- What is it like to have an encounter with God?
- Is it a supernatural experience?
- Is it spectacular, like the encounters we can read about in the Bible?
- Is it life changing?
- Can it happen multiple times?
- Can it happen to anybody? Can anybody have an encounter with God?
- Can an atheist (e.g. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris) have an encounter with God?
- Are there conditions to have an encounter with God?
I'd like to read your stories.
What is it like to encounter God?
Clarifying. Very, very clarifying. Encountering God, I see my own sinfulness much more clearly. Encountering God, I see my weakness and ignorance much more clearly. Encountering God, I see the eternal nature and purpose of my life much more clearly.
God is holy - thrice holy, in fact, as the cherubim before His throne declare (
Revelation 4:8). His throne is holy; His angels are holy; His words are holy; His arm is holy; His mount is holy, and so on. We don't read in Scripture parallel descriptions of God being thrice loving, or thrice gentle, or thrice humble. His throne is never called the "throne of love"; His angels are never called the "angels of gentleness"; His mount is never called the "mount of humility." No, God is "holy, holy, holy" and when a person actually, truly encounters Him directly, the result is the same:
Genesis 17:1-3
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless,
2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.”
3 Then Abram fell on his face...
Joshua 5:13-15
13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?”
14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?”
15 And the commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
Exodus 3:1-6
1 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
2 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.
3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.”
4 When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”
5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”
6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Job 42:1-6
1 Then Job answered the LORD and said:
2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
4 ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’
5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;
6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
Revelation 1:12-17
12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands;
13 and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash.
14 His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.
15 His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.
16 In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.
17 When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, "Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last,
Modern Christians have this conception of God that is very small - more like themselves than not. He is...comfortable, approachable, like a favorite sofa, or pet bunny. He will do weird things for them, too, exciting things, stimulating things; He'll put on a show for them and make them squeal with surprise and excitement. It never occurs to them, unfortunately, to think about why, when these people in Scripture encountered God, they fell on their faces in fear and repentance. Such thoughts lead to uncomfortable truths about God. Yes, the born-again believer may come "boldly unto the throne of grace," but it is always to
a throne that they come. Yes, Jesus is our Savior and Friend, but he is also the terrible figure the apostle John described in the passage above, eyes like a flame of fire, his face shining like the sun, speaking with a voice like the crashing waves of the ocean.
Any believer, then, who proposes to tell me about a special encounter with God that does not include a recognition of their own deep sinfulness, repentance and a hugely elevated understanding of their holy Maker (and a corresponding profound diminishment of their own self-importance), has not encountered God.
Is encountering God a supernatural experience?
I don't know what you mean, exactly, by "supernatural experience." Characterized by sensational events? Tingles, warm oozies, falling to the ground in convulsive ecstasy, babbling incoherently? These sorts of things? This wasn't what happened to Abraham when he encountered God, or when Moses, or Joshua, or Paul, or John did. Elijah wasn't "slain in the Spirit" when God met him at the mouth of the cave in which Elijah was hiding, speaking to him quietly and calmly. When the Spirit came upon Samson, he didn't speak in tongues, or convulse, or laugh hysterically.
The Christian's normal experience of God is always supernatural, but not in the sensational way many believers today propose. When God convicts, it is always contrary to our own, natural humanness, moving us beyond mere guilt and shame into deeper, joyful communion with Himself. When God strengthens, it is always beyond what our own human resources can supply, moving us from strength to strength, not into exhaustion and moral collapse. When God teaches, He brings clarity and understanding about Himself and His truth that mere intellectual effort cannot achieve. And so on.
This has been my experience, aligned to, and well-supported by, the record of God's word, which is important, I think, because, if we are free to claim anything we like about encountering God, if an experience of Him is without boundaries, then we become, essentially, the definers of God; He becomes merely a mirror of ourselves and what we think and want in an encounter with Him.
Mirror Or Master?
Is an encounter with God spectacular, like the encounters we can read about in the Bible?
Not generally. There were comparatively few who had the incredible experiences with God the Bible records. And to whom much was given in this respect, much was required. Think of Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac. Or the struggle, and danger, and rebellion Moses faced as he led the Israelites out of Egypt to the Promised Land. Or the many battles Joshua endured as he led the Israelites into the taking of Canaan. Or Paul's suffering and sacrifice in serving God as the apostle to the Gentiles of the Early Church. John was boiled in oil and then exiled, Peter was crucified upside-down, and so on.
Is an encounter with God life changing?
Always. But in what way depends upon one's response to the encounter.