Friends of God
Section:

Encounters

For those who hunger and thirst for God, know that He rewards them with divine encounters. The key here is to hunger and thirst for him. He’s a great rewarder to those who diligently seek him. These encounters take on many different forms; from dreams, visions, or an overwhelming sense of God’s presence. God is so unique that it seems like everyone on the face the Earth could have a different type experience with him and He would still not run out of ways to show up.

Many have lived as Christians by principle only and say, I don’t need an encounter as I have the Word of God. Well, shouldn’t the Word of God lead us to Him? The Word is filled with stories of people having encounters with God. God told us these stories so we could have encounters with him as well. We’re supposed to be asking God questions about the Word so we can receive revelation and fresh insight. The Word of God should also lead us into encounters with Him.

When we start activating our faith we’ll find ourselves walking into the presence of God. By activating your faith you need to practice hearing the voice of God and acting upon it. One time I just started a new job and was out of town with my boss. We had to wake up and be in the hotel lobby early in the morning to catch the bus. As I was setting my alarm clock God said, “I can wake you up.” I replied, “You know I can’t be late as there is no recovery from this and there’s only one bus going to our destination”. I thought to myself, if I don’t get up, I could be fired as I surely would not make the bus. I was at a cross road, I thought our God is trustworthy, if I can’t trust him to wake me up in the morning, what can I trust him with. So I didn’t set the alarm clock and told God, I’m all yours, I guess you’ll just have to wake me up on time. If I’m wrong about hearing your voice, you’ll just have to cover for me. The next morning God woke me up right on time. I had enough time to get ready, go down to the lobby and the bus arrived within 5 minutes.

Another encounter came when our family had just gone to the local gardens and walked around the plants and flowers. They were just beautiful. I went to bed that night and was just playing around in my mind. It was almost in a half dream state. I was back at the garden, this time with a few students. We all had clipboards and were told to write down our questions. I had a great idea. I was going to surprise God. So I took a piece a paper and wrote, “I love you” and folded it up. I then quickly opened it and just like a kid said Surprise, I love you. All of a sudden I was the one surprised, I was flying through space as God the Father was throwing me around like a little kid, except this is God’s world so He was throwing me through space. There was no fear at all, as I felt so secure in God’s hands. His hands were so big that one hand literally covered from my chest down past my waist. I remember touching his hand. It was eternal. Wow, I think I just melted in God love. As of a sudden I was back in my bed. Wow, what was that? I still have no idea how God does that. I have no idea if I was there or not. But you’ll find out that when God shows up, it’s in (HD) high definition. In other words, you are there. You’re looking around and have all the detail you would have if you’re really standing there.

I remember one time my wife kept having elevator dreams, and although I’ve had many dreams from the Lord, I never had an elevator dream. So I started asking for one, just talking to God like I would anyone else, and reminding him that I’ve never had one. The bible says that you don’t have because you haven’t asked. Shortly after I started asking for one I had an elevator dream. In my dream I walked up to a door that looked like a door you’d find in Star trek, the doors opened quickly with a whoosh into the walls and I walked in. The doors quickly closed behind me and I found myself in an elevator. As soon as I got in, it was like a ride from an amusement park and it went straight down as a very high rate of speed, rocking and jumping around on the way down. There was no fear at all in this dream; I just thought to myself that this was one heck of a ride. We hit bottom and I thought wow, that was cool. Then the Elevator shot up like a rocket, plastering me to the walls, going so fast that it blasted through the roof and was flying through midair. This was also so cool.

The scene changed to a large formal dining room where there were a lot of tables and chairs and room for a lot of people to dine. I was hanging like Spiderman toward the top of the wall looking down over the entire hall. The room was filled with formal dining room tables with white cloths and dishes on the tables. The whole room was swinging back and forth like it was on a swing. Then the dream ended.

Well, God gives dreams for a reason, to prepare us for the future and show us what’s available in our life with God. Rocket ships stand for power and dining rooms are a place where we can spiritually feed ourselves. With the elevator going down at first, you could anticipate some humbling situations you need to walk through. When the elevator shot up like a rocket, rockets stand for power so I don’t know what God plans are yet, but can assume that He’s going to show up in a powerful way. The dining room stood for being able to spiritually feed one another and the swinging back and forth says that it will not come without resistance and the ups and downs in life.

In these encounters God is showing us what’s available. When you first get saved if seems like your spiritual eyes are opened and you have a fantastic time walking with God, but then it goes away. You start to wonder what happened. Well at first God is showing you what’s available, but now you need to grow up. Righteousness is a pillar in his kingdom and God wants us to live a righteous live. Allow the Holy Spirit to change your desires and give you a desire for Him. You’ll find the things of this world falling off. It’s important the you don’t give up and continue to pursue God. As many times in the dry times God is wondering which way we’re going to go.

When the encounters go away, you say to yourself, God where did you go? I must look for him. It’s just like the Song of Songs where the Beloved One is having a wonderful time under the Apple tree, but her lover goes way. Actually, in the song He invited her to come with him but she was afraid of the mountains and decided to stay behind .She didn’t want to leave her area of comfort and go with her Lover. So her King went to the mountains without her. It was the Beloved that was unwilling to leave her comfort zone. God will require a response from us. Just know that it’s a process and He rewards those that diligently seek him.

We don’t want to miss lead anyone saying these encounters happen often as they are far too few in between, but it should also be known that this is normal Christianity. We have been created for an encounter and God is more than willing to answer than we are willing to ask.