Divine Interventions: Personal Testimonies of the Miraculous

Divine Interventions

Personal Testimonies of the Miraculous

Denise Samuels

Copyright © 2021 by Denise Samuels

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Created for God’s Glory

A Miraculous Rescue

Desire, Disappointment, Decision

Something Big Is Coming Out of This

Jesus Has Need of You

It Should Have Killed You, But!

Fight Like a Girl!

Break Up with the Flesh

Don’t Let the Stone Stop You!

If You Can Have It, God Can Heal It

Forever I Do

Provoke Your Rainfall

Lord, Give Me a Double Portion

Live Full, Die Empty

Expect God to Do the Unexpected

This book is dedicated to my mother and best friend, Beverley Elaine Walcott, who went on to be with the Lord on May 8, 2017, at the age of seventy-three.

Mom, you were present when I received the prophetic word many years ago to write this book, which will be one of many. I am your miracle and you were mine. You not only taught me about Jesus but you also showed Him to me through your selfless love.

Words are inadequate to express my love for you. You were my confidant and shoulder to cry on. Your love for me was always unwavering, and no matter how rough things were, I always knew that you had my back.

I will miss you forever. You are irreplaceable, I love you endlessly, and I still cry although I know that you are now with the one you revered most, Jesus Christ.

The one thing that was most constant in your prayers was I need to make it to heaven, and that you did. We will meet again to be together forever.

Preface

Merriam-Webster Dictionary says that a miracle is an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs. This definition sums up my life story, which has been and continues to be a manifestation of divine interventions.

Throughout the years, I have preached way over one hundred sermons, the majority of which were birthed from either a personal experience or a divine revelation.

This book reveals some of the personal experiences and miracles that gave birth to some of my sermons.

It is my prayer that you will not only be blessed but that your lives will also be transformed.

Chapter 1

Created for God’s Glory

I still remember my first altar call response. I was only six years of age, and I had attended an outdoor crusade with my mom and brother at a Baptist church.

The preacher’s message of salvation had reached deep into my soul, and before I knew it, I had found myself walking up to the altar with tears streaming down my face. I knew from that very moment that there was a higher source.

No one in my family had been saved at the time, but my mother had been raised by a father who, although not saved, insisted that she and her younger sibling attended Sunday school every week. The lessons had planted the seed in her heart that made Proverbs 22:6—Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it—become a reality.

My mom started taking my brother and I to a Pentecostal church every Sunday soon after that, and I had found myself telling her at every opportunity that I got that I wanted to get baptized at the age of seven years. The requests had flustered my mom because she had felt that I was too young to fully understand the requirements of the commitment and to therefore be baptized.

A few days after my seventh birthday, my mom was baptized. A couple weeks thereafter, I fell ill, and my mom and dad took me to the hospital. I was given penicillin injections as the treatment.

Whilst leaving the hospital, I started feeling almost as if I was going to pass out, and I told my mom. Thank God she was always an avid reader, and so immediately she suspected that I was having an allergic reaction to the penicillin and told my father to lift me up and help her take me back to the doctor. My father responded that by the time I was placed in the back of the car and the wind started blowing in my face, I would feel better. My mother rebutted and insisted that I be brought back to the doctor.

The next thing I knew was that we were asked to sit and wait as the doctor was otherwise engaged, but my mother wasn’t about to wait, and so she went to have strong words with the nursing staff.

Whilst waiting, I remember I kept feeling nauseous and the need to sleep. Then I remember being lifted by my father and placed on a bed, and then I passed out.

In what seemed like a few minutes, I was awakened by voices telling me to wake up and asking me if I knew where I was and what my name was. I opened my eyes to find that the bed that they had laid me in was surrounded by doctors and nurses, with two of them injecting me with drugs (which I later found out was intended on counteracting the effects of the penicillin) and telling me to fight to stay awake.

This was the first of my many miracles, because I stayed awake!

A few weeks after, my mother decided to allow me to get baptized as she reasoned if I was not too young to die, then I was not too young to get saved. I was created for God’s glory.

The Sermon

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Gen. 1:1, 26–27)

But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;

Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.

Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.

Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.

Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.

This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise. (Isa. 43:1–2; 6–8; 18–21)

It doesn’t matter how messed up your life is right now. You were created for God’s glory!

I don’t care if right now you are a sinner or a saint. You were created for God’s glory!

God created you to display His glory. It may not look that way to you or you may not feel that way, but you were created for His glory.

HOW do I know? Well, first of all, the Bible says, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

GOD was in the beginning, and God was prior to the beginning. He always was, He always will be, and He doesn’t exist in time. So much so that way back then, God was able to see today, and in seeing today, He saw you and me.

HE saw us before He made us. He saw our ending before He initiated our beginning. He saw everything we would have gone through before we went through it. And yet in us, God saw His beauty, His Reflection. In us, God saw potential and great possibilities.

GOD was able to see us because He is omnipresent. He is everywhere at once, and there is nowhere that He is not!

When God saw us, He decided to create the heaven and the earth because He said, Surely, these people will need a place to live and a place to retire to. God is a spirit, which means that He does not have flesh and bones. However, He knew that those with flesh and bones would need a place like earth and eventually heaven.

HE knew this because He is Omniscient. He knows all things, and there is nothing that He does not know.

God made the heaven and the earth and everything in between, such as the trees, animals, birds of the air, and fish of the sea. AFTER God made the heaven and the earth, He decided to create human bodies that would produce after its kind. SO God the Father turned to God the Son and to God the Holy Spirit and said, "Let us make man in our own image and after Our own likeness.

Let us make man as creative beings. Let us make man with the ability to love like we can. Let us make man with the ability to display patience like we can. Let us make man with the ability to forgive like we can. Let us make man with the ability to be kind and faithful like we are.

You see, God is a creative being, and it gives Him pleasure, it gives Him glory, and it gives Him splendor to create.

We were made in the image and likeness of God. We have the ability to know God and to therefore love Him, worship Him, serve Him, and fellowship with Him. Yet without human beings, God would still be God. It was only for His glorification that He made man.

He said in His word, And let us give man dominion over the earth so that they can have power over the earth and rule the things of the earth, and not the things of the earth rule them.

God was able to make the heaven and the earth and everything in between. He was able to make male and female and give them dominion, because God is Omnipotent. He is all powerful. He is able to do whatever He will.

Now despite the fact that man was created for God’s glory, man messed up. As a people, we oftentimes stray from our purpose, and instead of man utilizing its dominion and rule over the things of the earth, man allowed the things of this earth to rule and dominate its existence.

A perfect example of a people who messed up and failed to live the life God intended were the children of Israel. In the chapter of Isaiah 43, which we read earlier, the children of Israel had become a sinful, rebellious generation.

Many had taken up into idol worshipping. They were disobedient, just like many persons are today.

The children of Israel’s disobedience led to them becoming captives to their enemies and exiled in a foreign land.

Many persons here today are captives to the devil, and you have been exiled in a world of sin.

It is a terrible thing to know that although you were created in the image of the Sovereign God, created to be a conqueror and to rule over the things of the earth, you find that rather than conquering, you have been conquered!

The Israelites had lost everything, including their homes and temples, and as their years in exile became many decades, the questions that burned in their hearts were the following: (1) Will we ever be saved? (2) Will we ever be rescued and restored? (3) Is there a way out of this impossible and difficult time? (4) Are we ever going to make it back home?

The questions contemplated by the children of Israel back then are no different from the many questions being pondered in many persons’ hearts today. Many of you here today feel like your life is just not getting anywhere.

Many of you feel like you are stuck in the same routine day after day. You have lost so much that your hope of recovery is failing. Many of you have done so much wrong, and you have done wrong for so long that you often find yourselves wondering if God even loves you.

In the passage of scripture that we read, the children of Israel had found themselves at the point of sinfulness and hopelessness.

Some had felt that for all the wrong that they had done, there was no way God would have wanted anything else to do with them. Many had reached the breaking point, and many were broken, but that’s exactly where God wanted them to be.

Brokenness reminds us of our need for God. Brokenness reminds us that we are nothing without God. Brokenness opens the door of our hearts to God, and it gives God the opportunity to be God in our lives.

Just when the children of Israel thought that it was over for them, just when they thought that God was through with them, just when they thought that they were beyond the point of recovery, God stepped in!

Life may have been unkind to you. Your mother forsook you. Your father disowned you. Your children rebelled against you. However, don’t you ever forget that God is for you, and He will step in!

God stepped in at a time when the Israelites needed Him most, and He spoke to them. He reintroduced Himself to them. The children of Israel needed to start over. They needed a fresh start because they were mixed up in sin, mixed up in gossiping, mixed up in jealousies, mixed up in controversies, and mixed up in stubbornness that they needed to start over.

They had lost everything. They had lost their freedom, their earthly possessions, and most importantly, they had lost their relationship with God, and so they needed a new beginning, because in the beginning, God…

If you would like to experience a new beginning in your life, your relationships, your finances, your business, you have to get back to the basics.

If you have experienced setbacks and failures that have caused much heartache and pain, if you are experiencing guilt and shame that burdens your souls, if you have been delaying your dreams and your destiny, and deep within your heart you know that your only solution is a new beginning, then you have to go back to the beginning, because in the beginning, God…

God stepped in at a time of greatest need, and He spoke to the children of Israel who were lost in sin and were being held in captivity, and in verse 1 of Isaiah 43, God says, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.

In other words, He was saying to the children of Israel, For your sinful condition, you deserve to die, but don’t worry. Fear not. The price for your sins has been paid so that you can live!

Redemption means that God has paid something for us. It says in 1 Corinthians 6:19–20, What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and ye are not your own? For you were bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Sin broke our relationship with the God of in the beginning, but because He is the creator of man, and because we were created for His glory, He decided that there is no way that He could just sit still and do nothing about restoring our relationship with Him.

Sin comes with a high price tag. The reward for sin leads to death. And in order for life to overpower and conquer death, the shedding of sinless blood was necessary to suffice the payment, because sinless blood gives life!

So God did the ultimate! God paid the price for our sins with the blood of His son Jesus Christ, thus redeeming us, and because He paid for us, He now owns us!

Whether you like it or not, you belong to God! You can run from God all you want, but there is no getting away from Him. He knows your name. He knows everything about you; even the hairs on your head are numbered. You belong to God because He paid the ultimate price for you. Sin stole you, but God bought you back!

God has a bounty out on your life! You belong to Him, and He is not taking no for an answer! You have to serve God, whether freely or by force, because He owns you.

If I were to ask you right now how many of you wanted to be anointed; I think that almost all—if not everyone—would raise their hands, including the unsaved, because we covet the anointing. It is the anointing that makes us better.

If you sing, you want to be anointed because it makes you sing better. If you preach, you want to be anointed because it makes you preach better. If you play an instrument, play ball, or work in the secular field, you want the anointing because it makes you better.

The anointing makes you more effective and more successful. The anointing applied to natural abilities and gifting make us better than we usually are. And the fact is, it is good to yearn for the anointing, because if ever there is a generation that needs to be anointed and filled with power, it is this one!

God is in desperate need for men and women who have more than talent, more than ability, more than gifting. God wants us to operate at a higher level of excellence, power, and deliverance. Plus, more than ever, we need to be able to walk into demonic, hopeless, and against-all-odds situations and bring breakthroughs.

Somebody should be able to take a microphone and produce a sound that will set the captives free. But too many people want the anointing with no relationship. They want to experience the power, but they don’t want to go any deeper.

Too many want to sing, but they don’t want to be consecrated. Too many want to work for God, but they don’t want to be disciplined. Too many want the favor of God, but they don’t want to make the commitment. However, having said that, I believe that much more than the anointing, what is really needed is a bloodbath!

More than you need to be anointed, you need to be bathed and washed in His blood. Many of you look anointed, but what would be much better is if you looked like you were bathed in His blood!

The truth is that oil follows blood. The oil cannot and will not go where the blood has not gone. We have to go through the process. Before we get the oil, the blood must first be applied.

It is the blood of Jesus that saves you and keeps you saved.

It is the blood of Jesus that sanctifies you and keeps you sanctified.

It is the blood of Jesus that preserves your relationship with God.

In fact, Exodus 29 gives us the prescribed method of consecrating priests. In 1 Peter 2:9, it tells us that whether we like it or not, we are priests: For we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.

As priests, we must go through the purification process, similar to that which is outlined in Exodus 29. The purification process requires a bloodbath. It requires us applying blood to our ears so that it may be consecrated to continually hear from God.

Please understand that if you have problems obeying the voice of God, it means that you need a bloodbath. If you struggle with listening to the teachings of God, you need a bloodbath! If you love to listen to gossip more than truth, you need a bloodbath. Your ears need to be bathed and consecrated with the blood of Jesus Christ!

Exodus 29 also tells us that we must apply the blood to our thumb. Blood must be applied to the thumb to signify that our hands are to be set apart as holy hand.

DAVID asks us the question in Psalm 24, Who can ascend unto God? Who can be used by God? Who can handle the Oil? Those who have clean hands and pure hearts.

I am concerned that many persons who so badly want the anointing allow their hands to be used for evil rather than good. If you use your hands to do evil, you need a bloodbath! If you use your hands to write letters of mischief, you need a bloodbath!

Your hands must work to be a blessing and not a curse! Let God consecrate your hands with a bloodbath!

Thirdly, the Word of God says that we must apply blood to our toe. We are commanded to walk circumspectly—to walk straight.

You need to be careful where your feet have been taking you. You need to be careful where you go. If you find that your feet have been taking you down a path of destruction, you need a bloodbath. If your feet keep taking you to the nightclub, to the gambling den, to the house of promiscuity, you need a bloodbath!

King Saul was anointed. He had oil running down his head. He was talented. He was gifted. He was handsome. However, he had one problem—no blood, no discipline, no consecration. There are too many persons running around claiming to be anointed, even showing signs of being anointed, but they are in desperate need of a bloodbath.

You are ministering but still shacking up. You never miss a service, but you still live like a rebel. In church, you act and look like a saint, but outside of church, you act and live like a sinner. You need a bloodbath! He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit of God is saying to His church!

In verse 2 of Isaiah 43, God says something that is so remarkable. It is remarkable because I believe that this verse is not only intended for the saved but also for the unsaved, as it will become a testament, an evidence against them if they don’t act before it is too late.

The verse says, When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

To the believing Christian, this is a remarkable word of encouragement. It is encouraging and comforting just to know that regardless of what life throws your way, God will be right there with you, protecting you, shielding you, and guiding you.

You can’t help but remember the thee Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace and how God showed up as the fourth man in the fire. He loosed them, walked around in the fire with them, and then caused the same fire that could not harm them to destroy the ones that meant them harm.

You can’t help but remember Daniel in the lion’s den and how God showed up and caused the lions to lose their appetite so that Daniel could keep on praying.

So to the true child of God, this verse of scripture brings joy and comfort in knowing that God is always with them. But to the unsaved, this same verse of scripture takes on another role. It becomes public evidence against them.

Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;

Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.

Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. (Ps. 39:7–12)

In other words, if you are not saved, the only reason that you are alive today is because God wants to give you another chance to amend your ways. No matter what you do or where you go, God is watching you. You cannot hide from Him.

We can’t see your hearts and your intentions, and we may never witness some of your actions, but nothing is hidden from God!

God has kept you alive for this day to give you one more chance to make it right with Him. God has kept you alive for this day to give you another opportunity to hear of His saving grace and mercy. If you refuse to listen, if you refuse to obey, it will be a testament against you, because