Encounters with God
2 Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV) But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
We all need an encounter with the Lord. It is what dramatically changed Saul to Paul. An encounter with the Lord in a small church in Illinois changed my life forever. Have you had an encounter with the Lord? How do you have an encounter with the Lord?
One of the most dramatic encounters is coming in contact with the presence of God or the anointing. In Acts 9, we see that Paul came directly in contact with the Lord. This encounter caused Saul to go from persecuting the church to being saved. The brilliance of the glory that day stopped Saul in his tracks and caused him to be transformed. The presence of God sent Saul in a different direction in his life; so much so that the Lord changed his name to Paul. Peter also had an encounter with God; on the Day of Pentecost, he was gloriously filled with the Holy Ghost, as tongues of fire sat on him and changed him into another man. Before this experience, he had denied Jesus three times; but after this glorious encounter, he stood up and preached and people were born again. He was now bold and no longer ashamed.
When you have an encounter with the Holy Spirit, you are changed. Second Corinthians 3:17-18 tells us that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty and that we are changed or transformed by the Spirit of the Living God. That word “changed” is metamorphoo. It is from this word we get metamorphosis; it is a creature going through a transformation to become something totally different. A caterpillar becomes a butterfly. A tadpole becomes a frog. When a human gets born again, they are totally changed; they become a new creation in Christ Jesus. For us to continue to change, we must continually have encounters with the Holy Spirit.
We must also have daily encounters with the Word of God. The Word of God is Jesus Himself. John 1 says that Jesus is the Word made flesh. First John 5 tells us that there were three in Heaven: The Father, the Word, and the Spirit. Jesus has always been the Word, and He always will be. You and I need a daily encounter with the Word of God. The Bible says in John 8:31-32 that if we continue in the Word, we will be His disciples, and we will be free indeed. We will have liberty! In James 1:25, it says we can look into the perfect law of liberty, which is the Word of God. God’s Word is called a mirror and it will reflect back to you who you really are. The Word of God will also transform your mind. The daily washing of the Word will cause you to think differently and, therefore, be different.
We need an encounter with the Word of God, the Spirit of God, and with the Lord on a regular basis. Set yourself to have a daily encounter!