- Nov 9, 2006
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From the book I am currently reading.
Teaching Into an Encounter
"Anyone who doesn't have an experience with God, doesn't know God." He is a person, not a philosophy or a concept. It's time for those who have encountered God to stop pandering to fear by watering down their story. We must whet the appetites of the people of God for more. Testimony has the ability to stir up that kind of hunger.
The Holy Spirit is the dunamis of heaven. An encounter with God is often a power encounter. Such encounters vary from person to person according to God's design. And it's the lack of power encounters that lead to a misunderstanding of God and His Word. Experience is necessary in building a true knowledge of the Word. Many fear experience because it might lead away from Scripture. The mistakes of some have led many to fear experiential pursuit. But it is illegitimate to allow fear to keep us from pursuing a deeper experience with God! Embracing such fear causes a failure to the other extreme, which is culturally more acceptable, but significantly worse in eternity.
God does as He pleases. While true to His Word, He does not avoid acting outside of our understanding of it. For example, He's a loving God who hates Esau. He's the One who has been respectfully called a gentleman, yet who knocked Saul off of his donkey and picked Ezekiel up off the ground by his hair. He's the bright and morning star who veils Himself in darkness. He hates divorce, yet is Himself divorced. This list of seemingly conflicting ideas could go on for much longer than any of us could bear. Yet this uncomfortable tension is designed to keep us honest and truly dependent on the Holy Spirit for understanding who God is and what He is saying to us through His book. God is so foreign to our natural ways of thinking that we only truly see what He shows us—and we can only understand Him through relationship.
The Bible is the absolute Word of God. It reveals God; the obvious, the unexplainable, the mysterious, and sometimes offensive. It all reveals the greatness of our God. Yet it does not contain Him. God is bigger than His book.
Revival is mixed with many such dilemmas—God doing what we've never seen Him do before, all to confirm that He is whom He said in His Word. We have the inward conflict of following the One who changes not, yet promises to do a new thing in us. This becomes even more confusing when we try to fit that new thing into the mold made by our past successful experiences.
Revelation that doesn't lead to a God encounter only serves to make me more religious. Unless Scripture leads me to Him, I only become better equipped to debate with those who disagree with my way of thinking.
Any revelation from God's Word that does not lead us to an encounter with God only serves to make us more religious. The Church cannot afford "form without power," for it creates Christians without purpose.
From The Book "When Heaven Invades Earth"
By Bill Johnson, Bethel Church Redding, CA
Blessings!
Teaching Into an Encounter
"Anyone who doesn't have an experience with God, doesn't know God." He is a person, not a philosophy or a concept. It's time for those who have encountered God to stop pandering to fear by watering down their story. We must whet the appetites of the people of God for more. Testimony has the ability to stir up that kind of hunger.
The Holy Spirit is the dunamis of heaven. An encounter with God is often a power encounter. Such encounters vary from person to person according to God's design. And it's the lack of power encounters that lead to a misunderstanding of God and His Word. Experience is necessary in building a true knowledge of the Word. Many fear experience because it might lead away from Scripture. The mistakes of some have led many to fear experiential pursuit. But it is illegitimate to allow fear to keep us from pursuing a deeper experience with God! Embracing such fear causes a failure to the other extreme, which is culturally more acceptable, but significantly worse in eternity.
God does as He pleases. While true to His Word, He does not avoid acting outside of our understanding of it. For example, He's a loving God who hates Esau. He's the One who has been respectfully called a gentleman, yet who knocked Saul off of his donkey and picked Ezekiel up off the ground by his hair. He's the bright and morning star who veils Himself in darkness. He hates divorce, yet is Himself divorced. This list of seemingly conflicting ideas could go on for much longer than any of us could bear. Yet this uncomfortable tension is designed to keep us honest and truly dependent on the Holy Spirit for understanding who God is and what He is saying to us through His book. God is so foreign to our natural ways of thinking that we only truly see what He shows us—and we can only understand Him through relationship.
The Bible is the absolute Word of God. It reveals God; the obvious, the unexplainable, the mysterious, and sometimes offensive. It all reveals the greatness of our God. Yet it does not contain Him. God is bigger than His book.
Revival is mixed with many such dilemmas—God doing what we've never seen Him do before, all to confirm that He is whom He said in His Word. We have the inward conflict of following the One who changes not, yet promises to do a new thing in us. This becomes even more confusing when we try to fit that new thing into the mold made by our past successful experiences.
Revelation that doesn't lead to a God encounter only serves to make me more religious. Unless Scripture leads me to Him, I only become better equipped to debate with those who disagree with my way of thinking.
Any revelation from God's Word that does not lead us to an encounter with God only serves to make us more religious. The Church cannot afford "form without power," for it creates Christians without purpose.
From The Book "When Heaven Invades Earth"
By Bill Johnson, Bethel Church Redding, CA
Blessings!
). When I read her profile it was so much less than chatting with and then talking with her on the phone that there is almost no comparison. And then meeting her face to face...! There was no relationship until we were in two way interactive communication. In the same way, the Bible is helpful in pointing us to God and telling us about Him, but we actually don't have a relationship until we are communicating back and forth with Him, and not much of one until we are talking. When Bill Johnson talks about experiencing or encountering God I believe he is talking about going beyond the reading the profile stage and getting to where we actually interact with God in our spirits, and even our minds and bodies. So many people are just in the email or chat stage of a relationship with God, but He wants us to move deeper to the talking and in person stages. (When I say in person, I mean where God's presence impacts us physically, whether it be peace, healing, a knowing of His presence, or whatever.)
