John 4:39,42 And many Samaritans of that city believe on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that I ever did. 41, 42, And many more believed because of his word, and say onto the woman, now we believe not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the saviour of the world.
We are all meant to experience Him personally in our daily walk with Him in this journey of faith.
Even though an evangelist might bring us to salvation by his preaching, and even though a multitude might give their life to Christ on the same day, our relationship with him differs from each other, which makes our encounter with Him unique.
An evangelist is meant to go out and bring souls to Christ with his testimony of what He has done and what he can do with what He is doing.
It’s their work to bring men to Christ, like the woman beside the well that went out to bring people to Christ by the testimony of what Christ did.
Like John the Baptist introduced Jesus to the world and disappeared from the scene.
They believed in the word of the woman and came themselves to hear from Him directly, and by then, they believed for what they heard from His mouth, no more what they heard from the woman.
Most Christians stayed in this first stage of encounter without having personal relationships with Him; they stayed with the testimony of their leader without pressing forward to learn from Him directly.
This has resulted in stagnation in their work with God; they stayed at a mediocre level and missed the reason for their calling.
“It’s those who have been taught by God that will come to me.” This is the word from the mouth of the LORD and also the wisdom of the gospel.
Whoever is yet to learn from God won’t know the way to His presence. Is your experience with Him by hearsay or by personal encounter with Jesus that devoid of human interference?
Apostle Paul said, “That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering.”.
He knows Christ by having contact with Him on his way to Damascus, but he was still pressing forward to know him more intimately by experiencing the power of His resurrection and having fellowship with His suffering.
This aspect is essential in our relationship with Him; a Christian who wants to remain at a mediocre level is the one avoiding the cross and staying out of fellowship with Christ’s suffering.
They preferred to remain in the midst of the congregation without pressing forward to the holy place of the sanctuary that belonged to the priests alone.
It’s Christians who advance to this stage that are worthy to be called sons of God because they have shed off their garment of slavery to receive the spirit of adoption by being justified at the cross and waiting for glorification.
It’s until you’re discipled by Christ that you will know that God is true; when you do His will, that is when you will know of Christ’s doctrines, whether it’s from God or man.
I am not surprised to hear Christians arguing about the deity of Christ; it’s because they are yet to enter the Holy of Holies to have encounters with Him.
If they had been in His counsel, they would have learnt of his doctrines without outside interference with their faith.
Each Christian must have an encounter with Christ according to the written word of God: when you preached to some women about their outward appearance, they claimed that the Holy Spirit is yet to convince them.
I am not surprised by that. It’s because they’re yet to encounter him and know his likes and what he hates.
This kind of people can’t call themselves Christians; they’re just followers but not disciples of Him because many are called but only a few are chosen.
Testimony of man about Christ is not enough to see us through; what is our testimony of Him in all our walks with Him?
Some Christian sisters are not using attachments or jewellery in their church not because of their encounter but because of the doctrines, but after they’ve relocated to another church, that is when they change their values and start behaving like the people of Babylon.
It’s because they’ve yet to encounter Him directly; they only rely on the testimony and the doctrines of their leaders to operate among the saints, not the doctrines of Christ.
What do you call Christ to be in your life, even if men call him another name? What is your own experience with Him?
It’s our encounter with Him that makes us different from others and brings us closer to Him.
Some call him John, and some call him Jeremiah, but it’s what you call Him that matters, and that is where your faith stands.
The plague that infested our gathering was the lack of knowledge of His word.
We rely on every wind of doctrine to relate with God, but what does the word of God say about Christ?
A Christian who knows that God honours His word more than His name won’t dare to disobey in whichever circumstances he finds himself; it’s only those who experience Him from others that will disobey and continue their worship as if nothing happens.
It’s our personal experience with Christ that brings transformation and turns us into the new men in God.
Christians who stopped going to church to fellowship because of the offence of others are not genuinely born again; it’s not the man they came to serve but Christ himself. Had they known this, they would have looked unto His face, not any man’s offence.
Or Christians that backslide because of their leader’s offence; if they’ve genuinely encountered Christ, they won’t follow their leaders to backslide.
You are bound to go beyond the level of your pastor or overseer because Jesus Christ is your example, and we are bound to grow and reach the level of His stature, not our leaders, if we are ready to learn from Him.
Prayer: That I may know you and the power of your resurrection and the fellowship of your suffering, reveal yourself to me, oh Lord, in Jesus name
