The Midnight Cry:
A Prophetic Witness to the Church Today

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7
Miraculous Manifestations
Part 1

Angelic appearances and other supernatural manifestations are probably more common today than they have ever been. In this booklet, we describe some that we have experienced.

There are many ‘Thomases’ alive today; people who are hardened sceptics, who just will not believe in the reality of the supernatural world. They don’t think God exists, let alone Jesus! If you were to declare that there is a whole angelic kingdom – in a spiritual dimension – all around them, they would consider you ‘out of your tree’!

But who really is ‘out of their tree’? What would it take to convince such people that there is a spiritual world of which we have only the faintest glimmer of understanding? Personally, I believe that for some people, there is simply nothing God can do to convince them of His reality in this life. They are so deceived that they are totally convinced in their ignorance! It will not be until after they die, that they come face to face with reality.

That need not be so for us – those of us who are willing to believe the accounts we are given. Jesus told Thomas that, although he had believed in Jesus’ reality because he had seen Him, there would be many others who would believe Thomas’ witness and that of the other followers of Jesus.

You don’t have to see to believe.

Paul told the Romans that faith comes by hearing (Rom 10:17). Hearing is sufficient for those who are willing to believe. Are you willing to believe? There is a great blessing if you are!

Key To Believing

Many Christians fail to receive from God because of lack of faith. And many of those don’t have faith because they have not humbled themselves. There is a correlation between humility and faith. Few see the connection between willingness and believing acceptance.

The Roman centurion, who received commendation from Jesus for his great faith, was equally modest. His great respect for Jesus and his own low self-esteem (Matt 8:8) were instrumental in him being able to believe.

You cannot have great faith without great humility.

When we are humble like little children, we can also have child-like belief and trust. The reason sceptics abound in the world is because there are many self-reliant people who don’t think they need God. They have all they want, or even if they don’t have all they want, they think they can get it without God’s help. As long as people try and live their lives in such a fashion, they will fall short of spiritual believing.

However, if you believe, there is much you can receive! God wants to bless you.

 A Personal Example

A few years ago, a man came to stay with us who had physical disabilities. His life was a real struggle. He ‘believed’ in God – after a fashion. But, he didn’t believe ‘enough’ to receive healing for his predicament. He didn’t know God well enough.

God is able to heal us of any and every physical complaint. This man knew that, mentally, but he didn’t know God personally so that He could trust Him and see the healing manifested. There is a difference between believing God does heal and believing God will heal. One is academic, the other is practical.

One reason many who believe in God – and who even believe God heals – don’t receive healing is that they don’t believe in Him sufficiently to know Him as a reality. As a result, what they need does not become reality either. They don’t trust Him to the extent that they lay their lives completely in His hands, come what may.

The reason for their failure to trust Him is, very often, lack of humility – pride. Pride is a ‘funny’ thing. It is something we all have to one degree or another, yet something we rarely see in ourselves. We can be proud about our own abilities, but fail to see that such pride resists God coming into our lives. We can be satisfied with ourselves the way we are. That is a form of pride.

Only when we dislike ourselves and want to change can we come to know God. As Jesus put it, we must hunger and thirst for righteousness. Complacency is the sister of pride.

The man who came to stay with us was outwardly very nice. He was pleasant and had an affable personality. But inwardly he was sad and dejected. Perhaps some of that inner sorrow was as a result of the physical suffering he was enduring. God wanted to heal him completely, but there was something blocking God out of his life and preventing that health being manifested.

He believed in God. He kept the Commandments and was careful to do all that he saw God commands us in the Bible.

However, his own fastidiousness towards what he saw in God’s Word – which differed somewhat from what others believed – produced in him a sense of pride that he had got things right which others had ‘missed’. He was arrogant, but could not see it. As a result, he lacked a personal relationship with God, and also lacked real belief.

An Angel Appears

One day, he (I shall refer to him as ‘Jim’) went for a walk down a quiet lane near our home. (We are fortunate to live in the country, and the lane nearby is only used by six or seven cars each day, so it is a good place to stroll). As he ambled along on this pleasant summer’s day, a painter’s van came towards him. It had sign-writing on the sides. It stopped and the driver got out.

What amazed Jim was that this ‘man’ had no trousers! He asked Jim where a certain farm was, but, being new to the area, he didn’t know. Of course Jim was somewhat astonished that this 'man' only had a pair of boxer shorts on, and was wondering what sort of 'clown' this fellow was!

Then, the driver proceeded to explain that he had called at another place and pointed behind him, where, he said, they had given him a good 'spanking' and had taken his trousers away. Jim was incredulous!

Jim told us all this on his return. When our son, Richard, heard the story, the Lord spoke to him and told him that He had sent an angel along in a painter's van. Presumably this all occurred to cheer Jim up. Richard was given a vision of a large 'barn' in heaven where there were all sorts of amazing things. Amongst these items was a painter's van, sign-written on the sides – like the one which Jim had seen that day!

At this point, there are probably many reading this who will be saying: "Oh, don't be so silly! God doesn't send angels in painter's vans to earth!"

While I can sympathise with your disbelief, I don't go along with it. I believe the account, although I did not see it happen.

I saw Jim. I saw the way he was. And I know God's love, His great ingenuity and His great sense of humour – something many could do with more of! I know also that God frequently works in riddles, but if we are not spiritually perceptive, we will miss His message.

Was the painter's van supposed to open up for Jim a new spiritual dimension – to 'paint' a new picture of God in Jim's mind? Was he meant to grasp a side of God's personality which Jim, in his sour self- righteousness, had not perceived? God is a God of fun. He has an immeasurable innate joy. Conversely, man, under Satan's dominion, has come to view life from a miserable viewpoint.

God sent the angel for a reason. Was it to make Jim more aware of God's awareness of him? Was it to cheer him up? Was it to cause him to be more spiritually minded? Was it to prompt him to really believe in God? We don't know all the reasons. Only God knows. Unfortunately, Jim did not respond. He disbelieved that it was an angel.

There are several factors which support that belief. Sound logic verifies that it was not just a man, but an angel. If a man had received a 'spanking' and been deprived of his trousers, as he had quipped, he would not have been in the jovial mood he was. Furthermore, he would not have got out of the van. He would have stayed in the driver's seat, out of sight. Nor would he have volunteered such information about what was supposed to have happened to him.

Moreover, God would not have spoken to Richard when Jim returned and told him what really had occurred. It was a supernatural manifestation!

Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it (Heb 13:2).

This incident certainly made us laugh! Unfortunately, Jim did not think it funny. He simply discounted the whole incident and went home no better off emotionally or spiritually. In fact, because he had resisted God through unbelief, he went home more bitter and empty, and later became hostile towards us. He could have received more faith in God, had he been willing to humble himself and believe like a little child, but he chose not to. His sourness only deepened and his sick body only worsened.

There is only one gateway into the fun, the joy and the happiness of God. You've got to believe.

Angels Appear Again

Angels are all around us. As God's children we all have a guardian angel, preserving us in our destiny (Ps 34:7; 35:5,6; 91:11).

Naturally, the sceptic protests, "Oh, don't be childish! Why then does God allow accidents and tragedies to befall us? If we had angels looking after us, they would prevent those distressing things".

Would they? Sometimes, maybe; but not always if those events serve some constructive purpose in our development in the long run.

We must not forget also, God never violates our freedom of choice. Sometimes the choices we have made permit tragedy to strike. We should not blame all tragedy upon God. All humanity must take responsibility for the cumulative effects of its actions throughout history. Suffering, problems and difficulties should not make us discount the existence of God or of angels.

If we did not have angels surrounding us in life, we would have countless more problems! We must learn to reverse the problems of our own making. That is part of our spiritual development in this life. If everything went monotonously right all the time, we would learn little from life. We certainly would not see our own mistakes and shortcomings.

Life's relentless sequence of cause and effect does not discount the spiritual. It corroborates it. Humanity is governed by spiritual laws which we need to comply with for our own good.

If we live unbelieving lives, we will fail to enjoy the fullness of our spiritual relationship with God. We will only be half 'there'.

Perhaps it is because little children have a natural purity in belief that angels have manifested themselves to them more than to adults. Two of our three children have seen angels.

The first manifestations occurred in 1993. Our youngest daughter, who was about nine at the time, saw an angel in her bedroom. He did not frighten her. Although he said nothing to her, she somehow knew "he was very kind". He was the size of an average man, very bright and had two outstretched wings.

On another occasion, an angel appeared to her in a similar form, but in another room in our home. And on a third occasion, she saw two angels outside the house almost opposite ours on the other side of the road, one standing either side of the front door. They must have been the guardian angels of our nearest neighbours.

Richard, who is now 25, has seen angels on several occasions. The first also occurred in 1993. They varied, he says, in appearance. Sometimes it was a partial apparition, when he saw the translucent figure of a 'man' with wings. Other times, he perceived their presence in the spirit, although he could not see them with the naked eye.

At one time, there were several angels in our living room, while we were sitting talking. Richard perceived where they were and pointed to their positions, although my wife and I could not see them. Some were smaller than others. Some were sitting in various places on the furniture. It made us laugh to hear that one was sitting high up on top of a side-board! Even more funny was the account he related of the angel who was given the nick-name 'Bonkey-Booey', because he appeared to Richard bouncing on a pogo-stick (in the spirit, of course).

The rational human mind finds all this rather ridiculous if not frivolous. But, I can only relate what we have experienced. I don't find it far-fetched myself. I trust the accounts. I know my children are truthful. They are not making up stories that would only receive ridicule from sceptics. It is understandable that angels will appear to children in a way that children can relate to.

Once, when Richard went to post some important letters, an angel appeared to him sitting on the post box! He saw another protecting the conifer shrub we have planted in front of our house, trimmed into the shape of a cross.

On two occasions, while Richard was working underneath our home, building a cellar which is to be used as a meeting hall, angels manifested. At one time, two appeared and spoke to him. They told him they were there to watch over the operations to make sure that what we did was right and that we achieved what God intended in this construction work. (It may be the only cellar in the country designed by God! We didn't have to sink test boreholes beforehand to see what was down there. God told us the depth to go. When we dug down 12 feet, as He said, we hit solid rock, a firm base onto which we could transfer the loads of the main walls!)

On this particular occasion, they also told Richard something else. They said that they knew precisely where the promised red BMW was and they are watching over it.

For those who are not aware, several years ago, we were given prophetic words that God would give us a second-hand red BMW 325i estate car for use in our ministry. Richard was the one who received this 'word' from God. We are awaiting the fulfilment of this prophecy. When it occurs, those who have poured criticism and doubt upon its veracity will have to eat their words and humble themselves before God.

Visions in the Spirit Realm

Some years ago, our son received a series of visions of angelic activity in the spirit realm. He was shown angels cavorting about in blissful fun and enjoyment, like 'children' travelling here and there, dancing to wonderful praise music, going into what he could only describe as 'volcanoes' to be re-charged by God's power and 'blown' out of the top in real excitement, being caught by living 'arm-chairs' which cuddled them and enveloped them with love.

All this activity in ‘heaven’ is foreign to us on earth. And these visions seem so bizarre to the natural mind, unaccustomed to the things of the Spirit, that they are discounted. Most people would dismiss them as idle childhood fantasies.

There is so much we don't know of God, His Kingdom, His Spirit and His love! We have a lot more to learn. Richard was open, and perhaps due to that fact, God gave him these spectacular and unusual visions. They made him realise, as a young person, that God is not for 'old fogeys'. He is a fun-loving, vibrant, exciting Being. God reached him in the way He knew best.

Richard was also shown the throne of God in vision. He saw the Father and the Son present with angels around them in a stupendous setting of brilliant colours and light so magnificent it was hard to describe. All the colours of the rainbow surrounded them and a sea of sparkling crystal lay before the throne.

At times these two individuals were separate, at other times he could not tell them apart; they seemed to be melded together. It was not something he could explain because it is only appreciated in the spirit, and some things just cannot be adequately conveyed to the physical mind of man, no matter how spiritually minded that person may be. It takes spiritual faith to accept them.

He was shown the River of Life in heaven. On another occasion he 'saw' in the spirit realm a boy we have been told is going to come back to live on earth. He was swimming in the river and was really enjoying himself!

Don’t ask me to explain all these remarkable experiences. Which human could? All I am trying to do is to convey them as accurately as I can, so that you can believe, just as John wanted us to believe the account he had written of the Saviour’s life on earth (Jn 20:31).

Jesus Manifests Himself

Jesus appeared to the apostles after His resurrection on more than one occasion (Jn 20 and 21). Later He manifested Himself to Paul, whom He was calling for a special mission to reach the Gentiles. Jesus revealed Himself to Paul in vision and taught him through supernatural revelation (Gal 1:11-17).

None of us involved in this ministry claims the same anointing as Paul. He was a most remarkable man. And God set him apart for a remarkable calling. That is why He taught him so intimately. But, God has shown us that He has set us apart to perform His will in helping others. There is a calling upon this ministry which He has established. Part of the evidence of His anointing upon us is demonstrated by the manifestations He has given us.

On more than one occasion, He has appeared in vision in our meetings. The first time, Jesus made Himself visible to Richard while we were meeting in our lounge. He appeared briefly, saying a greeting before becoming invisible again.

On the second occasion, He manifested Himself during the Passover some years ago. We were gathered, as He had told us to by 'words of knowledge', in an upper room. He again momentarily appeared in vision to two people before disappearing.

The third event was on a mundane occasion. Richard was mowing the lawns when Jesus 'pulled up' alongside and asked for a drink out of his little flask. Richard gave Him a drink, after which He thanked him and went. (He did not literally give Him a drink, because what took place occurred in the spirit. It was a vision, but no less real. Jesus created the manifestation, but don't ask me to explain it because I can't.)

Reasons for Manifestations

I believe He has given us these manifestations for several reasons. Firstly they are evidence to believers of His guidance in our ministry.

Secondly, they cause unbelievers to scoff, and that separates true from false. God is sifting people just as grain is sifted from chaff at harvest.

Thirdly, they challenge us all to raise our level of faith¹, and to be more aware of spiritual things. They encourage us to set our minds and affections on more permanent (spiritual) matters than on the temporal things of this world.

Fourthly, angels may come to comfort or bring emotional encouragement.

And finally, angels always come for a spiritual purpose. Many times that is to convey a message of spiritual importance.

Malcolm B. Heap
(This article was written in 1995 and first appeared in Awake! Awake! of April 1995.)

¹ Faith - Raising Our Level of Expectation (£2.00) challenges believers to rise up above the mundane level of physical existence and to 'fly' in the spirit.
 

Miraculous Manifestations
Part 2

Several years ago, we were all sitting in our lounge as a family, talking. I cannot remember the subject of our conversation, except that we were discussing biblical matters.

At that time, this ministry was less than two years old. We were still finding our footing, so to speak. We had little physical or financial support, and even less moral support. It seemed in many ways like we were almost alone, although we knew by faith that God was with us in what He was having us do.

That evening as we sat together, angels appeared in the room to two of our children. They described these 'visitors' to us. We were 'spellbound'.

My wife and I could not see the angelic messengers, but we were comforted by the accounts which our children related.

Angelic appearances are now so numerous and widely publicised – especially in the USA – that whole sections of bookstores have been devoted to stocking books on that one subject alone. There are multiple thousands of accounts of these appearances.

Why? The answer is: it is part of the fulfilment of Bible prophecy. We are in the end times, very close now to the second coming of Jesus. Malachi predicted:

See, I will send My messenger, who will prepare the way before Me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to His temple (Mal 3:1).

Prior to Jesus' return, He sends another messenger in front of Him to prepare, or smooth, the way. Other scriptures reveal this messenger as the end-time 'Elijah' (Mal 4:5; Is 40:3-9; 57:14; 62:10). John the Baptist was the 'Elijah' before Jesus' first coming. The second fulfilment at this time is far more extensive, and is the work of a spiritual Elijah.¹

Part of this fulfilment is by malak appearances (malak is Hebrew for 'angel'). How appropriate that God should choose Malachi to foretell of this happening.

Angels are heavenly messengers: spiritual beings who can appear to us as God wills, either in human or other form, in various states of perceptibility. They may be translucent or opaque. Sometimes they will be as real as you and I are to each other. (That is not to say that amorphous apparitions are not real. I mean, real to the physical senses.) As messengers, naturally they bring a message, although that message does not have to be a spoken one. It may be to convey comfort, or some other emotional or spiritual encouragement. They come with a purpose.

Their message may be quite simple, as it was for Zenya, our nine-year-old daughter at the time when she first saw one. Suddenly, this outstanding figure appeared, shining – although not brilliantly – standing in front of her in her small bedroom. She was not terrified, or frightened in the least. He radiated love, and that just made her feel at home with him. The sense of comfort in such an encounter is not something that is easy to describe. She felt it, and it was a personally meaningful experience for her.

God had His reasons for giving her that assurance through the angelic apparition, as He has for every miraculous manifestation.

As Stephen was being stoned to death by an angry mob, he saw heaven opened and Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father (Acts 7:56).

After Jesus had withstood Satan's fierce attacks in the wilderness, He was mentally and spiritually battered. At that low point, God sent angels to lift Him up and serve Him. He desperately needed encouragement. Physically and emotionally, He was at the point of exhaustion (Matt 4; Luke 4).

Angels are sent to encourage us. They remind us of God's ever-watchful eye (Ps 91:11), caring for us, protecting us as we move forward in the light of His truth.

Your Angel Is Never Far Away

Are you prepared to entertain an angel? That is not a joke. What if your guardian angel were to materialise before your eyes tomorrow? Would you be so incredulous as to disbelieve?

You shouldn't. Paul forewarned us:

Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it (Heb 13:1,2).

In her excellent book Angels, Hope Price (Macmillan) recounts hundreds of fascinating true encounters with our angelic escorts. For example:

"Bob Heasman also encountered a human angel when he went to visit an employee who had been off sick for a while. He had the address in Aylesbury, but could not find the way as the town was unfamiliar to him. He prayed, 'Lord, where do I go?' and heard a voice say, 'Turn left.' He did, and drove along a long straight road. Again he asked, 'Lord, help me.' and then noticed a woman standing on the pavement. He drove past – but then felt constrained to turn the car round and pulled up alongside her. Surprisingly, she said, 'I knew you would come back.' Bob gave her the address he was trying to find and she gave him the following precise instructions: 'Take the second left, and when you come to a T-junction, the house is right opposite.' Bob thanked her and got into the car. She waved and disappeared before his eyes" (Ibid. p 34).

"Perhaps an even more astonishing incident was the arrival of an angel plumber! Patricia Heaton, a single parent, was living in Yorkshire with her two small children when her gas boiler broke down. Not only was there no hot water, Patricia was also concerned about the danger of an explosion. That morning, she telephoned numerous plumbers to ask for estimates, but they were all far more than she could afford. She gave none of them her address or phone number. Worried about the danger aspect with young children in the house, she prayed for help. Within half an hour, there was a plumber on the doorstep. How did he know? She had told nobody. Patricia was too stunned to ask him. She showed him the boiler and while he was mending it, she worried about how she was going to pay him. On his way out, she asked, 'How much do I owe you?' 'That's all right, love, have it on me,' was his surprising reply. Patricia quickly followed him, to thank him, but he had vanished. No car, not a soul in sight, he had disappeared! Patricia thanked God for the way He had so unexpectedly sent the help she needed" (Ibid. p 35).

Some years ago when I was a builder doing general building work for private customers I had arranged to help out a friend in the church of which we were then regular members. He was struggling a bit financially at that time. He had just moved into a new home and was trying to get a carpet cleaning business going at the same time. Their garden was nothing much more than a pile of rubble and heavy clay left after the main house builders had finished their work.

With three children, having sticky wet mud outside the back door was not ideal. He wanted to make a patio and also landscape the garden.

Not only was he short of money, he had neither the expertise nor the time to do the job himself. I agreed to do it for him at no cost, other than for the materials which I obtained as cheaply as I could.

With a helper, 'Jim' (not his real name) – whose wages I was also paying – we travelled about 20 miles to my friend's home and took with us the sand, cement, mixer and other equipment on a pick-up truck and trailer. That fateful day, we were particularly loaded. In fact, we were well overloaded! I had not bargained for such a heavy load. There was one other thing I had not bargained for, either!

Near his home was a steep hill, a very steep hill! Whipsnade Hill. We started to ascend this hill, but it soon became obvious that we weren't going to make it. We were losing speed so quickly that, in the panic of the moment, I told Jim to jump out and push!! He did – not that it had any realistic effect! You can't push about 3 tons uphill if the engine can't cope with it!

At the precise moment Jim jumped out to push, another pick-up truck just 'happened' to be coming down the hill the other way. He stopped when he saw our dilemma and was amazed that the engine did not have the torque to get us up hill. (He didn't know how much we were pulling!)

Even more amazing was that his motor had a towing winch and he was unloaded. He voluntarily offered to turn around and tow us up the hill.

When he expressed his amazement, he swore, so I'm sure he wasn't an angel. But he did what the angels wanted. They made sure he was in the right place at the right time! And it was split second timing. A few seconds sooner and he would not have seen the drama of us in our final last-ditch attempt to struggle uphill. A few seconds later and he would have thought we had merely stopped, not needing any help.

The point where we came to a halt was a sharp bend in the road with a steep bank on the nearside. It was a dangerous place. Humanly, the only way out was to back downhill – almost impossible with a loaded trailer behind – or to off-load the trailer and come back for the materials. But there was nowhere to off-load. The nearside bank was too steep and we could not off-load into the road. It was too narrow.

We were well and truly stuck! Our only solution was a miracle, and a miracle came. Not that I asked for it. At the time, I am ashamed to say, praying for help was the last thing on my mind. But God knows what we need before we ask Him and He is always willing to give when we are giving to others.

I have travelled that stretch of road scores of times. Never, ever have I seen a pick-up truck on that road either before or after this incident. But just when I needed one, it was there! The chances of it happening by accident must be a million to one against! I know it was no accident. It was an act of God's providence.

God knows when you need a miracle and He will supply it.

The Tape That Got Twisted

The mind of God is unfathomable to us as humans. But one thing we know, it is incomparable! There is nothing that is beyond God's capacity.

To us as mortal humans, miracles are astounding, because they are physically inexplicable and not normal or natural to our experience. God, however, is not physical, nor is He limited by what is 'normal' or natural to us. He is supernatural.

With God anything is possible (Mark 10:27).

One day, a young man who was staying with us, Eritrea O'Malley Keyes, experienced a remarkable thing. He was playing a cassette tape, when the tape suddenly got mangled in the drive mechanism. He opened the window of the cassette player to see if he could get the tape out, but it was so badly tangled up, he decided the only way to get it out was to cut it out. He went downstairs to get a pair of scissors from the kitchen, but when he came back up to his room, he found there was nothing wrong with the tape! It had been unwound, straightened out and put back in place!

He couldn't understand it! It didn't take him long to realise that an angel must have sorted it all out for him. It was a miracle!

We don't usually expect a miracle in the little 'insignificant' things in life, do we? But, God's miracles are not limited to healing the sick, casting out demons or raising the dead. He concerns Himself with every detail of our lives.

Perhaps there is another reason He performed this miracle. Was it to convey a lesson?

There is nothing in our twisted lives that He is unable to straighten out for us – if we let Him. Too many of us fail to consider He could, and would. If only we involved Him!

The Stubborn Nut

I believe that God wants us to involve Him in all we do. Our problem is that, all too frequently, we leave Him out of our lives and think nothing of it. We are content to do things alone.

But, those who find the greatest fulfilment in life are those who involve God. He is so responsive! There is nothing to which He will not respond and help us with.

A few years ago, Richard was doing some car repairs. Part of the work involved undoing some nuts on the car's suspension.  They were difficult to loosen and one of them was locked solid!

Brute force would not cause it to budge. He used penetrating oil and applied extra leverage with extension bars. Still this one nut just wouldn't shift!

He didn't know what to do. Then suddenly he had this little thought: pray in tongues. It seemed silly, but he did it nonetheless. He started to pray in the prayer language God has given him. He picked up the spanner and tried again. This time, the nut came undone without having to use any extra leverage or effort. It was a ‘piece of cake’!

There is no physical explanation for it, other than a metaphysical one.

Is there a lesson here, too? People can be stubborn 'nuts'. Some will not budge. But God knows the way round them. He knows how to get them to turn!

Without God we are feeble, but with Him all things are possible.

God Has Everything Measured

One day Richard was putting up some lights at the back of the house. He didn't know how much cable to buy, so He asked the Lord. He was given a length in his mind and went and bought that amount of cable.

When he fitted the lights, it transpired that he didn't have any cable left over; not even one inch! It was the exact length required. That is how perfectly God knows each of us. He has us all perfectly measured!

 The Angel Ink Delivery

I was printing out a publication on my little bubble jet printer one day, when it ran out of ink. If my memory is correct, it was something that was somewhat urgent, but it was a bank holiday and the shops were shut. There was no way we could get any ink to finish the job. We had run out of refills too.

The next thing that happened was most unusual. One of us was given a vision of an angel travelling on a bus from Aylesbury. When the bus passed our home, the angel flew off and swept into the house, poured the ink into my printer and disappeared.

The printer was refilled with ink! We carried on and I was able to finish the job! Don't ask me to explain it. I can't. It was a miracle!

The Devil's Opposition

In life we all have inimical forces to fight against. The devil is our constant enemy. When you do the Work of God, you find the devil rearing up against you to thwart whatever you are trying to do for God. This is particularly true if you have a prophetic capacity. A prophet is given a job on the 'frontline'. There are times when he is told to confront those who are being used by the devil in leading God's people astray. For example, read of Elijah's confrontation with the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18.

Forceful attacks against the enemy do not go unnoticed or unrepulsed. The devil does what he can to counterattack.

The warnings our particular ministry has had to give have frequently been conveyed in writing, as some of Jeremiah's were. When I had written an important letter to some church leaders which was on its way to the post, at the same time, my wife was going to collect some eggs from a nearby farm. She drove up in the car, turned off the engine and went in to buy the eggs.

When she came out of the farm shop, the car would not start. She could not understand it. There had been nothing wrong with it up until that point. It had been running fine. (It was at the time when I was posting this important letter.)

Some workmen were repairing the road nearby and saw her trying to start the car without success. Kindly, a couple of workers came over to help. They tried to bump start the car, but no matter how much they tried, it just wouldn't start. Eventually, it had to be towed home.

When we got it back, and investigated the problem, we found that the distributor (we had replaced the old distributor with a reconditioned one only a few days before) was mangled. The rotor arm was twisted right out of shape! We took it back to the suppliers and the mechanic looked at it absolutely astonished. He had never seen anything like it in all his experience! NEVER had a distributor ever got bent out of shape like that one!

What had occurred was miraculous. It was not a constructive miracle, but a destructive one. Evil powers had done what they could to hinder us.

Although we were under satanic attack, angels had ensured that the letter was protected. But the demons were given an outlet for their venom. They were allowed to take it out on the car.

A similar destructive miracle occurred shortly afterwards. This time it was in the kitchen at home. My wife, Helena, had bought a new blender. She plugged it in and switched on, and the thing went out of control and then broke.

Coincidentally, while she had been putting it to together she had felt 'edgy' about it. This 'edginess' was due to the demonic influence she could sense. (She has an acute gift of spiritual discernment.)

She took the gadget back to the shop. They said they had never seen anything like it in all their 15 years experience. It was totally inexplicable!

These negative experiences illustrate the powers that evil spirits have. We are all involved in spiritual warfare. Battles must be fought daily against unseen enemies. If you don't resist and try to fight against demons, you will come under their evil influences.

Sometimes God will allow Satan a victory or two, to wake you up, and to remind you that you cannot afford to become complacent.

One time in 1994, Richard started our car and drove it down the driveway beside our house. Suddenly, without warning, it stopped. He tried to restart it, but it wouldn't. The starter motor just kept turning the engine over and over.

Then, he was given a brief glimpse into the spiritual realm. The vehicle’s malady had a spiritual cause.  He 'saw' a dark, sinister presence hovering over the car. Then, just as quickly, he saw an angel fly over the roof of our house, swoop down over the car and disappear. The car then restarted with ease.

A Word of Knowledge About the Car

Richard is relatively good at mechanical work. He has changed engines in our cars when necessary and done other needed repairs and servicing. But tuning a car takes just a bit extra technical expertise. With modern engines and exhaust regulations, electronic tuners have become essential. Most garages in the UK now have one of these expensive pieces of equipment.

One time our car was not running smoothly, so Richard took it to a garage and had it electronically tuned. But, still it was 'lumpy'. Something was wrong, despite all the adjustments that had been made strictly according to 'the book'.

The garage mechanics could not identify the problem. They put it down to a faulty carburettor. Yet, we had had a new carb only a year before. It couldn't be that!

Then, while Richard was working on the car one day, he received a word of knowledge to advance the timing to a particular point. He was told to move the timing belt x degrees forward. In this position, in theory, the car just shouldn't run properly. But after he did so, the car ran much better!

It is something that is completely unexplainable. All you can say is God knows best!

Money From Heaven

Operating a ministry on faith is not easy at times. As most pragmatic church leaders know, it is more practical to use money! But what God does is not dependent upon human factors or physical support. God told Zechariah:

This is the Word of the Lord to Zerubbabel [who was a major instrument God used to restore and rebuild in Jerusalem]: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit’ says the Lord Almighty (Zech 4:6).

While many churches have gained wealth, they have lost wisdom. Money is not what we should look to, but the Spirit of God.

Restoring truth to the church is laudable. It even sounds inviting. But try it! You will find more opposition from Christians to accepting 'new' biblical truth than there is to the IRA bombers. People just don't want to have their comfortable little world upset. They don't like their doctrinal misconceptions challenged or exposed. It seems people would rather remain in the gloom than find new light.

Truth IS being restored at this time, and God is using many people in this work. They are not part of one group, but scattered, with tenuous links between them, or none whatsoever.

Part of our ministry's work has been to restore 'lost' aspects of biblical knowledge and understanding to the church. But, as I said, people don't want that, by nature. They close their doors. So, we receive little support.

But, like all former prophets, I know that when God tells you to do something, there is an irresistible pull to do it no matter what the cost in personal or financial terms. It may cost everything, but so what? Didn't Jesus and most of the prophets lose all? But they gained everything for being that committed. So must we.

There have been times when we were really 'desperate' financially.

At one time, early in this work, we had bills to pay running into thousands of pounds... and no income. These were 'red' bills – demands that were overdue and could not wait much longer. The next notification could have been a court summons. They had to be paid within days.

The only people who knew of our predicament were those in our prayer fellowship. I had not told my mother who lives 80 miles away. However, one day she couldn't stop thinking about us and kept wondering how we were managing money-wise. She called me on the phone and quizzed me. I tried to conceal our financial position, but some mothers are very perceptive and know how to get to the root of things. Certainly my mother did! When she discovered that we were in great need, she told me to send her our outstanding bills – all of them – and she would clear the lot. She did just that.

It was a miracle. There is no other way to describe it. And God’s intervention did not end there. We had insufficient financial support to weather the next few months. Each month, for the next six months, God moved her to repeat that procedure consistently, until she was unable to help us any more.

Since that time, God has moved others to ‘bale’ us out whenever the needs have been great. He has repeated His miracles of financial deliverance time and time again!

In human terms this ministry should have died of attrition years ago. But faith does not die. It lasts forever, and as long as faith is alive and you are in His will, God has an avenue to come to your aid. He loves to help those who trust in Him!

He is the Great Giver, and He will help all who look to Him, emulating His giving.²

The Greatest Miracle of All!

In one of our meetings, I was describing some of the dealings God had with Israel; how He showed such love to the nation, but how the nation callously disregarded that love.

As I was talking, someone received a 'word' of knowledge. It was very simple: Ezekiel 16. We could not remember what was in that chapter, so we turned there to be reminded. What we found was the most apt description of the very subject we were considering!

There, Ezekiel describes God's inestimable love for His people. It is an allegorical account of how God expressed His great love in caring for this nation, which had nothing naturally to endear it to Him. Yahweh cleaned her up, dressed her, brought her up and beautified her so she could be His bride. Then He married her. Because of what He had done for her, she had now become very attractive. But she misused her beauty to lure adulterous lovers. She rejected God's love and despised Him. It was the biggest insult that the nation could have hurled at Him!

Although the account is about Israel. It is not limited to her. Such is the fickleness of humanity!

Do you fit the bill? Have you snubbed your nose at God? Have you failed to appreciate what He has done for you? Have you turned away and committed spiritual adultery? Many have! (Rev 2:20-22). Because it is natural in this evil world to be disobedient to God (Rom 8:7).

The greatest miracle is that which occurs in us, as God changes our lives. That is the most amazing miraculous manifestation. But the price that was paid to make it possible was astronomical. Do you really appreciate it?

Malcolm B. Heap

¹ This is explained in Who Is The End-Time Elijah? (£2.00) available from Midnight Ministries, PO Box 29, Aylesbury, HP17 8TL, UK.

² Explained in Principles of Giving and Receiving (£2.00).
 

Miraculous Manifestations
Part 3

Angelic manifestations and other supernatural occurrences are probably more common today than they have ever been. In Part 1 we described some of the miracles and appearances of angels our family has personally experienced. In this second instalment, we describe more of these 'incredible' happenings.

There are numerous books now on the market cataloguing angelic visitations. If all angel ‘arrivals’ were counted, they would probably run into the millions! The information technology we have at our disposal today accelerates the spread of these facts.

Ironically, many choose to deny the facts. I have listened to die-hard sceptics try and rationalise away angel experiences as hallucinations, imaginings, and merely the working of serotonin in the cerebral cortex. They have such vaunted ‘knowledge’ and ‘wisdom’ that they think those people who have seen angels need their heads examining. But the ones who adopt this unbelieving approach need their own heads examining!

Pragmatism and empiricism can never provide meaningful answers to the myriads of paranormal phenomena which confront us in our world. So the scientists and psychologists who reject God will get ever wilder in their empty speculations or explanations for miracles. A miracle is something which has no physical explanation. So the empirical scientist has to dismiss it as bogus, because it embarrasses him and confounds the foundation of his elevated ‘science’.

At the root of his problem is ugly pride. Until he is willing to jettison that, he will never truly believe.

By contrast, we see beauty in those who are so small in their own eyes that they can accept such miraculous things as God decides to do in our physical dimension. It is in the realm of ‘babes and infants’ that God works and where He manifests remarkable things of His glory.

Two Angels Come For A Haircut!

In November 2000 I received a letter from one of ‘our’ evangelists working in Kenya. He wrote to tell me of an unusual happening in his barber shop, where he employs a young man. Two angels came to see him!

Interestingly, this incident occurred as the young man was sitting reading an earlier edition of this very booklet. Here is Isaya’s account of what happened at his barbershop:

On 22/7/2000 at 4.30pm East African time, the boy who works there was reading the booklet Miraculous Manifestations.  He had been waiting since morning for a customer to come.

Reaching 4:30 pm the boy talked to God and said, "God, can you bring even two people here so that I may shave their head so that I can get even forty shillings (Kenya currency)?  I am going for the weekend without any single cent in my pocket." It was Friday evening and the Sabbath was about to begin.¹

The boy said nothing else. After ten minutes two men appeared and said to him "WE HEARD THAT YOU WANTED US, WE HAVE COME", and both sat down. One said: "Shave our heads."

The boy asked, "Which style?"

One of them said "No style, just plain."

After shaving, they gave him twenty shillings each and they walked out.

The boy was amazed. "Who told those men that I wanted them?" When the boy followed them they were nowhere to be found. They had disappeared!

The money they produced was the money the boy needed to have. He closed up the shop after this because the Sabbath was almost starting, and went on his way. This is the first time an angel has called in at my place. [Not surprising, really. Angels aren't usually in the habit of wanting their heads shaven!] Thank God.

The African Connection

How ‘our’ work started in Africa is a succession of miracles. I think it would interest our readers to know more about this, so I will recount what happened here.

In the early nineties I sent newly written booklets and articles to addresses I had in Africa. They were only a handful. These addresses came from friends or associates, as a result of past church affiliation. Although it was costly on postage, we felt moved to send our publications overseas.

At the time it seemed we were merely following a natural impulse. Little did we know then that we were responding to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

Various items of our literature reached some Church of God people, who have been noted for their faithfulness to the Word of God. Most of them are Sabbatarians, and understand this aspect of the faith once delivered.

One such person was Emmanuel Alozie, an elder in one of the Sabbath-observing churches in Nigeria. We sent him our publications for a few years. He was always grateful to receive. Then, in April 1998, an unusual incident occurred. He received a vision to write to me, after which either an angel or Jesus Himself spoke audibly to him. Here is his account:

Just this midnight, someone woke me up and told me to write to you now and tell you the commission I have been assigned to. Many times I have been confronted in the Spirit and by an unknown person to go about telling people about the Truth. This includes market places, towns and villages – launching out messages in the air for a witness to all people.

Just pray for me for the zeal, power and strength for doing God's will in righteousness. We are living in the area where the Roman Catholic Church and her daughters are dominating....

Emmanuel is demolishing the strongholds of Catholicism in his region and preaching the truth. Fruit is being borne. Many are hungry for God. As he has followed God’s lead, he has received dreams, visions, heard the voice of God giving him direction on several occasions, and received a miraculous healing for a hernia which gave him much pain for a long time.

Similar miraculous events caused our outreach in Kenya to take off. Our booklets were circulating there when, one day, Isaya Owak saw one of ours in the hands of another man. It was Our Sabbath Rest. Isaya was familiar with this truth, but was surprised to see this Christian having our book, because he was a Sunday observing believer.

After Isaya wrote to me and had read a number of our publications, the Spirit of God began to move in his life in a new way, and with the believers with him. One day he was walking down the road early in the morning when he heard a voice behind him call out “Heap! Heap! Heeeeeeeeeeeeeap!” He stopped and listened. He saw no one, but the voice continued. “Tell Mr Heap to stand firm and to open the eyes of the Kenyans. I have appointed him and chosen him to be a light to the Kenyans.” After that the voice ceased.

The night before this incident he had had a dream that he was fighting a hippopotamus and that he overcame it. That morning he awoke to find that his 3-year-old daughter was suffering from a high fever. She (amazingly!) asked for prayer for healing. Isaya prayed for her and she was instantly healed.

This series of miracles was Isaya’s induction into the ministry God has for him in Kenya. Since then, he has received a number of other dreams, miracles, healings, prophetic words, and deliverances as he goes about preaching the Word, following the guidance of the Spirit of God.

I include one of his letters here.

Healed By God’s Power

Malcolm, I want to tell you something which is going on in Kenya...

Brother, there is what I can call a miracle taking place in our groups. Some people God is calling through dreams. God tells them to come join us. To some, God tells them go start to keep My Sabbath....

On 30th June 1999 at around 7:30 pm East Africa time, I met a woman with her child. The child was having a sickness similar to epileptic. I ask her if she can allow me to pray for her baby and she agree. I pray for her and told her that tomorrow I will get the reply [from God, either by dream or vision, or prophetic word]. When reaching tomorrow 1/7/99, I went there and the child is healed! Praise the Lord!

From Nigeria, in 2000, we received an encouraging letter telling of how a wife had fallen desperately ill of appendicitis. She needed an urgent operation to remove the appendix. However, instead of following that course of action, she felt moved to study our book Faith and Healing. The result was unforeseen. As she read, God could touch her through the words. Her faith was raised, and God’s wonderful healing came.

She didn’t need any expensive operation. She needed no recuperation. Instead of a bill she received joy, and to replace the pain she had thanksgiving! The next day she was up and about, serving God.

Raised From The Dead

I received a letter from Isaya in 1999 telling me about a wonderful miracle that had taken place in Kenya. He told me about a lady whose husband had died. She is young and has a baby to support. She had no means of support, and in such difficult circumstances, the roof on her little home was also leaking.

Our friend and brother took her under his own roof, to be with him and his wife until they could fix her roof. He later did that for her.

Meanwhile, another tragedy struck. Her baby suddenly died of illness.

Rather like the widow of Zarephath, when Elijah was destitute and it looked like the end had come to them both, God stepped in and performed the impossible!

Isaya prayed for this woman’s baby that God would restore its life... And life entered. The child was raised up from the dead.

Manifestations In Worship

Isaya wrote to describe some of the things that are happening in his meetings, now that the Holy Spirit is able to move freely.

Brother, the Holy Spirit is now working in our congregation. When we praise God, people [break down] weeping, some mourning with tears...

In another missive he described how the Spirit came upon the whole group and they all fell down on their faces in worship before God.

A similar thing occurred in one of our meetings earlier this year. A man was visiting us, who had been through some harrowing times, and the Lord was trying to get him to deal with some areas in his life. One Sabbath as we met, the Spirit came upon him in an unusual way and he fell prostrate on the ground. Bent double, on his knees in a posture of worship, he began to weep, and as he did so, a supernatural ‘hand’ ‘pushed’ him forward until he ended up flat on his face, completely laid out on the ground.

Was God trying to teach him humility? Humbling him? Bringing him to repentance? God knows all.

These ‘revival’ phenomena occur where people are open to the moving of the Spirit. Through them God can impart inner healing – restoring the emotions, healing past hurts, revitalising the inner man. This working of the Holy Spirit is often openly demonstrated by shaking, trembling, weeping, outbursts of joy, falling to the ground or other unusual physical manifestations.

I remember a man telling me that as we were praying with our arms raised, he tried to resist lifting his arms. He was a very conservative type who felt that any open demonstration such as this was over the top. So, he didn’t want to raise his arms. However, he felt a definite force trying to physically lift his arms! They moved an inch or two, but he managed to keep them down. Oh that he had let go! How much more release he could have received from on High!

In previous meetings, when new people have come into our company, God has come upon them in similar ways. One man received a tingling or warmth in his arms as we prayed. I received a prophetic word for his wife which reduced her to tears of joy. (It was about God’s love for her.) She also sensed some sort of ‘electricity’ in her arms as God ‘touched’ her. These things bring great release to those who are touched.

At one time, as we prayed for a particularly unbelieving lady who needed healing and deliverance, our younger daughter saw something that she could only describe as a flame of fire descend upon her head. She saw this in the spirit. It was not a physical manifestation, but it was every bit as real! She was only 7 at the time. She was not making up stories!

Another time, as I prayed for my wife, Zenya saw what she said looked like flames of fire shooting out from my hands towards Helena. I felt nothing and saw nothing. But my wife was much better afterwards. God is a God of miracles and sometimes He does, what are to us, the most amazing things!

Reuben Oviomor, an evangelist in Nigeria, wrote to me in November 2000 to tell me that an angel had spoken to him telling him that it is now the midnight hour. Time is late. Very late! He wrote previously about a dream God had given him:

“I was doing the work of harvesting, then I woke up. I later heard a voice which said, ‘It is time to work, no more resting’.”

The particular message that we (together with Reuben and Emmanuel in Nigeria, Isaya and Vincent Awidhi in Kenya, Kassahun Ayele in Ethiopia, and others) have been called to deliver, contains the aspect of the need for the Church to keep the Sabbaths of God as the early Church did. Many of the miraculous manifestations that are being experienced directly revolve around this exposition, which is central to the work and call of Midnight Ministries.

It is part of Jesus’ last work of the Spirit on earth before the Tribulation and Millennium to follow.

More Appearances of Jesus

For many Christians, the most amazing thing that could ever happen to them is to see Jesus Himself. Well, that is far more frequent than many would care to believe! There are contemporary books containing manifold accounts of His appearances to all sorts of people! He has ‘showed up’ at all of our meetings in one way or another. On two occasions it was ‘visibly’ (in vision) to two of those present.

One time when we had invited a group of believers from Aylesbury to come and meet with us one Saturday evening, Jesus manifested Himself to one of the visiting ladies. She was taken into a trance (like Peter experienced with the sheet from heaven in Acts 10:10) and met Jesus in a very intense way. Her emotions were ‘boiling’. She was ecstatic! She was reeling with delight, enraptured by His presence!

There was a purpose for this visitation that had its negative side. We had to convey to this group something concerning their false doctrine. They had a ritualistic tilt in their teaching which was hindering them. In a dream, God gave revelation to us about this, which we conveyed to them. This came after Jesus’ appearing on that day. Unfortunately – as is generally the case – this group dismissed the input and got quite offended at it. It’s a pity she didn’t remember Jesus’ appearing to her in our place! Had she done so, maybe she could have better understood that He was now coming to her once again, only this time it was in a corrective vein... But still for her good.

A couple of years ago, in a brief vision, I saw Jesus in a churchyard. He beckoned to me as He turned to walk away, as you would send a signal to a friend. He didn’t say anything, but His body language said in effect: “Come, follow Me.”

What was He intimating? Why did He depict Himself in a churchyard where there were graves?

1. He wants to be our Friend and to call us His friends.
2. He raises the dead, and has called us to follow in His footsteps.
3. He is taking us on to a new level of faith and expectancy, one in which the dead will leave their graves to witness for Christ!

This was a vision for the few who will believe.

 
Lifted Up By An Angel

In closing, here is one last account of an encounter with an angel. It was given to our younger daughter Zenya, and is recounted in her own words.

27th November 1999

Last night, a Friday, as I was lying in bed I prayed earnestly to God. I knew that my life, as it was, wasn't how I wished it to be. I prayed to God, for Him to give me strength in my life, that I would be able to do God's will. That night I received something totally unexpected: a visitation from an angel! I suppose I was expecting something less miraculous.

Suddenly, I thought I was awake. I was seated upright, against the wall, still in bed. Standing at the foot of my bed there was an angel. It wasn't what one would expect an angel to look like (with a halo, a long flowing white gown, and fluffy feathery wings, looking rather tall and protective). This angel couldn't be more different from my expectations. It was very small, less than 1 metre tall, and a childlike face. I couldn't tell if it was male or female, although it was beautiful. It had short blonde hair. The angel was dressed in a black and white odd-checked pattern of 70s style clothing, with matching shirt and trousers. It was very well presented. In its left hand it was balancing a large leather bound book, which I assumed to be a Bible. The angel was glowing with radiance, and was luminous.

I was utterly shocked and scared to find it standing there, and prayed anxiously, "Dear God, please show me what I need." I have no idea why I prayed that prayer, it just came out of my lips. Perhaps it was the first thing that I thought of, considering my prayer that night.

When I had said that, it lifted up its right hand from its side, and held it out straight, pointing it at me. Immediately a ray of lightning shot out and hit me straight in my heart. It gave me such a strong electric shock, and although it wasn't physically painful I could feel its strong intensity burning through me. The shock jolted me awake, and I found myself lying in my bed, but feeling totally peaceful. I noted the time at 2:08 am, on that Saturday 27th November 1999.

Afterwards I got up to walk around a little, and it seemed as if I had a spiritual awareness of everything around me. I could sense demons and angels. The awareness I had was scary!!

The next morning as our family and I, and a visitor named George, were talking, Dad mentioned something else that had occurred that same night.

At midnight, Dad had put two articles on the floor outside George’s room, for George to read when he woke up in the morning. But George found himself awake at 2:30 am. He got up and went out of his room. He saw the articles, but only one was on the floor. The other one was now on an armchair next to the door!

We puzzled as to how it got moved! No one had gone near George’s door that night between midnight and 2:30 am. The angel had lifted it up onto the chair! Why? To draw attention to that article.

God often draws our attention to certain things in our lives by causing dramatic changes in our circumstances. Like the article, He is trying to raise our level of awareness, so that we really believe in Him!

¹ The Sabbath (Ex 20:8-11) begins on Friday evening and ends Saturday evening. This truth predated Israel’s history. It was so from Creation, where evening precedes morning in the day’s composition (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31). There at Creation God instructed His faithful ones to observe the Sabbath (Gen 2:2-3). Later, God repeated His command to Israel, and instructed them to celebrate Sabbaths from evening to evening (Lev 23:32). He reiterates the command to His Church today, informing us that the Sabbath was made for man, not just for Israelites or Jews (Mark 2:27; Matt 24:20; Rev 12:17). Jesus gave this command at Sinai (1 Cor 10:4) and He is the same today as He was then (Heb 13:8).

² God described Sabbaths as HIS (Ex 31:13), and as HOLY time (Ex 31:14-17), to be kept holy by those whom He has called, not trampled underfoot through self-will and neglect. He sent Israel into captivity for sin, one chief one of which was breaking His Sabbaths (Ezek 20:12-13,20-24; Ezek 22:8,15,26; Ezek 23:28,38; Jer 32:23). And He prophesies that a repeat of this dispersion will again take place in our day, because of Christendom’s modern sins, one of which is still Sabbath-breaking. But preachers turn away their ears from hearing this truth declared (Ezek 22:26). They don’t like it!

³ A complete exegesis on what the Bible says about the Sabbath is in Our Sabbath Rest (£3.00). See back pages for other publications.

Malcolm B. Heap