One Encounter Away

I talk about encounters...a lot. It is something that has always been a driving force in my pursuit of God. Even when I didn't know how to classify it I know that it was something to go after. You see, each time you encounter Christ you are in the presence of His person. You are affected by Him because He is near you. Now you can think of people that you have been around for extended periods of time and can remember how you took on some of their mannerisms. You took on some of their speech and sayings, especially if you liked the person or what they were saying. Now this happens when we hang out with Christ a lot, but even deeper than that, Christ is like a black light.

Imagine that who you are is written and created in you with a fluorescent marker. God drew the plan for your life in fluorescent marker into your spirit. Now naturally we know that we cannot see fluorescent markers without a special type of light. So in order to see exactly what it is that is written we need a black light. Now here is where Jesus comes in because He is our black light. Every time that we encounter Him more of who we are is revealed. It may not all come out at once but the expectation can be that I am changed each time I encounter Christ.

When I use the word encounter I mean any experience with Christ where change has initiated and can be established. You can have an encounter by reading the word, praying, hearing the preached word, during praise and worship, during soaking, or meditation, or any time that you invite God into your midst. When an encounter happens your affect changes. You know and sense there is something different about what is happening. Your spirit man wakes up and you are more spiritually aware than most times. An encounter can also happen when you dream or have open visions. Like I said, it will initiate change and give you a point to establish it. You can have encounters and not change. But it is an opportunity to increase your spiritual capacity with God.

Now you may be saying, "I have encountered Christ before but I never felt or noticed a difference." That doesn't mean that you didn't change. This life that we live is based off of faith. We live by faith because we are believers so the majority of what we know is not in what we can see. If I throw you a ball and you catch it but then I take the ball back from you, because it's my ball, does that mean you never caught the ball? No, of course not. Something did happen and you know that it did but it may seem like you didn't have proof. But if I come around again to confirm that you caught it, even though no one saw it, there is evidence. So we get around Christ, something happens in us and we walk away feeling like it didn't. But when we get around Christ again then it is evident of the change. Christ will confirm the things that He does.

If Jesus is a black light and God has written the plan for our lives in our spirits with fluorescent markers then we have to stay in the black light in order to fully know how and where we are called. The amount of information we can receive just by being in His presence can be vital  to the plan that God has for our lives. We don't always know where we should go but Christ knows all. Let's take a look at Colossians 3:1-4:

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid [concealed or kept secret] with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear [render apparent, manifestly declare], then shall ye also appear [render apparent, manifestly declare] with him in glory [honor]."

Each time we encounter Christ the "life [that] is hid with Christ in God" "shall appear!" It is truly that simple. Every moment that I spend in the presence of God I am allowing Him to reveal something new about myself to me. It will be something that I never knew before. Something that I never thought about before. It will be something life changing because my life is having an encounter with Christ. Jesus never went anywhere and did nothing! It is my expectation that every time he shows up in my life I will change. If I don't physically see a change then I know one happened by faith and will get back under my black light, Jesus, to reveal what has been written on me.

I know that an encounter with God can change the very fabric of my life. I endeavor, or chase after, or hard pursue, or seek an encounter with God that will change my whole existence. I want to fully see God the way I should see Him so that I can be exactly who He needs me to be. I should have what He wants me to have and experience His fullness, regardless of what I may think right now. I am constantly pursuing Him and in that pursuit I will continue to let Him shine light on me to reveal what I cannot currently see. If who I am is hidden in Him then I have to be found in Him in order to be revealed.

Know that the next encounter may be "the" encounter that will hurl you into destiny! Be bold and go after it today!

Be More. Hear More. See More. Do More.
You can do anything [through Christ]

Habitat for Humanity

He comes
Not for visitations
Nor extended stays
Not for sleepovers
Nor extended vacay's
He comes
Not for encounters that can be numbered
Or limited
Or contained in one moment
One thought
One memory
He comes
Not to be constrained to one sighting
One location
Or even one person to behold how beautiful He is
He comes
For a habitation
A permanent tangible expression of His presence
To take residence and dissipate
Every untruth and fallacy
Ever uttered into the atmosphere
He changes the very scene
That's been seen
So what we've been seeing is no more
And what He sees
Is all that we endeavor to know
Because
He comes to establish habitation
Allowing his preeminence to rest upon a shattered reality
Destroying temples
And in 3 days building them up
Only to exceed the appearance of former glory
That pales in comparison to what He does
Because what He does
Is eliminate all questions
Notions and thoughts
That aren't His
And allows those who have never seen Him before
To see Him for who He really is
All in the first few seconds of introductions
He's pleased to meet your acquaintance
Because He's known you all your life
That's why He's returning urgently
And permanently to the place where we are
Not to facilitate one time encounters
Two time encounters
Three time encounters
But a habitation that extends beyond eternity
And meets us where we are

Be More. Hear More. See More. Do More.
You can do anything [through Christ]

Son of David, Don't Pass Me By!

Our day to day life is governed by opportunities. The opportunities for each day are endless! We can do as much or as little as we put our minds to or allow. The fact of the matter is there are plenty of things that we already discredit or cancel out before we even get out of the bed. One opportunity though that we should never pass up, but always go after, is the one to encounter Jesus. I know it sounds cliche but there is always an opportunity for us to encounter God. He simply is wherever we are. He is constantly walking by in our lives so that we might reach out, cry out, and encounter Him.


Take for instance the blind man in Luke 18:35-39:
"And it came to pass, that as he [Jesus] was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the way side begging:  And hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what it meant. And they told him, that Jesus of Nazareth passed by. And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace:  but he cried so much the more, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me."


This guy was blind, on the side of the road begging, and discerned something different about his surrounding. He heard a commotion that was not familiar. Who knows how often he heard multitudes coming down his familiar road, but he knew there was something that was not the same. When the people, who could see, told him it was Jesus of Nazareth something went off on the inside of him. Jesus' name had preceded Him so this blind man knew who He was. He may have even entertained the thought that if one day he met this Jesus that he would believe to receive his sight. He was in a position where his encounter with Jesus was passing him by and he cried, "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me!" He literally said, "Don't pass me by!" He was at a point where he didn't want to continue the way he was. He knew that one encounter with Jesus would change his life.


So at the point of interception the blind man was ready.  He had probably been meditating on this day since he first heard of a guy from Nazareth healing the sick and giving sight to the blind. He had been anticipating his encounter. Are we anticipating ours? When we have the opportunity to intercept Jesus are we ready to say, "Don't pass me by!" The blind man knew that he couldn't miss this opportunity because he didn't know when the next time, if ever, he would encounter one like Jesus again. He knew that the change he experiences this time may not be the same as the next time. He was so moved to inquire of Jesus that he didn't care who was around him. Those beggars close to him, with sight, were discouraging him from bothering Jesus, but they already had their sight. He wanted something miraculous.


So as the blind man cried louder, "Thou Son of David, have mercy on me," Jesus then told the people with Him to bring him closer.  He asked him, "What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?" and the blind man answered, "Lord, that I may receive my sight." The blind man already had an expectation in the nature of the encounter he wanted and just told the Lord that he wanted to see. What Jesus said next was the breakthrough for the man's miracle.  Jesus then said, "Receive thy sight:  thy faith hath saved thee."  The man immediately "received his sight, and followed him." (Luke 18:39-43)


This is the thing, Jesus told him that "his faith hath saved" him or made him whole. It was his anticipation of the encounter that caused the change in his life. Are you anticipating an encounter or will you let Jesus pass you by? Is your need to intercept Jesus so great that you will cry out today, "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me?" After the man received his sight he continued his encounter with God because he "followed him, glorifying God:  and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God." (Luke 18:43)  So not only did he have one encounter but he made it his priority to have continuous encounters with Jesus after he had his initial encounter that made him whole. He went out and affected so many because people knew who he was and they saw who he had became; all to the glory of God.


So today are we ready to cry out for our encounter? Wherever we may be in our lives we are never above the endeavor to encounter. We always need more of Him so why not let today be the day that you meet him in your bedroom, at your job, on the beltway, in the elevator, or even at the grocery store. I know that I want everything I need from Jesus on the occasions that I have the opportunity for an encounter. I don't want to stifle the next time or miss out on anything this time. I want the one encounter to help facilitate multiple, continuous encounters with His presence.  Son of David, don't pass me by!




Be More. Hear More. See More. Do More.
You can do anything [through Christ]

The "Strong" Man in the Room?

Fear, doubt, and unbelief is the "strong" man in the room (or at least we've thought he's been strong).  There I said it!  He is the one who is standing in the corner holding your destiny hostage.  He is the one that is stopping you from walking through your open door.  He is the one that will intimidate you until you become stagnant and stop moving forward.  He is the one that aggressively needs to be addressed and taken down.  He is the one that only has as much power as you give him.

I say him because the traits of fear, doubt, and unbelief all travel as a package.  Fear causes doubt to show up and unbelief keeps feeding the other two.  If you allow it enter in and dwell for a while it can be a crippling thing to your growth as a Christian.  Fear is something that came in behind the package that Adam and Eve opened called sin-death.  Once they sinned, death showed up, and then fear reared its ugly head.  In Genesis 2 we see the fall of man.  They sinned and became spiritually dead when they were disobedient to the commandment that God gave them.  Specifically in verse 10 Adam said, "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself."  We see that fear was right there behind sin-death. Adam realized he was naked so there had to have been some doubt about God's provision and he hid himself because he questioned his safety and security.  From this moment on mankind now had to deal with this entity.

So now that this so-called "strong" man has been identified in the room of our lives what do we do?  Let's take a look at 1 John 4:16-19:
"And we have known and believed the love that god hath to us.  God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment:  because as he is, so are we in this world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear:  because fearth hath torment.  He that feareth is not made perfect in love.  We love him because he first loved us."

The only way that we can be strong enough to overtake the "strong" man is to have an encouter with Love.  In the passage above we can use God interchangeably with love; so if perfect love cast out fear the only way to be strong enough to cast fear out is to encounter Love. So how do we encounter Love?  We have to have encounters with His word.  In order for that to happen we must hear His word and have an encounter with His word.  When I say encounter I mean given an opportunity for God's word to manifest, come to full term, or proven.  When His word has been proven so has His love.  If we know that God is not a man that he should lie nor the Son of man that he should repent [Numbers 23:19] then having an encounter with His word that produces manifestation will secure in our lives the power of His love. 

When He manifests healing, peace, prosperity, wholeness, wellness, and everything else promised in His word then you are enabled to take down the fear, doubt, and unbelief in your life.  If there is no encounter with the word then the "strong" man will remain strong because he will try to exercise power that he truly doesn't have.  If I don't know why He loves me then I will question everything.  Why He loves me equates to what He wants for me.  He wants the best for me so that I can be in a place to manifest heaven on earth.  When I have constant encounters with His word then I am always at a place to combat the so-called strong man.

Now that this weak man full of fear, doubt, and unbelief has been knocked out and defeated, let's get to where we need to be!

Be More. Hear More. See More. Do More.
You can do anything [through Christ]