Interviewing Angels (Heb 13:2)

As I write this I sit in the office of the hotel at my weekend moonlighting job. Its okay, I’ve got plenty of time. In fact, its all the extra time I’ve got that made this evening so special. It started around 1 am, just a bit more than 3 hours ago, and ended shortly after 4 am.

Staying at our fine establishment are some folks here in town to do a ministry outreach to the local prison. Three of the ladies in the group came in and sat out in the lobby. They began talking about the bible and were cutting up and having a good time. The mood was contagious and rather than sit at the PC and peck away on study notes and research, I found myself at the desk. These ladies were very animated and eventually I piped up. They looked over at me and smiled and replied. Over the next several minutes they invited me into the conversation. Eventually I came around to the lobby and sat with them to talk.

Heb 13:2 is the passage flirting with my mind. In context (context is very important) here’s verses 1-3 - Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. We started talking about love. They were under the false impression I was an angel - It became quite the source of humor to our slap-happy quartet. ((As yet I’m not completely convinced they are the angels and I’m the lowly mortal.)) And tying this together with a lovely bow: they are here doing prison ministry.

You see, one of the ladies was a leader, another her close friend, and the third was a woman who was, for lack of a better term, rededicated to her faith and suddenly on fire all over again for the Lord. Following what I can only describe as a prompting, I found myself quoting numerous scriptures and explaining them. My frequent readers would recognize many of them. Anyway, we talked about the literal accuracy of scripture, the essence of love and of faith, the relationship between faith and works, and so much more. We talked about the good message of the Roman Road, but the false principle that this is where the good news ends.

Here’s why this was so profoundly important for me: I can share these things with all of you quite easily. Sitting in front of a monitor I’m spraying words across a screen to an audience I never see in person and it is buffered by the time difference between the fingers on the keyboard and the time I paste the message and again until the time you actually come along and read this. Tonight I shared in real time, full motion, fully interactive, with others who glistened with the shining light of the Holy Spirit of Jesus. Things came out of me I can’t begin to explain here, but amazed me. Most amazing was what I got in return. As the hour grew late for them we closed in a prayer. They asked me to lead, but somehow I went last. This was a blessing because what these women prayed was wave after wave of things I needed. The blessings I received were incalculable. God duct taped my mouth shut when it needed it and ripped it off when I needed to speak. I have not “felt” the movement of the Spirit like this in a long time – many years to be sure. They asked me questions, which I answered. I also asked some questions. It was a time of fellowship I have prayed for and literally dreamt about. It was what I felt church should be. Not the building, but the joining in Spirit of believers, brought together in unity and bound by the common bond of a single indwelling Spirit. It is this unplanned (by me) experience I sit in awe about. Eph 2:10 says the Lord has prepared good works for us. Not I, yet it was the Spirit within which accomplishes these things.

Who besides Jesus would have said I’d be coming down from the mountain in the wee hours of this morning, glowing still from my proximity to the face of God? Who could have predicted these angels doing the Lord’s work would have found in me a person in whom to pour out the Spirit and their blessings and their prophesy. I know my Lord was with me tonight. I know it not because of what I felt, but by the work of his hands in my midst and by the voice he spoke through these women. Love is a verb. Tonight I felt loved because I was loved. God loves me. I saw this by witnessing the service done, both giving and receiving. I am confident I received more – infinitely more – than I gave, but the idea holds. I saw lights coming on. I saw excitement. I felt the urgency and responded and was blessed.

Now I have a new hunger. The emotions I want again and I’m greedy for them. For my greed I beg forgiveness. For my fervent desire to serve the Lord by serving others I am grateful and still hopeful I receive even a fraction of the blessing. I pray to be the willing vessel to pour out the Spirit with both word and deed – not to be saved by doing so, but because my pardon has been paid for at the cross and this is the path to walk out of the prison and toward the prize.