God Came Through
True stories, outside the Bible, of moments when God answered prayer or provided. Each is told as far as possible in the person’s own words, from accounts published before 1931, with a takeaway for today and a link to read the original.
Rain from Below
John G. Paton · His Aniwa years · Aniwa, New Hebrides (Vanuatu)
A dry island, no fresh water, and the chief sure the missionary would drown digging for it.
The story, in their own words
Aniwa, New Hebrides. There was no fresh water on the island, so John Paton started digging a well. “My heart almost sinking sometimes with the sinking of the well, till we reached a depth of about thirty feet.” The old chief thought he’d lost his mind: “No, Missi; you will never see rain coming up from the earth on this Island.” “We expect daily, if you reach water, to see you drop through into the sea and the sharks will eat you!”
Paton answered, “Come to-morrow. I hope and believe that Jehovah God will send you the rain water up through the earth.” He admitted the risk: “I knew I was risking much... but I had faith that the Lord was leading me on, and I knew that I sought His glory, not my own.”
At daybreak he dug a small hole at the bottom. “The perspiration broke over me with uncontrollable excitement, and I trembled through every limb, when the water rushed up and began to fill the hole.” He tasted it. “It was water! It was fresh water. It was living water from Jehovah’s well!”
He filled a jug and climbed out to show the chiefs “the rain which Jehovah God had given us through the well.”
What happened next: Paton told the people the water came from God: “Jehovah my God gave it out of His own Earth in answer to our labors and prayers. Go and see it springing up for yourselves!”
So what?
God can bring water where everyone says there is none. Paton prayed and dug, and God answered in front of a watching island. Your faith, lived out, may be someone else’s first glimpse of God.
“I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.”
Today’s step
Keep “digging” today at the thing you’ve prayed about: one more faithful step, done for God’s glory.
Source: The Story of John G. Paton, ed. James Paton (A. L. Burt, New York, young folks' edition of the 1889 autobiography), Chapters LXVI–LXVII, The Sinking of the Well; Rain from Below. Public domain.
All stories
October 16
Open Thy Mouth Wide
No money, no backers, no building, and a prayer for £1,000.
George Müller
October 17 · Today
The Half-Crown
One coin to his name, no dinner tomorrow, and a starving family on the stairs.
J. Hudson Taylor
October 18
A Night in the Chestnut Tree
House looted, boat stolen, men hunting him in the dark, and nowhere to hide but a tree.
John G. Paton
October 19
“Lord, I Take Thee at Thy Word”
A proud young lawyer, alone in the woods, too ashamed to be seen praying.
Charles G. Finney
October 20
“Well, I’m the Corpse”
Six months of appendicitis, a doctor with no hope, and a wife preparing to say goodbye.
Smith Wigglesworth
October 21
Turned Aside by the Snow
A miserable teenager, a snowstorm, and a substitute preacher with almost nothing to say.
C. H. Spurgeon
October 22
The Child Who Came at the Right Time
Seven years old, about to be given to a temple, praying, “Oh, let me die!”
Amy Carmichael
October 23
A Chair at the Table
A widow, a houseful of children, and her oldest boy gone without a word.
D. L. Moody
October 24
Twenty Pounds in the Garden
The fund down from £780 to £20, thirty pounds needed in days, and no one told.
George Müller
October 25
The Late-Night Doctor’s Bill
Salary overdue, rent unpaid, and he had promised God he wouldn’t say a word.
J. Hudson Taylor
October 26
Five Hours in a Canoe
A leaky canoe, a raging sea, and his crew throwing down their paddles.
John G. Paton
October 27
Jehovah’s Rain
Church on fire, clubs raised over his head, and the flames heading for the house.
John G. Paton
October 28
Up and Dressed in Fifteen Minutes
A bride dying days before her wedding, and a doctor who had just said, “No hope.”
Smith Wigglesworth
October 29
A Verse in a Shop Window
Cholera in every street, a funeral every day, and a young pastor ready to sink.
C. H. Spurgeon
October 30
The Night the Ship Was Sinking
Seven hundred people on a broken ship, water gaining on the pumps, and no sail in sight.
D. L. Moody
October 31
The Trinkets That Could Not Wait
Not one penny in the orphan fund, and pounds needed within days.
George Müller
November 1
“You Are a Dead Man”
A needle prick, a deadly infection, and a surgeon telling him to go home and put his affairs in order.
J. Hudson Taylor
November 2
“Sail O! Sail O!”
The final attack was coming at dawn, and they had no way off the island.
John G. Paton
November 3
The Clothes by the Fire
A young man bedridden so long he was fed with a spoon and never dressed.
Smith Wigglesworth
November 4
Five Hundred Pounds and a Ship
A mission with no collections, a party ready for China, and no ship yet.
J. Hudson Taylor
November 5
The Man Who Turned Back
No bread, no money for the milk at nine, and the Lord’s name on the line.
George Müller
November 6
The Walk to Cheapside
Too weak to walk downstairs, two miles to go, and almost no money left.
J. Hudson Taylor
November 7
Rain from Below
A dry island, no fresh water, and the chief sure the missionary would drown digging for it.
John G. Paton
November 8
The Woman on the Train
Seventy years old, on her way to have her leg cut off.
Smith Wigglesworth
November 9
Bread for the Lord’s Day
Saturday night, 8:30, three orphan houses, and no bread for Sunday.
George Müller
November 10
Wind on a Sunday Afternoon
Becalmed, drifting toward reefs, and cannibals lighting fires on the beach.
J. Hudson Taylor
November 11
Just in Time for Tea
Four o’clock, tea at five, and nothing in the cupboards.
George Müller
November 12
A Pound on the Way to the Milk
The milkman due at eight, the fund empty, and Müller praying as he walked.
George Müller
November 13
A Basket of Bread While They Prayed
Saturday evening, nothing for Sunday, and the workers on their knees.
George Müller
November 14
The Sleepless Landowner
A field for a new orphan house, a price too high, and an owner who wasn’t home.
George Müller
About these stories
Retellings are our own, kept to what the sources say. Words in quotation marks inside each story are the person’s own, word for word from the original books, all published before 1931 and in the public domain in the United States. Where a source gives no exact date, the year shown is approximate or the year the account was published.