Live like you mean it

Live like you mean it

Tonight the Lord spoke to me in a manner as clearly as any He has ever spoken before, and His words are ringing in my ears, they have caused my heart to pound, and joy to overflow within my spirit, He is releasing His power! These are His words to me this day; “gather no more in my name unless you gather to encounter Me for when you do no man shall remain the same.” He has convicted me in my spirit that I have become complacent, willing to accept the status quo, willing to do Church, willing to accept the woes and challenges of the day with no desire, will, or energy to do anything more or less. He has convicted me of my slothfulness, my willingness to follow men, their examples, their teachings, and their traditions. There are no traditions with God: when man encounters God man is changed and God is glorified. If man professes to meet God and is not changed has man truly had an encounter with God? I am speaking of the God who created the universe, the God who hung the moons and the stars, the God who set the earth on its axis, the God who made man in His image, if we have met Him how does anyone know? In John 3:3 -12 Jesus has a conversation with Nicodemus in which He makes it very clear that a man must be born again of the water and the spirit in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The very implication of this statement is that one must be become as new , as fresh, as innocent, and as unadulterated as a newborn baby. No guilt, no shame, no past, no plans, nothing that allows us to be dependent upon anything but the one who birthed us. It means that we must now become as dependent on the Lord as a baby is to his parent. When we truly encounter God we must be transformed to one who recognizes that our God is everything and without Him we will die!
Here are some examples of men who have had an encounter with God: In Exodus 34:29-32 Moses encountered God on Mt Sinai we read that his face was glowing white, Moses had been purified by the power and holiness of God! In first Peter 1:16 we are told to ”Be holy for I am holy” (Lev. 11:44, Lev. 19:2, Lev. 20:7), transformed by the encounter with God, purified by the blood of the lamb, and empowered by the Spirit of He who now dwells in us. We are to separate ourselves from the unholy things of this world we are to be transformed, not conformed. We have accepted far too much the conformation of Christianity, we have allowed our faith to be acceptable to the world, when in fact our faith should confuse the world, it should make little or no sense to those who are captured by the prince of the earth and the snares he has crafted. When we become a people who have truly encountered God we will no longer be willing to walk in the path of the unrighteous, but will rather seek that righteousness with fervor and a desire to satisfy our hunger for more of our God! Noah had an encounter with God and did the unthinkable; he built an ark in a land where it had never rained. Abraham had an encounter with God and was willing to sacrifice his firstborn son, a child he loved, all out of simple obedience. Moses encounter with God caused him to take on the most powerful nation on the earth and lead God’s people out of captivity. David a thirteen-year-old boy had an encounter with God and slew a giant with a sling and a stone. Elijah had an encounter with God and took on 450 prophets of Baal and watched as God destroyed them all. Daniel encountered God and slept with lions while his enemies sought to destroy him. Peter had an encounter with God and started the greatest revival of all time. Saul had an encounter with God and went from persecuting Christians to leading and teaching them to spread the good news of Jesus. Stephen had an encounter with God and preached the gospel as he was being stoned to death. Ananias and Sapphires had an encounter with God and died along with their lies. The woman at the well had an encounter with God and led the entire community to Christ; Lazarus had an encounter with God and was removed from the hands of hell where he had been for three days. The disciples had an encounter with God and had power over the sickness, evil spirits, and so much more! What is the evidence of your encounter with God, and for that matter mine? We must not just be or speak as people who had had that encounter with God, no we must act and live like people who because of that encounter need not speak of it! Why you ask? Because it should be more than evident in our actions, by our appearance, by our very nature, we should be a reflection of the God we have encountered, the God whose spirit dwells within us!
How you ask, how do we become people transformed by the power? We surrender, we surrender our fears, our hopes, our dreams, our beliefs, our traditions, our ideals, our pride, our prejudice, and we walk in humility we walk in the Spirit! There is no pill one can eat, no drink one can drink, no book one can read (say the Bible), no teaching we can hear, there can only be a complete and utter surrender to the will of Him who gave us that very will. We cannot be embarrassed by it, we should not be ashamed of it, and we must not be in control, for if we are the only result will be that which a man of flesh can produce, not that which the spirit of God will create. Ask yourself these questions and see where you fall: Are you willing to be wrong? Are you willing to bypass the knowledge of learning and theology, or are you bound as the Pharisees were to the law? Are you willing to say God can do whatever He wants whenever He desires to, or are you still saying God would never do that? I am not saying knowledge is useless or unimportant, no I am simply saying “We must have an encounter with God and that encounter must have a transforming effect on who we are!” When we encounter God we will become invincible, we will be dangerous to the world, we will be driven by the joy, empowered by the Spirit, and impassioned by His love, we will be ridiculed, harassed, outcast, and maybe even persecuted, and we can count it all joy (James 1), for His names sake. I implore you today, stop looking to others for the answers, stop following the crowd, stop walking in false humility, and stop trying to make yourself into something other than what God wants, start living like those who have encountered God and lived to tell about it or died because of it! And by the way if you are in fellowship with people who hinder you from encountering God Get Out! You will be much happier and who knows what God may do through you?

Pastor Gene Burroughs
New Beginnings Shasta Lake
Formerly Calvary Chapel Shasta Lake