On angels

Its a strange gift, perceiving angels. I gave a talk at St Andrews Baptist Church last year on my encounters with angels. One church member was disappointed that I could not give a clear visual description of God's holy army. We live in such a seen-it-believe-it society that so much of our created humanity is discarded by dawkins-esque reductionism.

I've taken him apart elsewhere, so let's not dig up his corpse to beat and hang him again. However, the echo of his rationalism is in danger of squeezing us into the world's mould (Romans 12:12). Step into God's reality; it is bigger and better than ours here and now.

A few years back, a friend invited me to spend the night at his house. He had, he said, an angel who came every dusk and stayed till dawn. This visitor had done this for years now. I wasn't sceptical, just curious, as I'd never seen an angel, so agreed to stay the evening and night chez him.

We had a pleasant meal in his Edinburgh Regency house. Followed by a particularly pleasant malt whisky. Suddenly, it's the only word, this being stepped from behind a curtain, well a curtain between our reality and God's, a stood himself at my left side, about a foot away.

I was rigid with shock. The glow of power from the angel was like standing next to a street electricity transformer. 'Do you see him?', my friend asked. 'Yes', was all I could reply, timidly. I sat rigid for several minutes, not even willing to look sideways. My friend, being more used to the presence, chuntered on, while I sat, whisky glass in hand, unable to move.

As the evening wore on, the angel moved across the room and took up position beside the curtains. I could only say I followed him with my eyes, but did not see anything in the electro-magnetic spectrum. However, occasionally his garment would move, and I did see this as a flash of almost white silk.

'I used to have a dog', my friend continued, 'he could see the angel.' Since then I've noticed that my cat sees where the angels are standing. Ever seen a cat pull its head up and stare into space - well, my experience is that he is watching something, but you can't see it.

Eventually, we went upstairs for the night. I got the spare room and slept well. Then I awoke in the middle of the night to find the angel in my room, looking intently at me. It was literally hair-raising. The power of this mighty being was making my every nerve tingle. He then went away and I could sleep again.

In the morning my friend said, 'That was strange last night. The angel is always there in the room. He never goes away. But, last night I got up to go to the loo, and he wasn't there.' I knew why and said, 'He came to my room.'

Since then I've had a whole lot more encounters with God's angels. They are sent from God, with a purpose, and are totally obedient to him, unlike their demonic fallen former brothers (I'll say more on them and my encounters with these at a later stage.) They step out of heaven, from the courts of Almighty God, sometimes directly from His presence, by His command, from behind the curtain which seperates us as the one in the ancient Temple did, and stand before us.

In my previous house I had an angel who stood at the top of the stairs. He allowed me, a couple of times, to put my hand out and touch him. It was an amazing experience of power and light. Everything glowed, vibrated and tingled in an astonishing way. He was huge, and he was there to guard my upstairs as my family slept. But, he did not like me doing this to him.

I once wandered off with my son to talk of things of God and a huge angel, an arch-angel I still believe, stood immediately behind us and dogged our steps so closely he was almost touching us. There was an explosion on the beach that night as we walked past. I ducked as I knew this was a spiritual attack, not least by the cackling that followed it, and was glad the angel was there. When we stopped at a bench for a chat, the angel went and stood in front of us, about 6ft away, and faced us, back to the beach. When we walked home he again dogged behind us, and disappeared when we arrived home.

More mundanely, I too have an angel who stands in my bedroom at night. He has to find a place to stand as the room is, well, a bit of a mess. He has tried beside the window, but gets in the road of my wife when she goes loo-hunting at night. He has tried standing near my stuff in the corner of the room, but keeps having to move as its near the door. Just the once I saw him move as my wife got out of bed. He moved in a flash from the door to the wardrobes. His speed of movement was almost instantaneous, but it did take place in real-time.

I had a bad day recently, sin had got the better of me and I'd forgotten to say sorry to God. During the night I awoke to find the angel closing in, then standing directly over me, his face about 18 inches from mine. They seem to have a 'power' button they can turn up and down. He was on 'high' and I was terrified. The fear of The LORD is the beginning of all wisdom indeed.

I pleaded with him to back off and then spent some time bringing my sins before The LORD Jesus Christ for his cleansing and forgiveness. The angel was still there last night, but on 'low', in front of the wardrobe as usual.

One thing you would not know without meeting God's angels, is that they are different from each other. I have encountered big ones, small ones, and wiry-powerful ones. Each one of them is different.

If you are a Christian, the best news is: they are on our side! If you are not, the bad news is: they are not on your side. Come over to God's side and gain some powerful companions.