Activating The Force Of Encounters by Apostle Michael Orokpo: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Encounters Change Stories

John 4:6-7 — Jesus met the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well "about the sixth hour," and by the end of that single encounter, she had gone from a woman avoiding the crowd to someone who brought her entire city to Jesus. Acts 10:9-16 — Peter's rooftop vision that opened the gospel to the Gentiles also happened "about the sixth hour." An encounter is capable of altering an entire destiny in a single conversation. Jeremiah 29:13 — "ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." Encounters remain the sovereign choice of God, but they can genuinely be provoked through earnest prayer.

Samuel was an ordinary boy doing chores in the temple until one encounter in the night made him a prophet recognized from Dan to Beersheba. Gideon was a fearful man hiding grain from raiders until an angel addressed him as "thou mighty man of valour," and he became a deliverer. It doesn't matter your current circumstance — one encounter can completely change your story.

Five Kinds of Encounters

• Transformational encounters. Saul, a persecutor and self-described blasphemer, was already in prayer within days of meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus, and already preaching before he left the city. 2 Corinthians 3:18 — beholding His glory changes us "from glory to glory." No one is too damaged for this kind of encounter to reach.
• Soul-winning encounters. Like the Samaritan woman and Peter at Cornelius's house, some encounters exist specifically to birth a harvest of souls through the person who receives them.
• Encounters that magnify. Joshua 3:7 — "This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee." After that encounter, Israel honored Joshua exactly as they had honored Moses. An encounter can shift how an entire room, business, or industry perceives you almost overnight.
• Destiny-commissioning encounters. Jeremiah 1:5 — "before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet." Acts 13:2 — Barnabas and Saul were formally separated for their assignment during a season of prayer and fasting. Jonah, an otherwise ordinary man, became a prophet the moment the word of the Lord came to him — the assignment doesn't wait for the person to feel ready.
• Encounters that make you a generational reference point. Mary was, by all accounts, an ordinary young woman until Gabriel's visitation — after which she could never again be separated from the story of redemption itself. Isaiah 60:15 — "I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations." Moses became this kind of generational marker; so did Mary.

Where you are right now, and what you're currently going through, is not a disqualifier — it is often exactly the condition an encounter is designed to interrupt.