Background on Divine Intervention

illustration

Francis Collins’ Search for the Divine

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:11, Isaiah 55:1-3 , Exodus 33:18-23, Romans 8:22-23 , John 4:13-14 , Psalm 42:1-2

While the search for the divine has been somewhat crowded out in modern times by our busy and overstimulated lives, it is still one of the most universal of human strivings. C. S. Lewis describes this...

illustration

The Modest Water, Awed by Power Divine

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 17:1-7, 2 Kings 4:1-7, John 2:1-11, Matthew 25:14-30 , Psalm 19:1

John Dryden (1631–1700), an English critic and poet laureate, often skipped classes at Westminster School in London and rarely prepared his lessons. One day, when tasked with writing a poem on the gos...

illustration

Divine Intervention & One more Step

Author

Dallas Willard

Keywords

Scripture

1 Samuel 3:4-10, Exodus 23:20, Isaiah 30:21, Acts 16:6-10, John 10:27-28, Psalm 91:11-12

One remarkable illustration concerns Peter Marshall, the Scot who in the middle of the twentieth century became one of America’s most widely acclaimed ministers. Through his outstanding qualities as a...

illustration

An Unlikely Story of Redemption

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

2 Kings 5:1–14, Isaiah 53:4–5, Exodus 15:26, Mark 2:1–12, John 11:25–26, Psalm 103:2–3

David (Yonggi) Cho would go on to lead what is recognized as the largest church in the world (the Yoido Full Gospel Church), but his spiritual journey began far from Christianity. Raised as a Buddhist...

illustration

The Power of Divine Calling

Author

Tom Nelson

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 3:1-12, Isaiah 6:1-8, Matthew 4:18-22, Acts 9:1-19, Romans 8:28-30, Psalm 139:13-16

God calls people. Whether it is the calling of Abraham to leave the land of Ur and go he knew not where, or the calling of Moses, confronted with the burning bush, or the calling of Isaiah who encount...

illustration

The Love of God Wrapped About Him

Author

Thomas Kelly

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 4:1-3, Psalm 30:5, Romans 8:28, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Psalm 34:18, Isaiah 43:2, Psalm 23:4, Job 1:, Job 2:, Job 42:, 2 Samuel 11:, 2 Samuel 12:, Genesis 37:12-36, 1 Kings 17:8-24, Daniel 6:, Psalm 34:18

The sense of Presence! I have spoken of it as stealing on one unawares. It is recorded of John Wilhelm Rowntree that as he left a great physician’s office, where he had just been told that his advanci...

illustration

God with the Professor

Author

John Ortberg

Keywords

God's Power (Omnipotence)

The offer of this with-God life has not expired in our day. When my friend Kim was a young girl, her dad pulled the car off the road one day to help a woman change a flat tire. While he was lying unde...

illustration

Deus ex machina

Author

Casey Clark

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 5:1-11

While there are an infinite number of ways for a movie to fall short, a common complaint is if the inciting incident of the drama is solved in a way that comes out of nowhere, even breaking the logic ...

illustration

Divine Do-Overs: God's Renewable Compassion

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

John 3:3, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Revelation 21:5, Lamentations 3:22–23, Jonah 3:1–10 , Isaiah 1:18, Luke 15:11–32, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Psalm 103:10–12

Hope remains possible even amid our failures—whether we disappoint God, let down our families, or fall short of our own expectations—because divine compassion operates like an inexhaustible well. Each...

illustration

Heaven Getting Their Signals Crossed?

Author

Mark Batterson

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 7:7-8, Mark 11:24, Philippians 4:19, Jeremiah 32:27, Romans 8:28

Right before my freshman year of high school, I was hospitalized for a severe asthma attack that landed me in the intensive care unit. It was one of a dozen such hospitalizations during my younger yea...

illustration

A Brazilian Intercessor

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 2:1, Romans 8:34, Exodus 32:9-14, Hebrews 7:25, John 14:16-17

Max Lucado tells the story of an intercession he experienced in Brazil in 1983. The transition was difficult enough with culture shock, but it was not helped by the fact that their possessions were he...

illustration

Thank You God for Sending a Professional

Author

John Ortberg

Keywords

Pastor John Ortberg shares this amazing story about how God sometimes uses even our broken pasts to to help others: I read about a woman who locked her keys in her car in a rough neighborhood. She t...

illustration

A Biblical Miracle

Author

J. P. Moreland

Keywords

In the middle of nowhere, two Christians were driving in the mountains of Iran in a car that was full of Bibles. Without warning, the steering wheel jammed and they were forced to the side of the road...

illustration

Charlie Stoltzfus

Author

John Ortberg

Keywords

One of my favorite stories about intercessory prayer comes from Tony Campolo. A prayer meeting was held for him just before he spoke at a Pentecostal college chapel service. Eight men took Tony to a b...

illustration

Allowing the Light to Shine

Author

R. Douglas Weaver

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 4:null

Holy Scripture is witness to the light of God that arises in the midst of the deepest darkness to illumine the darkness. Scripture is not witness to the light taking away the darkness or exempting peo...

illustration

No Natural vs Supernatural in the Ancient World

Author

John H. Walton

Keywords

That is, there is no concept of a “natural” world in ancient Near Eastern thinking. The dichotomy between natural and supernatural is a relatively recent one. Deity pervaded the ancient world. Nothin...

illustration

A Desperate Prayer, a Quiet Answer

Author

Andrew Purves

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 3:20, John 11:40, Psalm 30:2, Jeremiah 32:27, Romans 8:11, Psalm 46:1, Isaiah 41:10

In his important book, The Crucifixion of Ministry, seminary professor Andrew Purves describes what he needed as he faced down a cancer diagnosis and the upcoming chemotherapy he would soon endure: ...

illustration

“It’s All Done”

Author

Mark Labberton

Keywords

I went to the IRS office in Oakland. I waited. And I waited. Eventually I was escorted through a warren of cubicles to the one where I was to meet the agent who would assist me. Alone in the bowels of...

illustration

God's Will Through Circumstance: He Opens and Closes Doors

Author

David Peterson

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 16:9, Proverbs 3:5-6, Isaiah 30:21, Genesis 24:27, Isaiah 48:17

Not long ago, I had a young couple come to me and say, “Pastor, we’re looking at buying a house. We’ve looked at this one house, and we really like it, but we want to make sure it’s God’s will. Would ...

illustration

The President Vouches for Us

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

John 16:33, Daniel 3:16–30, Exodus 14:13–14 , John 16:33, Romans 8:28, 31–34, Psalm 91:1–4

Max Lucado tells a true story showing that God's determination to shape His followers proves stronger than Satan's most persistent efforts to discourage them. What the enemy plans for destruc...

illustration

You Never Know Who’s Listening

Author

William Rowley

Keywords

Lee Strobel tells an amazing story about the power of the Holy Spirit to act apart from our own knowledge. Well, one average and routine day I was packing up my briefcase and getting ready to leave ...

illustration

The Way God Enjoys Getting Things Done

Author

Joni Eareckson Tada

Keywords

Weakness

Years ago, when I took that fateful dive into shallow water and broke my neck, never did I think that God was honing me for leadership. All I could do was retch at the thought of sitting down for the ...

illustration

How Did I Get Here?

Author

John M. Perkins

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 3:20

In John Perkins’ memoir, Dream with Me, the civil rights leader describes how a life lived with God can change very suddenly, and what was seemingly impossible can become possible: How in the world ...

illustration

Making it Rain

Author

Pete Greig

Keywords

In my book Red Moon Rising, I described a time on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza when an Anglican priest asked a bunch of young missionaries sent out by our organization to pray for rain because th...

illustration

Making the Devil Pay for It

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

1 Kings 17:8-16, Exodus 16:4-35, Genesis 50:20, Matthew 6:25-34, Philippians 4:19, Psalm 37:25

Once, there was a devout woman who prayed every day in her small apartment, expressing her faith loudly and fervently. Her neighbor, an atheist, often overheard her prayers, which drove her nuts. When...

illustration

A Story of Angels Defending a Missionary

Author

Robert Little

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 34:7, Daniel 6:22, Acts 12:7, Zechariah 4:6, Psalm 121:7-8, 2 Kings 6:

The question often arises as to whether angels appear today as they did in biblical times. Experience does not indicate that such appearances are usual. There is, however, no biblical teaching that ru...

illustration

Putting Faith in Action

Author

Mark Batterson

Keywords

Prayer

Several years ago I was part of a small group with a friend who was working with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Georgetown University. As we shared prayer requests at the end of one of our meeti...

illustration

“I love you, my son. I will answer your prayers.”

Author

Tod E. Bolsinger

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 3:1

One evening after a class in seminary, guest lecturer and Vineyard pastor John Wimber offered to have a prayer session for anyone in the class who needed prayer. Even though I was a student, I was alr...

illustration

What the With-God Life Looks Like

Author

John Ortberg

Keywords

Transformation

There is a consistent pattern in Scripture of what happens in a life that God wants to use and improve: -There is always a call. God asks an ordinary person to engage in an act of extraordinary trust...

illustration

Allowing Even the Storms to be “Good”

Author

Nancy Guthrie

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 8:28, Romans 8:31-32, James 1:2-4, 2 Corinthians 4:17, 1 Peter 1:6-7, Jeremiah 29:11, Psalm 84:11

It’s easy to label what we consider “good things” in our lives as gifts from God and to welcome them with gratitude. But when difficult things happen, we don’t look at them as part of God’s good plan ...

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Genesis

Exodus

Leviticus

Numbers

Deuteronomy

Joshua

Judges

Ruth

1 Samuel

2 Samuel

1 Kings

2 Kings

1 Chronicles

2 Chronicles

Ezra

Nehemiah

Esther

Job

Psalm

Proverbs

Ecclesiastes

Song of Solomon

Isaiah

Jeremiah

Lamentations

Ezekiel