I would like to hear about them if you are comfortable telling.
I want to say that I have had several experiences that will not seem real to some of you. Some of the folks here will probably feel the need to offer scientific explanations. Feel free to do so.
#1-1985
When my first wife and I separated, she refused to allow me to see the children. No matter what the judge said, he could not make an impression on her to do so.
I decided to move west, way west. I left Houston about 10PM and got as far as Columbus, Tx before I had to stop to sleep. I couldn’t understand why I got so sleepy so quick. It’s only about 90 miles or so from where I was in Houston, and I was off that day and had slept till about noon. Well, I stopped at the rest area in Columbus whether than have an accident. It was around midnight.
I awoke about 5AM and immediate knew there was someone in the truck with me. I turned to the passenger side to see who it was. A man was sitting where my clothes were stacked as if they were not there. It was a ghostly figure without form really, but I knew it was a man. He turned his head to look at me and said 2 words, “Go home”.
Though I was not in faithful form in those days, I knew who it was. As I watched, he simply went away. He faded away that is. At that instant I knew what to do.
Now to explain this next part you need to know that I was in a very old truck that I was in the process of restoring and the speedometer was nowhere near correct. When I was doing about 60 MPH, the speedometer would show about 35MPH.
As I was driving back to the apartment I had rented, I was not paying any attention to the speedometer. A Harris Co. Deputy Sheriff pulled alongside on the left from behind. When I noticed who was there, about 30 seconds later, I waved and realized that I was smiling. He started motioning like he wanted me to look at my speedometer. When I did I saw my speedometer was showing almost 75 MPH. I looked at him and made a motion like it wasn’t working. He motioned for me to slow down, which I did.
I must have been doing something over 100 MPH. How many cops would miss a chance at a 100+MPH ticket. The speed limit was 55MPH.
As soon as 8AM rolled around I called my lawyer and told him I would document with witnesses the times that she would not let the kids go with me, or the times she wasn’t there when I was supposed to pick them up.
This worked, because the first time I took her to court, the judge threatened to throw her in jail for 90 days if she listened to her mother again. Yep, once she admitted that it was her mother that was telling her that she didn’t have to let me see the kids, the judge got plenty pissed.
After that I never had a problem. And my youngest was 2. That's 16 years of total cooperation.
#2-1995
After my now wife and I got married, we started going to a church in Austin, Tx (we had moved to Austin). We went to church one Sunday and the pastor gave a sermon on tithing. When we got home my wife made a statement that we needed to start tithing the 10% we were supposed to be. I replied that I really didn’t know how we could afford to do that because we had both taken a huge cut in pay to get out of Houston, and were barely getting by. She said we just need to start. So I said, “OK”. The next payday had us with $21 in the bank.
When you get a bank statement there are two boxes that I’ve always paid attention to, for whatever reason I don’t know. There’s one that tells you how much you deposited and one that tells you how much you have taken out. Now I’ve occasionally seen the one that tells you how much you’ve taken out be a higher number than the one that tells you how much you deposited. As time went by, I realized that it was this way every month, for 19 straight months. I don’t mean just a dollar or two. I mean lots of money. The least amount was $86 and the high amount was $345. Most (12) were over $100.
We never had a check bounce and the reconciliation was always right on the penny. Checked it several times and couldn’t figure it out. I now tithe 10% of my gross pay or more, without fail. It's the first check I write, also without fail.
#3-2003
I finally bought a used Freightliner and went owner/operator. I got a 1 year 100,000 mile warrantee with it. At about 125,000 and 14 months, it dropped a valve. The estimate was $12,500 for an inframe rebuild. I had not had enough time to put back that much, and had some medical bills to pay to add to it. I had about $4300 in the bank. I was looking for a loan and could not find anyone willing to do it because I had not been in business long enough and the truck was more than 3 years old were the 2 most common reasons.
I called Daimler Chrysler Finance, the lien holder, and asked if they would refinance and supply the needed money. The guy I talked to said “We don’t do that, but hold on a second”. When he came back on the line he gave me a phone number to call and talk to a guy named David. David told me that they don’t handle that end of the business. I asked what part he handled and he said “Warrantees”. I said I don’t understand why he would tell me to call the warrantee end of the company because the truck was definitely out of warrantee .
I called the other guy back and told him this and that David couldn’t help me. He put me on hold again, I waited about a minute or so and hung up. This was when I began to pray. I told god that His truck was broke, I don’t have the money to fix it and it appears that without His help, His truck was going to be repossessed. As clear as if He were standing next to me He said, “Worry not, my son”. Probably 2 minutes later, the guy I had hung up on called me back and said that Freightliner was going to fix the truck under warrantee. HMMM
That’s 3 of my experiences that the Lord directly intervened in. I have many more but I’m tired of typing.
