“Who is that?”

Last night at youth group, a student came up to me during worship time (when we had music playing and were worshiping God as a group). I was in the back, behind the dozen students and leaders.  Her eyes were wide open.

“Who is that?” she asked.

I said, “Who?”

She said, “The woman in the bright sun dress.”

I’m like, “Where?” She pointed to an empty seat.

She said, “She’s freaking me out.”

This student, whom I believe is 15 years old, has a history of seeing demons, but to my knowledge, had never seen an angel before. She had previously described demons as shadowy figures, usually stalking her. Before meeting Jesus, she said one would sit with her, talk with her, and would hurt her if she went to church or tried to talk to God.

I thought a moment that maybe she was seeing a demon, disguised as an angel of light.  I paused, and said, “Holy Spirit, if there is a dark presence…” and then I just stopped because the presence of God was so thick in that room, there was no way a demon would enter there just then.

Plus, earlier that week, I texted a couple of my student leaders (not including the student who came up to me) this message: “I am super excited about Wed. We are going to have an angelic visitation who will be there for a specific purpose. Like… imparting healing or a gift or something. It’s going to be awesome.”   That message came to me during prayer time a few days ago. So I wasn’t surprised that an angel would visit youth group… I had asked a Seer student leader who usually attends if she’d make it, mainly because I knew the topic we were covering would be relevant to her, but also it’s nice to have a seer present to help, um, observe what is going on.  But other commitments prevented her from attending, and I was a bit surprised this girl, who had only seen demons, saw it.

I said, “HE is an angel. I’m not sensing a demonic presence at all.”*

She said, ‘Yeah, she’s not a demon.” But she was still freaked.

I asked, “What is he doing?” I believe angels are always masculine, but I suppose that’s debatable. This one looked feminine to her.

“She’s just sitting there.”

I said, “He’s a fellow servant. He’s our friend. But don’t worry about the angel. Focus on Jesus, and let the angel do whatever he was sent to do.”

She said, “Ok,” and returned to her spot where she had been standing, continually looking in the direction. Interestingly, she had been looking towards the main doors several times that night, so I wonder if she saw other things too. I’ll have to ask.

Three points:

1. Angels don’t have wings. Ok, some do.  But many don’t.  There are probably different types (species?) of these inter-dimensional beings we call angels.

2. Angels prompt fear. When angels appear in the biblical record, they almost always first say, “Don’t fear!” Why? Because seeing angelic beings tends to freak people out. They’re powerful, kinda freaky entities that we don’t really understand. Some are enemies. And some do have wings, which, you know would be kinda awesome to see.

3. Some people see angels.  If you are a follower of Jesus and you attend a church, then know this: there are people in your church who see into the spirit world. If your church family doesn’t embrace the supernatural, then they’re missing out on this amazing gift from God.  The Apostle Paul wrote,

“We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.”

This English translation comes from Ancient Greek, and the words Paul uses there all refer to spiritual entities (not people, who are made of flesh and blood), that are intelligent and have agendas.  They are real. And some people can see them.

***

*Edit – 9/13/2014 – It’s possible this spirit was a ghost. When I wrote this article, I didn’t believe that ghosts were anything besides demons masquerading. But now, I’ve accepted I was in error.  See this article for more.