t be. If nothing is going on, we can always pray into something more exciting than what’s presently happening in our own lives and become a part of what God is doing somewhere else. Some weeks, though, are admittedly more fruitful than others. I’ve had two opportunities to share the Lord and what is undoubtedly one angelic encounter this week. Here’s my week (so far. It’s only Friday morning. More could happen.)
First, the angelic encounter: My Mom and I (see photo)were in the car, breezing along at about 45 miles per hour when suddenly the car in front of me stopped. I’m really not sure what took place as it all happened in a flash. Maybe the light suddenly changed. I’m not sure. Mom yelled out and all I remember is seeing the white car in front of me and thinking how my hood will in a moment be parked in its trunk. No way I can avoid hitting it. I tried to swerve around it, wheels screeching, and waited for the impact. Somehow the steering wheel in my hands felt like it was turning for me. Now I surely can’t prove this, but it almost seemed to me as if my car actually bent away from the white car just enough to slide a feather’s width past it and the next thing I knew I was on the other side of the intersection. We were stunned, breathless, and exceedingly grateful to God for His protection. Now if that’s not an angelic rescue, I’m not sure what is. Needless to say, Mom and I broke out in a chorus of praises and thank you’s to God. Today could have been a much different experience for us than me sitting comfortably at my computer, painlessly writing. Or there could have not been a today for Mom or me. Praise the Lord for His protection.
It so happens, that morning I was reading Psalms of David’s protection by God. I felt to read them out loud and pray through them, with a little declaring the same words for myself in my paraphrased version. I tailored them a little for my own spiritual warfare since, to my knowledge, I don’t have any earthly enemies that I’m aware of. Only the devil. Here’s what I prayed:
“Rescue me, O LORD, from evil; Preserve me from violence (and demons) who devise evil things in their hearts. They continually stir up wars (troubles). They sharpen their tongues as a serpent; poison of a viper is under their lips. Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; Preserve me from violent ones who have purposed to trip up my feet. The proud one has hidden a trap for me, and cords; he has spread a net by the wayside; he has set snares for me.. I said to the LORD, "You are my God; Give ear, O LORD, to the voice of my supplications. O GOD the Lord, the strength of my salvation, You have covered my head in the day of battle. Do not grant, O LORD, the desires of the wicked one” Psalm (140:1-8).
Was that God’s way of setting the stage for His intervention on my behalf, though I had no sense of danger when I prayed it? I’m thinking, Yes! So if you’re inclined to pray through some Scriptures at any time like that on your own, or someone else’s behalf, could be you’re putting a guardian angel on alert.
Two days later a visiting nurse came to the house to attend to Mom who at 91 is periodically in need of a tune-up. Now nurses generally conjure up images that are not what this person turned out to be. True, I had a stereo-type of a nurse in my mind. Bill was not it. He’s a military medic turned visiting nurse. A big muscular guy with a few tattoos who is into martial arts and Taoism and the like. I wasn’t sure I wanted him touching Mom. We had to fill out paper work first and so we got to talking. Not even sure how we got into it, but inevitably we got to talking – about God. Then again, most of my conversations wind up talking about God.
This was not one of those quickie “Has anyone ever told you God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life?” kinds of witnessing for the Lord. That wasn’t going to work here. He is sure God loves him, though he didn’t see that we sin. “It,” the energy of the earth, is about love for us all, because we all are of one spirit, he tells me, a cosmic consciousness kind of thing, as in we’re all linked in one great togetherness. Seems to me like the devil’s attempt to turn worship from God as the only unique and holy “I am” into the worship of man for what “we are.” I suggest to him that God is not the least like we are. He’s holy. I can see that doesn’t compute. Bill is sure when and if he meets God it will be eye to eye as equals. I don’t think so.
I’ve had an experience of being in heaven, I tell him. I share a little of the vision God gave to me a number of years ago. Of how people are indeed one, but it is because they are free of sin and God has made us one “in Him.” This is the privilege of those who have accepted God’s provision to free us from the sin that separates us from Himself – Yeshua’s death on our behalf. I tell him of the joy that is heaven that is entirely God’s joy and so far beyond anything we can endure in our earthly bodies or imagine. I’ve experienced it, I tell him, but for less than a minute or I would have exploded or died. God is SOOOOO much bigger than what we perceive of Him!
He tells me his own near death experiences, two of them, and being supernaturally protected. He knows it had to be an angel. I ask him if he thanked God. He says he did, many times. This is good. Then he tells me of something he heard Joyce Meyer say on a TV show. He’s watching Christian TV! What do you know. He tells me stories of drawing pain out of people, a healing gift. And of the wisdom of his martial arts master whom he knows personally. What a lead in. I lean across the table where we’re sitting and whisper, “How about having the wisdom of The Master of the Universe whom we can know personally!” He nods up and down ever so slightly. I can see he’s listening.
"We go back and forth for a while and then I realize this is not someone I'm trying to share the Lord with, but someone the Lord Himself is after."
We all are the voice of God to one another, he tells me further into our conversation. To this I share briefly with Him my experience of hearing God’s audible voice and of the unchallengeable authority that is conveyed in His voice which leaves no room for us humans to think we are in any way at all equal with Him, although by His grace we are welcome into loving fellowship with Him, on His terms. We go back and forth for a while and then I realize this is not someone I’m trying to share the Lord with, but someone the Lord Himself is after. That’s why he’s here!
“I see in you a man who wants to know the truth. God sees your heart. Could be that’s why we’re having this chat. This isn’t a coincidence,” I tell him, meaning it. He nods again. Pensive. Although he comes back with answers because he’s given much of his life to know what he knows – I can see that look in his eyes that happens when the Holy Spirit is putting a hook in someone’s heart and tugging ever so slightly, but sovereignly, to bring them to Himself.
In the end he agreed to take my book home and read it. It’s the testimonies of 5 Jewish people and what issues they had to deal with in coming to the Lord, each one different. Each, by the way, in my family, including my own testimony. I figure my brother’s story, the one about following the guru to India, might be one he could relate to. We’ll get to talk again. He has to come back. He is scheduled for six more sessions with Mom.
To read the rest of this article and what happened the rest of the week, go to "Articles" at www.sidroth.org.
