It's Time for a God Encounter

"God is not a God to be understood but a God to be experienced!"

Pastor Mark Mcleod - Move Church

"Taste and see the the Lord is good..."

Psalm 34:8

The Bible is full of God encounters. Knowledge about God is good, knowledge about the Bible is good, but the Christian life is meant to be a series of encounters with God Himself. 

Growing up I used to love the works of apologists. Hearing a Christian scientist explain how creation points to Christ is always an amazing, awe inspiring thing. Hearing the story about how an atheist interviewed several prominent Christian leaders and in the end was convinced and converted to Christianity is a great thing and I praise God for those stories being out there. 

Still, the vast majority of people will not be convinced by smart arguments. No matter how succintly someone shows how nature points to Christ, someone who doesn't know Christ can argue something different. For every person that is convinced by the logical arguments of prominent leaders there are numerous who won't even listen to them. I wrote about this in my post, Do You Believe?.

What we truly need is a real encounter with God Himself!

We need a solid foundation on the Word of God. We need to know His Word so that we can stand on it when trials and tribulations come against us, but that foundation needs to be made alive with experiences with God. 

Every person that has made a significant impact for the Kingdom can identify 

at least one God encounter that turned their life around.

Throughout the Bible we can see numerous examples of these encounters:

Abraham heard from God to move from his country and his family

Jacob wrestled with God at Bethel

Joseph had dreams from God

Moses met God in the burning bush

Samuel heard God call his name in the night

David had times of worship while watching the sheep

Numerous encounters are seen with Jesus throughout the Gospels

The Apostles had Pentecost (as well as many others)

Paul describes this same thought in the following verse to the Corinthians:

And I, brethern, when I came to you, did not come to you with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
1 Corinthians 2:1-5

When was your last encounter with God? How does He want to encounter you today? 

If you have never accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior then I encourage you to visit my page What is the Gospel?

Taking a Leap of Faith

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder for those who diligently seek him."

Hebrews 11:1, 6

"The just shall live by faith."

Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38

"Steppin' out on nothin' and findin' something there

Tellin' the doubt to wait, wait, wait

I'm takin' a step of faith."

Carman Licciardello

As Christians we have been called to a life of faith. In my own life I have seen little breakthrough without some level of faith preceding it. There have been a few times in which God has surprised me with something that I was not at all expecting but the vast majority of times He expected me to first take a step of faith. To move out and trust Him that He would take care of the unknowns. 

Four times throughout scripture the phrase is repeated, "The just [righteous] shall live by faith." This statement does not give an option. If you are looking to be just or righteous before God then you shall live by faith. It's not suggested, it's not requested, it is simply stated that this is how it is. 

Antoher thing that can be seen from the short statement is that we are to live by faith. It is not something that we just pull out for certain moments or difficult situations. It's not something that we use when we make a particularly difficult prayer, it is something that we live by. 

Faith should be a part of our day to day life. 

We should be putting out faith in Him each day and stepping out in trust at several opportunities. We should be making bold prayers each day. Prayers for healing, prayers for miracles, prayers for salvation. These prayers should be for others as much as they are for ourselves. We hould be willing to step out and offer to lay hand on those around us who are dealing with sickness or struggling in their marriage. 

Still there are times where God calls us to step out even more in faith. Instead of a step of faith sometimes these feel like leaps. I have had several of these moments throughout my life and I can attest that God has always come through. Below I have listed a few of my own, and my family's, leaps of faith to encourage you. This is not an extensive list but a few over the course of my life. Each of these were steps made following the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Personal Leaps of Faith:

2000 - Joined speech team despite being terrified of public speaking - Recieved miraculous deliverance from that fear
2002 - Left home for the first time to go to Bible School in Ohio - Had numerous encounters with God over the two years preparing me for future ministry
2005 - Chose to go to the Philippines despite having no money and only a month to prepare, then chose to go again later in the year despite still owing money for the first trip - God provided enough money to pay off the first trip, cover the second trip and have some extra in one night of giving at church.
2006 - Decided to stay on as a staff in the DTS despite not having built support or even having the money for a plane ticket to return to Germany - God provided all needed, led me to many experiences of ministering around the world and grew me tremendously as a leader and a preacher. I also met my wife due to this decision.
2009 - Followed my then fiance to Ethiopia from Germany, prepared our wedding, then moved to Oregon with no income or job lined up - God provided for everything and connected us with old friends who helped us settle in Oregon. He also provided an opportunity to minister to the youth at Connection Church.
2017 - My wife and I followed God's prompting to move our family across the US from Oregon to Virginia. - God gave us both jobs right away and used the experience to give me further direction in my education and calling - more to come!

What is the step of faith God is leading you to take today? What is holding you back from taking it?

For further encouragement on taking a step of faith you can read these older posts from my blog:

Risk, Fear and Faith

Becoming a Faith Giant

A Sign of a Good Leader

A sign of a good leader is not how many followers you have 

but how many leaders you create.

Mahatma Ghandi

In today's world of social media and instagram stars there is a lot of focus on followers. A quick google search will tell you that the top followed person on twitter is Katy Perry, who has 106.7 million followers and on instagram it is Selena Gomez with 135.8 million followers.

Often we think of celebrities as leaders because they have a large following, but how are they influencing those followers. It is interesting to look at the ministry of Jesus and to see how much time he focused on the 12 rather than the crowds. He had multitudes following him but he never considered the crowds to be His ministry.

Jesus's ministry was to the individual, then to the small group (the 12), and lastly to the crowd. 

Moving on to Acts we see that the 12 were the ones who changed the world. They were the ones who brought the Gospel to Jerusalem, to Judea, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. They did this not because they were followers of Jesus but because they were His disciples, because Jesus had invested the time to make them leaders.

As far as we know Mahatma Ghandi never became a Christian, never accepted Jesus as Savior, Lord, or God. Another famous quote of Ghandi's is discussed in this post and that quote underlines a part of how Ghandi viewed Jesus and Christians. Ghandi did accept Jesus as a great teacher and much of the philosophy that Ghandi is famous for is at least partially based on the teachings of Jesus. This quote may have very well come from a study of the life of Christ because it is clear that He focused on creating leaders. He didn't just teach His disciples, He spent time with them, He ate with them, He shared life with them, and He challenged them to step out into their own ministry.

Jesus is the ultimate example of where a good leader's focus should be.

In today's churches and organizations we often seem to have it backwards. The people at the top are worried first about how to get more people surrounding them rather than on developing the few closest to them and training them to do the same. They want to be seen as someone who has a lot of followers but they forget to develop leaders. 

No matter what type of organization you are involved in, no matter what position you may hold, I encourage you to strive to focus on the few, build leaders, and train them to do the same. This is how you multiply your influence and make it last beyond your own presence in that organization.