My daily prayer based on: Ephesians 3:17-19 (AMP)
'Jesus, by faith and according to Your will, I ask that You would make Your home in my heart and as I abide in Your presence, I will release Your glory. I desire to be rooted deep in Your love and to be founded securely on that love, so infused in that understanding that I will have Your power to experience the breadth and length and height and depth of Your love. I really want to come to know through experience the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge without experience; I ask to be filled in all my being so that all the fullness of God may be my portion and I will have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a person filled and flooded with God Himself'.
One of the residues I have carried from long years in conservative church settings, has been the sometimes spoken, sometimes unspoken belief that having 'experiences' with God is of lesser value and significance to a solid belief and foundation in God's word. While the latter is true, the discouragement and downplaying of having an experience with a loving Father is unfortunate and unbiblical. Throughout scripture, both old and new Testament, there are countless occasions where people had encounters with God.
God is the same yesterday, today and forever and there is no reason why we should discourage or even dismiss the fact that He is encountering people with various experiences which are often simply 'kisses from a loving Father'. For example: Why does God heal people who still, despite the miraculous touch of a loving God ( an experience), fail to choose to follow Him?
This was occurring in Jesus' time, ( think of the ten lepers, where only one returned to give thanks) so why do we tend to discount the fact that God will heal someone today even though they choose not to follow Him? Does this not highlight the loving grace and mercy of Jesus?
We are to experience the love of God and 'become people filled and flooded with God Himself'. Why? One main reason is so that we can facilitate others into having a God encounter.
He commissioned us in Luke 9:1-2 (NLT)
One day Jesus called together his twelve disciples and gave them power and authority to cast out all demons and to heal all diseases. [2] Then he sent them out to tell everyone about the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
Our task is not to get them saved; that's Holy Spirit's job. Our job is to 'tell everyone about the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick'.
We are their opportunity for a God encounter.