

THE ENCOUNTER OF DIVINITY

BY

DORDOYE THOMAS SEYRAM

(2019)

# DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the Almighty God for the Gift of His Holy Spirit in my life, and the salvation He has given me freely. To the great men and women who thought me in Children Service, Junior Youth services and Young Peoples Guild in Presbyterian Church of Ghana. The Salvation Army Church in Russia and International Central Gospel Church – Accra Ghana.

To the Student for Christ (SFC) – Russia who gave me the opportunity to serve the Lord with my foreign friends in Rostov-On-Don.

Special dedication to my Late Father, Mr. Gideon Afelete Dordoye, who sacrificed everything for me to be where I am today. To my brothers, Mr. Isaac Dordoe, Mr. Bright Dordoye, Wisdom Dordoye and to my sweet mother Victoria Dordoye.

# FORWARD

Its AWESOME!..... I am so grateful to God, that He is drawing the attention of His people towards having encounters with Him. These encounters come as a SIGN of God calling for an intimate fellowship with Him. I don't know how God spoke with Abraham or Noah, but for one thing they had was their encounters with God and it completely changed their life. An encounter can change your life! Encounter- what a STRONG word, not to be used casually, since the progress, success and promotion in every life solely depends on the positive aspects of encounters with individuals that have within themselves answers that you need. But negative ones, are as a result of meeting the wrong individuals that do not lift, but actually destroy any chance of good experiences.

I am grateful to God that, He has spoken these words through the mouthpiece for this generation. In this young generation, the Lord is speaking , calling the young ones, the youth and through them to the older generations: "it is time to seek the Lord!"

Brother Thomas, he's a person who has indeed come in contact, or should I say, has had an encounter with the living God. And having known him during his time in Russia, I know that he has something to say to you. So I bless you in the name of Jesus, to experience a LIVING ENCOUNTER with the Lord Jesus Christ, I see you come in contact with this book!

Pastor John Ukaigwe

RCCG "Kingdom Dominion" Parish

Rostov - Russia

# ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This book has been in the making over a year after my studies abroad. It's a compilation of the experiences of encounters God gave me during my studies in school and I strongly hope that all the leaders, friends, family members especially my two elderly brothers, colleagues who have inspired me to press on over the years. I want them to know my deepest gratitude, even if I'm not able to mention their names on this page.

First and foremost, my thanks to the talented Graphic Designer and CEO of Gray Concepts Advertising Company, Grace Akua Boatemaa Badu who has been a great help in compiling this book. I appreciate your commitment and encouragement in actualizing this dream of publishing "The Encounter of Divinity" to the benefit of human race and the body of Christ.

Secondly, I acknowledge the efforts of my well able friends: Elijah Essandor, who have been my prayer partner and inspirer, Ezekiel Osei Owusu, Apostle Alistar Brown, Olumodeji Oluwole Oladele, Aboagye Daniel and Amoah Lawrence for their contributions towards this book.

I appreciate you guys.

I appreciate all my friends who contributed directly and indirectly through the support of prayers and encouragement. The Lord bless you all.

TABLE OF CONTENT

DEDICATION 2

FORWARD 4

ACKNOWLEDGMENT 7

PREFACE 15

INTRODUCTION 23

CHAPTER ONE 33

THE ENCOUNTER WITH GOD 33

THE HOLINESS OF THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY 33

GOD ALMIGHTY 44

PERSONAL ENCOUNTER WITH GOD 48

ABRAHAM'S ENCOUNTER 51

PROPHETIC WORD 69

MOSES' ENCOUNTER 74

THE WORK 78

THE CONFRONTATION 81

THE INTRODUCTION OF GOD 85

THE COMMISSION OF THE LORD 93

THE OBJECTIONS OF MAN 100

THE REASSURANCE OF GOD 122

PROPHETIC WORD: 141

THE ENCOUNTER WITH THE GLORY 144

CHAPTER 2 149

THE ENCOUNTER WITH JESUS CHRIST 149

ENCOUNTER WITH THE NATURE OF GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST 153

ENCOUNTER TO FOLLOW JESUS CHRIST 171

ENCOUNTER TO FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST JESUS 182

ENCOUNTER WITH THE TRANSFORMATIVE AND THE TRANSITIONAL POWER OF CHRIST 198

MY PERSONAL ENCOUNTER WITH THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF JESUS CHRIST. 229

CHAPTER 3 233

THE ENCOUNTER OF PAUL WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT 233

ENCOUNTER OF NO RETURN FROM SAUL TO PAUL 256

THE SOUND OF THE VOICE 313

PERSONAL ENCOUNTER WITH THE VOICE IN A DREAM 323

CHAPTER 4 328

#3. HIS ENCOUNTER WITH THE PERSONALITY OF JESUS CHRIST 328

PROPHETIC WORD OF ENCOUNTER 343

#4. HIS ENCOUNTER WITH THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER 348

CHAPTER 5 375

#5. HIS ENCOUNTER WITH THE MAN OF GOD (DESTINY HELPER) 375

#6. HIS ENCOUNTER WITH THE WORD OF ASSIGNMENT 399

PHASES OF THE WORD OF ASSIGNMENT 421

CHAPTER 6 435

#7. HIS ENCOUNTER WITH THE BAPTISIM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND FIRE 435

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 452

# PREFACE

The name of the Lord is a strong Tower and when the righteous run into it, they are safe (Proverbs 18:10). This text from the scriptures i.e the word of God, is real in my life as I'm writing my first book. He has delivered me and saved me from my enemies and He, the Lord of Host Jehovah Saboath has given me victory over them all. Burning with the passion to write about "The Encounter of the Lord" as the Lord has ushered me into this year 2019, I have been praying for the infilling of the Holy Spirit and fire from the beginning of the year. I asked the Holy Spirit to set me apart as a chosen vessel and consecrate me to fulfill the purpose of God for my life in the year. He has been guiding me into His word and opening my spiritual understanding into Divine mysteries or the mystries of God. These mysteries have been burning in my heart like a flame of fire and it's so much powerful that I have to begin writing them down for the work of the Kingdom of God.

The unsearchable mysteries of God are so much that God can't keep them to Himself than to release these mysteries to the Body of Christ through the available and yielded vessels of Christ.

To get something from God requires a constant, persistent and unrelenting attitude to fellowship with the Holy Spirit in a manner where He have to open up your spiritual eye and mind to these deep secrets of God.

According to 1 Corinthians 2:10, "these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God". This helps us to understand that "these things", the mysteries of God have already been revealed to us (Believers) by the Holy Spirit. The secrets are with the Holy Spirit. He is the administrator and distributor of these unsearchable truths of God and any time we make contact with Him, He releases them to us from the Word of God.

These secrets are deep, and it cannot be given to those who are shallow minded with things of God but to those who are deep and constantly hungry and thirsty for more of God. Your hunger for God determines your accessibility to "these things" of God.

On the 15th January, 2019, I woke up early in the morning to meet my boss at Achimota old station in Accra for him to sign my evaluation form and there I would continue to the office. I submitted the form and there I met and had an encounter with one of my old school mates. She approached me and mentioned my name but I could not recognized her and to remember her name. she mentioned her name and I was happy to meet her. We exchanged contacts and I moved on to the office. I called my sweet mother to check up on her. She was so happy to hear my voice. She prayed for me asking God to remember her children as we also have being remembering her by calling frequently to check up on her. She cried when she was praying on the phone, because she missed my late father. I called my senior Brother, Bright to check up on him too.

In all these activities and others during that day, the Holy Spirit brought to my understanding in prayer that, encounters are inevitable in Life. Everyone needs an encounter with a personality in this life time. One encounter can change your whole life. I began to speak in tongues and I came to the realization that the best encounter you can ever have in this life, or in your life time is to have an "ENCOUNTER OF THE LORD". You might have had so many encounters in life, but I am challenging you to have this last encounter of the Lord and your life will never be the same.

It's my prayer that, as you journey with me by the Holy Spirit in reading this mysteries, may your spiritual eyes of understanding be open and your spiritual mind be flooded with light. May you have an encounter with the Lord as you continue reading and sharing this with friends. The Holy Spirit will visit you wherever you are, as He came powerfully upon Mary to conceive Jesus Christ, the Messiah. You will have a sudden encounter in your family, finances, education, health, job place, marriage and ministry God has called you into. Be blessed with this book and bless someone also with a copy. AMEN

# INTRODUCTION

God is mighty and his ways are so great that He uses some unusual means to bring people to salvation. God wants us to be intimate with Him so He uses encounters as an instrument to draw us closer to himself. The main purpose of encounter is to prove the power of God and to save. Salvation is a key in an encounter with the Lord. There is no way you will experience encounter with the Lord and you would not be save. After the fall of man, God wants to restore man to his lost glory and reinstate man in his dominion mandate through the promise of salvation. Therefore, man needs to encounter God in order to know the plan and purpose of God. In the fulfillment of this promise of salvation to mankind has occurred series of encounters with the Lord which has hesitated the possibilities of this salvation.

Every generation has his own way of experiencing the encounter of the Lord. God is the one who normally orchestrates this encounters base on his sovereign will and purpose for that particular generation. I believe in our generation today, God has prophesied through the prophet Joel that "on the last days He will pour down His Spirit on all flesh and sons and daughters will prophesy, old men will dream dreams, young men will see visions" (Joel 2:28). The Lord is saying that this encounter will not be limited to some particular individual group of people but to every flesh on earth. The Holy Spirit is the main administrator of these experiences of encounters. Even your salvation was facilitated by the Holy Spirit. You can't have a genuine encounter with the Lord without the Holy Spirit being involved in it. Every flesh is entitled to the Holy Spirit to experience this encounter in this generation. You are only qualified by believing in Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal Saviour to experience this encounter with the Lord in an extraordinary way.

God wants to encounter you wherever you are despite your circumstances. He wants to encounter sinners to release salvation to them. This is the reason why Jesus has to move, sit and eat with sinners so as to have access to them. Your salvation is the priority of God and it can't be underestimated.

Through the encounter of the Lord, God works through His providence to draw different people in different circumstances to Himself. Gods providence refers to the fact that He is sovereignly working behind the scenes, even when we are not aware of it, to work all things after the counsel of His will. In other words, nothing happens by chance, even though it may seem to us to be by chance. Certainly the salvation of a soul, whom God has predestined to salvation before the foundation of the world, is not left to chance (Eph. 1:4-5). Preaching the Good news to all flesh is the main way God orchestrates encounter to salvation. You might be hearing preachers of the gospel for years and you have not given your life to Christ yet, but a time is coming that those words will orchestrate an encounter for your turnaround. The last will of Jesus Christ to His disciples was the great commission in Matt. 28:18-20 "then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nation, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age'".

Encounter is an unexpected (without prior notice) divine meeting between humanity and divinity. It's an orchestrated arranged experience with God in a manner where the human mind can't fathom. According to the KJV dictionary definition of encounter, it is a meeting, particularly a sudden or accidental meeting of two or more persons. It's to meet face to face; particularly, to meet suddenly or unexpectedly. In a broader spiritually deep definition of encounter, is a face –to-face meeting with God that cannot be totally explained, but which – when fully experienced – will bring about a response of genuine worship or celebration, which includes the remembrance of a redemptive past and the conviction of a liberated future that changes people forever; causing them to move and grow in their walk with God by the studying of the scriptures. Encounter is seen after enough prayers has been released expressing the need for God. God answers our prayers by encounter. A generation that prays more experiences great measures of Gods encounters. Your spiritual prayer muscles must be strong enough to move God to encounter you when you travail in prayer.

It's my desire to present to you the reasons why God gives us encounters through His word and this reason is salvation. Salvation is ultimate of God's encounter with you in whatever way He will orchestrate it. I will present to you the three encounters with divinity; which are the encounters with God the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit. In your walk with God, you will experience the encounter with the Glory, encounter with the Word and an encounter with a Man of God. As we dig deeper into the encounter of God, we will be looking at the encounter of Paul and why God orchestrated such an encounter with him.

God bless you and meet you face to face as you read and meditate on it.

# CHAPTER ONE

# THE ENCOUNTER WITH GOD

# THE HOLINESS OF THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY

The word 'Holy' is often used among believers of the supernatural to describe the uniqueness of something which is higher than us. We use the word Holy as Christians, to describe that which is the mysterium tremendum. The Greek word used for Holy or Holiness is "HAGIOS" and "GODESH" used in the old testament means, which is "pure, morally blameless" or "set apart" as in set apart for holy use, which is what the saints of God have been called to. The holiness of God is one of the most difficult of all the attributes of God to explain. Its just like trying to explain the shekinah glory cloud in a physical way that accompanies the presence of God. An encounter with God through his Holy Spirit work in us the Holiness of God to be like Him.

The Lord God purposely created you to fellowship. When you encounter God, you fellowship with Him in his personality. One of His personalities is His Holiness. He is so Holy that his holiness can't be described. He appears in his holiness to us that we can not comprehend the holiness. Holiness is Gods very being and his holiness reflects on us as the characters of His people. The comprehension of the Holiness of God in his encounter base on the precepts of human mind is insufficient.

In Exodus 15:11, Moses was describing God in his encounter by asking questions about the holiness of God when they crossed the Red Sea. "who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you – majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?" When we encounter God, we will always encounter his Holiness. His holiness makes us holy in His presence. 1Peter 1:15-16 says "but just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy." After an encounter with the holy of holies, you must make a bold passionate decision to walk in holiness. You need his holiness to be holy, not your own holiness base on the laws but the holiness from on high. The more you keep fellowshipping with him, the more you accumulate the reflection of His holiness on your life. Grab this revelation in your spirit man that, anything that comes in connection with God becomes holy automatically. In the Old Testament, we have Holy grounds, Holy Sabbath, Holy place which signifies that anything God touches becomes Holy. May the Lord God touch your life, your marriage, relationship, job, family and all that concerns you this hour and cause them to be holy and acceptable in the presence of God.

When God appears in his Holiness to man, it can be scary, fearful and dangerous. His encounter with the Men of old were often fearful. His holiness reveals our filthy and sinful nature. His holiness causes us to walk constantly in holiness. I believe strongly in my spirit that God wants to release his holiness back to the church in our generation. He wants to encounter the youth with his holiness and capture them to walk in total purity. An encounter with the Holiness of God can break an addiction of sin from your life. May the holiness of God capture you fully as the hand of God is upon you right now. You are being released from the chains of impurity and sexual sin in Jesus name. Exodus 19:16-20 says, "On the morning of the third day there was thundering and lightening, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him". This is a real description of an encounter of the Lord with the people of Israel. I could imagine how the Israelites felt when they were experiencing this encounter. They were all filled with fear of the Lord. Before they will have this encounter they were instructed to consecrate themselves and set themselves apart for this encounter. They met with God and they could not believe what they saw at the mountain. The power and might of God was at display and his holiness was seen. Are you ready to encounter the Lord God I'm talking about this very moment? The bible said, "Moses Spoke and the voice of the Lord answered him". May the voice of God be audible in your ears right now and may you begin to experience this encounter in Jesus name. May the voice of God answer you when you call on him.

A revivalist, Smith Wigglesworth on prayer, power and miracles said that, "how important it is that we shall have the manifestation of the word of knowledge" in our midst. It is the same Spirit who brings forth the word of wisdom that brings forth the word of knowledge. The revelation of the mysteries of God comes by the Spirit, and we must have a supernatural word of knowledge in order to convey to others the things which the Spirit of God has revealed. The Spirit of God reveals Christ in all His wonderful fullness, and He shows Him to us from the beginning to the end of the scriptures. It is the Scriptures that makes us wise unto salvation. It is the scriptures that open to us the depths of the kingdom of heaven which reveals the Divine (God's) mind to us. There are thousands of people who read and study the Word of God but the Word does not quicken them. The reasons shall be incorporated in this book as you read along. The Bible is the word of God, quickened by the Spirit which makes it Living, active and effective in us. The words that Christ spoke were not dead words, but they were Spirit and life (John 6:63). It is the desire of God that a living word, a word of truth, the word of God, a supernatural word of knowledge, should come forth from us through the power of the Spirit of God. It is the Holy Spirit who brings forth or gives us utterances, revelations of God's mind, and the anointing to teach all things (1 John 2:27). As a child of God, you ought to thirst and hunger for the word of God. "...Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God." (Matt. 4:4). It is as we feed on the Word and meditate on the message it contains, that the Spirit of God can vitalize that which we have received and encountered. The Holy Spirit will bring forth through us the word of knowledge that will be as full of power and life like how He moved upon holy men of old and gave them these inspired Scriptures. They were all inbreathed of God as they came forth at the beginning, and through the same Spirit they should come forth from us vitalized, living, powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword. The Word of God will reveal to us the Holiness of the Lord God Almighty.

## GOD ALMIGHTY

The Hebrew word "El-Shaddai" means God Almighty or God, the All-powerful one or The Mighty one of Jacob (Gen. 49:24, Psalm 132:2,5) which is one of the titles of God speaking about the ultimate power of God. He has all might and power. You must have knowledge about God to have encounter with Him. I want you to know whom you will be encountering in this section and He has so many names but to be precise, let's look at the God Almighty. In Genesis 17:1, God appeared to Abram and said "I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless". He introduced Himself as the God Almighty. This revealed that, when God encounters you, he first introduces himself to you. He wants you to know His identity and what He represents. God's introduction to us in His attributes are the beginning of His encounters. He wants Abram to know that He is the God almighty and there is no other God mightier than Him. God wants to reveal himself to you:

1. As the creator of heaven and earth (Gen. 14:19),

2. As the builder of everything (Heb. 3:4),

3. As the King of heaven (Dan. 4:37),

4. As the God of all mankind (Jer. 32:27),

5. As the Eternal King (Jer. 10:10),

6. As the only God (Jude 1:25),

7. As the Everlasting God (Is.40:28)

8. And as the Maker of all things (Eccl. 11:5).

God wants to introduce Himself to you so that you don't misrepresent Him after the encounter. He desires to show you that, He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed and miracles that cannot be counted (Job 9:10). In His encounter with you, He proves to you that His power is unlimited and He can do anything He wants, whenever He wants as it's written in Psalms 115:3, "Our God is in heaven, he does whatever pleases him". I want you to have this understanding that God is sovereign and does whatever pleases him to everyone according to His plans and purpose. If his plan is to prosper you through the encounter, he does not answer to anyone and no one can question him about He prospering you or someone. "All the people of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the people of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: 'What have you done?' (Daniel 4:35).

## PERSONAL ENCOUNTER WITH GOD

I had my first encounter with the Lord when I was in Russia. In prayer for so many hours, I saw myself on the ground captured in the glory of God in the atmosphere and saw my body lying on the floor in my room struggling in pain. I was in a filthy and dirty cloth that I could not even open my eyes to see the holiness of God. I was filled with tears, crying loudly to God to save me. I saw light all over me and I saw Jesus Christ calling me to come closer. I couldn't be on my feet in his presence than to bow with my face to the ground. An angel was commanded by Him to pick me to the threshold with fountains of water. I was washed and the angel of the Lord changed my clothes, putting a new white long garment on me with a belt tied to my waist. A staff and a sword was given to me to move to the man I met at the entrance. I received a special strength to stand before Him and light coming from him was too bright for me to see His face. I will share more light on my encounter with the Lord in the next chapter. Your encounter can change your whole life and set you on the road of success in the Kingdom of God. The people God has used to shake the planet earth had an encounter with Him in a special way. In encountering God, we have examples of great Men of God of Old in Scriptures and our predecessors in the past generation describing how they encountered God. The instructions they received and how they impacted the human race after the encounter with God.

## ABRAHAM'S ENCOUNTER

Abraham was a man of faith and he had so many encounters with the Lord. His encounter with the Lord changed his whole life and his generation. He became the father of faith and a seed God used to build his nation Israel. Genesis 12:1 "the Lord had said to Abram, 'go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you". This was what Abraham heard on his first encounter of the Lord, and it was a difficult call of God for him (Abraham), but because of his faith and trust in God, he obeyed the instruction.

Why was God calling Abraham to go out of his country?

The call of God. You would realize that, God called Abraham to change his environment or position so that His intents or plan for him (Abraham) would be fulfilled. The place of Abraham was not conducive for the full encounter; God has to call him out to go to the place He will show him the future. God will always call you out of something to somewhere if he wants to encounter you. He will change the people around you and position you at a strategic point to receive. God is calling us to leave all the sinful behaviors and position ourselves on the path of Holiness. Your location is very important in your encounter. Therefore, be conscious of where you abide and the people you move with. The call seems impossible and incomplete for Abraham because it was a call of faith. Sometimes God will call you to do the impossible by taking a bold step out of your comfort zone. I want you to have this understanding that, encounters with God are costly. It was required from Abraham to sacrifice or leave his homeland i.e country, his relatives, his home of origin and his comfort, if he was going to obey God. When God is ready to encounter us for the purpose of opening our eyes and giving us a God-sized assignment, He position us at a strategic place. God purposely do this to separate us from familiar surroundings, so that we will be encountered with new surroundings, new green pastures and a new situation. This will require us to trust and depend on Him alone; He sometimes separates us from our homes of origin, so that we have to grow up and get to know Him as "Abba" Father; and He separates us from our homes, so that our fellowship is with Him and Him alone. This does not show we have rejected our background of origin.

The call of Obedience and Faith. Genesis 12:4, "So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran". We realized that there was a response of obedience to the call. It was not Abraham who initiated the encounter, but God. God will always initiate the call in his encounter and He is waiting on your response of obedience to that call. Sometimes we can put ourselves in situations where encounters are more likely to happen, but generally it is God who decides and then initiates an encounter. God is far more willing to initiate an encounter with us, than we are willing to receive and respond properly to that encounter. He needs your cooperation to move the encounter to another level with Him. Abraham was called into an encounter and he responded with immediate obedience. It takes faith to respond to the call of God. Obedience is always rooted in faith and if you don't believe in something you won't obey. It is important that we recognize the uniqueness of an encounter with God and be prepared to respond properly. If we respond improperly to an encounter with God, it is possible to short-circuit or miss properly experiencing the encounter.

The call to the Promise. Genesis 12:2-3, "I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you". Verse 7 says, "the Lord appeared to Abram and said, 'to your offspring I will give this land.' So he built an alter there to the Lord, who had appeared to him". God will always give you a promise of His encounter with you. This promise gives you a picture of what He is going to do through you and this will become your personal prophetic word. The promise of God is a major key in the encounter of God which unlock your faith system to keep in step with the Lord. The key thing in the verses about the promises is that it is not to Abraham, but to his descendants. One encounter and obedience can change the future a whole generation. God gives promises in His encounter with us so as to reassure us and to give us divine certainty. The promise of God reassures us that we are on the right track. God assured Abraham in verse seven when he arrived at the destination. The divine certainty gives us hope when we are down or when things are hard and rough. Fear is no more necessary when we receive his promises and start to walk with Him, even if we don't know where we are going.

The call to Worship. "...so he built an alter there to the Lord, who has appeared to him". (Gen.1:4) "and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the Lord". Genesis 17:3 "Abram fell face down, and God said to him," (Gen.22:9). When God encounters you, his ultimate aim for you is to worship. You worship because of your encounter with God. Abram worshiped when he encountered God by building an alter for the Lord. The place of your encounter is your place of Worship. You don't worship what you have not encountered. Scriptures recorded all those people who had an encounter with God in worship and in service to God and humanity. John 4:21-24 says, "'Woman', Jesus replied, 'believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.'" The Father is searching for worshipers when he encounters. The end product of an encounter is a worshiper in Spirit and Truth. Matthew 4:8-10 "Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 'All this I will give you,' he said, 'if you will bow down and worship me.' Jesus said to him, 'Away from me Satan! For it is written: "Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only." (Deut.6:13). Even Satan is looking for worshipers. Anytime you encounter the devil, he will suggest worship to you. Jesus was even not an exception. As you have encountered the Lord this hour, may the Holy Spirit release the power to worship and fulfill scriptures in Romans 12:1, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this your true and proper worship."

Abraham continued to have series of encounters with God and he fellowshipped with Him as a friend. God could not hide anything from him, He always want to talk to Abraham. Desire the encounters of the Lord in this endtime and God will reveal to you His plans and purpose to you. What do we get from the encounters with the Lord? These are the benefits Abraham experienced when he started to have encounter with the Lord.

His identity was changed and his entire family was repositioned in the Lord. Through him his family and descendants were saved. Gen.17:4-5, "as for me, this is my covenant with you: you will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations." God changed His name and all his destiny begun to experience heavenly blessings. I don't know what name people used to call you, but this hour the hand of God has appeared to change your name and circumstances in Jesus name. I speak over your life now in Jesus name that your life will not be connected to the bad names people used to call you. Your identity has changed from now onwards because you are now a new creation in Christ Jesus our Lord. God has to change Jacobs name to Israel when he had an encounter with the Lord. Your identity is not only changed, but your appearance changes too. Genesis 32:27-29, "The man asked him, 'what is your name?' 'Jacob', he answered. Then the man said, 'your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.' Jacob said, 'Please tell me your name.' but he replied, 'why do you ask my name?' then he blessed him there". The Lord has summoned you by name for an encounter and He knows you by your name (Isaiah 43:1-2,7). Your name is your identity and it goes all the way into the future. Begin to embrace the new identity God has given you and act by that name. God did not only changed Abraham but He made him a model of change for his generation. May you influence and change things that needs to be change in your family, education, marriage, work place, church and community.

Blessings and Prosperity of the Lord. The Lord blessed him and his household with a heavenly blessing. He possessed the land and prospered in all his activities. Genesis 13:1-2 "So Abraham went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him. Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold." Abraham walked in prosperity. The scripture used the superlative word 'very wealthy or rich' meaning he was not only rich but very rich that the land couldn't contain him and Lot. When God was creating the things of the earth, he saw it was good but when He created man, He saw it was very good. May you enjoy the 'very good' blessings in your life in Jesus name. His possession was an everlasting inheritance to his descendants. Your encounter can change the background story of your family and descendants. Your children are waiting on you to set the pace of prosperity through obedience to the word of the Lord. What are you leaving behind for your descendants to possess? You can rewrite the history of your family when you encounter the Lord. Gen.22:17

He received the Promised child and a supernatural Health.

May you receive the health blessings of Abraham to finish the work God has assigned for you on earth. Even in his old age, he was able to father Isaac as the promise child. Gal.3:14-29. An encounter brings a perfect health to your physical body. In the old age of Abraham, he was able to Father a son and his wife Sarah also received strength to conceive the child. The mission that God has for you on earth required a supernatural health to carry out that mission. It's part of the package of His encounter with you. Jesus never got sick on his mission on earth and we are to walk in that anointing he walked in.

## PROPHETIC WORD

I am beginning to call you out, requiring you to move by faith, like Peter when he stepped out of the boat. I am calling you out to walk on the water, to move by faith trusting in me and in my plans for you. When you hear me call, it will seem a bit scary to you at times. It will seem a bit perplexing to you at times. Nevertheless, trust in me and trust in my plans for you, knowing I will not steer and lead you astray. I will not lead you down the wrong path. My plans are to prosper you, to cause you to grow and come alive with hearts full of adventure and Love. My plans will dismantle the darkness within you now. My plans will reveal the issues of your heart that are restraining your full potential. In this time of stepping out in faith, you will grow past your limits, and I will do so by specific design, according to the issues of your heart that need to be addressed, corrected, or confronted. You will step out further than you previously thought you could. Doing so will require you to break old mindsets, and break habits that have held you back. It will require you to try new things, meet new people, and move in new directions. It will require many new things from you, but will also yield many new things to you as well. Do not look to the waves, mountains, or challenges that seem so fast, big, and formidable, but instead look to me, the author and perfecter of your faith. I am requiring you to grow in the demonstration of your faith. I am requiring you to step out and trust in me alone. I am requiring you to take bigger risks, by the actions of my spirit, and the instruction of my word. I am pushing you past your comfort zone of what is known and moving your heart to step out of the boat and walk on water with me.

One of the most basic and important ways God encounters his servants face-to-face and communicating with them in the Old Testament is through His Word. This communication could have been through His audible voice, through a dream, a vision, a prophet, etc. Today in our dispensation, one of the most basic and important ways God speak to us is through His Word which occurs through reading and meditating on the Word of God and hearing the Word of God through a sermon. In the next chapter we will look at the encounter with the word. You have encounter the Lord therefore; start to walk in his personality of Holiness and might. Let your environment begin to feel your encounter with the Lord.

## MOSES' ENCOUNTER

Our doctrinal statement of believes should always match with our experiential encounter with that truth we have been thought. Do not be obsess with doctrines without you asking God to encounter you with what you are proclaiming to be. This is where God encounter you with the truth. An encounter with the Lord has the mandate to transform you from the inside out. The transformation of your heart and mindset happens when you have had encounter with the Lord. This transformation makes you see life from the perspective of God and you have the spiritual magnifying glass of the Spirit. This encounter makes you fearless of men and issues of this life. When this encounter happens to you, you are purposely transformed into the very image and the very likeness of God. Anytime an encounter is orchestrated, it's because of Salvation. God wanted to save the Israelites from slavery in Egypt therefore, He orchestrated an encounter with a fearful man called Moses to carry out His divine will of salvation. This encounter would not have happened if the Israelites have not cried out in prayer. Exodus 2:23-25, "During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them." Prayer is the key to an encounter. Without prayer, there will be no encounter to experience God. That is why the Word of God urged us to pray at all times (1Thess. 5:17; Pray without ceasing). The cry of the people of God reached heaven and God send a vessel who have had an encounter with Him to save them from their misery. If you can cry out to the Lord in prayer and seek for the salvation of souls in your family, work place and community, God will send an encountered vessel to release His word. Let's study how Moses had his encounter in Exodus 3:1-6. "Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, 'I will go over and see this strange sight - why the bush does not burn up.' When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, 'Moses! Moses!' And Moses said, 'Here I am.' 'Do not come any closer,' God said. 'Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.' Then he said, 'I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.' At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God."

## THE WORK

The encounter of the call of Moses came while he was at work. His hands were doing something significant which can be used in the salvation process. He was tending or leading the flock of Jethro his father-in-law when he was arrested with the call of encounter. He was a great leader waiting for the call. He has been leading this flock for years but when he decided to lead the flock to a far side of the wilderness of Horeb, the mountain of the Lord, he had his first encounter. Until we have gone far and deep in our spiritual walk with God, the encounter will delay. God desire you to go far with the work you are doing, with the expectancy of encountering Him. Don't sit idle doing nothing for the kingdom of God. Get up and start something small for God and he will encounter you whiles you are on the work. Service to God in the church like sweeping the church, visiting the sick, organizing home cell groups for prayer and studying the word etc. should not be compromised by you. Encounters are not given to lazy Christians who are not doing anything in the kingdom of God. If you are lazy in prayer, your encounter will be delayed. Moses have been fellowshipping whiles on the job because he was living with a priest, his father-in-law. He was ripe for the encounter. The call of God's encounter is not limited to those who are doing religious work in a congregation. No mater your profession, God can still call and encounter you.

## THE CONFRONTATION

Moses was confronted by God in a special way that his attention was arrested at the scene of the burning bush. Sometimes God encounter us by the confrontation of his nature. God knew that Moses is always intrigued by nature therefore, He used the impossibility of nature to capture his attention to the call. Its uncommon and unusual thing for Moses to see a burning bush without the bush burning. This is to break the everyday pattern of Moses, to see the impossibility. Sometimes God wants to reveal Himself in a very magnificent way by breaking the law of nature which we are used to in our everyday life. The confrontation must always intrigue you to pay attention to the encounter. The confrontation is the surprise package of God to you. It makes you feel the awesomeness of God and positions you to surrender to the encounter. The confrontation is to make you bold and strong to stand before anyone to deliver the message of the Lord. Moses was able to stand before the king of Egypt because of his extraordinary confrontation he had on the wilderness. Your ability to confront all the issues of life lies in the confrontation of the Lord in your life. Your confrontation of the Lord's encounter is being released now in Jesus name. He will begin to do the unimaginable things in your life and you will recognize that the Lord is with you. God designed the confrontation of Moses base on the kind of person he will be dealing with. There are some kind of demons and spiritual rulers you will be dealing with in your marriage, work place, ministry, education and family which demands a supernatural confrontation in your life. Moses was not able to confront the king when he killed the Egyptian for the Israelite because he has not yet had the confrontation of the Lord's encounter to make him bold to stand before king Pharaoh. What you confront today makes you stronger to face what will happen in your life tomorrow. If you don't confront, you can't win, therefore you need the confrontation of the Lord to prepare you for victory. David confronted Goliath with the name of the Lord and defeated him, whom the soldiers of Isreal fled from in fears. (1Samuel 17:38-50). The main purpose of the confrontation in Moses's encounter is to bring him closer to the Lord. You can't hear God from a long distance. You have to draw closer to him to hear His voice. His confrontation was a flame of fire burning within a bush. The significance of the flame of fire was to set him on fire for God and to purify him totally. Gideon was also confronted in his encounter with the Lord in Judges 6:11-12; the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1-2); the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:4); the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:1-28).

## THE INTRODUCTION OF GOD

The call came to Moses when he was close enough for God to call him from within the burning bush. God called his name twice from within the burning bush and he responded "here I am". I have realized that any time God wants to introduce himself to an individual He wants to encounter; He calls out his name twice in a row. He called Abraham twice "Abraham, Abraham" (Gen.22:11-13); 'Jacob, Jacob'(Gen.46:1-4); 'Moses, Moses' (Ex.3:4); 'Samuel, Samuel' (1Sam.3:1-10); 'Simon, Simon' (Luk.22:31-32); 'Saul, Saul' (Acts 9:4). Anytime God calls a name twice it signifies that He has something vital to say to the person. This double salutation of God is also to get our full attention to what He is about to release to us. God used two ways to get the attention of Moses which are the burning bush and the double salutation of his name. Job 33:29, 'God does all these things to a person – twice, even three times.' God introduced himself to Moses as the God of the fathers; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This introduction section of God's encounter with you helps you to understand whom you are standing before and what He represents. It makes you unique and amaze about the fact that you are a chosen vessel and not what you always think about yourself or what people say about you. The introduction helps you to understand the commission of the mission and vision of God for your life. When God is introducing Himself to you, He introduces the Son Jesus Christ and His Power of the Holy Spirit to you. His introduction is not once but it's a process of making you to come into agreement with His personality and image. These are some of the things God introduces you to in His encounter with you:

• Introduction to His Holiness

• Introduction to His Power

• Introduction to His Love

• Introduction to His Faithfulness

• Introduction to His Amazing Grace

• Introduction to His Righteousness

• Introduction to His Forgiveness and Wrath

• Introduction to His deliverance, healing, restoration and Salvation.

Introduction is the basis of building a strong and deep conversation with someone. It's the basic fundamentals of the school of the Spirit to teach you when and how you are to experience the encounter of the Lord. Moses was introduced to the Holiness and the Name of God (Ex. 3:14, "God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM.' This is what you are to say to the Israelites: "I AM has sent me to you"). May you enroll now in the school of encounter to understand what you believe about God. Some people do not believe in the healing Power of God because they have not yet encounter the introduction to that aspect of God. The more you fellowship with Him, the more you understand and introduced to the deep things of God. You can't understand, if you are not enrolled in that school. Begin to avail yourself for God to introduce His truth to you as you meditate, pray and search the scriptures. Ask God to introduce you to anything you do not believe about Him and He will encounter you with that experience. David understood the introduction of his encounter and he always request for more of that encounter by dwelling in the secret place of His court. Psalms 84:1-2 "How lovely is your dwelling-place, Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God". The introduction to Jeremiah was so unique that God has to start from how he was formed in the womb, wow. Jeremiah 1:4-5 "the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." This is an amazing introduction to the prophet Jeremiah. I am declaring over your life now in Jesus name that you are saved for the sake of the name of the Lord, to make the name and mighty power of the Lord known to the people around you and to the nations (Psalms 106:8). Let's look at the amazing introduction to the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 1:28, "Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell face down, and I heard the voice of one speaking". Ezekiel 2:2, "As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me". This introduction breaks the human mental faculty of Ezekiel that he did not have enough strength to stand before the Lord, then he bowing down in worship to hear the voice of the Lord. The Holy Spirit was introduced into him and he was raised to the feet to hear the Lord speaking. We need to be introduced to the Holy Spirit to hear the Lord speaking to us. May the Holy Spirit fill you to raise you to your feet in prayer, passion for the kingdom of God and doing something significant for your generation. The Born again experience is the first introduction to experience the Kingdom blessings (John 3:1-12)

## THE COMMISSION OF THE LORD

This is the part of the encounter you receive the assignment of the Lord. It's the part where the eternal will and purpose of God for your life is released in the form of instructions and directions. Now that you have received the introduction of God, you are permitted and promoted to receive his purpose and desires. Without the introduction, you can't understand the reasons why the commission is very important to God. Every human being has a commission to fulfill on this earth but until you experience the encounter of the Lord, your commission will be blur without any sense of light and understanding. The commission positions you to receive the original intent of God for your destiny and unlock the potential of God in you. You are being launch in life after you have experienced the encounter of the commission of the Lord. You can't be introduced to the world if you have not received the commission of the Lord concerning that particular aspect of your life.

The commission of the Lord is all about "Going" and "Giving" and It's the apostolic mantel of God. Exodus 3:7-10 "the Lord said, 'I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slavery drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey – the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.'" The commission of the Lord is always about the salvation plan of God. The commission entails all the necessary instructions and directions that leads to eternal life. If what are you are doing in the kingdom of God is not leading people to the cross of Christ and blessing the human race, then your commission has been thwarted by the enemy.

Isaiah 6:8-9, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And I said, here am I. send me!' He said, 'Go and tell this people: '"Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving ". God was commissioning Isaiah to go and deliver a message to the people of God. It was his eternal assignment. Jeremiah's commission was to be a prophet for the Lord. What is your commission on this earth? Have you asked the Lord about it and what are His responses are? May be God has commissioned you to be a Pastor, Evangelist, Doctor, Engineer, Accountant etc. in whatever field He has positioned you. He wants you to fulfill His eternal plan of salvation to His people and manifest His glory to the nations. So are you in that will or you have diverted it for your own personal interest? How many souls have you saved or influenced by the commission God has place in your hands? I want you to understand that, the more you pray the more knowledge you receive concerning your commission. Begin to pray intensively about the commission of God for your life and how He wants you to fulfill it for His glory. I want you to know that your commission can be diverted if we refuse to come to the giver of the commission in prayer. Prayer sets you in motion to work towards the commission. Finally, looking at the commission of Ezekiel's encounter in Ezekiel 2:3-5 "He said: 'Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have been in revolt against me to this very day. The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, "this is what the Sovereign Lord says." And whether they listen or fail to listen – for they are a rebellious people – they will know that a prophet has been among them". God is sending me and you to minister the true Gospel to the people around us through the opportunists He will create for us. Many people will not believe in your commission but keep moving in that light of God and you will see His glory revealed in your Life.

## THE OBJECTIONS OF MAN

The human nature always makes us to object to the encounter God has orchestrated with us. Inferiority complex makes us to always object to the call of God and requesting God to use a different person. We always look at the inferior and unqualified aspect of our lives which causes us not to respond to the call of God. In the bible, majority of persons God chose and used to proclaim His Holy name were unqualified and of poor background. God always call the unqualified to qualify them to accept His commission to the nations. We always do not accept the call of God upon our lives because we always project our weakness and sideline our strength in the Lord as written in

2 Corithians 12:9, "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me". We think it's us who will carry out the whole mission with our own strength without God playing a role in it. Philippians 2:13, "for it is God who works in you to will and act in order to fulfil his good purpose". It is God who will work in us and through us to work out the commission to His will and purpose. We have to totally rely and trust the Lord to work through us so that we can live within the purpose of God. I want you to understand that it's not you who will be working for God but he working through you therefore don't object His call upon your because any moment from now He is going to encounter you specially.

We don't work for God, but we work with God and collaborate with him in the kingdom business. Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God's own handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, born anew that we may do those good works which God has predestined (planned beforehand) for us taking paths which He prepared ahead of time, that we should walk in them living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live" (AMPC). This is to encourage us that, there is work for each and every one of us predestined before time and no one can do that work except you. There is a problem in this world that only you can solve it. if only you will accept that challenge of the call of God and walk in them. There is no human being on earth that is useless because each and every one has a unique assignment to fulfill to make the world a better place. Your usefulness becomes less on earth if you are not walking in what you are designed and predestined to do. The paths, provisions and directions to do the work has already been prepared by God and all you have to do is to walk in them by living a good life and encountering Him every day. Also, Philippians 1:3-6 say, "I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus". Remember that, it's not you who will bring the good work to a completion but He the Lord will see to it that the work will be completed. His name is the Alpha and Omega.

It's the nature of man to always decline the call of God on us because of fear to be able to fulfill that assignment. We fear we might fail and fear of people has paralyzed us when we are encountering the call of God for our lives. We begin to give so many excuses to God, proving that you are the wrong person for the assignment. Therefore God have to search for a different person to use. I will be discussing the major excuses Moses gave for God not to use him to fulfill the assignment and these reasons are very frank and familiar in our lives in this generation. Moses was a great leader. Actually he was a man of God. He was purposely born to deliver the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. His calling was a long journey that began even before his pivotal encounter with God at a burning bush when he was 80 years old. He was prepared for all these years to suit this assignment but he didn't recognize that, then to give God excuses. I want you to understand that God has been preparing you throughout these years to suit a particular assignment. He will soon encounter you and launch you to the nations. You might be in the medical field or the educational field, God purposely placed you there because he has prepared, trained and equipped you for that work to manifest His glory. Start discovering the reason why you are doing what you are doing, where you are now and the challenges you are going through. You are going through what you are going through now because you will need that experience to execute a plan in the future. Do not complain or murmur about what you are going through but pray it through by the Spirit, verifying the true purpose about the challenges. It's not meant to crush you but to prepare, equip, re-strategize and amour you with potentials and information to overcome a challenge in the future.

The encounter of Moses changed his life and the lives of generations after him forever. Your encounter can change something about this cruel world and begin to deliver people from it. Therefore, do not object the call of God. Moses answered God's call from the bush with the words "Here I am" but whether out of apprehension or humility, he quickly added some excuses for not immediately doing the work as God asked.

Excuse 1: I'm not good enough to accept the call (Who am I...?).

"But Moses said to God, 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?'" Exodus 3:11. Moses was projecting his inability to meet the standard for the calling. He just loved to work as a shepherd in Midian than going to Egypt to lead the Israelites from slavery to the promised land the Lord has prepared for them. He was so content that perhaps most days he did not remember the sin that drove him to this wilderness. Sometimes God is calling us to leave one geographical area to another, but because we are so content with that atmosphere we refuse to move from where we are to where God is calling us to be. We forget so quickly the sins that normally drives us into difficult situations of life. Moses thought his sin which he has covered in Exodus 2:12 and run from in Egypt has been buried in the sand, but when he approached the burning bush, the flames of fire exposed his guilt and he begun to give excuses. I imagine that in the intimacy of that encounter at the burning bush every sin felt fresh as it flushed through his mind. The fire of God will always expose our sinful nature when He the Lord is encountering us. We are not supposed to fear when our sins are being exposed by the light, but to embrace His nature of forgiveness and righteousness than to give excuses. Adam and Eve's sin was exposed when God came to visit them and they could not accept the mistake they had committed than to play the blame game and excuses in Genesis 3:1-13. I want you to understand that, God so often chooses the most unlikely candidates to fulfill His work and mission. Jonah, Gideon, Peter all objected the call by giving excuses but He still wants to use them, you and me to fulfill his eternal purpose. He is the Lord who sees pass the man or woman standing before Him and sees eternity. He sees our potential for good and how our broken vessels can fulfill His ultimate purpose for our own and someone else's life. God didn't accept Moses' first excuse, because it is the same excuse anyone could use.

Excuse 2: I don't have all the answers concerning the calling. "Moses said to GOD, 'Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, "The God of your fathers has sent me to you," and they ask me, "What is his name?" then what shall I tell them?' - Exodus 3:13". When Moses was born, he was adopted by the king's daughter into the palace and he was brought up there. He was well educated and learned human wisdom with all the qualification in Egypt but he still questioned his abilities. He missed the fact that the call was not about him but it was about God. It's good to ask questions but, Moses' question was a question to stop God from his call. John 16:30 says, "Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God'". This is so deep that the disciples said that. Though you are educated in your field of study, you are still giving excuse that you can't speak to that friend in the class. I gave that excuse to God when God told me to speak to a Russian friend about God and I started spelling out by excuses that, I'm a foreigner and I'm not allowed to preach the gospel here; I can't speak the Russian language fluently and the person is unapproachable. God didn't accept the excuse than to cause me feel pain when I see the person. When I decided to accept the call to speak to the person, some boldness came over me and I was preaching in Russians with my broken Russian language. The person said she has never heard about God neither the love of God for her. I missed the point that it's not about me but God. God was asking Moses to be His vessel; To be His voice to save the Israelites from the tyranny of Egyptian leadership. To fulfill His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This excuse didn't work with God. Moses did not need to know it all because it was never about him in the first place. You don't need to know everything before accepting the call of God because you can't handle all the information that moment. Jesus once told His disciples in John 16:12, "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear". John 16:3 also said, "They will do such things because they have not known the father or me. I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you". Sometimes God won't give you detail information about the call now, but He is a faithful God to upload that information to you as you keep encountering Him in the brightness of His glory. Today God is calling us to be His vessels saved through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit to carry the infilling of the flames of God to the communities, towns, villages, regions and nations He has called us to minister the gospel. 2Thessalonians 2:13-15 says, "But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter". There are some people the devil has kept in bondage of slavery that, only you God want to use to deliver them from that oppressions of life. God might have promised somebody a deliverance and He is relying on you to avail yourself for Him to fill with His Holy Spirit to bring that promise to pass. Do not block someone's fulfillment of promise and prophetic word by objecting and giving excuses about that call.

Excuse 3: The people won't believe the call on me. Moses answered, 'What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, "The Lord did not appear to you"? – Exodus 4:1. This is a natural human fear which we become vulnerable to, especially to hostile group. We become scared if people do not believe in us and do not accept the fact that we have been sent from God. God didn't allow Moses to hide behind this excuse to decline the call but He gave him a sign to cause the people to believe in Him. The Lord will always give you a miraculous tool to give you the confidence you need to deliver the message to the people He is sending you to. He gave Moses two miraculous tools; a rod that could turn into a serpent and the ability to turn his hand leprous, and then make it whole again by simply placing it inside his cloak. God equipped Moses to overcome what he is afraid of.

Excuse 4: I am a terrible public speaker to be sent. Moses said to the Lord, 'Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.' – Exodus 4:10. Moses thought, to be a servant of God you have to have it all hundred percent to be called. Moses was not only projecting his weakness before the Lord but his humbleness before the Lord. He was a broken vessel to be used for the assignment. God doesn't call the flawless to do His work.

Excuse 5: I'm not qualified to accept the call. But Moses said. 'Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.' – Exodus 4:13. This last excuse of Moses caused the righteous anger of God to burn against him when He allowed his brother Aaron to sever alongside with him. Moses was single mindedness and slow to accept the call and the appointed work of God, but when he accepted it he holds fast to it faithfully until his death. Moses showed remarkable courage, obedience and strength of character in his walk with God. He fulfills his mission faithfully and lives up to the magnificent image God saw him to be.

I want you to understand that God's desire is to work with each and every one of us where we are and take us to where He wants us to be. We just need to be willing to leave behind the excuses.

## THE REASSURANCE OF GOD

This is the part of the encounter where God reassures you of his presence with you. Everyone needs reassurance in every day life situation which boost your courage and confidence in Him to lead you through it all. God always reassures us through His word and the Holy Spirit, if we are losing confidence in him. When you encounter God, you receive His reassurance which is able to boost your trust and faith in Him. In Zephaniah 3:17, "The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing." This verse encourages and reassures us that the Lord will not forsake us nor leave us. The word of God always has the power to assure us of what we are promised to have and builds our capacity to walk in that assurance. We need to be enrich with the word of God, for us to be assured of what we dream. The great assurance word I have ever seen in the word of God is "Emmanuel" – God with us. When Jeremiah was losing confidence to accept the call of God, he received a reassurance in Jeremiah 1:7-8, "But the Lord said to me, 'Do not say, "I am too young." You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,' declares the Lord." The reassurance of the Lord in His encounter breaks fear and unbelieve within you and pushes you into the acceptance of the call. It also has the mantel to rescue and protect you whiles you are on mission. May you receive an assurance from the Holy Spirit concerning your calling now in Jesus name. Reassurance causes you to fix your eyes on the Lord more than on yourself to accomplish what you have been given to you to fulfill.

Ezekiel 2:6-7 says, "And you, son of man, do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they are a rebellious people. You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious." The reassurance words of the Lord to Ezekiel was to shape his focus on speaking the words of God despite the thorns and briers and scorpions around him. Reassurance words of God destroys discouragement and disappointments on the mission and makes you fearless of the limitations ahead of you. The reassurance of the Lords encounter shapes you to receive a confirming signs and wonders for the call.

THE CONFIRMING SIGNS OF GOD

The Lord will always confirm His words in an encounter to you with signs and wonders and this is what certifies his encounter with you. The Lord will not send you on a mission without giving you a confirming signs and wonders to solidify His call upon you. Every encounter of God has a confirming signs embedded in it. Mark 16:20, "Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it." The Lord worked with the disciples and he also confirmed his word by signs through them. The purpose of his signs to you is to confirm the tangibility of His words to you. It's the confirming signs and wonders upon your calling that makes your calling unique and separates you when you are on mission among the people.

Hebrews 2:4, "God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will." All the people the Lord sent were accompanied with signs and miracles in their encounter with the Lord. The confirming signs helps us to know that we are hearing the voice of God and not our own voice or any other voice. These confirming signs of God is the full movement of God in our lives to anoint us and equip us with His power and wisdom. The confirming signs is the engrafted and the impacted word of instructions on your heart. Here are some qualities you will see when you have the confirming signs of God in His encounter with you:

• The confirming signs and wonders will always agree with the word of God, the Holy Scriptures. God will not contradict His word and his signs always has its principles embedded in the word of God. 2Timothy 3:15-16 "and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scriptures is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

• The confirming signs and wonders will make you more like Christ. This is the goal of His confirming power on you, to make you bright in the image of His son Jesus. Romans 8:29, "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters." You are totally transformed into the exact image of Jesus Christ when signs and wonders troops into your life in your encounter with Him.

• The confirming signs on you will always be confirmed by spiritually mature people around you. Ephesians 3:10, "His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord."

• The confirming signs and wonders must be able to move you personally into the call. Romans 12:11, "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord." The signs will excite you, move you, awaken and inspire your inner man.

• The confirming signs and wonders of the encounter will stretch you and warms you up spiritually for the work. Philippians 3:13-14, "Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus." I want you to always expect the confirming signs and wonders of God's encounter to take you out of your comfort zone. He loves to take you out from your old territory to a new territory and places you have not yet traveled so that he can stretch you into the fullness of your potential.

• The confirming signs of the Lords encounter always require Faith. Romans 10:6-8, "But the righteousness that is by faith says: "Do not say in your heart, "who will ascend into heaven?" or "Who will descend into the deep?". But what does it say? 'The word is near you: it is in your mouth and in your heart,' that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim." Faith trust God for the impossibilities. The signs and wonders will be illogic to us but we need a level of faith to flow with that confirming signs. Moses has to pick the tail of the snake to turn into a staff, wow this requires faith (Genesis 4:4). Faith believes, hopes and relies upon the God of heaven to help you fulfill what he is asking you to do by the confirming signs of the encounter.

The confirming signs and wonders in His encounter with you is for a specific reason. The confirming signs is to affirm and certify the call of God on your life or to confirm that you have encountered the Lord; to convince and persuade them to believe the Lord and to break the power of the enemy over the people. God gave Moses three confirming signs just to cause the people of God to believe his messenger Moses. If you can wait upon the Lord during this encounter with Him, He will confirm you with sign and wonders. He will give you the necessary tools and equipment you need to execute the plan the Holy Spirit has engrafted on your heart. May the Lord release a sign of your calling into that business idea He has given you. The Lord has already prepared the land for new seed of faith to be planted and he will send rain on that land. Have faith that the Lord will work through you and work wonders to establish His kingdom in your family, school, job place, relationship and marriage.

Isaiah 30:30, "The Lord will cause people to hear his majestic voice and will make hem see his arm coming down with raging anger and consuming fire, with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail." I prophecy that you will begin to hear divine majestic voice of the Lord concerning that decision you want to make in life and that bold step to walk with the Lord. Receive his grace to function in his abundant blessings and His arm working out great miracles for you. Let every limitations and obstruction receive the raging anger and consuming fire of the Lord. Any walls of hindrance standing in your way for spiritual encounter be broken by cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail in the mighty name of Jesus. Your dreams are refreshed by the Holy Ghost and great ideas will flood your heart with divine understanding and wisdom.

There will be some instances in the encounter with the Lord, when you will be giving the opportunity to ask the Lord for a sign to confirm his promise of call upon you. Let's look at Isaiah 7:10-14 where Isaiah was prophesying about the sign of Immanuel. "Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz. 'ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.' But Ahaz said, 'I will not ask: I will not put the Lord to the test.' Then Isaiah said, 'Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." Be conscious of the signs of the Lord in every seasons of your life, because He will give you a definite sign when to rise to speak and when to be silent. Be open to know when he is calling you on a mission in all sphere of life. Trust the witness of the Holy Spirit with your spirit and ask Him to lead with a sign. There will always be a sign leading to a great manifestation of the Lord. The Lord gave the Wise Men a star to lead them to Bethlehem and the shepherd a sign that a Savior has been born in the town of David. Luke 2:11-12, "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.'"

The sign proves the originality of what He the Lord is doing through you. therefore, you need to know the signs of the Lord. Jesus said,... these signs shall follow those who believe (Mark 16:17). Asking a sign of the Lord is through an intensive prayer. We must always develop the habit of asking in prayer and believe that, what you have asked you have received by faith (John 14:13-14). The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend because Moses had a tent pitched outside the camp called the 'tent of meeting'. His encounter was so real because he always positioned himself to encounter the Lord. Moses had instances of asking God for signs. Exodus 33:17, "And the Lord said to Moses, I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name". If you can ask the Lord to accompany you with a sign of your healing, He will do exactly what you have asked in prayer. Moses said, if you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. He prayed to know the ways of the Lord in his encounter with Lord.

## PROPHETIC WORD:

As you have encountered my personality and the measure of my Spirit in this season, My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest at every side of life. I want you to know the small tug on your heart is my spirit calling you out. I will be calling you strongly in this season to walk closer to me, and calling you to know me in a deeper, more personal way. As you feel your heart burning and hearing my voice calling you ever so softly, know this is my spirit. Always have this understanding that I desire to call you closer to me through the study of the Scriptures, even closer than you already are. You were designed to experience intimacy and to be close to me. You were designed to know me in a very deep and personal way, just as I know you in a very deep and personal way. I am not distant from you. In fact, I am very near to you, even right now. I am calling you to put away things of old, distractions, and diversions and begin to focus on the new things I am doing in you right now. If you open the door of your heart, I will come in with confirming signs and wonders and we will meet together and grow in our experience of knowing each other deeply. In the days you are now entering, you will need to know me more than you have in the past. The tasks and duties ahead of you will require a greater history together as things continue to move more quickly, more rapidly, and with more complexity.

## THE ENCOUNTER WITH THE GLORY

The glory of the Lord is the manifestation of His Divine presence and power which are perceived and experienced by his people. His glory covers and crown all the things He has created and they show his great praise, splendor and honor. The Glory of the Lord can be carried, seen and experienced in an encounter with his divinity and he wants us to speak about the glory we have encountered. He encounter us with His glory for us to have knowledge of His glory which is the infinite perfections, greatness and worth of his holiness. The beauty of his holiness is his divine glory. His glory is the class he dwell by himself in holiness and He shares it with no other person. Pastor John Piper in his own words said "the Glory of God is the infinite beauty and greatness of God's manifold perfections". This beauty emanates right from his very character of his being and existence. This beauty of the glory has the mandate to fill the earth and the we as his people must see that Glory. Seeing and beholding the Glory of the Lord is the encounter you must have as you walk with him. I want us to understand that this glory which emanates from his attributes and character is infallible and eternal. Isaiah 6:3, "And they were calling to one another: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the earth is full of his glory.'" The ecounter with the Glory of God is purposed to fill the earth and fill you to its fullness. The beauty of his holiness in your life makes you to carry His very glory to fill the earth. The glory of God on earth is the salvation of souls on the earth, where people comes to the knowledge of his only Son Jesus Christ because his Son is his glory. Habakkuk 2:14, "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters covers the sea" Isaiah 43:7, "everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made". God purposely created us to carry and reflect his glory. His encounter with us will enable us to fulfill that mandate we were called, created, formed and made for. Everything we do on this earth must be geared towards the fulfillment of the reflection of his glory. You can't take the glory of God for your own self because it will kill and destroy. You are not created to take glory but to reflect his glory only him alone can contain and keep glory. Always remember the glory is for God and it must be given to Him alone. Isaiah 42:8, "I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols."

Moses understood the presence of the glory of God and the significance role with him in ministry. He reflects the glory of God to the people he is leading. Its time our leaders needs to encounter the glory of God to lead his people into the promise land. New generation is emerging with the glory of God into authority and power for our countries and continents . God is counting on us to fill the earth with his glory as Moses deed.

# CHAPTER 2

# THE ENCOUNTER WITH JESUS CHRIST

Isaiah 14:24, "The Lord Almighty has sworn, 'Surely, as I have planned, so it will be and as I have purposed, so it will happen". The Lord has kept His promise by the encounter we had with Jesus. The best thing that happened to mankind is the encounter we had with Jesus. The encounter all the men in scriptures had with God was assigned to prophecy about the original intent of God about salvation.

The original intent of salvation was about the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Their encounter with God the Father was to prophesy about the encounter of salvation of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the final solution to human problems and everyone is entitled to have an encounter with Him. The encounter with Jesus Christ is the encounter of reconciliation back to the father. God has reconciled us to himself through an encounter with His Son, Jesus Christ. This reconciliation is the salvation plan for mankind. The gospel is full of encounters with Jesus Christ, which made a profound impact on those who spoke with Jesus. Those who diligently recognized this encounter were changed forever and they were given the title "children of God". John 1:12

I want us to look at the personality of the person we will be encountering in this section. We will be encountering the precious gift of God to humanity and that person is His only begotten son, Jesus Christ. God always want to have a personal relationship with us but our impossibility to reach him through our own human reason and human effort made Him to reveal himself in a magnificent way. I want you to understand that the central message of the Old Testament is that God created man and woman for a relationship with Himself. But our sins separated us from God.

That was why God gave His only begotten son (Jesus Christ) to redeem us from the bondage of sin, and to be reconciled to Him. God promised that a divine savior would come to the earth and reveal God's glory to us (John 1:14). An encounter with Jesus Christ is an encounter with divinity where God revealed Himself to his people through his Son Jesus Christ. Encountering Jesus is a direct encounter with God the Father. He reveals his Father to His people. Jesus Christ did not only come to preach the Good news of the Kingdom to us but He revealed God's nature.

## ENCOUNTER WITH THE NATURE OF GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST

Hebrews 1:1-3, says "In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven."

Jesus Christ is God's final revelation to us. He is the fullest revelation of God that we will ever have on this earth. His birth was so awesome that the Holy Spirit has to overshadow Mary to conceive him. He is the word from the beginning. John 1:1-3, "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." Since our words reveal the invisible thoughts of our minds, so the word (Jesus) reveals the invisible nature of God visible. Jesus has revealed his Father to us when we encounter Him by giving our lives to Him and accepting Him as the Lord over our lives. John 14:9, Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father?" Upon the fact that the disciples had encounter with Jesus Christ and stayed with Him for a long time, they did not know Him that He is the exact nature of God. Jesus explained to them that, the fact that they have seen Him; they have already seen the Father. This proves the fact that all that you have being looking for in life is not far away from you but right inside of you. All the grace, favor, provisions, health and breakthrough are all deposited in you. You just have to stretch in faith to activate them. Paul once said, Christ in you the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). He realized that all that he needs is Christ dwelling in him and there will be hope and glory for the future. Jesus Christ showed us the Father by revealing himself to us. Seeing Jesus is just like seeing the Father. That is why Jesus Christ said in John 10:30; "I and my Father are one". The revelation of the Father is hidden in Christ Jesus. When we encounter Jesus Christ, we have the access to the identification of the Father in the Son.

Colossians 2:3, "In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge". All the treasures we need to execute the purpose and plan of God for our lives are all hidden in Christ Jesus. An encounter with Him will disclose these hidden treasures to us. One of the hidden treasures is the Nature of God. Identifying yourself with the Father is the key to tap into the flow of His abundance blessings. Jesus Christ has the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and when we encounter Him, we are introduced to these wisdom and knowledge of God. One encounter with him will unlock that divine business ideas and knowledge you need to excel. Encounter with him is an encounter of prosperity and that prosperity are hidden in wisdom and knowledge. Precisely, Jesus Christ is the Power and the Wisdom of God in 1 Corinthians 1:24. In my encounter with Jesus Christ, I have been introduced to divine wisdom and knowledge that I personally have not thought of it before. I receive understanding of life and my perspectives and views are enlightened. He supplies me with all the necessary wisdom and knowledge I need in every level of my life. Your life will begin to flow in divine alignment of wisdom and knowledge when you encounter Christ the Messiah. Now considering what Hebrews 1:1-3; is saying let us identify some key phrases of Jesus' expression of the Father:

1. The Son is the Radiance of God's Glory. The word radiance was used to describe the relationship which exists between the Father and the Son. Radiance is what makes light visible to the human eye. Anytime light is made less radiant, it always become less visible and when it becomes more radiant, it becomes more visible. This makes me understand that, the presence of Jesus Christ on earth has made the shining knowledge of God's glory more visible on earth than that had happened never before. According to the prophecy of the prophet Habakkuk 2:14, he prophesied that "For the earth will be filled with the Knowledge of the Glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea". Our Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect and exact display of Gods glory. He radiates the splendor, brightness, excellence, perfection and dazzling light of God's glory. It's the answer to Moses request in prayer in Exodus 33:18, "Now show me your glory". Jesus is the glory of God according to John 1:14, "The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth". To say that Jesus is the radiance of God's glory is to say that Jesus makes God's character and nature visible or apparent to humanity. When you see Jesus, you have seen God. When we encounter Jesus, we always see the glory and display of the glory of Him dwelling among or in us. Jesus expects us to radiate His glory to the nations and the people around us. We radiate the glory through our lifestyle and the way we live with people. An encounter prepares you to radiate the glory of God through the consistent fellowship with the Word. What light do you radiate in the sector you operate and are people seeing the radiation of that light through you? We are called upon to radiate this light of salvation, prosperity, health and deliverance to the nations.

2. The Son Is the Exact Representation of the Father's Being: Jesus is the exact and perfect, visible expression of the fullness of God. Jesus radiates the character of God. He carries that character in his being and radiates that character to us. When we encounter Jesus Christ, He prepares us not only to radiate the glory but to carry the mandate of God's character and the exact expression of His image. We carry the image of God in us when we are born again with the word and Spirit. You can only radiate what you are carrying in you. As you encounter Jesus on your spiritual walk with Him through the Holy Spirit, you will carry the Joy, peace, Power, blessings, healing, wisdom and Knowledge, Grace, prosperity and excellence and you will begin to celebrate the expression of that character of God you are carrying and radiating to the Nations. Colossians 1:15-16 reads "The Son is the image of the Invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him". God has prepared an image down for everybody to carry and express. That image is the image of the future that can be expressed fully to the nation by your preparation of you spirit, soul and body through the encounters you will be having in life. The devil cannot keep you in the elementary things of the spirit. You need an encounter of Jesus to fulfill that image of the future. This encounter breaks you free from inferiority complex by opening your eyes to see what you carry and whom you represent in life and what you have been destined to fulfill in life. It humbles you to carry the character image of God in your life time. Inferiority complex is a long lasting dwelling in total darkness of ignorance of the image of God and the purpose of God for your existence. An encounter can propel you to step into that which you have been called to represent. When Paul discovered what he represents and carries, he was so confident to stand and die for what he stood for. In Romans 11:13-14, "I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them". He discovered that he is an apostle to the Gentiles to save some of them. Taking pride in the ministry you have been prepared to function is a total deliverance from the bondage of inferiority complex to the image of God concerning your life. In as much as we are in this world, we are the ambassadors of Christ and we represent what He stands for.

3. The Son Sustaining All Things by His Powerful Word: From the radiance of the glory; to the representation of his image and to the sustain power of his word is the expression of Gods nature through Christ. You can radiate the Glory by representing His image by the Power of words. Your words become powerful because of what you represent and radiates. This is our testimony through the encounter with Jesus Christ. If your influence is not felt in the generation you find yourself, quickly check up on what you represent and whom you are radiating. The words of Jesus became powerful because he represented the image of God by radiating His nature and character to the people he was sent to minister salvation. Everything is in existence because of the sustaining Power of words of Jesus. The Word of God has the power to sustain all things in life. The world has not collapsed because of the continues sustaining power of Christ's words. A man of God once said the world is not yet destroyed because of the presence of Believers interceding for it with powerful words of prayer. The day the church will be ruptured, the earth will be chaotic for a living. Equipping ourselves with the Word of God sustains us to withstand all the fiery darts the enemy may throw against us. Colossians 1:17 reads, "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." Everything in life holds together in Christ and when you forfeit him, your life will be torn apart. One powerful word of God will sustain you throughout the pressures you are facing in Life. Hebrews 4:12 reads, "For the word of God is alive and active. Shaper than any double-edge sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."

God is making us vessels of influence and world changers through the sustaining power of His word. The best gift you can give to somebody is to share the word that will be able to sustain the person all the rest of his life. Peter and John could not have anything to offer the lame beggar at the beautiful gate in Acts 3:4-6 than to give him the sustaining word "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk". The word has the power to sustain the man to walk the rest of his life. We are called to radiate the Glory, Manifest the Image of God and sustain through the Word. Let this be our purpose as we encounter Jesus in so many dimensions in this section.

Key thoughts:

  *  Radiate the Glory

  *  Manifest the image of God

  *  Sustain through the Power of the Word

## ENCOUNTER TO FOLLOW JESUS CHRIST

The life of Jesus on earth has been a life of encounters in history and the encounters have caused a lot of people to follow Him because of his unique nature of influencing lives and fulfilling the purposes and plans of God. There is a mystery in the encounter of Jesus Christ which is the mystery of being a follower. The Lord is raising great followers of Christ in this generation who will carry the mandate of the Spirit to the lost souls around the world. A lot of people encountered Him but not all are his followers. You might have encountered Christ, but the question I want to ask you is, are you still following him and is your lifestyle portraying a follower of Him? How close are you following Him? The word said, "Many are called but few are chosen" Matthew 22:14). You are part of those God has chosen to follow and to fellowship. There is always a reason of following somebody in life and base on that reason(s) you can access the true commitment of that person. The people who followed Jesus Christ have a reason of following Him and base on that reasons they are able to enjoy the fellowship of Jesus. Jesus was carrying something great and powerful that mankind needed, and this attracted the people to follow Him. You are carrying something great that the human race needed. You might be a solution to problems facing humans and this can cause people to follow Jesus the more. Some of the people following you will enter into your inner circle to fellowship with you so that you can be able to deliver what you are mandated to execute on earth. Jesus had so many people following Him based on so many reasons. So he decided to choose his disciples who will enter his inner circle to fellowship. That inner circle of Christ is purposely for fellowship and training. Jesus had seven levels of friendship encounters with men:

• The Multitudes

• The crowd

• The seventy disciples sent in two's

• The twelve disciples

• The three close disciples

• The marginalized

• The noble (e.g. Nicodemus)

An encounter with Him permits you to be part of the disciples and not the crowd. The crowd won't help you to deliver but the disciples will help you execute. Jesus recruited men to be his disciples to accomplish the mission given him. Your mission will be well accomplished base on the team you surround yourself with. An encounter is a recruitment process of the kingdom of God; to recruit and translate souls from the power of darkness to the marvelous light of God (1 Peter 2:9). Jesus has recruited you to be a follower in the kingdom of God to reveal the glory of God to the world and the people around you. Your recruitment is not to gain material benefits but to be enriched with the riches of God through fellowship with Him. Every follower must learn how to fellowship with the teacher because this is the way to be enriched with the principles of the teacher and understand what one is obliged to do to fulfill destiny. A lazy follower is a lazy worshipper when it comes to fellowship with the Lord and the brethren. How is your encounter preparing you to follow Christ intimately and fellowship with the brethren?

A true follower is a man who had an encounter with Jesus Christ, hear the voice of God and believe the voice by yielding and responding to the voice in a special way of leaving everything behind to follow Christ. Luke 5:11, 27-28, "So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him". "After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. 'Follow me,' Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him." A follower gives his all to pursue the call of God and never returns back to his past. He thirsts to go deeper with Christ to be ready for his second coming. There is a cost to be paid to become a true follower of Christ. Luke 9:23 reads, "Then he said to them all: 'Whoever wants to be my disciples must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." A follower is always ready to sacrifice and pay the price of denying the desires of the flesh and fellowshipping daily. Luke 14:25-27, "Large crowds were travelling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 'if anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters – yes, even their own life – such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. John 6:66 reads, "From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." Great followers are potential great leaders of the missions of God because they have sacrificially paid the prize. All the great leaders the world has ever seen were once a follower, followed steadily at the feet of a teacher and paid the prize to reach that level of leadership. I believe that God is calling the youth of this generation to break the grip of the flesh over their lives to step into an intimate relationship with him so as to release a dimensions of power to the diligent and committed vessels. A lot of the disciples turned back on Christ because they are not ready to enter into an intimate teaching relationship with him. They couldn't carry their cross to the end but gave up on the way. As followers of Christ, we must learn to obey and follow the key decrees and laws instituted by him carefully. A deviation from the decrees and laws will merit separation from the leader. Luke 18:40-43, "Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him, 'what do you want me to do for you?' 'Lord, I want to see,' he replied. Jesus said to him, 'Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.' Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God." The blind beggar followed after he had his encounter with Jesus and because he followed Christ, people praised God with him as he follows. Our encounter or miracles we receive from Christ Jesus should cause us to follow him all the days of our life. Your miracle should compel you to walk with Christ and as you walk with him wholeheartedly, you will enter into the inner circle of fellowship.

## ENCOUNTER TO FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST JESUS

Our level of fellowship with Him (Christ Jesus) reveals our faith-life and more of His anointing in us. Fellowship is from the Greek word "KOINONIA" which literally means to share, participate, or fellowship. This however, fulfills the purpose of God creating man, which is, to fellowship with God and fellowship with the brethren in Christ Jesus. This intimate spiritual union and saving relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ has been revealed to us in the scriptures. This is the place where we commune with God and hear His voice speaking to us as children who have been bought at a higher price of the Blood of His Son Jesus' Christ. The privilege of fellowship and present relationship we are enjoying now with God can be fully understood when we reflect back where we were before the encounter with Jesus Christ. Before our encounter with Christ, we were totally separated from Christ, we were without God, dead in our transgressions and sins and totally excluded from the Life of God (the Zoe of God) according to Ephesians 2:1-2, 12; which reads "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

Ephesians 4:18; They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts". We totally did not know God and the fierce wrath of God was upon us as written in Galatians 4:8-9, "Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God – or rather are known by God – how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?" and in John 3:36, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them." Eventually, we were spiritually helpless and our condition was hopeless as captured in Romans 5:6-8, "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." These were the obstacles preventing us to fellowship with God, therefore, He sent his only Son Jesus to come and correct this abnormality. Through the encounter with Christ Jesus, we have been legally certified to enjoy this fellowship with him and the Father. That's why I said every human being needs this encounter with Christ to enjoy this extraordinary fellowship.

In the light of this understanding of where we were, when we came to the Lord Jesus our conditions radically changed. Our helpless conditions changed when we received the forgiveness of our sins in 1John 2:12 "I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name."; when we received the reconciliation with God in Romans 5:10-11 "For if, while we were Gad's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation"; when we received a standing of righteousness before God in 2 Corinthians 5:21 "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."; when we received the gift of the Holy Spirit as quoted in Acts 2:38-39 "Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off for all whom the Lord our God will call." when we became new creatures in Christ Jesus,

2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!" One of the most blessed privileges we have as new creations in Christ Jesus is that of our fellowship with God. God wants you to fellowship with Him as you have encountered his Son Jesus and your personal relationship with Him should be the key in your life. You can only enjoy what God has prepared for you based on how intimate you relate with Him.

Paul described this relationship when he stated in 1 Corinthians 1:9 that "God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord". All the great men and women God has ever used in the Bible had a personal encounter of fellowship with God. Fellowship is the place where they meet with God to execute the will and purpose of God in the earth realm. Your place of fellowship is the place of your breakthrough and the place where you acquire the original intent of God concerning your destiny. Fellowship is the place where information written about you in the volumes of the books is released to you. John wrote something remarkable in 1John 1:1-4, "That which was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched - this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete." This passage of the scripture shows us what we should expect and experience from our fellowship with Christ.

  * We HEAR from God through the Holy Spirit when we encounter Christ on the plaform of intimate fellowship.

  * We SEE with our eyes through intimate fellowship the things that God has prepared and feely given us, which patains to life and godly living.

  * We LOOK unto Christ who supplies all our needs according to his riches of grace and power at work in us. Intimate fellowship with Christ helps us to look ahead into the future.

  * We TOUCH Christ by our hands when we fellowship intimately. This shows the physical tangibility of his presence with us. We always behold His glory in our earthening vessels.

God is calling us all to lay ourselves on the altar of prayer, where we tarry in the presence of God, fellowshipping with divinity to seek answers to problems and directions for life journey. It's in prayer and worship you generate the tenacity and power to embark on whatever vision God has laid in your heart. Constant and persistent fellowship with God opens you to the dimensions God wants you to walk in with authority and power in the realms of the Spirit. The enemy is always afraid of a man that tarries long in prayer and worship with the word intimately. You become a threat to the enemies' camp when you consistently and persistently dwell in the secrets of prayer. The reason the enemy is attacking you is to stop and discourage you from visiting the room of prayer in fellowship with the Lord. Whenever you sense the enemy around your family, finance, marriage, school and attack on your health, quickly seek refuge from God to protect your habit and faith in Fellowship with the Lord. Your fellowship extends the covering of God over your life and all your affairs. When you lose your sense of fellowship with God, you have lost your connection with divinity and covering over your family. Jesus always makes sure that He does not lose His connection with the Father. He needs to fellowship with the Father to know what the Father wants Him to do that period of the day. He never misses His encounter with the Father after the activities of the days' ministry. He tarries there through the night and fresh grace, anointing, power and authority is bestowed on him to operate during the next day. A great man of Power and authority is good and serious with his secret place of prayer. If you abandon the place of prayer you have automatically abandon the place of fellowship. Your place of fellowship should not be invaded by the powers of darkness.

Your relationship and fellowship is the key to revelation. If one wants to get revelation, he must have the keys to fellowship with God and keys to establish relationship with God. The more we establish fellowship and relationship with God, the more revelations we get from Him. Our revelation in the word of God depends on the fellowship and relationship we have with Him through the Holy Spirit. God wants to unlock to us the divine mysteries about Himself and He can do that through His fellowship with us. Jesus only reveals His secrets to those who are trustworthy and have intimate fellowship with Him.

## ENCOUNTER WITH THE TRANSFORMATIVE AND THE TRANSITIONAL POWER OF CHRIST

This encounter is very necessary in our spiritual walk with God, and it points us to encounter the Way, the Truth and the Life which is Jesus Christ. When we find the way God wants us to walk in Christ Jesus, we will know the truth and the truth will set us free to receive the eternal life of God. It's only in Christ Jesus can one be transformed into a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). When you encounter Christ, there is a transformative and transitional power you must experience in the inwardness of your spirit which will have physical evidence at the outside. The transition must take place before the transformation power is initiated. Only Jesus Christ has the power to translate a man from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Light. Transformation can't take place in the darkness, it can only happen in the presence of light. Darkness trembles at the presence of light and by the appearance of light is the disappearance of darkness. John once said in the first chapter of His book verse 4 and 5 that "In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

When we encounter the personality of Jesus Christ, he becomes our light in our dark seasons of life and he expects us to shine that same light we have received from Him in our societies. Anyone who comes into your life must see the presence of light and must be transformed by that light. The quantum of light you shine before men will reveal your good works; influences and impacts you have had on the men within your circles. Matthew 5: 14-16, "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven". The transformative and transitional power makes us the children of light and we light up the world for the glory of our Father in heaven. Ephesians 5:8-9, "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)". I speak the transformative power of Christ over your life and family. In this light of understanding the transformative power of Christ, start to think about things within your circles that needs transformation and begin to pray for the power to be an agent of transformation in those areas.

This encounter changes your spiritual status, level, position, location and atmosphere. When these changes take place in your life, you are set to be transformed into another man. The transformation power comes in phases and processes. There is a phase of the transformation where we are totally transfigured into some sudden appearances. Transformation process is activated when the final evidence of transition, when life enters into a man. I have come to understand that, transformation cannot happen to something that is dead, only transition can happen to the dead. Spiritually we were dead and Christ gave us life for us to be transformed. When you are born again by the word and spirit of God, you have the very life of God flowing through you. I don't know what has been dead in your life now, but as you encounter Christ in this season, you will be restored to life for transformation experience.

The transitional power of Christ is targeted to change your spiritual status to the Father by establishing a close and intimate relationship with the God Head and make you a partner of the heavenly inheritance in Christ Jesus. The crucifixion of Christ on the cross purchased us through the transitional power of His blood so that the life we live in the body will be by faith in the Son of God as stated by apostle Paul in Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me". When you begin to understand your transitional work in Christ Jesus, you won't settle for less in life and you will serve Him with all passion and zeal in His presence. In a message preached by Pastor Ransford Obeng at 40 days fasting of power in ICGC entitled, Doing what you can for Jesus. He said that, "If you are going to give your best to Jesus, you must always remember what the Lord has done for you. It's easy to give your best to God if you understand what Christ has done for you". Your best for Christ must be based on the great work of His transitional power at work in you and it must not be compromised with anything. In Mark 14:1-8, Mary understood the transitional power of Christ she encountered in her lifetime and made a decision to give all that she could by anointing Him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume. What can you give to God, for the encounter you have had with the transitional power of Christ? All the people who subjected themselves to the transitional power of Christ in his ministry were saved to receive eternal life. I beseech you to subject every aspect of your life to Christ and he will translate you into the image he has predestined for you before time begun. Don't hold it back from God, give it to him and he will mould it into a perfect substance of influence. You don't have to go through traditions of men but you need to go through the transitional power of Christ. Don't be traditionally possessed but be transitionally perfected because tradition can kill and stagnate you in life. Tradition without the Spirit of God inspired, can't translate you to a perfect image designed for you.

The transformation Power of Christ is targeted to the renewing of the Mindset and the Heart. The Greek word 'METAMORPHOO' is translated as 'transformed' which means to change into another form, to transfigure. Christ appearance was changed and was resplendent with divine brightness on the mount of transfiguration. You can have a complete metamorphosis through the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. T.D. Jakes once said, "religion doesn't transform. Legalism doesn't transform". The mind is the processing unit of man and the heart is the storage unit of man. If the processor is well programmed and updated, then the right information will be stored for pleasant outward result. Transformation targets your soul which is your Will, Emotions and Mind. Joyce Meyer once said, 'the mind is the battle field of life'. The mind is the place where the devil always operates through, to enslave us by corrupting our hearts with evil ideas and behaviors. Thoughts are formed in the mind and it's a delicate place that must be dominated with the word of God for transformation to take place. You must find out how to anchor your mind to God's word, and you'll soon discover a new path to freedom in your thoughts because worry, doubt, confusion, depression, anger and feelings of condemnation are attacks on the mind.

The convenient place the enemy likes to build its stronghold is in the mindset and when you encounter the transformative power of Christ, he re-programs your mindset by the word and demolishes every stronghold that has hold you in captive. Your freedom must first begin with your spirit and mindset buy having new ways of perceiving and viewing things. The Israelites who were delivered from slavery in Egypt couldn't enter the promise land because they were not totally free from the colonial mindset they had in Egypt. They were not fully transformed by the various encounters they had with the Lord and the miracles and signs they saw in the wilderness. They tested the signs for ten times but none of this encounters changed their mindset (Numbers 14:20-40). Sometimes in life, you might not fully possess your land of promise because of your mindset. A wrong mindset about the things of God in your life can delay you in entering the promised future God has for you. You are the exact version of what you process in your mind. Your encounter is the point of reference for your transformation. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." Until every thought is made to be obedient to Christ in your life, the transformation process is not complete yet. The weapons that are used to demolish strongholds in the mind is the Word of God. For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Heb. 4:12). The state of your heart is the expression of your attitudes and when the word fills the heart, the attitudes of the heart are transformed. The words of Christ have the tenacity to penetrate in dividing and separating you from the worldly concepts of living. Never expect God to move in the principles and concepts the world uses, He has his own ways and sets of principles of doing things to prepare and prosper you.

Paul admonishes us in Romans 12: 2 that, "Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will be – his good, pleasing and perfect will." There are some patterns of this world that will not support the transformation work of God in your life, and those patterns has to be demolished and captured into captive by the Word of God and deliberately not conforming to those patterns of the world. The patterns of this world will not empower you to prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God for your life. It's only the transformed renewed mind that can truly discern and prove the acceptable perfect will of God. The Greek word 'ANAKAINOSIS' translated as 'renewing' means a renewal, renovation and complete change for the better and the Greek word 'NOUS' translated as 'Mind' means the mind, comprising alike the faculties of perceiving and understanding and those of feeling, judging and determining reason in the narrower sense, as the capacity for spiritual truth, the higher powers of the soul, the faculty of perceiving divine things, of recognizing goodness and hating evil. The 'anakainosis' of the mind brings the required 'metamorphoo' of the attitudes of the heart which reflects in all spheres of your life. Paul in Ephesians 4:23-24 instructs us 'to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness'. It's a necessity for us as the encountered chosen vessels of Christ to be new in the attitudes of our minds by putting on the new self in holiness and righteousness.

Paul understood the warfare that goes on in the mind and until we amour ourselves with the word of God, we cannot win this spiritual battle of the mind. I have come to understand that, Satan knows not only where to get at us, but also how to get at us. Satan is a schemer and very good at strategizing his ways against us, that's why we need to understand the methods he uses to defeat and imprison us. In 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, Paul reveals the devils primary battle methods and strategy: "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." This text is telling us that Satan targets his attacks on our minds because Paul used words like "speculations", "the knowledge of God", and "taking every thought into captive". Speculations comes from the mind, the knowledge of God is rooted in the mind and the thoughts comes from the mind. It's all in the mind and every Christian who wanted to trade his or her spiritual power status for freedom must learn to think differently. The healing process must first begin in the mind. When Satan attacks a Christian's mind, he starts building what Paul calls "fortresses" or "strongholds". The devil builds a place from which he can operate, and he means for that fortress to be permanent. He plans to take up residence there. Satan makes himself at home, in other words, and he gets a grip on the mind until people begin to think there is no way to overcome this problem, no way to save this marriage, no way to unify this church, no way to make a difference in our world. Whenever you hear a Christian saying, "No way. It cannot be done. I've tried everything, and it just doesn't work." Then it means Satan has held that mind in captive thinking what is not in the word of God. A fortress or stronghold is a mindset that holds you in hostage and in bondage. I want you to know that, Jesus came purposely to end your bondage of slavery through the encounter he has orchestrated for you. I declare by the power of the Holy Spirit that any hard bondage, cruel bondage, house bondage, spirit of bondage and York of bondage of the mind be broken now in Jesus name. Normally these hostages and bondages makes you believe and think that you are hopelessly locked in a situation that you are powerless to change. That's when you hear people saying, "I can't, I can't, I can't". The only reason you say, "I can't" when God says, "you can", is that Satan has made himself at home in your head.

Since the work of transformation is a continues process, Jesus left us in the hands of the Holy Spirit to keep us in the transformation process. The Holy Spirit keeps working on us daily to be fully equipped. Christ himself gave to us the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip us for the works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-13). The work of the fivefold ministry God has given to the church is also assigned to transform us into the full image of Christ. The teachings and preaching in church, audio and video messages of servants of God, motivational word of God in written books and spiritual counseling are required to prepare, transform and equip you in faith to overcome challenges and solve problems in life.

Let's look at a scenario in the old testament how the Holy Spirit transformed the first king of Israel to another man. 1 Samuel 10:6-7,9-11 'The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different man. Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do for God is with you... As Saul turned to leave Samuel, God changed Saul's heart, and all these signs were fulfilled that day. When he had his servant arrived at Gibeah, a procession of prophets met him; the Spirit of God came powerfully upon him and he joined in their prophesying. When all those who had formerly known him saw him prophesying with the prophets, they asked each other, 'what is this that has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?'

God is so interested in changing your heart before he can trust you with people to lead. He will not entrust to you what your heart is not prepared and ready to believe and receive. David once said in Psalm 26:2-3 that "Test me, Lord, and try me examine my heart and mind; for I have always been mindful of your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness." What can be tested and examined is your heart and mind. He must first capture your heart, transform it with His power, test you and then trust you with the lives of people. All the prophecy Samuel told Saul immediately came to pass when God stepped in to change the heart of Saul. The Holy Spirit will step into the scene when the heart is captured and transformed. God wants to change your heart and the moment your heart is changed; your attitudes of faith will begin to trigger to fulfillment of the prophetic word concerning your life. The word of God said out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and he also said guard your heart with all diligence for out of it flows the issues of life (Matt. 12:34, Prov. 4:23, Ps. 14:1, Prov. 21:2, prov.24:12, Ezekiel. 11:21, Ezekiel 16:30, Luke. 6:45). The heart is a key to everything the Lord has said concerning your life, if we don't guard it with the word of God, we can delay and abort the purposed will of God for our lives. It's clear to me that, all the people the Lord has anointed to represent Him on the earth realm experienced and encountered the transformation power of the Heart which is the store house of information and attitudes. When God sent Samuel to Jesse's house to anoint David as King of Israel, he was looking at the physical appearance of the sons of Jesse; but the Lord warned him and said, 'for man looks at the outward but I look at the heart' (1 Samuel 16:7). This is why God said to Saul through the prophet Samuel that, I have found David a man after my own Heart. 1 Samuel 13:14, "but now your kingdom will not endure, the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord's command". Acts 13:22 also said, "After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: "I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do." Any time God captures our heart to transform, we will always follow His heartbeat and do what He wants to do with His people through us.

As God is grooming you to lead groups of people, organization and a country, you must understand his heartbeat and what he has called you to do. What is the state of your heart with God and are you ready to give Him all your heart to transform? Until your heart is transformed to handle the things God has prepared for you, you can't make any impact or influence in your generation. Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind (Matthew 22:37). Your heart; your soul; and your mind need an encounter of transformation to behold what God has in store for you. When you encounter the transformative power of Christ, your heart will be changed and everything your hands finds to do will flow out the heart of Love. The heart is one of the major aspects you need to encounter God in a specific dimension. Begin to pray in the Holy Spirit and ask Him to encounter you now to transform the state of your heart into the state where you can see him and feel His heartbeat for your family, marriage, academics, profession, ministry and career. Jeremiah 24:6-7, "My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart." When your heart is transformed, you will know God and will always return back to Him with all your heart. This is because the heart has been circumcised through the transformation encounter process.

## MY PERSONAL ENCOUNTER WITH THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF JESUS CHRIST.

When I was young, I loved the things of God always acting as a pastor in school. I was part of the actors for the school drama team and I was playing the role of a pastor. But I had a bad temper. I got angry at every little thing and fight everyone that provokes me. I always fight with my younger brother and disrespect the elderly. Anger was my problem and my mother always complains about my anger and hatred. My mother will pick me with her to prayer centers where she does fellowship and prays. She will tell the pastor I have a bad temper and the pastor will pray for me. Until when I encountered the Lord Jesus at a crusade grown in our community where a film show about the end times was the medium of evangelism. My senior brother told me this is how disobedient children will go to hell. I cried that whole night; apologize to my mother for disrespecting her and God starts to transform me into the vessel He wants me to become in His hands. This is where my transformation process started. I was baptized with Holy Ghost and I spoke in tongues at an evening prayer meeting at the age of 15 years. I do remember, I spoke in tongues for about six hours that night. When I was sleeping in the night I could not stop speaking in tongues and when I woke up in the morning, I thought I lost my gift but it kept flowing more and more in my belly. The tongues kept changing every morning I pray in tongues. I was fully transformed and I began to develop a strong desire for the things of God, always following my mother to every Thursday prayer meeting at church. My stubborn heart was captured by God and he touched me with His transformative power and changed me into another man. He filled me with His Holy Spirit and deposited in me the desire to seek Him all the days of my Life. God dealt with my anger issue and changed my story. I believe God is still working on me for the great manifestation of His glory to the nations. I will urge you to speak to God in prayer and ask Him to come into your heart sincerely and you will see yourself filled with Holy Spirit.

# CHAPTER 3

# THE ENCOUNTER OF PAUL WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Hebrew word for Spirit is "RUACH" which means "breath or wind", and, it is mostly used in the Old Testament.

• The Spirit is invisible, and like wind, which can be felt or experienced, but cannot be touched nor seen.

• He is the breath of God which disperses His life-force, energy and intensions or mind in the affairs of God's chosen people or ministry.

• He is the power encountered in the breath and wind of God who set things in motion in the will of God. Genesis 1:2 "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."

• He is also Holy.

The Greek word (for Spirit) is "PNEUMA" mostly used in the New Testament which has similar meaning to ruach as in 'to breathe, blow, primarily denotes the wind; the Spirit which is like the wind, is invisible, immaterial, and powerful'. I believe having this encounter with God's Spirit is necessary for every human being on earth and we need to experience Him.

The Holy Spirit is the prominent person in this end time era, and you cannot forgo Him to achieve what the Lord has assigned for you in the earth realm. He was from the beginning putting every word spoken by God into existence. In the era of the Holy Spirit, the Father wants to encounter you through the power of His Spirit. This encounter is not by power or might but by the Spirit of God (Zechariah 4:6). It's your birth right as a son of God to have access to the Spirit of God and encounter Him in a dimension where your inheritance from the Father will be made known to you.

The Holy Spirit is the key to every riches in Christ Jesus and He carries the presence of God and makes his home with us. Jesus said its good (an advantage) for him to go away to the Father, so that the Advocate can be sent to us (John 16:7). In the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ is made unlimited and has the work space to influence lives through His Spirit. Jesus calls Him the spirit of truth and He is also the truth, who will come to us out from the Father. Jesus is the one who has sent to us the Holy Spirit from the Father to advocate in the earth realm. The Holy Spirit is dispensed from God so that He might achieve His purposes in communion with us, making His will recognized and performing His mighty acts of miracles, healings and various other interventions in the normal occurrences of events in the world. When He comes, he will perform these key functions:

1. He Will Testify About Christ. (John 15:26-27)

"when the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father – the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father – he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning". The primary work of the Holy Spirit is to testify about the works of Christ in the earth realm. The work of the Holy Spirit is there to glorify Christ and the Spirit does not work apart from Christ but rather always points or directs people to Christ. He produces the fruit of the Spirit in you to testify about the work of transformation and transition of Christ in the salvation package.

The fruit of the Spirit gives the physical evidence of a transformed ethical life and character and not in mystical experience. The Christian experience of the Holy Spirit has its content in the encounter with the living Christ. The Holy Spirit testifies about Christ to those who have experienced the New birth of the Holy Spirit. The Greek word for testify is "MARTYREO" and it means "to be a witness, to bear witness, i.e. to affirm that one has seen or heard or experienced something, or that he knows it because he was taught by divine revelation or inspiration to give (not to keep back) testimony and to utter honorable testimony, give a good report. It's the Holy Spirit who empowers you to testify about what you have experienced by divine revelation and inspiration to the world. You can't testify without the Holy Spirit because He knows how to testify about Christ more than you, and you have to wait for Him to come strongly upon you with His power. This is how the Holy Spirit testifies about Christ as Jesus explains in John 16:13-14, "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you". The Holy Spirit testifies about Christ in your life when He:

• Guides you into all Truth

• Does not speak on his own

• Speak only what he hears

• Tells you what is yet to come

• Glorify Christ

• Make known to you what he receives (mysteries).

All the potentials God has deposited in you must be unlock by the Holy Spirit to testify about Christ. Are your potentials glorifying Christ in the direction you are going? If Christ is not seen in your works, revise the work and seek direction from the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:19 says "For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed." The reason the creation of the world is waiting in eager expectation of the children of God is because of the potentials and gifts you have in you to testify about Christ. Depend fully on the Holy Spirit us he prepares and unlock those talents to the world.

2. He Will Convict And Convert. (John 16:8-11)

"When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned".

The conviction will bring conversion and after conversion is repentance. Conversion in Greek is "EPISTROPHE" which means conversion (of the Gentiles from idolatry to the true God). Acts 15:3 "The church sent them on their way, and as they travelled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad." An encounter with the Holy Spirit will introduce you to his function of convicting you because you are still in the world not of the world. His conviction power positions you in the salvation track of Jesus Christ and to shape your potentials for His glory. The work of conviction of the Holy Spirit is for your own advantage in your preparation process. He convicts in three aspects:

• Conviction of sin

• Conviction of righteousness

• Conviction of judgment

It's the work of the Holy Spirit to convict those who do not believe in Christ. He convicts them of sin and the need for them to have salvation. This is the secret work of the Holy Spirit in unbeliever before he accepts Christ as Lord and personal savior.

When the word of Christ is preached, there's a touchstone that's applied by the hand of the Holy Spirit and men are convicted of being sinners and the sins that we hide from God.

He helps us to boldly confess them (our sins) with our mouth that Christ is Lord and believe with our heart that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9). It's the conviction work of the Holy Spirit that leads us to confess and repent of our evil ways.

The Holy Spirit also convicts us of righteousness because he is going to the Father. He affirms our righteousness in Christ by faith, because of the completed work of Christ on the cross, closed by His ascension to glory with the Father.

He convicts the world of righteousness because of their need for righteousness and they can obtain it through the Gospel of Christ, in which the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. The Holy Spirit is now convicting us more on the perfect righteousness of Christ wrought out on earth and sealed and warranted by His triumphal departure from the world on the accession day, than the conviction of sin in the lives of those who have accepted Him as Lord. The conviction of judgment because the prince of this world now stands condemned is the last work of conviction of the Holy Spirit. This means, since we have been convicted of sin and have been clothed with righteousness, there will be judgment that we must be prepared for. No one can escape the judgment of God on this world and we must be conscious of this coming judgment. The world will be judged and it's the Holy Spirit that convicts it for judgment. Your work will be judged and the encounter with Him will prepare your work to be ready for judgment.

The conviction power of the Holy Spirit has been in operation during the ministry of Jesus Christ. He had a ministry of illumination through the Word of Christ that convinces us of the reality of Christ. I believe this ministry of the Holy Spirit leads us to see our need of Christ so that we embrace him in faith and love. The Holy Spirit will be giving you some convictions about a project that God wants you to undertake, a business proposal you need to drop or accept and some decisions you need to make. He sometimes brings positive convictions as encouragement to the visions you have received. 1 Thessalonians 1:5 "because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake". The Holy Spirit facilitates the conviction behind the word of God you have been anointed to speak. Your words should not just be mere words but words full of Power, with the deep conviction of the Holy Spirit. You need an encounter with the Holy Spirit to back your ministry with deep conviction, that, you are called and sent by God.

3. He will Advocate, Comfort, Counsel and Help. John 15:26

"When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father - the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father – he will testify about me." The Greek word for Comforter (Advocate) is "PARAKLETOS" and it means summoned, called to one's side, one who pleads another's cause before a judge, a pleader, counsel for defense, legal assistant, an advocate. Jesus Christ is our great advocator, and an intercessor who has been exalted at God's right hand, pleading with God the Father for the pardon of our sins. The Holy Spirit has also been destined to take the place of Christ with the apostles after his accession to the Father, to lead them to deeper knowledge of the gospel truth, and give them divine strength needed to enable them to undergo trials and persecutions on behalf of the divine kingdom. John 14:16-17 "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you for ever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."

Jesus called the Holy Spirit another advocate or comforter whose purpose is to help us and to stay with us forever. You might grief the Holy Spirit, but he cannot leave you because He is meant to stay with you forever. The Holy Spirit will help you accomplish what you have been purposed to do in Christ Jesus. He will enable you to carry out the assignment through tough times. Jesus told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem till the promise of the Holy Spirit comes upon them. Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth". The power behind your purpose on earth should be the Holy Spirit enabling you fulfill destiny. Romans 8:26-27, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches out hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God." God knows that your strength is not enough to carry out his purpose on this earth, and you will surely be weak on the assignment. That's why he wants to encounter you through His Spirit for you to receive divine power to execute his will. The help of the Holy Spirit is mostly experienced when we are weak and have no strength to continue, when we are discouraged and lost navigation of the will. He brings us into purpose and energizes us to carry the assignment to completion. Praying more in tongues whiles executing the will of God is very important to align our actions with the will of God. The Holy Spirit is the only one who knows the will of God and he intercedes for us to be located within that will of God. He communicates the deep things of God to us, when and how to carry out the assignment He has for us.

The disciples waited for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the upper room as prophesied by the prophet Joel in Joel 2:28 and they received the power to embark on the ministerial assignment. The church experienced a great measure of this encounter and the church grew from grace to grace. All the disciples had encounter of the Holy Spirit but I want to focus my attention on the encounter of Paul with the Holy Spirit and how he became one of the outstanding apostle of the gospel of Christ. His experience has a lot of application and lessons we can learn and apply in our daily journey on earth.

## ENCOUNTER OF NO RETURN FROM SAUL TO PAUL

Paul was a young energetic scholar in Judaism and he was very zealous and passionate about what he does or has been introduced to. He is a very purposeful man who never gives up on his dreams and visions. He was a man associated with religious zeal, brutality, violence and a relentless persecution of the early church. He had a dark side of life and never had an encounter to refocus his zeal. The devil has been using him greatly to frustrate the move of God in the early church, but something happened to him that made him to be called the 'Apostle of Grace'. His life tells us that there is no one who is above the saving grace of God. Paul was actually born as Saul in Tarsus in Cilicia and from the Benjamite lineage. Philippians 3:5-6, "circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless." He actually studied under the teachings of a rabbi called Gamaliel and was a scholar in Jewish history and the works of the prophets. Acts 22:3-5 "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished." Paul's zeal was not inspired by the Holy Spirit because he has not encountered him yet. I believe the Lord has been monitoring what Saul has been doing against his servants and the kind of zeal he carries to persecute his church can be rechanneled to the spread of the Gospel. He was actually the one looking after the coats of the witnesses who stoned Stephen and approved of their killing him (Acts 7:58, 8:1-3).

Saul kept breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples until the time of his encounter was orchestrated on the way to Damascus. He encountered Christ himself and his life was turned around and never went back to what he used to be in the past. His encounter changed his name from Saul to Paul; his spiritual identity was changed and the devil couldn't locate him again by his new name. He encountered the personality of Jesus Christ, the personality of His word and he was introduced to the Holy Spirit. His encounter was unannounced and divinely arranged in a seven dimensional approach because of the kind of assignment he will be carrying to the nations. After his encounter he was changed into another man by the Holy Spirit and grew more and more powerful than the man he used to be. Paul became the greatest weapon and vessel in the hands of God to carry the message to the Gentiles. He became eloquent and bold preacher of the gospel and signs and wonders was done through him. Who could ever have thought Paul could be used by God and be brought back into the purpose and will of God as he suffers for the Gospel? This means you can be used by God no matter your past history and the kind of family you are coming from. You can serve the purpose of God in this generation as David served his, Acts 13:36 "Now when David had served God's purpose his generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed".

Acts 9:1-19 "Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' 'Who are you, Lord?' Saul asked. 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' he replied. Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.' The men travelling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could not see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything. In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, 'Ananias!' 'Yes, Lord,' he answered. The Lord told him, 'Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.' 'Lord,' Ananias answered 'I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chiefs to arrest all who call on your name.' but the Lord said to Ananias, 'Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.' then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, 'Brother Saul, the Lord – Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here - has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with Holy Spirit.' immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

Let's look at the seven dimensional encounter the Holy Spirit gave to Paul and how this dimensions are evident in our walk of encounter with the Holy Spirit. These are the encounters the Holy Spirit arrange with us and I will use the experience of Paul's encounter to reveal the encounter with the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

#1. HIS ENCOUNTER WITH THE LIGHT

ACTS 9:3, "AS HE NEARED DAMASCUS ON HIS JOURNEY, SUDDENLY A LIGHT FROM HEAVEN FLASHED AROUND HIM."

The first encounter of Paul with Holy Spirit is the encounter of Light. Why must Paul encounter the Light at the first place? You can be identified by darkness when you dwell longer in that darkness. Paul needed this kind of encounter because of the thick darkness he has dwelled all of his life. His life was just like what was described in Genesis when God was creating. There was a total darkness in his life and his life was without form and void. Thank God for the hovering power of the Holy Spirit over his dark, formless and void life to cause the Light to shine out of that darkness. Gen. 3:3 "And God said, 'let there be light', and there was light." God through the utterance of the Word which is Christ brought light to Paul on the street of Damascus. I don't know the kind of darkness that you have dwelled in for all these years but God is interested in your darkness to bring light out of you to the nations. He is interested in that broken and rejected vessel of yours to be used for His glory. He wants you to encounter light at this very moment of your life. Any part of life that has been full of darkness begins to declare the light of God to encounter those areas of your life, in Jesus name.

For you to be really used by the Holy Spirit in this end times, you need this first encounter to open your spiritual eyes into the deep mysteries of God. Paul uttered deep mysteries of God that the apostles could not utter because of his encounter with the Light. His letters to the churches were all full of wisdom and mysteries. His spiritual eyes were enlightened by light, that's why when he was praying for the Ephesians church, he prayed for their spiritual eyes of their heart be enlightened (Ephesians 1:15-23). Paul said something in 2 Corinthians 4:3-5 that shows us how he really experienced the dark moment and how the devil operates in the lives of unbelievers before encountering the light. "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ." According to this passage, Paul is telling us that, he was breathing murderous threats against the Lord's disciples because his mind was blinded by the god of this age, he cannot see anything than darkness of hatred for the disciples, and total darkness in the heart of no knowledge of the glory of Christ. But when he encountered the Light on way to Damascus he experienced four dimensional deliverances from darkness:

• His mind was illuminated. His mind was delivered from the shackles of darkness blinded by the God of this age. When his mind was illuminated, he saw the light of the gospel that displayed the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. He encountered divinity at that spot, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

• His spiritual blind eyes were opened. He couldn't see anything than darkness of hatred for the disciples. He couldn't discern what is good and bad in the sight of God, what was really the will of God and what was motivating him to persecute the church. He lacked spiritual knowledge of judgment. But when eyes were opened he saw the Glory of Christ, discerned what the will of God is and judged every spiritual activity.

• His heart was illuminated: The heart of Paul was so callous that wickedness overwhelmed him to hate Christians. At the encounter of Light, light shined into his heart to give him the light of Knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ.

• His veil was broken or removed: what covered him from not receiving the light was removed or broken. The veil upon the gospel was taken away by the Holy Spirit and made the gospel simple for him to preach. He didn't perish because the veil has been broken.

The encounter of Light is a necessity for every believer because it opens the way for new creation to take place. God started creating things because he has called light to existence. Creation can't take place in darkness, because it's in light that God can work on your potentials you carry in your vessel. Your potentials should be sourced from the light not from darkness. I pray for you this moment that your dreams will receive light to light up the dreams of others who have lost navigation in life. God has given you a dream to light up this world and you must begin to abandon it for any other thing that will lead people to darkness. Paul didn't keep this encounter to himself but shared this light with the Gentiles to fulfill scriptures. The plants need light to grow and prepare food in its photosynthesis process. Light is a source of energy to our dreams and visions as children of Light. We need every day source of light to prepare ourselves for the challenges ahead of as we carry the divine purpose of God on this earth. You should not wait for people to encourage you to do what God has ordained you to do but you have to always derive your motivation and strength from the Light. The light is the major financier of your dreams and purpose. The Holy Spirit will always give you light when the way becomes dark, he will light up your candle of light in the midst of the scarcity and launch you in the place of abundance. There's an adage that, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. But with the encounter with light, light will not only appear at the end of the tunnel but be with you through the tunnel of darkness.

God is lightening up the youth of this age who are going to rise into leadership positions of the continent of Africa. They will be leaders who will light up the continent with the light of God, transforming and influencing our societies and nations. You are part of the troop of giants that are rising on the wings of the Holy Spirit to storm the world with light with great conviction and persuasion of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah prophesied to Zion of the Glory of light. Therefore, with this mandate of the Holy Spirit I prophesy the rising Glory of Africa in Isaiah 60:1-3 that, the youth of Africa is rising to shine the manifold blessings of God from the North to the South and from the East to the West, because the Light of Africa has come. The light of prosperity has risen over Africa and its nations, because the leaders of light will tap into the rich resources of Africa to develop and transform the continent in Jesus name. Other continents will see the Glory of God over the continent of Africa and they will come and learn from us. "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn". An encounter with the light will compel you to rise up from the ashes of disgrace to grace and the grace that has risen upon you will cause you to shine magnificently because your light has come. Your light you shine will publish you to the nations and you will propagate what God has deposited inside of you, the deep mysterious treasures of the Spirit. The Glory of God will locate you wherever you are on this earth. The GPS of the glory will initiate your locations and nations will come to your encounter of light and kings will come to the brightness and the launch of your new dawn. Isaiah 58:8, "Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard." I believe in my heart without an atom of doubt that your light is breaking forth like the dawn and the healing of your family, finances, church, and work is coming to you quickly. The reason why your breaking forth of light is compared to the dawn is because the dawn of a day can't be restricted or prohibited. This means you are unstoppable in the fulfillment of your dreams and visions on earth. You cannot give up on yourself in life; you have to push through to break forth like the dawn, no matter the hindrances and resistances. Hindrances in your life is a prove that what you are carrying is authentic and powerful. You carry more glory when you encounter the light, the glory will be your guard in the accomplishment of your assigned purpose.

Paul was part of the five great men that the Lord used to start the last stage of the missionary work from Acts 13, which is the message preached to the end of the earth. He was part of the people who establish the church in Antioch where the people are called Christians. It was through the encounter of light that he became the light to the Gentiles, the last mission of Christ to fulfill prophesy. Acts 13:47 "For this is what the Lord has commanded us: '"I have made you a light for the Gentiles. That you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth."'" Paul actually fulfilling the prophesy of Isaiah in Isaiah 49:6, "he says: 'It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth". Salvation is ultimate target in an encounter with Divinity and it can't be compromise for anything. God wants to fulfill scriptures through you, if you can subject yourself to this encounter. Through your dreams and visions God can touch lives and impact nations with his detailed plan of restoration.

Isaiah 9:2, "the people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned". There are still people walking in deep darkness of destruction that God has appointed us to carry light to them through our field of professions or the ministry he has anointed us to operate. The first encounter with people in your life should be the encounter of the light you carry because this will help them to identify your personality and to whom you belong. Matthew 4:16 said, "the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned." What God wants people to see in your life is not the potentials and talents you carry but the light that comes out of that potentials and talents. Your abilities will redirect peoples focus from yourself to the Light you reflect. In Acts 26:17-18, Pauls' assignment was highlighted to carry the light he encountered to the Gentiles. "I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me." An encounter with the Light is a rescue mission of God to send you back to the people who are still in darkness. Some of us feel shy when we find ourselves in the mist of our friends, because the light encountered is shining among them. We begin to conform to their darkness again instead of shining the greater light. A true encounter of Light will not conform to darkness; it will transform and translate lives. We need to ask ourselves if our works are turning people from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Re-examine your assignment on earth and step into your real calling. There is a higher calling God has called us to and we must continue to walk in that calling of Light.

This encounter of Paul with the Light brought him to the point of salvation. I have realized three processes of this encounter with the Light, which happened with Paul. His salvation was categorized into three; the salvation of his Soul, the salvation of his Spirit and the salvation of his Body. At this encounter of light, he experienced three things:

• The Conversion experience

• The Healing experience

• The Calling experience

It's at the encounter of the light that one truly experience conversion, healing and calling. The light of God is meant to expose every darkness of sickness in your body. Darkness and light can not dwell together; one must disappear for one to reign. God won't let you carry an assignment of His will as well as carry infirmities of sickness in your body. He wishes above all things that your soul prospers and be in good health because healing is the bread for the children of light. I pray in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, that any foul tormenting spirit of sickness, come out from anybody that has a relation with you.

The encounter of Light is the place of discovery of purpose. Your discovery must start with an encounter of Light for you to find your real calling. You need light to search through the mysteries of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will bring you illumination to every assignment God calls you to undertake, therefore you need to be present in His presence every mill seconds of your life. After the seven encounter of Paul with the Holy Spirit he spent about three years in the presence of the Holy Spirit, studying, praying and finding his feet in ministry. He gave more time for the encounter with the Holy Spirit to fully settle down over his life. He was personally taught by Jesus Christ without being a disciple of Him when he was on earth. We need to allow the Holy Spirit given to us by grace, to fully settle down on our lives before taking any step into ministry. The Holy Spirit is to help you discover what God has written about you in the volumes of the books and he will reveal them to you. He will not reveal them to you in one encounter but he will fragment those mysteries of discoveries in pieces for your level of understanding and consumption. You can't absorb all His will at a go, because your human faculty is too small to grab it all. The Spirit help fragment it to you. One encounter upon the other will gradually bring you into full purpose of Christ.

There is one thing you must receive at this encounter of light. The result of this encounter of light is Light of Life. In John 8:12, Jesus said something remarkable "When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life'". Jesus used the key word 'follow' to express our role in this encounter. Our role is to keep following the Light and we will never walk in darkness and we will have the light of life. Your final price from this encounter is eternal Life with light on it. Your life will stand out among men because you keep following the light. In spite of all the darkness around you, your life will shine through all the odds in life. This becomes our physical evidence of the encounter we had with the light. There is a blue print effect on our body, which is the lamp. Jesus practically explained it in John 11:33-36 "'No one lights a lamp and put it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body is also full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.'" This encounter of the Light differentiates you from others and makes you a lamp of light placed at where it will not be hidden. Your whole body is always full of light and you will shine at every place the Lord positions you.

#2. HIS ENCOUNTER WITH THE VOICE

ACTS 9:3-4, "AS HE NEARED DAMASCUS ON HIS JOURNEY, SUDDENLY A LIGHT FROM HEAVEN FLASHED AROUND HIM. HE FELL TO THE GROUND AND HEARD A VOICE SAY TO HIM, 'SAUL, SAUL, WHY DO YOU PERSECUTE ME?'"

In the midst of the encounter with the Light, Paul experienced another encounter I called the encounter with the Voice of God. The voice carries a message and a sound. The uniqueness of the voice can be discerned in the message it carries and the sound the message produces. The voice said something to Paul which got his attention of the encounter. The voice called his name twice from the Light and asked him a question which is not familiar with him. The sound of his name by the voice was so powerful to his ears. We have to understand that, all the people God used, had an encounter with the voice of God. They heard the voice of God and responded to the voice. It's one thing of hearing the voice and obeying the voice. We are the seed of Abraham because Abraham responded to the voice of God. Our response to the voice of God can change the destiny of a whole generation of the family. Some of us are products of obedience to the voice of God by our parents. This encounter has been the trend through which God communicates and reveal Himself to his people. He also trains his people to know and recognize his voice when He is speaking. Jesus said in John 10:3-5 that, "The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice.'" I believe that this encounter gives you a voice that will carry the message God has given you to the people. He gives you a unique sound of voice that will enable you to be heard from the roof top. He empowers your voice with his voice and amplifiers your voice through his powerful voice. God has given every man a unique sound of voice to operate and function, and until your voice carries a message, there will be no sound of your voice. In this encounter, you will understand three aspects:

• The Voice

• The Noise

• The Sound

When a voice is carrying a message, it produces a unique sound to the hearer and when a voice is not carrying any message, it produces noise to the hearer. Ask yourself if what you are hearing is a voice or a noise? Let's look at some characteristics of the Voice of encounter.

The Voice of God will surely Move Over Something in your life and rearrange things that are in disorder in your life. The voice of God moved things in Pauls' life and positioned him well to hear the message of the voice. An encounter with the voice will move sickness, poverty, failure, depression and anxiety from the way and reinforce the power of God over your life. The voice will reverberate and thunder over your mighty waters in life. It moves ahead of you to order chaotic situations and thunder warnings to the enemy in your life. Wherever you will see the move of God, you will hear a sound of His voice. God is moving greatly over this generation with mighty voices of the youth. David once said in Psalm 8:2 that, "Through the praise (mouth) of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger." If God can use the voice of praise of the babes to silence his foes, how much more your voice. The enemy must tremble when you speak and utter the word of God.

The Voice of God is Powerful and Majestic. Power is made available for you at the encounter of the Voice and you will begin to know how majestic the voice sounds. Paul understood the majestic power of God's voice and he submitted to that voice. Encountering the voice brings you in awe of God and helps you see how powerfully and majestically the voice sounds. Demons has no option than to flee at hearing of the powerful and majestic voice of God through your voice. At sound of the name 'JESUS' every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:9-10). This shows how majestic and powerful the sound of the name of Jesus is in our voice. You are carrying a majestic and powerful voice of a name that has been exalted.

The Voice has the Mandate to Break. An encounter with the Voice breaks things that has refused to break in your life. A lot of things broke from Pauls' life when he encountered the voice of God. There are somethings in your life that needs a voice to break and the breaking will surely come in pieces. The voice of God has the tendency to break into pieces' stubborn situations that will jeopardize the purpose of God in your life. It breaks generational and ancestral curses in your background and sets you free from every yoke of bondage placed on your life. The encounter with the voice does the breaking of spiritual alters, covenants and projections into your future.

The Voice of Encounter Strikes with Flashes of Lightening. The voice of God brings flashes of lightening to every darkness in your life and strikes to death every evil manipulations of the devil in your life. This is the strike of judgement upon the wickedness of the enemy against your life. May the voice of God strikes with flashes of lightening and vindicate your case Jesus Name. Anytime God answers the Voiced prayers of the saints, there will be flashes of lightening attached to the answers. Revelation 8:5, "Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the alter, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightening and earthquake".

The Voice Shakes. The desert seasons of your life will be shaken by the voice and invigorate and revival in your life. Your desert season in life is over in Jesus name because the voice has shaken it. Your voice will shake up the nations with messages of God and shake the realms of the devils by the voice you have encountered. The voice of Paul shook the church and lunched the move of God into another face. The Lord will use your voice to shake institutions and the corporate world you operate in. Your family awaits a shake in the prosperity history of the family. One idea God will give you can shake the entire environment and release solutions to humanity problems. Allow yourselves to be shaken by the encounter of the Voice. Hebrews 12:26 says "At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, 'Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens". There's another person inside you that the world has not seen yet. The time wasn't right before because you had to go through enough trouble, enough pain, enough agony, enough failure to get your voice ready to shake the world in this moment. Your voice is now ready to shake some evil foundations in your background and set some generations free from alcoholism and drugs.

The Voice of Encounter Twists and Strips. The encounter with the voice of God will twist every situation like an oak in your life and strip to bare everything that looks like forest in your life. The hard nature of Saul was twisted and striped to Paul when he experienced the encounter with the voice. The voice twist hardened heart to the message of God. The word of God said do not hardened your heart when you hear the voice of God today because it will twist and strips it.

God is preparing some powerful voices in this end times that will declare the day of the Lord. The Holy Spirit has released some voices to the end of the earth to declare the word of God. Romans 10:18 said, "But I ask: did they not hear? Of course they did: 'their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.'" Anytime God moves in a particular generation, he moves in a sound that creates an atmosphere for whatever He wants to do. He moves in a sound and the sound is produced from his voice. His glory, love and all His character of personality has a unique sound of voice. God has place in every man a system called the sound system which only reacts to His move in a form of a voice. In Genesis 3:8-9, "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, 'Where are you?'". God will always send a sound of Voice into a generation that will cause the people to resonate and react to that sound of Voice, which results in worship. God will specifically send a voice to speak into your life and your life will never be the same. He is sending a Voice to you now and you will encounter in His dimension that will capture your attention. I want you to put it in mind that, the devil is working hard to silence your voice in this end times by clouding your mind will all sort of problems and anxieties of this life. He wants to kill the voice in you, but you can't allow him to eliminate your voice from the list of voices God has sent to the earth. The devil is afraid of your voice with a message of light. He has silenced a lot of voices in the church but today with this encounter of the Voice; your voice will resonate and declare the goodness of the Lord. You are the voice God is counting on to make a great change in the area you operate. The Holy Spirit will give you the power to walk in that calling.

God has used great voices in the old generations through the prophet who ministered the will and purpose of God to the people. He sent those voices in seasons when the voice is needed by the people. He used the voice of Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Elijah, Elisha, both the major and the minor prophets in the Word of God. These voices carried a message of judgment, deliverance, salvation, and healing. These voices declared the coming of the Messiah, their voices were channeled to the revelation of the Son of God. The old testament ended by the voice of the prophet Malachi. There was no voice for four hundred years, which is called the silent years during which there was no prophet. God was using these silent years to raise a mighty Voice to announce the birth of the Messiah to the world. The voice of John the Baptize appeared on the scene after four hundred years of preparation. I believe God is preparing your voice for something bigger in this generation, which you have no idea about. Just subject yourself to the preparation process of God in your life, and at the right time and season, you will show forth from the womb of time. The voice of Encounter is the voice of preparation of the valiant men that are hungry, desperate, and thirsty for this generation and we can't afford to lose this visitation of God. Paul had a great voice but he didn't know how to channel that voice to reveal Jesus Christ. The devil took advantage of his ignorance of his purpose on earth to persecute the church, until he had an extreme encounter with the Voice of the Holy Spirit on the way to Damascus. Pauls' voice was one of the powerful and persuasive voice that carried the Good News to the Gentiles and the voice broke barriers and penetrated through territories with great opposition to the Gospel. A voice can't be killed but it can be silenced. The devil can't kill your voice but he will try to silence your voice and keep you in total slavery of darkness and ignorance. His job is to silence voices that will resonate other voices of the Lord. He tried to silence the voice of Paul by putting him in chains, prisons, strong oppositions and to kill him because of the powerful Voice God has given to him to preach the Gospel. Upon all these tactics the devil used to silence his voice, Paul voiced out again in prison by writing powerful letters to churches, ministering to them the mysteries of God. God has given you multi-faceted voice to minister his agenda to the people through the gifts, talents, professions, and through writing, drama, social media and other platforms to reach out to people. I believe God is using this book as medium of his voice to minister His long awaited plan in your life. He is using this book to let you know that, you have a destiny to fulfill and life is far more than just going to school, working for money and getting married and giving birth to children.

The voice of John the baptize is a unique voice prophesied by the prophet Isaiah in chapter 40:3-4, "A voice of one calling: 'In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged place a plain". The voice of John the Baptize is a voice fulfilling prophecy, to proclaim and prepare the path for the Lord. Jesus Christ and John the Baptize are prominent voices which God has used to make our voices to be recognized. John was not an echo, but a voice to declare the salvation of the Lord, in John 1:29 "The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, "look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!". May this encounter with the voice position you for the great work ahead of you. The Father in heaven has to speak with a voice to confirm the baptism of His Son Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:21-22). I noticed the voice of John the Baptize in four dimensions:

• The Voice of call and baptism to Repentance (Luke 3:3)

• The Voice of Baptism of water and the Holy Spirit and Fire (Luke 3:16-17)

• The Voice of Judgement and the wrath of God (Matt. 3:12)

• The Voice of preparation and proclamation of the Son of God. (Matt. 3:3)

I see Paul's voice operating in the dimension Johns voice operated. Our voices are not ours but for God to reveal His glory to the nations. The encounter with the voice will usher you into the baptism of encounter with the Holy Spirit. The voice is the inner tune of Gods Spirit in you. The tune of His Voice is what I called the Sound of God.

## THE SOUND OF THE VOICE

The encounter with the Voice can be scary and breath taking. The voice always comes with a sound in it which has the power to move things around. Wherever there is a move of God, there is a great move of sounds of voices. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came with a sound to fill the disciples in the upper room and enable them to voice out in different tongues. Acts 2:1-4 "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them." The sound of the voice supplements the flow of the Holy Spirit and the sound has the mandate to do something supernatural that can only be described with natural happenings. The sound was compared to how a blowing violent wind sounds in the natural. The sound of the Voice must change and shift some settings and systems in your life, the Church, nation and the world as well. 2 Samuel 22:14 says, "The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Highest resounded." The Sound of the Voice is a great weapon the Lord uses to resound his burning anger against His enemies. May the voice of God resound in your family like the thunder of heaven.

The sound of the voice of God is like many waters. Ezekiel 1:10 "When the creatures moved, I heard the sound of their wings, like the roar of rushing waters, like the voice of the Almighty, like the tumult of an army. When they stood still, they lowered their wings." Ezekiel 10:5 "The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as far away as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks." Ezekiel 43:2 "and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory." Revelation 1:15 "His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters." These are verses describing the visions they had about the sound of the voice and how loud the voice is compared to a rushing water. Your voice will not be echoes of someone's voice, but a sound of loud influence and transformation in the midst of the People. The sound of your voice will reach the ends of the earth because of the encounter you have had with the Holy Spirit. Your voice will be loud like the trumpet as written in Revelation 1:10, "On the Lord's Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet". Revelation 21:3, "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Look! God's dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God." You will begin to hear the clear voice of the Lord concerning your life, the decisions and directions to take to excel and prosper in your endeavors. Your movement will produce sound of prosperity, good health, wealth, wisdom and excellence. Sometimes when you move, there must be a sound in the atmosphere that will shift some mentalities in your societies. You must learn to sound your voice in the realms of the spirit and register your voice in the spirit. the devil must tremble every day when he sees you woke up every morning to create some powerful sound of voices against his manipulations and activities. A powerful voice is the voice of Prayer. All trending and influential voices ever heard are the voice that can Pray to cause some changes in the realms of the Spirit. An effective voice is the voice that speaks the Word of God in Prayer and always activates his secret place with prayer. The Bible said after the disciples had prayed, they preached the Word boldly to the people. The only place to intensify your Voice in your family is to woke up every dawn to register your voice of declaration in the realms by Prayer. You can't afford to lose your voice in the realms of spirit by prayerlessness. You are part of the Lions family and all that we do is to roar in the language of the Spirit. We roar like voices of lions by speaking in other tongues of the spirit. You must roar every morning my speaking in tongues and you will see your day moving in exceeding grace of His Glory. Gather your family together and roar like sons of the Lion of Judah to shake some evil foundation of the family. A man of God once said, 'A closed mouth is a closed destiny'. Your destiny has been attached to the volume of your voice in the realms of the Spirit.

The disciples encountered the voice of God as a confirmation of the glorification of the Son of Man. Sometimes God will send you an encounter with the voice to confirm somethings in your life. The Holy Spirit will confirm certain prophetic declaration over your life and activate those prophetic words by His voice. John 12:28-30, "Father, glorify your name! Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.' The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him. Jesus said, 'This voice was for your benefit, not mine." The confirmation of the voice of God in your life is for your benefit to strengthen the assurance of God's Word in your life. Your voice will carry great weight of God's word to the perishing souls and your voice will thunder in their ears until they are won into the kingdom of God. At the day of transfiguration, Peter, James and John had an encounter with the voice to confirm Jesus as the Son of God. Mark 9:7 "Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: 'This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!'" The men travelling with Saul also had an encounter with the Sound of the voice but didn't see anyone. They confirm the encounter of the Holy Spirit through the Voice of God. May people around you also experience the strong sound of your encounter with the Voice of God. Acts 9:7 "The men travelling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone."

## PERSONAL ENCOUNTER WITH THE VOICE IN A DREAM

In a dream I had after a few days of writing about the encounter with the voice, I was in a great program organized by Dr. Mensah Otabil with great men of God invited from other countries. The program was organized to impact the lives of believers from different churches with the Holy Ghost. All the ministers ministered and it was so powerful with the presence of God and as the last minister was ministering through worship songs, I fell under the Power of the Holy Spirit, the man of God laid his hands on me right at my mouth and throat. I was speaking powerfully in different tongues and was interpreting it in a great voice. I was singing with a voice that has not been heard before. My own voice could not be heard, but a different voice singing in different tongues. I was struggling with the force of the voice through my voice and my voice was shaking. Finally, my voice was freed and a special confidence came upon me to speak mysteries. I experienced an encounter with the voice and the Holy Spirit gave me a different tongue to speak.

Back in school in Russia, I had so many dimensions of the encounter with the voice in dreams and visions. Sometimes I will be preaching to a massive group of people and my voice will be so dry for me to speak. I will be struggling on bed in pain to continue speaking the word of God, suddenly my voice will be released in power. In a vision, God showed me how His voice will reach out to the end of the earth through His chosen voices on earth. I was lifted up unto a high mountain and I was enabled to speak what I see to the people. The words were flowing out of me like spring of water springing out from my inward belly. I saw a huge multitude of people sitting under my voice and as I speak they all fell under the power of the Holy Spirit. The people far away could hear my voice amplified under the power of the Holy Spirit and the sick and weak were touched by the Hand of God. I'm sharing this with you because you can also have a supernatural encounter with the Holy Spirit and it's an experience you must have in your walk with God. This visions and dreams strengthens your faith and the assurance of God with you always. You become confident in what you have experienced and boldly declare them to generations who are willing to walk with God.

# CHAPTER 4

# #3. HIS ENCOUNTER WITH THE PERSONALITY OF JESUS CHRIST

ACTS 9:5 "'WHO ARE YOU, LORD?' SAUL ASKED. 'I AM JESUS, WHOM YOU ARE PERSECUTING,' HE REPLIED."

This is the center of encounter, where you encounter the personality of Jesus. This is where you are being introduced to a new character formation and understanding of whom you are serving, whose voice you encountered. I call this encounter, the encounter of Grace. You experience the full measure of the grace in this level of encounter. This is where all your human wisdom, particulars and certificates you possess is brought to nothing, then to empower it with grace to do the assignment to be given. It's the encounter of enrollment in the school of the Holy Spirit, where you are being thought the concepts and principles of the Word of God. Real power meets your potentials when this encounter with the personality of Christ redefine your purpose of assignment. Pauls' life was never the same when he met Christ on the road to Damascus. His course was changed for something supernatural. He had a face to face encounter, where he was taught by Christ Himself to preach and suffer for the gospel. He received the gospel of Grace from Christ because of his encounter with the grace of Christ. Galatians 1:1 "Paul, an apostle – sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead." The people who will benefit from your ministry must understand that, you are not sent by man but you have had a supernatural encounter with the personality of the master Jesus who has been raised from the dead. They must see your calling as someone called and anointed by God. Paul was addressed as a man sent by Jesus Christ and all his writings reveal his true encounter with Jesus. All your focus in ministry must be solely depend on Jesus who has called you not by works, but by His grace.

Paul spent about three years in an encounter with the Personality of Jesus Christ, sitting under his teachings of the word and in prayer (Galatians 1:18). He encountered the Grace to preach the Gospel and became a student of the word of God. Romans 15:15-16 "Yet I have written to you quite boldly on some points to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit." God gives us the grace to be His ambassadors in the ministry He has called us to function when we spent time with Him to receive the words of revelation He wants us to preach to the people. During the encounter with the Personality of Christ, all the necessary equipment and instrument you need to execute the vision and mission is allocated to you. Without this encounter we will not know what kind of gift, talents, tactics and strategy we need to use to fulfill the vision. Just spending quality time with the personality of Christ is the best key of every minister of God. You receive divine keys to the heart of the people through the prophetic and healing manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Paul did not only receive the Grace to preach but he received the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God. We receive the delegated duty to be a priest of the word to the people. Every true man of God who had an encounter with the personality of Christ will not abandon the priestly duty of teaching the word God. It's the sure foundation of every ministry. We must carry a great measure of grace in preaching the gospel of Christ. The more encounter we have with the personality through His word, the more grace we have to teach and preach the gospel. The encounter with personality of Christ must be an everyday experience of believers because it's the place where we hear him speaking to us and instructing us what to do.

The encounter with the personality of Jesus Christ is the encounter of revelations. There are three ways of encountering Him;

• The Encounter with the personality of His Word

• The Encounter with the personality of His Spirit.

• The face to face Encounter.

These three encounters are the encounter by revelation in the Word of God and by the Holy Spirit and a face to face vision of his personality. We are also introduced to the methods and approach our master Jesus used to minister the Fathers will on earth. He teaches the approach of preaching, teaching and healing. He wants us to teach, preach and heal the people He is sending us to. Paul had these three approach of teaching, preaching and healing in his ministry. These three approaches certify us that we have received the true encounter with the personality of Christ. He also had the encounter with the personality of His Word, His Spirit and a face to face encounter.

At the encounter with the personality of Christ, we receive a divine torch of His hands on our lives and he compels us to go out there to testify about what the Lord has done in our lives. We speak the work of His touch to people and through that, lives are saved. We experience the testimony of Jesus Christ through divine miracles signs and wonders. The encounter with the personality of His Spirit equips us to walk in the miracles, signs and wonders of God which accompanies our preaching, teachings and healings by the Word. Romans 15:19-20 "by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way round to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation." Paul had the ambition to preach the gospel at where Christ is not preached by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Holy Spirit. May you begin to walk in powerful signs and wonders in the ministry God has called you to preach Christ, not on someone else's foundation but in new territories where Christ is not preached yet. Paul's preaching and teachings are more of his personal encounter and experience he had with Christ. He preached the testimony of Christ.

THE TESTIMONY OF CHRIST JESUS

One necessary aspect of the encounter with the personality of Christ is to carry His testimony to the nation. The Holy Spirit testify about Christ and He also wants us to testify about Him. The only thing that differentiate our ministry is the testimony of Christ we carry in ministry. We don't have to carry a man's testimony because we are not sent by man and we don't want the ministry we are called into to be a shame on Christ. John 5:34 "But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved." Paul testified about Christ because he has spent time with Him in his encounter. John 15:27 said "and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning". Acts 23:11, "The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, 'Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome". This was the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to Paul to keep testifying and witnessing about Him in Rome. All the people God used all carried the testimony of Christ to the people. 1 Corinthians 2:1, "And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God."

When we carry the testimony of Christ, we are anointed with the highest Power of the Blood of Jesus to terrorize satanic activities. Jesus knows that we will be faced with death and strong oppositions in our calling, therefore He has given us the word of His testimony and the blood to confront these challenges ahead of us. Revelation 12:11, "They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." You can overcome the adversary by the word of testimony you have received from the encounter with the personality of Christ. Revelation 22:16, "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Mourning Star." The church is expected to carry great dimension of testimony of Christ because, Christ has sent his angels unto us to give us these testimonies through the encounters we have had with His personality as individual and as a body. We can prophesy because we carry the testimony of Christ in our spirit. John through a vision said in Revelation 19:10, "At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, 'Don't do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For it is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus.'" This encounter if not for fun but for a serious purpose. May you receive the testimony of healing, breakthrough, prosperity, wealth and health, salvation and eternal peace and joy as you have encounter the personality of Christ.

## PROPHETIC WORD OF ENCOUNTER

At this point of encounter with my personality; the understanding of the need for this encounter of carrying my testimony and being anointed with the Holy Ghost, I have spoken to you in the night season on your bed. And though it is uncomfortable and inconvenient, do not discard what I have said to you, or what I have shown you. For I have made an impression upon you and have done so deliberately, for a specific result. In my flow of encounters orchestrated for you, do no resist the move of my Spirit in your life as I continue to speak to you, and guide you, for I am telling you clearly and plainly what to do, which direction to go, and what to consider. Do not take these things lightly, nor presume these things are your own thoughts. For I have made myself clear and have spoken to you with great strength, interrupting your normal routine, and business as usual lifestyle.

In this interruption through my encounters with divinity as I have interrupted the activities of Paul on the road of Damascus, take note for I am setting the stage for the next 5-15 years ahead of you. With the encounter with my personality through the Holy Spirit, I will pour a massive prophetic wisdom and insight into what I will accomplish through you. Just trust me and I will move like the wind to lunch you into deeper waters which will begin to flow from your inward being. Prior to this great encounters, I am laying a foundation of understanding so you will be able to build upon it with meaningful context. I am clearing the debris, removing the cluster, and creating a void so you will be able to clearly see, hear, and understand all I am saying and doing in this moment, which will prepare you for what is yet to come. Some of what I am giving you is revelatory knowledge; with this knowledge you will understand concepts, ideas, and practices. But some of what I am also revealing is issues of your heart, how you think, how you process ideas, people, and circumstances, and the actions you take as a result.

So follow them both, for both are good and both are necessary. In the revelations of the actions, do not worry if you cannot understand them. But simply follow the actions I have shown you. Over time you will be able to see the beauty and the wisdom of what I have given you, and why I have instructed you to do the things I have given you. As Paul never understood my encounter with me until he followed my instructions to see the beauty of my grace, so must you also follow my encounters with you in some specific dimensions of life. And likewise, the concepts I have revealed to you will also become evident. You will understand things and they may not always seem practical or applicable in the moment, but hold on to them nevertheless, for you will receive my seed, and watch it grow to bear fruit in your life as you continue to allow it to permeate your mind, heart, and lifestyle. Know I am deliberate in my relationship with you, but also know I am deliberate in delivering specific instructions to you. I will speak to you softly and gently at times, but I will also speak to you with great volume, and great clarity. In the soft, as well as the strong, receive my words. Receive what I am saying, knowing I am giving your life, giving instruction for what you will do and understand today, as well as years soon to come

## #4. HIS ENCOUNTER WITH THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER

ACTS 9:22, "YET SAUL GREW MORE AND MORE POWERFUL AND BAFFLED THE JEWS LIVING IN DAMASCUS BY PROVING THAT JESUS IS THE MESSIAH."

In the second chapter of this book, we learnt about how one is transformed in the

encounter with Jesus Christ. We analyzed how an encounter with Jesus can translate a person from darkness to light and transform him into another man. Also with the encounter with the Holy Spirit, the same approach of transformation is experienced by what I called the Transformative Power of God. There is no way you will have an encounter with God and not be transformed by His power. This transformation Power of the Holy Spirit equips us to convey what we have received from the encounter with the personality of Christ to the realm where we can skillfully and powerfully communicate the message to the people. This is the experience whereby your preaching and teaching of the word gather the momentum to change and transform the audience. This makes me understand the fact that, the words that I have received from the encounter with the personality of Christ has been tested in transforming me first before it can have the potent power to transform others. If what you preach and teach has not transform you in the first place, then forget about the fact that it will change somebody else. The word must be first being applicable to your problem before being applicable to someone else problem. You share what you have applied, tested, experienced and validated in life with your audience. You must share the tangibility of the Holy Ghost in your life with others by testifying His work in your life and how you were transformed by its dynamic power. It's a necessity for Paul to encounter the transformative Power of the Holy Spirit before he can be a mouth piece and an oracle of the great Good News of the Gospel of Christ. Let's look at how the encounter with the Transformative Power of the Holy Spirit works in our lives after we have encountered the Personality of Christ:

The Transformative Power of the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to Communicate the Word of God: We develop some spiritual strategy and skills of communication. The Holy Spirit teaches us where to speak and where not to speak. He transforms our speech by changing our choice of words to speak at a particular situation. He enables you to tame the tongue to speak the truth of the Gospel. The transformative power of the Spirit enforces the verse of the Word that says, "Power and life lies in the power of the tongue and out of it shall we eat its fruit thereof" and the verse "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh". There are some preachers with the 'anointing' to preach and teach, who have not developed their communication skills beyond the 'anointing' they have received from the Lord. Your choice of words as a preacher is key in your encounter with God. Paul had the anointing to communicate the word of God with Power and conviction. Paul was not only anointed to speak but had the communication skill to speak huge crowd of people. This communication skill to address crowd of people is developed by subjecting yourself to learning and studying of the word and other spectrum of education. Paul gave a wonderful message in Pisidian Antioch, where the word of the Lord spread through the whole region in Acts 13:13-52. The transformative power of the Holy Spirit gives you Boldness to communicate the word. Acts 13:46, "The Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: 'We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles." The transformative power also gives you the effectiveness of communication. This where your communication has a great effect on the people. Acts 14:1, "At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed." In Acts 14:12, Paul was called the chief Speaker because of his communication skill.

The Transformative Power anoints you for a higher purpose: By the encounter with the transformative power, you are endowed by the power from on high to equip you for the purpose you are called unto. You won't be sent into the field without the anointing of God. He will always anoint you for a higher purpose in His encounter with you. The anointing itself transforms and does the work through you. The anointing upon you through the encounter with the transformative power makes ('is') the difference in the ministry you are called to walk. Paul was specially anointed to carry the message of the gospel to the Gentiles. He was walking in the supernatural power of the anointing that great miracles, signs and wonders were wrought through him by the Holy Spirit. The anointing makes you fearless of persecution and hatred of unbelievers and makes you speak boldly as the Lord confirm what you say boldly with signs and wonders. Acts 14:3, "So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders." His teachings and writings to the church was filled with the anointing of the Holy Spirit. By the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Paul was able to discern spirits. Acts 13:6-12, ".... Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said,"

The Transformative Power prepares and makes you Seed Ready-Ground: This is the encounter whereby Power collides with your Potentials to release you to the world. All the deep treasures of God in you is released for exploits in the Kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit is a Person looking for cooperation and intimacy with His transformative power. He's seeking ones who desire total divine invasion of every realm of life, where His transformative power will collide with their potential. The Holy Spirit is waiting for the ones who will sow into the Spirit and reap for themselves transformed minds, healed emotions. Paul's ground was ready for a seed, but he was derived by negative passion and zeal, until his potentials collides with the divine transformative power of Holy Spirit. The book of Acts 9:20 said, "At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, 'Isn't he the man who caused havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?" The transformative power collides with our natural abilities and supernatural gifts to release what God has purposely planned for our lives. For you to step into the things that God has purposed for your life, you must be prepared and seed-ready ground. You must be ready in season and out of season. You need to be ready to receive on the next level of the Holy Spirit and the transformative power will also make others to be ready for your next level of impartation. The Holy Spirit prepares the hearts of the people to receive what you have to say by the transformative power. By the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, Paul was able to know that the lame man in Lystra was ready for healing because of his faith and his attention to listen to Paul. Acts 14:9-10, "He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at Him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out, 'Stand up on your feet!' At that, the man jumped up and began to walk."

The Transformative Power connects you to the right source of Provision: God will always make a provision for His mission and vision in your life. Anytime God ask you to do something, understand that He has already arranged and provided how you are going to fulfill what He has asked you to do. The transformative Power of the Holy Spirit will connect you to the right source of financial, spiritual and educational provisions which will help you to fulfill your calling. A man of God once said, the gospel is free but the logistics in carrying out the gospel is very expensive. Provision can come in the form of financial assistance and encouragement words. People will begin to support your vision and help you reach the height God has purposed for you. You must keep notice of those people and hold them close to your side. Your breakthrough in ministry is tied to someone and God through people, blesses us with His riches. This encounter will bring you into the company of people who carry the same passion and zeal. People who are hungry for God and ready to help you push what you are pregnant of to the world. God has connected me to great people who are hungry for God. He connected me to Elijah and Wole who became my very close friends in Russia. I received divine provision through them and from other brothers and sisters in Russia. May you be connected to the right source of God's provision as you continue to encounter divinity in this section.

The Transformation Power changes your Association of Company: This assignment of the transformation power of the Holy Spirit is very important in your encounter. He changes your association of company to preserve and keep the process of encounter moving and alive. There are some people you must cut tie with and disassociate yourself from their influences. The people you hang out with can abort your encounter and make you senseless of what the Lord is doing in your life. Therefore, the encounter with the transformative power will disassociate and associate you with people who are tasty and hungry for God in this generation. When you find yourself in this company of people, you will begin to discover your calling and you will begin to manifest in that calling. Paul's company changed when he encountered the Lord on the road to Damascus. He didn't go back to his old company but switched to a stronger spiritual company who are not hungry for persecution of the church but people who are on fire and on the move of God with the Holy Ghost. In the midst of the company of Prophets shall you also prophesy in the Holy Ghost.

I believe the encounter with the Transformative Power of God is very strategical in the encounter with divinity of the Holy Ghost because of the key importance this encounter has in our intimate relationship with the Father. At the point of encounter with the transformative power, we are lunch unto the most dynamic platform of Power which is the platform of Prayer. At the altar of Prayer, we dynamically express and demonstrate the real power of God in our calling. Prayer is the only communication medium that connects us to the supernatural and helps us to download the exact agenda of God on earth through us. The transformative power enables you to take the secret place of Prayer seriously for you to have access to the deep things of God. When paul encountered the transformative Power of the Holy Spirit, he was lunched into the atmosphere prayer for the three days he was blinded. His inner spirit was crying out for God's mercy and grace until Ananias came to lay hands on him to see again. Acts 9:11, "The Lord told him, 'Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight."

It's in the atmosphere of prayer we see the vision God wants us to see concerning our calling on earth. You are deprived of having access to the visions of God without any serious upliftment of prayer. Your spiritual stamina to stand against the enemy is firmly establish by this encounter with the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. Everything Paul had was released through prayer. He became a warrior and a man of prayer in his generation as a minister of the Gospel. He never neglected this secret place of dynamic power. James 5:16, "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The Prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." Until your prayer becomes powerful and effective to cause havoc to enemy, you have not prayed yet. Paul's prayers were full of dynamic power for the churches he wrote his epistle to. Ephesians 1:16, "I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers." He also prayed a prayer for the church in Ephesus in the 18 verse, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people."

Paul through his letters admonishes us to be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power because of the battles we will be fighting in the realms of the spirit. The power of prayer will help to put on the full amours of God to quench the fairing darts of the enemy. Ephesians 6:10-13, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand." Prayers helps us to hold on firm to the vision God has given us through His encounter. Praying in the Holy Ghost amours us with the amours of God for us to be fit for spiritual battles against the move of God in our lives. The transformation I'm talking about is the spiritual enlightment to put on the whole armor of God each and every day of your calling. The transformative power lay down some elementary weapons in your spirit which are the amours you need to put on. The belt of truth; breastplate of righteousness; feet fitted with readiness of the gospel of peace; shield of faith; helmet of salvation; and the sword of the Spirit by the word of God, are the basic weapons we must be familiar with in our daily execution of the plan of God. We must know when to appropriate a particular weapon against a particular obstacle we face in life, and you can't appropriate the weapon without putting it on at the first place. It must be something we 'wear upon' our spirit, that's why it's called the 'Weapon' of God. Paul stressed again on prayer as a necessity of every encountered vessel of God in Ephesians 6:18-20, "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people, pray also for me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should." Any ministry that is not built on the foundation of prayer will not stand the test of time. Therefore, the transformative power creates in you the quest and hunger to pray more often at all times with all kinds of prayers and requests for the saints and yourself. I said from the beginning that the transformative power of the Spirit enables us to communicate effectively and efficiently, which is all built around the power of prayer. Your prayer life will empower and energize you to speak the word fearlessly. There is some information of mysteries that takes only the power of prayer to birth and deliver to the people. With my speculations in life, every encountered and influential person on this planet earth have a secret place of prayer where they intimately commune with God. They secretly generate enough spiritual momentum to push the agenda of God on earth. All the great preachers and teachers of the word of God has extra oil of prayer in their horn of ministry, where people experience the hand and touch of God. Your secret place of prayer should not go bankrupt in your encounter with Divinity. They carried a great measure of God's Grace to work. This grace is released through the transformative Power of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 3:7, Paul said, "I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power." The transformative power should always be working in your life every day.

# CHAPTER 5

# #5. HIS ENCOUNTER WITH THE MAN OF GOD (DESTINY HELPER)

ACTS 9:17, "THEN ANANIAS WENT TO THE HOUSE AND ENTERED IT. PLACING HIS HANDS ON SAUL, HE SAID, 'BROTHER SAUL, THE LORD – JESUS, WHO APPEARED TO YOU ON THE ROAD AS YOU WERE COMING HERE – HAS SENT ME SO THAT YOU MAY SEE AGAIN AND BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.'"

After we have encountered the Transformative Power of the Holy Spirit, God through his manifold wisdom and power connect us to His anointed vessels who will help us on our feet and lay hands on us for the scales on our eyes to fall. This encounter is more physical and very potent in its dynamic power. This encounter completes the metamorphosis process of the Spirit in our lives through physical encountered vessels of God. God works through men and use men to bless us. I call this encounter, the encounter with your Destiny Helper. It's the encounter of mentorship to hold unto the mantle of the Holy Spirit. We learn to walk with the Holy Spirit and hear and tune to His leadership. We receive advice and teachings from the people who are flowing in the same anointing or direction you have been lunched. God is the one who does the connection with your destiny helper. Even before your encounter will begin, He has already arranged and prepared a man of God who will come to pour into you. Your breakthrough in the calling of God is attach to a destiny helper, who represents God in the field he is calling you to operate.

An encounter with a man of God in the encounter of divinity package is to first make you see again. A man of God will make you see what you have not seen for all those years of your life. He trains and positions you to see from afar. Jeremiah 1:11-12, "The word of the Lord came to me: 'What do you see, Jeremiah?' 'I see the branch of an almond tree,' I replied. The Lord said to me, 'You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.'" Prophet Jeremiah had the capacity to see what God wants him to see at that particular moment in a vision. He saw correctly and God vowed to watch over the fulfillment of His word in his life. The first assignment of a man of God in your life is to open your eyes. He opens the eyes of your understanding (The Eyes of your Mind and Heart) into something deeper in your calling and existence on earth. There are somethings you will not see until you meet a destined man of God to open you up for those deeper revelations of the Spirit. you will need a man of God in your life, who will speak the prophetic words of God into your destiny. They unlock and open you up through the gift God has given them for something supernatural in the realms of the physical. So the first assignment is to unlock your thinking capacity through the word of God and through some basic principles of life. The Holy Spirit through them enroll you in the school of thinking, because the Holy Spirit doesn't want to work through you if you are limited in your thinking or limit him through your thinking. Therefore, through the man of God He dismantle your limited thinking and release your mind for great thinking of the Spirit. He changes your perceptions and your world view of things, so that you could think from the perspective of the spiritual into the physical. There is a saying that, 'you are limited by thinking'.

In this encounter, you must begin to think outside the box and view things from the point view of God. You must begin to see from the eyes of God. In opening your eyes, the Holy Spirit releases through the man of God a magnifying glass of the spirit where you can magnify the unseen things in the Mind of God. He explains and breaks the word of God in a simple plain language for your level of consumption. You see before it happens because of the foresight you have through the Spirit. He teaches you the 'logos' of the word and reveals to you the 'rehma' and mystery of the word. He gives you revelations and wisdom of some divine principles of life to develop you into maturity. Paul spoke the wisdom of God to the people in Corinth, not with persuasive words but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power. He didn't deny them of the mystery that has been hidden and destined for their glory before time began. 1 Corinthians 2:4-7, "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power. We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God's wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began." All that the destiny helper will do to improve and develop you must only rest on the Power of God and not on persuasive words.

Paul's eyes were opened and the scales on his eyes fell from his eyes by the virtue of the laying of hands by the man of God called Ananias. There are some scales on your eyes that needs an encounter with a man of God to be remove. The enemy has blinded a lot of people from seeing from afar of what God is doing in this generation for them to pluck into it. The destiny Helper comes to pluck you into the exact will of God for your life, nature the seed of God in you and support you to walk into your destiny. Paul's mind was released from darkness to light, and suddenly he stepped into the will of God for his life. In carrying his assignment among the Jews and the Gentiles, he always prayed a prayer for those he is acting as a destiny Helper. Ephesians 1:18-19, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength." This encounter releases our understanding on the hope to which we have been called and the riches of his glorious inheritance through Christ Jesus our Lord. If your man of God is not enlightening you through the word of God to know the hope of your calling and your riches in Christ, then you need to take a second look to find your destiny helper. Literarily, destiny helper will equip and build you up for something bigger. Some destiny helpers will come and hold your hands connect you to a great opportunity and that will be the beginning of your greatness. Some also will empower you financially by sponsoring your dreams, your education of professionalism and land you on a good job. They all have an assignment and role they play in this encounter. You just have to be sensitive to their job in your life and appreciate their efforts in your life by the Holy Spirit.

The man of God in this encounter will also open the eyes of your Heart and propel the hunger of God in you. They deal with the issues of your heart through the word of God and build a Godly principles of attitudes in your life. There is a saying that 'You can reach the highest Altitude in life by your Attitude'. Your attitude can disqualify you from the assignment, therefore we need to work on our attitude. One of the sermons on the mount taught by Jesus was the eight beatitudes which speaks about the attitudes in the Kingdom (Matthew 5:3-12). They counsel and gives us advise us on the matters of the heart through the word of God and help us to make good choices in life. By their help, we are able to solve problems we face in our ministries and families. They always set us on fire for God, through the demonstrations of the power of God.

They are great gifts God has given to the church to build and equip us for the day of our Lord Jesus Christ as boldly spelt out in Ephesians 4:11-13, "So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." They help us grow our faith in Christ Jesus to do the impossible in life. Destiny helper will help you to stretch out your faith and your potentials of talents and gifts for something extraordinary. They bring out all your capabilities embedded inside of you to a platform of excellence and polishes it, shape it with professionalism and present you to the world. The encounter with a man of God, the destiny helper is a continues and daily encounter you must have to make you come to the fullness of Christ. You don't have to disconnect from your destiny helper if you have not reach the fullness of Christ. A destiny helper should not necessary be a man of God, but someone with an exemplary lifestyle you can look up to as your mentor. He can be a friend who always pushes you to do great in the Kingdom of God. Friends who are more spiritual and intelligent more than you should you surround yourself with. They challenge you in any field of life. Just find those kind of friends around you and connect with them, because they have something that will sharpen you for the great move of God in this generation. Your spouse can definitely be your destiny Helper. Don't miss your encounter with your destiny helper as a man of God in your life.

The second assignment of the man of God in this encounter is for you to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He lays hands on you to be fill with the Spirit of God. When God sent Ananias to lay hands on Saul, he is supposed to accomplish two assignments at that moment of encounter. He is supposed to make sure Saul sees again and be filled with the Holy Spirit. The infilling of the Holy Spirit will empower you to speak what you saw and experienced during the encounter. Every believer under your ministration must be filled with the Holy Spirit, because you're acting as a destiny helper to somebody at that moment of encounter. All the people who encountered a man of God in the Bible were filled with the Holy Spirit. This is when you are being anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit for assignment. I Samuel 10:1,10, "Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it on Saul's head and kissed him, saying, 'Has not the Lord anointed your ruler over his inheritance?" "When he and his servants arrived at Gibeah, a procession of prophets met him; the Spirit of God came powerfully upon him, and he joined in their prophesying." Saul's destiny helper anointed him and he was filled with the Holy Spirit at his encounter. David was also anointed by his destiny helper and he was filled with the Holy Spirit. 1 Samuel 16:13, "So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. Samuel then went to Ramah."

Anytime you meet your destiny helper, have it in mind that he is just coming to release on your prepared ground, a seed that will propel you to journey towards your destiny. God purposely arrange this special encounter with your destiny helper when you are prepared to receive the release of the Lord in your life. First of all, He will prepare you spiritually, mentally, and academically through all the struggles, good and bad times of life for you to have the opportunity to meet your destiny helper. When your preparation encounters a destiny helper, you are set to achieve greater heights for the Kingdom of God. You just have to be prepared and up doing something for the Kingdom of God. Elisha was seriously ploughing when he met his destiny helper, Elijah to release the mantel of the prophetic to him. Elijah has been moving here and there just to find Elisha to release his mantel. Your destiny helper is looking for you in a direction of preparation where the anointing will collide with your potentials.

Paul had so many encounters who are destiny helpers. They really helped him to minister the gospel of grace to the people. After his encounter with Ananias, he really needed some who will confirm him or hold his hands to the apostles that he has encountered the Lord. Destiny Helpers gives you opportunities by testifying about your potentials and encounters you have had about God to others. They advertise you to rulers and elders in authority by writing good reports and testifying about the tangibility of what you are carrying inside of you to the world. They introduce you into the arena of influence and power, where you can execute the assignment of God on earth. They connect you to the right company of people who carry the same potentials you have or to people who will support and sponsor your potentials and also to people who are really in need of what you're carrying. The right connection and introductions by your destiny helper will shake the foundations of systems in this world. When Barnabas who was also a destiny helper of Paull did the right connection and introduction to the disciples to accept Paul as part of them, shook the entire move of God on earth. One introduction of the Holy Spirit in your life will shake the planet earth, because of the manifold treasures you carry in this earthly vessels of the Lord. Acts 9:26-28, "When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. So Saul stayed with them and moved freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord." There's someone waiting to introduce your business idea to some big financial sponsors who will come to support your dream but not to buy your dream. Never try to sell out your dream to a sponsor or someone introduced to you by your destiny helper and be cautious not to bite the hand that introduced and connected you to your breakthrough; because that will be the beginning of your digression from the will and plan of God for your life.

When Cornelius the centurion met his destiny helper, his entire life and household changed and that was the beginning of the salvation of the Gentiles. Cornelius and his entire household were really prepared for this encounter with their destiny helper, Peter. They were diligently serving the Lord with a clean heart and practicing His rule of engagement. He had a vision of his encounter with the destiny helper and he strictly obeyed the voice. Acts 10:2, "He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly." He was not only prepared but waiting expectantly for that moment of his life. Your preparation is in an extreme level of encounter when you become expectant of that move of God over your life. The Lord has no option to delay this encounter because the guy Cornelius was expectant. Acts 10:24-26, "The following day he arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together hid relatives and close friends. As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. But Peter made him get up 'Stand up', he said, 'I am only a man myself'

## #6. HIS ENCOUNTER WITH THE WORD OF ASSIGNMENT

ACTS 9:15-16, "BUT THE LORD SAID TO ANANIAS, 'GO! THIS MAN IS MY CHOSEN INSTRUMENT TO PROCLAIM MY NAME TO THE GENTILES AND THEIR KINGS AND TO THE PEOPLE OF ISREAL. I WILL SHOW HIM HOW MUCH HE MUST SUFFER FOR MY NAME.'"

This is the encounter where we find the purpose of life and the mission we have been prepared to accomplish. The purpose of this encounter is to reveal what you must do with the potentials, talents and spiritual gifts through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, he has given you during your encounter with Christ. This is the place Paul discovered his mission in the Kingdom of God. The work of a man of God is actually to prepare your mind and heart for this special encounter with the Word of assignment. As you sit at the feet of your destiny helper to experience the encounter of the Lord through his word, you will be able to discern your assignment through the Holy Spirit and channel your potentials to the advancement of the Gospel in that directions. You will begin to ask yourself questions like why am I saved by grace and for what purpose am I living? Through your destiny helper, you will discover the truth of your salvation. Just don't be in a hurry to leave the covering and teachings of your destiny helper, but humbly serve the Lord and discern the will and mission of God for your life. It's time for us to encounter the assignment of God for our lives, because God in his manifold wisdom has purposed a definite assignment for everybody on this earth. God has purposely fixed you in his divine plan on earth and you have your role to play and He has his own role to play to bring this purpose to pass. Ephesians 2:10, "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." God has a work and a race path prepared in advance for us to do and through the encounter with the Word of Assignment we are able to identify those works and race path for us to engage ourselves. There's a specific task assigned for you to establish the Kingdom of God on this earth and you are purposely born for that assignment. There's an assignment attach to everything you receive from God, whether financial blessing, salvation, miracles, breakthrough, healing and prosperity.

Paul came to the realization of his assignment when he encountered the Lord Jesus Christ and never doubted his calling to be an Apostle to carry the gospel truth to the people. He stayed with that assignment and never weaver from it until he fought the good fight and run the race of faith to fulfill his word of assignment. Romans 1:1, "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God." I Corinthians 1:1, "Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes." He always introduced himself to the church through the writings of letters as an apostle sent not from man but from the Lord Jesus Christ and he is confident of his calling and assignment.

Galatians 1:1, "Paul, an apostle – sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead." You must identify what you are called to do on this planet earth and through the manifold encounters of God you can actualize it. Our assignment should not just be aimed at getting good education, marrying and merry making, giving birth to children and working for financial stability but should transcend the world view definition of purpose. Your word of assignment should be deeper and greater than your own strength where you will need divine Grace to fulfill it. I have come to the understanding that, attending school and graduating from the university with first class certificate, working experiencing, marriage experience and other field of knowledge are not the exact assignment we have to fulfill on this planet earth. But they are the catalyzed materials to enable us classify and organize all that we have learnt or the knowledge we have and all that we will acquire in the future, and turn that knowledge into power to fulfill the real and divine mandate of assignment. God allows us to acquire all the knowledge concerning our assignment; and to know your assignment is to Know God and His thought concerning you. Paul had education by studying and learning under the feet of the teachers of the Law, and by the Power of the Holy Spirit through the encounter of the Lord Jesus Christ, he was able to gather and organize that knowledge to fulfill his Godly assignment.

Encounter with the Word of assignment is to be set apart for a specific task. Paul was specifically set apart for this work to the Gentile race in the Kingdom of God.

Galatians 1:15-17, "But when God, who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. I did not go out to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus." Galatians 2:7-8, "On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles." Paul was explaining how God choose him by grace by setting him apart from his mother's womb and assigning him to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. It's clear that, the bigger picture of an assignment needs to be accomplished and the specific assignment of every encounter in your ministry needs to be carried out in a certain way and in a certain place. In this encounter with the Word of Assignment is for you to discover the way you must carry the assignment and the exact place the assignment must be carried out. You must understand the direction God wants you to move his intent and the kind of territory He wants you to operate and domain. Your assignment can be destined to operate in a particular society, community, family, race, sector of an economy, nations and continents in a particular way of executing the assignment. An example is my Pastor Dr. Mensa Otabil and Lady Joy, who have been mandated and assigned by the Holy Spirit to carry out the intent of God specifically to the black race and also to the entire world. Locating your flow of the anointing will show you how to carry the assignment of God to the specific people he has assigned for you. A Nigerian gospel song minster, Nathaniel Bassey has a unique way of ministering spirit filled music to the Lord. He ministers with his trumpet and he flows in the anointing God has giving him. He is genuine in his ministration to the people God has prepared for him to minister at a particular time and place.

If we can identify our gifts and talents and allow God's Spirit to collide with these potentials in us through His divine encounter, we will turn the world unto Christ and shake the planet earth. Let your assignment shake the kingdom of darkness in your background and win souls into the Kingdom of God. The Word of Assignment becomes dangerous to the enemy when we locate our destiny Helper and destiny partners, like how Paul and Silas were shaking prison foundations and cities (Acts 16:25-26, Acts 17:6). Don't move in other peoples anointing or copying their style of fulfilling their assignment but you can learn from them. This attitude shows that you don't believe in the anointing you are carrying and the assignment God has assigned for you. Paul never copied Peter who was destined to speak to the Jews and the circumcised. Be the exact copy God has destined and molded you through His Divine Encounter with you. Manifest the Glory of God in the way the anointing of the Holy Spirit moves in you and demonstrate His power to the people as you fulfill the assignment. 1Corithians 2:4, "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power." Paul demonstrated an extreme potent Power of the Holy Spirit, anytime he is speaking the word of God. He always proves his assignment with great miracles, signs and wonders. Acts 14:3, "So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders."

Let's look at the example of Jeremiah, when he was called out from his mother's womb to speak to a particular nation in his time. The calling and the assignment of Jeremiah was so unique and it's still unique in our Encounter with the Word of assignment. Jeremiah 1:4-10, "The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.' 'Alas, Sovereign Lord,' I said, 'I do not know how to speak; I am too young.' But the Lord said to me, 'Do not say, "I am too young." You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,' declares the Lord. Then the Lord reached his hands and touched my mouth and said to me, 'I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant." We should pay attention to every detail of God's assignment and obey them accordingly during this encounter with the Word of Assignment. God will always equip you for the assignment by touching you with his powerful hand. Jeremiah was touched and he was set apart to be a prophet to the people. His assignment is to go where he has been sent and to speak what he has been commanded to say. He is supposed to uproot and tear down; to destroy and to overthrow; and to build and to plant. These are the three phases of his assignment and he must use the prophetic anointing on him to fulfill the assignment. Through the encounter with the Word of Assignment, God will show you some things that need to be uprooted and tear down for his original intent to find a free course. As his original intent has found a free course, some systems will be destroying and overthrow for you to do the work of building, planting and watering by the word of God as the Lord bring the increase, which is the result.

God will sometimes show you the full picture of your assignment because He knows the end from the beginning but he will not upload all the assignment into your system of execution, for it will crush you and scare you into fear. He does sometimes fragment those assignments to your level of consumption and understanding in the process of time through revelations. He ushers you from one phase of the assignment to the other as he provides the provisions for its fulfilment. God didn't show Paul the full assignment but fragmented it to him in spiritual mediums of downloading heavenly information through revelations, visions and dreams. Galatians 1:11-12, "I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ." Galatians 2:2, "I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain." What really makes us to be sure of our assignment and race on this earth is when we wait on God to receive His instructions for the assignment. Our assignment and race can be in vain if we are not sure we have received it by revelations. Paul always responded to the assignment by revelations. His relationship with the Holy Spirit was so much intimate on the assignment that he will be prohibited to preach the word in a particular territory.

This makes me understand how intimate we can be with the Spirit of Christ on His assignment for us. Acts 16:6-9, "Paul and his companions travelled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.' After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them." On your assignment of destiny, you will need help mates who will be supporting you in your fulfillment of assignment. They are the companions who will not abandon you on your assignment. Paul had companions who helped him fulfill destiny assignment. He had Timothy, Silas, Barnabas, and other companions who stood beside him till the end. In this encounter, God will surround you with great companions who will help you fulfill his assignment. You cannot do the work alone, therefore, he will release visionary friends who will always be there for you in hard times of the assignment in this phase of His encounter with you. What really separated Paul and Barnabas on their assignment was an issue of a companion who deserted them whiles on assignment (Acts 15:36-41). For you to succeed in fulfilling your assignment on earth, always walk and work with companions who believes in what you assigned to do. Mediocrity companions won't help you function the way you are supposed to function on the assignment.

## PHASES OF THE WORD OF ASSIGNMENT

There are some fundamental understanding we must possess and acquire at this point of encounter with Divinity. This gives you the broad view of the phases of the assignment as the Holy Spirit empower you on the assignment. There are two phases I have noticed in God's word of assignment:

The carriage phase or initiation stage of the assignment: This is an important phase of the word of assignment where the Holy Spirit sets you on a strong edge of hunger and thirst for carrying or beginning the assignment. This phase must be strategically implemented by the Holy Spirit, where he purposely propels you to follow the details of instructions and direction of the script of the assignment. It's the stage of the assignment where the exact intent and purpose of God is put into action. The carriage of Assignment can end ever be completed if not with action. I see this phases of the assignment as the phase where the true gift of Faith is implemented (Hebrews 11:1). You need to implement the formula where the combination of Faith and Works (Action) produce the Result. It takes faith to carry out the assignment God has purposed for you in this end times. Your assignment is dead when it's not accompany by faith. James 2:14, "In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." Your Faith in God to carry out the assignment through you is the solid rock upon which the Word of assignment must be based. Faith is the fundamental principle you must exhibit in carrying out the word of assignment. Paul strengthen the faith of the Philippians church in his later, how the Lord started the assignment with them and he will surely bring it to an expected end. Philippians 1:6, "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." He is 'Alpha', the beginning of everything. You can't start his assignment without him or his permission.

Also, it's the stage where you give birth to what you are carrying in the womb of the Spirit. It's a place of labor and hard work, where we push out into reality he things (like instruments and equipment) God has deposited in you for the assignment through prayer. He stirs up and fan into flames the gift of God which is in you when you received the assignment. Paul was telling Timothy to guard the good deposit that was entrusted to him for the assignment by praying with the help of the Holy Spirit. 1 Timothy 1:6,14, "For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands". "Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you - guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us." Prayer is the only meeting place between divinity and humanity, where you are legally granted keys and access to carry out the intent of God. The second fundamental rock upon which you must carry out the word of assignment is Fasting and Prayer. I call this meeting place the Labor Room of Prayer or the Secret place of Prayer where you receive divine energy to start the assignment of God. It was through fasting and prayer that Paul and Barnabas were exclusively selected and set apart to carry out will, intent and purpose of God to the Gentiles through the preaching of the gospel. Acts 13:2-3, "While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.' So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off." Fasting and Prayer must never be abandoned in carrying out your word of assignment. It must be a daily sacrifice you must devote yourself to. The apostles were abandoning the preaching of the word and prayer by serving at the table of sharing food. The Holy Spirit who is the chief administrator of the assignment drew their attention to the second principle of carrying out an assignment. Acts 6:2-4, "So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, 'It will not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.'" All the people God used demonstrated a strong attitude of prayer towards the carriage of an assignment. Even Jesus Christ was not an exemption from this divine fundamentals of God. Prayer is actually the key to open up treasures for the assignment and the channel through which it's been delivered to the people. If you abandoned prayer, it means you have abandoned the word of assignment. In actual view of things, prayer is the financier of the provision for the vision of assignment. Paul never relent in prayer, always entreating his fellows to keep praying for him to deliver his assignment.

The last fundamental principle in sustaining the flow and a continues existence of the assignment is consistency and zeal or passion for God's assignment. Paul was consistent and passionate about the things of God, moving from one city to the other preaching the word of his assignment. Nehemiah also demonstrated the same consistency in building the broken walls of Jerusalem. His principles need to be mastered because of the storms and challenges you will face whiles carrying out the word of assignment. Consistency to the assignment means committing to the scripts of the assignment and being s good stewards of the manifold blessings of the assignment. Unfaithfulness exhibited in carrying out the assignment will derail you from the track of your assignment. The enemy is working hard to derail and shift you from carrying out your assignment. Paul nearly died because his focus was shifted from preaching to the Gentiles. The initial stage of the assignment is very demanding of personal sacrifice. May new initiations of God's assignment start with you as you encounter his word of assignment.

The Completion Stage or the Evident Result of the Assignment: This is the stage where God finalizes his assignment through you by accompanying it with fruits or results which are a proof of evident for the work. God can't start something he cannot complete because He is the Omega, the end. He actually knows the end from the beginning of the assignment. God can carry out an assignment with someone and empower someone else to complete it. God will not necessarily start an assignment with you and end with you. He works with his own providence. He can start with you and end with someone else. His completion of an assignment is trans-generational. God started the assignment with Moses and finally continued and completed the assignment with Joshua. His assignment can be passed on to another generation to finish it. Completion of the assignment is when you have fought the good fight and run the race given to you through His divine encounters with you, where you acknowledge his grace and mercy towards you. It's at the completion of the assignment where you expectantly and eagerly waiting for the crown of success. You receive your reward of the assignment because God is the rewarder of the faithful. Your labor towards the fulfillment of the assignment can't go unnoticed and unrewarded in the presence of God. The completion of the assignment is when the full vision received has been actualized through evident results and proofs. What really shows you have completed your assignment is the result and proofs you have achieved. The lives you have touched and transformed through the assignment are the track records you have divinely achieved. I want you to understand that, it's only at the point of accomplishment of the assignment you can duly give an account and a report to the giver of the assignment. Every human being on this planet earth has an account to make to God by the lives we lived on this earth. The only way to access your accomplishment of the assignment is when your results has been subject to fire.

# CHAPTER 6

# #7. HIS ENCOUNTER WITH THE BAPTISIM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND FIRE

ACTS 9:17B, "...HAS SENT ME SO THAT YOU MAY SEE AGAIN AND BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT."

This is the glorious epic of the seven encounter of Paul with the Holy Spirit where he was finally certified in the spiritual realms and heaven as the encountered vessel of God to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. It was at this encounter where he received the anointing and the power of the Holy Spirit to carry the mandate as an Apostle. I'm very glad to write about this encounter by the grace of God because of His intense presence with me in writing about the Encounter with Divinity. This is the glorious moment I have been waiting to write about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and Fire. Through the counsel of the Holy Spirit, the writing of this book has persuaded me to understand that, all this encounters have been released and orchestrated in the will of God to prepare you for this glorious encounter with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and Fire.

The sixth encounter Paul experienced was to prepare and position him for this epic encounter with the Holy Spirit and Fire. This is the moment Jesus promised his disciples to wait and experience His visitation through his Spirit for them to carry the assignment to preach to the end of the earth. The purpose of this encounter is to set you in motion for the move of God. This encounter clothes you with a massive power from on high to move in the will of the Father. Acts 1:8, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth'." The Holy Spirit sets your spirit on fire and draws you into deeper wells of deep mysteries and secrets of God's plan and desires for His people. The coming upon of the Holy Spirit baptism with fire is the empowerment and it happens to people Jesus has predestined and chosen for a radical use and impartation for the ministry. Paul was purposely chosen to be baptized with Holy Spirit Fire to be used radically among the Gentiles. God does not send without empowering and baptizing with fire. The fire consumes and refines you for the work set for you.

God wants us to have results that are produced through the encounter of fire, because our works will be revealed and tested by fire. 1 Corinthians 3:13, "their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's work." A baptized vessel of fire produces results that can go through fire and sustain it changes. We need the baptism of fire to walk in deeper faith with God. During this encounter with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and Fire, your spirit man is ignited with fire and you burn ablaze for God. The incoming upon and baptism with fire is when Jesus fulfills its promise to us by pouring the Holy Spirit in the form of fire to an individual; the same fire seen on the day of Pentecost. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit and fire upon the disciples in the upper room is a significant day of remembrance in the church history. Through this encounter of the Holy Spirit and Fire, visions and dreams are born into reality. Holy Spirit is a Fire that burns strongly and when the fire is inside you, you feel it. There is a physical tangibility of the Holy Ghost fire baptism, where you feel the fire on your body. You must learn to discern when the fire is present with you in an accomplishment of an assignment. I personally feel the fire as a burning sensation on my skin and like an electric current flowing through my hands and feet. I feel His presence when He is the one working through me. I don't struggle to deliver His word to His people. His words just flow through my mind and mouth with power and wisdom. This is the encounter you can't miss or play with when encountering God through His Spirit and fire. The Holy Spirit fuels the fire set up in your Spirit during your encounter. This is why you can't shut the fellowship with the Holy Spirit down and expects to burn for Christ. May this encounter fuel your fire for doing exploit for the Kingdom of God through the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

The burning of the fire of the Holy Ghost is for the ministry and carrying out the great commission. The disciples couldn't have fulfilled the great commission without the encounter with the Holy Spirit and Fire. You can only be ignited by the Holy Spirit to carry out your predestined work on earth. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the ignition process to start your ministry. Jesus couldn't start ministry until he was ignited by the baptism of the Holy Spirit when he boldly declared in Luke 4:18-19 that, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.'" This encounter is divinely arranged to anoint you specially for a particular task. The task is to preach the good news and freedom, recovery of sight and setting the oppressed free, proclaiming the year of the Lord's favor. Salvation is the main goal of your baptism and encounter. As young men and women burning with the passion to serve God in this end times with all fear and trembling, we need to encounter this moment with the Holy Spirit. This encounter makes us unique among our peers and distinguishes us for a particular task in our communities. This book was a passion in my spirit and the Holy Spirit enabled me by his leadership to put this book together for His glory. We need the fire of the Holy Spirit to be able to speak to the crowds as Peter did on the Day of Pentecost. He couldn't have proclaimed Christ without the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Every youth needs this stirring of the Holy Spirit to be good future leaders of this country.

The encounter with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and Fire empowers and energizes us that we can give out our whole life for the ministry we called to operate. This will make us fearless of to die, if we have money or not and care not of what people say about us, as long as we continue to preach and teach the gospel. Timothy was fearless of the circumstances around him because he encountered the baptism of fire of the Holy Spirit when working under Apostle Paul. Paul deemed it high for every believer to experience this encounter with fire of the Holy Spirit when ministering. Acts 19:1-7, "While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, 'Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?' they answered, 'No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.' So Paul asked, 'Then what baptism did you receive?' 'John's baptism,' they replied. Paul said, 'John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.' On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve men in all." The Holy Spirit carries the agenda of Christ on earth and we need him to enable us walk in the good works of Christ. Jesus baptizes us with the Holy Ghost fire to carry the tangibility of the anointing. Paul carried that presence of fire and he taught the church in Corinth about the Holy Spirit and his gifts. You become equipped with the instrument of gifts of the Spirit for the work to be done. You need the gift of the Holy Spirit to do the work of God.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire is the encounter where you are established in the language of the Holy Spirit. Speaking in tongues is the very key that stirs and connects you to what God wants you to do within a particular season of time. Speaking in tongues is the level of his encounter where you can speak mysteries unknown to the human mind and the greatest weapon of the spirit in prayer. 1 Corinthians 14:2, "For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit". It's the encounter where you are enabled to speak more in tongues in prayer than praying with the understanding. Paul experienced this great encounter of the baptism of the Holy Spirit where he taught the church in Ephesus and Corinth about speaking in the language of the Spirit. The only thing Paul does more in ministry is speaking in tongues. 1 Corinthians 14:18, "I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you." He dedicated a full chapter of his letter to the church in Corinth just to explain the intelligibility in worship through the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire. He emphasized on the importance of speaking in tongues and prophecy. In a critical study of his letters, he taught the church about spiritual gifts, Love as the indispensable factor in the encounter of the Holy Spirit and the intelligibility in worship. He placed a full chapter of Love as the basis upon which Spiritual gifts and speaking in tongues must rest. In the encounter of the Holy Spirit, you will move in an extreme measure of Love for the work, for Christ and for the people you will be ministering the word of assignment. Love will begin to lead you in everything you do in this level of encounter.

I want you to understand that in fulfilling and experiencing this encounter of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and Fire, you will have some keys to the mystery of Speaking in the language of the Holy Spirit, which are the diverse tongues. You will also begin to operate in a deep move of the prophetic by the Spirit of prophesy and an extreme flow of love in your ministry. These three fundamental blocks of this encounter will build and position you in action of the work. We must not underestimate these three elements of the Spirit in this final encounter of the Holy Spirit. We must appropriate this power diligently in our ministry which God has called us to function on this earth.

# ABOUT THE AUTHOR

There is nothing so important on earth than to experience an encounter with our supernatural God Almighty. In my spiritual walk with God, I understood how the lives of ordinary people have been forever changed by times of supernatural visitation. One divine encounter changes everything in our lives including our perspectives and priorities. Are you thirsty, hungry and panting for a visitation encounter from God? This book is here to help you understand and assimilate the divine encounter of the Lord. The Lord encountered me when I was studying on a foreign land and he shifted my perspectives. Sometimes a testimony of the fruit of someone else's encounter is all it takes to shake the dust of your heart and ignite fresh hunger to pursue God. Apostle Paul's testimony of encounter is my benchmark in this divine encounter of the Lord.

Dordoye Thomas Seyram is a passionate young man burning with the Love of Christ. He is always hungry for more of God in this generation and passionate for the things of God. He loves to serve and also experience in motivational speeches. He is a first degree holder in Economics from Southern Federal University, Russia. He loves to research, read and undertakes Humanitarian activities. He is a United Nation Youth Ghana (UNYG) district Representative and did his national service with the Ghana United Nation Student and Youth Association (GUNSA) in Accra.

