One traditional and helpful way to speak of God’s activity in history appears in the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 5, paragraph 3. Its description of God’s activity in the world gives us a convenient summary of some important perspectives. Listen to the way God’s providence is described there:

God, in His ordinary providence, maketh use of means, yet is free to work without, above, and against them, at His pleasure.

Notice here that the Confession of Faith lists four main categories of divine providence, God’s involvement in history, or what we may call acts of God. It identifies these four categories in terms of the ways God involves himself with “means,” which are created instruments or causes.

On one end of the spectrum, the Confession mentions that God ordinarily makes "use of means," that is, he works through means. In other words, God accomplishes his purposes in history by acting through various parts of creation. This category includes such things as natural occurrences and daily creaturely activity.

Second, the Confession speaks of God acting "without" means, intervening directly into the world without using any normal means at all. For example, at times in the Scriptures God inflicts diseases on people and heals them without any apparent creaturely instruments.

Third, the Confession speaks of God acting in history "above" means, taking something rather ordinary and making it greater. For example, the supernatural birth of Isaac to Sarah occurred through her union with Abraham, but it happened at her old age, when she was far beyond the normal age for child bearing.

And fourth, the confession speaks of God acting "against" means, causing things to occur in ways that are contrary to the normal operations of creation. For instance, in the days of Joshua God acted against normal patterns of nature when he caused the sun to stand still.

These four categories of God’s providence help us clarify what we mean by acts of God. There are times when God works through means. Such events often appear to have little involvement from God, though he is always controlling them behind the scenes. But other acts of God are more dramatic. When God works without, above and even against created forces, we commonly call these events “divine interventions” or “miracles.”