I ran across that quote this morning as I was reading. What a powerful thought–”God’s arrival is never without incident.” It captures so well what we mean by our Encounter strategy. We believe that if people are brought into the presence of God, something will happen. As this author says, “…the landscape will change…”
We serve a God who is bigger than our methods and efforts. We serve a God who is more capable than we often give credit. We don’t need to create a perfect place, perfect experience, perfect anything…all we need is to give God room to work. If we can just get people into His presence, He’ll do something.
Of course, that can be frightening. Sometimes His presence drives people further away. They rebel against His presence, are uncomfortable with it, react to it. Sometimes they are drawn near. When they are…life changes. God works and good things happen. Even though those “good” things may not feel good, they are. God is working.
Changing a landscape requires heavy equipment. Scrapers, plows, bulldozers, trucks. It requires removing objects, adding fill, digging in and often down. It requires painful processes (if what we were working on wasn’t an inanimate object). When God goes to work on a spiritual landscape, it requires the same hard work and painful efforts. But, when He’s done, wondrous beauty occurs, efficiency improves, life gets better.
I just wonder how many of us are willing to get out of the way and let Him work. How many are okay with the pain and the change? How many are open to His activity?
Tags: Discipleship, Discipline, Growing, Life Change, maturity, shaping, Spiritual Growth
