Having An Encounter With God
An Encounter With God
Isaiah 6:1-5
November 25, 2007
I’d like to begin this morning by reading you this short story. You will see later on just how well it illustrates today’s message.
“Quilt of Holes
As I faced my Maker at the last judgment, I knelt before the Lord along with all the other souls.
Before each of us laid our lives like the squares of a quilt in many piles; an angel sat before each of us sewing our quilt
squares together into a tapestry that is our life.
But as my angel took each piece of cloth off the pile, I noticed how ragged and empty each of my squares was. They were filled with giant holes. Each square was labelled with a part of my life that had been difficult, the challenges and temptations I was faced with in every day life. I saw hardships that I endured, which were the largest holes of all.
I glanced around me. Nobody else had such squares. Other than a tiny hole here and there, the other tapestries were filled with rich color and the bright hues of worldly fortune. I gazed upon my own life and was disheartened.
My angel was sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together, threadbare and empty, like binding air.
Finally the time came when each life was to be displayed, held up to the light, the scrutiny of truth. The others rose; eachin turn, holding up their tapestries. So filled their lives had been. My angel looked upon me, and nodded for me to rise.
My gaze dropped to the ground in shame. I hadn't had all the earthly fortunes. I had love in my life, and laughter. But there had also been trials of illness, and wealth, and false accusations that took from me my world, as I knew it. I had to start over many times. I often struggled with the temptation to quit, only to somehow muster the strength to pick up and begin again. I spent many nights on my knees in prayer, asking for help and guidance in my life. I had often been held up to ridicule, which I endured painfully, each time offering it up to the Father in hopes that I would not melt within my skin beneath the judgemental gaze of those who unfairly judged me.
And now, I had to face the truth. My life was what it was, and I had to accept it for what it was.
I rose and slowly lifted the combined squares of my life to the light.
An awe-filled gasp filled the air. I gazed around at the others who stared at me with wide eyes.
Then, I looked upon the tapestry before me. Light flooded the many holes, creating an image, the face of Christ. Then our
Lord stood before me, with warmth and love in His eyes. He said, 'Every time you gave over your life to Me, it became My
life, My hardships, and My struggles.
Each point of light in your life is when you stepped aside and let Me shine through, until there was more of Me than there
was of you.'
May all our quilts be threadbare and worn, allowing Christ to shine through!
Most of those in the Scriptures who had an encounter with God were immediately and forever changed. When we are in the presence of God, He brings about radical change. We see this all through the Scriptures, but somehow we don’t understand that the God of the Scriptures is the One who is encountering us – right now – right here! Our primary purpose for coming into the house of God this morning ought to be to have an encounter with God. We should say that we are in the presence of God, right here – right now. Are you ready for an encounter with God?
The moment of God’s encounter with you is determined by God and not by you. It may be through a Scripture you read this morning. Suddenly the Spirit of God takes the Word of God, and like a two-edged sword, pierces the soul and spirit and joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of your heart. That’s what Hebrews 4:12 tells us. We should expect Scripture to do this. God intends for Scripture to change us by exposing right from wrong. Or. The encounter mat be more direct as it was with the prophet Isaiah.
It exposes you fully to God. When God encounters you, you will know it because He will stir every ounce of your being.
In our key Scripture passage for this morning, Isaiah chapter six, we see a remarkable encounter Isaiah had with God. Let’s read that right now. Please turn in your Bible to Isaiah chapter 6 and we’ll read verses 1 through 5: “In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory." And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." God knew exactly where Isaiah’s problem was, and so God matched the encounter with the need for radical change in Isaiah’s life. If we got into the presence of the holiness of God I would guess that a number of us would have to respond with Isaiah: "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips" (Isa. 6:5).
The presence and holiness of God always exposes what is keeping us from a deeper encounter with God. God’s immediate response with Isaiah was to deal with his lips. Something had to come from the altar of God and that is a life-transforming moment. Coals from the altar touched his lips, and an amazing thing happened. When his lips were cleansed, his ears were opened. God didn’t touch his ears; He touched his lips. That was what was keeping Isaiah from hearing. God had been speaking all along, but for the first time Isaiah heard God saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Because of the encounter and because of the radical change, there was a spontaneous response from Isaiah: "Here am I! Send me" (v. 8).
Could that encounter happen to you? Do you suppose God has someone He wants to send you to? Do you suppose that the unreached multitudes around the world have not been on the heart of God? Of course they have! He has been trying to find someone who will hear Him say, "Who will go?" Maybe today is God’s fullness of time for you. Maybe for weeks or months there has been a holy restlessness in your heart, and you are saying, "Surely God has more for my life than just attending services and religious activities. Surely there is something else." God would say, "There is and there always has been, but you have let the care of this world or religious activities get in the way of an intimate relationship with Me." Maybe this is God’s special moment for you? Maybe this is the time of your encounter!
The key is not Isaiah. The key is the God of Isaiah. The same God who encountered Isaiah is the same God who is here to encounter you. Are you ready? Are you anticipating a change in you that will give you an understanding of the heart of God? What is on God’s heart? We just had a change of government in Saskatchewan. Do you think Saskatchewan is on God’s heart? Of course it is! The whole world is on God’s heart. Do you think God wants us “Praying for a Change”, a change in Saskatchewan? My mind and my heart know, "Whatever we have been doing or have not been doing has brought our province to where it is." Our whole nation is in terrible shape morally. Our nation is going to “hell in a handbasket”, as the saying goes. Do you see the downhill slide into depravity? Why has God allowed this to happen? Could it be that people are not praying?
Ask yourself, "What kind of praying have I been doing that has made a difference in my nation? What kind of praying am I doing that has left my nation in the condition it is in, knowing that God has said that all heaven is moved in answer to prayer? One person whom God encounters can turn a nation around! Do you believe that? It happens in Scripture over and over again. Why then is our nation not being turned around if I am praying?" Why then, is the world not changing?
Some of you may receive the magazine called, "Voice of the Martyrs." I read an article sometime back about a young Chinese pastor who had been given a 3-year prison sentence and a large fine for printing a Christian book. I was appalled! That would never happen here!
I thought to myself, "How then should I pray for our fellow believers in China?" When I read about the Chinese pastor, I thought, "What kind of praying have I been doing?" The Lord brought me under an indictment about the quality of my praying. We don’t need quantity, as much as quality – an encounter with God. Are you ready for God to take you into a deeper relationship with Him as you pray? Are you ready for an encounter? Do you want to be the kind of person God could call on to pray because He knows the quality relationship you have with Him and that through your praying huge changes would take place in Saskatchewan and around the world? Think about your own personal walk with God and about your own personal prayer life. What kind of changes need to be made in your life so that God could work profoundly through you?
Look with me at some praying that was done by Moses and what was at stake. The God who invited Moses to stand in His presence and hear what was on the heart of God, literally broke Moses’ heart and set him in motion to stay in prayer before God for forty days and forty nights. What he had heard from God was so significant that he neither ate nor drank anything for forty days but was in agony of soul. Moses stood between the sinning people and God, and pled for them, even asking God to take his name out of the book of life but to spare theirs. According to the Deuteronomy 10:10, the prayer life of Moses changed the heart of God.
When was the last time you went to pray and God laid His heart over your heart and broke your heart? In Romans 8:26 Paul says one weakness we have is we do not know what to pray for as we ought. “And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;” What is God’s provision for our inability to know what to pray? Paul says that God has granted us the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit who knows the mind of God and the heart of God and knows the immediate activity of God, will guide you so you will know what you ought to pray. When was the last time you got on your knees to pray, and you had to cry out, "Lord, I don’t know what to pray as I ought! What should I pray for the new Premier or for my Prime Minister? Our nation is being shattered. How shall I pray?" And if God were to lay over your heart what you ought to pray, would you passionately pray consistently until you knew that God had heard and answered? Remember the parables about persistent prayer?
We are about to get the kind of province we are willing to pray it to be. And we will get the kind of province that results when we fail to pray. Your prayer life and mine and this church’s prayer life can and will determine the course of history. Our prayers certainly can turn the corner on many of the destructive forces that are so debilitating in our nation today – drugs, abortion, marriage breakups, promiscuity; these are some of the worst. But do not exclude the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life which 1 John 2:16 mentions. The world is a seductive place and can draw you away from God. As we go, so goes our nation.
Our nation is experiencing an incredible breakdown in family life, in ethics in high places and in other unprecedented ways that we never dreamed of but which are now commonplace. Where are the praying people? God intends that a nation become the product of the praying of His people. Right now, our nation is the result of careless and casual praying. Is it because God’s people no longer believe that when they pray, God can powerfully affect the nation?
Moses was one who knew God well. He knew that he could persist in his praying. He had learned what was on the mind and heart of God. Here is what Moses says in Deuteronomy 9:8: "You provoked the Lord to wrath…." God’s people, the ones whom God had called to Himself and had assigned to them such an intimate relationship to Himself that they would always know what was on His heart and mind, had a tendency to depart from Him. They no longer had intimacy with God. Do you know what happens when the people of God no longer have an intimate relationship with God? It provokes Him to anger, because God knows what is at stake eternally when His people do not passionately seek a relationship with Him. So Moses said, "…you provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry enough with you to have destroyed you."
But do not look at the Israelites. Look at the God of the Israelites. If you are a spiritual leader of any kind, and if you are a parent you are one, remember God’s people can provoke Him to anger where He would destroy us. Of all the times in history when this nation can be destroyed, it is now! Only the mighty hand of God will prevent it.
Many ask me about the end times. I’m not a student of the end times, but I am a student of the Scriptures and I do know that in Matthew 24 Jesus gives one evidence of the increasing nearness of the end times. He says there will come a time when there will be such tribulation that if God did not intervene, no flesh would survive. Then He adds that for the elect’s sake, for the sake of God’s people, He will not let it happen according to verses 21 and 22..
I’m very much aware that we live in an unusual time when there are terrorists who are willing to expend their life to take the lives of others. We have the potential of nuclear weapons, biological weapons, and chemical weapons, and from time to time we hear word of a pestilence so deadly that if it were ever released, we have no antidote for it, and it would be an endless chain of death. Do you realize we live in a generation when the potential of tribulation if unchecked, is so great that no one would survive? But there is a moment when God will intervene, and I’m grateful for that. But I’m saying, "Lord, in the meantime, what kind of relationship do You want me to have with You?"
God told Moses He was so angry with His people because of their sin that He was going to destroy all His people. If you were on the mount and God said that to you, what would you do? It would depend on your track record in your prayer life and how well you know God and how well you know God’s track record to stand between men and doom on their behalf. Remember the Deuteronomy 9 and 10 passages where Moses describes to God’s people that he went into the presence of God, and pled for forty days and forty nights, and he did it twice. And God who said that He was going to destroy every one of His people, as Moses prayed with persistence and with passion, heard and did not destroy His people.
When was the last time you felt it was significant to know what was on the heart of God? What’s on the heart of God for your children? What’s on the heart of God for this church? Could God call an end to one of His churches because they have sinned? He warned the church in Revelation 2, "You have left your first love." He was telling them that they no longer loved Him enough to gather together to pray. The deacons and elders didn’t pray, and the pastor didn’t pray, and the leaders didn’t gather anymore for a concerted time of prayer. So God told the church at Ephesus, "You have left your first love," and He told them that if they did not remember the height from which they had fallen, did not remember what used to be but was no more, and if they did not repent and return, He would remove their candlestick. They would be taken out of existence. He would not permit them to claim to be His child or His church and not be a people of prayer. Such was to be their encounter with God! An encounter I’m certain they did not relish
I have recently gone back to studying John 3:16. It is called the gospel in a nutshell. Let me read it to you now: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life”. I’ve had a huge sense from the heart of God that you cannot understand John 3:16 unless you understand the heart of God. And the heart of what I’ve been studying concerns one word in that verse, and that’s the word "perish." What does God know about the person that is going out into eternity for ever and ever without a saving relationship with Him through Jesus Christ? What does God know happens to a person who perishes? There are a number of pictures in the Scripture. Any one of them should drive us to the place of prayer. In Revelation 20:10, God says a person will go into outer darkness forever and forever, no possibility of changing. In He talks about fire and brimstone forever. In Luke 16:26, He talks about a great gulf that is fixed between heaven and hell no one can pass to it or from it.
Now go back and read John 3:16: "...God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Is God’s heart concerned about one that should perish? Second Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
How then should that motivate your prayer life? How then, knowing what God knows about perishing, should a church marshal itself with God so that none would perish? PRAY!!!
There are many believers who don’t know the Scriptures. They don’t understand the ways of God. So they ask questions. One question I had answered for myself years ago came from a sermon by E. V. Hill entitled, “Win em or Feed em?” It was given at the time of the Ethiopian famine and relief was pouring in for that cause. E.V. Hill’s message was based on Matthew 6:33. His question to us was which do we do first? Save their bodies or save their souls? That message helped us to understand God’s priorities. Matthew 6:33 says we are to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and watch God add everything else? I heard it and I was impacted by it impacted by it. But if I wasn’t in a church to hear it, or in my Bible to read it, I wouldn’t have grown in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. There would have been no encounter with God. Without the many encounters I had with God through His Word, I wouldn’t be here today, faithfully shepherding God’s people. God encountered me through Scripture and He will do the same for you! God will raise you up to be a faithful priest in your home, so you can affect those in your family whom God has asked you to serve.
1 Samuel 2:35 reads like this, God speaking: "...I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in My heart and in My mind. I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before My anointed forever." In this verse God is saying He is going to raise up for Himself someone who will be faithful before Him, to know what is on His mind and heart and then immediately to do it.
Let me ask you, has He raised you up? If not, why not? Or is God presently raising you up? Do you sense that God has begun to pursue you for a level of praying that you have never known, and in that new relationship to Him He is going to lay over your heart what it means to have His mind and His heart? I am convinced that nobody could have that heartfelt relationship to God and not pray for change. Moses did. When Moses knew what was on the heart of God, he immediately went into intense intercession. When you know what is on the heart of God for your children and grandchildren, you too will be drawn to pray for them. And, just as you pray for them, you will pray for others. And as you pray for others in your family or community, you will be drawn to pray for Canada’s homes and government. 1 Timothy 2:1-2 says: “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.”
Billy Graham says, "The greatest untouched resource in America today is prayer." The situation in Canada is not any different. Let me say it again, whatever we have been doing or failing to do has brought the nation to where it is. There’s got to be praying for a change in that. Somehow God has to find somebody somewhere who believes Him when He speaks through His Word and asks us to pray.
That is what God is looking for and that is what our nation desperately needs. God’s people are the only ones who can fill that role. The politicians are not going to fill that role. God’s people have the divine opportunity to sense when God is moving in their heart and drawing them to a deeper relationship with because He wants them to know and do what is on His mind and His heart. Are you ready for God to do that with you? Did you hear what God said in His Word today, what He is looking for, and what He will initiate as you encounter Him? Do you sense any of that being laid over your heart? Are you willing to come before God and say, "I want You to know my life is totally and wholly available to You"? You can trust God to put His heart over your heart and draw you into praying with passion for your home, your community, your province, your nation.
Let God use your life to express His powerful presence in the midst of our nation. I’m watching God do that in my life. I’m finding that He’s ruling my life in directions which I would never have chosen on my own. I’m watching Him lay over my heart His heart in a way that I’ve never known before, and I’m sharing that with my children, and I’m praying that my children experience the moment when God lays over their heart what’s on His heart. Can you say that’s how you are guiding your children or your grandchildren? Are you wanting them to be simply good Christians and attend church and have a good job, and you’d be happy with them? Where is your heart for the will of God for your children?
Have you set in motion a relationship to God that is so attractive to your children that they wouldn’t want to do anything other than to serve God with all their heart? What’s happening in the next generation that is following your example? I have to watch to see what is coming up behind me. Is there any intensity for God in those who watch your life? If not, why not?
Prayer is not for you to have the opportunity to tell God what you want Him to do. Prayer is to be in the presence of God where He graciously tells you what is on His heart and what’s on His mind. And that encounter so radically changes you that everything about your life changes – the way you live, the way you talk, the way you plan, the way you invest your time, your resources. Everything!
Do you think your nation needs a radical change? Do you believe that it needs a mighty touch of God through somebody knows what’s on God’s heart and has a passion to pray until God responds? Little rote prayers will not do it. Passionate, persistent, prolonged prayer will.
In Luke 18 Jesus said that we ought always to pray and never to quit. He gives the illustration of the woman who came to the judge and persisted until he granted her request and then He said that your heavenly Father hears those who cry out to Him day and night. Then comes one of the most pathetic statements in all the Bible as He ends the parable in verse 8:"…will He really find faith on the earth?"
If God were to expose your hearts this morning, will He find one who knows Him and believes Him and has already made a commitment to Him? Has that set in an incredible burden to pray to be involved with whatever God is about to do in Cut Knife, in Saskatchewan, in Canada?. Or would you have to say, "I am a child of God but ‘I am not sincerely involved in prayer for my community or country."
All the way through the Bible, when God is about to do something, He looks for someone who will come before Him in prayer so He can lay His heart over theirs in prayer. Will you in this critical hour that one? You may not know what it may involve, but you do know one thing, the Spirit of God is saying to you, "Do not let this moment go by." God is seeking your life. He is pursuing you, and He wants to instruct you and teach you how to pray so that your life will be known as one through whom God made a difference The apostle Paul stated it this way in 2 Corinthians 5:9-10: "We make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. "
What is the motivation or lack of motivation in your life to be a person of prayer through whom God will change the course of your family or your church or your city or state or nation? I am convinced that God wants to turn the corner in this nation. Would agree? Would you help Him? I cannot make that decision for you. God waits to see what you do next. Once you know the truth of God, what you do next is what you believe about God. I have never had a time in my life when God has been dealing with me so radically and so thoroughly as now, and I weep before the Lord lest I not come up to the level of what He is looking for. I yield myself again and again to Him. Will you do the same?