MADE FOR ENCOUNTERS

Dear brethren,

As we continue to grow in our awareness and revelation of who we are in Christ and what we have and can do in Him, its important for us to understand that God wants us to have continuous encounters with Him.

 

 

One meaning of the word encounter is to meet face to face or to have a meeting. The synonym of the word encounter is experience.

Look at John 5:18-22  Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. 19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.  20 For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.  21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.

Jesus said that God was His Father and to the Jews, that meant He claimed to be EQUAL WITH God.  There’s a difference between being equal to something and being equal with something.  Equal to means you can replace it while equal with means you can represent it.

A child may resemble the parents and have their DNA so can represent them but he can’t replace them.  For us, we have been made righteous like our Father God, (2 Cor. 5:21) because of our union with Christ; and so we have equality with God as far as being His kind and quality but we cannot replace Him. We can however represent Him on earth.

Verse 20 of John 5 tells us that the Father loves the Son and He shows Him all things that He does.  Because of their union, they have encounters that take place.  Because of their union, the Father kept showing Jesus some things and when He did those things, they bore physical witness that the Father working with Him.

In John 8:16,18, Jesus said the Father bore witness of Him that He sent Him.  What did He mean?  He meant that the Father allowed Jesus to see some things and then He would cause them to happen as a witness of His and Jesus’ union.  Then in John 10:15 Jesus said:  “As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father…”  Jesus was saying that because of His right standing with the Father, He can now know the Father and beyond that; have encounters with Him.  Then; PRAISE GOD, in John 14:20 Jesus spoke of a time that was coming when we would be in Him and He in the Father and we would know it.

Brethren, this is the time we live in.  We’re in union with the Father just as Jesus walked in union with the Father.   Jesus went on to say that as we keep or do His Word, He would manifest Himself to us.  Because of our union with Him, the same way that the Father would manifest Himself to Jesus and have encounters with Him, Jesus was going to do the same things for us so that we would have encounters with Him.

From the time of our new birth onwards, we’re supposed to see or experience the kingdom of God.  (John 3:3)  The purpose of our salvation was not just to change our destination to heaven although it will be awesome to get there, but the purpose was to put God on the inside of us reuniting man with God.  Once this happens, we’re supposed to start having encounters with God…hearing from Him, seeing from Him, and letting Him do things through us or manifest Himself through us.  In our encounters with Him, He’ll show us how.