When there is an encounter with the Most High God, the power of His presence is always an overwhelming experience for the flesh.  Historical accounts of revival as well as scripture share with us many instances of such encounters. In these encounters the opportunity will immediately be presented for an eternally significant "life change" within your heart. But know this of a certainty -- in God's mind the encounter is always about the "heart".

 

   Flesh can glory in or even appreciate an encounter with God in the same way that flesh is stimulated by any worldly form of entertainment.  We can, if we're not careful, take on an attitude of treating the manifestation of God's presence as just that -- another stimulating form of entertainment. Flesh is the enemy of God and can even twist encounters with God into something God did not intend them to be.

 

    The goal of our worship is to seat the King enthroned upon our praise and to encounter Him. But, if we stop there.... if we see that as the "end all", we are truly in danger. For, then we have opened the door to flesh to revel in His power to spend it in lust. For after the encounter, the over-riding question has to be, "Was I changed? Am I changed?  Am I different - inside, in my heart?"  If the grace of that moment is not reflected in how we live, how we think, how we choose, then we have perverted the power of God's glory into an opportunity for a reveling of the flesh and twisted our Majestic Creator into an opportunity for idolatry within our own hearts.

 

       In Leviticus 9:22-24, we see the fire of God made manifest with tremendous spectacle before all the people of Israel as Aaron and Moses ministered before the Tent of Meeting. The scripture says that as the glory of the Lord appeared and the fire of God came out from before the Tent of Meeting, that all of the people, shouted and fell on their faces. In other words, were slain in the Spirit. It was really something. But, what we often neglect to focus on is that prior to that, great care had been given to offering sacrifice on behalf of the sins of the people and as such, they stood covered by the blood of the sacrifice as God's glory came down. Because they held dealt with the sin in their hearts, no one was harmed or consumed by the fire of God.

 

     But then only a few minutes later, in Leviticus 10:1-3, we see the devastation resulting from two of Aaron's sons, standing there in the middle of an "encounter with God", conceiving in their heart a wicked intent and then acting it out. Nadab and Abihu had obviously been so impressed with the "fireworks" of God's previous manifestation, they decided they wanted to "make it happen again". The scripture says they offered up to God "strange fire" before the Lord that He had not commanded them. The Bible says fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. They tried to manipulate the presence of God and the encounter with God for their own entertainment. Moses said to Aaron, "It is what the Lord, spoke, saying, 'By those who come near to Me I will be treated as holy and before the people I will be honored.'" How grievously sad when, in our fleshly carnality, we think we will not be held accountable for not treating the Lord as holy. Encountering God is a formidable thing and although He loves us greatly and welcomes us into His presence, and although we are indeed covered by the blood of the Lamb, we must treat Him as holy and maintain in our hearts the same goal and purpose for that encounter as what He has.

 

     Hear me, saints of God -- worship WILL bring an encounter with the Most High, but that encounter is intended by Him to be an opportunity for us to be transformed more into the image of His character and glory. Second Corinthians, chapter three, verse eighteen, "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory......" That encounter is an opportunity for turning our life over more and more to Him. The grace of the encounter is intended to empower us to choose life, to choose Him. It is not the unsaved that have this struggle with rightly relating to His presence, but those of us who are supposed to know Him and labor against the constant pull of "religious behavior" over true relationship with Him. Yes, the ritual of worship will indeed bring an encounter with His presence. But, in the end, if the encounter does not turn us from the deep unspoken sin which lurks in all of our hearts, then it wasn't really worship at all.

 

AN EXHORTATION:

 

 How greatly each one of us and our nation need a "transforming" encounter with God.  Let us agree in prayer that this will be the case in each of our lives. And let each one of us labor in our own sphere of influence to see it come to pass. The tribulations of recent times have created a door of openness for the gospel. Even in the midst of what in many areas of our culture amounts to our national societal wickedness, God has shown us mercy and continues to reach to us.  Anyone who has been touched by His love knows that the lure of the world melts away in the midst of His glory and grace. Our heart cry here at PRAISE ON FIRE RADIO is that true worship, bringing a transforming encounter with God would give way to a deep and spiritually revolutionary revival in America where the hearts of the people are turned wholly to Him.

 

Hear our prayer, O Lord and by your benevolence and grace, let it be so....

In Jesus precious name,

 

Amen.

 

Back