A Spiritual Encounter With God

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