A True Encounter with God

Many people like to say they've had an encounter with God. Perhaps they felt something at a certain point that made them feel spiritual or like something touched them on the inside. Those moments can be significant. But they are not always a true encounter with God. What I see Job experience in the last moment of his story is the true results that a true encounter with God produces.

Job 42:1–3 (ESV) Then Job answered the LORD and said: 2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

The first expression of Job upon experiencing God is to surrender. "No purpose of (the Lord's) can be thwarted". Job knows this now. He wanted answers and he came away with surrender to what God was doing in his life. 

The second expression of Job is an admittance of his own foolish speech. "I have uttered what I did not understand... which I did not know." An experience with God shatters your perception of your own wisdom. This is what Paul meant when he said this:

1 Corinthians 3:18 (ESV) If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.

The key to true godly wisdom is a confession of one's own foolishness. Otherwise, we will just assume we've made it and never learn. Job, who was a great man, is willing to confess he still has a LOT to learn.

Notice what Job says next:

Job 42:4–6 (ESV) ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ 5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; 6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job's final expression upon experiencing God is self-debasement. Now, this may seem wrong in our culture of "love yourself at all costs" which is drilled into us from every facet of American life, but when we meet God, we will see ourselves for what we really are - sinners who need to change. Job's opinion of himself is so clear he hates the things about himself that are not like God. This is perhaps the clearest sign that someone has had a true experience with God - they no longer LOVE themselves as they are overwhelmed with the majesty of God. 

Remember what Jesus said in Luke 14. 

Luke 14:25–26 (ESV) Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

It is not self-hatred, but a hatred of that idol of self that separates us from the Savior that we are called to reject. And when we've met with the Lord, our hearts are crushed by the weight of sin. And yet in that, there is good news - for only He can take all our sins away.