My friend Jim Paul has been doing a series of Open Heaven meetings at my church. We have had our share of spiritual warfare for the conference, but the meetings themselves have been very powerful. One of the many things the Lord is doing in the meeting is releasing the angelic to co-labor along side of us as we minister for Him. God intends to send angelic support to us as we do what He tells us to do--not just to a select few, but to the body of Christ at large.
I will be giving three reports of my experiences with God suring these meetings. Here is the first....
The Ministering Angel (Second Saturday Session, June 30)
I have previously had several angelic encounters, so I wasn't looking for an angelic encounter or divine encounter at the meetings. I saw myself more in a support role, where I would do whatever errands Jim needed done, assist him in praying for people, etc. Of course I was very interested in his teaching, as it was all new to me. He showed how Scripture talked about Open Heaven--in fact, there are six different types of Open Heaven that Jim developed over the course of Friday and Saturday's teaching. The bible had quite a bit more to say on that topic than I realized. However, I did not really expect to reap any type of personal ministry or unusual God-encounters. My goal was to help facilitate things so others could have direct experiences with God.
There was one session on Friday night and two on Saturday afternoon. Jim talked about 6 types of Open Heaven in those three sessions. He did a personal and corporate ministry at the end of each type--first ministering to an individual and then praying over us as a group along with some corporate prophetic proclamations.
The fifth Open Heaven that Jim discussed was for missions. We have a team of three youth leaving tomorrow for a youth Missions trip to Brazil. In addition, I leave in three weeks for a missions trip to Singapore. So for the personal ministry time, Jim asked the four of us who were going on a missions trip in July to come up for prayer. He prayed over me first and I was down/out for a while. Then he prayed over the three youth, all young men, and God began to move on them powerfully.
When I thought that God was through with me, I began assisting Dianne (Jim's wife) in soaking the young men while Jim went on with his sermon. At first the Holy Spirit was flowing through me to minister and I also released a few prophetic words to two of the young men. I finished everything that I felt God leading me to minister and I was planning to go back to my seat to hear the rest of the teaching. But the Holy Spirit whispered, "I am not done with you." Then He fell on me so powerfully that I found myself laying on the floor next to the three young men. Dianne was still praying for them, but God began to saturate my senses so strongly that I was not really paying attention to her.
I got up about when Jim started the personal ministry for the sixth point. I don't really remember the details because the Holy Spirit was on me so strongly. I felt like the anointing was on me so strongly that an overflow was dipping off of me. I call that feeling "dripping full."
Then the Lord said, "Teresa, I am about to do something, so pay attention." I said "Ok." Then it felt like a person was standing behind me, really close to me. They seemed to move closer so that it felt like the front of their legs pressed lightly against the back of my legs, and like their stomach pressed against my back. I had my arms outstretched in front of me, raised to the Lord but bent at the elbows. It felt like the person behind me pressed their arms against mine, cupping the back of my hands in their palms. At first I thought that was strange. I wanted to open my eyes and turn my head and make sure that someone wasn't doing something weird to me in the service. But God spoke to me and said, "What you are feeling is a ministry angel. Do not be alarmed and do not break away from Me right now."
I decided to keep my eyes closed and trust that God was in control. There was such a strong sense of His presence on me, and that made it a lot easier to trust Him in the midst of an unusual experience. Then the Lord told me that I should not think it odd for Him to send an angel to me in the midst of an Open Heaven conference. He told me that He was assigning this angel to me, and that any time He sent me out to minister, the angel would go and minister along side of me. The angel was not there to do it's own thing but to do what God was doing. God also told me that this angel was not like the angels I'd met before, who spent a lot of time talking to me. This angel would seldom speak to me because his job was to minister along side of me, not to instruct me. When he did speak to me, it would be more ministry instructions and it would be hard for me to tell wither it was the angel's voice or God's voice.
At that point, I was happy with what God was saying to me, but I began to wonder if it was really God, or if it was simply my imagination combined with the desire of my heart to move in a greater level of anointing. Then God told me, "I will prove that it is Me and not your imagination. I will do something that is outside of your control so you can know it is me. Notice the palms of your hands, what do they feel like?"
There was a light tingling in my hands, on both of my palms. I have felt this sensation many times in the past when I am in God's presence. I could still feel what felt like a person standing behind me pressed up against my body.
Then God said, "I am going to increase the intensity of what you feel, and I will add heat as well. Your hands will get very hot, so that you know this is really Me, and that I have really assigned a ministering angel to you."
The instant He finished whispering that to my spirit, the tingling in my hands began to increase substantially and it felt like I was holding little balls of electricity in both hands.
Jim finished the meeting and turned control back over to Rodney. I scooted over 1 seat to make room for Jim to sit down next to his wife. Rodney said we would end the service by waiting on the Lord and allowing Him to minister directly to us. The worship team came back to the platform and began to play. I tried to close my eyes to worship, but my hands became so hot that they literally distracted me from the worship.
It felt like God was saying "See, I told you so! This really is Me and I really did send My angel to minister with you." Of course I felt very excited, and I began to thank God. I wanted to press into greater depths of worship and intimacy with God, but sometime inside of me felt like it would explode if I did not minister.
Rodney had not released a ministry time, this was an individual worship time, but I felt like God wanted me to minister. I was not sure what to do, so I decided to test the waters. Jim was on my left and the lady on my right was someone who I did not know well. But I had ministered a word to her a few weeks ago during worship and she seemed to be open to ministry. So I laid my hands on her and began to pray quietly for her. As I stretched my arm out to touch her, it felt like the angel's arm was still pressed against mine and was touching her along with me. She began to react as if God was hitting her with a greater measure of His presence.
Then the Lord directed my attention to a lady who I thought did not like me. I tended to stay out of her way because of that, but God put it on my heart to go pray for her. I thought to myself, "I can't do that. This isn't a ministry time and she doesn't like me. I will end up offending her and interrupting her time with God. But I could sense God's great love for her, and I knew He wanted to bless her. I decided to risk it, silently praying that she would not get upset with me praying for her. As I laid my hands on her, I could feel God's power on me increase. God gave me one prophetic sentence to say to her and I spoke it. The power and presence of God seemed to hit her and she responded to the Lord. It was as if she was totally unaware of me and completely aware of God ministering to her. That was sort of what I'd been praying for--to minister His presence without getting in the way. I knew she wasn't being nice (because she is not fond of me) and that she was having a genuine encounter with God.
I prayed briefly for another 5 or 6 people as I moved around the room, the ones who God seemed to call to my attention. The Lord's power seemed to increase on each of them as I prayed for them. Then it was time to do a few chores and take Jim and Dianne home.
[ Testimony Index Page ] [ Previous Article ] [ Next Article ]