Jesus Encounters and God Contending

These notes are obviously just my paraphrase of the things that were said by the speakers a the conference (What God is Doing in 2010), and totally dependent on what I was able to 'catch' as I scribbled feverishly as I listened, so they might not always have perfect sentence structure or even complete thoughts! Ask the Lord to fill in the gaps for you, and/or order the CDs from the Elijah List. http://http//www.elijahshopper.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=249
The comments inside the brackets, {} , are my own personal thoughts or revelation.

Thursday afternoon: speaker Steve Shultz

Increase of Jesus Encounters
Steve's message was primarily about new revelation of Jesus Christ. Every time the 24 elders around God's throne cast down their crowns and say, "glory!" they are getting new revelation of Jesus Christ. {And they've been there a long time, so there's alot for us yet to get!}

Every day, we have (or should be having) new, fresh revelation of Jesus Christ. He said the things we will realize about Jesus this year will amaze us.!!

Hebrews 1:1-3a "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son.... He is the radiance of His glory and the exact reprentation of His nature and upholds all things by the word of His power. "

Believe you can have FACE TO FACE encounters with Jesus. Such experiences are increasing and will increase throughout this year and the coming decade! Have you seen Jesus in a dream? That counts for a face to face encounter. It's not just a dream.... He is in the room, manifesting Himself to you.

ASK for the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation and for the Fear of God SO THAT YOU MAY KNOW HIM BETTER. (Eph 1:17) (Steve pointed out that the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation is apparently not the same as the Holy Spirit per se, since Paul was Spirit-filled and was writing to Spirit-filled people. This is something more, to be asked for and sought out in addition to "being Spirit filled"). Then, WAIT ON THE LORD. Nothing has to "happen". Some fantastic manifestation is not proof that you are in the Presence or that God is filling you up. If something "happens", great; if not, great.

Purposefly detach your yourself from the tree of knowledge and re-graft into the True Vine Every Day. This all takes DISCIPLINE.

God will Contend with the Contentious and Vindicate the Righteous
This year, God will contend with those who contend with us, His people (Is 49:25).... IF we are blessing our enemies, loving those who hate us, praying for those who persecute us, etc.

Revelation 3:8-9 "I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept my word, and have not denied my name. Behold I will cause those of the synagoge of Satan, who say that they are Jews, {claim to be people of God} and are not, but lie -- behold I will make them to come and bow down at your feet, and to know I that I have loved you."

This is very sobering.
-- We must walk in forgiveness and humility or the judgement will bounce back to us.
-- We must walk in repentence and love towards our brothers.... indeed, if we are contending with -- talking against, holding things against, being dishonest with -- any of God's people then we are the ones God will contend with. We do not want that to happen!
-- We don't ask for this. God will do as He sees fit. Solomon was rewarded because He did not ask for the destruction of His enemies.

Steve says he believes we may be entering a season like that of Ananias and Saphira, who lied to the apostles and were immediately killed by God. He said that after God started speaking to him about this, he began remembering people who had "contended with" him personally in one way or another and all of those people have had very severe things happen to them (including sudden death). He's not saying he was "THE" reason for that, and he certainly did not pray for that to happen to them, but just that God's vengeance for us will come and that it is a very sobering thing to think about. The greatest form of vengeance is for them to get saved!!

"This is the year to bless your enemies and see God defend you!!"