What Does It Mean To Encounter God? Series

Encountering the Living God

Introduction

Good evening, friends. Even though it may be cold outside, there is a real warmth of the Spirit here tonight.

Tonight is Encounter Night, and our time together will be a little different from our usual evening services.

At the end of the service, you will have four options:

You may choose to remain here in quiet reflection, listening to the band as they play, taking the opportunity to encounter the Lord in stillness.

You may choose to come forward to the front row for prayer.

If you would like to chat and enjoy some refreshments, you may go to the back hall.

If you need to go home, that is perfectly fine as well.

But if you are here tonight, I believe it is because you desire to encounter the living God.

Each of us has a deep longing for a real, personal experience of God. And tonight, you have the opportunity to encounter the Lord in a way that transforms your life.

Tonight is not just about walking with God—it is about living for Him.

Tonight is about growing deeper in your relationship with the Lord, moving beyond just knowing about Him to truly knowing Him.

Tonight is about encountering a loving, holy, and powerful God on a personal level—not just singing about Him, not just speaking about Him, but experiencing Him.

A True Encounter with God

Think for a moment about someone you admire from a distance. Perhaps a famous politician, a cricket legend, a musician, or a TV chef. You might know a great deal about them, maybe even sing their praises. Perhaps you have even met them once and received an autograph. But do you truly know them? Do you know them as their family does?

An encounter with God is not meant to be a distant admiration or an emotional moment that fades away. A real encounter with God is transformational. It changes you from the inside out.

Isaiah had such an encounter, and it altered his life forever. Let’s look at his experience in Isaiah 6:1-8:

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

The Transforming Power of Encountering God

Its an amazing moment when Isaiah says : “I saw the Lord”. He was not dreaming, He didn’t have a nightmare or vision caused by eating cheese before going to bed the night before.

He was not making up a story nor was this his imagination running riot. Isaiah experienced a real encounter with the living God, and it changed him forever.

Where he was praying, like an earthquake, the doorposts and the thresholds shook.

When Isaiah saw the Lord, the place shook, the temple filled with smoke, and he became aware of his own sinfulness. He cried out, “Woe to me! I am ruined!” In the presence of a holy God, he recognised his need for cleansing. And in God’s mercy, he was purified and commissioned for His purpose.

Friends, a true encounter with God is not just about an emotional moment; it is about transformation. It is about moving from where you are to where God wants you to be.

Encountering God Should Change Us

I came to faith when I was 17 years old. Over the years, I have seen people have real encounters with God—and I have also seen some who were just pretending.

How do I know they were just pretenders? Because despite the tears, the prayers, the outward displays, or appeared to be slain in the Spirit, they walked away unchanged., and carried on living and acting the same way they did before.

When you truly encounter God, your life cannot remain the same. You are convicted, you are cleansed, and you are commissioned.