Have you ever really paid attention to the events in your life that seemed to be orchestrated? Things that were not supposed to happen, but did, or things that were supposed to happen that didn’t, which ended up turning out for the better?
During my life as a believer, I can point to hundreds, if not thousands of examples of occurrences that seemed to have been scripted so that the result would bring a blessing to me and my family. Yet, even though I have experienced these moments over and over, I can’t say that I was praying for these events to take place.
This all changed over the course of the past two weeks.
Before leaving on a trip to Israel, we asked everyone traveling in our party a question: What are you praying for on this trip? The answers varied from person to person. Some wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the Scriptures. Others wanted to receive a touch from G-D, such as healing or peace of mind.
About halfway through the group, my daughter-in-law said she was praying for divine appointments. When she said those words, something happened deep within my spirit. I knew that I have had many divine appointments in my life, but I could not remember a time when I prayed directly for divine appointments.
The truth is that I didn’t even pray when she shared her prayer with us. I did, however, purpose to take notice and keep a list of any divine appointments that might take place during the trip.
Below is my list:
On our first night in Tiberias, while shopping, I happened to meet a Jewish believer who had spent two months in my home town and knew several members of my synagogue.
While in the same store, the sales clerk who was helping my son with his purchase, looked up and said, “You’re Rabbi Eric Tokajer.” It turns out he follows my social media and was very excited to meet me in person.
The next morning, while in the dining room of our hotel, I ran into two rabbi friends from Georgia.Just after receiving a Facebook message from a friend who lives in Jerusalem saying she hoped she could connect with me while I was in the Land, we found out she happened to be visiting Magdala at that very moment while we were there.
Also at Magdala, I looked up to see Mike Huckabee, former Governor of Arkansas and television host, who graciously took a photo with me and made a short video with me greeting my synagogue family back home.
If the above list doesn’t convince you G-D is ordaining and ordering your steps and that G-D Himself is the author of these divine appointments, this next one will.
A few years back, I learned that I had a distant relative who lived in Israel. Finding this out was amazing because, after the Holocaust, there were so few remaining living members of my family. I was able to connect with this person through the internet and had several short, but pleasant conversations.
Knowing I would be traveling to Israel, I asked him if he would be open to meeting face to face. Unfortunately, he answered that he had a very busy schedule and that he was also uncomfortable meeting with me at this time. I was saddened by his response, but told him I respected his decision and hoped that in the future we could meet.
One morning of our trip, due to a strike and political demonstration taking place, we had to cancel one stop on our tour and rearrange our schedule for the day. This change to our itinerary made Shilo our first stop of the day and the time much earlier than we originally planned.
We arrived at the site, exited our bus, and walked through the entry building. As I walked toward the glass entry door, I could see that on the other side of the door was my relative. Time stood still for a moment as my brain processed what was happening. Right in front of me was my relative who I had prayed for the opportunity to meet face to face. We were literally face to face on opposite sides of the door.
Once I came to myself, I opened the door and called him by name. We greeted each other and shook hands and he introduced me to his son. Then he explained that he was also supposed to be somewhere else, but because of the strike, he decided to take his son to Shilo for the morning instead. After chatting for a bit, he said to me, “It is clear that G-D wanted us to meet.”
Just thinking about all of the separate things that had to happen that morning to bring about what some might call our “chance” meeting. However, I knew as I stood at the place where G-D answered Hannah’s prayer and gave her the desire of her heart, G-D also answered the desire of my heart in such a powerful way that it can only be seen as an answer not only to my prayer, but also to my daughter-in-law’s prayer, for divine appointments.
This experience has caused me to pray for and enter each day looking for and expecting divine appointments. I hope sharing my experience with you will cause you to pray for and watch for divine appointments also.
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Eric Tokajer is the author of Overcoming Fearlessness, What If Everything You Were Taught About the Ten Commandments Was Wrong?, With Me in Paradise, Transient Singularity, OY! How Did I Get Here?: Thirty-One Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before Entering Ministry, #ManWisdom: With Eric Tokajer, Jesus Is to Christianity as Pasta Is to Italians and Galatians in Context.
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