Be Our Guest / Mike O’Connell

Scripture teaches us an ‘encounter’ with God should change our lives

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word “encounter” as an unexpected or casual meeting with someone or something. I find this word to be so profound and life changing. If you look back in history, especially for those who have encountered God, we see how each of their lives were changed.

• Adam and Eve: They had their first encounter with God in the Garden of Eden.

• Moses: While looking after his father-in-law’s sheep, he had a dramatic life-changing encounter with God.

• Abraham: The Lord appeared to him near the great tree of Mamre, where he was sitting at the entrance to his tent.

• Jacob: In a dream, he saw a ladder set up on the Earth reaching heaven on which angels were ascending and descending.

• Noah: God spoke to Noah one day and expressed his feelings about the fact that the Earth was totally corrupt with evil and filled with violence. He communicated to him how he was going to destroy the Earth with floods.

• Elijah: He encountered God at Mount Horeb, where God spoke to him in a still, small voice.

• Isaiah: He had a glorious vision of the Lord. He saw the Lord high and lifted up and a Seraphim angel crying out holy, holy, holy.

• Ezekiel: God’s glory appeared to him like a bow in the cloud and there was brightness. The Lord told him to be a watchman unto the house of Israel.

• Daniel: He had mourned for three weeks. He then had an encounter with God in a glorious vision.

• Peter, James and John: Jesus took them to a high mountain where they witnessed the transfiguration.

• Believers: They encountered with a full description the visitation of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost in the upper room, where there was 120 believers praying.

• Paul: As he was journeying to Damascus, suddenly there was a light from heaven that said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me” (Acts 9:4)?

• John: He heard a loud voice like a trumpet, saying I am the Alpha and the Omega.

Why does God have these encounters with man? To communicate with them, to reveal certain things, to prove his existence and his concern for mankind.

Just as God had encounters with these Biblical figures, he also tries to have encounters with each of us every day.

When we encounter God, his Spirit transcends our body and mind. The Holy Spirit anoints us during each of these encounters.

I believe God encounters us:

• To reveal himself.

• To manifest his glory.

• To give us a foretaste of heaven.

• To communicate and offer us fellowship.

• To give a specific assignment.

• To impart his power and wisdom.
 

(Mike O’Connell is a member of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Bloomington.) †