On February 24th, 190,000 heavily armed Russian soldiers began an invasion of Ukraine that most military experts thought would end in a overwhelming Russian victory in just a few days. It is still going on today! There are many reasons why the predicted defeat of the Ukrainians has not happened. But one that you will probably not hear about on the news is Divine Intervention.
Biblical history is full of stories of God intervening to save certain groups of people who were facing near certain defeat. God parting the Red Sea, providing an escape for His people and then destroying the mighty Egyptian army is one example.
Psalm 124 tells of a time when God saved David and his people from almost certain defeat from an overwhelming force of men who attacked them. Without God’s help they would have surely been destroyed. Later Hezekiah and Nehemiah faced situations where they would have been defeated without God interceding.
Many might laugh at the idea of God taking sides in a war today. All I ask is that you read the following accounts with an open mind and then decide for yourself. The first occurred in WW11 and the rest have been reported in the last month in Ukraine.
On May 10, 1940, Hitler unleashed his armies against France and Belgium. Within days, the British army found itself outmaneuvered and unprepared for the German blitzkrieg assault led by General Rommel and his 7th Panzer division.
The German high command began boasting of the demise of the allied armies, particularly the 300,000 soldiers of the British army sent by then Prime Minister Winston Churchill to protect France and the low countries of Europe. As the prospect of victory waned Churchill was prepared to announce an unprecedented military defeat of a third of a million soldiers.
But then a miraculous turn took place initiated by King George VI, who ordered the observance of a National Day of Prayer. The British Monarch, along with members of the cabinet, attended Westminster Abbey to pray, while millions of Britons all across the Kingdom in unprecedented unity, attended churches to join the King in prayer. Newspapers throughout the UK reported, “Nothing like it has ever happened before.”
Then the miracles began: First, Hitler ordered his troops to halt their advance for no apparent reason, which angered his generals and continues to baffle historians to this day. Secondly, a massive storm broke out in Flanders which grounded the German Luftwaffe squadrons, allowing the allied armies to travel to the beaches at Dunkirk unhindered by the German air force. A third miracle involving the weather was that simultaneous with the storm which grounded the Luftwaffe, the English Channel was as still as a millpond…an unprecedented calm which allowed ships of every size to evacuate over 338,000 troops including 140,000 French, Belgian, Dutch and Polish soldiers from the beaches at Dunkirk.
Winston Churchill addressed the British nation and described the evacuation of Dunkirk as a “miracle of deliverance.”
The following Sunday, the nation in celebration of God’s answer to prayer, sang Psalm 124 throughout churches in the United Kingdom.
Be encouraged knowing that our God responds to prayer and is ready to act upon it at a moment’s notice. The armies of darkness may surround us, in fact, they are sure to sooner or later; but we also know the Lord is standing ready to defend His own. “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made Heaven and Earth” [Psalm 124:8]
Today, there are reports of modern day miracles which have protected Ukrainian soldiers and civilians from certain defeat or death. CBN Ukrainian Director Kostyyantine Lytvynenko shared the following:
“One brother shared an audio from a brother in the church. He says his son is part of the military, and he was saying they were in the dark night and they were holding their positions when they discovered that a lot of Russian Federation tanks and machines had come. They knew they might struggle in defending themselves. The son picked up and called his father and he says that you have to pray right now for this situation. His father called to other members of the church and they started praying. Later, the son gives a phone call and he says a miracle happened. It looked like there was an attack from a spaceship, some kind of lightning that was shooting from the sky. Sparks were spreading everywhere. In the morning, they discovered that Russian machinery was destroyed. Some of the soldiers thought it was some kind of weapon they didn’t know about, but others believe it was God’s intervention.”
A second instance of divine intervention was reported to Lytvynenko:
“There was another occasion that we just got from a friend. We were praying that they (the Russian soldiers) would start resisting each other. There are several occasions in the Bible where you see this. Another part of the Russian army occupied one little town and they removed flags from the town’s government buildings. They attached those flags to the tanks and they started to ride, and eventually in the dark, in the evening, they met another group of tanks. They thought they were enemies to each other and they started shooting at each other destroying a number of their own tanks.
A third miraculous story was told of another group of Ukrainian soldiers that were spared due to God’s hand. A lieutenant in the Ukrainian army said his men were sitting in hiding and looking out to see where an enemy attack would come from. He said, ‘all of a sudden, I felt the urgency to pray.’ He heard God speaking to him, ‘Take your men and leave this place now.’
As soon as he and his men relocated to a different place, rockets and fire opened on that spot and it was destroyed.
Another time a Christian in the Ukraine military called his parents from the front line to tell them that military intelligence had warned of large drop of Russian paratroopers near where he was stationed. They were told, “Expect it.” He called to ask his parents to pray and get others to pray, which they did.
This is what he saw with his own eyes. The Russian planes flew overhead and he saw the paratroopers drop from the planes in the sky. God sent a strong wind. They watched as the wind pushed the Russian paratroopers all the way back over the line into Russian territory!
After reading about these happenings you still may believe that these are just coincidences ( a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection). But I have seen too many times when God has answer prayers in my life and in others that I know to write these off as mere coincidences. I believe they are God-instances and that God is intervening in Ukraine and in the midst of turmoil we are seeing modern day miracles happening that mirror miracles of the Bible.
This war is far from over so please continue to pray for Ukraine! And continue to believe Luke 1:37 that says “For with God nothing shall be impossible.”