Do you know how to have a personal encounter with God? As we live each day, we can experience “God Encounters.” These moments are our individual and unique experiences with God that help define and solidify our relationship with Him. There are times that help us know with absolute certainty that God is real, He is truth, and He is good.
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A God encounter ultimately becomes our testimony when we allow God to become our everything. For some, God will become a deliverer, rescuing them from sins. God will be a comforter or provider for others during grief or desperate need. God will be faithful as we allow Him to help us through each situation. He will deliver us from sins, protect us, and fill us with His Spirit. He can be everything to each of us because He is God and the I AM.
What Is My Part In Having An Encounter With God?
In the Old Testament, whenever God showed himself to others in an undeniable way, the people in the Bible would build an altar, a place of worship that would also help them remember the encounter. Noah built an altar when God brought him and his family out of the ark (Genesis 8:20). Abraham built an altar when tested to give Isaac back to the Lord. Through this encounter, Abraham learned how God faithfully provides. Lastly, Jacob built altars after having undeniable experiences with God (Genesis 32-35).
The altars represent worship experiences, and God still likes worship. The Bible tells us that He inhabits the praises of His people. Although we do not sacrifice like they did in the Old Testament, we should still praise and worship God. These days, God wants us to do our part, explained using the acronym PART.
- P- Pray
- A- Ask
- R- Receive
- T- Thank
How to Encounter God In Prayer
Prayer is a key that grants us full access to God’s power and grace as it helps us learn more about His character (who He is), His competence (ability), and His covenant (promises). Praying initiates an encounter with God, and the Bible says God wants us to pray so that He can answer us and show us great and mighty things (Jeremiah 33:3). When we take the time to pray, we choose to set aside time and opportunity to have an encounter with God in our daily life.
Praying is not just a one-way conversation. Prayer changes things; something happens when we pray that would not happen if we did not pray. When we pray, we can listen and learn from God. God wants to show himself to us undeniably, and when we pray to our Heavenly Father, we acknowledge He is the one we want to help us.
God wants to be our source of hope, life, and wisdom. Praying starts with praising God for who He is, worshipping Him for what He can do, and reminding ourselves of the promises He has given us in His Word. When we encounter God in prayer, He can help us ask for what we need and bless others because when we truly open up to God in prayer, we invite the Spirit to help us pray.
How To Encounter God When We Ask For His Help
We can encounter God when we ask Him to help us through various situations. Countless examples of answered prayers exist in the Bible, but when we ask God to help us, we gain the personal experience that God answers prayers. When we read our Bible or attend church, we learn who God is, but praying and asking God to help in our situations means we are willing to take the next step. When we ask God to answer our prayers, we move from believing what we have learned and invite God to show us who He is by giving us experiential knowledge. Having experiences with God through personal encounters allows us to grow our faith and believe in Him more profoundly.
We exercise our faith and practice what we believe about our knowledge of God when we pray. Our prayers will always align with what we think about God’s character, competence, and covenant. If we believe that God is loving, patient, forgiving, and generous, we will pray for forgiveness and ask Him for whatever we need.
When we believe that God is competent, we recognize He can meet our needs because He is all-knowing and all-powerful. Understanding what God can do should lead us to ask God for his help in every area because we learn to trust Him to be whatever we need at all times. We will learn about His faithfulness as we pray and ask God to meet our needs.
Knowing that God has granted us a covenant relationship with Him through Jesus helps us ask God for a deeper understanding of His Spirit. Learning more about God comes from the Holy Spirit, who better equipped us to do our part for the Kingdom of God. As we grow in a deeper relationship with God, we become more sensitive to His Spirit and will pray for others in our sphere of influence.
How Do We Receive An Encounter With God?
When we pray and ask God to help us, we must believe that He hears and has sent an answer to our prayer. God promises to listen to the prayers of His children. We become His children when we accept His gift of salvation. After we pray, we should wait expectantly to receive the answer to our prayer. God is sovereign, and He knows what is best for us.
Sometimes, the answer to our prayer differs from what we expect, or it takes longer to receive than we would like. When the answer to our prayer is quickly received, we receive God’s blessings gladly, but we must learn to rejoice in everything. We must surrender our prayers and allow God to respond in His timing and as He sees best.
We have to realize that God is there even in hard places. We will receive a greater faith and understanding of God’s character, competence, and covenant if we go through the process. Sometimes, God allows us to go through situations to understand Him in a way that will help us share that knowledge and bless others.
How Do We Give Proper Thanks After an Encounter With God?
When we encounter God, we give proper thanks because we recognize that He allowed us to experience Him personally. Our encounter with God is individual. We will encounter God differently, starting with how we got saved. God knows how to get our attention, and He loves us enough to do so. Each of us should have a testimony of how we met God.
God’s goodness does not stop with salvation. If we are willing to do our part (pray, ask, receive, and give thanks), God will continue to respond to our prayers. We have to be sure that we are giving proper thanks to God. The Bible says He will not share His glory (Isaiah 42:8), and we can never get full of pride acting as if we blessed ourselves because that leads to destruction (Proverbs 16:18).
God wants to build our faith with each blessing and help us understand who He is. Our answered prayers become an opportunity to celebrate His goodness. If we pray, God will move mountains, break addictions, bless us with provisions, and bring us inexplicable peace and joy despite our circumstances.
My God Encounters
God met my need for a new vehicle when I couldn’t help myself by blessing me with ten crisp one-hundred-dollar bills accompanied only by a letter stating the person wanted to pay it forward. God blessed my 18 year-daughter to be healthy, although she was born a preemie at 24 weeks gestation, weighing 1 pound 2 ounces. He has blessed me with my education, delivered me from bad habits, restored my health, and reconciled my relationships.
As I share a small part of my testimony, I pray that it helps explain further that a God encounter is a unique experience that teaches us about God. I have learned that God is good. He has shown me that He can provide finances, wisdom, healing, protection, deliverance, restoration, and reconciliation. I will praise Him for the rest of my life and am determined to share this good news!
Pray For An Encounter With God
God knows how to bless us and will do so repeatedly when we learn to do our part. Because God’s answers to our prayers are life-changing, we owe it to Him to remember to give thanks. Let’s pray, ask Him for what we need, and thank Him in advance for the blessings He will provide in His timing and wisdom.
