Experiences vs Encounters

When will we grow tired of choosing experiences over encounters? We love experiences because they are exciting, they work for us, they are all about us, they make us feel better, look better plus it gives us something to talk about that further which validates our own worth and identity.

Experience

When we look at the word experience we see that it overflows into a personal occurrence which can alter the way you live, it deposits something in you that becomes livable that is now yours, it brings you to a high point of something and causes you to see things you have not seen before and feel things that you previously had not.

Encounter

Now as we look at the word encounter we see a totally different meaning. Almost all meanings draw negative situational settings like skirmish, face off, showdown, confrontation, and bump into or run across. This also unfolds itself into meet with, coming up on, clash into or to find by chance.

From my limited understanding of these two words I can see more clearly as to why we want the first with God and others but not the later. The problem with experience is that is grows you and changes you but does not confront the real issues of the heart, it simple changes or makes the outer realms of you look and feel better, heck it may even change the way you act to some degree.

It is important for us to remember that the Kingdom of God is not as concerned with what we do but who we are, so that makes it a heart issue not an obedience issue. Our world system focuses all its time and energy into looking good, acting good so that you are in agreement with the rest of the world system. The world system functions by self medicating itself with new experiences, new toys, new degrees, new lovers, new houses, new cars and so on and so on.

Please don’t hear me say that there is anything wrong with these because there is not but there is something wrong with the fact that you would rather have all of these outward temporal things but not connect in your heart with anything. Heaven tries to deal with the heart of man so that man can truly enjoy creation for the purpose of why it was created. All this stuff around us was created for us and it is fun but it was suppose to be the overflow enjoyment from the heart. We have turned it into the main event thus millions of us are left feeling more and more empty because we acquire more and more stuff.

Simply put, less leads to more in the Kingdom of God and more leads to less in the Kingdom of Man.