Seeing My First Angel (July 3, 1997)

Last Thursday was the day before the Independence Day holiday. I ended up working late and left my office about 8:30 PM. San Francisco's financial district (where I work) was pretty desserted by then. There were only a few people walking the streets. I had some money in my pocket that I wanted to give to homeless people, so I was keeping my eye out for them. But they seemed to have left the area.

My walk to the BART station took me past the the BOA autoteller machine, which was fairly near a corner. Two men were standing by it. I looked at them as I approached, trying to determine if they might be people I could give my alms to.

They were strangely dressed for the weather, but did not look like beggars. They had on shorts and tennis shoes and a short sleaved T-shirt. They looked like they were dressed for a 4th of July picnic. It was pretty cool by now, and they should have been quite cold. But they looked very comfortable. It was odd that they were standing by the autoteller, but did not appear to be using it.

As I was almost up to them, one of them jumped out right infront of me. He was clearly excited and yelled "Yes!!!" extending his right arm into the air. It was exactly the type of gesture and enthusiasm that a man would make while watching a football game, if his team just scored a critical touchdown. I pulled back a bit startled. The man did not actually run into me, but he sure came close. I glaced at his friend, who seemed to make somewhat of an apologetic yet very friendly gesture.

I was all set to disapprove of them, figuring they must surely be drunk.

But I looked into their eyes and they were very clear and sparkly. They did not look drunk and I could not smell any liquor on their breath. The man who almost ran into me was a bit overweight, and had dark hair, a short beard and very smooth cheeks that reminded me of a baby's cheeks. He had a glow about him and his eyes sparkled. I could not help but like them.

So I grinned at them and said, "Starting your celebration a little early?" I walked past him as I spoke. The dark haired guy continued to look me in the eye as I passed him. It was a friendly look and I felt totally confortable around him.

"Yep" He smiled broadly. His meriment was almost congateous. "We have a lot to be excited about!"

"That's nice." I was past them now. I could not help but like them and was glad they had things to be happy about.

I had not gone more than 4 steps when I heard the Lord say, "Teresa, they are angels."

Now I had been praying for a few weeks that the Lord would allow me to see angels. I figured that maybe my immagination was running wild with me, and that wasn't really the Lord's voice.

"No, Really." He said, "They are angels. Turn around and look."

Ok, why not? It's always safer to obey something simple and harmless rather than to spend time debating whether or not it was really the Lord.

I turned around, expecting to see the two men a few steps behind me. They were no where to be seen!

I could still see the autoteller machine where they had been standing. There is no way they could have walked out of sigh that fast! And there were no doors they could have gotten to and gone into that fast. They had literally vanished into thin air.

"See," The Lord's voice said, "I told you they were angels."

Wow! Angels??

"Lord," I asked, "if they were angels, what were they so excited about?"

"They are currently assigned to San Francisco. They are excited because of what I am going to start doing in the city, starting tomorrow."

Hum... my mind did a quick mental calculation. What happens tomorrow? Then I remembered that a fairly large outreach, called "Summer of Love" starts tomorrow, on the 4th of July. In fact, I will be involved in that, leading a few dance workshops and some worship dance at an outreach. Maybe the Lord intended to anoint the outreach and we'd see a lot of people come to know Jesus!! I began to feel excited at the prospect. In fact, there was a warm glow coming over me. My heart felt merry and full of song.

"Lord," I asked, "why did you show me those angels?"

He replied, "because it was a double blessing. It blesses them to see one of the people who I will be working through. And it blessed you to see them."

As it turned out, it certainly did bless me to see them. I could not seem to keep from breaking into a worship song. I was filled with a sense of the Lord's joy. It was almost as if their enthusiasm had been contageous. And that joy/meriment that filled my heart stayed with me the entire trip home and the rest of the evening. I was very aware of God's goodness and had an eagar sense of antisipation to see what He will do at the Summer of Love outreach. I found myself breaking into intercession for the outreach, and inviting His presense over the city. My heart continued to be full of His joy the entire evening, and it lasted all through the next morning.

God is so awesome. I can hardly wait to see what He will do in San Francisco over the next few monthes!

(I have to confess, though, the angels did not look anything like I expected them to look. They looked much more like ordinary people.)

The next morning, I shared that story with an intercessor friend of mine from Texas. She said that usually when she sees angles they appear as ordinary looking people. Then she told me about one of the times she had seen an angel.

She had been walking down the road, about to do an errand she was sort of dreading. She had to fire an employee who was not "working out" ok. She was crossing the street in a crosswalk. All of the sudden, it was as though an invisible foot stuck out in her way. She could feel her foot hit something solid, even though she could not see anything there. She tripped forward and fell heavily to the pavement. She landed on her knee and then on her hands. It was painful. She glaced down and both her knee and hands...they were all bleeding. She was in pain, but she was also very embarassed about having tripped in public.

Immediately, before she could even get up, a black man rushed over to her and bent over her. He looked a lot like Sammy Davis Jr, except that his eyes glowed with an incredible inner warmth. She could feel a compassion radiating over her as he asked, "Are you OK?"

She was feeling so embarassed at tripping that she said, "I'm fine. I don't need any help."

"Yes, you do need a little help," the man replied, helping her to her feet. Just then she looked at her knee. It stopped bleeding and the wound closed before her very eyes. She did a double take, completely startled. Then she looked at her hands. The same thing happened to her hands, the wound closed before her eyes and the blood disappeared. All that remained was a little indentation in the skin, where the pavement had pushed into her hand. No blood and no cut.

"You will be fine now." The man said. He had walked her across the intersection to the sidewalk. He still had his hands on her shoulders. Then he disappeared. One instant he was there and the next he was not. My friend did a double take. The man had simply vanished into thin air.

So she asked the Lord about it. The Lord gave her psalm 91:11-12. Then He told her that he allowed this to happen so that she would know He was with her, protecting her every time the enemy tried to trip her up. This gave her such a confidence in Him that she was able to go to her difficult appointment fully assured that He was walking with her. She was able to, in a loving but firm way, let the employee go. She is one who intently dislikes conflict and had been dreading having to fire this lady. But now she had a new confidence in Him and was able to fairly easily what she had been terrified of doing. She had just gotten through living Psalm 91:11-12, so she knew she could have confidence that He would be with her in all things.

I don't usually put a lot of emphasis on angels or stories about angels. But I do hope these two angel stories (both true) were a blessing to you.