Bill Johnson: ‘When Encounters Change Everything’
I married my late wife, Beni, on April 14th, 1973.
I didn’t marry her so I could have a license to hang on the wall. While the legality of a marriage has importance, it is neither the reason nor the purpose of our union. I married Beni entirely to build upon our trusted relationship by experiencing life together, one day at a time. Our journey had many thrilling moments and some boring moments (sometimes my favorite), as well as many trials. But in each case, we grew. Together.
Life together enables us to build a home. She made coming home something I always looked forward to, as it was always filled with peace. And having a family that lives in peace is priceless. That doesn’t mean there was never conflict. But even that was dealt with in a Kingdom fashion, resulting in more peace. We lived in an ongoing encounter with each other that affected every area of our lives.
Building Connection
Relationships are all about time spent together, communication, encounters, experiences, all while increasing in knowledge and trust for that one individual. Marriages last and flourish as each person prioritizes the other, and they grow together. Without experiences, there is no marriage.
The entire Bible is a storybook. Page after page, chapter after chapter is about God revealing Himself to people, and people encountering God. Sometimes the encounter is cognitive, in that it is revelatory and expands our understanding or perception on a matter. And then there is the kind that is physical, being a felt experience that is impossible to miss.
When the concept of experiences is brought up in the church, eyebrows are often raised in suspicion of whatever the other person claimed to have experienced. The reason is to protect ourselves from error, or from simply being gullible. But that which keeps me from being gullible, if I’m not careful, will also create a cynicism in me that keeps me from the reality of a God who likes to color outside of the lines. He does not conform to my expectations.
For many who confess Christ, to pursue encounters and experiences is often considered questionable, if not downright wrong. This is especially true in the Western world, where our brains are valued over our spirits. We end up with big heads and little hearts. We tend to emphasize what we have the ability to control. And God will not come under our control.
In contrast to that kind of thinking, I grew up hearing the expression, “He who has an experience is never at the mercy of those with an argument.” What a true statement! Those who have experienced real love can’t be talked out of it by some cynic. When it’s real, we are forever changed or influenced.
Encounters That Changed Everything
As stated, the entire Bible is a book of stories of experiences and encounters. Below are some of the more unusual ones that really should be used to raise our understanding of what is normal.
God picked up Ezekiel by the hair. That, no doubt, left a mark on how he thought God would work in his life.
Daniel encountered the power of God in such a significant way that he shook until his bones rattled together to the extent it could be heard. Another time, the prophetic word from the Lord he was carrying nauseated him.
Soldiers came to arrest Jesus. They all involuntarily fell to the ground when He answered their inquiry, simply saying, “I am.”
Saul (later called Paul) encountered the Lord, fell to the ground on the road to Damascus, and became blind. In this experience, he realized he had been working against God, not for Him. When he then encountered God through another believer, he was healed of his blindness. This experience helped to solidify his place as one called by God.
Untold numbers of people were healed when they encountered the Spirit of God resting upon Peter, simply by being in his shadow.
King Saul was changed into another man when he entered the atmosphere that surrounded the prophets. It was the atmosphere of the Spirit of God who was resting upon them that changed him.
Solomon dedicated the temple in Jerusalem. In response, God came in His glory and no one could continue to stand or even minister to Him. That was an encounter for a large group of people.
Adam walked with God in the cool of the evening. His was an ongoing experience that set a high-water mark for what is available in Christ.
Adam had an unusual encounter with the Lord in which God put him to sleep, and when he woke up, he had a wife.
Mary gave birth to the Christ child as the result of a divine encounter. (Of course, that one will never be duplicated. But, encountering Him does plant His seed of life into us. The same is true whenever He speaks, and we hear and obey.)
Many would say that these extreme experiences are not meant to be regular. They appear to be uncommon and rare. In scientific terms, rare occurrences are considered outliers, as they don’t fit the previously understood norms. An acceptable practice in psychology, for example, is to remove outliers, as they ruin the conclusion made from the previously collected data. This means that for years the primary focus would have been on what was average, not what was possible. In order to maintain the perceived integrity of the analysis, outliers are removed. By doing so in the church when it comes to encounters, we remove what could become the norm if only there were a people who believed that what God did in the Bible for one person, He’d like to do for all. Thus, we have incorrectly influenced what many consider to be normal because the unusual no longer influences what we can expect.
I would like to remind you that when Jesus bore the sins of the world, dying in our place, becoming sin, only to be raised three days later—that act was an outlier. And that one extreme experience is what makes salvation available to all. Outliers are critical to understanding what is available to all.
The Real Impact of An Experience
I’ve watched as nice, good people have an unusual encounter with God, and everything changes. It’s not that they now think they have earned something. It’s that an encounter with the Almighty changes our perspective on what we think is possible. Encounters with the King of Glory never touch only one area of our lives. For example, a lame man was healed in Acts 3. That encounter with the presence and power of God changed everything. He walked, leaped, and praised God. He walked because he was physically healed. He leaped because he was emotionally healed. And he praised God because he was spiritually healed. The point is that encounters change everything.
An encounter is never just to enable us to say we encountered God. It’s not a badge to wear, nor does it qualify us for anything. If anything, what we do with it qualifies us, as our faithfulness is always the goal. And what we do following the encounter is entirely up to us. The best example that comes to mind is when King Saul spent time with the prophets, and he prophesied like them. The Bible states that the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and turned him into another man. He had the chance to maintain what he had gained in the Holy Spirit atmosphere. But he failed. For him it was an experience, not an entrance into a new lifestyle. He suffered for that failure. But so did Israel. God never intended for such failure. Where King Saul failed is in the area of personal surrender. We just can’t add God’s touch to whatever we’re doing in life. His touch, His Word, His presence are all invitations to surrender. In fact, there are no areas of advancement in the Kingdom apart from surrender. This is where we acknowledge that we could never earn such favor from God.
Experience Beyond Reason
I absolutely love the following passage for this very reason—it is possible to experience what is beyond our ability to comprehend.
So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:17-19 NASB95).
What this means is that we can know by experience what is beyond comprehension. Our heart can take us where our head can’t fit. It’s not that understanding is negative or frowned upon. On the contrary. We are exhorted to pursue wisdom and understanding. But if I limit my willingness to obey only what I comprehend, I have created a god in my image. I am to obey because He says so. Understanding will always increase in the obedient heart.
Take note of the clause that follows: “that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.” What we experience in God gives opportunity to Him to triumphantly occupy whatever has been touched by His presence.
And there can’t be many more ideas that are harder to comprehend than being filled with His fullness. You mean the One who holds the universe in His hands wants to fill us with His fullness? Apparently so.
He is a God to be known. With everything we are, everything we have, and all we will ever be, we must encounter and know this wonderful Father. He alone works to conform us into the image of His Son, Jesus, through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
