F4F | Choosing the God of My Encounter

Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith here on YouTube. In this segment, we're heading over to Jerusalem, to Israel, and King of Kings community, which is a congregation there, that is affiliated with the New Apostolic Reformation.

We'll be listening to their pastor, or one of their teaching pastors, Mike Mott, as he talks about the topic of having encounters with God. We will note that this doctrine is not actually a biblical doctrine, it's not taught in Scripture, it's a twisting of God's Word, but it's also part, a vital part, of the false narrative that's behind much of what's come to be known as the New Apostolic Reformation, or you can even call it the, you know, those people who are charismatics who adopt and believe in the so-called five-fold ministry, that somehow there's ongoing Apostles and Prophets today.

But they're not talking about Apostles and Prophets per se. Instead, this is a fascinating twisting of Scripture, and the result of this is, again, a false narrative that creates false expectations and false promises that are made for God, which leaves the people in this church or other churches like this in the NAR, you know, kind of bewildered and, you know, if you would, off-balance, because they're not being taught the truth, and their expectations of what God is supposed to do, and the reality of what happens, two different things.

But we'll talk about that along the way. Let me whirl this up. Here is Mike Mott and his message titled Choosing the God of My Encounter. Here we go.

The Problem of Turning Descriptive Narratives into Prescriptive Doctrine

If you've been with us over the last few weeks, we've been going through a series that we're entitling Encounter, where we've been looking at God's Word and looking at ordinary men and women, people in the text that have their encounters, different kinds of encounters with God.

We've been searching and researching.

Now I'm going to pause right there. We're going to note something. Scripture does chronicle the accounts of many people, but if you really consider it in light of the overall population of humanity, it's a small number.

But people who had encounters with God. Now this is where it's important that when you're rightly handling God's Word, you consider a few things, and that is that these encounters that people would have with God, oftentimes God was calling them as a prophet, or maybe as a judge, or calling them for an assignment that he had for them.

And so God's encounters usually were in tandem with God bringing a person forward and making that person the person for an event that would take place in Israel's history, whether it's freeing the Israels from captivity to slavery in Egypt, or to the Midianites after they got into the Promised Land, to God raising up prophets to call people back to God and repent of their idolatry.

There were people who had bona fide encounters with God, but that being the case, we must understand something, and that is that you can't take a historic narrative that is a descriptive text and turn it into a prescription.

So the idea would be is that, yes, God had a conversation with Moses, Moses had an encounter with God in the burning bush, but that doesn't mean that you're going to have your burning bush moment, your burning bush encounter.

That's a twisting of Scripture, because no text says, well, just like Moses had his encounter, you are gonna have yours as well.

...searching and observing how these encounters look so that we can learn how we encounter God, what that looks like, what we can expect, how we...

Notice what he's doing here. I'm gonna back this up so you can hear it in context, and I think it's vital that you do, because this, again, is a twisting of.

Scripture. ...their encounters, different kinds of encounters with God. We've been searching and researching and observing how these encounters look so that we can learn how we encounter God, what that looks like, what we can expect, how we.

Should position ourselves and position our hearts. Yeah, I'm sorry, but over and again, nobody positioned themselves in order to have encounters with God in the Old Testament or even in the New. See, on its face, and this is the sad part about it, is that on its face, this is a false teaching, and if you know your Bible and you have a proper understanding of how Scripture works, you would immediately recognize that the whole premise of this message is false, and it's deceptive, and unfortunately, the people there don't see it for that, and the reason why is because in the NARismatic, in the N-A-R wing of the Charismatic Church, part of their narrative is that you are supposed to see signs and wonders and have encounters with the glory and the presence of God, and no, that's actually a false narrative, and it's a false doctrine.

Relationship, Religion, and the NAR Expectation of Encounters

And we've run across some.

Great lessons as we've looked at this, as we've begun to tear apart God's Word and look at some of these lessons that He has for us in our lives today. It's worth pointing out, as we continue to go forward in this encounter process, as we're looking at what encounter looks like, it's important for us to see, to understand, to know that when it comes to other religions, they don't really have these encounter kinds of setups in a relational kind of way with the God that.

They worship. Now notice something, in a relational kind of way, and what he's doing is building off of one of the core tenets of evangelicalism, and unfortunately this is a slogan and not a biblical doctrine, where many in evangelicalism for decades now have been saying, Christianity is a religion, it's not a religion, sorry, it's not a religion, it's a relationship.

See, it's not a religion, it's a relationship. And so the idea then is that it's all about you having a relationship with God. Now, I think when that thing originally came out, the category of religion versus relationship would have been properly understood biblically in the categories of a religion being a religion of works.

You do these things and you earn God's favor, but in reality, Christ, by dying on the cross and giving us salvation as a gift, he has called us out of slavery, and now we are sons and daughters of God, adopted sons and daughters of God, and there is a relational aspect to it.

And for sure, you know, there is some relationship that we have with God, and in fact, Jesus, when he taught us to pray, we invoke God by saying first, our Father who art in heaven, which tells us that our relationship with God is as, you know, Father and children, that's a great way to discuss a proper understanding of our relationship to God and with God.

But unfortunately, you know, as things kind of go, slogans take over and become the core doctrine, and they get unbuckled from any biblical text, and as a result of it, you know, evangelicals, they understand, oh, we have a relationship with God, but they're not sure what that means anymore, and so now the NAR wing of the Charismatic Church has come in and added to this slogan, and put another pile on top of it, so if you're having a relationship with God and you're having a relation, this is a relational relationship, then we should expect encounters, because that's how that works, but no, this is not taught in Scripture.

...God that they worship. There's lots of worshiping of that God, sacrificing to that God, limitations put on the worshiper by that God, rituals and observances, but rarely do we see they have this chance to interact in a relational way with God, with their gods.

So then this is building off of the slogan, you know, Christianity isn't a religion, it's a relationship, and so we are to expect, then, if we're in a relationship, relational encounters. Again, in order for a doctrine to be biblical, it has to clearly be taught in Scripture.

And as we look at our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, this is something that's very unique to who He is. We don't see it any place else, so it could be said that God never leaves the object of His affection alone.

Rather, the God who had relationship with Abraham, the God who had relationship with Isaac, the God that had relationship with Jacob, and with all of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Creator God of all living things, always is drawing His people, His creation, those that are believing and those that are non-believing, into places of encounter where He can introduce Himself to them.

Yeah, except that no biblical text says that God is leading us into places of encounter. You're imposing that on the text. Who He is, and bringing His Spirit.

And His will into those settings to mankind. And He's the only God that does this, and it's important for us to capture this and to understand that this is our God. That means that there's no other God that's ever had this kind.

Of ongoing, enduring interaction with human beings. Well, yes and no, not in the sense that you mean, but there is no other God. I mean, if you were to pick up the phone and call Baal, you dial the number, I mean, you would hear doo-doo-doo.

We're sorry, but the number you're trying to reach has been disconnected or is no longer in service. In fact, it was never in service. Baal never existed.

For you and I tonight, those of us that are followers of Yeshua, those of us that have been called into God's family, this is good news for us tonight, because we can know that His desire is to have encounters with us.

Okay, now, I want you to know, we are three minutes, thirty-four seconds into this message, and He has not given us a single biblical text that says what He just said. Not one. It was extrapolation based upon speculation, and then from there, a therefore, and then building off of that thought, but He has not actually opened a biblical text and shown us a text that says or teaches what He just said, and what He just said is a doctrine.

And granted, it's a core doctrine, a major component of the NAR false narrative, but listen again to the conclusion. With no biblical text, this is not how you teach biblical doctrine.

...into God's family. This is good news for us tonight, because we can know that His desire is to have encounters with us. That's His desire. That's His heart, to have desires with us. We don't have to muster it up.

We don't have to create it. We don't have to go making it try to happen, because it's going to happen.

Yet, you earlier talked about the need to position ourselves. Isn't positioning myself something that I have to do in order to make it happen?

...to encounter us, and not just one encounter. God is going to have multiple encounters with us, because He's looking for those opportunities to interact with each and.

Every one of us. Again, what are you talking about exactly? You're going to note, it's kind of vague at this point. No text, and yet this is a full-blown, fully developed doctrine that He's injecting into this congregation without any biblical text, telling Him this is God's will, this is what He's going to do, this is what He desires.

No text that says any of this. No matter where we're from, or.

Who we are. Rather, as we walk with this amazing monarch, this king of all kings, this Lord of all creation, He's never going to leave us alone, because as Pastor Chad said a few weeks ago, He encounters us because there's something in our lives that needs to be touched by heaven.

There's something in our lives.

That needs... Okay, gotta point this out. I mean, that was an extremely absurd statement, and yet he was not quoting a biblical text, he was quoting Pastor Chad. I don't know who he is, but you know, God wants to encounter us because there's something in our lives that needs touching.

What does that even mean? It doesn't mean anything. This is nonsensical. This is not a biblical doctrine. It sounds profound, it sounds pious because he's invoking God, made some kind of veiled, vague reference to the Bible, but he ain't teaching anything that's actually in the Scripture.

If he were doing that, he would actually have to open his Bible, or turn it on, and start reading a passage and exegeting it and showing us in the text that this is what God's Word says, but he's not doing.

Christ's Promise to Be With His Church

That. Be changed. As God is sanctifying us, as He's making us more like Yeshua, as we are in relationship with this amazing God, He never leaves us alone. Now, Jesus.

Says, by the way, that, you know, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them all I've commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the age.

Christ is present with His Church, He's promised never to leave His Church, but notice He's not talking about that. What is He talking about?

Expect multiple encounters with this lover of our souls, and that's why Pastor Chad said a few weeks ago that we need to, and we've said several times actually, we need to put ourselves in a position where we can have as many as possible encounters and encounter situations with this God.

How does one go about positioning themselves in order to have as many encounters as humanly possible with this God? You just said these things would just happen, and there's nothing we can do to make them happen, and then you said I have to position myself so that as many can happen as can happen would happen.

Again, man-made doctrine, but it's a core component of the New Apostolic Reformation and the five folders, and their so-called ministries, because everything is based upon, well, we believe that God has restored certain gifts to the earth, and so we have to have encounters, signs, wonders, miracles, we got to do greater works, and all this kind of stuff, but this whole doctrine right here, it ain't found in the Bible.

It's 100 man-made. It's man-made as the Pharisees' doctrine of the need to wash your hands when you've been out among the Gentiles. That is also a man-made doctrine found nowhere in Scripture. Those two doctrines have a lot in common, and Jesus actually saved some pretty strong rebukes for those who teach as doctrine the commandments of men, but that's exactly what's going on in the NAR, and this is just one of many different doctrines that are easily demonstrated to be man-made.

Now, if you found this helpful, please feel free to share it down below, subscribe to our channel, of course ring the bell and you'll get notifications every time we post a new video, and if you'd like to support us financially, all the information on how to support us financially is down below, joining our crew, becoming a patron on Patreon, sending in a one-time donation, all of the information is down below, and don't forget to subscribe to our podcast.

We have a daily podcast where we do two hours of discernment work like this in audio format, and you can take it with you in your car. Yeah, we don't recommend that you watch our YouTube videos in your car while you're driving.

That would be bad. Don't do that. So we offer a podcast. It's like a radio program. You take it with you in your smartphone. Anyway, you get the idea. All the information on that you can find over at FightingForTheFaith .com.

Until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.