-
A Spiritual Encounter With God
Contributed by John Butler on Aug 11, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: Learn from Isaiah and Jacob what a face to face experience with God will do to the believer.
In Isaiah, we read where the man of God had an
encounter with God.
Our text this morning clearly shows us what
happens to a person that has an encounter with
God.
One thing that stands out in my mind is when
Isaiah says : "I saw the Lord"
He didn’t have some kind of a nightmare or
vision inspired by too much pizza the night
before.
this was not a product of his imagination
-he was not making up some supernatural
encounter
But Isaiah had a true life-changing encounter
with the Lord of Glory!
Where he was praying, the door posts and the
threshold shook like an earthquake.
the room filled with the shekinah glory of God
I’ve been in services where the glory of God was
so real that there was a blue haze, holy smoke in
the sanctuary about 4 ft off the ground.
I’ve been in a revival where the fire department
was called out because of the cloud of smoke
covering the building.
And you know what was taking place?
We were having a life changing encounter with
God.
Because we were in the presence of an Almighty
God Amen?
Reality check: In my time in ministry I’ve seen
people lots of people have an encounter with
God but too many of these were just emotional
encounters.
encounters where they come to an altar or kneel
in a pew, pray, weep, cry, shed
tears, shout sing but then they get up and leave
just like they came.
They live and act the same way they did before.
But I tell you the truth this morning when I say I
believe when we have a true encounter with God,
it changes us!
-when we truly repent to God, we aren’t the
same anymore!
When we really come into His presence we
become like Isaiah saying woe is me.
Because In His perfect presence we realize our
imperfect state and we ask Him to purge us, and
bring about change.
And we put off the old and take on the new. Amen?
We take off our old self righteousness because
we can see that it is only filthy rags and we put
on His righteousness.
Too many Christians have an emotional
encounter with God and think that there’s
nothing more.
But there is!
When you have a true encounter with the Lord
of Glory Things change!
First of all you’re no longer an empty vessel
because the Lord will purge you and fill you with
His Spirit just like the smoke filled the room in
our scripture.
And then you’ll become a willing vessel like
Isaiah saying Here am I Lord!
What do you want me to do!
Just point and I’ll go!
Just speak and I’ll listen!
Just lead and I’ll follow!
We wonder why there’s not enough workers in
the Body of Christ!
It’s because too many of us don’t have that
personal intimate relationship with God that we
need!
IV. Emotional Vs. Spiritual...
They’ve just had emotional experiences and not
spiritual ones!
Now don’t get me wrong, we all need to get
emotional about serving the Lord
Because we have to be willing to give God our
feelings and emotions but we’ve got to be what I
call spiritually emotional!
See, anyone can get emotional and not be
spiritual,
But nobody can be spiritual and not emotional!
And when you’re emotional in the spiritual sense
it brings you to a special place.
And this isn’t a shallow place but it’s a deep