A ‘God moment’
I love “God moments.” Some are subtle and soft, others are pronounced and powerful, but all are strong and wonderful encounters with my Heavenly Father.
Some are brief, and others occur over longer periods of time, but by them I am transformed, and each time inspired to declare, “The new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor. 5:17)
I would like to share one of these moments with you. It happened a number of years ago during a leadership conference I attended.
In over 40 years of church-related activity, I had attended about 4,000 church services, 2,000 prayer or Bible study meetings, 1,800 Sunday School classes, 1,000 youth meetings, 1,000 planning meetings and 60 church conferences, camps or retreats. Added to that I guess I had spent about 10,950 hours in personal devotions and prayer, 9,000 hours listening to Christian music, radio or teachings of various kinds and forms. Add to that, 10,000 hours preparing sermons and Bible studies, 10,000 hours in church administrative duties, 10,000 hours in visiting and counseling people, 8,000 hours just helping people and 5 years in Bible College and Seminary.
And I hadn’t yet turned 45.
Being a preacher’s kid, I was practically born and raised in church. And, I could say, having put in so many hours and witnessing so many Christian events and having so many spiritual experiences, I had a rich Christian heritage – of which I was to be proud. And, rightly so, I was proud. I have truly been blessed!
Yet, a question had been nagging me for a while. Was there yet another “plane” with God that I had yet to experience, a place this side of heaven that pulled me beyond my present “achievements,” one that I had not yet imagined or thought impossible, ridiculous or … maybe even weird?
I had always known that the God I serve was independent of and different from his creation. While he was intricately entwined and active within it, he was beyond it. He was not limited by it or to it.
Yet, I felt that I may have been placing limits on myself and upon my God, limits that confined him to the mere perimeters of my life. As a result, my magnificent God may have been compressed and lowered to the puny plane of my religious experience, irrespective of how fantastic I thought that experience was.
So, here I was sitting at this conference, searching and hungry.
At one point during one of the sessions the presenter said, “God wants to re-produce himself in you!”
That word clung to me. It hounded me. It called to me. Its force was strong because it was God’s Word to me. It was a word that worked in me to transform me and continues strong in me to this very day.
So, after this particular session was finished, we were given a two-hour break for lunch, but I was not hungry for physical food. I had an appetite for something else.
The auditorium was huge, and I waited for it to be almost completely empty. I searched and found a secluded spot far from the traffic of human feet and, stretching out on the carpeted floor, I poured out my soul to God.
“Jesus,” I remember crying out, “I want, you, you, and only you … and my Father … oh Jesus, show me the Father!”
It was as if a door opened to eternity. Instantly I became aware of something beyond brilliance. It was virtue. It was God, in his glory and splendor, and it seemed as if he was pouring himself into me.
As I lay there before God that afternoon I felt as if the virtues of holiness, righteousness, love, joy, peace, goodness, mercy, grace and truth were being poured into my soul. I sensed the patience of my Heavenly Father and the kindness of his heart as in faithfulness and gentleness he tended to me, and with divine composure he dealt with me, to lead me out of where I was and into a new measure of his grace and mercy. It felt as if I was being consecrated to God in a new and living way, as if I was being born anew in my spirit.
While I am still sifting through the implications of that encounter, that moment was the beginning of a new road for me. That day eternal life started to take on a whole new meaning. It was as if I was being born again … again!