God Stories: Inspiring Encounters with the Divine

by Jennifer Skiff

Overview

“The idea first came to me when a minister asked if I had any ‘God Stories.’ I asked her what she meant, and she explained that a God Story was a miracle-like experience that proves God exists. . . . I did have stories. I hadn’t dared to tell many people about them, but I definitely had had what I believed to be encounters with the Divine. I wondered if many other people had stories too. What happened next surprised me most. I realized that a Divine intelligence that many people call God is connecting with millions of people every day. These are their stories.”
—from the Introduction


In God Stories, Jennifer Skiff shares the extraordinary experiences of people who have felt the power of God’s presence in their lives and been forever changed. A doctor opens the chest of a dying heart patient to discover her heart is healed; Marines watch as a fellow soldier in Iraq is hit by a powerful explosion only to discover, when the dust settles, that he is still standing and has no injuries; a struggling couple receive an answer to a prayer and are prevented from making a mistake that could cost them their children; a young woman loses her boyfriend on 9/11 and receives a message that brings her peace.

Reassuring, hopeful, and unforgettable, these amazing confirmations of divine intervention will lift your spirit and leave you wondering—and even remembering—when your life was touched by a miracle.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307449931
Publisher:	Crown Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/08/2019
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	161,396
File size:	438 KB

About the Author

JENNIFER SKIFF is an award-winning investigative journalist who traveled the world for more than a decade as a correspondent and producer for CNN. She divides her time between Maine, London, and Australia.


From the Hardcover edition.

Read an Excerpt

"The idea first came to me when a minister asked if I had any 'God Stories.' I asked her what she meant, and she explained that a God Story was a miracle-like experience that proves God exists. . . . I did have stories. I hadn't dared to tell many people about them, but I definitely had had what I believed to be encounters with the Divine. I wondered if many other people had stories too. What happened next surprised me most. I realized that a Divine intelligence that many people call God is connecting with millions of people every day. These are their stories."
-from the Introduction

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

"A Beautiful Sign"

Looking Beyond 7

"It's All Good News"

Listening to the Voice 33

"Is There Any Way You Can Help Me?"

Having a Prayer Answered 65

"I Was Kicking and Fighting and Clawing"

Welcoming the Guardian 103

"Your Faith Has Cured You"

Receiving the Healing 125

"Something Told Me Not To Take That Flight"

Accepting the Warning 141

"What Was That?"

Feeling the Light 163

"I Saw A Huge, Powerful Hand"

Seeing Is Believing 187

"I Knew When She Passed Away"

Confirming the Afterlife 209

"I Have Something To Tell You"

Getting That Feeling 233

"I'm Not Ready To Go"

Coming Back from the Other Side 25

Acknowledgments 269

Reading Group Guide 273

Editorial Reviews

Skiff, an award-winning investigative journalist and correspondent for CNN, compiles an inspiring if uneven assortment of real-life accounts of meeting with the divine. Whether readers are actively religious or die-hard skeptics, the stories recounted will reaffirm God's existence and intervention in human affairs. Skiff draws upon such themes as listening to God's voice, answers to prayer, healing and confirmation of an afterlife. While less spiritually inclined readers may find some stories more attributable to coincidence than divine intervention, other tales are beyond rational explanation. In one account, a woman who had irreparable brain and organ damage was completely healed and discharged from the hospital after prayer. A man felt an urgent caution against taking an airline flight on which nine people were subsequently killed. In a similar tale of miraculous warnings about danger, a woman heard an audible voice tell her to stop right before she stepped in front of a seven-foot Australian snake's mouth. Mysterious and faith-inspiring, these stories are valuable even if some don't conform to readers' particular religious beliefs. (Nov. 11)

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Publishers Weekly

Whatever your personal beliefs, this book is a perfect way to explore and discuss your own relationship with the spiritual.”
—Redbook

“God Stories arrives at a perfect time. With each of us struggling to find our personal missions and how to manage the madness of everyday life, this book reminds us that clues, signs, and moments can be found everyday showing us that God is here. God Stories is a book filled with fabulous true stories. With the increasing hunger to find peace, spirituality, and personal mission, this book shows us we're not alone in that journey. God Stories arrives at a perfect time recounting those almost unbelievable moments when others were touched and moved in the right direction.”
—Carole Tomko, Executive Vice President, Discovery Networks

“Faith can’t necessarily be explained no matter what religion you are but there are examples where faith has moved mountains for people. This book helps people to understand, from whatever religious perspective they have, that there is someone watching over you.”
—Alan Bond, America’s Cup Winning Yachtsman

“Just when you thought life's journey was the solitary plodding of one day unconnected to the next; God Stories reveals the golden threads that link lives and loves and give us strength to weave a beautiful tapestry.”
—Carolyn O’Neil, Former Executive Producer & Senior Correspondent CNN Television

“God Stories is proof positive that God - whatever else He or She may be- is one helluva storyteller. Transcendent reading.”
—Susan Maushart, author of The Mask of Motherhood, Wifework, and What Women Want Next

“Here's one thoughtful, readable and thoroughly engaging approach to understanding the phenomenon of faith and inspiration, the existence of which we cannot dispute, but the sources of which are a constant wonder.”
—Becky Madeira, Vice President, Pepsico

“I'm not a believer - so God Stories and spiritual experiences I usually take as proof of people's willingness to believe anything, no matter how nonsensical and silly. These tales bought to us by Jennifer Skiff are not silly. If you abstract the religious elements you are left with people at a point in their lives where they discover optimism and joy. There is not enough of either in the world and we need more people to affirm ‘Yes life is worth living’. These stories do just that.”
—Guy Brooke, The Earl of Warwick

“God Stories are the stuff of life and living. Reading this book is a touching and soul penetrating experience.”
—Mark Victor Hansen, Co-creator, #1 New York Times best selling series Chicken Soup for the Soul ® and co-author, Cracking the Millionaire Code and The One Minute Millionaire

“At the beginning of the twentieth century William James wrote an important book on the varieties of religious experience. Now, a century later, Jennifer Skiff has collected a variety of early twenty- first century accounts of religious experience, all helpfully organized in themes. These give us some direct insight into the ways in which different people interpret their human experiences, particularly unexpected and unusual experiences, and how they do this religiously. If a miracle is defined as any unusual or unexpected occurrence that brings a person to a heightened awareness in time of the presence of the eternal God and of the ultimate mystery of life, then the clear conclusion is that 'miracles do happen!' Those whose trade is in abstract theology will be inspired and impressed by the degree of religious conviction that can be triggered by concrete religiously interpreted experience.”
—Peter Carnley, Co-Chair of the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission

“My eyes filled with tears and my heart lifted as I read God Stories. Jennifer Skiff has presented us with a wide range of heavenly touches, everything from quiet hugs to stunning out-of-body experiences, and readers of all faiths will be moved. As the praise song goes, "Our God is an awesome God!" Each page of this beautiful book attests to that.”
—Joan Wester Anderson, author of Where Angels Walk and Angels and Wonders

“A bouquet of inspiring stories...for the believer and nonbeliever alike.”
—Julia Cameron, bestselling author of The Artist’s Way

From the Publisher