Kingdom EncountersSample

One reason God puts you in a challenging situation such as a test is to give you the opportunity to enter into a relational encounter with Him. He does so by asking you to give up your own “Isaac.” What is an “Isaac”? An “Isaac” is anything you love, treasure, or value most. God experiences your love for Him above the most valued thing in your life when your feet reveal your faith, especially when you obey without knowing in advance all the details.

Some promises God initiates and fulfills in His sovereignty simply because He has chosen to. But there are many promises— and I would dare to say the majority of them—that He does tied to what we do. God waits patiently on us to experience the level of our love and trust both for Him and in Him.God wants to feel your love. He doesn’t just want to hear it. He wants to feel it. Choosing Him over something you already love gives God the opportunity to feel it. When God wants to give you a kingdom encounter with Him, it will involve a contradiction that involves a choice. It may include having to choose to give up the thing you treasure most. But as bad as that seems, God is opening up the door for a kingdom encounter to take place.

Little did Abraham know that all the while he was hiking up one side of the mountain, God was bringing his solution up the other side of the mountain. While Abraham climbed up the steep path, the ram climbed up the other side. Now, this had to have been the quietest ram in the history of all rams. If a ram is caught in a thicket, it has to be trying to wiggle to get out. But God kept the ram still. God kept the ram quiet. Abraham couldn’t have seen or heard the ram ahead of time because God chose not to reveal what He was up to until obedience had been completed.

You see, a lot of us are looking for the ram when we haven’t finished the obedience. As a result, God is keeping the ram quiet. The solution is already there. It just isn’t revealed until after God experiences from us what He desires to experience. Far too often, we accuse God of not coming through for us when we are the ones who didn’t do what He had said. Yet God didn’t show Abraham anything until Abraham took the knife to slay his son. Abraham arising early in the morning wasn’t enough. Abraham chopping the firewood wasn’t enough. Abraham climbing the mountain wasn’t enough.