A friend of mine, who used to be cessationist, was visited by an angel. This is his testimony:
Before our youngest was born, we went for the 21 week ultrasound and they were very concerned about some things they found, and referred us to UAB hospital. We got lots of bad news over the next several months until her birth. During that time we were so scared and unsure about everything. It was a faith crisis because every time we would go back for more scans it seemed our prayers weren’t being answered. One night during that time, my wife and I both had separate dreams on the same night. We’re both not really sure if we were dreaming or if we were awake and in a sleepy stuper and seeing in the spirit. She dreamed that a large snake slithered into our room and up on the bed, headed to her womb. We had gotten a word about the baby early in the pregnancy and really felt that the medical issues were an attack on her life, so she woke up in so much fear that she even went to check on the other kids. I was oblivious to what happened with her until the next morning when we talked about it. I told her that same night I had a dream where I “woke up” and saw a huge shining figure in the right corner of our bedroom, near the door. It was like the ceiling wasn’t there because he towered high above it. The clothing he wore was like shining armor except it flowed like fabric in the wind. The metallic fabric emitted the purest white light I’ve ever seen. I could never really see his face. I tried to look at it, but it was like I couldn’t focus on it. Almost like I wasn’t allowed to see it or something. He had a huge sword and held it in front of him at an angle. Then it was like it zoomed in on the sword and scanned it up and down so I’d get a really good look. Then it was all gone. We both woke up and began to tell each other of our experiences that night. We were blown away and so encouraged! What’s funny is, the morning prior I had a waking dream in the middle of the night and heard someone knocking at the door. Then heard the words, “You’re going to have a visitor.” I responded, “A bad visitor?” Then God chuckled and said, “Of course not!” Then we had the snake and angel the next night! About a month later, our youngest was born. The doctors were perplexed that they had “misdiagnosed” her so badly. She was perfectly healthy except for a minor kidney issue that was fixed with a minor procedure at 6 months old.
The visitation we had strengthened our faith and our worry went down a lot! We haven’t shared it with many people because it’s just weird to people, you know? Dreams were a huge part of my discovery of Holy Spirit and getting to know God as a Father. More than anything, His voice, via spoken prophecy and even dreaming, revealed His heart to me and the relationship became personal. This all started just a few years ago. I was kind of cessationist, and thought the gift of the Spirit just happened in the Bible, before I started having these encounters with God. There’s just something about EXPERIENCING God that is missing in the church. Encounter comes first, then identity, then purpose! We are doing our part to build that kind of church culture.
lovedisciple 