DIVINE ENCOUNTER

Text: Acts 9:1-5, Gen 32:24-30

Are you struggling with something in your life, are troubled about the way your life is going, are you suffering because of what people are thinking or talking about you? If that is you; you need divine encounter for a change. The Bible says a man call Saul of tarsus was a persecutor of the early church and was against the will of the lord, he was an enemy of those who believe in Jesus Christ. He believed in God and thought he was doing God a favour by persecuting anyone that believes in this so called king of the Jews.

One day something happened to this man, it was an accident, a divine accident. The Bible says as he Journeyed near Damascus, suddenly, there shine a light from heaven upon him and he felt the impact of that divine encounter. He fell from his horseback to the earth and a voice said to him Saul, Saul why has thou persecuted me, he said who art thou Lord? And the voice said “I am Jesus whom thou persecuted.

That Divine encounter got him into divine revelation which made him to know that it was God. When you have a divine encounter you don’t need to be told that you have been touched by God. A divine encounter comes with a deep revelation of a deep secret, it break curses. An encounter can change your life, change your thinking. The same man that was a persecutor of Christians, became a disciple of Christ, his life changed instantly, his story changed. Why? Because he had a divine encounter. When an encounter comes things that were not moved begin to move, life that was tied become loose, poverty falls off and curses are broken.

Hear me! Every successful character in the Bible that we all like to be identified with, like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Elijah, Elisha, Paul, Peter and all the apostle and even our Lord Jesus Christ. If we study their life history very well, we will discover that none of them was born with a silver spoon in their mouth; so to say their life was full of struggle in the beginning just like you and me. Joseph and Mary had to smuggle Jesus out of Egypt for Herod not to kill him, Abraham waited many years before becoming a father, Isaac was been driven from the well he dug and waited for twenty years before having Jacob and Esua, Jacob ran away from his brother who promised to kill him after their father died. He ran to his uncle Nabal, who played him 419 for twenty years, Joseph had a dream and from innocent of his heart told his brothers and father, that put him in slavery for seventeen years. the list are endless, but at some point in their lives something happened and their lives were never the same again until death. In other words they had divine encounter that changed their position.

WHAT IS DIVINE ENCOUNTER?

Divine encounter is something beyond human reasoning, what man cannot find explanation to, but the word encounter means to come upon. Tonight God will come upon you and all you battles will be over.

In Genesis 32:24-30 the Bible says Jacob had an encounter; he wrestled and got his breakthrough. Jacob started on a very bad note; he was a cunning man, crafty and subtle. No one would have thought that he could be eligible for divine encounter, he stole his brother’s blessing, not only that by the time he has gone to stay with his uncle Nabal, he robbed him of almost all his flocks. But Laban paid him back by giving Leah to him instead of Rachel they agreed on after seven years. while he was fleeing from his uncle he had the news that frightened him, his brother Esau who he had defrauded some years earlier was coming to pay him a visit, he did not know whether to go forward or backward. Nobody can believe that somebody like Jacob can have encounter with God.

Your background does not determine your future; Jacob did something despite all this atrocities he committed which qualified him for divine encounter, and after that:

·        The sentence of death that was hanging over his head was cancelled; divine encounter can cancel death and destruction.

·        Jacob experience a change of name

·        Jacob encountered God and his future was settled, your future shall be settled tonight in Jesus name.

·        Jacob was blessed by God after his encounter.