Sometime in the Fall of 2000, I sat at my computer typing away at a web page late into the night. I would have gone to bed with my wife and one-year old son had it not been for the length of the testimony I was trying to post and my lack of web skills at the time. That night in our Tucson apartment, I was putting the finishing touches on one of our Amazing But True Stories on our newly launched youth group's website, the forerunner of our present Light the Fire site. Little did I know on that night I was about to begin one of the most awesome supernatural chapters in my life.
The testimony I was posting that night had to with an awesome miracle taken from the book Angels on Assignment that was written back in the seventies. It involved a husband and wife who were having marital problems, and an Assemblies of God pastor from Boise Idaho. The Pastor had foreseen their ordeal as a result of a supernatural visit to Heaven (I have since re-posted it here on this blogsite).
To briefly paraphrase the testimony I was posting:
Everything was going smoothly as I reached that point of the story. But then as I typed further where it said that angels had been to the hotel room, that they had opened up the phonebook to that exact page, and had arranged for the couple to have that room I stopped dead in my tracks.Pastor Roland Buck's visit to Heaven took place one Saturday night in 1977 while he was preparing for the sermon he would give that following Sunday. He was laying his head down to rest at his desk when he was suddenly taken out of the room with these words "come with me into the Throne Room where the secrets of the universe are kept!"
According to Pastor Roland Buck's testimony, the Lord gave him a tour of the vast storehouses of knowledge in heaven. To use the Lord's own words, the Lord began his tour by giving him an "overlay of truth." Whole passages of Scripture, explanations to complex physical phenomena in the Universe such as Black Holes (then largely theoretical), and even future events were instantly recorded in his brain by the Lord.Concerning the future, the Lord gave him 120 events that would occur in his lifetime as a confirmation that he had in fact visited Heaven. One of these events involved the previously mentioned couple with marital problems.
The Lord had shown him their names, the date they would come to his office, and even something that the wife was hiding from her husband. The Pastor had seen everything before he had physically laid eyes on them. The couple had decided to drive to Boise of all places to air out their troubles. When they arrived in their hotel room, they found a phonebook opened to a page where an ad from the pastor's church read "Counseling by Appointment."
All of a sudden a strong presence filled our computer room - I knew I was not alone. I felt so overcome with shock and awe that I was practically unable to move. Such was the power and presence there in the room with me. I dropped the paperback copy of Angels on Assignment that I was using to post the testimony. I don't know if I even managed to power down the computer.
I ran out of the room and into our bathroom across the way leaving the lights on. I shut the door behind me and had to calm myself down a few moments so I could brush my teeth. I decided then and there that it was probably a good time to get to bed. I quickly brushed my teeth and went through a back door into the master bedroom so I did not have to walk through the hallway near the computer room.
I jumped into bed and dove under the covers next to my son who was sleeping with us at the time. With all the "courage" I could muster, I pulled the covers over my head. When I retell the story, this part always brings a chuckle to my friends. They all ask me whether I really thought a two-inch blanket could protect me from anything.
I stayed awake as long as I could trying to shut out any sound that my frightened ears could pick up. As the minutes wore on, I found it harder and harder to keep my eyes open. Somehow I managed to fall asleep - maybe from the sheer exhaustion of the last couple weeks of late nights setting up our new website.
Sometime around two or three o'clock in the morning, I was awakened by something touching my toes. I came out of a deep sleep, not knowing what was going on, and suddenly I remembered the presence in the computer room. Now, it was in our bedroom!
In those heart-thumping moments I prayed for strength and courage because I wanted to face once and for all whatever, if anything, was in the room. My son was sound asleep next to me and my wife was snoring on the other side of him completely oblivious to what was going on. I did not want to wake her up, because I thought she might think I was imagining things or was a chicken for hiding under the covers, which I was.
After a few short bursts of prayer and mustering all the resolve I could, I counted "one . . . two . . . three" and rolled the covers from my head to peer over them. My breath was immediately taken away. There at the foot of my bed, near the hallway door, was standing a huge luminescent figure.
Just then a peace came over me as if to let me know that I had nothing to fear. I then began to try to take it all in and make out the features of this figure who was standing motionless just a few feet from our bed. All I could see was a rainbow-like radiance shimmering around his outline. He had to be more than eight-feet tall because his head nearly reached the nine-foot ceiling in our bedroom. I still found it hard to breathe because of the beauty of the multi-colored light emanating from him and his immense stature and build.
Waves of energy began pulsing from him. The power was so strong, yet at the same time gentle. I looked over to my son and saw him roll in his sleep as he was tossed with each successive wave. I looked back to the figure and somehow I began to discern a message. He was there to bring the Lord's blessing upon me and my family for our upcoming move to Pensacola where I would began my military training. It was then that I discerned the connection between his touching my feet and the blessing of our future travels. Even though I heard no voice, I instantly understood his message.
At this point, I felt my son awaken. I looked over at him again and watched him as his eyes opened. He popped out of bed and immediately looked over to where the messenger was standing. He pointed at our visitor and gave out several chuckles as if he was tickled by a smile that I could not see. He seem to share a few seconds with the messenger and then he raised his little hand up to the ceiling, closed his eyes and then fell back to sleep as if nothing had happened.
I was absolutely dumbfounded by what was happening and it took a few seconds to fully grasp the enormity of it all. I shook myself and looked over at the door again. Our visitor was gone. I plopped my head back on the pillow and let out a sigh of relief and wild amazement. I could not believe that I just witnessed my first encounter with an Angel from the Lord's presence.
The Lord was true to His word. He was truly with us, through our travels and through some very trying and dark times during my training. So dark, in fact, that the Lord sent another message by way of an Angel to my barracks room.
In closing, I have seen first-hand that the Lord is just as active today as He was in the Bible. This was only the first in several encounters to come, each one with powerful confirmations. I am 100-percent certain that the Lord cares enough to make Himself known to His creation. Are you looking for the God of the Bible? Find Him today!
Postscript: this past Thanksgiving 2006 I felt compelled to finally draft this story for our Light the Fire Blog. I pray that its message will help you find the Lord Jesus Christ of whom the Angels sang "glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests" (Luke 2:14). I would have published it late Thanksgiving Day, however, I had the distinct feeling that I would have somebody looking over my shoulder again. Despite all my experiences, take it from me, nothing can prepare a person for these intense encounters from the Lord's Throne.
