When you have an encounter with God, you will never be the same again!

How do you have an encounter with God?

Is an encounter with God the same as the day you gave your life to God?

These two are not necessarily the same because you can be saved for many years yet you have never had an encounter with God.

You can be righteous in all your ways yet you never had an encounter with God.

You may read your Bible from Genesis to Revelation, you read about the mighty miracles of God, and you heard about His power and glory but your eyes have never seen the Lord.

Having an encounter with God is when you see Him in His Majesty and glory.

It is when He pours on you His Spirit of wisdom and revelation to know Him.

Having an encounter with God is when He reveals Himself to you.

When you encounter God you will never be the same again.

Job’s encounter with God

Job was a righteous man in words and deeds.

The Bible says that he was perfect and upright in all his ways. He feared God and shunned evil.

God Himself boasted to His greatest enemy about the excellent character of Job.

“And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth (shun) evil?” (Job 1:8)

Yet, in spite of Job’s perfection, he did not know the essence of who God is.

The accuser tested the mind and flesh of Job to weaken his faith but Job stood firm.

Job’s body was racked with pain and his mind was bewildered because his righteousness did not exclude him from tragedy and trials.

Job’s friends tried to reveal to him who God is based on their human knowledge. They told Job that if anyone obeys and serves God they will spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasure.

But, their efforts failed.

Job searched his heart and lifestyle to find answers. He searched his knowledge of God to find answers but he remained undelivered.

But, Job did not give up, he persevered because he needed a revelation from God.

Job’s friend, Elihu, concluded in his long exposition of the greatness of God, “Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: He is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: He will not afflict.” (Job 47:23)

However, what Job’s friends did not understand is that the excellent power of God is such that He will reveal Himself to whoever desires to see and know Him.

This was exactly what God did when He finally appeared to Job.

“Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, ‘Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.” (Job 38:1-3)

This was the moment when Job had an encounter with God.

“Wilt thou also disannul (discredit) my judgment? Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous? Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?” (Job 40:7-9). The Lord questioned Job.

“If you were present during my creation and if you can do all those great things,” the Lord challenged Job, “then deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty.” (Job 40:10)

When Job came face to face with the unfathomable and incomparable greatness of God he recognized his inadequacy.

He realized he was only dust.

Neither Job nor any human being can contend with the Almighty and instruct Him.

Who on earth has the authority to reprove God? (Job 40:2)

Meekly, “…Job answered the LORD, and said I know that thou canst do everything and that no thought can be withholden from thee. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:1-2, 5-6)

This was the revelatory moment when the scales fell from Job’s eyes and body.

“And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.” (Job 42:10)

Moses’ encounter with God

Moses had an encounter with God in the desert when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire 🔥 in the bush.

But when the Lord spoke, Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look upon God. Nevertheless, God appointed him to deliver His people from slavery. (Exodus 2) 

Later, during the Israelites’ long sojourn in the wilderness, Moses realized that they need the presence of God to go with them.

So Moses asked the Lord to see His glory as proof of His presence, and so the Lord hid Moses in the cleft of a rock and let His goodness pass before him. (Exodus 33:12-23).

Since that encounter with God on the mountain, Moses’ face shone with the glory of God. (Exodus 34:29-34)

Samuel’s encounter with God

Samuel was a child who never knew the voice of God but he chased after the things of God and ministered before the Lord.

One night the Lord revealed His Word to the boy, Samuel. 

“So Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel had been established as a prophet of the Lord.” (1 Samuel 3:19-29)

Isaiah’s encounter with God.

Isaiah was an ordained prophet of God but never had an encounter with God until in the year that king Uzziah died, he saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up in all His glory and the train of His robe filled the temple.

Isaiah saw the Seraphim hovering above the throne of God crying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!” (Isaiah 6:1-3)

Immediately, Isaiah saw the sinful state of his heart and cried,

“Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” (Isaiah 6:8)

And, the Lord cleansed the lips of Isaiah and purged his sins.

Paul’s encounter with God

Paul was a highly educated and devoted Jew who followed and obeyed all the laws of Moses.

He was so convinced of his righteousness that he took it upon himself to hunt and kill all the followers of Christ whom he thought were not obeying the Jewish laws.

Then one fateful day as he pursued the Christians on the way to Damascus he had an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ and Paul was never the same again.

Jesus’ Revealed

Before Jesus began His ministry, the Father confirmed His divinity as the Son of God.

When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.  And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17 NKJV)

Later, Jesus revealed His glory to three of His disciples upon the mountain. “And He was transfigured (transformed in great glory) before them. His face shone like the sun and His clothes became as white as light. (Matthew 17:2).

The disciples were now able to declare without a shadow of a doubt “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” (Matthew 16:16)

Having an encounter with God

If you have not surrendered your total life to God you need to pray that you have an encounter with God.

If your loved ones are not saved, you need to pray that they have an encounter with God.

If you are saved and sanctified and you still cannot overcome the little sins that so easily beset you or you cannot seem to get delivered from the addictions that are haunting you then you need to pray that you have an encounter with God.

When you have an encounter with God you will be convicted of your sins and repent before the Lord.

When you have an encounter with God He will turn your captivity into freedom and give you double for your trouble.

When you have an encounter with God, whether you are old or young, the Lord will reveal His Word to you and tell you about great and marvelous things to come. (John 16:13)

When you have an encounter with God you will say like Paul,

“I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.” (Philippians 3:8-9)

For when I am weak then I am strong in the Lord (2 Corinthians 12:10)

When you have an encounter with God you will experience the transforming glory of God and your life will shine with the presence of God wherever you go.

When you have an encounter with God, you will never be the same again.

Prayer

Dear God, we pray that your people will receive a divine revelation from you to see and know you in a real and mighty way.

We pray that your people will know you and the power of your resurrection. The same power that raised Christ from the dead you have extended to your people.

We pray that we will experience the height, depth, width, and breadth of your love and understand that nothing can separate us from your love.

“Neither tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, death, life, angels, principalities, powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth nor any other things shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39)

Lord, we pray that your people will not believe that they have already achieved perfection but will continue to press toward the goal to receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Lord, we pray that your glory will transform our lives. Amen!

Bible verses

That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10-11)

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have [d]apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)