An Angel I Want To Meet

The surface of the water was glass smooth. It must have been ten minutes, six or seven at the very least. Why had I waited so long to respond to the phone call? Why didn’t I just hang up on the other phone call and say I had an emergency to tend to? Why hadn’t I drained the baptistery last night after the baptism? How could this happen? How could God let this happen?

The girl laying under water in the bottom of the baptistery had been there nearly ten minutes, judging by the fact the surface of the water was now glass smooth. I had received a “signal” phone call, alerting me that the girl was in danger. Whenever the demons put her in a trance and did something dangerous with her I always received a phone call, with no voice. It became my signal to go find her and rescue her. I called Gary to drive over and help me. But I was in the church office alone that day, and got a second phone call immediately after the first, regarding funeral plans for the recent passing of our senior pastor. I couldn’t ignore the call.

When I finally got off the phone I began to run to all the phones in the church complex. The “signal” call had come in on the second church line, so I knew the girl must be on site. The first phone I came to had wet footprints on the carpet where she had stood in front of the phone to make the call. But it wasn’t a rainy day. I quickly remembered the baptism from the night before and went running to the front of the sanctuary. When I looked in, that is when I saw the horror. I feared the demons had finally been able to take her life. I didn’t stand there arguing with God why he would let this happen. I jumped in to pull her out. Gary arrived right then, as I was wrestling her out of the water. Fortunately he knew first aid. He felt for a pulse and couldn’t feel it. Her body was cold. He started CPR. Within a few short minutes she began breathing and her pulse got stronger. We wrapped her in blankets and she recovered. What a miracle. But God, that was too close for comfort. Way too close.

Some time later, in another situation altogether, we learned the secret of the “signal” phone calls. Whenever demons put this girl into a trance and began to do something life-threatening, an angel would usurp their position and indwell her. The angel would then make the phone call, but never speak. And it was that angel that indwelt her that afternoon in the baptistery. He slowed down her heart to a crawl, stopped her from breathing and filling her lungs with water, and kept her alive until we could rescue and revive her. I didn’t know that then. Had I known of the angel all through the deliverance I might have been unduly intrigued, and got my focus off of Jesus and the manifest power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. The angel was simply God’s agent.

But someday, in heaven, I have an appointment I plan to make. I want to meet that angel -- sit down and have a few cups of coffee at the Golden Café, and reminisce.

“Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14)