It became my burning desire to show the world that God is not an illusion, but the most beautiful reality there is. It is because God graciously opened our hearts to respond. Yes, God Encounters have … But after a while, an insect landed on his face, and so he had to take one finger out of his ear to brush it off. Reveals the gross parts of us. November Showing posts from December 2020 December 29, 2020Tuesday THE REFINER’S FIRE MALACHI 2:17–3:5 Start Reading December 28, 2020Monday LOVE SCORNED MALACHI 1:1–5; 2:10–16 Start Reading December 27, 2020Sunday SUFFERING FOR HIS NAME PSALM 83 Start Reading December 26, 2020Saturday READING BETWEEN THE LINES MATTHEW 2:13–23 Start Reading December 25, … God is in the small things and He’s in the big things. Then he wanted to go into Bithynia, but again the Spirit said no. If your focus is on yourself and getting your rights or getting revenge, you will miss the opportunity. Instead of helping me deal with the overdose, the male nurse locked me up in an isolation cell. Moses had a divine encounter with God in the form of a burning bush and this was a turning point in his life. I would be tougher than the rest…. Sunday evening, again the dog would leave for a couple of hours and then return. Are Religious Experiences Evidence for God? For the last ten years, my stammer has been gone. It would be a waste of my time to share with him (or her).” Not so! He decided to spend the rest of his life showing others show real God is and how much he loves us. Later, I met a christian friend, at university, who told me that he also used to stammer really bad. I think so! Badly! Find out today…, Is there proof that God exists? The crowd in Philippi missed meeting God because they swallowed the accusations of the slave owners without hearing Paul’s message and thinking carefully about it. David Sorensen had a dramatic encounter with God, which completely transformed his life. In fact, he beat her so severely because of her Christian lifestyle that she died. But if he had been operating on that basis, he would have missed this opportunity to explain the gospel to this small group of women by the river. Is there such a thing as luck? Should evangelicals work together with Roman Catholics or Mormons on social issues, such as abortion? I once knew a man who was living as an immoral, drug-using hippie in one of the canyons leading to the beach northwest of Los Angeles. Luke does not tell us if this girl got saved, but we can hope that since her owners had no further use for her, the church would have taken her in and that she did meet the Lord Jesus. ‘But the Holy Spirit has healed me’ he added excited. Charles Spurgeon tells of a man who once went to a chapel to listen to the singing, but he didn’t want to hear the preaching. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught” (Isa. With intentionality and focus, it's relatively easy to have an encounter with God. If their focus had been on their own well-being, as soon as the prison doors flew open they would have said, “All right! When I was five year old, I told my mom: ‘You need to read the Bible more often.’ She often found me on my knees, praying – all alone. Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit. He does it through the same gospel message, proclaimed by His servants. Again, he does not tell us if any of the prisoners trusted in Christ, although it is not unreasonable to assume that some did. It would have been counter to Paul’s pharisaic background to teach women about spiritual matters. God Calls You by Name. And the jailer didn’t join the military chapel. These weren’t people who tried to be cool, tough or sexy. But why was he upset with her shouting out the truth? From successful entrepreneurs to blue-collar workers, from expectant mothers to arrogant leaders, from broken prophets to wayward prophets, each of these encounter God in unique ways: some through a thunderous word from God and others through His gentle whisper. Everything inside of me knew she was right. These encounters have been greatly encouraging to those who have had them. As the missionary team wandered down by the river, they came upon a small group of women praying. The following stories have been shared with us by real people who have had a life changing encounter with God. It was extremely horrible… I felt as if I was suddenly part of a psycho horror movie…. 4:18, 19). Lydia didn’t start a seeker church for Yuppie businesspeople. There must not have been any law enforcement in that part of Africa then, because the man was not arrested. One day I tried to give a testimony in church, and afterwards a lady came to my mother, saying: ‘Can you please make sure David never does this again? He was suddenly awakened by this powerful earthquake, and when he saw the prison door opened, he was ready to fall on his sword and die, since he would be tortured and executed if any of the prisoners had escaped. The town was noted, among other commercial ventures, for its trade in expensive purple cloth. He says, ‘I have summoned you by name; you are mine" (Isaiah 43:1).Yes, He knows you by name. David Sorensen People need adequate understanding in order to believe. What is the solution when God’s people begin to take Him for granted? 1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. These three encounters may seem insignificant, but actually they were the beginning of a movement that changed world history. A missionary to Africa many years ago told of a woman who came to every service, accompanied by her dog. But these three encounters with God teach us that …. Paul’s gospel always centered on Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. The dog sat down near the aisle, in his usual place. Have you ever had a deep spiritual encounter? As this pastor was driving down this canyon, his muffler fell off his car right in front of this hippie’s shack. F or over 9 years I have been, and still am totally perplexed by the unexplained psychic / spiritual experience that I had on the evening of February 25, 1998 at a small church in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. Indeed, we would expect angelic help for God’s people at various times. Or, will you join Lydia and the jailer and their households by responding in faith and giving glory to God for opening your heart to the good news, that Jesus Christ will save every sinner who believes in Him? Jesus Christ did not come to establish a new religion, but to restore all of God’s creation back to Him. It is dedicated to the numerous visitors who love to read about others who have had encounters with God, Jesus, angels, and other heavenly experiences - and for those who would like to share their experiences that often transform, and even change the direction of their lives. When they sarted praying I immediately began to shake all over my body. She looked at me and said firmly: Although I had been pushing God out of my life for years, the moment she said these words, it was as if lightning struck me. After this encounter with God I felt an even stronger fire burn inside of me, to share the love of God with people. … One of Satan’s subtle strategies is to align himself with the truth. In other words, nothing happens by chance, even though it may seem to us to be by chance. This might happen while reading the Bible or hearing a message from a preacher. People over the millennia have reported having deeply moving religious experiences either spontaneously or while under the influence of psychedelic substances such as psilocybin-containing mushrooms or the Amazonian brew ayahuasca, and a portion of those experiences have been encounters with what the person regards as “God” or “ultimate reality.” Those were perfectly true words! How comforting it is to understand that Our God knows and calls us by name! My childlike faith believed God heard me, and that what mattered to me also mattered to Him. I n the spring of 2000, we had just about finished building our home, after 18 months, when I had a profound experience that has forever changed me. When he adds, “you and your household,” he means that the same promise applied to his household: If they would believe in the Lord Jesus, they, too, would be saved. Lydia, who was probably a widow, had moved from Thyatira to Philippi to do business there. The jailer was saved in connection with doing his job. He graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary (Th.M., 1976 in Bible exposition) and Califo... More, Happy New Year: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives, 4. That fascinated me. So the Lord brought Lydia from western Turkey to Philippi and Paul from wanting to go into western Turkey to Philippi, and brought them together here so that she could get saved! Yet this shouldn’t surprise us. He began to notice that every Wednesday evening about 7 p.m. the dog would disappear for about two hours. He loves us so passionately, that He became a man to die for us, so we could become His children, who are forgiven and forever loved by Him. Messages that He has given to me, to touch you with His heart of love and help you get closer to Him than you have ever been. Sometimes Satan will use outright aggression against the Lord’s people, such as unjust beatings and imprisonment. The "Spiritual Encounters" page is a new addition to the Trusting in Jesus website. Why/why not? God had already worked in Lydia’s heart to make her a seeker after Him and so she was in a prayer meeting. I once was lost in sin and darkness, rebellion and hatred. I hope GOD IS REAL will be a tool in the hands of Jesus Christ to bring His rivers of love and goodness in your life and the lives of millions of others. A spiritual experience is an encounter with something or someone other than yourself that is not based upon material phenomena. God’s normal means of saving people is to use His servants to proclaim “the way of salvation” (16:17) to those He intends to save. Note that he explained the way of salvation, both to Lydia and her group, and to the Philippian jailer and his household (16:14, 32). Is He providentially behind your being here today and hearing this message about your need for salvation? Hell Is Real, I saw it! The question is, how will you respond? Why would Paul get irritated? That second I knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was God indeed, and I was safe to let go of all my control and surrender to the Holy Spirit. This girl kept following after the missionaries, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation” (Acts 16:17). The woman’s husband was a hard, abusive man. The Bible says that when we ask the Father for the Holy Spirit, He will not give us a demon. Jesus saw the Father in heaven and the Holy Spirit came upon him. We have compiled several stories here from people we personally know whom we find no reason to doubt. 2:11), he didn’t want any advantage taken of him by Satan, because he was not ignorant of his schemes. I’m sure that the Roman Emperor, Claudius, would have shrugged his shoulders in apathy if he had learned that a little Jewish man named Paul had set foot on European soil to tell people about Jesus Christ. Ministering under His wonderful presence has healed the trauma that caused my handicap, and now I can speak fluently. In your hardness of heart, will you cling to your greed and sin and respond in anger to the message, as the slave owners in the story did? If you had asked Paul if his intention was to start a church with a group of women, I’m sure he would have said, “No way!” But it was God’s way to begin the church in Europe. But I rarely met with people who had actually experienced the love of God. I had built a thick wall around myself, to protect me from the evil world. So stay tuned and read the whole testimony…, As a child I used to have a real heart for God. Set Free in Prison (Feature Story) A colleague sent me to the prison to visit a person who had turned his back on our religion and become a follower of Jesus Christ. Then God orchestrated another “coincidence.” As the team was going to this place of prayer, probably to give further teaching to these new believers, a slave girl with a spirit of divination met them. I was at the end of my rope, as building a home, while caring for a family and a sick father, is the hardest thing I have ever done. I also read a book by Benny Hinn, who used to stammer as a little boy, and who is a famous healing evangelist now. This is a gift from God to those whom he wishes to reach in this manner. The term translated “a worshiper of God” (16:14; see 10:2; 13:16, 26, 50) means that she was a Gentile who had come to believe in the God of the Jews, although she was not yet a full proselyte to Judaism. 29:13 NIV). A few months later, I was reading the Bible and had finished praying, while suddenly I heard the voice of God, really loud. Rather than seeking after God, she was actively serving Satan. Surely, God was with them now! 1:4-5), is not left to chance! He's already promised that when we draw near to Him, He's going … The next moment a river of supernatural words flowed out of my mouth. Read more about knowing God for real, on this website. A wake up call to the Church, giving us a good understanding of satan's weapons and tactics against God's people, and how many Christian are NOT yet ready for Heaven. Before my encounter with God I wanted to use my creative gift to become rich and famous. But it was my miracle, something God had done for me. The Lord said, through her voice: This was a bible verse that I had been reading often that week, plus I had been very fascinated by the name, THE LORD OF HOSTS. 2:8-9; Phil. In Isaiah 6:1-8, is recorded an account of when the man of God had an encounter with God. This became a painful frustration for me, because I wanted to serve the Lord and tell people about him! I was overwhelmed with the presence of God, and felt a power rushing through me, that was incredible. 4:4-7), 3. I convinced myself I never heard these words. That very moment I encountered God in a way I can’t really describe. But we can hope that she was saved, since God delivered her from demonic forces. But He loved me, even before I truly knew Him. That next night however something happened that transformed my entire life. These encounters can be powerful and life-changing. For the last 25 years I have been serving Him with all my heart. Upon reflection, we may come to see these incidents as spiritual and intellectual turning points—decisive events with beneficial results. Some will say, “If salvation is totally of the Lord, then He will save whom He is going to save, and we don’t have to do anything.” That is a perversion of Scripture! When I grew up however, many hard and painful things happened to me and my family, causing me to become bitter. By that I mean people that have had an actual one-on-one experience with the living God. 5. But the moment I had to speak, I felt His presence come over me and His words just flowed out of my mouth like a supernatural river of life, healing, deliverance and love. If the girl had been shouting out a half-truth, I can see why Paul would be upset. If God must grant saving faith, why can’t unbelievers blame Him for not giving it to them. The religious experience can be visual, auditory, and/or a sense of the presence of something “other.”. The man was so touched in his spirit that he, too, went forward and gave his life to Christ. They all had to learn to accept and love each other in the same church in Philippi. You may recall that Paul would have preached in Lydia’s home region, but the Holy Spirit forbade him at that time (16:6). I was however afraid to surrender completely to the Holy Spirit, so I kept controlling myself. We cannot be sure that the second person, the slave girl, actually got saved, since the text does not say. God providentially works to draw very different people to Himself through the same gospel. I was praying in tongues! As we move through this study on the Knowledge of the Holy, it is useful to look at some actual encounters that people had with God. 2. He is doing it in our day through the Mormon Church declaring itself to be just another evangelical denomination. There is no such thing as group salvation based on someone else’s faith. And they are recounted here to encourage and inspire you and others as well. Isn’t it interesting that the Lord picked these three very different types of people to form the nucleus of the infant church in Philippi? Jacob Receives His Spiritual Inheritance “And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.” (Genesis 28:12) Any anxiety Jacob had that night must have fled his … Claudius had more important matters to attend to than this! Now I use my God-given talens to show His love, His beauty and His goodness to people. These spiritual encounters are obvious ones because we exist in spirit and what we experience is spiritual. We’re out of here!” Or when they saw the jailer about to fall on his sword, they would have said, “Go for it! Suddenly the lady prophecied over me. After months of studying the Bible and praying, I decided that I wanted to be baptized in the Spirit of God, and allowed the couple to pray for me. The Search OF the Savior: Why Jesus Came, Part 2 (Gal. We are so sure that we will never meet or see that man again. Because the world was tough, I decided to become tougher so I started practicing kickboxing and karate. David Sorensen had a dramatic encounter with God, which completely transformed his life. But his more dangerous strategy, because it is more subtle, is not aggression, but alignment. In His voice I heard both great authority, power, joy and peace. She would sit on the outside, next to the aisle. What He said was an important personal message for me. In the first sense, religious experience means an encounter with the divine in a way analogous to encounters with other persons and things in the world. We cannot be sure that the second person, the slave girl, actually got saved, since the text does not say. Finally, through the vision of the Macedonian man calling for help, Paul and the missionary team went to Europe. He knew my heart, He knew my deepest hidden cry for Him, although I had pushed it away, deep inside. In this real life story you can read how I encountered God in a very dramatic way. We’ve seen that God works providentially to draw very different people to Himself. I kneeled down and asked God to set me free from my hardness and make me pure and tender as a child again. I have found God to be that way ever since the events recorded in God… The slave girl didn’t join the hippie church for former street people. The Macedonian man turned out to be an Asian woman! If you rejoice in the Lord and keep your focus on the salvation of those who are mistreating you, your life and words can lead them to the Savior. Lydia was a respectable businesswoman with religious convictions. It serves you right, you barbarian!” But their focus was not on themselves. I'm sure he wasn't a common man because nobody comes for a walk in that area at 7:30 p.m. when its getting pitch dark. Once we have a real encounter with God, it transforms us for the rest of our life. They stayed in Philippi for some days, but no Macedonian man materialized. But the truth is, the Roman Catholic Church and the Mormon Church both proclaim different ways of salvation than the gospel. She did not have it in herself to believe in the gospel. Jacob’s Fifth Encounter with God - Then God said to Jacob, “Go to Bethel and live there. But the story does not say any such thing, and it specifically states that those who got baptized had believed in God (16:34). The slave girl was a piece of property to be used and discarded by her masters. Don’t miss the application: If you ever are treated unfairly, you are probably being given a major opportunity for witness. I needed God. Paul and his team were probably looking for men to preach to. And don’t forget to sign up for the emails! Many of us who are spiritual directors have been asked where God is in this pandemic, but we have also heard reports of God becoming manifest in unexpected ways, of people … So God used a dog to lead a hardened sinner to repentance! At the end of the service, when the pastor gave the invitation to come forward for prayer, she would go forward, and the dog would come along beside her. Yet, "the biblical perspective on sex is robust and stands contrary to the three alternative views that have been popular throughout history: sex-is- bad , sex-is- god , and sex-is- … Just imagine the blessings that we can similarly experience, if we devote ourselves to meeting with God often in … God providentially orchestrated the circumstances that led to the salvation of these people, but His messengers had to faithfully deliver the message. I would like to help you encounter God as well. Our text shows us three very different people who had different encounters with God. Copyright text 2019 by God Is Real. This means that when people and angels encounter the Lord Jesus Christ, they are not encountering some angel or group of angels filled with God’s presence. I began using drugs and alcohol and got addicted to pornography. One that changed your life? Saving faith is the gift of God (Acts 11:18; Eph. I felt God come over me, with a majesty that is too incredible for words. The jailer was a hardened military man. We literally become different people. Please make sure you always link back to this website, when sharing our content: https://www.GodisReal.today Thank you. According to polls, there's a 50-50 chance you have had at least one spiritual experience — an overpowering feeling that you've touched God, or another dimension of reality. If they perish, they perish because they are “darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness” (Eph. Ve seen that God is real – very real ’ t want any taken! Just as you do curiosity was so touched in his ears, not. Find it there, because the man was so aroused that he, too, went forward and take place. Spirit dwelled in the gospel worked in lydia ’ s reading provides a good night ’ subtle. 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