Encounters with Angels

I want to share something with you that I do not speak of lightly. Over the years, in different seasons of my life, I have had encounters I can only describe as angelic — moments when the unseen world drew close, and I knew, beyond any doubt, that I was being watched over. I am not given to exaggeration, and I have no need to embellish these stories. I simply want to tell them as they happened, and to give God the glory for His faithfulness.

Scripture tells us that angels are “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). For most of my life I believed that as a doctrine. But God, in His kindness, allowed me to know it as an experience.

Gasparillo: The Shadow and the Light

The first encounter came when I was living on my own in Gasparillo, in the south of Trinidad. It was late at night, and I was praying with my eyes closed. Suddenly I heard a thud on the ceiling above me, and a question rose in my heart: what is that? And then, though my eyes were still shut, I became aware of a dark shadow appearing before me.

Before I could so much as blink, I saw the great white outline of a being come and whisk that shadow clean away. I knew at once that it was an angel. And I understood why it had come. I had been praying, and the enemy did not like it — he wanted to frighten me into silence. But I also knew something he had failed to reckon with: that such a thing would never sit well with my heavenly Father. What was meant to scare me instead showed me that my prayers had a Guardian standing watch over them.

Marabella: When the Atmosphere Shifted

The second encounter came during one of the hardest seasons I have known, when I was living alone in Marabella, also in the south. I was standing before a mirror, weeping — weeping and weeping — and crying out from the depths of me, God, where are You?

As I stood there, I felt a spirit of depression press in, as if to make a heavy night heavier still. But the moment it came, in the blink of an eye, everything changed. This time there were no wings, no flash of bright light. I simply knew that an angel had come — and that the darkness which had pressed against me was gone, sent off to wherever God saw fit. The entire atmosphere of that room shifted. What had been thick and heavy became light. I cannot explain the science of it; I only know what I felt. God had not left me alone in my weeping. He had answered the very question I was crying out.

The Rottweiler in the Dark

The third encounter I am remembering even as I write. I was staying with my aunt at the time, and she kept a Rottweiler — a breed known to attack viciously. I had come home late from church, somewhere between nine and ten in the evening, and parked the car in the yard. My neighbours were relatives of mine, and they were outside, so I waved to them as I made my way in.

As I turned to go upstairs, I realised something was watching me in the dark. It was the dog. And to reach the stairs, I would have to pass right in front of it.

Before I took a single step, I felt a heavenly presence settle over me. The best way I can describe it is a tingling sensation, and a peace that came over the whole of me — a peace I had not summoned and could not explain. So I began to walk. Slowly. I passed right by the dog. It watched me, and then it began to follow — I could feel its breath against my calves. Still I walked slowly, step by step, until I reached the gate at the base of the stairs. I opened it, stepped through, and closed it behind me. And the moment I turned around, the dog jumped — but it was too late. I was already in a place of safety.

I have no doubt that the peace which came over me before I moved was the doing of an angel, holding back what could so easily have harmed me, and carrying me calmly to safety.

He Gives His Angels Charge

These are three of my encounters — and there are more, which I will share in time as the Lord leads. I tell them not to draw attention to myself, but to bear witness to a truth that has held in every season: God watches over His children, and He does not leave us unguarded.

“For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways” (Psalm 91:11). “The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them” (Psalm 34:7). I have lived these verses. In a praying room in Gasparillo, before a mirror of tears in Marabella, and on a darkened staircase with a Rottweiler at my heels, I was kept.

So I give thanks to God — for His protection, for His safety, and for His angels who watch over me. If you are reading this in a hard season of your own, take heart: the same God who guarded me is watching over you. You are not alone, and you never were.