Angelic Rescue

More years passed, and the vivid, all too real nightmares continued to traumatize me in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, my spiritual awakening, though real, was not extremely deep. After a number of years, I noticed that there often seemed to be a connection between stressful times and the nightmares, but this knowledge did not do anything to help relieve them.

After a life changing, eye opening spiritual encounter at a prayer meeting in Kelowna, I left my job and moved to Burnaby with 2 years' worth of university transfer courses completed and resumed my education at S.F.U. Several years later, my hunger for a true and living God had led me to seek out people and places where the Spirit of God seemed to be at work giving people victory over damaging issues in their lives. I absolutely loved the Vancouver area and being near the ocean, but my life just wasn't what I knew it should be and my search for more personal freedom and peace eventually led me to some action in Abbotsford. For about a year, my friends and I visited "revival" meetings there, and I saw some wonderful healings and had another revealing spiritual encounter with God. I will share about these encounters at another time. Right now, I'd like to get to the specific miracle of rescue.

Simply put, much of what I was seeing and hearing at meetings and in conversations with recipients of God's supernatural touch was causing me to believe that God could and would do something for me, not as a reward for anything that I had done, but just because of His infinite, supernatural love for me. Why me? Only because I am one individual in the world full of unique individuals whom He loves regardless of race, colour, creed, religion or sin or anything else that could be named as a disqualification.

I heard many times and read about spiritual armor that I could put on and an undefeatable weapon that I could use. That weapon is called the Sword of the Spirit and is otherwise known as the Word of God, a book full of God's words that are "alive and active". I learned that, used with sincere faith in a man named Jesus, the Sword of the Spirit works to defeat my spiritual enemy. After choosing to move to Abbotsford, it took a few years for me to decide to use the Sword, but finally I did.

When I was about 42, it finally occurred to me that the nightmares were not normal and were probably not "just me". Deeply ingrained beliefs die hard and often require a firm commitment in order to finally experience the miracle of a renewed and healed mind! At that point in time, I decided that whenever I woke from a nightmare, I would pick up my Sword and use it. So, my battle began.

At first, all that would happen was that I would feel better after speaking aloud the words of Jesus and words about Jesus to whatever may be listening in the spirit realm. Peace would come and I would go back to sleep. After a few months something new happened. I woke up in extreme fear again, sat up and turned on the light. My cat at the time, who slept on my bed with me, hopped down to the floor and crouched, staring under the bed and growling. Yes, growling, like a small dog. I only recall ever hearing him do that one other time when I was carrying him past a shrub near a park, where I had been walking him on a leash; and then another cat stepped out from hiding in the shrub after we passed by. I lived on the second floor of an apartment building, and there was only about 3 inches of space under the edge of my narrow bed. Nobody could get under there. There were no stray cats under my bed, and Kimchi would not growl at a bug; he would be attacking it. (He saved me from a huge spider one time!) Anyway! Crazy as it was, I did not feel worried, and I read more of the Powerful Words out loud again. After a few minutes, Kimchi appeared to be watching something invisible rise up from my bed area and drift toward the window and out, then, nothing. He was now peaceful, and so was I. And most importantly, now I knew for sure that I was onto something. Something sinister had been exposed.

I can't remember the exact time frame, but it was approximately one year of contending for my freedom when, one night, I dreamed that I was looking down into a deep, rugged shadowy ravine. I was horrified to see that down below were two giant black bears, each one about as big as a two school buses. Giant! They were on their way up the hill toward me, and of course I was their prey. However, this time, about a dozen men in search and rescue uniforms rushed in from out of nowhere, and I immediately knew they were more than human. I could sense a wonderful angelic presence about them, and they were just suddenly there. I believe they were angels. They rapidly carried cages and threw them over the bears and that was it--done! I have never, after many more years, ever had another one of those paralyzing night terrors. None.

The next night, I dreamt I was in a new, clean swept barn with open rafters. So clean and so fresh. I lay peacefully on the boards near the roof, overwhelmed, saturated with utter joy; below me on the smooth wooden floor ballroom dancers in gowns and suits gracefully stepped and swirled in the warm, soft lighting. How many years had it been since I had had a happy dream? It seemed like my whole life. I only remembered fear. I never wanted the moment or the feeling to end. It was so sweet, so delicious, so complete. And again, it seemed to me that I was observing angels, that I was being given a peek into the spiritual realm. Perhaps a celebration for another victory won? I think so.