"Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road- the desert road- that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the (queen of the Ethiopians)." Acts 8:26-27 (NIV)
Have you ever had a "divine appointment"- an encounter orchestrated behind the scenes by God? In Acts 8:26-40, we see just that. Philip, one of the disciples, encountered an Ethiopian eunuch along the side of the road who was reading scriptures from Isaiah but did not understand what he was reading. Prompted by God, Philip approached the man and was able to explain to him what he was reading. He shared the Gospel with him and their encounter ended with the eunuch believing in the Lord and being baptized.
Divine appointments usually happen when we least expect them, in the everyday moments of life. We may not know what the outcome of the situation will be, but when we are led by the Holy Spirit and obey that prompting, we can have assurance that we are in the right place at the right time and that the situation will be used for God's Glory.
A few weeks ago, while on a picnic outing to the beach with my granddaughter, I met a fisherman named Henry. I struck up a conversation with him by asking if he had caught any fish that day. He replied that he regularly catches fish at that beach but so far on that day, there had been no bites.
This made me remember and share with Henry a story of my neighbor on Kauai, who happened to be a fisherman. My neighbor approached me and asked me if I would pray for his fishing boat, explaining that he felt his boat was cursed as he was unable to catch any fish. I jumped at the chance to talk to this man and his wife about Jesus and invited them to pray with me on his boat. We did just that and they both received Christ as their personal Savior. We also prayed that he would catch fish!
The next morning, after Bonnie Lou and the children and I returned from Sunday services at church, the fisherman came to our door with a large package of fish for us. He had gone out fishing early that morning and told me that he "lost the big one but caught the smaller one." Turns out, the "smaller one" was a 110 pound Yellowfin tuna fish! He had it hanging by the tail on his garage with the tail sticking above the garage door and the nose touching the ground! He was so excited about his catch and shouted to his friends "When this man prays, God answers prayer!"
Back on the beach, Henry's face lit up while listening to the story about my neighbor. I was able to share my testimony with him and he seemed very open to our discussion. I was even able to pray for him, that he would not only catch fish, but that he would open up his heart to Christ and receive him as his personal Savior.
This was a divine appointment and I am so glad I followed the Holy Spirit's prompting in beginning a conversation with him. I don't know if Henry has caught any fish since that day or if he has given any more thought to Jesus and salvation, but I hope to see him again one day and find out!
My son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter also recently experienced a divine appointment while vacationing on the island of Kauai. At sunset, while hurrying back from a hike, they encountered a distraught man on the edge of a cliff overlooking the water. In conversation with the man, they were able to share with him the love of Jesus and pray with him to accept Jesus into his heart. While unplanned by them, this encounter was planned by God and turned out to have an eternal impact. For more of this story, visit https://penews.org/features/a-divine-appointment-on-a-hawaiian-cliff.
While we may not know when divine appointments will come our way, we can be ready for them by daily growing in our relationship with the Lord and drawing closer to Him. My prayer for you is that you will have increasing opportunities to minister to others through divine appointments and that you will be blessed by and through them.
