Where are the unexpected places or times where you’ve
encountered or met God? When has Jesus revealed himself to you or the Holy
Spirit made a point of guiding you in an unexpected way? Jesus has a way of
shaking things up at times by meeting us in places or at times when we least
expect it. I wonder if that’s because we get caught up in regular life and its
routine and we don’t expect to see Jesus so we don’t; we don’t expect the Holy
Spirit to engage us so we don’t recognize its presence.
The first time I truly sensed the Holy Spirit’s presence was after
sitting with a group of broken men at the Thunder Bay Christian Community
Center. We had spent the evening talking about family and life, about what it
means to be a man, a father or husband. Some of the men stank because they
hadn’t bathed in weeks, at least one of the men was high or drunk, most were
scruffy wearing mismatched gloves and clothing and yet they were looking for
something more, looking for hope and willing to try Jesus, willing to trust us
enough to share their stories, hurts and struggles because we showed we cared.
Sitting alone in the room afterwards, I felt something different, I felt the
presence of something more, felt in my heart and soul a call to dedicate myself
to helping people to meet Jesus.
A second time was after my family committed with me
to follow Jesus into full-time ministry by going back to school. We moved to the
Hamilton area so I could attend Redeemer University. It was early January and
over Christmas my younger brother Glenn had died and gone home to the Lord and
we couldn’t afford to go back to Thunder Bay. I was sitting in the cafeteria at
a corner table where I usually sat when a fellow student, a young man came up
to me to ask me to help tutor him in English Literature. We got to talking and
he mentioned he had lost a family member over Christmas and couldn’t make it
home. Two other students noticed that we seemed rather down and they stopped by
and both of them had recently experienced the deaths of loved ones as well.
Over the next hour or so we told stories of our loved ones, we cried, we
laughed and we prayed for each other. One of the young women said before we all
went our different ways that she felt Jesus’ presence in a powerful way and
could feel his peace seep into her heart. We all had just experienced the same
thing and had never thought that we would encounter Jesus that day in the
cafeteria.
Moses meets God on the far side of the wilderness as he’s taking
care of his father-in-law’s sheep. Being a shepherd is filled with lots of
alone time, lots of thinking time, and Moses has much to think about as a
former prince of Egypt now turned renegade shepherd travelling through the
wilderness caring for and guiding sheep rather than people. Moses leads his
sheep into the shadow of a mountain called Horeb, later known as the mountain
of God, the place where God is going to meet with all the Israelites to begin
the task of shaping them into his people.
Moses is drawn to a bush that is burning away but not burning
up. In the dry desert, fire and both blessing and curse, an uncontrolled fire
is a great danger and here is an unexpected fire untended but not burning up
anything. This is likely a wild acacia or thorn bush, dry and brittle with the
potential now of creating a wildfire. Moses approaches the bush with a mix of
curiosity, wonder, and fear. Fire is often connected with the divine and
supernatural. The Holy Spirit comes in the form of a burning flame on Pentecost
and God guides Israel through the wilderness as a column of fire later on. The
Lord makes a covenant with Abram, appearing as a smoking firepot and blazing
torch passing through the sacrificed bodies of various animals when he promises
Abram’s descendants will take possession of the Promised Land. Now God appears
to Moses in the fire to begin the process of fulfilling this ancient promise to
Abram. This is why God introduces himself to Moses as “the
God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”
As God calls for Moses to come near, he also commands
Moses, “Don’t come any closer. Take off your sandals,
for the places where you are standing is holy ground.” Moses hides his
face in fear because he’s afraid to look at God. In the middle and far east, it
was often considered rude and disrespectful to look at the king without
permission, the punishment often being a beating and sometimes even death.
Respect of the divine is still important today in a day and age where we too
often treat God with a lack of respect and honour, treating God as if he’s
supposed to serve us and pay attention to us whenever we want. Moses is told to
take off his sandals because the place is holy ground and sandals are worn to
keep the filth off the person’s feet, meaning they get covered with dirt and
sheep do-do, among other things. By taking his sandals off, Moses is personally
touching the holy ground, connecting his more closely with God in a respectful
and honouring manner.
It’s also a symbol of how we are personally defiled with the filth of
our sin and need to be washed clean in order to be in the presence of God. We’re
unable to wash ourselves clean from the filth of our sins, we need to be washed
clean by someone untouched by sin, this is Jesus who came from heaven to earth
to meet us and take our punishment on himself and through his blood wash our
souls clean so we can be in the presence of God without fear. We’re given a new
mission just as Moses was given a new mission. Moses is called to lead God’s
people out of slavery in Egypt, we are called to lead people out of their
slavery to sin, to their work, to their pleasure, to their toys, to their
addictions, to whatever they’ve given themselves to. We do this by introducing
them to Jesus, sharing our faith and our lives with them so they can see how
Jesus has set us from the things that enslaved our hearts and souls. We can
help them meet Jesus.
God doesn’t hide who he is. He may meet you in
unexpected places or times, but you will not have to guess about whether or not
you’ve actually encountered God through the Holy Spirit. When Jesus makes his
presence felt, when the Holy Spirit engages you, you will recognize who it is.
I’ve heard people caution those who have encountered the Holy Spirit and are
wrestling with the sense of a different life direction because of their
encounter to make sure it’s the Holy Spirit and not a spirit from Satan to lead
you away from God and his direction. It’s good to check your own desires and
wants to see if Satan might be using these to lead you away from Jesus. But this
is why when God meets Moses, he reminds him of the relationship he had with
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, this is why God renews his promises to Moses’
ancestors, confirming who he is.
If you are wondering whether or not you’ve really
encountered the Holy Spirit, look to the Scriptures to make sure that where
you’re being guided is consistent with what God and Jesus have taught and done.
Is where you are being led taking you closer to Jesus or leading you away from
him? Jesus promised us the Holy Spirit and that the Spirit would guide us and
remind us of everything Jesus had taught. This is why we’ve been given both
Scripture and the Holy Spirit, so that they both confirm each other. When Jesus
meets the disciples on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection from the dead,
he reminds them of everything the Scriptures said about him and then he broke
bread with them and they finally recognized him; scripture, a personal
relationship and the gifts Jesus gives us in the simple things of life like
breaking bread all help us know him when he comes to meet us.
God reveals who he is through our history and stories. He is the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and he is the God of our fathers, our mothers,
because he is a God of relationship and commitment who listens to the cries of
his people. He’s a God who acts and calls his people to join him in acting with
him to carry out his plan to restore and renew all creation. God meets us in
unexpected places and times to invite us and equip us to go and meet others to
lead them to meet Jesus in places and at times they never expected.
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