God Encounters / Do You Love Me?

In the last few  post we have been looking at the encounter between Jesus and Peter after Peter denied Jesus three times.  We talked about his intentions were not to deny Christ but he did anyway and how we are like this – we think others should be impressed with our intentions.  We looked at being sorry and about what it really means to backslid.  We are going to continue today by looking at Christ calling us and questioning us.  We saw the excitement in Peter when Christ came to visit him.  We are gaining all this by looking at John 21 – click here to read it.  We will now finish up on this encounter by really looking closely at the interaction between Christ and Peter.

Something else for us to learn in all this is that: we must serve Christ with our talents, even though He could perform our task without us. The Lord obviously created the fish in the net by a miracle. There were 153 large fish in the net when previously there were none. When the disciples got to shore, they found a charcoal fire with fish cooking for their breakfast. Jesus told them, "Bring some of the fish which you have just caught". Jesus had them add their fish to the ones already on the fire. Christ could have provided enough fish on their fire so the disciples did not need to add theirs. Jesus could have waited to eat their fish without providing His on the fire. Why fish from two sources? Perhaps the answer is in the law of the division of labor. God will do His part to assist us in serving Him, but we must properly use our talents in service. All too often we believe that Jesus should just do everything for us – we do not think that we need to do our part when we serve Him. We need to be serving Christ with faith be active. Let us be reminded of what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 6:1 – And working together with Him. Paul is saying what Jesus showed us – it is about serving with Christ. It is not about serving and doing what we want and not about having Christ serve us but it is all about doing it together. Christ could do it all but His desire is to have us involved! Do you have the faith to step out and allow Christ to work with you?

Then we need to consider this when we have an encounter with Christ, we must honestly express our love to Christ. Jesus knew Peter’s heart when He asked Peter, "Do you love me?" The Lord when saying this used the deepest word for love, a word that meant sacrificial love. The Lord wanted to see how honest Peter would answer because the Lord knows the truth and knows how we really think and feel. To the surprise of many, when Peter answered, he did so with a shallow word and not a word of his deep love. In essence the Greek gives the idea that Peter responded to Jesus by saying something like: "I like you a lot." There are many of us who like to tell people how devoted we are to Christ but I see it as we must be like Peter because Peter’s response was honest. Just think, Jesus is asking Him if he loved and three times Peter responded, "I like you a lot." While we might wish that Peter would have used the deeper word, at least we know he was honest. How honest are you with Jesus? How honest are with others about your love for Christ. Sadly, many will not be honest about their feelings. I challenge you to honestly look at how you really feel about Christ. What is the truth? What is your relationship really like with Him?

Here is the point of an encounter with Christ and restoration: we can only be restored to service after we honestly submit to Jesus Christ. The Lord asked Peter, "Do you love Me?" When Christ got the right answer, He told Peter, "Feed my lambs." I see and believe this was Peter’s restoration to his former place of leading the disciples and then to go on and lead the church. He had his area of failure or backsliding but honestly submitted himself to Christ and that is what leads Peter to be able to be to be completely restored, His repentance and turning himself over to be used by Christ. Because of his restoration, Peter was able to preach the powerful sermon on the day of Pentecost. God restored him after his backsliding.

What do you think about this interaction between the two?  How do you think Peter felt after this interaction?

God Encounters / Excitement for Christ

In the last couple of  post we have been looking at the encounter between Jesus and Peter after Peter denied Jesus three times.  We talked about his intentions were not to deny Christ but he did anyway and how we are like this – we think others should be impressed with our intentions.  We looked at being sorry and about what it really means to backslid.  We are going to continue today by looking at Christ calling us and questioning us and we are gaining all this by looking at John 21 – click here to read it.

Sometimes we don’t realize when Christ is calling to us. The disciples had been fishing all night and caught nothing. In the morning Christ came to them and they saw him on the shore, but they didn’t recognize Him. This was not the first post resurrection appearance of Christ, they should have recognized Him; but they didn’t. Perhaps it was their sin, or their pre-occupation with their nets, or some other reason that they did not recognize Him. Perhaps we have missed Christ when He has called to us because we were preoccupied. What is it that you are preoccupied with? Maybe you are pre-occupied with good things but they are not the best thing. Are you preoccupied with family, or church, or sports, or something else that is a good thing? When we are preoccupied with these sorts of things and not Christ we miss what Christ is trying to say to us. The best thing to be is preoccupied with is Christ and when you are preoccupied with Him you will not miss what he is saying to you. What kind of things does Christ say or ask?

When we encounter Christ, He asks questions to get us thinking about failure and success. When Christ appeared on the shore, He asked, "Have you caught anything?" It was a question to reveal that the disciples efforts did not work when they were done apart from Christ. Then after breakfast, Christ asked Peter, "Do you love me?" Again, it was a question that made him think about his failure. We have to think about our backslidden condition before we will do anything about it. Let me ask you – have you ever had Christ ask you questions? Do you think about your failures? Are you one who then thinks about your failures and then changes them or do you just keep repeating them? What is it you need to change to be successful in Christ? If you have something you are doing that is sinful and you know the right thing to do – when you do not do the right thing – you are sinning according to James 4:17! Let us not live in sin but let us do the right things!

Something else to consider: We do impetuous things when encountering Christ. Think about the story and how impetuous Peter was when he saw Jesus. When Peter realized that Jesus was standing on the shore, Peter first put on his tunic, while most would remove heavy garments when attempting to swim a long distance. Then he dove into the water to swim to shore. He probably didn’t think about what he was doing, if anything, he was not thinking about his actions. He just automatically did what was natural. It was an impetuous response of love and excitement. When was the last time that you simply got excited about what Christ was doing or about Christ showing up were you were? If we cannot be excited about Christ – what can we be excited about?

What happens when we get excited about Christ and the encounter we have with Him? We do extraordinary things when we are excited about Christ. As we just saw Peter swam to the shore wearing his long tunic, then when the boat reached shore, Peter ran to pull the net filled with fishes to shore. John 21:11 tells us Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not torn. This was an amazing feat, because previously seven men in the boat had a hard time hauling it in because of the great number of fish! Some say this was a miracle, others think it was simply Peter being so excited that he pulled the net to shore with a sudden burst of energy. Again, I ask you when was the last time you got excited about what Christ was doing. When was the last time you got so excited about what Christ was doing that you got involved in what He was doing? When was the last time you got so excited that you encouraged others rather than discouraged them? When was the last time you were like Peter and so full of excitement that the Lord was able to do something amazing through you?

What are the things that really get you excited when it comes to Christ?

God Encounter / Backslid

In the last post we started looking at the encounter between Jesus and Peter after Peter denied Jesus three times.  We talked about his intentions were not to deny Christ but he did anyway and how we are like this – we think others should be impressed with our intentions.  We looked at John 21 – click here to read it.

We will continue along those lines of intentions because  there is something in this encounter and that is;  being sorry does not automatically restore us to service. Here is what we know, Peter was sorry for denying Christ after he did it. Obviously, God forgives us after we confess our sin and ask for cleansing. But that does not necessarily restore us to our previous place of service. We think many times that all we have to do is say we are sorry and then move right back where we were but that is not the case. Sometimes trust has to be rebuilt in order for service to be restored. Just because you say you are sorry does not mean that someone will allow you to have their complete trust – sometimes you have to earn the trust back that is broken. When we say hurtful things to people – they may forgive and may try to forget what you have said but it is hard. To get that trust you have to take time and consistently do the right things, the right way. You need to practice obedience to Christ to earn the trust back.

When people do not get returned to service right away they make the mistake out of anger or ignorance or out of heart that is not in the right place and return to their old ways in backsliding. I used the term backsliding a few times so let me just take a moment and define backsliding for you – it means turning back to the old and sinful ways. A backslider is a saved person who falls into sin. A lost sinner cannot be a backslider. You have to go somewhere before you can slide back. But one, who is truly born again, a child of God who falls into sin, is a backslider. It may be outrageous and gross sin known to everyone or it may be merely coldness of heart, a lukewarm heart instead of the burning fire of love for God that one has had in the past. But when a Christian loses any of his joy, or loses part of his sweet fellowship with God, or falls into sin, then they are a backslider. Peter by his denial of Christ backslid into his old way of thinking and then went back to fishing but Jesus as we have see was not done with him. I am reminded of what of Hosea 14:4 which says in the New King James Version; "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for my anger has turned away from him". God will heal your backsliding. If you have backslid – you have a gross sin, or grown cold toward God, or you have become lukewarm – God can and will heal it but as always you must come to Him and repent of it.

Peter backslid, he lied to people around the fire the night Jesus was being tried and denied Christ which is part of the way he used to be – even though he thought he was stronger than that and even though his intentions earlier were not to do it. After this backsliding and Jesus resurrection, Peter decided that he wanted to get away from ministry and go back to what he knew. Peter told the other disciples in John 21:3 "I am going fishing" and being a leader others followed. He went back to fishing because that is one thing that he could do and one thing he felt comfortable doing. However, as I see it, God in His sovereignty moved upon the waters and as John put it "that night they caught nothing". Peter went right back to what he knew and was comfortable doing and that was fishing but the Lord had other plans for him as well as the other disciples.

In his mind Peter, was going to be going right back to where he was before he ever met the Lord which was fishing but Jesus was calling on Peter to go back and do something for Him. The call was to return to the Lord because He is calling all of us to come to Him and look to Him and trust Him! Have you slid away from God? As I have said before – If there has been a time that you were closer to God than you are right now – God did not move! Is it time for you to get back to doing what you know you are to do. You are not to go back to the old ways but to move forward in Christ, of which He is calling you too. Christ calling you to be doing something and it is not the comfortable thing that he wants you to do but the right thing.

Have you ever found yourself in a place where you had backslid?  What did you do about it?

God Encounters / Good Intentions?

We are going to continue with the series of posts on God Encounters.  This week we are going to look Peter and how Jesus restored him after his denial and/or backsliding.  The first thing to see and remember is the Jesus predicts Peter’s denial of Him in John 13:36-38 which says: Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?” Jesus answered, “Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.” Peter said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You.” Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.

Then we see Jesus prediction coming true. John 18:15-18, 25-27 – Simon Peter was following Jesus, and so was another disciple. Now that disciple was known to the high priest, and entered with Jesus into the court of the high priest, but Peter was standing at the door outside. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the doorkeeper, and brought Peter in. Then the slave-girl who kept the door said to Peter, “ You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” Now the slaves and the officers were standing there, having made a charcoal fire, for it was cold and they were warming themselves; and Peter was also with them, standing and warming himself. Verse 25 - Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You are not also one of His disciples, are you?” He denied it, and said, “I am not.” One of the slaves of the high priest, being a relative of the one whose ear Peter cut off, said, “Did I not see you in the garden with Him?” Peter then denied it again, and immediately a rooster crowed.

Imagine how Peter must feel having denied the Lord three times and then Christ dying and raising again and he would still have these guilty feelings even though he is excited about what Christ raising meant. I imagine as passionate of a guy as Peter was – the guilt was probably eating him up inside and so he thought he should just go back to fishing and leave the ministering behind. The Lord though had other plans for Peter and came and approached Peter – look at John 21:4-8, 15-17: But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. So Jesus said to them, “Children, you do not have any fish, do you?” They answered Him, “No.” And He said to them, “Cast the net on the right-hand side of the boat and you will find a catch.” So they cast, and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.” So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer garment on (for he was stripped for work), and threw himself into the sea. But the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from the land, but about one hundred yards away, dragging the net full of fish.   Verse 15 – So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him,“Tend My lambs.” ¹⁶ He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” ¹⁷ He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “ Tend My sheep.”

What we see here in this is that Peter was restored to his previous place of leadership after backsliding. He went on and preached the sermon on Pentecost that became foundational to building the church. Peter was the leader of ministry to the Jews, while Paul was leader of ministry to the Gentiles. Peter had a profitable life of ministry after he denied Christ and was restored. Tradition says he died in Rome sometime between 64-66 AD Peter’s reported last words to his wife, "Remember the Lord," are certainly consistent with his message to Christians in difficult times which we read in 1 and 2 Peter. So then the question for us is this: What can we learn from this encounter that Peter has where Jesus restores him to ministry after he denied Christ and backslid?

First thing is before a God Encounter we need to realize that: Good intentions are not enough to keep us faithful to Christ. Peter told the Lord that he would never deny Him. He even boasted in the passage, “Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You. Yet human strength alone was not enough, Peter denied the Lord three times. How often do we do the same thing? We think everyone should just be impressed that we did something with good intentions. We think our good intentions will keep us faithful to Christ. We believe that be we are strong people that we can stand because of good intentions. We have all heard the old saying – the road to hell is paved with good intentions. We need to be reminded of 1 Corinthians 10:12 which says, So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! Our good intentions will never hold us up – only Christ will. Your good intentions will get you nowhere, just like they got Peter nowhere, so stop trying to convince yourself and others about how good your intentions are and do things God’s way. It is always God’s way over good intentions – ALWAYS.

Have you ever struggled with thinking good intentions were what you needed?  Have you ever had someone who thought you should be impressed with their good intentions?  How did you handle it?

God Encounters / Leaving Water Pots

The last few  posts we have been dealing with Jesus and His encounter with the woman at the well.  What we saw was that Jesus went through Samaria because He had a divine appointment with the woman at the well.  Jesus was reaching out to this woman who was an outcast in a whole region of outcast.  Jesus was willing to defile himself so that he could reach out to this woman.  Jesus encountered her with the truth in live and then shared with her that she needed to worship in spirit and in truth.  If you do not know the story click here and read it.

We ended with Jesus revealing to the woman that He was the Messiah and the woman at this point comes to realize that Jesus is the Messiah. What happens then is we see that when God encounters happen, things that were important then seem insignificant. She was so excited when she realizes who Jesus was that she left the water pot! She was so excited that she went and began telling others about Christ! What happened to her? She got transformed and when that happened she got a whole new perspective on life. All the sudden getting water was the last thing on the list when there were lots of other people who needed to hear what Christ had to say and be transformed by Him. Let me ask you – are the things that you think are important in life – are they really important? The things that you argue and fuss and fight over – the things that frustrate you and make you mad – are they really important things or are they water pots that need to be left so that you can tell others about Jesus? Please leave the water pots behind and tell others about Him!

That then leads to this: God encounters cause people to have to share who Jesus is and what he does for them . Christ encountered her and she could not contain herself. She left the water pots and told the others to come and see! It was not a choice for her – I see that she was so excited about Christ that it just poured out of her. She wanted others to know the joy and the excitement of finding Christ! Have you been a believer in Jesus so long that you lost the excitement and the joy? Has it become more about you getting water for yourself than is about bring others and telling others about the living water? Have you lost the joy of seeing others come to Christ and your focus is now on insignificant things? Have you found the living water and have you allowed Him to change you from the inside out? I pray that you have!

What we see is this woman is a real woman. She cares enough about others at this point that she is willing to go and tell them about Jesus. She cares enough about others that she trying to get everyone she can to come with her to meet Jesus! What we see is that the Bible tells us that many believed because of her testimony – her changed life and her telling them about Christ. After that they believed not because of her but because they then met Jesus face to face! What we see in all of this is: when God encounters one person it can lead to many having God encounters and having their lives transformed. When was the last time you saw someone transformed by the power Christ? When was the last time you told anyone about Jesus and His powerful and amazing love? It is our job to be like this woman – the woman at the well.

What are your thoughts on this?  Do you have any water pots that need left behind?  Are you excited about the things of Christ?

God Encounters / True Worship

The last  post we began to  will deal with Jesus and His encounter with the woman at the well.  What we saw was that Jesus went through Samaria because He had a divine appointment with the woman at the well.  Jesus was reaching out to this woman who was an outcast in a whole region of outcast.  Jesus was willing to defile himself so that he could reach out to this woman.  If you do not know the story click here and read it.

Let me pick up from the last post and ask: why was this woman considered an outcast among outcasts? Why would she have to come in the heat of the day to get water? It comes down to her sin which Jesus addresses – she has had five husbands and is now living with a man who is not her husband. What we understand from this is she has been engaged in a series of illicit relationships, and she was not married to her current lover. Sexual relations outside of marriage are forbidden in both Testaments and by the way this has not changed and Jesus addresses this issue with this woman.

In Jesus addressing this we see that in God encounters, God tells the truth in love (17–18). What happens when Jesus tells her the truth in love? She does not react defensively and it is very significant that she does not react defensively to Jesus’ knowledge of her broken relationships. After Jesus confronts these relationships she then calls Jesus a prophet which affirms Jesus. What the woman does is focuses on who Jesus is because of what He says to her and does not get defensive. So her attention remains on Jesus’ person even though her sinful life is being confronted by Jesus. This focus on Jesus is a key characteristic of true faith. When you are confronted about your sin – how do you react? Do you immediately point out the sin of the other person or look to Jesus? She looked to Jesus and realized her sinfulness.

I believe this all happened because Jesus encountered her with the truth in a loving way and he did not judge her because of her past – he just pointed it out in a loving way that what she was engaged in was wrong. Do you treat people with love? Do you tell people the truth in love? Consider for a moment this quote by Warren Wiersbe – “Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy.” Are you brutal with people? Are practicing hypocrisy? Let us all tell the truth but do it in love as we are told in to Ephesians 4:15.

Something else that we see in this story with this woman is that God encounters bring about true worship (23). First thing we need to realize is that in verse 20 the woman is asking where should she worship, in Jerusalem which is where the Jews worship or on Mount Gerizim which is where the Samaritans made their offerings. Jesus reveals to the woman that where a person worships is unimportant. It is not limited to a place but we should worship in spirit and in truth. Jesus is letting her know that the worship of the Father is not confined to a place but is an action of heart. Jesus also is letting her know that all worship must be in keeping with the truth of God’s revealed Word. Jesus tells her and tells us that God is spirit and those who worship him must worship Him in spirit and truth. You cannot worship in any other way.

To worship in spirit means you are concerned with the spiritual realities, not outward sacrifices, cleansings and how beautiful things look or what is done around you but what is happening inside. It is not about what is on the outside but what is going on in the inside – the Pharisees looked great on the outside but were filthy on the inside according to Jesus. Are you a Pharisee when it comes to worship? To worship in truth means you worship according to the whole council of God’s word, especially in light of the New Testament revelation of Jesus. We worship in the truth of what Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross. Let me ask you – are you worshipping in the spirit and in truth that God says to or are you worshiping what you want to think is right? We must worship the way God says not what our preferences are!

What do you believe that it means to worship in spirit and in truth?  How are you at telling the truth in love?

God Encounters / Divine Appointment

This set of post on God Encounters will deal with Jesus and His encounter with the woman at the well.  It is a powerful story and to be honest – this time through it God showed me things that I had not noticed in the past.   Jesus encountered this woman and her life changed but it was much more than that!If you do not know the story click here and read it.

Now that you have read it let me ask you this – did you notice that verse 4 says that Jesus had to pass through Samaria? There were other ways around but John writes that Jesus had to go this way – why? It is because God encounters are many times divine appointments and Jesus will always keep divine appointments. Why must Jesus go through Samaria? Because there were people there who needed to hear Him.

Do believe in divine appointments? Do you seek divine appointments? God, I believe has divine appointments set up for each of us to talk with people on His behalf. Here is the problem we ignore them, do not keep in close enough proximity to Christ to know realize what they are or we shun or avoid people that God brings to us. That is the same mentality that the Jews had with the Samaritans and it is wrong – be looking for divine appoints!

To understand this even more you need to understand that Samaria was a hated place. Although the road through Samaria was the shortest route to Galilee, devout Jews avoided it. They avoided it because there was a deep distrust and dislike between Jews and Samaritans. Why was that? When the southern kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Babylonians, they took almost everyone captive, exiling them to the Babylonian Empire – which we talked about last week with Ezekiel. All they left behind were the lowest classes of people, because they did not want "those type" of people in Babylonia. Those that were left behind intermarried with other people who slowly came into the region, and the Samaritans emerged as an ethnic and religious group. And because the Samaritans had a historical and ethnic connection to the people of Israel, their faith was a combination of law and ritual from the Law of Moses, and various superstitions from other religions because of who they married. Most Jews in Jesus’ time despised the Samaritans, even more than Gentiles. Why, because as they saw it, they were, religiously speaking and ethnically speaking, "half-breeds" who had an eclectic, mongrel in faith. They were looked down upon, hated, and avoided at all cost.

What we see here is that Jesus breaks through that thought and we see is that God encounters those that society has discarded (6-7). For this woman it is even worse than just being a Samaritan which was bad because as we said they are considered half breeds and hated. To understand why it is worse for her you have to first ask why would she be getting water at the noon hour when all the other women would be getting their water early in the day when it was cooler? It was because she was an outcast among the outcasts! She was a discarded person among a society of people who were considered outcasts. Who are those that you see as outcasts? Who are those that you treat as outcasts? Is that the right and godly way to be? Jesus was one who was all inclusive – he made contact with people and encountered people who we would certainly push to the side and push away. I believe it breaks the heart of God when we treat others as outcasts. When we realize we have done it – we must go and make things right.

That leads to this: Jesus encounters those we think are unlovely and that others do not want to encounter and Jesus does it at risk of defiling Himself (6-9). Think about this, for Jesus to have dealings with this woman was for Him to risk ritual defilement. The ritual impurity of the person was thought to pass to whatever he or she had contact with, like spiritual germs. In other words they thought Samaritans to be in a continual state of uncleanness and for Jesus to even be around her, was in the eyes of some of the religious leaders, making him unclean.  Jesus is willing to go wherever you are to get you!  Are you willing to reach out and defile yourself?

Do you believe in divine appointments?  Have you ever reached out to those that society has discarded?

God Encounters/Something New

We have been talking about Ezekiel and the encounters he had with God.  We talked about how God called him to do some pretty crazy things  – read Ezekiel 1-4 if you want to get a picture of his calling and just a small taste of the crazy things he was called to do.  He was called to do these crazy things by God when he realized his dream of going home (he was in exile) was not going to happen.  God gave Ezekiel a fresh dream and a fresh vision of what he was to do and Ezekiel probably did not understand all that was going on in the vision but he moved forward in obedience and trust.  Ezekiel in this new vision learned that he had a new task ahead and was willing to take it on and trust God for the results.  That then leads us to see the last couple of things that we can learn from Ezekiel’s encounters with God.

God may give you a special message by an encounter with Him. Ezekiel was trained to be a priest, a special type of priest. Ezekiel appears to have trained to be a scribal priest or a teaching priest. There were many different ways for a priest to serve God, but Ezekiel was not going to fulfill any of them now. He encountered God and got a new message to deliver to God’s people. He was commissioned to be a prophet for God. Ezekiel had an on-going encounter with God, and out of these encounters, he received many messages from God that he wrote in his book. What is it that God wants you to do? Are you doing the task you are called to or are you just standing still doing nothing? We all need to be seeking God and the task he has for us!

One last thing here and that is this: when it seems as though our birth family and birthplace has predetermined our lot in life, an encounter with God can change everything. Most born into the tribe of Levi were predetermined to serve in some capacity in the Temple. A few Levites were called to the highest office which was ministering priests, and we read this in Hebrews 5:4 "No man takes this honor to himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron". Ezekiel encountered God one day and gave up his family’s ministry and professional preparation of being a priest.

Here is the thing, just because you think you are predetermined to do something does not mean that you are because God is a God of change. He is the God of doing a new thing as we are reminded of in Isaiah 43:19 which says: Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert. Are you ready for God to do something new in your life, a new direction, a new task?

Are you ready for God to do something new in your life?  Anything else you want to share about the encounters that Ezekiel had with God?

God Encounters /A New Task

We have been talking in the last couple of  post about Ezekiel and the encounters he had with God.  We talked about how God called him to do some pretty crazy things  – read Ezekiel 1-4 if you want to get a picture of his calling and just a small taste of the crazy things he was called to do.  He was called to do these crazy things by God when he realized his dream of going home (he was in exile) was not going to happen.  God gave Ezekiel a fresh dream and a fresh vision of what he was to do and Ezekiel probably did not understand all that was going on in the vision but he moved forward in obedience and trust.  That then leads us to see a few more things that we can learn from Ezekiel’s encounters with God.

Another thing I think Ezekiel learned  is an encounter with God is a private thing. God spoke to all of the Jews in Babylon through the letter from Jeremiah, but God encountered Ezekiel privately. There are some things in life that are done in public and other things in life that are done in small groups and then there are certain things that are always experienced alone. Ezekiel encountered God by himself. God will come to you and call you privately to do some things that others will not understand but you must seek His face during these times and then be sure to follow through.

You can seek the face of God with others but sometimes you must do it alone and that is really what an encounter with God is – it is when you seek His face. The exiles were told to seek God with a whole heart in Jeremiah 29:13: You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. Can you say that you are seeking God with a whole heart? Psalm 27:8 tells us this; When you said, “Seek My Face”, My heart said to you “Your face, Lord, I will seek”. Are you seeking the face of God? When you do – you will find Him and encounter Him powerfully and things will change! Dreams will come alive. Passions will arise. Direction will be given!

Why will things change? They will change because an encounter with God can give us new visions or direction for life. Ezekiel got a vision of God in his encounter with Him, and received a two-fold message. First, to warn Israel of her being defiant and second write the predictions about the new Temple of God that would be built in the future. Ezekiel led people to God so that God could do what He wanted to do through them. Ezekiel gave them God’s vision but first Ezekiel had to be in a position to receive the vision from God. Are you in a position emotionally and spiritually to receive a new vision or direction from God? We must have open hearts and attitudes towards God to receive the vision or direction from Him. Are you ready for it?

When you have this new vision then you need to know that an encounter with God may result in a new task in life. Ezekiel had prepared for the priesthood and at age thirty he was at the doorway of his life-long goal. But at the last minute Ezekiel encountered God who had him embark on a new ministry. He would become one of God’s Major Prophets; no longer would he be a priest. Out of his encounter with God came a new task. God has tasks for all of us.  For some God wants to change your task and for others He wants to renew the task he has already given you, but the real question is are you ready for it?

What is a new task that you think God could be leading you into?  What are the reasons you think that?

God Encounters / His Crazy Plan

We started talking in the last post about Ezekiel and the encounters he had with God.  We talked about how God called him to do some pretty crazy things  – read Ezekiel 1-4 if you want to get a picture of his calling and just a small taste of the crazy things he was called to do.  He was called to do these crazy things by God when he realized his dream of going home (he was in exile) was not going to happen.  God gave Ezekiel a fresh dream and a fresh vision of what he was to do. 

Now if you have read Ezekiel 1 you have will have seen a vision that was pretty crazy.  We can learn I be something from this.  He is what I think we can take away from this:  we do not and will not understand all that we see and experience in an encounter with God. Then to go with that just because we don’t understand everything about our encounter with God, doesn’t mean there is no interpretation to the events. Ezekiel saw many wild things in his visions from God. He saw a whirlwind, four angels, wings flapping, glowing clouds, a vast crystal atmosphere, and a wheel within a wheel. Scholars throughout the years have not agreed on what the various things mean.

In his encounter with God, Ezekiel probably understood very little but he did understand the most important thing. What is this most important thing? He understood that he was talking with God and he needed to be obedient to what God called him to do. Ezekiel did not understand all that was happening, but he did understand this – it is all God and Ezekiel’s job was to be obedient to what God was calling and asking him to do. The same is true for us – we might not understand all that happens when we encounter God in a mighty way but we need to understand that it all about God and us being obedient to Him. Ezekiel was called by God to do some pretty crazy things that I am sure he did not understand but regardless he pushed forward in obedience.

Here is the connection for each of us;  God might call us to do some pretty crazy things – things that do not make sense in worldly wisdom – but we need to follow through and be obedient to what God is asking because His ways are always right. God has a plan for you and you must trust and obey him to see them come to life – even when those things seem crazy to everyone else.  I am reminded of this:  Jeremiah 29:11 -  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

What is the craziest thing to date that God has called you do to this point in your life?