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On this 21 Day journey of Contending for the Miraculous, so far we’ve explored the miracle categories of provision & multiplication, then power over nature…

We are now going to turn our attention to other aspects of the Miraculous…

Promises of Protection

There are many promises of supernatural protection in the Bible;

‘A thousand will fall at your right…’

The entire Psalm 91 is full of promises of divine protection and worth reflecting on just by itself!

‘Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.’ Psalm 23 also offers comfort in that regard

‘When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. Walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you’ – Isaiah 43:2

Psalm 34:7 promises that ‘The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him.’

‘Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.’ -Luke 10:19

Don’t Be Afraid

The command to ‘Fear Not’ is written 365 times throughout the Bible. It almost seems like it was intended to remind us not to fear; one for each day of the year!

‘Do not be afraid, only believe.’ -Luke 8:50

‘And this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith.’ -1 John 5:4

There are many stories of supernatural rescue and protection peppered throughout the scriptures, from escaping prison to surviving being fed to lions or thrown into a furnace…

Break Out Of Jail Free

Acts 12:1-19 and Acts 16:22-40 tell the stories of how God set some of His people free from prison. In the first story, the apostle Peter walks out of prison, past two sets of guards and an iron gate opens by itself. The church are praying for Peter in the home of Mary while this is taking place.

In tthe second story, the apostle Paul and Silas are imprisoned in the dungeon. At midnight they are singing praises when there is an earthquake that shakes the prison to its foundation. All the chains fall off and the doors open.

God ia able to break the chains and bring you out of what is imprisoning you!

Shut The Mouths of Lions

A new law had been passed stating that no one was allowed to pray to anyone, divine or human, except to the king.

‘But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to God’

(see the full story in Daniel 6)

What would you do if a law was passed prohibiting your freedom to worship?

Daniel continued to do what he had always done and was literally fed to the lions. In this situation, not too disimilar to the three men thrown into the fiery furnace (Daniel 2), God rescued them!

Escape Assassination Attempts

Jesus survived many attempts on his life, particularly during his 3.5 years of public ministry. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact number of assassination attempts on his life, but according to some reckonings, there are approx 27 times they try to kill Jesus littered throughout the gospels.

Here are a few examples;

‘“I tell you the truth,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his home town. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarepath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed-only Naaman the Syrian.”All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of town, and took him to the brow of the hill in which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.’ -Luke 4:24-30

‘At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.’ -John 8:59

‘Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.’ -John 10:31

‘Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.’ -John 10:39

God commits himself unswervingly to those who are dedicated to Him and to His cause in the earth!

Remember, if God has sent you to do something, no power in hell can thwart His plans!

Personal Stories of Divine Rescue

I have so many personal stories of how God has stepped in and rescued me from death, injury and harm…

Too many to be written here, and that’s just the times I’m aware of, not to mention all the times God has protected me without my knowledge!

Here are two stories…

Car Crash on First Trip to Scotland

Around 2006/2007 my wife Marsha and I took our first trip to Scotland…

Some friends of ours had given us a nice white car and we were both looking forward to our holiday.

On the day we drove up it was pouring with rain. I was driving up the A1 on the fast lane and suddenly a car pulled out, cutting in front of me without any warning.

I slammed my foot on the brakes and the car skidded, first hitting the middle barrier in the road and then spinning around across each lane until it came to a sudden stop facing forward on the hard shoulder.

Somehow we didn’t hit any other vehicle neither in front of us or behind, even though there were many vehicles travelling fast up behind us!

As we came to a stop, Marsha and I sat in the car shell-shocked!

I then noticed in my rear-view mirror a lorry had pulled up behind us…

A large man got out of the lorry and came up to my car window.

I tried to open the door but my door was indented due to the crash and wouldn’t open… So I wound down my car window

The lorry driver said,

‘Are you both alright?’

I realised we were both totally fine, apart from being a little shocked at what had happened!

The lorry driver then said something very strange – he said,

‘Good, because I was holding back the traffic for you!’

I said, ‘thanks!’ without having time to really think about what he had said.

The driver then got back into his lorry and drove off…

We then managed to start the car and continued our journey up to Scotland.

As we were driving I remembered what the lorry driver had said and commented to my wife;

‘What does he mean he held the traffic off? How could he hold the traffic back from 3 lanes. And how did he know to do that in a split second?’

It was then that I realised that we had experienced a miracle…

We could have died that day or at least been seriously injured!

And that’s not the only time I’ve experienced supernatural protection from Jesus!

Saved from Drowning

I haven’t always lived for Jesus…

When I was approx 17 years old, I went abroad for the first time to Germany as part of a college arts exchange trip…

As soon as we arrived, we met with local arts students of a similar age. We were planning an Arts Installation and Theatre Performance in a forest there.

Straight away, I was introduced by some of the young people, to smoking marajuana and bongs.

We spent a lot of time in between arts sessions hanging out, drinking alcohol, smoking weed and messing around.

One night, we were sitting by a lake in the middle of no-where, it was around 2am in the morning and we were high from smoking and drinking all day.

Two of the local young ladies decided to strip down to their underwear and swam into the middle of the lake.

Me, not thinking, still high, and to be honest, totally distracted by these girls, decided to wonder into the lake after them with all my clothes on.

I swam out to where they were floating in the lake. We talked and messed around.

After a little while, they started to swim back to shore

I attempted to follow them back to land, but as I was moving my arms around to swim I didn’t seem to be going anywhere.

They swam further and further ahead into the distance, and I started flapping my arms around, beginning to panic.

I began to sink.

My head was bobbing up and down in the water, I was gulping, spitting and coughing up water

I was drowning…

It was then that I cried out in between gulps…

‘God, Help Me!’

Just before I was about to sink under the water…a young lady from England who was sitting at the edge of the lake, somehow noticed that I was flailing around in the water…

She managed to swim out to me just in time,
Helped me to turn on my back,
And somehow floated me back to land.

I then sat shaking at the edge of the lake wondering what might have happened if I had hit the bottom of the lake, in the middle of the night, in the middle of no-where on the edge of a small town in Germany!

This situation was totally down to my own stupidity…yet, despite that, Jesus still reached out and rescued me – just in time!

Becoming Persecution Proof

Although we have these divine promises and stories of protection and rescue, that does not mean that as disciples of Jesus we won’t face hardships of many kinds and persecution.

Due to that fact, we need to become ‘Persecution Proof!’

I wrote an article relating to preparing for persecution HERE!

Your Stories of Divine Protection

What about you? How have you experienced Gods divine protection throughout your life?

Do you have stories of how God has rescued you?

Please share your stories in the comments