God Sized Encounters

One of the things that I’ve mentioned before that’s convicted me is the fact that my life is not that much different from the “good” unsaved person’s life.  What I mean is that my outside appearance—apart from the fact that I do not swear—is pretty much the same as what you would expect out of a professional.

So, how do people really see God if I look not much different than them?

God gives God-sized encounters because that is the only way the world will come to know Him.

Let’s look at some examples in the Scripture:

• Exodus 14:4-31 – When the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in Him.
• Joshua 4:24 – God parted the Jordan so that all the peoples of the Earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that Israel might always fear the Lord.
• 2 Chronicles 20:12-29 – Jehoshaphat and the armies attacking them. Their eyes were on the Lord. The fear of God came on all the kingdoms.
• Daniel 4:2-3 – Hannaniah, Misheal and Azariah brought praise to God.
• Acts 2:41 – 3000 came to Christ after Peter’s sermon.
• Acts 4:4 – 5000 believed after a sermon.
• Acts 9:42 – Many people believed on the Lord after Dorcas was raised from the dead.

What our world often is seeing in our day is a devoted, committed Christian serving God. But, they are not seeing God.

Why?

Because we’re not attempting anything only God can do.

When the world sees things happening through God’s people that cannot be explained except that God Himself has done them, then the world will be drawn to the God they see.  You just saw it in multiple passages—God worked, He did something and many people believed.

I believe that part of the problem with a lot of our outreaches, and a lot of our programs is that we’re doing them in our strength and our power.  We haven’t been told by God to do them, we just think that we should do them.  We’ve done this so long that we’ve come to expect a small turn out or small numbers and then we rationalize this because we’ve done it this way for so long.

What you do reveals what you believe about God, regardless of what you say.  We can say that God is strong.  We can say that He can do whatever He wants.  We can say that He’s in charge of our lives, but if what we do does not reflect this truth we are hypocrites.

True faith requires action.  It is impossible to please God without faith.  It’s impossible to show Christ to the world without faith.  Faith, without works, is dead.

We need to have God plan, to have God move, and to join Him in His work.  Only then will we and all those around see Him.  Only then will we experience God and our walk with Him will be strengthened.  Only then will our church grow in Him.  Only then will we see His blessing.