Encounter
“How do you know that there is a God?”
“How do you have a relationship with someone you cannot see?” (I.e.: how can you have and strengthen a relationship with God if you cannot see, hear, or feel Him tangibly?)
“I pray like they say I’m “supposed to”, but I don't hear anything.”
“I don’t know that I’ve ever really felt God’s presence or heard His voice.”
“How do you know if something is really from God or if it’s from the enemy?”
“I know I should pray more often, read my bible more often, etc. I don’t do it like I should.”
These are a few of the questions and comments that I’ve heard repeatedly over the years. And I understand where they are coming from. In fact, I have actually said each of these statements at least once in my life, too.
Why is it that we have such a difficult time wrapping our heads around God, His presence, His voice, prayer, and other spiritual disciplines that ultimately strengthen our relationship with Him?
The long answer to this question would go into a rabbit trail about the enemy and sin and the fall of man and the world’s desire to distract us and drain us of the mental and emotional energy required to withstand and defend against the spiritual attack that is constantly coming our way.
I could talk for hours on that topic, but that's a conversation for another day. Instead, I’d like to address a simpler detail.
Over time, as I’ve engaged in these conversations, I’ll often try my best to give a spirit-led answer in that moment. And Praise The Lord, Holy Spirit comes through and guides the conversation every single time!
But lately, I’ve begun to notice these questions in light of each other. As I reflect, I can see a common thread. I can see a similarity between who these people are, what season of life they are in, their spiritual maturity levels, and the desires, motivations, and passions that serve as the driving force behind their curiosities. And when I look at the bigger picture, I can see that it all seems to stem from the same place: one primary concern, one detail, or rather, the lack thereof.
IT ALL STARTS WITH AN ENCOUNTER.
Likely, when you “met GOD” for the first time, you had some sort of encounter. Maybe it was a big, dramatic experience at a summer camp or church conference. Or maybe it was a smaller, more subtle, and more personal experience—a still small voice or a nudge in His direction. Regardless, there was likely a point where the lights were turned on and suddenly you could see and believe that there IS a God, and He loves you, and you knew in that moment that you wanted to know more. You wanted to know Him!
That is an Encounter.
But then, often, life happens. Life gets in the way, and the fire and excitement that you once felt around that experience may fizzle and fade. What often happens at that point is one of two common scenarios.
Either A, you slip back into “life as usual”, never really making any strides toward changing anything about your life. In this case, you might sometimes think about God, or maybe even try to talk to Him, but really, not much has changed, and you don’t know what to do about it.
You might start going to church, which helps, but Monday through Saturday is kind of “same old same old”. And eventually you miss a Sunday Service, or maybe two. And next thing you know, it's been months since you’ve been to church, and you wonder if you should even go back. You wonder if God can still love you, or if He even notices that you’re gone. (spoiler alert: He does!)
Or, in Scenario B, you fight for it. You crave the feeling of peace and contentment that came with your encounter, and you want that back! But at first, you may not know where to look or how to find it. You start going to church, you try reading your bible, you try talking to God, and you maybe even start making changes in your lifestyle that you feel make you “a good Christian”.
You quit going to bars (or maybe you don't go as often), you cuss less, you start listening to Christian radio, you might even start dressing, talking, and acting differently, and people are noticing. You are doing your part, you’re doing “the work”, but you’re still wondering why you don’t feel God like you did that day, the last time you had an encounter with Him.
What’s important to understand about both of these scenarios is that they happen to almost everyone, and they don’t make you a “bad Christian”. If you’ve fallen into one of these two camps at any point in your spiritual walk, then you’re human. That’s it.
BUT, if you’re currently in one of these two camps, and you’re craving more, then I've got you covered.
Here’s the thing: we were literally created by God Himself to experience Him, to remain in His presence. That’s why we crave Him, even when we don't know that’s what we’re doing.
When we’re living our lives and trying to “discover ourselves,” what we’re really doing is searching for fulfillment. And we feel fulfilled when we are in God’s presence. Period. Everything else is just like a band-aid, a temporary solution. We may feel satisfied in the moment, but that inevitably fades.
WE WERE DESIGNED FOR ENCOUNTER. SO, LET’S HAVE ANOTHER ONE.
If you look up the word encounter in a regular (secular) dictionary, you’ll have a 50/50 chance of finding a negative connotation with the word. It’s described most commonly as an unexpected meeting, a meeting of chance, often adding that it’s a meeting of conflict.
Personally, I like the idea of this definition: “to experience face-to-face”
That said, when you see this word used biblically, it's always used to describe a “significant meeting” or an “experience with the divine” (God, His angels, etc). That’s what we want, a significant experience with God!
This is something that tends to happen at big church events. Think conferences, special services, worship nights, guest speakers, etc. I like to call these the Mountain Top Moments. Like when God met Moses on the top of Mount Sinai.
And those events are great! They’re powerful. They’re significant. They move and can easily facilitate big changes for many people at once. And they’re especially good for inviting new believers into the body of Christ.
But those aren’t the only opportunities to have a significant experience with God. They just tend to require less “work” from us—because the work is usually put on by the church, and we, as the congregation, get to simply have the experience.
I’ve found that some of the most significant encounters I’ve had with God were the simple, the quiet, the one-on-one alone time, just me and Him in a small room, or that one time in the middle of a field.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had plenty of mountain top moments! I remember once what was intended to be a 3-song worship set became 3 hours of spontaneous worship, and the speaker didn't even preach. God is so Good! Everyone was praying for and over each other, people were on their knees, and there wasn't a dry eye in the building. Let me tell ya, it was a move!
But I’m learning that you can’t live on the mountain top. Vegetation doesn’t grow beyond a certain elevation, and water only flows downstream. The sustenance that is required for life, the food and water required to sustain us, must be consumed in the day-in-day-out of learning to love the valleys.
We live most of our lives in the valleys. It's waking up, going to work, coming home, spending time with family, going to sleep, and doing it all again the next day.
You’ve probably heard the highly quoted verse from Psalm 23: “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death”. That can paint this picture in our minds that the valley is only the hard times. But I don't think of it that way.
To me, the valley is the everyday. And if you think about it, on any given day, there IS a shadow of death that haunts us. We experience the shadow of sin and pain and hurt all around us. Life is full of ups and downs, right? And those hardships are part of it.
But the remainder of the verse says, “I will fear no evil, for [God] is with me.” There is evil in our day-to-day, but that doesn't mean we can’t or won’t have an encounter with God there.
In fact, I could argue that we may have some of the most significant encounters when there is evil lurking around every corner, because that’s when our trust in God is the strongest, our faith is most prominent, and there is ample opportunity to rely on Him. And in those moments when our focus is on God, that’s the exact moment when He shows up!
The thing I’ve observed—when asked about God’s presence, and His voice, and how to truly experience a relationship with Him—is that the problem is not whether God is there, or whether or not He’ll respond, it’s simply that we don’t see, hear, experience Him.
OVER AND OVER IN SCRIPTURE, WE SEE THAT GOD IS WITH US.
“The Lord is always with me” (Psalm 16:8)
“Behold, I am always with you” (Matthew 28:20)
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in time of need” (Psalm 46:1)
“Do not fear, for I am with you.” (Isaiah 41:10)
God is Omnipresent; He is everywhere, all the time. He is always with us. But often we just have our focus and perspective out of whack. If we are looking at the world around us, then what we are not focusing on falls into our peripheral view and becomes harder to see.
I truly believe if we can bring our focus back to Him, we can experience Him, over and over again. So, the issue becomes an awareness issue. Let’s change the question:
How do we become aware of when our focus has shifted?
How can we find a trigger to set us back into alignment?
How do we make remaining focused on Jesus a habit in our lives?
That’s where spiritual disciplines come in. Prayer, Bible reading and study, fasting, etc.
The questions at the beginning of this came from a place of “I’ve tried this because they say it's what you’re supposed to do, and I just don't feel anything”.
My answer to that would be, check your heart. If you’re doing something because it’s what you’re supposed to do, your heart really isn’t in it, is it? You’re just checking a box because you’re looking for a result.
BUT LET’S CONSIDER A DIFFERENT SCENARIO.
Let’s say you met someone on the street, or the subway, or at work, or at school, or somewhere that you frequent in your day-to-day life.
You met someone for the first time, and instantly you hit it off! You knew after that first meeting that you wanted to become friends. They made you laugh, they made you feel seen. Being with them was memorable, and you knew you wanted to hang out again.
Would you just go about your day and never contact them again? NO!
You would likely swap contact information in some way. You’d swap phone numbers, or Instagram handles, or something to that effect, and then you’d reach out and say “hi” once in a while. You’d talk, text, get to know each other, and make arrangements to hang out again.
By the way, this is true for a new best friend, and/or a significant other. The way you would develop a friendship, moving beyond “stranger on the street” to “friend,” would be to spend time with that person, getting to know them.
That is the ONLY way. Otherwise, after just one meeting, you would both go about your lives and never see each other again. Unless maybe there is some rom-com-style small world situation where you happen to cross paths again. But even if that happens, if you don't make an effort to see them again or talk to them again, how do you expect to become friends?
IT’S THE SAME WITH JESUS!
You want to hear God’s voice? Spend time with Him.
You want to feel His presence? Spend time with Him.
You want to discern if what you hear is from God or the Enemy? Get to know God’s voice.
Learn how He shows up, and how you feel in His presence, and you’ll easily know when it’s not that. How do bankers know when they receive counterfeit money? They study the real thing first!
HERE’S A PLACE TO START:
Prioritize a daily quiet time routine
Make your prayers tangible (consider a prayer board or prayer journal)
Get serious about studying God’s word
Learn to live (and eat) in a rhythm of fast, feast, fuel
Seek God’s face (and His voice) during times of intentional silence & solitude
Incorporate a rhythm of rest into your week
Find fun and creative ways to worship God
Seek opportunities to surrender & abide
Set out to serve others often
Find Godly friends & fellowship with them often
Over the next several weeks, I’m setting out to dig deeper into these 10 topics. If you are interested and would like to follow along, check back for additional posts and resources that will walk you through these Spiritual disciplines, sharing my own personal journey along the way.
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