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Pursued & Encountered

Elijah’s Bounce-Back Encounter

July 22, 2018 • Jeff Lyle

The life of faith can be a roller-coaster ride. Elijah had experienced incredible, supernatural victory on the top of the mountain. What came after that was the darkest season that he had ever experienced. People turned against him. Physical exhaustion dominated his body. Fear was owning his thought-life. Elijah wanted to die so he could experience relief. When depression finds Elijah, God moves toward him in loving firmness. We cannot become prisoners to our most melancholy thoughts. This message reveals how God brings the discouraged and depressed out from their caves of fear and self-pity. What Elijah needed was an encounter that offered him a bounce-back.

Peter’s Mind-Bending Encounter

July 22, 2018 • Jeff Lyle

All encounters with God leave us changed on some level. Perhaps in our day of post-Enlightenment Christianity, the hardest thing to change about us is our minds. Whoever got to you first as a christian likely laid the foundation for much of what you believe and practice today. That is wonderful…if they taught you in Spirit and Truth. What is difficult is when you were not taught properly and God must later encounter you so that you can un-learn some things. Such was the case of Peter in Acts 10. This message reveals how God reserves the right to reform our personal convictions, enlighten our incomplete beliefs and reorient patterns of conduct. Mark it down: if you are encountering God, He is intentionally removing you from your comfort zone. Peter can stand up and testify to this.

Encounters That Accomplish The Impossible

July 15, 2018 • Jeff Lyle

God wants all His children to be convinced that He can accomplish the impossible. The only way that this can happen is for Him to lead us into life-circumstances that we simply cannot handle alone. the Bible consistently reveals that God will MOST DEFINITELY give you more than you can handle. This message highlights that truth through an encounter with Ezekiel that would not only give him greater faith and hope, but all of Israel would learn that nothing is impossible for their God.

Your Purpose-Defining Encounter

July 15, 2018 • Jeff Lyle

In the eyes of God, there has never been an insignificant human being. Each person is an expression of some component of the heart of the Father. Everyone has a purpose assigned to their existence. Unfortunately, many do not believe this about themselves. Moses had once believed that he had a purpose from God. He fumbled it. He blew it. He became humiliated and afraid. Decades later, God wanted to reacquaint Moses with his life-purpose. This encounter would change everything for the man that thought he had missed his opportunity. Moses would learn that the purposes of God may come slowly to a life, but come they will. What was true for Moses is true for us today.

Encountering The Orphan-Spirit

July 1, 2018 • Jeff Lyle

Few things dent the human soul than the experience of rejection, abandonment and betrayal. Nearly every family you know has been impacted by one or more of these painful events. When these experiences occur during one’s childhood, it can be catastrophic and result in lifelong struggle for the one who experienced them. This message reveals the grace and faithfulness of God to a mom and teenage son who were rejected by their husband and father. While there is complexity in the reasons behind their rejection, the bottom line is that it bruised their souls. How does God minister to those who have been rejected and abandoned? From the story of Hagar and Ishmael we see the caring heart and restoring hand of God on behalf of those with an orphan-spirit.

Isaiah’s Eye-Opening Encounter

July 1, 2018 • Jeff Lyle

Once a person has been brought to God through faith in Jesus Christ, it may be argued that the most vital experience to follow is to become convinced of the majesty, holiness and supremacy of God. While it is true that God is love, His holiness defines and regulates that love which comes from Him. He is not so holy that He remains distant from us, but He is not so loving that He endorses our indulgences. Isaiah had spent five chapters pronouncing woe upon others. When he sees the glory of God in the temple in chapter six, Isaiah pronounces woe upon himself. How he is ministered to in the throne room of God reveals much about the heart of God towards His people. This message calls all of us to consider the supremacy of God over all of creation, and brings us to an encounter which should cause us all to bow in submission and honor before His throne of grace.