A Divine Revelation of Angels (13 page)

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.(Matthew 3:11–12)

A Fire of Revival, Purification, and Healing

The prophet Joel prophesied of the baptism with the Holy Spirit:

Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: I am the Lord your God and there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days....And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls.(Joel 2:27–29, 32)

This prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus’ followers were baptized with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and “tongues of fire” rested on each one of them:

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the spirit gave them utterance.(Acts 2:1–4)

In the revelations and visions I have seen, angels seem to be connected with the fire of the Spirit of God. Once I saw a great angel flying in the heavens. He had a scroll in one hand and a bowl of fire in the other. As I watched, he came down to where I was and said, “God wants to put fire upon His children to purge them and to purify them so they can be cleansed.” I thought, Glory to God, hallelujah! My prayer is, “How I thank You for the fire, God, and the purging and the cleansing. Anoint us with the fire of the Holy Spirit, Father.”

God is sending His fire to purge His children and to take the old leaven (sin and disobedience) out of those who will allow Him. First Corinthians 5:7–8 says,

Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

As I relate these stories of angels in action, God continues to open my eyes. I’m beginning to learn more fully what it means to experience the ministry of angels. I have seen angels being dispatched all over the earth with God’s fire. They put it in people who were open to God.

One night, I was preaching at a women’s convention, and I had about twenty minutes to finish my message before I had to leave for the airport. Suddenly, God gave me a vision of about seven women in the congregation, and they were all full of fire. As I watched, they turned into skeleton-like forms, and I could see hell beneath them. I said to the congregation, “Let us pray.” Immediately, we stood to our feet to pray. As I began to seek God, I related the vision I had seen, and the women ran to the altar and got saved.

Remember, this happened just twenty minutes before I was to leave. Naturally, those leading the convention would have continued the meeting after I left and would have given an altar call. But God wanted that altar call done then, at that time!

Lately, I have been seeing much of the fire of God. I see it in church services—fire around people and on people. Heat from the power of almighty God is “burning out” diseases and sicknesses, such as cancer. I have witnessed angels with bowls of fire, and I have seen them pouring this fire on people. Often, I hear people say, “I feel hot. I feel heat,” as they are ministered to by the Lord. Because of this, I have been seeking more understanding about the fire of the Holy Spirit.

A Fire of Judgment

One thing I have learned is that God’s fire is one of judgment as well as one of cleansing and healing. In chapter five, we saw that the angels have a role in executing God’s judgment in the world. In the Old Testament, God announced through the prophet Amos that He would send fire “upon the wall of Gaza” (Amos 1:7), “upon the wall of Tyre” (v. 10), and “upon Teman” to “devour the palaces of Bozrah” (v. 12). “This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me,” the prophet further declared. “The Sovereign Lord was calling for judgment by fire” (Amos 7:4 niv). The same fire of purification that brings us joy, peace, and healing will punish the wicked and bring His judgment on them. This fire is from heaven and will fulfill its intended purpose. We all must wake up to this truth. God means what He says.

Once, when I was in prayer, God permitted me to see into the heavenlies. I saw what looked like a rope of fire—it was always aflame—and the angels used it as a measuring line. It reminds me of when the prophet Amos saw a plumb line in the hand of the Lord. (See Amos 7:7–8.) A plumb line has a weight at one end and is used to measure whether a wall is completely straight up and down. The plumb line was a symbolic way of showing that God was measuring the lives of the Israelites to see if they were spiritually upright.

Similarly, I believe that God’s judgment is with us today. I really believe that God has, in effect, dropped a plumb line from heaven to separate the righteous from the wicked. We need to be devoted to God with all our hearts. God says, “I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the [plumb line]” (Isaiah 28:17).

Judgment has been going on for quite a while. God wants us to turn to Him before it is too late. How would your life measure up before God? Too many times, the devil brings a spirit of distraction to keep us from hearing the truth. Our lives can be measured as straight and sound only as we receive the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness through the atonement He provided for us when He died on the cross, and as we remain in His righteousness through faith and obedience to Him. We are not to take sin lightly.

Not long ago, I was awakened during the night, and I saw a mighty revelation of a huge angel. He had a large scroll in his hands, which he kept turning. Then he opened up the scroll, unrolling it from both ends. The angel looked at me and said, “Thus saith the Lord: The archives of time are opened in heaven.” He repeated this three times and then flew away.

I began to seek God about what this meant. The Holy Spirit brought to my mind thoughts about the judgment that has been established for the earth. We are in a time like we have never had before. Yet with troubles and the judgments of God in the land, we are also seeing a mighty outpouring of His Spirit. Again, God does not want people to experience judgment, but to repent and turn to Him through Christ.

Let us allow Him to purge us with that fire and to cleanse us by His holy Word. Many times, in prayer, I have seen God’s angels using this plumb line full of fire. I read a book by another person who had seen heaven, and the writer also saw this plumb line on fire. God is drawing the plumb line, saints. We need to get ready for the coming of the Lord.

A Period of Grace

I have seen some ministers and preachers who have preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ and done His will, but who have then fallen into adultery or some other sin. I have noticed that God will give them a space of time to repent, a period of grace. God deals with them, and the angels try to get them back on the right way.

Conviction grips the erring ones’ hearts, but if they resist, they start to harden their hearts. In the beginning, they had the glory of the Lord around them. They had the fire of God in them and about them. This fire was like a hedge of protection for them, but as they fell into the errors of sin and lies, they allowed openings to be created in that protection. Their falling into sin also created openings in their anointing from God, and, pretty soon, they became corrupt, with the enemy attacking them every way he could. They became filled with lies and sin.

Yet God’s grace still deals with them. He still draws them toward Himself. God’s mercy is still calling; He desires them to repent and turn back to Him. Thankfully, many do repent and return to God and His true anointing.

I believe that the revelation God gave me of hell was for a purpose. I am convinced that God gave me the things I have seen and heard so that, as I go and tell them to others, scales will come off people’s eyes, and the light of the Gospel will come in. For if they continue in their sins, essentially rejecting Christ, and then die, they will go to hell.

Yet Jesus was manifested to deliver us from sin and save us from eternal punishment. He came to the earth to keep us from a burning hell. Saints, I’m telling you now, we’re serving a mighty God who loves us and cares about us.

How Will You Respond?

God’s fire is for renewal and judgment. With it, He refreshes and revives His people and punishes the wicked. How will you respond to God’s fire? Allow God to purify you and renew you in His love and truth as you “serve the living and true God, and...wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:9–10).

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In times of danger and distress, the Lord has impressed upon me, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me” (Psalm 50:15). Many times, I’ve called upon the Lord “in the day of trouble.” I’ve prayed in the Holy Spirit for hours, and the Scriptures have become real and powerful to me. The Lord has said to me, “No matter what you see, no matter what you feel, you must believe in My Word. Believe in what I have promised you. My promises are true.” Here are some promises of deliverance from God’s Word that we can fill our hearts and minds with and use as the basis of our prayers:

Like birds flying about, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending, He will also deliver it; passing over, He will preserve it.(Isaiah 31:5)

Even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.(Isaiah 46:4)

“Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you,” says the Lord.(Jeremiah 1:8)

[Christ] has made [you] alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.(Colossians 2:13–15)

And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom.(2 Timothy 4:18)

The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations.(2 Peter 2:9)

There are many wonderful assurances of God’s deliverance in the book of Psalms, as well. Here are several of them:

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.(18:2)

You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.(32:7)

I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.(34:4)

The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them.(34:7)

Blessed is he who considers the poor; the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, and he will be blessed on the earth; You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness; You will sustain him on his sickbed.(41:1–3)

You called in trouble, and I delivered you.(81:7)

Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.(91:14–16)

He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.(107:20)

God’s Presence Brings Deliverance

The presence of the Lord Himself brings us deliverance. In visions God has given me, I have seen angels coming into churches from the outside, usually through the front door that faces the pulpit in many sanctuaries. When Christ was going to come down, they would begin to sweep with their wings—like a huge fan. They would fan the floor, and a royal red carpet would be laid out for Christ to walk upon.

Then I would see the angels form two parallel rows down the middle aisle of the church. The people in the congregation wouldn’t be able to see the angels, but the heavenly messengers would lift their trumpets and blow them as if a king or queen were about to arrive. Then I would see a large chariot come to the main doors at the front of the church. Huge angels would open the doors—they were spiritual doors—and Christ would come in.

Oh, my, He was so beautiful! Angels were always with Him to escort Him and bring messages in books and scrolls. Some of the angels carried horns of fire. Others carried swords or other things.

When Christ would come in, the minister would say, “Oh, I feel the presence of the Lord.” I would see clouds appear over the congregation. (Similarly, when I’m preaching in home meetings, often the presence of the Lord will begin to roll in, and I’ll see what looks like a mist or a cloud hovering over the people. Many will begin to raise their hands and say, “I feel the presence of the Lord.”) It seemed as if there were hundreds of angels working with the Lord. They also worked with the ministers to bring the healing of Jesus to people, and they worked when prophecy was given. Through all this, I knew God was telling me that angels are with us.

I have seen this mighty vision many, many times during my travels over the past ten years. Whenever I see it, souls are always saved. There is such a great move of God that people repent of their sins when I preach on hell. I see the angels go to work in the congregation, and sometimes I see people who are bound in chains, really black chains. The angels torch the chains with fire as the people repent before God. I see people forgiving completely those who have hurt them. They raise their hands and praise the mighty King of kings and Lord of lords.