Holy Spirit Encounters

Over the years I’ve read the accounts of many ministers who have had amazing encounters with God that changed their lives in a moment of time. These accounts stir our hearts and I longed for a similar encounter early in my ministry. There have been moments where the Holy Spirit has touched me deeply but I’ve never had an encounter similar to the accounts I’ve read about. Over time I’ve realized that these encounters are not the normal way He leads us. The Holy Spirit will work in our lives and lead us step by step into the plan of God over a period of time. We will become impatient with the progress at times but if we just trust Him, He will lead us into the fullness of all God has called us to walk in. Some of us may have an encounter but we do not look for them. Jesus said that we are to seek first the kingdom (Matthew 6:33) not an encounter or physical experience.

The Holy Spirit is moving in our lives and He will be faithful to lead us step by step in our journey into the plan of God. I’ve learned that the ‘suddenly encounters’ experienced by great men and woman in the Church were usually preceded by months or years of prayer and the person pursuing the presence of God. These encounters do not happen like a lightning strike that seemingly comes out of nowhere. I’ve observed many people fall into error because they heard of a person having an encounter and began to pursue the experience instead of the person. A door opened for me to minister among the Freewill Baptists in the early 1990s. They obviously believed differently than me and it would be dishonest to say that I did not struggle with the concept of ministering to a group who believed that God did not perform miracles and was the author of every sickness and tragedy which occurs in our lives. My struggle continued until I was walking to the pulpit for the first time in one of these Baptist churches. The Holy Spirit spoke to me in that still small voice within my spirit in the same way He will speak to any believer who will listen. He asked me to speak to the people about Him. Our exchange was not audible but I reminded Him that the church did not believe in miracles or speaking in tongues and would not accept that “type” of teaching. It still amazes me how patient He is with us! He did not rebuke me for questioning His direction but instead responded and said that He did not ask me to talk about what He does but instead just to talk about Him. The Holy Spirit is a person and too often we become overly focused on manifestations that occur as a result of Him being present when our focus should be on Him. My time with the Freewill Baptists taught me many lessons but the greatest was our need to pursue Him verses what He does. In each meeting that I talked about Him we saw the people respond and miracles occurred. Many lives were touched but miracles and manifestations were not mentioned in any of the meetings. It was when we got our eyes off of the ”seen” and onto Him as a person that He had total freedom to move!

The Holy Spirit is our guide. He was sent by Jesus to be with us and will gently lead us step by step into the plan of God. We cannot force an encounter with Him and He always moves in line with the Word of God. I’ve heard ministers talk about the Holy Spirit being as unpredictable as a lightning strike. Time-lapse photos have revealed that lightning is not as unpredictable as people think. Lightning begins with a negative charge developing in the ground that eventually bursts forward from the ground upward in the form of a lightning bolt. If we learn how to detect these negative charges we will be able to predict when and where lightning will strike. Studies show that there is a reason why lighting strikes in certain places and not in others and in the same way there are reasons why the Holy Spirit move in certain places more than others. If we will give ourselves to developing our relationship with Him and learn from the Word of God how He works then we too will begin to see Him move in our lives!

We recommend Dr. Kenneth E. Hagin’s book “Following God’s Plan For Your Life” (https://amzn.to/2sI1Y07) as a supplemental resource for this blog series. You do not need to purchase this book in order to “credit” our account. Any purchases that you search or make from anywhere on Amazon, after first clicking on the included link, will credit this blog and support our ministry. We are truly grateful for each of our readers and appreciative of those who will help us. There is no cost to you for using our links and they provide an easy way for you to support us!

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