Let me give you my definition of a Divine Encounter or Appointment – because if you are following along with my December theme, you may wonder about last week’s. The elderly lady with the walker and why if it was a Divine Appointment that I did not know what to do? Let me give it to you this way.
If your divine encounter makes sense or is something that is truly humanly possible – it is probably not a Divine Encounter. The two meetings with my nephew in my first blog in December were nothing we could have arranged. The meeting of this dear lady with the walker, I could not have arranged it and although I had no idea except to pray for her or why I needed to meet her, I did. It did not make sense from a people perspective. I have no way of knowing if this dear lady needed to know someone cared that day, or simply needed a smile or a word of encouragement. Sometimes that is what our day needs – doesn’t it? Just to know someone cares.
Divine Encounter in the Bible: The Christmas story is such a wonderful example of Divine Encounters. Joseph was engaged to Mary, the mother of Jesus but before they could come physically together, Mary gets pregnant. You can imagine Joseph was NOT impressed, but Joseph was a good man and in spite of a broken heart and instead of condemning Mary to death as was the custom for adultery, he decided to take care of it quietly. He would send her away and not embarrass her (Joseph was a good man). However, Joseph has a dream in which an angel from God (divine encounter) comes to visit him and tells him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife because the baby inside of her was not from another man, but of God. (not humanly possible a definite Divine Encounter) Joseph listens to the angel.
Some dreams can be direct Divine Encounters from God. Joseph goes on in the Bible to have a couple more dreams that save the life of baby Jesus two more times.
Divine Encounters can happen anywhere, anytime, and in many different ways.
I had an interesting visit with a young gal I had never met before. Coincidence or Divine Appointment?
We chatted about so many things mostly about her beliefs and she had many, she had a combination of many different religious groups.
At one point she sat back and incredulously starred at me and said, “Do you really believe that? I am stunned.”
I asked her what had stunned her, we had been talking about the supernatural world, angels, demons and the fact that there is a supernatural world all around us.
She said that she would never have been able to ask her grandmother about these things.
I asked what things. She said about angels, demons, spirits, the supernatural.
I smiled at her and told her that indeed there are many churches where these subjects are never spoken of, but if she would read the Gospel of John that I had handed her she would find that Jesus dealt with the spirit world on a regular basis. So did the apostles and the early church for that matter and we still are.
She is only one of many young people I have talked to about the supernatural nature of God and these young people are so surprised.
The world is feeding our young people continuously on the supernatural with books, movies like Lord of the Rings, Twilight (the vampire series), mediums, psychics, witches tv series and movies. The world is offering a way for our younger generation to connect with their spiritual side making it mysterious and glamorous. The true Christmas story trumps any story the world can make up. It is full of supernatural events from beginning to end.
The church by not talking about the supernatural, by not dealing with it, is losing our young people. They wonder what the church has to offer them since the church seems stagnant and dead. They are looking for God in action and not able to find Him alive and exciting. We are in danger of loosing a whole generation for God.
This tears at my heart. God is alive, God is exciting, and He is working all around us each and every day. I share my divine encounters with you to encourage you to see what your divine encounters are and to start talking about them, sharing them. We need to have these conversations comfortable or not with our young people and others around us. They need to know God is still moving.
I get praise reports of miracles done in their lives or their families lives in answer to the prayers we say in the prayer room. Is it the prayer room? Is it me? Heavens no! It can only be a big, miraculous God who can do things that are not humanly possible.
From before the foundations of the world there has been a good side and an evil side. It started in the heavenly realm and has continued on down to earth when satan, aka the devil, got kicked out with some of the angels. They are roaming around down here looking for people to destroy, hurt and block the way for people to understand that there is a God who loves them. They make the supernatural seem mysterious, they beckon and call to out to the earth enticing those who will listen.
You might wonder what does the church have to offer in place of “spells, curses and magic?” Oh my! So much more!!!
We have the power of the Almighty God, the Creator of ALL things (including satan and the angels), the power that raises the dead, that saves people from death, we have the glorious, mysterious baby, born of a virgin (totally supernatural), we have angels declaring from heaven, that still show up today in the darndest places. God says angels are His messengers working amongst the people of the world. Angels battle on behalf of us and for us. We have miracles, healings, answered prayers everyday. We have the Holy Spirit that is moving in and around the earth today. We have life.
Spells, curses? We have Godly declarations and proclamations! These are powerful statements when we make them, things change on the earth and in heavens when we declare them.
We have Jesus the author and perfecter of life itself. The Holy One who came from heaven to live amongst us, to teach us and save us from ourselves. He is still acting on our behalf today. He is not dead, He is alive exactly like He was when He rose from the dead after they killed Him and walked the earth for 40 days before He went up to heaven. (totally supernatural)
The Bible is full of “teach these things to your children”, reminders all around you of God’s love, care and working in the world.
‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!” says Jesus in Mark 12:27
God is not dead! He is not boring! He is alive and well and living and moving among us each and every day. Please, for the sake of our young generations after us, walk and talk about God to all people especially our young people and children.
“Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Mark 19:14