CLIVE EXELBY
"I am writing this few days before Christmas and I’m sure you are aware that Angels play a large part in the Christmas Advent. The fact is, Angelic encounters are all over God’s word, New and Old Testaments. I don't think that we should be shocked by these events, surprised maybe, remember they are for our good.
Hebrews 13: 2 it says 'Do not forget to entertain strangers for by doing so some have encountered Angels without even knowing it'.
For some people these are quite common happenings especially in Nations where there is a lot of persecution of Christians. The book of Revelations tells us that Angels worship at the throne of God, they come to bring comfort, guidance, they fight for us, they bring God’s message to us, they Judge, they protect us. We know from Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 that one third of the Angels in heaven rebelled against God and were cast out of heaven along with Lucifer, that means two thirds remain loyal to the Lord.
Let me tell you about one of my encounters. It was 1988, I was asked to join a team of five on a trip to Thailand, Burma and Vietnam where we would carry in Bibles, preach, encourage and pray for the saints and bring back a report about the state of Christianity in these restricted Nations. This was not my first mission trip, but I sensed that there was something special about this one. Firstly I did not have the money needed to travel but 1 week after saying yes to going, the leader of our group rang to say that all my expenses had been paid for anonymously. Many years later I found out that the woman who paid my way had done so by working night shift in a Kiwifruit pack-house, what a servant.
Two months later we flew to Bangkok where we were to wait a day for Mr E, our Leader to arrive from Manila. After Mr E arrived, he and I took a stroll in the cool of the evening where he told me about the great things God is doing in the Philippines. As we were engrossed in the conversation, we did not notice the bag snatcher who grabbed my money bag and ran. I ran after him, when I caught up with him he let my bag go, I let him go, but that was only the beginning of a long night. The police arrived with the robber and off to the local police station for statements, photos and sharing our faith with those in the lock-up and the local police. Wow what a night, I got my bag, the police got to hear the Good news of Jesus Christ and the robber got 4 years in jail.
Before we left for Burma we shared with some of the local saints and prayed for many, one 7 year old had Leukemia and only weeks to live, but by God's grace was instantly healed when we laid hands on him. Burma is a difficult country, strictly Buddhist and with years and years of civil war. We were asked to meet a believer in the reception area of a Rangoon Hotel, after sharing God’s word with her we offered to pray, but when we laid hands on her, she was overpowered by the Holy Spirit and collapsed on the floor. This was all fine except that the foyer was crowded with local people and Army personnel. God is great as He must have blinded their eyes as no-one did anything. We left the next day for Mandalay where we unloaded our Bibles to the local Saints and spent 5 days preaching, teaching and encouraging our new found friends. After flying back to Rangoon, we travelled back to Bangkok where we rested up for a day. It was then on to Ho Chi Min, we miraculously got our 700 Vietnamese Bibles through the border search, then off for a good night's sleep. Vietnam was heavily guarded, visas and travel are expensive, tourists are treated with suspicion and Christianity is illegal.
The next morning we had contact with a local Pastor who arranged to pick us up on bicycles at 10.30am, and we went off to do our touristy thing. After breakfast the next day we met for prayer and each person packed their allocation of “bread”(Bibles) in a small bag, then we made our way to the lift to meet our Pastor down the road. With the five of us plus the “bread” we had overloaded the lift and it was stuck between floors 3 and 2. Two of us men managed to open the lift door and pull the lift back up to floor 3, but when we went down the stairs to the reception area, there were 10 - 12 policemen. We shot up a quick prayer, “God please blind the eyes of these policemen”. Praise God, we walked out and down the road to hop onto the back of bicycles and deliver the “bread”. After a couple more touristy days we left for Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital. After a day at the hotel we got word that we were being watched and our contact said it was too dangerous to meet up. Although we were disappointed to not meet the local Saints and deliver our “bread”, we sensed that God had other stuff for us, we went into prayer. One of the other things is that one floor of this Hotel was full of Russian soldiers enjoying a holiday.
After dinner on the third night ,we left for our rooms. God had already shown us so much in intercession for the Vietnamese Church.
I was rooming with Mr E, who is a night owl, while I am a fowl, early to bed early to rise, but at mid-night Mr E wakes me up to "can you hear ,can you hear it”, still half asleep I said “hear what”, the Angels singing Mr E replied. After a few minutes I could hear the choir of Angels singing “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, Worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lamb of God”, it was like the sea crashing into the sea-shore as a crescendo and then going out again. This huge anthem of praise and adoration was just like we read about in the book of Revelation, we did not sleep the rest of the night, as we were the back-up singers for the Angelic choir. When we went down to breakfast the next morning, we shared about the exciting experience we had in the night, at that point the other three were able to hear the Angels too. We could hear the Angels singing from 11pm till 12 noon a total of 13 hours. I know that some have asked why did this happen but it's not for me to explain why God does this or that, but we sensed that God was telling us that everything in Vietnam is okay, the Angels are rejoicing over Vietnam and the brave Vietnamese Saints in this land are rejoicing with the Angels. Psalm 2: 8 'ask of me and I will make the Nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession'. Amen.