divine intervention

divine intervention (usually uncountable, plural divine interventions)

1. (set phrase) Direct and obvious intervention by a god in the affairs of humans.
   • 1851, James McCosh, The Method of Divine Government, Physical and Moral, New York: Robert Carter & Bros., p. 479 (Google preview):

     Nature cannot tell beforehand how a Divine intervention is to accomplish its object, for that intervention must be beyond nature, beyond all its findings and experience.

   • 1920, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, chapter 12, in The New Jerusalem:

     And indeed if he does escape it will seem a miracle, and almost a divine intervention, not only to the pursued but to the pursuers.

   • 1977 Nov. 6, Ronald Sullivan, "Hospitals Introducing a Therapy Resembling 'Laying On of Hands'," New York Times (retrieved 3 Aug 2016):

     Unlike some of the more colorful faith healers of the past, Dr. Krieger does not claim miraculous cures or divine interventions.

   • 2002 April 10, Jessica Reaves, "How Dry We Are," Time (retrieved 3 Aug 2016):

     Farmers in the Midwest are literally praying for rain: the St. John Catholic Church in Spearville, Kansas is holding four special services this week to seek divine intervention.

• God wink
• miracle