God Spoke To Me
Stories
Sharing Visions
Divine Revelations, Angels, And Holy Coincidences
My sister, Sister Joan Frances Giere, and I were on a vacation trip with our mother. We decided to take a route through the Smokey Mountain National Park. As we entered the park, the Ranger told us that we couldn't have chosen a better day, that it was as clear as it ever gets. The beauty was breathtaking. At one of the vistas we parked and got out of the car just to drink in the beauty around us. I stood looking out over the vista, admiring the many shades of green nearby. As my eyes moved across the vista and the shades of green, with muted blues and purples far off, I noticed that even on that bright day, there was a mist over the mountaintops that hid them from view. I stood for some time in silent wonder and awe for the magnificent Creator of such beauty.
It was the following day, when I returned in my imagination to that spot in prayer, that it seemed God spoke to me. It was as though God said: "When you stood at that vista, you couldn't even appreciate the beauty right before your eyes let alone the beauty far off. That's the way it is with me. You can hardly appreciate the little you know about me now, and there is so much more I want to teach you."
I have returned to that experience often since that time and I trust that Jesus continues to teach me about his love and beauty.
Larry Gjenvick
My father, Ludvig Gjenvick, immigrated to America from Germany in the early 1900s. A few years later, when the United States entered World War I, he was drafted into the U. S. Army. After basic training, his company was ordered to France, where fierce fighting was taking place between the United States and the German armed forces.
During the long journey to France, there was ample opportunity for all of the men to think about what lay ahead. They knew that the fighting was severe and that many of them might become casualties.
My father found strength and comfort in his Bible, and one day when he picked it up, it opened randomly to Psalm 91. He said a voice led him at once to verse 7, which reads, "A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you." My father said that at once the weight of apprehension lifted from him and he experienced peace and calm.
Upon landing in France, my father was assigned to a supply depot well behind the front lines. He believed that, for reasons he did not fully comprehend, God had spoken directly to him through scripture to reassure him and protect him in the days ahead.
In the early 1930s, our family, which consisted of my father, mother, brother, sister, and me, lived in a home with no central heating. My father and mother slept in the one bedroom on the first floor, and we three children slept in bedrooms on the second floor. In the winter, a kerosene heater was used in the upstairs to take the chill from the rooms.
One cold winter night when we were all asleep, my father relates that he had a dream, a vision, where a figure seemed to be standing at the top of some stairs saying, "Come up." He awoke, but thinking it was just a dream, went back to sleep. Once again, he was wakened by the same kind of dream. But when it happened a third time, and the figure told him his children were in danger, he wakened and went upstairs, where he found the kerosene heater had malfunctioned and was spewing out deadly carbon monoxide fumes. He immediately extinguished the heater and opened the windows to let in fresh air.
There was no way he could have known or experienced the deadly carbon monoxide fumes on the first floor, and he was convinced that God had sent an angel to warn him and waken him so he could save his family from certain death.
At the beginning of my freshman year in college, I had an experience of my own. One evening, after studying late, I left a brightly lit building to return to my dormitory. Cutting across the very dark campus, I felt a hand on my shoulder that immediately stopped me in my tracks. I looked back and around me, but there was no one there. Gingerly, I felt in front of me with my foot, and there I found that one more step would have meant a fall over an unprotected wall to a drop of some 25 feet to a concrete slab below. I am convinced that, once again, God had intervened to save my life in a manner that could be explained in no other way. Thanks be to God!
It was the following day, when I returned in my imagination to that spot in prayer, that it seemed God spoke to me. It was as though God said: "When you stood at that vista, you couldn't even appreciate the beauty right before your eyes let alone the beauty far off. That's the way it is with me. You can hardly appreciate the little you know about me now, and there is so much more I want to teach you."
I have returned to that experience often since that time and I trust that Jesus continues to teach me about his love and beauty.
Larry Gjenvick
My father, Ludvig Gjenvick, immigrated to America from Germany in the early 1900s. A few years later, when the United States entered World War I, he was drafted into the U. S. Army. After basic training, his company was ordered to France, where fierce fighting was taking place between the United States and the German armed forces.
During the long journey to France, there was ample opportunity for all of the men to think about what lay ahead. They knew that the fighting was severe and that many of them might become casualties.
My father found strength and comfort in his Bible, and one day when he picked it up, it opened randomly to Psalm 91. He said a voice led him at once to verse 7, which reads, "A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you." My father said that at once the weight of apprehension lifted from him and he experienced peace and calm.
Upon landing in France, my father was assigned to a supply depot well behind the front lines. He believed that, for reasons he did not fully comprehend, God had spoken directly to him through scripture to reassure him and protect him in the days ahead.
In the early 1930s, our family, which consisted of my father, mother, brother, sister, and me, lived in a home with no central heating. My father and mother slept in the one bedroom on the first floor, and we three children slept in bedrooms on the second floor. In the winter, a kerosene heater was used in the upstairs to take the chill from the rooms.
One cold winter night when we were all asleep, my father relates that he had a dream, a vision, where a figure seemed to be standing at the top of some stairs saying, "Come up." He awoke, but thinking it was just a dream, went back to sleep. Once again, he was wakened by the same kind of dream. But when it happened a third time, and the figure told him his children were in danger, he wakened and went upstairs, where he found the kerosene heater had malfunctioned and was spewing out deadly carbon monoxide fumes. He immediately extinguished the heater and opened the windows to let in fresh air.
There was no way he could have known or experienced the deadly carbon monoxide fumes on the first floor, and he was convinced that God had sent an angel to warn him and waken him so he could save his family from certain death.
At the beginning of my freshman year in college, I had an experience of my own. One evening, after studying late, I left a brightly lit building to return to my dormitory. Cutting across the very dark campus, I felt a hand on my shoulder that immediately stopped me in my tracks. I looked back and around me, but there was no one there. Gingerly, I felt in front of me with my foot, and there I found that one more step would have meant a fall over an unprotected wall to a drop of some 25 feet to a concrete slab below. I am convinced that, once again, God had intervened to save my life in a manner that could be explained in no other way. Thanks be to God!
