4 Ways to Position your life for an encounter with Jesus.

You long to have a radical encounter with Jesus. You read of heroes in the Bible, hear stories throughout history, and even see modern-day testimonies of people drastically impacted by an encounter with the love and power of God. But you wonder, “could it happen to me? Is there anything I can do to have an ‘encounter’ with God like that?”

The answer is yes. In this post, we will talk about four ways you can position yourself to have an encounter with Jesus.

Side Note: One of the best ways to encounter God is to learn how to hear His voice! I outline 8 Ways you can encounter God’s Voice in my Free Ebook, and a webinar teaching your first few steps to hearing God’s voice!

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The truth is that no one can force God to do anything. We cannot make Him come in our time frame, and He isn’t at our call like a genie in the lamp.

But he is a good father and says he will come to all who call upon him and wait for his timing. (Psalm 145:18, Lamentations 3:25). So though we can’t make Him move, we can put practices in our lives that keep us tender, sensitive, and ready for Him at any moment.

Here are four practices you can start today.

1. Hunger for his Presence.

As I began to share in my last post, How to Live Reliant on God Jesus called my team and I to travel to Nepal throughout the Himalayan mountains to a town called Muktinath. Muktinath is called “the place of salvation” and contains one of the highest temples in the world (altitude 12,000 ft above sea level!) Buddhists and Hindus believe if you want salvation, this is where you must go.

After Trekking for two days straight uphill, carrying 30 pounds on our back, we finally made it to Muktinath. Exhausted and unsure of where to start, we prayed, asking the Lord for a strategy.

We felt we were to go around inviting the town to come to watch a drama we created that preached the gospel, then afterward, we would do a gospel message. To our surprise, within an hour, about 80 villagers came.

The drama went well, and our preacher did a fabulous job sharing the gospel, yet not a single person responded when the altar call came.

I assumed it must be a translation issue because surely, in a group of unreached people, at least one person would want Jesus! So I got up and re-explained the gospel again in different words. I preached my whole heart, telling them about the fall, sin, the cross, salvation in Jesus, and heaven.

Here came the second altar call. Zero responded. One man yelled out in Nepali. The translator said, “he says he doesn’t want it.”

A mixture of shock, confusion, and anger flooded through me. Confusion, because I know God designed the human heart to want this message of Christ above all else.

Shock because this is an unreached people group. I have never seen an altar call of zero before in a crowd of unbelievers.

Anger at the devil for blinding these people with a thousand years of worshipping demonic Buddhist idols.

I yelled at the crowd. “WHAT?!? NOBODY?” NOT A SINGLE ONE?”

How was this possible? How could Jesus so clearly tell us to come all this way, to this location, to not show up?

Just when I was ready to give up, something radical happened.

As we began to read last week in Matthew 15:29, “Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there.”

Jesus tends to go to deserts and climb mountains. Then he rests and waits for the hungry ones to reveal themselves and come to him.

Jesus purposefully put himself in a position of inconvenience. Jesus doesn’t want to be convenient, and he wants to be pursued.

Salvation is free, but discipleship is costly. If we want to be obedient and be disciples of Jesus, we must follow him, even when it is inconvenient.

I want you to notice who inconvenienced themselves to find Jesus and who did not.

Matthew 15:30 “And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them,”

The disabled. The Blind. The Mute. The diseased. They all somehow came to him in a desert and on a mountain.

Who did not make it to him? The Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the religious community.

The disabled beggars traveled farther than the healthy preachers. The blind found Jesus when those with sight could not.

How is that possible? Because the desperate and the hungry will always find Jesus.

If you are desperate enough to allow Jesus to inconvenience you and still follow him, you will encounter him.

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2. Humble yourself at his feet.

Matthew 15:30 “…they put them at his feet, and he healed them.”

Who were the ones who got healed? The ones who humbled themselves at his feet.

They did not get offended that he was in the desert and did not scold him for not coming to them in the city. Instead, they got to his feet, bowed down, and surrendered.

Humility positions our lives for an encounter with God. I don’t need to understand. I need to bow down. I don’t need to know why he wasn’t where I wanted him to be. I need to surrender where he wants me to be now.

The encounter comes when we prioritize sitting at his feet above all else!

Do we cut out other parts of our life to make room to sit at his feet?

3. Don’t move on.

Matthew 15: 31, “Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”

After they got healed, they wouldn’t leave!

Three days ago, this was the most diseased group in Israel. Now they are the healthiest group in all of Israel! Imagine a crowd of thousands, each with recent testimony of miraculous healing!

They could have gone home once they got their healing, but they didn’t. The crowd stayed in his presence, refusing to leave. They remained on the mountain for three days doing what? “GLORIFYING THE GOD OF ISRAEL. “

This was a 4,000+ person worship event that lasted for 72 hours! This is one of the greatest worship moments in the whole Bible.

Many people go to God, then leave once they get what they want. What if we lingered? What if we didn’t just get our devotion for the day and move on? What if we wasted time at the feet of Jesus and refused to move on?

The person who sees Jesus’ presence as the most excellent way to spend their time is a person God loves to encounter.

But what about the Practicals?

“Taylor,” you ask, “I can’t just use up my time in worship. I got to work and have responsibilities.”

That is true for all of us; it was no different for them. Yet they lingered long after, even when it wasn’t practical anymore. They shifted their plans to make room for a move of God.

They stayed with him long after it made sense. It was getting irresponsible. You don’t just accidentally run out of food and then continue to choose to stay for a few more days. Staying is an intentional act when the practicals tell you it’s time to leave. Yet, they cared more about staying with Jesus than having a plan on how to get food or get home.

Jesus said it had been three days, and everyone was out of food. Yet, did you notice how they did not talk to Jesus about their lack of food? Instead, they focused on his presence, glorified him for the healing they did have, and Jesus himself was the one who took note of their practical needs. They chose him over their needs, and he, in return, met all their needs and more.

Matthew 6:31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

I’ve noticed that the more I follow Jesus, the more my needs get met. It seems contradictory, but it’s a law as ancient as gravity. The more we seek Him, the more He shows up miraculously.

When we radically live for Jesus, we will get pushed to places of trust or “no food.” In those moments, we have to make a choice. Do I choose to go back down the mountain to care of myself, or will I still pursue Christ and trust he knows my needs and will make a way?

They followed Jesus to a place they could not return without him supernaturally showing up.

Jesus steps in and says, “I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”

People are reading this post whose obedience to God has placed them in a predicament where he has to show up, or they will faint.

If that is you, then believe he has the same response to you, “I am unwilling to let you faint. “

When we place ourselves in a position, out of obedience, where he has to show up, or we fail, he always shows up.

Many people ask how I have so many stories of God showing up radically. I believe it is because I have placed myself in positions of total trust, where him showing up is my only option.

There is no plan B.

What about Nepal? Did he lead us up the mountain to fail us?

No, he was unwilling to fail us.

I cannot fully explain what happened next. A boldness came upon me out of nowhere, and almost like an outsider looking in, I heard myself yelling, “Is anyone sick or in pain?” One man raised his hand and came forward, claiming he had struggled with severe pain in his back and legs for years.

Like when God clothed Gideon with boldness and faith, I felt a supernatural faith inside of me surge out.

“If Jesus is real, and what we preached to you about him is true, then this man will be healed by Jesus’ name!”

My team, translator, and the crowd of Nepali Buddhists looked at me in amazement at what I had just said. Then, as fast as the supernatural faith came, it left, and I realized what I had just promised. Fear replaced my boldness, and trembling came upon me.

“I can’t believe I said that.” I thought.

I stretched out my hand to pray for the man in front of everyone. I whispered out the most pathetic yet raw prayer imaginable.

“Oh, God… I promised. I don’t want to be a liar. Please show them you’re real.”

At that moment, He was unwilling to fail me.

The man’s eyes shot up, and he started yelling in Nepali. The people gasped.

Our translator began yelling. “He is healed! He is healed! He is telling the crowd all the pain is gone!”

The man started yelling at someone in Nepali, and another man with pain came forward. We prayed for him, and he began shouting to the crowd that he, too, had been healed!

Then holy chaos broke out. The crowd rushed forward, asking our team to pray for them. Then, in Jesus’ name, crippled legs healed, and a deaf ear opened. The village police officer got saved, ran and grabbed his cadets, and brought them in, and they all got saved!

We then did an altar call a third time, and the entire group of people renounced their belief in Buddha and gave their lives to Jesus.

In our strength, we go no one saved. But when we followed Jesus in obedience to a place where we would faint without him, he showed up.

Just as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:3-5,

“And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

Just then, other missionaries came into town with Bibles in the local dialect.

Only God.

One man said, “Let’s use my house and study Jesus weekly.” He didn’t realize he had just started a church. Local long-term missionaries were connected to the town and still go there.

Look what Jesus did for the crowd on the mountain.

Matthew 15:34 “And Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.” 35 And directing the crowd to sit down on the ground, 36 he took the seven loaves and the fish, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 37 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces left over. 38 Those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.”

When they followed him to a place they could not return without him, he encountered them and met their every need.

How do we position our lives for an encounter with Jesus?

1. Hunger for his presence.

2. Humble yourself at his feet

3. Don’t Move On

4. Rely on Him to Show up. No Plan B

When you do this, I believe that he is unwilling to let you faint.

Once you learn how to position yourself to hear God, you must learn how God prefers to speak to us! That way you actually know when He is speaking to you.

I outline 8 Ways you can encounter God’s Voice in my Free Ebooks. Get that FREE ebook here.