Divine Encounters by Apostle Michael Orokpo: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

What Gives Life Meaning

Believers are in this world but not of it, and must stay vitally connected to where they came from. Scripture reveals three things that are the most critical components of a meaningful life.

1. Knowing God — John 17:3 records Jesus teaching that eternal life is to know God, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He sent. Longevity means nothing without this. What gives value to time is not how long a person lives or how much is accumulated, since a person's worth is not in the multitude of possessions, but in the quality of their experience of God.
2. The quality of worship — John 4:23-24 records Jesus saying the Father seeks true worshippers who worship Him in spirit and in truth. Isaiah 43:21 confirms that people were created to give God praise. Worship is far deeper than singing; the word first appears in Scripture in Genesis 22:5, when Abraham, about to sacrifice his son Isaac, said he was going to worship, though no song was sung. Worship is a state of the heart crystallized through absolute submission and loyalty to God, expressed through sacrifice, obedience, or praise. Whatever holds more value than God in a person's life has become an idol.
3. Participation in God's agenda — God occupies different offices. As Father, He is generous and benevolent; a believer can ask and simply receive, the way a small child demands juice or water without understanding how it is provided. As Judge, He weighs situations by merit, requiring growth rather than granting every want, the way a parent insists a reluctant child still go to school. As Master and Owner, He reminds a believer that their life is not their own; it was never asked for at the beginning, and it will not be asked for when it is required back. As King, He has a government He is extending to the earth, and not every citizen of that kingdom carries equal authority; only those who participate in advancing His agenda carry real relevance, the way only certain officials can bind a nation with a decision.

The agenda of God can be summarized in one line: to reveal Jesus as King. Christocentric living, connecting people to Christ, teaching them to worship Him, and sending them to represent Him, is what fulfills that agenda.

Anyone who does not grow in the experience of God, in worship, and in advancing His kingdom is, in eternal terms, living a useless existence.

The Necessity of Personal Encounter

1 John 1:1 shows John moving from having only heard about God to declaring what he had personally seen and handled. Every believer must reach a point beyond what a preacher, a father, or a mother has said, a point of personal, experiential interaction with God. Satan does not attack conviction while a believer is celebrating; he attacks it in warfare, when health or resources are under assault, asking whether the God once spoken of is truly real. Without a personal encounter, that conviction will not hold.

Genuine encounter produces three outcomes:

1. Conviction furnished by revelation — a certainty that cannot be fully explained but also cannot be denied.
2. Transformation — beholding the glory of the Lord changes a person into His likeness. No lifestyle or struggle exists without a root in consciousness; when a person meets God, fear and lust die at the root because they, too, were the product of another encounter.
3. Commissioning — no one meets God and remains idle. Encounter installs a person into their own place of service, whether in ministry, government, academia, or business.

Five Categories of Encounter

1. Revelation-based encounters — the goal is simply to reveal a dimension of God, as with Daniel (Daniel 10:7-9) and John on Patmos (Revelation 1:10-17). This is what makes a person a custodian of a body of truth, a voice in their generation, without needing a platform handed to them.
2. Transformation-based encounters — Jacob wrestled with an angel through the night (Genesis 32:24-30) and rose no longer Jacob the manipulator but Israel. Saul, whose whole pursuit was to destroy the church, encountered Christ on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:4-6) and became an apostle. Often what the enemy uses a person to oppose is precisely their true calling, and only an encounter can reprogram that.
3. Commissioning-based encounters — Moses saw a burning bush that was not consumed (Exodus 3:7-10) after his own strength had already failed him once before Pharaoh. Encounters make an assignment that once looked too large for a life become bearable.
4. Impartation or power-based encounters — At Pentecost (Acts 2:1), ordinary men received a sudden empowerment; Peter raised the lame man at the Beautiful Gate (Acts 3:1-6), and the apostles began doing signs and wonders (Acts 5:12). These encounters activate gifts and manifestations a person cannot explain in themselves.
5. Deliverance-based encounters — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the fire, and a fourth figure appeared with them, recognized even by the pagan king as one like the Son of God (Daniel 3:24-25). Encounter causes even an enemy to recognize the presence of God around a believer's life before they ever choose to submit to Him.

Protocols for Securing an Encounter

1. The law of burdens. When God wants to grant an encounter, He places a restlessness on the heart, a summons that makes ordinary company and routine feel unsettling. Moses withdrew to Horeb (Exodus 3:1) before he saw the burning bush; Jacob was left alone before the heavens opened over him. Many believers abort these burdens, choosing a planned outing or an unbroken routine over the unrest that was meant to draw them apart to meet God.
2. The law of seeking. Jeremiah 29:13 promises that those who seek God with the whole heart will find Him. Encounter is not reserved for those God draws; anyone can seek Him deliberately, the way a person once pursued a spouse with undivided attention. The intensity a person once gave to courtship reveals what real seeking looks like, and God is not fooled by a hurried, distracted version of prayer.
3. The law of service. Samuel was serving in the sanctuary, not yet even recognizing the voice of God, when God began calling him (1 Samuel 3). Others in the same house had already gone to rest; Samuel remained at his post, and it was there that the encounters began. Service, whether with time, resources, or prayer for others in the field, positions a person to be found by God.

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Who You Become Through Encounter

Encounter does not only reveal God, it reveals a person to themselves. Psalm 139:14 declares that every person is fearfully and wonderfully made, formed in the image of a triune God, so that each person carries a dimension that mirrors the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. 2 Peter 1:3-4 says believers have been given all things pertaining to life and godliness, and have become partakers of the divine nature itself.

• You are light — Jesus called Himself the light of the world (John 8:12) and called believers the same in Matthew 5:14-16.
• You are wind — the Holy Spirit is likened to wind that cannot be traced or contained, and Jesus said the same is true of those born of the Spirit (John 3:5-8). Wind cannot be captured or stopped.
• You are a fountain — believers carry rivers of living water flowing out from within, and the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is what quickens a mortal body.
• You are a flame of fire — fire purifies what is of God and torments what is not; whatever is not of God that comes into contact with a believer is meant to be burned away, not to take hold.
• You are a living stone — built into the house of God, unbreakable, so that what is meant to shatter a person instead bounces back.

A story is told of a sick man whose friends took a photograph together to remember him by, certain he would not survive. Forty years later, every friend in that photograph had died, except him.

God does not need any person in order to remain God; He was complete before creation and will remain so regardless. Every invitation to partner with Him is an act of love, not necessity.

Closing Ministration