I was driving to work in Alexandria, VA, and stopped at a red light. A woman stood in front of my car. She looked up and down the street. I opened my window and asked if she needed help. She said, “I am late for work, and the bus is not coming.” I asked where she worked. She replied, “I work at the Pentagon.” I told her to get in, and I would take her there. She hesitated and then got into the car. When we got to the Pentagon, she asked, “Are you a priest?” I replied, “I am a pastor, which is something like a priest.” She asked, “Will you hear my confession?” I responded, “God will hear your confession.”

With tears she confessed the guilt she was feeling over sins in her life. I assured her that God had heard her confession. He saw her tears of repentance. I asked if she believed that Jesus had died on the cross for her sins. She affirmed that truth. The Bible says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9 NKJV).

I prayed a blessing over her. I prayed that she would always trust God in her life and that God would protect her and keep her safe. She thanked me for helping her and praying for her. Two days later, a plane hit the Pentagon on September 11^th. Was this meeting a coincidence or a divine appointment? 

A divine appointment refers to a chance encounter that is unmistakably planned by God. It is not a coincidence. It is an occurrence that fulfills a greater spiritual purpose. The Holy Spirit causes you to cross paths with someone who needs prayer or encouragement at that exact moment. These appointments happen unexpectedly. They are frequently an opportunity to share the good news about Jesus. Oswald Chambers wrote: “Never allow that the haphazard is anything less than God’s appointed order.”

According to John 4:4 (NKJV), Jesus “needed to go through Samaria.” Although the road through Samaria was the shortest route from Jerusalem to Galilee, pious Jews avoided it. They did so because they distrusted the Samaritans. Jesus went through Samaria, but not for practical reasons. He had a divine appointment with an unnamed woman at a well. Jesus knew the woman would be coming to the well while He was there. The woman was looking for water, but Jesus was looking for her. He wanted to give her living water: “The water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14b NIV 2011).

The details of this divine appointment are found in John 4. The well was a good place to rest because Jesus was tired and thirsty from his journey. John 4:8 (NIV) says, “His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.” Around noon, the Samaritan woman Jesus was waiting for came to the well to fill her water jar. Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (John 4:7 NIV 2011).

The conversation between Jesus and that woman is the longest one between Jesus and anyone recorded in the Bible, including His disciples. That woman was an outcast in her community because of her lifestyle, yet Jesus went to Samaria specifically to save her. Jesus revealed to her that He was the Messiah: “I, the one speaking to you—I am he” (John 4:26 NIV 2011). Jesus identified Himself with the same phrasing that God had spoken to Moses: “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14 NIV 2011). She believed Him.

How do we know the woman believed him? The Bible says, “Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to town and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?’” (John 4:28-29 NIV 2011). The woman was amazed Jesus knew the facts of her life and loved her in spite of those facts.

In response, the Samaritans believed the woman’s testimony and proclaimed, “We know that this man really is the Savior of the world” (John 4:42c NIV 2011).

The abandoned water jar (John 4:28) is a significant detail. This eyewitness report mentions the water jar because it would have been unusual for any woman to have left something so important at the well. She was so excited about meeting Jesus that she hurried off to tell people about Him without it.

In the same chapter, we read about why Jesus completed this divine appointment: “My food … is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (John 4:34 NIV 2011). Jesus was driven by the mission God the Father had sent Him to accomplish. Jesus often pointed to the Father when He talked about His work on earth. In John 12:49, Jesus says, “For I did not speak on my own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent me has given me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak” (NASB 1995).

In Luke 19:1-10, we read of another divine appointment, between Jesus and a rich tax collector named Zacchaeus. Jesus passed through Jericho on his way to Jerusalem specifically to meet Zacchaeus. That man was hated by the people of Jericho because he presumably had gained his wealth by cheating. The name Zacchaeus means “pure one,” but he was certainly not pure. Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, but Jesus, the Son of Man, was looking for him: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10 NIV 2011).

Zacchaeus climbed a sycamore tree to see over the crowd and to be hidden from them, but Jesus knew where he was. Jesus saw Zacchaeus in the tree and called him by name. He told him to come down so He could talk to him. Zacchaeus gladly climbed down to meet Jesus and even welcomed Him into his home. Meeting Jesus changed him from a cheater to a child of God: “If I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount” (Luke 19:8b NIV 2011). Jesus proclaimed to Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house” (Luke 19:9a NIV 2011). 

I was visiting the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, DC, when a woman said she liked my baseball hat. It was a pink Dallas Cowboys’ hat. She explained she had been a Dallas fan since she was 7 years old. I told her I had another pink hat and would be happy to send it to her. She was shocked by my response but gave me her address. I don’t think she believed I would send her the hat.

When she received the hat, she sent me a thank you note: “You have restored my faith in humanity. I have cancer, and I am facing my mortality. You must be a Christian, so please pray for me.” I did not expect this divine appointment, but the Holy Spirit planned it for me. I believe the Holy Spirit prompted me that morning to wear a pink Dallas Cowboys’ hat. 

Acts 3 gives an account of another divine appointment. Peter met a crippled man at the temple gate called Beautiful and healed him. When people saw the healed man walking and leaping, they began to crowd around Peter and John. Peter said, “Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus” (Acts 3:12b-13 NIV 2011).

Divine appointments are not about us. They are planned by the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus: “But when he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth … He will glorify me …” (John 16:13-14 NIV 2011).

We can cooperate with the Holy Spirit by recognizing His nudges to speak or listen to someone we meet. We can be friendly and approachable, so people feel comfortable talking to us. We can pray for opportunities to share the gospel. 

If you want divine appointments, pray these words: “Holy Spirit, whatever You are doing today, I want to be a part of it.”

Then watch what happens.