I have also seen this likeness of the throne of God suspended in the air behind the pulpit where an anointed minister was preaching. Angels on both sides of the servant of God would write down what the preacher was saying, what he was doing, and how he or she prayed for the people. Everything was recorded.
On one occasion, I had been to London, England, with my sister to preach the Gospel. When we were returning on the airplane, I was very tired because I had ministered in a number of churches and we had had to deal with many people, some who were Christians and some of who were not. It was a long flight back home, and I was totally exhausted, so I fell asleep.
As I slept, I was suddenly transported into the heavenlies. I could see what appeared to be a large ballroom with curtains such as I had never seen before. The curtains formed a huge circle, and the tops of them were pulled up, like you would hold up a balloon. The bottoms of the curtains were suspended, swinging in the air.
The front of the curtains opened up, and inside I could see scenery. In this ballroom, there were crystal chandeliers, but nothing was holding them up. They just hung in the air. Then I could hear music that was accompanying praise. I could see that worship was taking place. As the front of the drapes opened up, I saw that people and angels were sitting at tables inside and carrying on conversations.
Excitedly, I thought, O, God, these things were never dreamed of. They are things I never even thought of. It seemed that redeemed believers and angels were praising God and enjoying fellowship together. Splendor and glory and riches were everywhere. I thought, Oh, my God is so unique. He is so wonderful, and I began to praise Him.
One day, in prayer, I had a vision of heaven’s throne room with Jesus sitting on the throne. He was no longer suffering and bleeding, as He had been on the cross; instead, He was being worshiped by what seemed to be millions of angels. The throne He was sitting on was enormous and beautiful. Jesus was dressed in marvelous royal apparel that had long, full sleeves and was interwoven with pure gold and silver. A robe made of another piece of material was draped around His shoulders. It was the most beautiful garment I have ever seen, and it had a wide sash on it.
When I looked up at Christ’s face, I saw that He was wearing a crown mixed with green, red, and gold velvet. Diamonds, sapphires, and other jewels glittered all over the crown. I thought, O my Lord, how beautiful!
Jesus had a scepter lying across His lap, which He gently tapped with His hand. Fire was on the end of the scepter. Jesus was looking intently at me and smiling. I was on my knees before Him, lifting up my hands and worshiping Him. Then He took the scepter and touched me on the top of my head, blessing me. I looked up, and He touched my heart with a flame of fire. As the fire warmed my heart, I felt tremendous love for God.
The love! The purity! The wholesomeness! As I bowed and worshiped Him, I began to praise Him with all my heart. I thank Jesus for that mighty visitation with the Lord.
It is important for us to realize that our worship of God is made possible only through sacrifice. We can worship because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, through which He has reconciled us to God and restored our relationship with Him. In addition, worship is possible only as we offer the Lord our own sacrifices—sacrifices of praise. “Therefore by [Jesus] let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name” (Hebrews 13:15). Because of what Jesus has done for us, we can join with the angels and worship Him with joy:
Thus says the Lord: “Again there shall be heard in this place...the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say: ‘Praise the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for His mercy endures forever.’”(Jeremiah 33:10–11)
Angelic Activity in Intercession
Second, angels are especially near to God’s saints when they pray. Remember that angels went to Jesus twice and strengthened Him—and He was praying both times! The Bible gives this teaching from heaven’s viewpoint:
Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.(Revelation 8:3–4)
Many times, in the spiritual realm, I have seen angels gathering the prayers of God’s saints at a church altar. They have taken them and gone straight to heaven, where they have presented their prayers before Jesus and the heavenly Father. One time, I saw stairs going up into heaven, and angels carrying our prayers to God like beams of light. Some of the angels flew and some climbed the stairs; some had wings, and some didn’t. In addition, at times, I have been awakened and prompted to pray, and I have seen by my bedside a spiritual being writing in a scroll. The angel would be recording my prayers to take them to heaven.
Besides carrying our prayers to heaven, angels are God’s messengers who bring answers to prayers. I often see angels answering the prayers of God’s saints. I am going to share with you some of what I have seen because I want you to have the same insight that I have been given regarding the involvement of angels in our intercession.
Angels and Prayer for Salvation
Many times, in visions, I have seen angels come into a church, or another place where I was ministering, carrying spiritual crosses. These crosses were huge and pure white, symbolizing wisdom and power. They also emitted a brilliant light, and some had fire coming out of them. The angels would point these crosses toward a backslider or sinner in the room, and the flames of the Holy Spirit would come out from the crosses and envelop the person, who would begin to shake. Then the individual would get up, come to the altar, and repent.
The angels were working with the Spirit of truth and righteousness to encourage people to give their lives to the Lord. It is always a beautiful thing for me to behold. The Lord has revealed to me that He sends His angels to work with us because of the prayers of mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, pastors, laymen, evangelists, and teachers.
Seeing God do His work of salvation in the lives of men and women is marvelous, indeed, and His angels are active in promoting this work. I remember asking a neighbor, who is also an intercessor, to pray for my work in a particular city. The neighbor said, “When you preach there, God is really going to save souls in that city.”
God gave me a vision that confirmed what He was going to do. I saw the heavens open. A large door in heaven swung wide, and many angels riding on horses began coming down to where I was. They came to prepare the way for the work of God. It excited me to see the workings of God in action. I saw books open up, and I recognized the writings in the books. God was promising success for His work. I often see this same scene when I go into towns for services.
In a service one evening, I was preaching on hell and what God had revealed to me about that place. I told the people how we must get right with the Lord, and the church altar filled with people who came forward for prayer. I saw the glory of the Lord coming down around them; God’s arms were stretched out to receive them.
It was such a beautiful scene. Many people don’t understand that once you surrender to God, He is right there to help you and encourage you. He who calls you will bring you forth. He loves you so much that He shows His mighty mercy to you.
In one vision God gave me, I saw many angels who held crosses in their hands. They would stand the crosses up by some of the people in the meeting, or they would put the crosses on people’s shoulders. There was a huge cross, and I understood it to symbolize Christ’s cross.
The people who had been given the crosses began to place them at the base of Christ’s cross. In the middle of His cross, there was a brilliant light, and it seemed as though the nearer they got to His cross and the light, the closer they got to God. It pays to seek God’s face and continue on with Him!
In the visions, Jesus would often say, “Souls, souls, come forth,” and angels would spring into action. They would touch some sincere soul who was seeking God. Some of the people had black bands—indicating sin—fastened around them. As the angels would touch the people, I would see them raise their heads in the service and say, “O God, please forgive me. I’m a thief,” or “Forgive me; I’m a liar,” and so forth. Then the angels would touch these dark bands of bondage and the bands would burst into flames.
Some of the people’s hearts looked as black as coal. But as they confessed their lying, cheating, stealing, adultery, witchcraft, or whatever bondage they were in, the blackness would appear to boil out of their hearts. The angels would touch their hearts, and their hearts would become beautiful and pink. It reminded me of the Scripture, “Then I will...take the stony heart...and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19).
To receive this kind of change in our lives, we must totally repent before God. We have to turn to God with all our hearts, all our minds, all our souls, and all our spirits. We are to do all these things in the name of Jesus.
Angels and Prayer for Healing
About five years after the Lord showed me the revelations of hell and heaven, one of my children—who were all still young—became sick. I had been praying for them, and the Lord began to speak to me, saying,
Child, when I took you into hell, I held your left hand. A few times, you thought I had left you, but I hadn’t. I was right there. I revealed to you much of the depths of the torments of hell, but I also gave you a great gift of the working of miracles in your left hand. It is a gift from Me to you, especially for the suffering and grief you are seeing. It is My gift so that you can help others on the earth. When the appointed time comes, I will magnify that gift and manifest it to heal the sick.
Use the gift on your children. Use it and pray for them, and they will be healed.
The gift of the working of miracles is listed in 1 Corinthians 12 along with the other gifts of the Spirit. (See verses 8–10.) I began to exercise the gift that God had given me, and God started to train me in it; later on, I would see angels coming into services to assist me as I ministered in this gift.
God began to tell me many things about what He wanted to do in my ministry with healings, signs, wonders, and miracles. Angels were always there, carrying out the orders of God. When I would see them in my services, I would tell the people, “God wants to heal you,” and many people were healed. Signs and wonders continue to be manifested in my services today. I see the Lord doing great and mighty things. He is healing the sick and performing marvelous miracles. I know that the day is coming when God is going to pour out more oil and more power upon me so that I can continue to work for Him, exalt Him, and obey His Word to take the message of the Gospel to others in a greater way.
Let me tell you of two other circumstances in which I have witnessed the angels of God participating in healing. At times, when a servant of God is praying over an infant who is critically ill, I have seen angels with scrolls and pens standing in the room, writing down what the minister is saying. Understand, please, that infants are too young to apply faith in such a situation. The minister exercises faith on the infant’s behalf, believing that the child is being healed by God’s Word and Spirit. He or she may pray, “In Jesus’ name and by Jesus’ stripes, this child is healed. I cast out the spirit of infirmity in Jesus’ name. Spirit of infirmity, you must go. I take dominion over you in the name of Jesus!” I have seen how, as the minister lays his hands on a child’s head and anoints him or her with oil, praying according to God’s Word (see James 5:14–15), an angel will place his hands on the afflicted one’s little legs. Other angels sometimes just stand there, perhaps in support of the healing.
The second circumstance was a very personal one. On May 3, 2001, my son Scott had a grand mal seizure. At the time, I was in Michigan preaching the Gospel, and I was staying at the home of my sister. I was unaware that Scott had had a major seizure, but I had a vision of angels coming down from heaven and getting ready to do something on the earth. They were mighty, warrior angels. Then, as I was walking up the stairs at my sister’s house, I clearly heard the words, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25).
A few hours later, my daughter Teresa called and told me about Scott’s grand mal seizure. She said the paramedics had taken him to a hospital, but she didn’t know which one. As I tried to find out where my son was, I still did not know the whole story and what a terrible thing had happened to him.
I called some people in Michigan and other states and asked them to pray. A man in Michigan who has the gift of prophecy called me and said, “Mary, I want to tell you what I see. I see your son in a vision, and I see God connecting the soul and the spirit back together in the brain. I see the brain, and I see the Lord healing this child.” And he began to prophesy and pray.
This man is a good friend of mine, and when he had finished praying, I said, “Brother, I know that you’re a prophet and a man of God, but I don’t really believe Scott’s situation was that tragic. I think it was just a normal seizure.”
I am telling you this story so you may know how important it is to believe in God and serve Him, to keep His commandments and know that He is the Word of God. He is the Healer and Deliverer. He is the same God “yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
When I finally contacted Scott, I asked him, “Son, how are you? What has happened to you?” As he began to tell me, he could hardly talk. He said he’d had a horrible seizure and had been in the hospital. He had gotten home about four o’clock that morning. I said, “You need to really praise God that you didn’t die.”
He said, “Mom, I did die.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked. “What happened?”
Scott told me that he had been about to go into a grocery store when, suddenly, he had felt a lot of pain in his shoulder. Right there, he had a seizure, and that was all he remembered. When he woke up, he was in the hospital. The paramedics told him that when they first arrived, he wasn’t breathing and showed no vital signs. They said they had brought him back to life with electric shock and other emergency procedures and then taken him to the hospital.