Star Triple Seven, God’s holy airplane, glistened in the winter sun as she stood ready to start her flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. As our Holy Ghost-filled pilots and crew were making final preparations for our journey, Rev. Angley let us know that we were not going on this trip alone. “The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are on board, saith the Lord. God is with us…and He is going to use you in a wonderful way. Thus saith the Lord, the battle is the Lord’s; and the victory is ours. I called you to go, and you have answered that call.” Rev. Angley finished by reminding us that our main focus must be souls, souls, souls; and then we were on our way.

Thursday Visits

We arrived in Johannesburg Wednesday morning and spent a hectic day getting settled in our temporary “hotel home” and preparing for our mission ahead—spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. By Thursday morning, we were ready to go; and our first day of work in Soweto began with Rev. Millar, the Cathedral Trio and a small team of our missionaries visiting the men’s section of a maximum security prison housing 8800 inmates. Before the team even left the bus to enter the prison, Rev. Millar led two of the staff workers to the Lord.

The service was held in a small, outside courtyard with very high walls, so the only view of the outdoors was the sky above. Most of the men who attended the service were in prison for life; yet they remained very quiet and attentive, with some even looking up the scriptures as Rev. Millar preached. The Lord touched those men in a way they had never experienced before, and many of them were saved and received prayer for their many needs. At the end of the service, the power of the Holy Ghost poured down; and many of the men began seeking for the baptism of the Spirit.

Rev. Millar and his team always leave the inmates with Bibles as well as ministry books and literature to help them grow in the Lord. Those men will never be the same.

The majority of our missionaries were busy making visits to a large, all-girls' high school, a secondary school, three daycare centers and a train station; and God was performing amazing miracles of all kinds. A very grateful worker at one of the daycare centers received hearing in her left ear.

The girls at the high school were struggling with the sudden and unexpected deaths of some of their classmates; but when one of our young ladies told of how the Lord had helped her through her mother’s recent death, the students opened their hearts to God in a beautiful way. After the assembly, one of the girls admitted to trying to commit suicide; but she was so grateful that God had spared her and given her the precious opportunity to receive the truth. God puts the right people in the right places at the right times for His will to be done.

A young boy who had attended our people’s assembly at his secondary school ran into a group of our workers later in the day and gave his heart to the Lord. He was still carrying the Bible he had received at the school and said his parents wanted him to get rid of it because they were of another faith, but he hugged it to his heart and refused to give it up. God will honor that boy’s commitment and determination, and He will protect him and guide him.

Later that day at the hotel, one of the maids was surprised to hear one of our workers say that she drinks no alcohol; and she kept asking, “Don’t you drink just a little? I have to drink at least a little bit.” Of course, our worker told her no and then went on to tell the woman about Jesus and living holy. Evidently, she drank more than just a little; but she accepted the truth and was saved and delivered. Over the course of the next few days, she proudly reported several times that she was drinking only water and that her husband was so happy about it.

Ministering in the Neighborhoods

In between the various scheduled appointments, our workers spent time praying with people in the informal settlements and neighborhoods. A man who was extremely hard of hearing was all smiles when he could hear a low whisper after prayer. A lady had suffered with arthritis in her knees for 10 years, and not even surgery could alleviate her pain; but just one prayer with a blest cloth gave her relief, and she walked back and forth weeping before the Lord.

A man who was a thief and a beggar was saved and delivered from his evil ways, and then he asked for prayer for his injured arm. Doctors had put a rod in it and done all they could do, but he still could not bend it or use it properly. God is the ultimate surgeon; and after prayer, the man could lift his arm above his head and easily move it all around.

A lady with a crippled leg joyfully danced around after receiving a miracle. A woman’s eye was oozing pus, and she could hardly see out of it; but when she received prayer, the oozing stopped, and the blurriness began to clear. Innocent, little neighborhood children lined up for prayer; and they felt the presence of the Lord in such a great way that they kept going to the back of the line to be touched again. Jesus said, Suffer the little children to come unto me (Mark 10:14).

A group of young people accepted the service invitations and literature offered to them but said they were not ready to pray. However, the Spirit dealt with them as they watched our people minister to and pray with others; and after a while, they approached one of our men and asked to be saved. The anointing makes the difference. And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing (Isaiah 10:27).

In the same area, a man who was both an alcoholic and a witchcraft priest was saved and delivered; and then he began seeking the baptism of the Holy Spirit right on the street. The power of God in the Gospel truth can defeat any power of the devil.

Ministering at the Hospital

Friday morning, Rev. Millar took a busload of our workers to a large hospital. The staff gave them freedom to visit the patients in every ward, and God took over from there. In the pediatric ward, one of the mothers held an infant with a horrible hernia. One of the babies at Ernest Angley’s Grace Cathedral had stunned the doctors when she received a miracle for the same type of hernia, and it was no coincidence that one of our young ladies had before-and-after pictures of that miracle. When she showed the pictures to that mother, the lady was so astounded that she gave her heart to the Lord and believed without a doubt that her baby would be healed.

Another young mother was struggling beneath a heavy load—her baby was vomiting blood, her ailing mother was too far away for her to visit; and she had many other troubles at home—but one of our ladies brought her the truth and let her know that Jesus said, Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28). Within minutes, the Gospel truth, prayer with a blest cloth and the gift of a Bible melted her heart and changed her life.

Ambulance drivers were standing by to take a terminally ill cancer patient to a nursing home to die, but our people were right on time to help him receive salvation and the gift of life. He truly gave his whole heart to God; and through tears of thanksgiving he said, “I had no hope. Thanks for being there for me. Now, I’ll see you over there [in Heaven].”

Rev. Millar prayed for a woman dying with AIDS. She was so weak that she could only respond by slowly nodding her head or blinking her eyes, but she was gloriously saved and plucked as a brand from the fires of hell. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:41,42).

The open door at the hospital allowed our people the rare opportunity of visiting the psychiatric ward. A nurse led two of our women to a young lady who was just sitting and staring upwards in a daze. The nurse said they had named the girl Unknown because she had arrived there with no family, friends or identity; and the girl did not speak. But Jesus knew that girl when no human did, and He had compassion on her; and after prayer, His great grace and mercy gave her speech. Her first word was “Jesus,” and she said it clearly three times. The nurse was shocked at such a miracle, and she gave her heart to the Lord.

The rest of that busy morning included visits to two primary schools and a high school where our missionaries were permitted to speak to the more than 1400 students room by room. At a home for the severely disabled, each child received individual prayer and the staff members wholeheartedly embraced God’s message of truth and salvation.

Friday Service

Friday evening was our first service of the crusade. It had been 19 years since Rev. Angley had been in Soweto, and people were anticipating his return. When he walked onto the stage, the audience was all smiles; and he greeted them with his signature “Jesus cross wave.” The people were particularly quiet and reverent, and the Lord let Rev. Angley know that the audience was ready and waiting for the Word of God. So after just a few songs, he moved on to his sermon, Living on Borrowed Time.

Rev. Angley began by explaining, “We can see the end-time signs all around us, and they are coming to pass. The coming of the Lord is at the door, so God is giving us borrowed time to gather in the harvest of lost souls.

“You can compare this borrowed time to the seven days of grace God gave in Noah’s day. The ark was finished, and Noah’s family and the animals were on board; but God gave seven days of grace before He shut the door.”

Rev. Angley defined grace as favor given by a person who doesn’t have to do so or mercy given through love. Then he continued, “Borrowed time is like grace, and God is giving us this borrowed time to use because He is longsuffering and does not want anyone to perish. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (II Peter 3:9).

“God does not want us to use this borrowed time for ourselves; He wants us to win souls for the Kingdom. Redeeming the time, because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:16). God wants us to be His faithful servants, but whether we are or not is up to us.

“If you borrow something, you use it with great responsibility and don’t take chances with it. How much more should we feel the responsibility of the borrowed time God is giving us today?” Rev. Angley asked. “If God is generous enough to give us this borrowed time, we can’t be careless and use it for things that do not profit His Kingdom.

“If we follow God’s instructions during this borrowed time, He will miraculously sustain us just like He did the widow woman in Elisha’s day. God sent Elisha to that woman during a terrible famine to tell her how to save herself and her son. She followed the instructions of the Lord, and then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest (II Kings 4:7).”

Rev. Angley wanted the people to understand that God would take care of them, too. “If you are using this borrowed time wisely and something happens that is beyond your control, God will work a miracle and bring you out so His work will not cease. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister (Hebrews 6:10).

“None of us have what we need within ourselves to get the Lord’s job done,” Rev. Angley declared. “That is why God let us borrow His Son. He let Him come to Earth to be our Savior and to show us how to live, and then He let Him die for us. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). The Bride knows that she can do nothing without Jesus.”

After the sermon, the gifts of the Spirit in Rev. Angley’s life went into operation and a woman whose feet and legs were giving her trouble received healing. God gave a miracle to a person who had head and eye trouble and to another person with a heart condition. Lung trouble was causing a person to gasp for breath; but God said, “You now have a new lung.” Another person’s faith rose high, and he too received a miracle for breathing trouble. That miracle session ended with a person being healed of an enlarged heart. “When you wake up in the morning,” Rev. Angley declared, “your heart will be normal.”

Saturday Street Work

Saturday morning is a busy shopping time for the people in Soweto, so our missionaries went to busy market areas. Rev. Millar received permission from a security guard to distribute crusade flyers in a shopping center parking lot, but that was short-lived when another security guard told him that our people must stop. Rev. Millar asked to speak to the man’s boss; and after a long walk through the mall, they arrived at his office. When Rev. Millar began talking to him, God’s anointing took over; and after hearing the Gospel message, he asked Jesus into his heart. He then had a change of heart and allowed our people to continue their work.

Later that morning, Rev. Millar prayed for the salvation and healing of a crippled man and encouraged him to start walking saying, “Every step is a blood step.” People watched in amazement as the man walked across the street and all the way to the taxi stand carrying his crutches.

Other miracles that morning included one for a lady whose deformed knee was made whole and one for a woman who had severe cataracts and received clear vision. That same woman also walked with crutches; so after another prayer, she slowly started to twist and move her hips around. When she realized she had freedom at last, she began rejoicing; and she picked up her crutches as she walked around.

Later that day at the hotel, a waitress had a wrist problem that prevented her from using it properly; and it was getting worse. After prayer, she immediately knew it was different; and later, she was carrying her trays with that hand with no problem.

Honest hearts recognize the truth; and one woman declared, “We need you!” Another lady who had been given a Bible said through grateful tears, “It’s the best thing I have ever received.”

Saturday Service

Before every service, the singers and staff gather backstage to receive prayer from Rev. Angley; and God pours down an anointing for the service. During that time on Saturday evening, Rev. Angley announced that one of our singers had received a marvelous miracle. Her doctor had run some lengthy tests on her right before we left, and the results he received were so alarming that he had called her in South Africa to tell her to come home immediately. Of course, that was not God’s will for her; and the Lord gave her a fabulous miracle of re-creation for her heart.

The gift of miracles continued to work as soon as Rev. Angley stepped onto the stage. A person with heart and breathing trouble received a re-created heart. Another person had a spinal condition that was affecting his feet and legs, but God delivered him. A woman had a small, malignant growth in her left breast; but Rev. Angley said, “When you go to feel for it, it will be gone.” Two people with extreme weakness working in their bodies received strength, and a person with knee trouble was healed.

God is so compassionate to His children; and He said to one person, “Your spirit is troubled about many things. Turn them over to the Lord. He wants you to carry the burden for souls and win souls for Him.” Rev. Angley then addressed the audience saying, “The Lord wants His people to give their burdens to Him, and He will take care of them. He wants all of us to carry only the burden for lost humanity.”

The Jesus Trio sang a God-given song of prophecy entitled, I’m Gonna Sing with the Angels. Afterward, the gifts of the Spirit continued to work, and 10 people were healed of a stomach condition while 15 were delivered of sleeplessness. Rev. Angley declared, “God wants us to sleep, and now you can.”

Another person had been in a bad accident and injured his left foot. Rev. Angley said, “Through prayer, your foot was saved; and now, the Lord is making it whole. You won’t limp anymore.” Doctors had removed a person’s kidney, but God re-created it.

The Holy Ghost Baptism

Receiving the Holy Ghost, the third person in the Trinity of the Godhead, is the most important thing after salvation; and that was the topic of Rev. Angley’s sermon that night. “This is the Holy Ghost dispensation,” Rev. Angley began, “and we need Him. It is so necessary for people to receive the Holy Ghost that when Jesus was here, He said, Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you (John 16:7).

“Jesus, in His human body, could not be with all people all the time,” Rev. Angley explained, “but the Holy Ghost can because He lives inside you. Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you (John 14:17).

“The secret of this Jesus ministry is in knowing the Holy Ghost,” Rev. Angley declared. “You must know how He works and how He will work in you. He is to be your Comforter, your Guide, your Teacher, your Spirit of Truth and your Intercessor. Who would not want a person like that living inside of them? But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you (John 14:26). Without Him, we will never know the whole truth.

“The Holy Ghost is power for service. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8). That is the greatest power Heaven makes available to us, and it will make you great witnesses for the Lord,” Rev. Angley declared.

“If you suddenly found yourself in a foreign land where you didn’t know the language or the customs, wouldn’t you want someone who had knowledge and experience to interpret what was being said and to caution you as to what you should or shouldn’t do? Wouldn’t you want someone to guide you and comfort you in your times of infirmity?

“The Holy Ghost will be all of these things to you if you will receive Him. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God (Romans 8:26,27).

“Many people think they have the Holy Ghost; but if He has never spoken through them,” Rev. Angley cautioned, “they don’t really have Him. There are many evidences of the Holy Ghost baptism, but speaking in tongues is the initial, outward evidence; and that is what happened to the disciples on the Day of Pentecost when the Spirit was first poured out. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:4).

“The Holy Ghost is for everyone who will obey the Lord, but He won’t intrude. You have to prepare for Him to come in and welcome Him. And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him (Acts 5:32).

“When you get saved, you have a measure of the Spirit,” Rev. Angley explained. “But you don’t have the Spirit without measure until you receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost and are filled to the brim. Then you must say, ‘Lead on, Holy Ghost, lead on.’ ”

The people were beginning to truly understand the Holy Ghost and His purpose for the first time, and many of them opened their hearts to Him when the Lord poured the Spirit down at the end of the service. Within just minutes, the Lord confirmed that people were already receiving.

As a couple of our workers were encouraging a young woman to seek for the Spirit, they witnessed an astounding manifestation. When the lady prayed through, the Holy Spirit began speaking through her in English; and they could hear the Spirit glorifying the Lord just as was told about on the Day of Pentecost.

When the disciples received the baptism on that day, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?…we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God (Acts 2:6-8,11).

Sunday in Soweto

Sunday morning, 36 of our missionaries split into teams and visited 13 churches. At one church, a woman who had never spoken began to speak. Then she shocked everyone when her voice poured forth as she started seeking the baptism of the Holy Ghost. At another church, the altar call turned into an old-fashioned Holy Ghost rally; and four people prayed through. Hallelujah!

The remainder of our workers were spread throughout the neighborhoods close to the crusade grounds, praying for people and inviting them to the crusade services. One of our young ladies met a woman who was dragging her foot, which was all wrapped up. The woman said she would like prayer; and afterward, she went on her way. Just minutes later, she came running back all excited and exclaiming that her foot was healed; and she couldn’t wait to hug the lady who had prayed for her.

When Rev. Angley stepped onto the stage Sunday evening, he declared, “God told me to tell you that He sent me to you to do you good. There is a crowd of angels here tonight!”

Instantly, miracles began taking place. God used Rev. Angley to tell one person, “Your heart skips beats at times, and it’s not getting any better; but you are now healed!” Immediately afterward, another person was healed of a similar condition. Someone else had fallen years ago, and the person had severe back trouble which was also affecting his neck and brain; but God made him whole.

Rev. Angley instructed a person who had neuritis, arthritis and high blood pressure, “Check your blood pressure in the morning. It will be normal by 10am.” Another person was fighting a disease that medical science could do nothing for; but Rev. Angley declared, “You are healed!” A miracle for another incurable disease followed.

A person had fallen three weeks earlier, but God took care of all the damage that had been done. “The soreness will all go,” Rev. Angley said. Another person had broken a bone, and the Lord showed Rev. Angley that the bone was being healed that night.

More about the Holy Ghost

The Lord then moved on Rev. Angley to continue his teaching session about the Holy Ghost from the previous night; and he began by pointing out, “There is a difference between being saved and receiving the baptism of the Spirit. You must first be born again.

“Once you are sanctified, you must then obey the Lord’s instructions to tarry before the Lord until the Spirit comes in. And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence (Acts 1:4,5).

“Then you must realize that you are not your own. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own (I Corinthians 6:19)?

“The Holy Ghost is a baptism of fire from On High,” Rev. Angley continued. “John the Baptist said, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire (Matthew 3:11). That Spirit is being poured out today just as the Bible says it will be. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh (Joel 2:28).”

At the close of the sermon, Rev. Angley called for the healing line; and God performed miracles for all to see. A woman had holes in her eardrums, but God gave her two new eardrums. A disease was taking a man’s sight in one eye; and God made him whole. A woman who had found out about the crusade from a digital billboard at a mall received a miracle for herself and for her son.

A 16-year-old girl who had attended our people’s assembly at her school came to the service to learn more, and she received her sense of smell. Other fabulous miracles followed, and the people loved them.

At the close of the healing line, the Holy Ghost rained down upon the people; and many were seeking for the baptism with their whole hearts. Rev. Angley teaches that people can receive miracles when they get the Holy Ghost, and a man was healed of back trouble during that rally.

After Rev. Angley left the platform, he prayed for a baby who received hearing and sight. Then we witnessed a very unusual deliverance when a heroin addict came for prayer. As Rev. Angley was casting out the devils, the Lord showed him that another one was actually trying to get in; but he uncovered him saying, “I see you trying to come in.” Then the Lord allowed him to see that devil being cast into hell. Devils are real!

A Victorious Monday

Monday morning, Rev. Millar and his team returned to the same prison they had visited the prior week; but this time, they went to the women’s section. The Cathedral Trio sang in the people’s native language, and it opened the inmates’ hearts so the Word of God could find lodging. It penetrated so deeply that the women were crying out to God with tears streaming down their faces and giving their all to the Lord. The service ended with a Holy Ghost rally, and at least six women received the precious baptism of the Spirit.

That same morning and into the afternoon, our missionaries visited two preschools, a primary school, a secondary school, an all-girls’ high school and two facilities for seniors. At one of the seniors’ homes, two people who could not see well started counting fingers. A man who was paralyzed on his right side from a stroke could lift his arm over his head and curl his fingers in and out. A lady with rheumatoid arthritis and a woman with chest pains were both healed, and another lady received an instant miracle for back and leg trouble.

One of our workers put a blest cloth on a blind man’s eyes and then moved on to pray for a few other residents. Before our people left the room, the man announced that he was beginning to see and asked for a book to read. God’s promise of healing is to all who will believe.

At the second seniors’ home, one of the caregivers was so overwhelmed by the visit and the attention our people gave to the residents that she couldn’t keep it to herself. “This is certainly the day that the Lord hath made,” she humbly said. “Our whole institution was touched by God, and every person felt the presence of the Lord.”

The gardener at one of the preschools received prayer because he had a lot of fighting in his home. Apparently, many people in the neighborhood knew about it, and his deliverance started a neighborhood revival. People were following our missionaries through the streets asking for prayer and singing songs to the Lord.

In the neighborhoods, a man needing a hearing aid received a miracle. His neighbor heard about it and immediately came to receive his hearing as well. A man who was saved and delivered of smoking was in awe of the experience as he said, “It felt like something went out of me, and something else came into me.” Two of our workers saw the same man later in the day; and he proudly declared, “I have not smoked all day!”

God gave two ladies with painful, degenerated knees instant relief. A man’s withered arm received strength, and he was all smiles when he was able to lift a backpack. A lady with pneumonia was so surprised when she realized she could breathe deeply with no pain, and a deaf man received hearing.

In addition to all of those miracles, the Holy Ghost was pouring down wherever we went; and people were unashamedly seeking for the baptism of the Spirit right on the sidewalks. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh…And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered (Joel 2:28,32).

Those first five days were directed by the hand of the Lord as our workers humbled themselves to do God’s work. In just that short amount of time, the Lord had saved, healed and delivered more souls than Jesus did in His entire ministry; and Jesus said that would happen. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father (John 14:12).

We knew the second half of the trip would bring even more astounding signs, wonders, miracles and manifestations from the Lord; and they will be detailed in the next issue of this God-directed magazine.