What does it mean to Encounter God?

5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
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Its an amazing moment when Isaiah says : “I saw the Lord”

He was not dreaming, He didn’t have a nightmare or vision caused by eating cheese before going to bed the night before.

He was not making up a story nor was this his imagination running riot.

Isaiah experienced a true, life-changing encounter with the Lord of Glory!

Where he was praying, like an earthquake, the doorposts and the thresholds shook.
The room filled with the smoke.
This happened and he was there.

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I was first saved when I was 17 years old,
I’m now 40 and over the last 23 years
I’ve seen lots of people have a real encounter with God, I’ve also seen some great pretenders.

How do I know they were just pretenders?
Because after they stood, went forward, prayed, wept, cried, shed tears, or appeared to be slain in the Spirit,
they got up and carried on living and acting the same way they did before.
I believe when we really encounter God,
it changes us!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I know that in many churches throughout this world there are people who have never had an emotional encounter with God, let alone a true life changing encounter with him.

There are people who outwardly may even try to appear holy and righteous but there has never been a real change in their life.

They have never really encountered God.

They really haven’t changed yet!

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Think for a moment about when you were saved.

That moment when you truly repented
and turned to God,
you were not the same as you were.

You realised that you had sinned against God,
and understood that God must Punish Sin.

You cried out to God with all your heart,
you felt anguish,
you knew you had sinned against your creator,
the one who gave you life in the first place.

You made a firm commitment to turn from your sin, and turn to God,
and sell out to him, and you meant sell out,
give your heart and life to him forsaking everything else

“Old things are passed away..”
You Encountered God
You were ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, born again, changed, Saved!

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Friends if we really want to encounter God
we need to get emotional about serving the Lord

We have to be willing to give God our feelings and emotions

There is a place, a line in the sand, that we step over and our life is changed forever!

This isn’t a shallow place - it’s a deep encounter in God.

Sometimes when you get to this place all you can do is speak in the spirit.
-words can’t describe what happening to you
-but when you stand up, you’re different!
-you’re not the same anymore!!!

The chains