December 21, 2024

God Sized Encounters

cris photoshoped by djemOne 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.

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3 thoughts on “God Sized Encounters

  1. God has done something with us that I can only deem as a miracle. Several months ago an audiologist told us my little girl couldn’t hear at all out of her left ear; she had fluid backed up behind the eardrum for so long she would need surgery (this was the cause of her late walking and speech problems also). The audiologist also predicted that she would never be able to hear in her left ear without an aid. She set us up with several appointments with a pediatric ENT. We of course prayed for our little girl and our church prayed over her and laid hands on her for a healing. About a month later when we met with the ENT, they told us her ear had completely healed. It was so drastic the audiologist thought the ENT was mistaken and the ENT thought the audiologist was mistaken. She took another hearing test and passed it with flying colors in both ears. Since then she’s been in speech therapy and progressed an entire year in speech in just 3 months.

    We firmly believe that God healed her little ear and we’ll tell everyone who will listen that He has the power to heal now just like He did in the Gospels & Acts. There’s no logical reason my daughter’s ear would have corrected itself. Of course, non-Christians we tell the experience to discount it as a “coincidence” but we know better – the Lord touched our little girl and opened up her ear. That’s not anything that can be done by the power of man.

    Rachels last blog post..TILT: Our Military

  2. @Rachel: Amen. And that’s not the “walk up on stage and cast down that crutch” phony stuff– that was the people of God trusting God to do something, and He did.

    Praise the Lord that you were able to see Him work, and praise God that your church was strengthened through it!

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