March 24, 2025 • 20 mins
In this captivating episode of the Radio Coffee House, Clint Armitage takes listeners on a journey into the miraculous world of angels. Broadcasting from Banning, California, Clint presents a compelling interview with Lee Strobel, renowned pastor and author, who shares his own extraordinary experience of being visited by an angel. The episode begins with a powerful story relayed by Billy Graham about a missionary protected by angels during a life-threatening encounter, setting the stage for a discussion about the divine role of angels as protectors and messengers.
As Clint dives deeper into the topic, he explores biblical accounts of angelic intervention, particularly focusing on the story of Elisha and his servant, where God’s angels provide protection in the midst of danger. He encourages listeners to reflect on their own experiences and the unseen forces that may be at work in their lives, emphasizing the importance of prayer in seeking divine protection.
Lee Strobel's personal account of his angelic visitation as a child adds a profound layer to the conversation. He recounts a vivid dream where an angel conveyed the essence of grace and the truth about salvation, a message that would resonate with him years later when he encountered the Christian faith. Clint shares his own miraculous story of being saved from drowning by an unknown figure, whom he believes to be an angel sent by God.
Tune in to this enlightening episode of the Radio Coffee House to explore the reality of angels in our lives and the powerful ways in which God uses them. Join Clint as he uncovers the truth about divine intervention and encourages listeners to remain open to the miraculous.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Welcome to another edition of the Radio Coffeeh House
show, where Jesus meets coffee meets talk
radio. And the next one starts right
now.
What is up, everybody? Clint Armitage with the Radio
Coffee House. Thanks for coming back. Thanks for listening in. Got
another great show for you today. So I'm doing another
(00:24):
roadow. I'm out in Banning, California now. Anyways, this
next episode is a really cool one. It's called I,
I was Visited by an Angel. And it's an interview from the
Sean Ryan Show. He's interviewing Lee
Strobel, the pastor author, and Lee
talks about how he was visited by an angel. But,
uh, before that, he actually brings up a story that he
(00:44):
was told by Billy Graham about an angel who showed up.
So what I wanted to do was go ahead and get into
that, listen to that portion, and then, uh,
talk about where we see an instance of
this, too, in the Bible, where we see an angel show
up or angels show up. Like this story here
that Lee Strobel is going to talk about first, and then we're going to
(01:05):
hear his story when he was visited by an angel, and
then I'm going to talk about my story when
I was visited by an angel. Really cool stories here
we got today. So hopefully you've been noticing the different format
that we've been doing, and hopefully it's been better.
So keep your notifications on so that you
know when our next podcast has
been uploaded and then you can listen right to it,
(01:28):
or you, at least you'll know that it's there so you can listen to it when
you have a chance.
All right, let's get into the first story from Lee
Roobel. I was visited by angels.
So would it be safe to say that
angels are the
arch nemesis, the equivalent
(01:49):
of good to a demon?
Uh, in a sense. I mean, they would certainly be our
protectors against demonic influence and
demonic, uh, harassment and so forth. Um,
we see instances of, as being,
um, warriors. I'll, uh, give you an example.
Billy Graham tells this story. There was a, uh, true story
of, um, a missionary from Scotland who
(02:11):
was in a South Pacific island. And,
um, the local tribe got very
upset that he was there to talk about Jesus. And
they went to murder him and his family.
And they came and surrounded his house.
And so him and his family got in there and they what can
we. We can pray. That's all we can do. This crowd,
this mob, is intent on killing us.
(02:34):
And so they prayed all night. God protect us. God
protect us. And the mob, by dawn,
dissipated and nothing happened. Well, the
leader of that mob later became a Christian.
And that missionary talked to him and said,
hey, by the way, what happened that one night when
you came to kill us and the mob was formed
(02:54):
around our house? Why didn't you kill us?
And he said, well, we couldn't do with all
those men you had garding the house.
He said, what do you talk about? I didn't have any men gardening the house. He said,
no, we saw them. There were these men, they had swords that
were drawn m and they surrounded your house.
And we figured there's no way we can go in
(03:14):
and attack these people in light of these guards
around the house or who are they? They were
angels and God, it's an angels to protect
them.
All right, cool story, right? Now
I know there's other people that's listening that have
had a visit by angels as well.
And so you may have a story too. But
this is kind of cool to bring this up, to really take a look
(03:37):
at how God is using angels, right? Because angels are
warriors, angels are protectors, angels are
guardians, and angels are messengers. And
it's so cool to hear these stories and then also
to confirm with our own stories of how God
is protecting us using these beings that he
created.
All right, let's look at a story in the Bible that, uh,
(03:58):
features Elisha, or Elisha, however you want to
say it, and his servant. Anyways, let's listen to the
story and hear what it says about angels
and how God used them in this story as well, which
is similar to that story that we just heard. Okay, here it goes.
We're starting in Second Kings,
chapter six, verse eight. Here we go. Now, the king
(04:19):
of Aram was at war with Israel. After
conferring with his officers, he said, I will set up my
camp in such and such a place.
The man of God sent word to the king of Israel,
Beware of passing that place, because the
Armenians are going down there.
So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated
(04:39):
by the man of God. Time and again,
Elisha warned the king so that he was on
his guard in such places. This enraged
the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and
demanded of them, tell me which one of us is
on the side of the king of Israel? None of us,
my lord, the king said one of his officers. But
Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells
(05:02):
the king of Israel the very words you speak in your
bedroom. Go find out where he is. The king
ordered, so I can send men and capture him.
The report came back. He is in Dththan Then he sent
horses and chariots and a strong force there.
They went by night and surrounded the city. When the
servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next
morning, an army with horses and chariots had
(05:24):
surrounded the city. O no, my Lord, what shall
we do? The servant asked. Don't be afraid.
The prophet answered, those who are with us are
more than those who are with them. And Elisha prayed,
open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see. Then
the Lord opened the servants's eyes and he looked and saw
the hills full of horses and chariots of fire
(05:45):
all around Elisha. As the enemy came down toward him,
Elisha prayed to the Lord, strike this army with
blindness. So he struck them with blindness as
Elisha had asked. Elisha told them, this
is not the road and this is not the city.
Follow me and I will lead you to the man you are looking for.
And he led them to Samaria. Man, such
(06:05):
a cool story, right? But another story where God
uses angels to surround the
enemy and then struck them blind. And then they were, uh, able to lead
them away from their plan and into
Samaria to the King of Israel.
So what's cool about that is that
God uses angels in ways that are so
miraculous and so life saving and so protective.
(06:27):
And it's such a cool thing to hear these
stories because we don't even see it, right? We don't understand
it. We can't see it. We have scales on our eyes just like
the servant_isha did. And then Elisha
prayed, open his eyes, Lord, so he may see. So what does
that mean? What does that tell us? Well, we can open
our eyes and see if we pray to the Lord. First
(06:47):
we have to pray for protection. Say we're in a situation that we can't
handle. Say it's too much for us, right? It'll overwhelm us,
even life or death situations. And we pray
because that's really the only thing we can do when we're in a situation
that we're overwhelmed. And then we're going to be taken over to
the point of possibly death depending on the
situation. All we can do is
pray. And then the Lord sends the angels.
(07:10):
And then what we have to do is be able to see into that
spiritual realm so we can ask the Lord, like Elisha
did. Open our eyes, Lord. Let us see what's happening.
And then the Lord showed Elisha, and maybe he'll show
you in that circumstance, who knows? But we
can pray. And that's one of those things that we
have at all times in our arsenal,
(07:30):
24 hours a day, seven days a week, we
have that ability toay. And then God can help
us through that dangerous situation that we're in. So
cool.
All right, let's listen to the next story that Lee has, and it's
talking about his own visit by an angel. And then what I'm
gonna do is. And I'm gonna talk about my visit by an angel. All right,
let's listen to the next clip.
Can I tell you something I don't generally tell people?
(07:52):
Absolutely.
There's, like a confessional. But,
um, I was visited by an angel
when I was a child. I was a
youngster, and I had a dream. It's the
only dream I remember from my childhood. It
was more vivid, more real, more colorful than any dream
I'd ever had. And an angel appeared to
(08:13):
me, telling me about heaven and
the beauty and the wonder and the joy of
heaven. And I'm kind of nodding along. We're
in the kitchen of our house, and I'm kind of nodding along. I said, well, you know,
I'm going toa go there someday. And he looked at me and
said, how do you know? So what do
you mean, how do I know? I'm a good kid.
(08:34):
I obey my parents pretty much. I've been to Sunday
school a couple of times. I try
to be nice to people. And he looked at me
and he said, that doesn't matter.
And this cold chill went through me. It'like,
how can that not matter? All my efforts to be good, all my efforts
to be obedient, you're telling me they don't matter?
(08:55):
And he said, someday you'll understand. And
that was the end of the dream. Sixteen
years later, that prophecy came
true when my wife
dragged me to a church as an atheist.
January 20, 1980.
And the pastor got up and he talked
about heaven. And he talked about heaven is not a place
(09:17):
that we earn our way there and tried to achieve
something, somehow be good enough to enter into heaven. None of
us is good enough to enter into the presence of God in
heaven. Forgiveness and eternal life in heaven is a
free gift of God's graceuse he loves
you. You're made in his image. He wants to spend eternity with you.
He offers forgiveness, and eternal life is a free
(09:37):
gift of his grace. And my first thought
was, that's what that angel was talking
about 16 years ago when he said,
someday I'll understand. And I got at that. I
didn't believe. It took a while, but this
first day I Got. Oh, I get it now. That's what
Christianity is about. It's not earning your way to
heaven. It's receiving a free gift of
(10:00):
forgiveness and eternal life.
Wow. How old were you on that?
You know, I'd say, um, maybe 10,
11. Sometimes 10, 11, 12, somewhere in
there.
What did the angel look like?
Um, it was male. And by the
way, um, I did read some scholarly articles,
um, from Jewish writers, uh, saying
(10:21):
that, uh, angels can be female, but in
scripture they're all male. Doesn't, uh, mean they couldn't
manifest themselves ca becausee they're spirits.
So they can manifest themself as a male, I assume as a
female. But all of them in scripture are male.
Um, he had a
soft glow to him,
um, and, uh, didn't have wings.
(10:42):
Um, it, uh, didn't look like a cartoon character,
but there was a gentle glow to him
that just intuitively I knew, oh,
this is an angel. I'm talking to an angel.
So, looked human.
He looked human. Exactly. And even the Bible talks about
the fact that, uh, sometimes when we
provide hospitality to someone, we're really
(11:04):
providing hospitality to an angel unbeknownst to us, but
they can manifest themselves as
human, like Al.
Right, that was a great story about an angel
that visited Lee Strobel. And now I'm
gonna tell you my story. It started when I was,
like, 7 or 8 years old, and I was in
Hawaii, and my family was camping at a beach.
(11:25):
In Hawaii, you camp. A lot of people camp on the beach.
I don't know what it is, how it is now, but back then you could just
camp all over the beach. So. And they had these,
um. It was like a thing. Everybody did it.
So anyways, we're camping on the beach, and
my cousin and I are going out onto the beach into the waves,
and nobody's there. It's literally just sand and
water. No people are around. It's just me and him. But
(11:48):
anyways, so at this particular beach, there
was an undercurrent, you know, like an underow. It sucked
you in and out and down,
even when you, uh, got into the water.
So you had to be a strong swimmer or you had to allow it to take you
out far enough to get out of that current, and
then you can SW around. And so we're messing around on
(12:09):
the beach and everything and playing right there, right on the sand,
in the water and all that. And then I got
sucked under by the undercurrent. The undertow took me and sucked
me out, and it took me out. And these
Beaches. The beach that I was at had a
drop off, uh, only a few yards out
from where the water kind of stopped on the
way up the sand, maybe 15 yards out,
(12:32):
there was a drop. And then. So you can't touch anymore. At least me,
I wasn't, uh, that tall anyway. So his undercurrent
just pulled me under, and then it sucked me out. And
so I was actually starting to drown. So, oh,
I swam back up. I take a breath. I'm like, whoa. And
then it sucked me back in again, and then I
swam back up and I took another breath, and then it
(12:52):
sucked me back down again. And it did this multiple
times. And I remember coming up one time
and I yelled at my cousin, I said, hey, help me, help me.
And what he did is he came out, he came out to me,
and he reached out arm, and I grabbed his arm. And then he
started pulling me out and's a little bit bigger than me.
And he starts walking back towards the
sand, towards the beach, and he starts walking back, walking
(13:15):
back. And then the undercurrent sucked me under
again. And it pulled me down. And, uh, because it was pulling
me down, it started pulling him down. And once it started pulling him
down, he didn't want any part of it, so he let me go
because he was getting sucked under too. So it was a smart thing on his part to
do. Anyways, so I get sucked under again. So
I'm under the water, I'm gurgling, I'm, you know, taking in water and all
(13:35):
that stuff, and I'm back in the same position. And then I remember
swimming back up and getting another breath and then getting sucked down
another time. And now by this time, I am dead tired.
I've been doing this for a little while now, multiple times.
And every time I get sucked back under. So this one
time, this last time, it sucked me under. And I
remember looking up and opening my eyes. Man, I could still picture
(13:56):
it today. Okay, you know how it is in the movies where
the sun, they have a camera underneath the water, and you see the
sun shining above the water, and then these sun rays shoot
into the water. Yeah, that was the look. You probably
experienced this yourself too, or saw it on a TV show or something. That's
exactly what I saw. And again, from the top of my
head to about the top of the water, it was about three to four
(14:16):
feet. And I remember looking up and seeing
these sun rays. Gosh, I remember so
vividly. These sun rays is all I could
picture. And then what kind of broke
my Concentration on these sun rays was
bubbles coming out of my mouth because I was losing
air. And so I made that like gulp kind of sound.
(14:36):
And uh, I saw the bubbles go up and it broke my
concentration when I was focusing on the, on the sun rays
coming, coming through the water there. And I was like,
oh. And I remember thinking, because all this was
happening right around the same time, and I remember thinking, I go, this is
it. I think I'm going toa die. I remember
thinking that distinctly, like, this is my last breath. I have like
one more breath in me and if it's not of air,
(14:59):
I'm gonna gulp down water and then I'm just goingna sink. So
I started preparing myself. It was like a, like, man, this
was like quick nanoseconds in my brain right as I
was seeing these sun rays. And then
the, the bubbles, as I gulp the
bubbles broke my concentration on that. I was thinking,
this is it, I'm not gonna make it. I'm going down, I'm going
(15:19):
under. One more little gulp and I'm gonna sink. And
that's what I was thinking in my head, that I was gone. I was a goner. And
then out of nowhere, I see
through the sun rays, I see this hand come down
and grab me and pick me up and then start pulling me
towards the beach. And I'm still like, I'm still
kind of messed up, right? Like I can't focus
(15:39):
and, and I'm still kind of choking on the water
and everything, so I wasn't really coherent. But I remember
getting dragged out and I remember looking up and I remember water
dripping down my face as I was getting dragged out. And
it was a guy, it was a man. So just like Lee
Strobel said, uh, you know, I experienced a man as
well. So it was this guy and he was a dark
(15:59):
Hawaiian looking guy. Now I didn't really get to see his
face, I got to see his body. He was a taller, skinny,
athletic guy and he wasn't wearing anything but
red shorts and it was those lifeguard
type shorts. Uh, he reminded me of like a Hawaiian
guy that was on the beach constantly.
A Hawaiian lifeguard that worked on the beach
constantly because he was super dark and all he was
(16:22):
wearing was these red
shorts and it was those lifeguard shorts back then
that they used to wear. And I remember him, you know, pulling me out
and then he pulls me out of the water and then he
pulls me onto the beach and he lays me on the
beach. Right after he lays me on the beach. I look
up. And I look at him, and he walks
away. And he begins walking, and then he walks away. And I'm
(16:44):
still trying to catch my breath. I'm still trying to, you know, kind of get
my bearings. And I'm still coughing. And I'm starting to sit
up a little bit, right? I'm starting to sit up. I'm starting to get
my eyes open and wipe my face and, you
know, cough all the water out and everything. And I remember getting up
and looking towards his direction, and
he walked away. And then as he was walking
(17:05):
away, I. My guess is he was probably about 30
yards away. When I look back towards myself, like, I.
Like I wipe my face or something like that, where I took my eyes off
him. And it was this big open field. Because at the beach,
all it was was a beach and a park.
And so it was just all the way to the
street. And that's all it was. It was beach, park street,
(17:25):
but the park was. Was big. And so I saw him
walking about 30, 40 yards. Wiped my face, you know, caught
my breath, kind of got my bearings, and I looked up again, and
he was gone, nowhere to be found. And there was nobody
at the park area, nobody on the beach
except me and my cousin. And my cousin was near me. He was right there.
And so after I kind of caught my breath and got
(17:45):
my bearings, I asked him, I go, hey, who was that guy? Where is he?
All my cousin said was, I don't know. And I said, what? I go,
where's that guy? He goes, I don't know. And, uh, you know, I never
followed up with those questions with him, with my
cousin. And that's something maybe I should do, is follow up
with him. I wonder what he would say. Cause the way he answered
me was like, he didn't experience the guy at all. I don't know.
(18:06):
I mean, I guess he did because I was pulled out of the water and dragged
onto the beach and dropped there. But the way he answered my question,
like, where's the guy? He goes, I don't know. Anyways, maybe that's something I should ask
him. I totally forgot about that, man. I should
ask him and see what he says, see if he remembers anything. But anyways,
the guy looked like a lifeguard, a Hawaiian lifeguard.
There is no lifeguards at that beach. Okay? There's no. It's not
(18:26):
like a beach where everybody swims, remember? It's a
camping area. So it's just a little beach with the
park and camping area. So for a lifeguard to be
There wouldn't necessarily be the case because there was no
lifeguards ass sign there. So I know that there's no lifeguards assigned
to that beach. But he looked like a lifeguard. That's what
he reminded me of. I don't remember his face.
(18:46):
And then he just left. And if he was truly a lifeguard,
even if he wasn't a lifeguard, he was just some dude that saved
me. Would he literally just drop. Would you
drop me on a beach and then just walk away and not say
a thing? He didn't say a word. He literally pulled me out of the water,
dragged me to the beach, drop me on the sand and
then walked away. Even if he wasn't a lifeguard, he
(19:06):
would at least stayed there to see if I was okay.
Because what if I was still choking on water and
all that stuff? Either way, you wouldn't just leave somebody like
that. So in my uh, estimation, I mean
I wholeheartedly believe 100% that
that was an angel. I believe I was visited
by an angel on that day. There's no other
(19:26):
explanation for it for me anyway. So I don't know what your thoughts
are on it, but I believe I was visited by an
angel on that day and an angel saved
my life. God sent that angel to save my
life because I was literally gonna
die within a few more seconds of being
underwater. What a cool show, man.
Angels are real. God uses them. Have
(19:49):
you had something like that? Let me know if you have
had a circumstance like that. Let me know your
story. God uses angels. So
pray for God to help you and he'll send his angels.
Alright. Well that was an awesome show. Just hearing stories about
angels and talking about how God uses them, not only in the Bible
but in our lives. So I hope you had a good time
listening to the stories and I hope to see you next time. My name is Clint
(20:12):
Armitage, this is the Radio Coffee House. And until next
time, stay safe and God bless.
Thanks for joining uh us for another episode of the Radio Coffee
House show where we're all about Jesus, coffee
and radio. We'll see you next time.
Welcome to another edition of the Radio Coffeeh House
show, where Jesus meets coffee meets talk
radio. And the next one starts right
now.
What is up, everybody? Clint Armitage with the Radio
Coffee House. Thanks for coming back. Thanks for listening in. Got
another great show for you today. So I'm doing another
(00:24):
roadow. I'm out in Banning, California now. Anyways, this
next episode is a really cool one. It's called I,
I was Visited by an Angel. And it's an interview from the
Sean Ryan Show. He's interviewing Lee
Strobel, the pastor author, and Lee
talks about how he was visited by an angel. But,
uh, before that, he actually brings up a story that he
(00:44):
was told by Billy Graham about an angel who showed up.
So what I wanted to do was go ahead and get into
that, listen to that portion, and then, uh,
talk about where we see an instance of
this, too, in the Bible, where we see an angel show
up or angels show up. Like this story here
that Lee Strobel is going to talk about first, and then we're going to
(01:05):
hear his story when he was visited by an angel, and
then I'm going to talk about my story when
I was visited by an angel. Really cool stories here
we got today. So hopefully you've been noticing the different format
that we've been doing, and hopefully it's been better.
So keep your notifications on so that you
know when our next podcast has
been uploaded and then you can listen right to it,
(01:28):
or you, at least you'll know that it's there so you can listen to it when
you have a chance.
All right, let's get into the first story from Lee
Roobel. I was visited by angels.
So would it be safe to say that
angels are the
arch nemesis, the equivalent
(01:49):
of good to a demon?
Uh, in a sense. I mean, they would certainly be our
protectors against demonic influence and
demonic, uh, harassment and so forth. Um,
we see instances of, as being,
um, warriors. I'll, uh, give you an example.
Billy Graham tells this story. There was a, uh, true story
of, um, a missionary from Scotland who
(02:11):
was in a South Pacific island. And,
um, the local tribe got very
upset that he was there to talk about Jesus. And
they went to murder him and his family.
And they came and surrounded his house.
And so him and his family got in there and they what can
we. We can pray. That's all we can do. This crowd,
this mob, is intent on killing us.
(02:34):
And so they prayed all night. God protect us. God
protect us. And the mob, by dawn,
dissipated and nothing happened. Well, the
leader of that mob later became a Christian.
And that missionary talked to him and said,
hey, by the way, what happened that one night when
you came to kill us and the mob was formed
(02:54):
around our house? Why didn't you kill us?
And he said, well, we couldn't do with all
those men you had garding the house.
He said, what do you talk about? I didn't have any men gardening the house. He said,
no, we saw them. There were these men, they had swords that
were drawn m and they surrounded your house.
And we figured there's no way we can go in
(03:14):
and attack these people in light of these guards
around the house or who are they? They were
angels and God, it's an angels to protect
them.
All right, cool story, right? Now
I know there's other people that's listening that have
had a visit by angels as well.
And so you may have a story too. But
this is kind of cool to bring this up, to really take a look
(03:37):
at how God is using angels, right? Because angels are
warriors, angels are protectors, angels are
guardians, and angels are messengers. And
it's so cool to hear these stories and then also
to confirm with our own stories of how God
is protecting us using these beings that he
created.
All right, let's look at a story in the Bible that, uh,
(03:58):
features Elisha, or Elisha, however you want to
say it, and his servant. Anyways, let's listen to the
story and hear what it says about angels
and how God used them in this story as well, which
is similar to that story that we just heard. Okay, here it goes.
We're starting in Second Kings,
chapter six, verse eight. Here we go. Now, the king
(04:19):
of Aram was at war with Israel. After
conferring with his officers, he said, I will set up my
camp in such and such a place.
The man of God sent word to the king of Israel,
Beware of passing that place, because the
Armenians are going down there.
So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated
(04:39):
by the man of God. Time and again,
Elisha warned the king so that he was on
his guard in such places. This enraged
the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and
demanded of them, tell me which one of us is
on the side of the king of Israel? None of us,
my lord, the king said one of his officers. But
Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells
(05:02):
the king of Israel the very words you speak in your
bedroom. Go find out where he is. The king
ordered, so I can send men and capture him.
The report came back. He is in Dththan Then he sent
horses and chariots and a strong force there.
They went by night and surrounded the city. When the
servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next
morning, an army with horses and chariots had
(05:24):
surrounded the city. O no, my Lord, what shall
we do? The servant asked. Don't be afraid.
The prophet answered, those who are with us are
more than those who are with them. And Elisha prayed,
open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see. Then
the Lord opened the servants's eyes and he looked and saw
the hills full of horses and chariots of fire
(05:45):
all around Elisha. As the enemy came down toward him,
Elisha prayed to the Lord, strike this army with
blindness. So he struck them with blindness as
Elisha had asked. Elisha told them, this
is not the road and this is not the city.
Follow me and I will lead you to the man you are looking for.
And he led them to Samaria. Man, such
(06:05):
a cool story, right? But another story where God
uses angels to surround the
enemy and then struck them blind. And then they were, uh, able to lead
them away from their plan and into
Samaria to the King of Israel.
So what's cool about that is that
God uses angels in ways that are so
miraculous and so life saving and so protective.
(06:27):
And it's such a cool thing to hear these
stories because we don't even see it, right? We don't understand
it. We can't see it. We have scales on our eyes just like
the servant_isha did. And then Elisha
prayed, open his eyes, Lord, so he may see. So what does
that mean? What does that tell us? Well, we can open
our eyes and see if we pray to the Lord. First
(06:47):
we have to pray for protection. Say we're in a situation that we can't
handle. Say it's too much for us, right? It'll overwhelm us,
even life or death situations. And we pray
because that's really the only thing we can do when we're in a situation
that we're overwhelmed. And then we're going to be taken over to
the point of possibly death depending on the
situation. All we can do is
pray. And then the Lord sends the angels.
(07:10):
And then what we have to do is be able to see into that
spiritual realm so we can ask the Lord, like Elisha
did. Open our eyes, Lord. Let us see what's happening.
And then the Lord showed Elisha, and maybe he'll show
you in that circumstance, who knows? But we
can pray. And that's one of those things that we
have at all times in our arsenal,
(07:30):
24 hours a day, seven days a week, we
have that ability toay. And then God can help
us through that dangerous situation that we're in. So
cool.
All right, let's listen to the next story that Lee has, and it's
talking about his own visit by an angel. And then what I'm
gonna do is. And I'm gonna talk about my visit by an angel. All right,
let's listen to the next clip.
Can I tell you something I don't generally tell people?
(07:52):
Absolutely.
There's, like a confessional. But,
um, I was visited by an angel
when I was a child. I was a
youngster, and I had a dream. It's the
only dream I remember from my childhood. It
was more vivid, more real, more colorful than any dream
I'd ever had. And an angel appeared to
(08:13):
me, telling me about heaven and
the beauty and the wonder and the joy of
heaven. And I'm kind of nodding along. We're
in the kitchen of our house, and I'm kind of nodding along. I said, well, you know,
I'm going toa go there someday. And he looked at me and
said, how do you know? So what do
you mean, how do I know? I'm a good kid.
(08:34):
I obey my parents pretty much. I've been to Sunday
school a couple of times. I try
to be nice to people. And he looked at me
and he said, that doesn't matter.
And this cold chill went through me. It'like,
how can that not matter? All my efforts to be good, all my efforts
to be obedient, you're telling me they don't matter?
(08:55):
And he said, someday you'll understand. And
that was the end of the dream. Sixteen
years later, that prophecy came
true when my wife
dragged me to a church as an atheist.
January 20, 1980.
And the pastor got up and he talked
about heaven. And he talked about heaven is not a place
(09:17):
that we earn our way there and tried to achieve
something, somehow be good enough to enter into heaven. None of
us is good enough to enter into the presence of God in
heaven. Forgiveness and eternal life in heaven is a
free gift of God's graceuse he loves
you. You're made in his image. He wants to spend eternity with you.
He offers forgiveness, and eternal life is a free
(09:37):
gift of his grace. And my first thought
was, that's what that angel was talking
about 16 years ago when he said,
someday I'll understand. And I got at that. I
didn't believe. It took a while, but this
first day I Got. Oh, I get it now. That's what
Christianity is about. It's not earning your way to
heaven. It's receiving a free gift of
(10:00):
forgiveness and eternal life.
Wow. How old were you on that?
You know, I'd say, um, maybe 10,
11. Sometimes 10, 11, 12, somewhere in
there.
What did the angel look like?
Um, it was male. And by the
way, um, I did read some scholarly articles,
um, from Jewish writers, uh, saying
(10:21):
that, uh, angels can be female, but in
scripture they're all male. Doesn't, uh, mean they couldn't
manifest themselves ca becausee they're spirits.
So they can manifest themself as a male, I assume as a
female. But all of them in scripture are male.
Um, he had a
soft glow to him,
um, and, uh, didn't have wings.
(10:42):
Um, it, uh, didn't look like a cartoon character,
but there was a gentle glow to him
that just intuitively I knew, oh,
this is an angel. I'm talking to an angel.
So, looked human.
He looked human. Exactly. And even the Bible talks about
the fact that, uh, sometimes when we
provide hospitality to someone, we're really
(11:04):
providing hospitality to an angel unbeknownst to us, but
they can manifest themselves as
human, like Al.
Right, that was a great story about an angel
that visited Lee Strobel. And now I'm
gonna tell you my story. It started when I was,
like, 7 or 8 years old, and I was in
Hawaii, and my family was camping at a beach.
(11:25):
In Hawaii, you camp. A lot of people camp on the beach.
I don't know what it is, how it is now, but back then you could just
camp all over the beach. So. And they had these,
um. It was like a thing. Everybody did it.
So anyways, we're camping on the beach, and
my cousin and I are going out onto the beach into the waves,
and nobody's there. It's literally just sand and
water. No people are around. It's just me and him. But
(11:48):
anyways, so at this particular beach, there
was an undercurrent, you know, like an underow. It sucked
you in and out and down,
even when you, uh, got into the water.
So you had to be a strong swimmer or you had to allow it to take you
out far enough to get out of that current, and
then you can SW around. And so we're messing around on
(12:09):
the beach and everything and playing right there, right on the sand,
in the water and all that. And then I got
sucked under by the undercurrent. The undertow took me and sucked
me out, and it took me out. And these
Beaches. The beach that I was at had a
drop off, uh, only a few yards out
from where the water kind of stopped on the
way up the sand, maybe 15 yards out,
(12:32):
there was a drop. And then. So you can't touch anymore. At least me,
I wasn't, uh, that tall anyway. So his undercurrent
just pulled me under, and then it sucked me out. And
so I was actually starting to drown. So, oh,
I swam back up. I take a breath. I'm like, whoa. And
then it sucked me back in again, and then I
swam back up and I took another breath, and then it
(12:52):
sucked me back down again. And it did this multiple
times. And I remember coming up one time
and I yelled at my cousin, I said, hey, help me, help me.
And what he did is he came out, he came out to me,
and he reached out arm, and I grabbed his arm. And then he
started pulling me out and's a little bit bigger than me.
And he starts walking back towards the
sand, towards the beach, and he starts walking back, walking
(13:15):
back. And then the undercurrent sucked me under
again. And it pulled me down. And, uh, because it was pulling
me down, it started pulling him down. And once it started pulling him
down, he didn't want any part of it, so he let me go
because he was getting sucked under too. So it was a smart thing on his part to
do. Anyways, so I get sucked under again. So
I'm under the water, I'm gurgling, I'm, you know, taking in water and all
(13:35):
that stuff, and I'm back in the same position. And then I remember
swimming back up and getting another breath and then getting sucked down
another time. And now by this time, I am dead tired.
I've been doing this for a little while now, multiple times.
And every time I get sucked back under. So this one
time, this last time, it sucked me under. And I
remember looking up and opening my eyes. Man, I could still picture
(13:56):
it today. Okay, you know how it is in the movies where
the sun, they have a camera underneath the water, and you see the
sun shining above the water, and then these sun rays shoot
into the water. Yeah, that was the look. You probably
experienced this yourself too, or saw it on a TV show or something. That's
exactly what I saw. And again, from the top of my
head to about the top of the water, it was about three to four
(14:16):
feet. And I remember looking up and seeing
these sun rays. Gosh, I remember so
vividly. These sun rays is all I could
picture. And then what kind of broke
my Concentration on these sun rays was
bubbles coming out of my mouth because I was losing
air. And so I made that like gulp kind of sound.
(14:36):
And uh, I saw the bubbles go up and it broke my
concentration when I was focusing on the, on the sun rays
coming, coming through the water there. And I was like,
oh. And I remember thinking, because all this was
happening right around the same time, and I remember thinking, I go, this is
it. I think I'm going toa die. I remember
thinking that distinctly, like, this is my last breath. I have like
one more breath in me and if it's not of air,
(14:59):
I'm gonna gulp down water and then I'm just goingna sink. So
I started preparing myself. It was like a, like, man, this
was like quick nanoseconds in my brain right as I
was seeing these sun rays. And then
the, the bubbles, as I gulp the
bubbles broke my concentration on that. I was thinking,
this is it, I'm not gonna make it. I'm going down, I'm going
(15:19):
under. One more little gulp and I'm gonna sink. And
that's what I was thinking in my head, that I was gone. I was a goner. And
then out of nowhere, I see
through the sun rays, I see this hand come down
and grab me and pick me up and then start pulling me
towards the beach. And I'm still like, I'm still
kind of messed up, right? Like I can't focus
(15:39):
and, and I'm still kind of choking on the water
and everything, so I wasn't really coherent. But I remember
getting dragged out and I remember looking up and I remember water
dripping down my face as I was getting dragged out. And
it was a guy, it was a man. So just like Lee
Strobel said, uh, you know, I experienced a man as
well. So it was this guy and he was a dark
(15:59):
Hawaiian looking guy. Now I didn't really get to see his
face, I got to see his body. He was a taller, skinny,
athletic guy and he wasn't wearing anything but
red shorts and it was those lifeguard
type shorts. Uh, he reminded me of like a Hawaiian
guy that was on the beach constantly.
A Hawaiian lifeguard that worked on the beach
constantly because he was super dark and all he was
(16:22):
wearing was these red
shorts and it was those lifeguard shorts back then
that they used to wear. And I remember him, you know, pulling me out
and then he pulls me out of the water and then he
pulls me onto the beach and he lays me on the
beach. Right after he lays me on the beach. I look
up. And I look at him, and he walks
away. And he begins walking, and then he walks away. And I'm
(16:44):
still trying to catch my breath. I'm still trying to, you know, kind of get
my bearings. And I'm still coughing. And I'm starting to sit
up a little bit, right? I'm starting to sit up. I'm starting to get
my eyes open and wipe my face and, you
know, cough all the water out and everything. And I remember getting up
and looking towards his direction, and
he walked away. And then as he was walking
(17:05):
away, I. My guess is he was probably about 30
yards away. When I look back towards myself, like, I.
Like I wipe my face or something like that, where I took my eyes off
him. And it was this big open field. Because at the beach,
all it was was a beach and a park.
And so it was just all the way to the
street. And that's all it was. It was beach, park street,
(17:25):
but the park was. Was big. And so I saw him
walking about 30, 40 yards. Wiped my face, you know, caught
my breath, kind of got my bearings, and I looked up again, and
he was gone, nowhere to be found. And there was nobody
at the park area, nobody on the beach
except me and my cousin. And my cousin was near me. He was right there.
And so after I kind of caught my breath and got
(17:45):
my bearings, I asked him, I go, hey, who was that guy? Where is he?
All my cousin said was, I don't know. And I said, what? I go,
where's that guy? He goes, I don't know. And, uh, you know, I never
followed up with those questions with him, with my
cousin. And that's something maybe I should do, is follow up
with him. I wonder what he would say. Cause the way he answered
me was like, he didn't experience the guy at all. I don't know.
(18:06):
I mean, I guess he did because I was pulled out of the water and dragged
onto the beach and dropped there. But the way he answered my question,
like, where's the guy? He goes, I don't know. Anyways, maybe that's something I should ask
him. I totally forgot about that, man. I should
ask him and see what he says, see if he remembers anything. But anyways,
the guy looked like a lifeguard, a Hawaiian lifeguard.
There is no lifeguards at that beach. Okay? There's no. It's not
(18:26):
like a beach where everybody swims, remember? It's a
camping area. So it's just a little beach with the
park and camping area. So for a lifeguard to be
There wouldn't necessarily be the case because there was no
lifeguards ass sign there. So I know that there's no lifeguards assigned
to that beach. But he looked like a lifeguard. That's what
he reminded me of. I don't remember his face.
(18:46):
And then he just left. And if he was truly a lifeguard,
even if he wasn't a lifeguard, he was just some dude that saved
me. Would he literally just drop. Would you
drop me on a beach and then just walk away and not say
a thing? He didn't say a word. He literally pulled me out of the water,
dragged me to the beach, drop me on the sand and
then walked away. Even if he wasn't a lifeguard, he
(19:06):
would at least stayed there to see if I was okay.
Because what if I was still choking on water and
all that stuff? Either way, you wouldn't just leave somebody like
that. So in my uh, estimation, I mean
I wholeheartedly believe 100% that
that was an angel. I believe I was visited
by an angel on that day. There's no other
(19:26):
explanation for it for me anyway. So I don't know what your thoughts
are on it, but I believe I was visited by an
angel on that day and an angel saved
my life. God sent that angel to save my
life because I was literally gonna
die within a few more seconds of being
underwater. What a cool show, man.
Angels are real. God uses them. Have
(19:49):
you had something like that? Let me know if you have
had a circumstance like that. Let me know your
story. God uses angels. So
pray for God to help you and he'll send his angels.
Alright. Well that was an awesome show. Just hearing stories about
angels and talking about how God uses them, not only in the Bible
but in our lives. So I hope you had a good time
listening to the stories and I hope to see you next time. My name is Clint
(20:12):
Armitage, this is the Radio Coffee House. And until next
time, stay safe and God bless.
Thanks for joining uh us for another episode of the Radio Coffee
House show where we're all about Jesus, coffee
and radio. We'll see you next time.
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