Guest Blogger Delia Latham on Angels, Oil, and Solomon’s Gate

I am pleased to have guest blogger Delia Latham on Blissful Writing Thoughts, introducing her brand new work, Destiny's Dream. She is also having a contest as well on her website, so be sure to find out how to enter!

Angels, Oil, and Solomon’s Gate

Writing the Solomon’s Gate Series has been an incredible experience. May I share with you a little about it?

I’m still working on the third book, and somewhat dreading reaching “The End.” As a rule, that’s the goal for a writer—get the book done. Do a Snoopy dance when you’ve typed that final word, and send off excited e-mails to let everyone who cares (and some who don’t) know that IT IS FINISHED!

So why am I having early withdrawal pangs?

Because with each of the books in this series, God has further opened my eyes to His awesome AWESOMENESS! (Okay, that may not be a word. Don’t shoot me…I couldn’t think of one that said what I’m trying to say more effectively…) From the first page of Destiny’s Dream (Book One), He opened up His Word to me in ways I never could have anticipated.

For instance, I’d never really given anointing oil a second thought. From a very early age—back when I was still falling asleep under the church pews during services that lasted late into the night—I watched my pastor anoint the sick with oil before he prayed for them. It was a routine I didn’t question…but neither did I bother to learn what it was all about. It just was. Somehow, I allowed that state of bland acceptance to continue all my life.

Until my heroine, Destiny May, became an anointing oil diva.

First, just so you understand, I’m a “seat-of-the-pants” writer. I don’t outline or even lay out a real plan for my books. I get a mustard seed of an idea, mull it around in my overactive noodle for a while, then sit down and start writing. My books tend to be very much character-driven, and I don’t always know what they’re going to do, or where they’re going to take me.

Imagine my surprise, then, when Destiny placed a beautiful bottle on her office desk. She filled it with…yes, you guessed it…anointing oil, which she smeared on the corner of every application she received at her Christian dating agency (Solomon’s Gate), then proceeded to pray over each one individually.

Well. OK, Destiny. I believe in prayer. I’m familiar with anointing oil. I guess I can go with this. (Hey, God…what are You up to?)

And then I started looking into what the Bible has to say about these aromatic oils. What I found was a source of unbelievable power. It had been available to me all along, but for whatever reason, God had to use a fictional character to open my eyes to it. (For the record, Destiny’s use of anointing oil becomes a bit of a ministry in the following two books.)

But God didn’t stop there.

I’ve always believed in angels. They existed in the Bible, so it stands to reason that they’re still around. But in my mind, they were kind of on a level with fairy tale creatures. An interesting concept, but not a part of reality—certainly not my reality.

That changed a little when I wrote Goldeneyes (2008). God placed an angel directly in my writing path, and I couldn’t get around him. That was just the beginning. When I started this series, I had to take a second look at what I really believed about God’s special messengers. From page one, I began to hear the whoosh of mighty wings. Destiny’s mother, on her deathbed, bequeathed a verse of scripture to her daughter. It was a familiar scripture, one I’m fairly certain most readers will recognize. Psalm 91:11—For He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

Nice verse. Comforting.

That’s what Destiny thought, until angels started showing up in her life. Then she had to rethink the concept, and look at what that verse really promises. He gives His children a band of heavenly bodyguards! But, through the events in my heroine’s life, I came to believe that God didn’t place His angels over us simply as guardians of our safety. They keep us in all our ways.

Whoa. That little three-letter word covers a tremendous amount of territory. ALL our ways. That means every step we take. It encompasses job and family, ups and down, ins and outs…ALL our ways. (“All” includes choosing someone to love, so angels hanging out around Solomon’s Gate shouldn’t be a surprise, should they?)

Do I sound excited? That’s because I am excited. It thrills me to know that God is using my career in writing to draw me closer to Him. It humbles me to realize that, as He draws me closer, He allows me to share that blessing with those who read my books.

It is my prayer that not one reader closes the back cover of Destiny’s Dream without having been awakened to a perhaps as-yet-unexplored power at their disposal—the power of anointing oil. Not only that, but I hope they will have felt the brush of angel’s wings, and truly come to realize that God loves each of us enough to assign a special team of angelic guides to keep us in all our ways.

We are truly blessed children of royalty!

In lieu of giveaways from blog to blog during the Destiny’s Dream Blog Tour, Delia is conducting a fun, exciting contest on her website. It will be ongoing from Dec. 15 through Jan. 31. Come on over and find out how to earn as many entries as possible!