Displaying items by tag: trust in God

When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.

“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Strike this army with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.   (2 Kings 6:15-18 NIV)

Most of us have actually never seen angels, but the Bible tells us they are around us and are watching over us. They are ready to act when we call upon the Lord with all our hearts in challenging or dangerous situations.

Over the years, I have had the opportunity to hear many stories of those who have had angelic encounters. One such opportunity was just a few weeks ago when I was sitting in a restaurant waiting for my car to have its oil changed. An older couple, Mark and Joy, sat down nearby to have their breakfast. After exchanging greetings, we began to talk about the things of the Lord as they saw I was studying my Bible. Joy then told me one of the most amazing stories of the Lord’s deliverance that I have ever heard.

In 1980, as a 23 year-old mother, she was invited to visit what she thought was a friend of her family in Oklahoma. This man who was an ex-convict had at one time worked for her father. She brought her young children, the older of which was about 18 months, with her.

While staying with this man and one of his comrades, she was drugged by them. That night, she and her children were taken by them to a coven of 7-8 witches, all clothed in black robes, that had prepared a circle and altar to sacrifice her children to Satan, counting on her to be a consenting witness. Although she was weakened from the drugs she was given, she suddenly realized what was about to happen. With all her heart and in utter desperation, she cried out to God with the words, “Oh God!”

At that moment, a bright and shining being about 20 feet tall came down in the midst of the darkness. She could not see his face, but he was a powerful, glowing giant, emitting white light like a massive halogen lamp. When the Satanists saw him, they ran for their lives in sheer terror.

Joy told me that this story was kept buried in her heart for many years until she was listening to a particularly dull sermon in church one day. The pastor read the above story of Elisha praying for his servant’s eyes to be opened to the fact that there were supernatural agents all about them in spite of the dangerous situation of being surrounded by an enemy army. Suddenly, something moved through her “like a tornado”, freeing her from this awful memory from her young motherhood so that she could come to grips with what had happened and to rejoice in how God had used this experience for good in her life. Now, she counts on His angels to protect her and her family as in the recent case of a stolen truck that was returned to her and her husband within three days as they trusted the Lord.

Another story of angelic deliverance comes from George, a close friend and prayer colleague of mine who worked as a missionary in South Asia for many years and was often in grave danger at the hands of Islamic extremists who wanted to harm or kill him numerous times.  They admitted to him: “We have tried to kill you again and again, your new converts and burn your center, but we can’t get to any of you, because there are huge angels or guards around you and your people and center, with huge swords in their hands and at night huge torches (lights).” Each time they used the word “huge.”  George went on to say: “This came after a time when I was losing leader after leader, three of whom I had raised up to take my place.  I had a word given to me two unrelated times.  “You are alive today because people are praying for you, but you will lose your workers if you do not get a blanket of prayer over them.”  I went back and said to our workers (evangelists and teachers) we are going to change our ministry. We will pray first and seek God’s will, then we will act…The next time I was in America, I thanked churches for their support, and I shared some hair raising stories, and said if you’re not going to pray for us please drop our support, prayer is what keep us alive and accomplishes God’s purposes. We never had any of our workers die after that.”

Others I have met in the course of my travels have told me similar accounts. Prayer enables us to access the Lord’s mighty deliverances, often mediated by angels either visible or invisible to our eyes. Personally, along with team members, I have been in many very dangerous situations in the midst of civil wars and other unstable conditions while facilitating prayer initiatives with national Christian leaders. Our teams have had to go through snipers, genocidal killers, suicide bombers, and the like numerous times. As we pray and trust the Lord along with many supporting intercessors, we know that He has unseen agents standing guard around us all the time. I could tell story after story of how He has done this.

Stories of this kind bring glory to the Lord and should be shared to encourage His people, especially the younger generation, so we all will be willing to take risks for the Lord and His cause in the various, unique missions to which He has called us.

John Robb, IPC Chairman

If you have a story of this kind you would like to share, please write it up an send it to us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Scottish MP John Mason says that people’s conversations and prayers verge on panic at the thought of Brexit. Yet, in the light of eternity and God’s unchanging love for us, why is our relationship with the EU so very important? He quotes the hymn which says, ‘Because He lives I can face tomorrow, because He lives all fear is gone, because I know He holds the future, and life is worth the living just because He lives’. He said, ‘We are in the world, but not of it. Even if those around us are worried or even panicking, we should be the ones who are at peace about the future.’ We can pray for those who are fearful about where their family’s future lies, or worried about their jobs or the future of their business. Pray for more people to know the peace that only Jesus can give.

On Wednesday in Iraq, an IS booby-trap killed a family of twenty-three, including pregnant women and children. In Indonesia, two suicide bombs detonated outside a bus terminal, killing three guards. In Somalia, five people were killed by a Shahid suicide bomber, and in Syria children were among fifteen civilians killed by IS. Last Saturday Islamic terrorists opened fire on Nigerian villagers, killing at least seven. The list goes on. Manchester brought terrorism to the UK, but so far this year there have been 496 terrorist attacks globally, with 3,292 fatalities. We can’t remove terrorism, but God can change hearts, situations and nations. He can use situations and circumstances in Iran, Nigeria, Yemen, Somalia, Bangladesh and other nations being shaken to achieve His purposes. Terrorism is a big concept, but our God is bigger.