God wants you to have supernatural encounters with Him. The supernatural is the Divine intervention of God in our lives. Only He can do it. God wants to interrupt our lives with these Divine encounters. He wants us to experience Him in ways that we can’t even imagine. Hebrews 11:1 is such a popular verse that we often gloss over, and yet it is the key to unlocking the supernatural in our lives. It says,
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
There are unseen aspects of the Kingdom and of God that we’ll only experience through our faith. And the beautiful thing is that God loves nothing more than revealing Himself to us. He desires us to crave and hunger for these encounters with Him because when we experience Him for ourselves, we will know, that we know, that we know HE IS GOD. Not just because someone told us He is. Not just because we read that He is. But because we experienced that He is. When God reveals Himself to us personally, nothing and no one can take away what we gain through these encounters.
Abraham was a man who had supernatural encounters with God. In Genesis 22, We see that God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son. The son God promised Him and the fulfillment of the prophecy God gave Him. And guess what? Abraham obeyed. He didn’t question God. He prepared to sacrifice His son because God asked him to. If you’re not familiar with this encounter I encourage you to read Genesis Chapter 22 in its entirety. We learn from Hebrews that Abraham’s obedience in Genesis 22 was an act of faith. Hebrews 11:17-19 says:
By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
You see, Abraham believed God’s word. Even though it didn’t make sense, He believed that God was faithful and true to His Word. He reasoned that even if God needed to raise Isaac from the dead to keep His promise, He would. What amazing faith! This wasn’t Abraham’s first act of faith. Hebrews 11: 8 tells us:
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
He didn’t even know where He was going, but He had faith and obeyed God. WOW! God showed up in Abraham’s life then and He did so again when asked to sacrifice Isaac. We see God’s divine intervention in Genesis 22:12-14:
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Abraham looked up and there in a thicket, he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.
God showed up at just the right time. Let’s be honest, there may have been times we walked away from our faith because God didn’t show up when or how we expected Him to. But remember, God’s ways are so much higher than ours and His timing is always perfect. He is God all by Himself. He doesn’t need us to tell Him how and when He should do things. Not only that He is a good and perfect Father and what He has for us our human minds can’t even comprehend. It’s so much better than we could imagine. Faith is trusting in the goodness and faithfulness of God. Our supernatural encounters with Him serve as reminders of this. Abramah experienced Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. He no longer knew this just with his mind, but with His heart. I guarantee you that solidified his faith and trust in God even more. This is what God wants to do in our lives.
It’s our faith through our acts of obedience that position us to supernaturally encounter God.
What is our response to God when He asks us to obey His Word? Especially when it doesn’t make sense? When we’re unsure of the final outcome? Or what about when it goes against what our flesh wants? Ouch! Do we question God? Do we argue with Him? Do we choose to have faith and obey Him, or do we turn away from Him by not obeying? We’ve all wrestled with God at times, so these questions are not meant to condemn, but rather to challenge us to grow in our faith. Especially in this season when we need God’s Presence more than ever to rise above the darkness permeating the world we live in. To be the light we must walk in the Light. Supernatural encounters with God empower us to do this. They make our faith unshakeable.
Friends, we must have faith in God. When we received salvation, this was our first act of faith. We believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God sent to save us from our sins. That was just the beginning. Every day after that will require faith to walk with God not just as our Savior but as Lord of our lives. And faith is more than just saying we believe. It’s acting on it. (James 2:14-26, James 1:22-25)
What areas in your life is God calling you to have faith in? Is He calling you to separate yourself from the world and consecrate your life to Him even more, trusting that He will fill and satisfy the areas of your heart you’ve strived to satisfy on your own?
Is He calling you to turn away from something or someone that has taken His place on the throne of your heart, trusting that His way, the path of life will take you where you’re destined to be and not that person or thing?
What steps of faith and actions of obedience is God calling you to in this season? You probably know right now what they are. If you don’t cry out to God and say, “God I want to know you more. I want to experience you as I never have before. Reveal to me the steps of faith you want me to take. I will follow you.” And get ready for God to show up, because He will. He is just waiting for you to want Him more than anything else.
May we be like Peter, who stepped out in faith and walked on the water with Jesus. He experienced something none of the other disciples got to. It was a supernatural encounter with the God of miracles. May our own supernatural encounters with Jesus spur us on to greater faith and heights with Him. This is exciting and powerful not just for us but for the people our lives impact. People need to see Jesus. They need a tangible experience with Him. We can be conduits of His power, but we must first experience that power for ourselves. Church, let’s go after God with every breath we have. He’s waiting to show Himself to us in ways we’ve not yet seen. Let faith arise and position you for supernatural encounters with Him!
