ENCOUNTERS

 

            Have you ever had an encounter with God? If you are a born-again follower of Jesus Christ you have. No one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws them to Him. But there are other types of encounters with the Lord, too. Encounters that call us for service, direct us in God’s ways, cleanse us from sins, or fortify our confidence in Jesus.

            Abraham lived with his family of idol worshipers in Ur when he had his first encounter with the Lord God.  The Lord spoke to him and called him away from his home, the idols and his family to follow the true God to a place He would show him. We are not told how God spoke to Abraham, simply that He did. It was a tremendous step of faith for Abraham to believe God and follow Him. But he did it by faith and God counted it to him as righteousness. Abraham’s faith in God was the beginning of the generations that would produce the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. And now those who believe in Jesus receive the power to become the sons of God. It is by faith. Our belief leads us to follow Jesus and leave this world behind, living in the kingdom of God even though we are still physically residents of this earth. Through Abraham all nations are blessed with the opportunity to be born again.

Isaiah encountered God in a spectacular way when King Uzziah died. Uzziah had been a godly influence for most of his reign and was king of Israel for about 50 years. Isaiah entered the temple after Uzziah’s death and he saw the Lord on His throne. It was a magnificent sight. The earthly king had succumbed to death, but the King of kings was and is still alive and in control. Isaiah witnessed the glory of God, His might, power, wisdom and splendor. The sight he tried to describe was beyond human description. He recognized that God is pure holiness and is in control of every throne and every nation. Isaiah fell down before the Lord and cried out to Him because he fully sensed his own sin. Any time we encounter God, we see ourselves as we really are, not as we perceive ourselves to be. We may think we are pretty good, but we see how unholy we are in the light of His holiness. Acknowledging our sin is the first step to cleansing. Isaiah’s sins were cleansed and then God asked this question. “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” [speaking of the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit]. Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” Isaiah’s encounter with the Lord brought cleansing from sin, and a new level of his ministry as God’s prophet. The earthly king was dead and powerless. God was not! If we want a ministry that brings powerful results, it has nothing to do with our charisma, wisdom or our earthly connections. It has everything to do with the glory of God being seen in us. The more we come into God’s presence, the more of His holiness will shine through us, and the more of the earthly things will fall away.  In His presence we learn His desires and purposes, then we stop pushing our way through life with our own agenda and pursuits. Instead, we say, “Here I am, send me, use me, I will obey”. Then we are on the right track. We are working with God.

            Joshua had an encounter with God as he stood near Jericho. It would be their first city to conquer in taking the land God had promised them. God had already told Joshua to be strong and of good courage, that He would never forsake him. He would be with him. And He was. God had parted the Jordan River just as He did the Red Sea, and all the people went over the Jordan safely just like when Moses was leading them. Why? Because God hadn’t changed. Now it was time for their first battle – Jericho! “And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?” So He said, “No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, “What does my Lord say to His servant?” Then the Commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.” If the Lord had said nothing else, Joshua’s strength and courage for battle would have still been fortified, because he had the Lord’s assurance that He was with him. But after that, Joshua received God’s battle plan to conquer Jericho. And the Lord was with them. When we find ourselves in the presence of God, we are voluntarily humbled. His presence brings reverential fear and awe to us. In humbling ourselves before the Lord, trusting Him and obeying what He says rather than taking matters into our own hands, we can have victory even in the middle of our trials because He will never leave us or forsake us. We need to always remember as long as we are following God’s orders, we have with us the Commander of the Lord’s army.

Gideon lived during a trying time for Israel. The children of Israel repeatedly disobeyed the Lord’s commandments, so the Lord allowed Midian to prevail over them for seven years. “Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains.” When the Israelites had a crop in the field, the Midianites and the Amalekites would come and destroy all their produce and take all their livestock. They left them with little or no sustenance. “So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.” God brings judgment on those He loves who know to do right and yet choose evil instead. It really should be no surprise, because He lays out the commandments clearly and also the results of obeying or disobeying. His judgment is not always complete destruction, but is often a time of punishment to turn hearts back to the Lord Who loves them. Israel was in dire straits because of their disobedience to God. After seven years, they finally cried out to Him. In answer to their cries, God sent a deliverer. But this deliverer was not who we would have chosen. When Gideon encountered the Lord, he was hiding in a winepress threshing the little bit of wheat he had gleaned from somewhere. He knew if the Midianites saw him the wheat would be lost. Gideon was disillusioned with the talk of God working miracles for His people in the past. He hadn’t seen a miracle, and they had needed one for seven years. His conclusion from this faulty reasoning was that God had forsaken them. While he continued to thresh the wheat, “the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” Clearly Gideon missed that it was the Lord Himself who had just said, “The Lord is with you.” Gideon’s faith seemed to be totally depleted. But here God was, right there beside him, drawing him into the middle of the miracle he didn’t believe in. “Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” So Gideon said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” Gideon replies about how weak he is. After all, he was a man hiding from the enemy just to keep from starving. But God said, “Go in this might of yours.” What might? The might of the Lord God. “And the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.” After patiently giving Gideon several signs and whittling down the army from 32,000 to 300 men, God used Gideon to free Israel from the Midianites. The reason God used so few men was because He didn’t want them claiming they were the victors when it was God Who did it. If God calls you to a task, know that He will enable you and give you His might to accomplish it. You may feel weak and the least likely candidate for His mission, but “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.” Believe Him and go in His might to do great things.

            When I was about eleven or twelve, I had an encounter with God on several occasions while sitting in church services. A collage of faces that were not distinguishable would appear toward the front of the church and come closer and closer until they passed through me. Then a collage of buildings in a city would do the same. Neither was distinguishable, but looked like film negatives that you can see but not really see. I told my mother about the visions, but she didn’t have an answer. I thought I must be called to be a missionary. I listened intently to every missionary who came to visit the church, but never felt the call to join them. Step by step I was drawn into other ministries. Singing at church, recording an album, then being asked to do a radio program on the local station. During this time I felt called to begin writing articles and sending them out to those I met during ministry in churches and other venues. I talked to my mother and she asked, “how can you do that? You don’t have the resources.” I began by using the office copier where I worked (with permission) and after just a few of the newsletters had been sent, a machine was donated by a complete stranger, and it was a machine that I was already familiar with. God provided. My parents were with me at a coffee house in another state when Mom heard a man try to give the machine to the coffee house owner, but he didn’t need it. So Mom told him I needed it. We picked it up at his house that same evening with the supplies. I began writing songs, made several albums and went on to work on-air and in production work for a radio network. The Lord spoke to me about producing radio spots that eventually went around the world on several radio stations, shortwave and internet. Later, I was at the flagship station of the network, taking a break with one of the engineers. He knew about the visions and asked if I had discovered what they meant. I told him I had not. He explained that in almost everything about the ministry, it was to people whose faces I did not see, yet they received the ministry. The albums, the newsletter, the radio, the internet, and later television, writing books and a newspaper column. I had been walking out the vision in my life step by step without realizing it was being fulfilled. Although I had not known what the visions were about, I knew God was speaking to me and I was called out for His purposes. So, I had simply followed. Then the vision was made clear. God doesn’t always give us answers right away. Sometimes we just need to know He has called us so we will be available and listening when He gives us directions.

            What about you? Have you had an encounter with God? Has He spoken to you through His Word, by His Spirit or through someone else? How have you responded to your encounter with the Lord God? Do you hear Him calling you now? If so answer His call.