Word of Life Christian Center
  • Home
  • About Us
  • From Pastor's Heart
  • Ministries
    • Wednesday Night Study
    • Kid Zone
    • Mountain Movers Youth Group
    • Sunday Service
    • Life Christian University
  • TITHES & OFFERINGS
  • Service Hours
  • Contact Us

Encounters with God

11/10/2014

 
Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. His mother’s name was Jekoliah; she was from Jerusalem. He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. As long as he sought the Lord, God gave him success. The Ammonites brought tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread as far as the border of Egypt, because he had become very powerful. Uzziah had a well-trained army, ready to go out by divisions according to their numbers as mustered by Jeiel the secretary and Maaseiah the officer under the direction of Hananiah, one of the royal officials. The total number of family leaders over the fighting men was 2,600. Under their command was an army of 307,500 men trained for war, a powerful force to support the king against his enemies. Uzziah provided shields, spears, helmets, coats of armor, bows and slingstones for the entire army. In Jerusalem he made devices invented for use on the towers and on the corner defenses so that soldiers could shoot arrows and hurl large stones from the walls. His fame spread far and wide, for he was greatly helped until he became powerful.- 2 Chronicles 3,5,8,11-15
His fame spread far and wide, for he was greatly helped until he became powerful.
But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride  led to his downfall. He was unfaithful  to the Lord his God, and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. Azariah the priest with eighty other courageous priests of the Lord followed him in. They confronted King Uzziah and said, “It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. That is for the priests,  the descendants  of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful; and you will not be honored by the Lord God.”Uzziah, who had a censer in his hand ready to burn incense, became angry. While he was raging at the priests in their presence before the incense altar in the Lord’s temple, leprosy broke out on his forehead. -2 Chronicles 26: 16-19,21


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.  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!” -Isaiah 6: 1-8
Isaiah had an encounter with God that changed His life. 
That encounter with God had a direct effect on Israel.  When the presence of God came Isaiah’s first words were…

 "Woe to me!  I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips."

The presence of God shook the temple, filled it with smoke or cloud, and brought the fire of God to burn up the impurities of Isaiah’s words
That encounter propelled him into his ministry to Israel…


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!"

Facts Regarding An Encounter With God

Unscheduled by Man
 
The word encounter conveys the idea of an unforeseen meeting. 
When Isaiah went to the temple that day, he had no idea that something life-changing was about to happen.

The Presence of God Will Come “Suddenly”

Man can not schedule a suddenly of God.  We cannot manipulate this kind of experience, but we do have something to do with it.  We need to be hungry for Him and put ourselves in a position for Him to encounter us.

Still Happening Today

Bible accounts describe God having unexpected, life-changing interactions with people. Since the Lord never changes, He continues to deal with humanity in powerful, unanticipated ways. Our hunger for Him, our pursuit of Him, our faith in Him attracts Him

What Hinders An Encounter With The Lord?

Too Many Distractions

We need to position ourselves and hunger for Him. When He comes in a dramatic way it will produce in you an overwhelming awareness of His presence. When you encounter God there will be an awareness of His holiness.  When the Lord appeared to Isaiah, He was accompanied by angelic beings who covered their faces and feet in utter reverence for His absolute purity and perfection.

They cried out, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."

This glimpse into the spiritual realm overwhelmed Isaiah with an awareness of God’s glory and holiness.  Too often we attempt to bring Him down to our level, but an encounter with God opens our eyes to recognize His holiness and we elevate to His way of being.

Think about it. Every great leader in the Bible is someone who had a Life-Changing encounter with God!

The apostle Paul was transformed from a legalistic Pharisee into an anointed Apostle of Christ, why? An encounter with Jesus!  One God encounter changed timid Gideon into a warrior leader.  A burning bush encounter with God changed Moses from a directionless shepherd into a leader of millions.  Their vision, their faith, their authority, and their anointing all came from an encounter with the presence of God!

The Apostle John had a post-resurrection encounter with Jesus that gave us the book of Revelation:
After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this. At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. -Revelation 4: 1-2
This Is An Invitation!

The door is now open in Heaven. Jesus is the door. (John 10:9)
The door to Heaven has been open since Jesus reconciled us to the Father.
That’s an invitation to all of us!  Immediately, John was “in the Spirit”, going farther into an amazing God encounter.  Every Bible passage is an open door – an invitation – to your next encounter with God.

Jesus said,
 


"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."- Matthew 7: 7-8




Be Blessed,

Pastor Dave

Responding To The Presence Of God

11/3/2014

 

After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them,

"Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 

 If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it.'" 
 Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them.

 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" 
 They replied, "The Lord needs it."  

They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. 36 As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:

"Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!"
 "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!" (rebuke: censor them, forbid them)

"I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." - Luke 19:28-40

The Presence Of God Will Command A Response

There are two responses shown in this verse:

The Pharisees Response
The Disciples Response


The Pharisees response is to not acknowledge Him and to stop anyone who does acknowledge His presence. They said “rebuke your disciples”. A religious spirit opposes the passionate cry of heart felt worship.
 
The disciples joyfully shouted with a loud voice.
They made much to do about Jesus coming into Jerusalem. Jesus did not stop them and He still to this day inhabits the praises of His people.
 Mark 10:46-52

Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging.

When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"

Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." 
 So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you."  Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

"What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him.
 
 The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see."


2 Samuel 6:14-16; 20-23

14 David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the Lord with all his might, 15 while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

16 As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.


20 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!"

21 David said to Michal, "It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord's people Israel — I will celebrate before the Lord.

22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor."

23 And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.
The gospel has been watered down so much that it is normal for the church to go through the motions  and never have a manifestation of the Holy Spirit.

Confession:
Father, I Will Praise You With My Whole Heart, I Will Follow You With All My Strength, And All My Might And All That Is Within Me.


The disciples response is to erupt in praise and worship and cry out His Name and magnify His glory.

1. We must respond to the presence of God with praise and worship

2. We must respond to the word of God with verbal acceptance as well as accepting it into our spirit.

3. We must respond to the gifts of the Spirit when the gifts are in operation.

If you don’t respond because you are too embarrassed, or shy, you cut yourself off from your victory. Sometimes a word of knowledge is given and the Holy Spirit does not prompt us to have you come down front for prayer. That is because the person the word was for is receiving with their faith. Sometimes we ask you to come to the front so we can lay hands on you, this is because the Holy Spirit is going to manifest another gift like the working of miracles or gifts of healing. When the gifts are flowing, faith is flowing as well, learn to respond quickly to the Holy Spirit.


The greater the response the greater the manifestations of the Spirit.

    Author

    Pastor Dave White is Senior Pastor of WOLCC, founded in April of 1995. 

    "My passion is increasing.  It's overwhelming me.  I'm committed to the long haul.  We will see a mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God in this region."

    Archives

    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014

    Categories

    All
    Courage
    Presence Of God
    Revival
    Sermon Notes
    Vision

    RSS Feed

Word of Life Christian Center is Affiliated with Global Christian Ministry Forum
  • Home
  • About Us
  • From Pastor's Heart
  • Ministries
    • Wednesday Night Study
    • Kid Zone
    • Mountain Movers Youth Group
    • Sunday Service
    • Life Christian University
  • TITHES & OFFERINGS
  • Service Hours
  • Contact Us