Encounter with a powerful God (Part two) Luke 24:31-32

"Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?’” (Luke 24:31-32).

Even with their hearts moved by Scripture, the two disciples didn’t get it! It was not until they sat at the table and Jesus broke bread with them that it dawned on them. The light broke through. They were able recognize who he was.

The encounter with God will initiate an acceptance and love when the bread is broken. see John 15:16) cf Luke 24:31. Then their eyes were opened. They did not recognize him with their human eyes. It was when God opened their eyes that “they recognized him.” God revealed Himself in a new revelation. An encounter with God refreshes your spirit, opens the eyes of vision, and turns faith into action. Christ led them to see that His suffering and crucifixion was all a part of God’s plan of redemption.

Only in fellowship at the breaking of the bread is the recognition of the Christ accomplished; His disciples’ eyes were opened and they recognized Him. God’s character is revealed out of intimacy and in the process you will recognize Him and hear His voice. That is the reason each believer is invited to partake of the Lord’s Table. It is during this moment of part-taking the Lord’s table we are able to encounter God and our eyes are opened to the truth of the Cross.

With a supernatural encounter with God, a person is never the same and the experience is unforgettable. There is a spiritual realm all around you, enveloping you and waiting for you to acknowledge it. As you reckon its reality, it will come alive. God is waiting for your response to His presence.

No one will ever understand salvation until he experiences it—it’s supernatural because God is supernatural. God cannot be known apart from experience. Your faith is born out of a relationship. You are as strong or weak in your faith depending on how you have cultivated that relationship with God. Faith is the conviction of the unseen realm and is able to drag that reality into your physical world Hebrews 11:1.

Without a faith encounter with God, you have no spiritual life -John 3:3.  A supernatural faith encounter with God will give you a mission, task, or revelation beyond yourself -1 Corinthians 2:12-13. Everything now made sense. Meeting the resurrected Jesus, the two disciples saw the triumph of the cross over sin, Satan, hell, death, and the grave. They rushed back to Jerusalem that very hour with the message of a risen Lord. That should be our experience and mission.

What they experienced on the Emmaus Road laid the foundation of faith and gave hope to the other disciples that they, too, could have an encounter with God. We too should have the same mission after the encounter. The encounter will cause you to take the risk of faith and die if need be -Acts 15:26.

Their hearts burned within with a new passion. This happens when you know you have broken through the dryness, emptiness, and darkness of your circumstances. You know that you have come into the flow of spiritual fullness and light when the pain, fear, rejection, loneliness, and failure have turned and given meaning and purpose.

To fulfill the mission of Jesus and to finish the Father’s work you need the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit by His very nature gives a supernatural ministry to those who have been anointed. To walk in the Spirit is to have an ongoing encounter with God- 1 Thessalonians 1:5.

On the Emmaus Road Jesus first accepted the two disciples and built a relationship by listening to them. He then explained His crucifixion and gave them a new revelation of Himself. He then “disappeared from their sight” Like 24:31. They put their faith into action by going back to their friends with this new revelation. Their faith allows them to see and hear things in the spirit—to look past the physical dimension and see what God sees from eternity. They were never the same. They had an encounter with a supernatural powerful God and so can you!

As I pen off, I encourage you to experience the power of God as He is revealed in you. You may be in your own Emmaus road, trying to get away from the hustles of life or escape from what makes you stressed up. Seek the most power God while He is available to you.  Isaiah 55:6

Work cited:

The encyclopedia of the Bible

The Gospel of Luke according to Dr. Luke (commentary of the Gospel of Luke)

New King James Bible

Encounter with a powerful God.(Part one) Luke 24:31-32

Luke 24:31-32 “Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?

If the Holy Spirit is flowing like a river, splashing over your banks in power and grace to save, heal, and deliver others, I hope this article will serve as energizer for you to do much more for God.

If you are like me, you may be feeling a deep need to see God and meet him daily in your day to day routine. If there’s restlessness, an unfulfilled hunger, a desperate desire, and an unsatisfied thirst for a fresh encounter with God, this article will you have a supernatural way in which you might encounter a powerful God.


God met two disciples at their lowest hour on the Emmaus Road. Two disciples encountered God, and so can you.Luke records that on the afternoon of the first Easter Sunday, Cleopas and a fellow disciple were walking to Emmaus only a few days before Jesus had been betrayed, tried, mocked, flogged, and crucified. The seven-mile trip was an escape from Jerusalem. The thought of just relaxing and being rejuvenated in body, mind, and emotions was something worth doing for the couple.


They had hoped that Jesus was the Messiah. The disciples had been hiding in fear behind locked doors. Then there were the “rumors” of an empty tomb and the disappearance of Jesus’ body. The reports were confusing. Their disappointment had turned to grief. Both of these disciples were in the pit of depression and hopelessness. Their hopes were dashed. They wanted a break from the stress and strain and from the tragedy of the past few weeks. So they are getting out of town to Emmaus, but in reality going nowhere. More than anything, they needed a fresh encounter with the living God they now thought was dead.


Just like these two disciples, most of us are working out a theology of God through the tragedies and trials of our life. The working out of problems, suffering, crises, and grief will teach you more than you will ever get out of a book or a school. You must come to know how God relates to this world and the way He works through secondary causes to reach you. Troubles of life will make you bitter or better.


Countless times in my ministry to the sick, I have met patients who once believed but after a prolonged suffering start doubting the existence and benevolence nature of God. While this is human nature, we should realize that it is through tough times we build our faith and strengthen our walk with God. Isaiah 38:17God uses personal trials to rewrite your spiritual agenda and to bring you into a new relationship with Him.


The calamity will make you desperate for God. It’s not the fierce trials that will change you, but a passionate pursuit of God. God is determined to use those difficult circumstances to bring you into a faith encounter with Him. Out of this encounter will come a revelation, an understanding, a salvation, and a freedom with God as He transforms your character into His image. Romans 8:28-29.


When you are born-again, you move into the supernatural realm. Scripture affirms that hearing God’s voice is natural to a child of God .John 10:4. To a spiritual person the supernatural moves into the natural.

It is in our weakness and need for wholeness and fulfillment that most of us desire an encounter with God. Emmaus is not so much a place as it is a state of mind. For the two disciples on the road, it was an escape from suffering and stress. It’s a place where you want to go to “get away,” where you are likely to say, “Forget it. The pain, rejection, loneliness, and failure are not worth it. All seems lost and hopeless. It does not matter anymore.”

The road to Emmaus is that place where you think you can escape the demands of life, an ungrateful family, betrayal of friends, and self-rejection. The desire is that the “warm springs” of Emmaus may help you to relax and get revived.

At your darkest and most desperate hour, when you have come to the end of doing it for yourself, when you are unable to conceive of any way out from your problems, God meets you. This is when you are most able to recognize your need for Him. This is the moment that you most desire God in His infinite grace to rescue you. You are hungry, thirsty, anguished, desperate, and desiring. This is the perfect opportunity for God to meet you.

In that encounter God comes and confronts your hang-ups and confusion. 1 Corinthians 11:32.

You learn from the Emmaus Road that at your point of need you encounter God. John 8:32.

WATCH FOR PART 2

Work cited:

The encyclopedia of the Bible

The Gospel of Luke according to Dr Luke( commentary of the Gospel of Luke)

New King James bible

How to Draw Near to God(Lowly Submission) James 4:7-10

Do you feel disconnected from God? Many do. How can we draw near to God? I don’t personally know anyone who would not like to draw near to God. Drawing near to God is essential to salvation and thus to the Christian life. How can we endure without being close to Him? What comfort can I have without Him? The Spirit of Christ spoke through Paul in Athens saying in Acts 17:24-28:

 

“God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grasp for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’”

God has made this world so that people may seek Him and find Him. The times and the boundaries of our dwellings have been set and established by God for this very purpose God wants you to find Him and has blessed all people everywhere to be able to do that.

 

From TZ to Kenya, from South Africa to North Africa, from South America to North America, from Europe to Asia, from Middle East to Near East, from your home to mine, you can find God.

 

Jesus promised, “Seek and you will find” (Matt. 7:7). 

 

The Spirit of Christ said in Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and divinity, so that they are without excuse,”

 

The second thing that we see is that God is not far from each one of us. Though many are separated from God by their sins and their own false gods, God is not so far that we cannot reach Him.

 

No matter your sins, your race, your gender, or ethnicity; God is not far. If I am not close to God, it is my fault despite the hindrances from others.

 

Christ’s Spirit said in James 4:8, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” Here is the command with a promise. The command is draw near to God, and the promise is that He will draw near to you. When we stand before the judgment seat of God, what will we say?

 “God, I didn’t know where you were.” “I looked, but I just couldn’t find you.”  “God, I was in church”, “I prayed”, “I was good to people.”

Some people come (go) to worship in the Church and get nothing out of it and do not know what their worship has done. Why do so many not get anything out of worship?

 

If you don’t have a thirst and hunger for righteousness, then you may be a Christian in name only. You have to draw near to God. Drawing near to God is essential for our salvation, and that Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection was to do exactly that by reconciling God and man (You) through Christ.

 

We draw near to God by humble submission or in other words lowering ourselves into obedience.

 

James 4:7-10 “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

Humility is essential to submitting in obedience to God. Jesus is the author of salvation to those who obey Him.

 

Heb. 5:8-9. For the Spirit of Christ has revealed the words of Christ through His Apostles and prophets to transform us back into the image of God (2 Cor. 3:18).

 

It is humble submission that helps us overcome sin. For by this we resist the Devil and he flees.

 

We draw near to God by cleansing our hands because we are sinners. If you are disconnected from God, it is because of your sins (Col. 1:21).

 

We draw near to God by purifying our hearts being doubled-minded or even better as the Greek word disuchoi literally means “two-souls”. Sinners claiming to be Christians have to be doubled-minded. “Lament and mourn and weep!” Mourn for your sins.

 

Now what? Christ’s teaching is clearly revealed through Paul in  2 Corinthians 7:10.  “For godly sorrow produces repentance, leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”

 

If we would humble ourselves, then we would have joy and a lasting joy. Jesus will lift us up. what does it mean to be humble? To humble means to make yourself low. 

 

Just as the original word is used for mountains being brought low in Luke 3:5, and Christ being in the form of God came in the likeness of man in Philippians 2:8.

 Are you desiring to draw nearer to God? How close do you really want to get to Him?

 A closer walk must begin with a preparation of the heart. 


PREPARING YOUR HEART

Jeremiah 4:3 “For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem , Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.”

The Lord is speaking about breaking up the hard ground in your heart, that part where the Word of God isn’t finding root and lodging, where it isn’t flourishing and growing, where it isn’t bearing fruit.  


DRAW NEAR TO GOD IN PRAYER

James 4:8 “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.”

 

Let this verse sink down into your heart, and apply it to your life. You have the responsibility of taking the first step. When you begin to draw near to God, He will automatically draw near to you.  

 
STUDY GOD'S WORD

Isaiah 55:6,7 “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon him while He is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let Him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”

Besides spending time in prayer, we need to also spend time in the Word: If we take time to read the Bible and to study it, we will find that, all at once, it becomes alive unto us. There will be something about it that draws us, something that enriches our heart. 

One way to draw closer to God is to enlarge our understanding of Him and of His ways. This is very important. Nothing can take the place of reading the Word of God - not even books about the Bible. You need to get into the Bible for yourself - every day! It is food for your soul.  

LAY ASIDE MEANINGLESS THINGS

Romans 8:6 “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” 

Redeem that idle time, giving yourself over to God and earnestly seeking Him. You’ll find yourself enjoying life a lot more if you pull apart from the things of this world, and really give yourself over to God.  

 
KEY SCRIPTURE FOR GETTING CLOSER TO GOD

Romans 12:1-2 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”  

 

I firmly believe that the Bible has all the answers we need. It has the answers to everything pertaining to life and godliness. If we really want to draw closer to God, all we need do is follow what the Bible has to tell us.  If you want to draw closer to God, you are going to have to do so on His terms - not on your terms.

 

“Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  This is what takes the place of conformity. Let your mind be renewed by drawing nigh to God and to His Word.

How to be used by God -Timothy 2:20-21

 I want to speak in this article to all who want to be used of God. I would suspect that deep in every person's heart here there is a desire that God might use them. That is a normal and a proper desire.

There is no thrill like the thrill of being used of God. There is excitement, satisfaction and fulfillment, the consciousness that one has been the instrument in the hands of the Almighty to do some of His work to change the direction of someone's life, perhaps,

 1. To prevent an injury,
2. To resolve an argument,
3. To answer a challenge,
4. To heal a weakness,
5. To rebuke a ruler, or to turn a nation.


I have seen men tremble with a sense of awe as they realized that on a given occasion they were the instrument of God's working.

I can tell you from personal experience that is something that is without compare in this life. It can happen anywhere, anytime.

God works in wonderful ways, not always in very dramatic ways, but in ways we do not anticipate. It can happen to anybody.

Being used of God is not confined to pastors, preachers or teachers. Anybody can be an instrument in God's hands.

In the passage we are looking at this morning from Second Timothy, Chapter 2, beginning with Verse 20, the Apostle Paul describes what it takes to be used of God.

 Timothy 2:20-21 “In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and earthenware, and some for noble use, some for ignoble. If anyone purifies himself from what is ignoble, then he will be a vessel for noble use, consecrated and useful to the master of the house, ready for any good work.”

The great question then is to what end, for what purpose is he using you?

"In every house," he says, "there are vessels." That is true of all homes -- we have "vessels for honor," i.e., dishes we eat from, pots and pans we cook in, decorated vases, etc., are all vessels unto honor.

They are not only useful but they are preserved, they are permanent, we want to keep them.

But every house also has "vessels for dishonor" -- we have garbage cans, slop buckets, bedpans, trash barrels, wastebaskets. We do not display them.

They are useful, but they are not presentable. We may even intend to dispose of them, sometimes after only one use. Those are vessels of dishonor.

Application 1- That is the way God sees you. If we want to understand life as it really is, we have to look at each in that way. God sees all of us as useful vessels.

We see that in Verse 21: "If any one purifies himself from what is ignoble, then he will be a vessel for noble use." We have no choice of whether we are going to be used of God or not; the choice we have is what God is going to use us for.

Choice determines the way God uses us. God will never set man's will aside and use him for a good purpose without him being willing to be used. 1 Samuel 3:11

Application 2- God does not force us to be used of him; it must always be a willing choice on our part. But we have to do something about it.

…"he must purify himself,"… we are responsible to use the cleansing that has been provided.

Example:- If you have been working on your car or in the yard and your hands are dirty, you go into the bathroom to clean yourself up with soap and water -- you deliberately choose to use the soap and water provided -- when you have done so you say, "I've cleansed myself." It was not you that did the cleansing (it was the soap and water), but you used that which was provided.

We have a responsibility to use the redemption that has been provided in Jesus Christ, to lay hold of his provision for the forgiveness of sin.

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness," (l John 1:9.

You can go into a bathroom with dirty hands and there is soap and water there, but if you refuse to use them you will come out just as dirty as you went in. You cannot blame the bathroom for that. You are to blame.

You can come to church and hear the truth of the Word of God, but if you do not apply it to yourself it does you no good.

You cannot blame God because he did not give you all the good things he promises to those who come to him, if you have not come to him. Even as a Christian you cannot expect to be used of God in beautiful and wonderful ways unless you are willing to purify yourself and use the instruments he has provided.

Everybody wants to be used of God if he is a Christian, but you cannot be used of God for good purposes unless you are willing to say "No" first.

You must say "No" to the wrong before God will say "Yes" to the right. You cannot go on living like you have always done and expect God to use you. He cannot, he will not, until there is a cleansing.

…"If any one purifies himself ... “he will be, a vessel unto honor, ready for any good work." He will be "consecrated."
Finally, he is "ready for any good work." He becomes adaptable; God can use him in many different ways.

All this hangs on your willingness to turn away from the wrongful attitudes, philosophies and actions of life.

This is the proper interpretation, and it is proved by the way Paul specifically applies this to Timothy. In Verse 22 he says,

Application 3:- You never start with wanting to be used by God; you have to start with refusing to be used by the wrong.

If you want God to make you an effective instrument of his working in this world throughout your life, that is where you have to start.

If you have not learned to say "No," if you drift along with whatever the crowd is doing, you will never be an instrument used by God for noble purposes.

You have to say "No" to unbelief and "Yes" to faith.