Hosea 6:3
Let us know.........
Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD....
His going forth is established as the morning.....
He will come to us like the rain.....
Like the latter and former rain to the earth.....
What good does it do to only know God through the reading of Scripture?
What good does it profit me if I never encounter the real presence of The real God?
Daily, I am with people who have never, ever encountered the presence and power of this God I am speaking of.
Some of them went to church through their teenage years, only to abandon it because they saw no value in participating. The draw of the flesh was stronger than the curiosity and draw of their spirit.
In some instances, they may have had an encounter with God, but no one taught them or helped them to understand that God was more than just words in a book or notes to a song that was sung on Sunday morning. The world laid hold of them and promised them a false reality that was easier to connect with. So they left the church and started down that slippery slope of self destruction.
Ever since I started into ministry, my main objective, as part of my call, was to introduce others to Jesus. Introduce them not just to words or intellectual pursuit of understanding God, but to help them have an encounter with God. An encounter that would go beyond their understanding, that would spark them to begin to ask questions and seek Him on their own. It is my opinion, that without such an encounter, a person will never grow and mature.
Moses didn't just read about the need for someone to return to Egypt to free the Hebrews.....
He ran into God at a bush that refused to be consumed by fire. God spoke...God called him by name....God revealed himself to Moses.
Noah didn't just get up one morning and decide..."You know what? Today is a good day to start that boat project." No! Almighty God called to Noah. Communicated with Noah....Noah took on the task because he'd had an encounter with God.
Saul the pharisee was knocked off his horse by a blinding light. Saul, on the way to Damascus to stir up trouble for the local church, had a encounter with the now risen Jesus and it changed him forever.
Jesus called out to Peter and told him to leave everything and follow him. Peter did.
Peter left his vocation and business. He left his home. He left his family. He left everything he knew to follow this wandering rabbi.
And the list goes on and on of people whose lives were changed through an encounter with Christ. So why would we think that such does not happen in our day and time? I believe it does.
I remember it happening to two men during a class I was teaching when I was at Rapha. I say I remember the event. I found it in one of my journals yesterday, and as I read the entry, it all came back to me.
Both these men were hungry to know God. Both were entirely ready to have a change in the lives and in their hearts. They were primed and ready to meet with God. God did not fail. It was like the passage in Hosea. He came to them like the spring rain. They wept...they laughed....they were overcome by His Holy Spirit. And they came away with questions about what had happened. They wanted to know where to start reading in their Bibles. This created a stir among the others. Some believed it was God who had touched these two. Some didn't, but they could not explain what had happened.
God didn't come in a burning bush....
But he did set on fire the hearts of two men yesterday.
That is why I do what I do...
That is why we have the ReCovery Church....
So that others can be spiritually awakened and set on fire by a God that loves them.
God on you....
mb
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