WEEK FOUR: ENCOUNTER

“God could never use me because I’ve made too many mistakes in my life.”

“God couldn’t love me because I’ve done too many bad things.”

“I’m not sure God has a plan for my life because I’ve wasted so much of it.”

After over 20 years of ministry, I can’t tell you how many times I have heard these statements or statements like these from people who believe that because of their past, God cannot do anything with them (or doesn’t want to). Nothing could be further from the truth. God is in the business of broken people and wants nothing more than to turn a life around, instill purpose, and use them to build his Kingdom. But all of that comes down to something very simple: a personal encounter with God.

Jacob from the Old Testament probably felt a lot like this. He had lived up to the meaning of his name. He had become the master deceiver and schemer, and he had lived most of his life on the run because of it. He may very well have felt like there was no way God could do anything with his life, but he was wrong. God had a plan, and it took a personal encounter with God for that plan to be set into motion. (Genesis 28:10-22)

For many though, encountering God’s presence is a mystery, something that needs to be solved and is very difficult to find. But encountering God isn’t as hard as we make it out to be. Unfortunately, our sin often blinds us to God’s presence in our life. We become distracted or we become laser focused on our problems or our past, and these things clutter up our mind and spirit so that we miss the God encounters right in front of us.

So how do we encounter God? It really comes down to your place, your posture, and your perspective. Acts 17:24-28 tells us that all of God’s creation from beginning to end was created so that the nations would seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. In other words, God’s purpose has always been for us to encounter his presence.

First, we put ourselves in a place to encounter God. It may be a physical location, but really it is a space and place free from distraction and where the clutter of life is not consuming us, and this opens our spirit to encounter God. Then we take a posture of understanding who God is, who we are, and how we are to approach him. This means dealing with our sins and shortcomings to create a space for God to meet us. Finally, we allow God to change our perspective. Many times, the reason we cannot experience God’s presence for ourselves is that we are not expecting to experience it. Our perspective of our own unworthiness (or the idea that God couldn’t want to spend time with us) stops us short of experiencing his presence in our lives. The end of that passage in Acts 17 tells us, “He is not far away from any one of us. For in him we live and move and exist.” (vs 27 & 28) This tells me that not only is God close to us, but he comes to us when we seek after his presence. Then as we cultivate awareness of God’s constant presence, it shapes our daily lives and decisions, and it unlocks his purpose for our lives. So be intentional about creating these God moments in your life because every moment has the potential to be a divine encounter that can alter the course of your life.