7 Places You Are Guaranteed to Encounter God

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Encountering God is a basic desire of all Christians, yet finding God on a regular basis can be incredibly frustrating. The psalmist said, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:1-2). We are created to be in community with our Heavenly Father, so why does He seem to be so hard to find? Is there a purpose behind God’s silence?

Sometimes the silence of God is designed to draw us deeper into Him. Sometimes His silence serves as a way to forge our character or to prepare us for a new season of ministry. But most of the time the silence of God is entirely avoidable. God isn’t up in heaven playing hide-and-seek, only grudgingly meeting us when we force Him to show Himself. God wants to meet with us and encounter us on a daily basis.

If we don’t encounter God on a regular basis, it’s not because God is hiding from us. It’s because we are looking in the wrong places (or not looking at all). Because this is such an important matter for Christians, the Bible does not remain silent on this issue. We can look in Scripture and discover seven guaranteed places of encounter where we can meet God, hear His voice, and walk away changed. For years this practice has been described as “spiritual disciplines,” but discipline has a negative connotation today. Spiritual disciplines aren’t something you have to do, they are something you get to do because you want to encounter the Living God. Here are seven guaranteed places of encounter where you can find God.

Bible Engagement

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When we make it a habit (or discipline) to get into God’s Word on a regular basis, we’ll find God. God is in His Word. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” The Bible is not the only place to meet God, but it is a guaranteed place of encounter because Scripture is God’s written revelation about Himself to humanity. If you’re looking for a place to start reading, start with the book of John in the New Testament. It’s an eyewitness account of the life and ministry of Jesus.

A force multiplier for Bible engagement is contemplation and memorization. Don’t stop at just reading the Bible. Take a verse and think about it again and again throughout the day. Memorize passages of Scripture to change the way you think and see the world.

Authentic Prayer

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When you read about the life of Jesus, you’ll notice that Jesus often spent time praying, so much so that the disciples made a note of it in their eyewitness accounts. Luke 5:16 is one such example, “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Jesus spent time in prayer because it was his way to spend time with his Heavenly Father. When we pray, we encounter God because prayer is a dialogue between us and God. Prayer needs to be authentic, however. Jesus taught in Matthew 6 that prayer done the wrong way or with the wrong motives can become counterproductive. Prayer needs to be authentic, just like an ongoing conversation between a husband and wife is authentic, informal and free-flowing.

A force multiplier for prayer is fasting, which Jesus also taught about in Matthew 6. When you fast by intentionally depriving your body of food, you are heightening your awareness of your need for God and God’s provision for your life.

Intentional Community

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When the Apostle Paul taught the early church about how to know God, he used the striking image of the church as the body of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 12:27 he told the church, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” Knowing God and following Jesus was never meant to be a solo mission. If you are disengaged from a local church, you are missing out on much more than human relationships and friendships. You are missing out on God Himself. Jesus said in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” When you are intentional to lean into community and engage with a local church, you’ll find God there.

A force multiplier for intentional community is to discover and leverage your spiritual gifts. When the Apostle Paul talked with the Corinthian church about the body of Christ, it was in the context of a much larger conversation about spiritual gifts. When you discover and leverage your spiritual gifts, you are manifesting the presence of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:7), and the Holy Spirit is God.

Heartfelt Worship

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In John 4:23-24 Jesus has a fascinating conversation with a woman about a guaranteed place where we can encounter God, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” Did you catch that? We can always encounter God through worship because God is actively seeking out those who worship Him. When we come to God in heartfelt and genuine worship, we are sure to find God there. Singing songs of praise is an incredible way to worship God.

A force multiplier for this spiritual discipline is thankfulness. God doesn’t want us to worship Him out of forced obligation or joyless ritual. God loves when we cheerfully worship Him with everything we have (2 Corinthians 9:7).

Joyful Obedience

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Many people don’t think of this as a spiritual discipline, but obedience is a powerful place to meet God. Jesus himself makes us this promise in John 14:21, 23, “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them. Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” It’s not just enough to read God’s Word. It’s not just enough to agree with God’s Word. We must do what it says. God is waiting to meet us in our obedience.

A force multiplier for obedience is humility. We must be careful to make sure that we are not prideful about how well we obey God. We must never feel God owes us anything when we obey. God meets us in our humble obedience.

Focused Sabbath

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When Jesus invited people to come and meet him in Matthew 11:28, he did so with an invitation to find him in rest, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Many times we miss God not because He’s hiding, but because we won’t slow down long enough to see Him right in front of us. From the beginning, God instituted a Sabbath as an opportunity for people to rest and encounter God. Our fast pace of life makes it incredibly difficult for us to encounter God. We must slow down.

A force multiplier for the spiritual discipline of Sabbath is nature. Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” When you take unhurried, focused time to spend in nature, you see God’s handiwork explode in living color. Live with margin in your life, observe a regular Sabbath, and find God.

Disciple Making

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When Jesus was about to leave this earth and go back to the Father, he gave his disciples one final command in Matthew 28:19-20, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” As the disciples went and made other disciples of Jesus, Jesus would be with them. If you want a surefire place to find God, God will always be about His mission of calling disciples from every tribe and people and nation.

A force multiplier for making disciples is love. Evangelism is not walking up and down and sidewalk yelling at people on their way to hell. Making disciples is about building relationships, sharing your life, showing people the love of Jesus and walking with them into the Kingdom.

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