Tom Lennie reviews ‘Seeing the Hand of God: True Stories of Remarkable Answered Prayer’, by Monica and Clifford Hill (2025) 

I’ve always been a voracious reader of dynamic Christian biography; drawing enormous inspiration and encouragement from recent testimonies of the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of ordinary – and extraordinary - men and women of God. How truly faith building it can be – inducing faith to believe that the very same living God can work equally powerfully in and through me – if I choose to allow Him.

Giving God the glory

The present book is so full of inspiration it makes you wonder why it took so long for Cliff and Monica to put it together! Pulled from a shared lifetime of nearly seventy years of ministry together, it is touching to note that the manuscript was completed and sent to the publisher just three weeks before Monica passed away on Christmas Eve 2024.

As they make clear in the opening pages, their objective was not self-publicity – ‘look at the great things that have happened in our lives!’ Rather, they simply wish to testify to the wonderful deeds of the Lord in response to the needs of His people – so that God gets all the glory. Cliff and Monica in fact went to the extent of minimising their own involvement in the scenarios they share, drawing on the testimony of others wherever possible.

Each of the eighteen chapters recounts the exciting story of one particular episode in Cliff and Monica’s lives in which the invisible hand of God was somehow made remarkably visible. While important details are outlined, the book is fast-paced, and you find yourself reading on, hungry to uncover more. I literally found it hard to put it down.

The authors simply wish to testify to the wonderful deeds of the Lord in response to the needs of His people – so that God gets all the glory.

Digging deeper

Stories provided include:

• The entirely faith-fuelled purchase of a church and community centre in the East End of London in the early 1970s during an era when churches all around were closing.
• A striking account of a night-time premonition given to Cliff during a visit to Israel, of a planned attack on the country in 1983; and the remarkable outcome to this scenario following a time of intercession by a number of Messianic believers in the land.
• The astonishing account of two groups, each having a vision for a prophetic magazine, that was fulfilled in Prophecy Today in 1985, but only when the two groups came together.
• A dramatic forewarning of the Hillsborough football stadium disaster in 1988, and lessons observed from the incident.

Then there is a number of chapters outlining Cliff and Monica’s travels to both Africa (Nigeria) and the Far East (Singapore and Indonesia). These reveal the hand of God, not only in Cliff and Monica’s lives, but especially in the faith-filled lives of those they met with on their travels. I’d love to go into greater details of these extraordinary events, but that would be to spoil the fun for those who want to buy the book and find out for themselves.

A lengthy closing section offers fourteen mini-miracle stories – short one-or-two page accounts of convincing yet unusual evidences of God’s moving in the authors’ lives. While the stories chosen for this book were all drawn from old ministry records, they have been carefully collated and edited, and are presented here as a seamless whole.

Time and again, they proved the faithfulness of their loving Father, thereby challenging the reader to never limit God through unbelief.

Faith-enhancing

While some of the stories recounted here are dramatic in nature, Cliff would be the first to confess that they were generally the result of interceding before God in times of great need – that there is no ‘miracle-a-moment’ in the Christian life – rather, most of life consists of ordinary daily living by faith, with observable supernatural intervention being the exception.

Seeing the Hand of God is a testimony to the faith of this inimitable couple in a mighty God. Facing seemingly insurmountable financial, spiritual or logistical problems, they repeatedly turned their faces like flint to Jehovah Jireh – the God who provides. Time and again, they proved the faithfulness of their loving Father, thereby challenging the reader to never limit God through unbelief.

This is a beautiful and powerful testament to the unchanging truth that our God is ever alive, active and in control. He responds to the prayers of faith of His people who have learned to recognise His voice and His ways, and who seek to trust Him in all circumstances.

As your heart is stirred by the reading of these stimulating accounts, so your faith levels are likely to be enhanced as a consequence. It’s a wonderful read.

Seeing the Hand of God (229pp) is published by Wilberforce Publications and is available from Amazon for £12.00 (inc p&p).