During these mighty visitations, the Lord will get out of His chariot and walk through the church. He will touch certain people on the head. The anointing of God, the covenant of God, is so real! Believe that Jesus died to make us whole. Believe that He is coming back. Believe that He will manifest His glory in our services if we will let him, if we will believe Him.
Satan wants to cause us to doubt in order to hinder us. He wants to interject unbelief into all of us. Yet hallelujah, our God has paid the price for our deliverance! Our Lord Jesus did it for us! If we will only join with Him, if we will only forgive one another, we will receive absolute forgiveness. (See Matthew 6:14–15.) Let there be no blockage in that joining. Let us be healed of our infirmities, our sicknesses, and our diseases.
The Power of the Cross in Deliverance
On another occasion, I was preaching in a church service, and I was under a heavy anointing. Suddenly, I saw a vision of angels carrying a huge white cross across the front of the church. As the people were prayed for by another minister, I could see power come out of the end of the cross and go onto the person being prayed for. Each one was healed or delivered as they were touched by the power coming from the cross.
I have seen the same thing many other times. As I preach the living Word of God, I can see the cross over my head. Power always comes from the cross. It is through the power of the Cross that deliverance is accomplished and salvation is possible. We can be delivered today if we will only claim for ourselves what Jesus Christ paid for on Calvary. The secret is in the Atonement. We must believe in Jesus, and we must believe in His miracles.
Again, one of the greatest tricks of the devil is to bring doubt and unbelief to us. God wants to bring us joy, happiness, and fulfillment, but the devil wants to bring us pain, sorrow, and grief. God is greater than all these things, however, and we must look to Him. Deliverance is possible through the power of the Cross.
God’s Compassion Leads to Deliverance
I was flying on an airplane one day, thinking about a crisis someone in my family was having, when I started crying, and the tears began to flow down my face. Thank the Lord, I had some privacy: I was wearing sunglasses, and there weren’t many people in the section of the plane I was in. It was a long flight, so I just curled up in the corner next to the window as I wept.
As the tears streamed down my face, I looked out the window and was amazed to see a beautiful rainbow! Immediately, I remembered the promises of God. When He put the first rainbow in the sky, He promised Noah that He’d never destroy the earth with a flood again. (See Genesis 9:8–17.) Seeing the rainbow that day encouraged my heart because I was reminded of the precious promises of God.
Then, as if affirming what I had seen in nature, I saw a beautiful, glorious, overwhelming vision. I saw what appeared to be a huge red fire in the sky and a resemblance of God on His throne. It is difficult to describe what I saw next, but it looked like a trail leading from the earth up to God’s throne. There, in the trail, I saw tears, and immediately I thought of Jesus.
My thoughts of Jesus coincided with my memory of a historical event. In one of the saddest episodes of American history, some of the Cherokee Indians were taken from their land, herded into makeshift forts with minimal facilities and food, then forced to march a thousand miles. (Some made part of the trip by boat in equally horrible conditions.)
About four thousand Cherokee people died during this removal from the Southeast to government reservations in Oklahoma Territory. The route they traveled and the journey itself became known as “The Trail of Tears.” The literal meaning of the Cherokee words Nunna daul Tsuny is “The trail where they cried.”
When I saw this vision of the throne and the trail of tears leading to it, I thought of this historical event, but my most vivid thoughts were of Jesus. I remembered how Jesus walked the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Sorrow, climbing up that hill to Calvary. I remembered the tracks of God, the pain and suffering. Then I remembered the pain, suffering, and sorrow that the saints of God still go through at times. As a sign that He was with me, God gave me a poem that I call “In the Tracks of God’s Tears.”
In the tracks of God’s tears were many written words,
Many messages unto God of sorrow and grief.
In the tracks of these tears, the enemy has done great harm.
To many people on the earth, he’s inflicted great harm.
The tracks of these tears are cries unto God
Mixed with doubt and unbelief of God’s covenant promise.
Such sorrow, such grief of heart as, you see,
The enemy kills and wounds our children,
And others we love.
But yet there’s hope in the tracks of God’s tears.
Yet there’s life, there’s peace, in the tracks of God’s tears.
As I continued looking out the window, it seemed as if tears were falling from heaven. Each teardrop had a divine message in it, leaving a trail down to the earth. I knew that God had heard my cries; He is truly touched by the things we go through.
There are many stories in the tracks of God’s tears. His teardrops come down like rain and mix with our tears. My tears and yours are a language unto God.
You number my wanderings; put my tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your book? When I cry out to You, then my enemies will turn back; this I know, because God is for me. In God (I will praise His word), in the Lord (I will praise His word), in God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?(Psalm 56:8–11)
The revelation that day gave me even greater respect for what Jesus went through and for the love of our great God. He loves us so much that He sent His Son Jesus to give us life eternal so that we may never die. Yet while we are on this earth, we have to continue to tear down Satan’s kingdom through the Word of God. We have to continue to do the things that God would have us to do.
The vision also gave me unbelievable joy. Through it, God dried my tears, reminding me that “surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4). He assured me that my relatives could be set free, and so can you and yours. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31).
When the plane landed, I continued on to my destination strengthened in the Lord. That night, I ministered at a service where I saw many hurting and sad people. I gave them words of comfort, encouragement, and hope in the Word of the living God. I told them that, truly, the tears Christ shed for us are as powerful today as they were the day He shed them.
You, too, have probably cried many tears because you have not understood some of the things that have happened to you. Just remember that we can never understand everything in this life. But the holy Word was written to us and given to us by God. The Holy Spirit inspired men of old to write the Scriptures. (See 2 Peter 1:20–21.) Believe it—believe all of it! “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). He is the One we are to look to. He is the One we can have hope in. He is the One who gives us delight and joy.
I challenge you today to be encouraged and to know that there is a God who is always taking care of you and your family. He sends His angels to watch over you. They are always ready to work for you and to help you. Be aware of angels and know that they have been sent to you by God.
Cries for Deliverance
In an earlier chapter, we saw that angels fight against the devil on God’s behalf. God employs His angels to deliver people from demons, sickness, and disease. In many deliverance services, I have heard people cry out, “God, help me. God, set me free.” It was obvious that they really desired deliverance. As they cried out to God, I would see angels appear and firmly touch their hearts. I could see things, or objects, break off the people, and evil spirits would actually come out of their mouths. The angels would bind these evil spirits with chains and take them to the “dry places.” (See Matthew 12:43–45.) I have seen some evil spirits shoot through the roof and disappear; others seem to burst into flames.
One night, I was praying diligently in the Holy Spirit for God to deliver people from drugs. From midnight until 6:00 a.m., I interceded with God because I was determined not to rest until I received an answer from Him. Early the next morning, God sent an angel to give me a vision.
As I was caught up in the Spirit, I saw beams of light shoot like arrows from my home straight into heaven. Then I saw the gates of heaven open up, and I saw an army of huge horses. The backs of the horses were approximately four feet wide, and their hooves were about a foot wide. These majestic animals were pure white in color and had skin like satin. They were beautiful, and they were outfitted in armor, ready for battle.
Then I saw those who were riding the horses. They were angels who looked as if they were twelve feet tall or even taller. They were very broad shouldered and wore what looked like big army boots. Pieces of a metal-like substance were strapped around their knees and shins, covering the lower half of their legs. From their waists to their knees, they wore long garments of metal. They had on breastplates of iron, and their sleeves were made of material I have never seen before, but which looked like silver mixed with gold. Each angel had a large sword hanging at his side. Flames shot out from the bottoms and tops of the swords. The angels also wore fierce-looking helmets. Their faces were covered, but there were holes in the helmets that they could see through. Fire came from their mouths, and their eyes were flames of fire. If you saw them on earth, you might think the devil was coming after you; however, I knew that they were coming from heaven to help us.
These angel warriors were riding in formation, rank upon rank, just like an earthly army that is getting ready for battle. It was obvious that they were prepared. Stern-faced and powerful, the angels headed straight for the earth on those mighty horses.
When they reached the earth, the Lord showed me a vision of the horses and riders going into the cities. They rode into the nighttime streets where the drug dealers, murderers, prostitutes, gay bars, and nightclubs were—the streets of pain and sorrow. I saw them go into homes and other places where people were being tormented spiritually. At first, I prayed in alarm, “Oh, my Lord!” Then it occurred to me that they were going in with a powerful deliverance, not a fierce judgment. I saw them walk up to people on the street who were spiritually bound and who didn’t even know the angels were there.
On the bound people, I could see spirits—dark shapes, like monkeys or demons. The evil tormentors had wings on their shoulders. Around their heads or their bodies were serpents. What I was seeing was real people who were being attacked by invisible evil spirits.
I saw the warrior angels go up to the evil spirits and cast off the serpents. The angels then seemed to turn the evil spirits into ashes—fire came out of the angels’ hands and appeared to cremate the demons. The angels would also touch some of the street people’s heads and pull oppressive, evil-looking things off them. I knew they were unclean spirits. The people would shake their heads in relief right there on the street as they were being delivered.
I saw the warrior angels do these things in many locations. For example, I watched the angels go into a place that looked like a nightclub. They went to a man who was sitting in a bar and crying because he had a dark spirit on his shoulder. An angel jerked the monster off him (it was bigger than the man himself), and the thing was turned into ashes. The man shook his head, dried his tears, stood up, and walked out the door. The Holy Spirit said to me,
A change is coming. A deliverance is coming. I am delivering many from the trickery and bondage of sin and Satan. You will see a big move of my Spirit in the lands, and I will deliver many through the prayers of the saints. I am anointing you for this ministry because you’ve been crying out to Me for the deliverance of the people. I will do this thing for you.
Then I saw the angels go into hospitals and other places, delivering people from sicknesses and diseases. It was awesome to see the mighty works of these warrior angels. Demons fled from them. They trembled because they knew they were being destroyed.
For several weeks, I saw this as a recurring vision. I’d be caught up in it and see the angels and the Word. The Bible would open up at times—I would see the scrolls—as the angels worked with the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.
God showed me that, all over the world, deliverance had come in the name of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. What an awesome sight it was!
In her book Marching Orders for the End Battle, Corrie ten Boom wrote about an experience in the Congo during a rebel uprising that further illustrates how God sends angels to deliver His people:
When the rebels advanced on a school where two hundred children of missionaries lived, they planned to kill both the children and teachers. Those in the school knew of the danger and therefore went to prayer. Their only protection was a fence and a couple of soldiers, while the enemy, who came closer and closer, amounted to several hundred. When the rebels were close by, suddenly something happened: they turned around and ran away! The next day the same thing happened, and again on the third day. One of the rebels was wounded and was brought to the mission hospital. While the doctor was busy dressing his wounds, he asked him: “Why did you not break into the school as you planned?” “We could not do it. We saw hundreds of soldiers in white uniforms and we became scared.” In Africa soldiers never wear white uniforms, so it must have been angels. What a wonderful thing that the Lord can open the eyes of the enemy so that they see angels! We, as children of God, do not need to see them with our human eyes. We have the Bible and faith, and by faith we see invisible things.
Streams of Deliverance
In another revelation God gave me, the Holy Spirit came like a divine wind. He began to flow through towns and cities. As the wind blew, balls of fire began to appear, going up and down and sweeping all over. It was as if the Holy Spirit was preparing the way for something.