Supernatural elements in Phillip Angelo Stories and their Biblical Basis
Phillip Angelo is a private detective who specializes in finding lost people. The word lost has two connotations. The one that probably jumps into most people’s minds is that someone has wandered off, been kidnapped, or disappeared. The other meaning that is more appropriate for Phillip’s adventures are people who have lost their way spiritually. His mission is to find them and bring them back. Sometimes that means physically finding them and delivering them to where they belong. Other times it’s helping a person reach a spiritual destination. Often, it’s both.
In these stories, the supernatural is prevalent. Phillip is guided by the Holy Spirit. Things happen that cannot be explained by natural laws. However, nothing that happens to Phillip is magic or fantasy. All the supernatural happenings in these stories have a Biblical basis. We, as Christians, may not experience these supernatural happenings in our everyday walk. But is that because God doesn’t perform these miracles, or is it because we lack the faith to believe God does and God will?
Let’s look at some examples from the currently published stories and where in the Bible I found my inspiration for them.
All of Phillip’s abilities come from the Holy Spirit. Phillip seems to have powers to do things ordinary people cannot do. But does he? In Acts 1:8 (ESV), Jesus says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” If we have received the Holy Spirit, we have power. Phillip is given his power by the indwelling Holy Spirit as is appropriate for the occasion. And like all of us, he can correctly use that power, misuse it, or even ignore it. To reinforce us having power, Paul writes in Ephesians, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly that all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us…” (Eph. 3:20 ESV). All Christians who have professed Christ have this power. Phillip is in touch with his power and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit puts it to use in finding lost people.
In the opening scene in “Lost Children”, Phillip kneels in a crowded mall and gestures with his arms. A path opens around him. All but one of the shoppers make a wide circle as they bustle by. In the book of John, chapter ten, Jesus is in the temple speaking. He offends the Pharisees, and they move to arrest him and stone him. But he eludes them. “Again, they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.” (John 10:39 ESV). A slightly different situation, but the same concept. A crowd does not impede Jesus and it does not impede Phillip.
Continuing in “Lost Children”, Phillip talks to the woman who reports the lost children. She says,
“Three young children…maybe six, five, and three…” She glanced at Phillip, then quickly lowered her gaze. “They were playing on an empty shelf in the store.”
“I see them. Very cute. Yours?”
The children are not within line of site. But, like Jesus with Nathaniel, the Holy Spirit gives Phillip a view of these children. John 1:48 says, “Nathanael said to him, ‘How do you know me?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.’” (ESV).
Frequently, throughout all the stories, the Holy Spirit directly talks with Phillip. We’ll often hear preachers tell us that we won’t hear an audible voice. Phillip does. Is this Biblical? Jesus said, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things…” (John 14:26 ESV). And John 16:13 gives more insight into this process. “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” (ESV. Emphasis mine). This verse references some specific teachings, but clearly says the spirit will speak. Finally, 1Corinthians 2:10-16 talks about the Holy Spirit revealing things to us. The revelation may take many forms. I chose the form to be audible speaking to Phillip.
Phillip can sense or feel evil. In “Sitting on a Park Bench” this spiritual gift is put to use in discovering a bad family situation. This spiritual gift is spoken of by Paul in 1Corinthians 12:10, “to another the ability to distinguish between spirits.” (ESV).
Near the end of “Sitting on a Park Bench”, Phillip talks with the woman he helped.
“Jamie, if you ever need my help again–”
“I know. Just think your name. Philip Angelo.”
The implication here is that Phillip will know by the Holy Spirit that Jamie needs help. Paul experiences something similar. “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.” (Acts 16:9, ESV).
In the opening scene of “To Die is Gain” Phillip goes to sleep in his own bed in St. Louis, but when he wakes up, he’s in a small house in China. This is teleportation. And yes, teleportation is in the Bible. “And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away…But Philip found himself in Azotus…” (Acts 8:39-40, ESV).
Also, in “To Die is Gain”, both Phillip and Michael are able to speak to their Chinese hosts and understand what their hosts and the other people around them are saying, even though neither one of them normally speaks a Chinese dialect. We see this in the Bible in Acts chapter two, versus five to eleven where all the visitors to Jerusalem hear the apostles speaking to them in their own tongues and understand them.
The last example from “To Die is Gain”:
“They can’t see us.”
“What do you mean?” Michael asked.
“The police, they can’t see or hear us. Only the congregation can. We’re in no danger here.”
In the story, both Phillip and Michael are only visible to the congregants of the church and not the authorities. There is something similar in 2 Kings 6:17 where the mountain is covered with an angelic army. Elisha prays to have his servant’s eyes opened to see them. I figure if God can conceal an army of angels and make them visible to some people, he could do the same with humans.
“The Road to Matagalpa” is the origin story of Phillip showing where and how he receives the Holy Spirit. I purposely made Phillip’s encounter with Jesus similar to that of Paul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:3-5). Here’s a small snippet of that scene.
Paralysis. Stuck now to the ground. Flat on his back, arms to his side, head up, staring at the house. Tongues of flame danced in the air between him and the swinging front door of the woman’s house. A bright, white-hot light, first just a pinprick hovering before him, but growing in size and intensity until a man in a glowing robe stood before him.
Finally, in “The Road to Matagalpa”, Phillip returns to his hotel room and throws the Bible he was given on his bed.
A fluttering noise coming from the direction of the bed caught his attention. He froze and watched in fascinated horror. The Bible was now open. The pages flipped rapidly, first from the front of the book to the back, then the back to the front, then again front to back, only this time stopping about three quarters through.
While not identical, I drew inspiration from Daniel 5:5 where a hand appears to Belshazzar and writes on the King’s wall. The Bible is God’s word, so in Phillip’s case, God did not need to write what was already written. God needed to move the Bible to where he wanted Phillip to read.
I give you all these examples for a couple reasons. First, I hope they entice you to read these short stories. They are all available for free on my website at https://www.bdlawrence/stories/. I’ve also hyperlinked the first instance of each in this article. But the more important reason I’ve highlighted these supernatural events in my stories is that I feel Christians in America have stopped expecting miracles. We live our lives. We pray to God. We ask him for help in our everyday lives, but our expectations of the answers to those prayers are mundane. Do we really expect God to demonstrate supernatural acts in our lives? Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (ESV). Why have we lost our expectation of supernatural miracles?
With the Phillip Angelo stories I hope to reawaken that desire and expectation of God’s supernatural hand in our lives. I hope to show readers that God is still capable of being God. If we listen to the Holy Spirit and follow his teaching, we too can experience the supernatural miracles that come with being a follower of Jesus Christ.
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