Encounter
What is an Encounter?
It’s a concentrated lapse of time three days, where each person attending experiences a personal encounter with Jesus. It takes place in a secluded place for example a retreat center. Lives will be transformed through each teaching, ministering time, and the interaction with the team members attending the Encounter. For a successful Encounter, a team of guides and the people attending the Encounter are prepared spiritual for a month. In those three days the objective is to impact each life and lead them to a trip transformation.
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION - Encounter usually takes place over a weekend at a residential conference centre. Before every Encounter, the new believer's cell group is encouraged to prepare itself with much prayer, fasting and spiritual warfare, for those participating. Before the Encounter starts, the battle should have been won in the spiritual realm through spiritual warfare. This way, the cell member will surely have a remarkable encounter with God.
The Encounter is much more than just a three-day retreat, in a setting away from the normal distractions of life. It should be a time in the life of the believer which he or she will often look back on and remember the encounter they had with Jesus!
MEETING WITH GOD - In both the Old and New Testaments, the Bible shows men and women experiencing great, life changing encounters with the living God. Abraham had his before he began his journey to be a great nation (Genesis 12) and Moses before he led the Israelites out of slavery (Exodus 3). Joshua had his before leading the people of Israel into the Promised Land (Joshua 5:13-15) and Isaiah before becoming a prophet of the Most High (Isaiah 6:1-8). Jesus had his before starting his public ministry (Matthew 3:13-16, Luke 4:1a) and Paul after his conversion and before becoming the master of the theology of the New Testament (Acts 9:3-7).
One could find many other examples of the contemporary church leaders and their personal encounters with God, before they entered into the full ministry that God had prepared for them.
TOTAL TRANSFORMATION - The aim of the Encounter is total transformation that will give birth to the character of Christ in the believer. We need a genuine Encounter with God in order to bring about a total transformation in our lives. It is also an Encounter with yourself, when you look inside your life to see the changes that God wants you to make. Finally, the Encounter will take you into the depth of the cell vision, making you reflect on the actual situation of the world and its desperate need of the Saviour.
ENCOUNTER FOR ALL - Does this mean that the Encounters are only for new believers? No, they are for everybody. Often believers today have never been truly consolidated in their faith as experienced in this cell structure. This means many issues dealt with at the Encounter are still unresolved in their lives. Sadly, they carry pain, bondage and demonic curses for many years and still need to be set free in some areas of their lives.
In the cell vision we are all called to lead others to Jesus, see them set free and disciple them into the image of Christ. In 2 Timothy 2:2, Paul made it clear to Timothy that he should transmit and entrust, the teaching and instructions that he learned from Paul, to reliable and faithful people. They, in turn, would be competent and qualified to teach others. No one can teach and talk about what they have not experienced or received. They cannot see the spiritual world if their eyes have not been opened.
