4 Ways to Encounter God on Your Spiritual Journey

I do a lot of driving for work. But calling it driving is boring. I like to call it “going on an adventure.” On these adventures I experience lots of different things. It caused me to ponder the spiritual journey. And the ways we experience God on that journey.

A spiritual journey is a phrase used to describe someone’s walk with God, i.e. their relationship with Him. It includes all the ups and down, hills and valleys. Throughout our spiritual journey we can encounter God through worship, wrestling, waiting, and working. When we encounter God on our spiritual journey our relationship with Him deepens and becomes more personal.

What is a Spiritual Journey?

A spiritual journey is a phrase that people use to describe their search for and, ultimately, their relationship with God.

Spiritual journeys begin when we search for the answers to life’s biggest questions. Is there a God? Why do bad things happen to good people? What is my purpose in life? etc.

The spiritual journey is the process of discovering that answer. And once we discover it, learning to live in light of the answer.

So, for Christians, our spiritual journey is centered around our relationship to God.

First, we come to salvation. We realize and learn of our need for God and how we relate to Him through Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

Then, as we grow in faith and love for God, our relationship deepens as we begin to experience Him working in our lives to make us more and more like Christ.

As a result, our spiritual journey encompasses those mountain-top experiences and the times when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. It includes the times when we are happy with God and the times we are mad at Him.

Because through it all God chooses to love us and relate to us. So, how can we experience God at different times on our spiritual journey? Well, let’s find out.

Biblical Ways to Encounter God on your Spiritual Journey

Let’s take a look at four times people encountered God while on a journey in the Bible. Through these stories we will learn how we can encounter God on our spiritual journey today.

Encounter God While Worshipping

First, we can encounter God on our spiritual journey when we worship Him.

Abraham was called by God to a new land. When he arrived at that new land, he stopped, built an altar, and worshipped God. Then he traveled further into the land, stopped again, built an altar again, and worshipped God again.

One time, God called Abraham to sacrifice his only son. So, Abraham built an altar, and worshipped God. But God stopped him from sacrificing his son, and provided a ram instead (Genesis 22).

All throughout these moments of building an altar and worshipping God, Abraham has encounters with God.

We can worship God today in two ways: Singing praise and loving others.

When we sing praises to God, we are putting ourselves in a place where we constantly reflect on the nature of God. Recently, I’ve really enjoyed going back and listening to old hymns. One of my favorite playlists right now on Spotify is: This is Andrew Peterson. His songs tell bible stories and reflect on how we experience God today. They are amazing, and so catchy and memorable.

Anyway, singing is not the only way that we can worship God. We can also worship God by working. When we love like He loves, serve like He serves, it reflects the gospel and is an act of worship. How? Because it brings glory and honor and praise to God.

Encounter God while Wrestling

Second, we can encounter God on our spiritual journey through wrestling.

Sometimes when we are on our spiritual journey with God, we go through hard times. There might be times when we are frustrated or we doubt our faith, or we question God’s goodness. There are times when we wrestle with God spiritually.

So, let’s look at a time when Jacob encountered God and it ended in a wrestling match. Jacob was coming back from his homeland and he was going to meet his brother. The last time he saw his brother, his brother was trying to kill him.

So, Jacob sends gift after gift on ahead of them. Then his family, “Here are all these gifts. Here is my family. Please, don’t kill me.

Then Jacob spends a night alone before he was going to continue on his journey. This was the moment when he wrestles with God. Jacob wrestled with God all night long.

He would not let God go until he was blessed by God. So, God changed Jacob’s name from Jacob to Israel. He permanently injured Jacob’s hip. For the rest of Jacob’s life he walked with a limp.

Jacob struggles with God. All throughout Jacob’s story in Genesis we see him wrestle with God spiritually.

There’s another person in the Bible who wrestled with God spiritually and that was Habakkuk. Habakkuk was a prophet who ministered in a time when Israel’s outlook was not looking so good.

God was going to judge Israel for their sins by bringing in the Babylonians. Habakkuk questioned why God would use an evil people to discipline His own people. This back-and-forth discussion began to happen with God.

Habakkuk was trying to understand how God could work this way, how God could be who He claims to be and yet do things this way. Habakkuk wrestled with God.

And then there are times in our life when we are struggling in our relationship with God. We don’t understand why He’s doing things the way He’s doing them. Or we don’t understand why God has not fulfilled His promises to us yet.

But like we see in the stories of Jacob and Habakkuk, we can experience God in the midst of this wrestling with Him.

When we are frustrated with God or not happy with Him, it can be hard to talk to Him.

But when we are open and honest with Him about how we are feeling in this moment, whether it’s good or bad, whether we are on speaking terms with Him or not, if we take the time and the opportunity to tell God how we feel, then God can use that as an opportunity for us to experience who He is.

Encounter God while Waiting

There are times in our spiritual journey with God where we are happy and excited and we are worshipping Him.

Then there are times when we are wrestling, when we are furstrated and trying to understand why things are the way they are.

Then there are times in our spiritual journey when we are waiting. We are waiting on God for an answer to a prayer. We pray and pray and pray. And silence. God seems so far, so distant, so unconcerned with our problems and we find ourselves in a period of waiting.

But the reality is we can experience God in the midst of our waiting for Him. Let’s look at it.

The Israelites were wandering in the wilderness while they waited to enter the promise land. God had given the Israelites the promised land, but when it came time for them to enter the land and take it they began to doubt and fear.

They wanted to go back to Egypt, back to slavery. So, God allowed them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. That’s a long time to wait for something. 40 years. A lifetime spent waiting and longing for the promised land.

But in the midst of those 40 years they had experience after experience of God. They experienced God providing for them and protecting them. They saw miracle after miracle, and encountered blessing after blessing.

Here’s the reality of the matter, we can experience God in the midst of our waiting for Him to fulfill a specific promise. Our experience with God does not depend on him fulfilling one promise (though He will fulfill it).

Our relationship with God doesn’t hinge on the one thing we wish God would do for us, answering that one prayer. Rather, our relationship with God is centered on the cross and what He did for us there.

It is only in those seasons of waiting where we can truly learn and experience God’s patience for us. For while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). God is extremely patient with us and we can only experience His patience in seasons of waiting.

Encountering God while Working

Lastly, we could encounter God while we are working. For this, let’s look at the story of Saul.

Saul was a very zealous guy. So zealous that he went to the religious leaders of the day and got permission to go and persecute, torture, and throw in jail Christians. Saul so loved God that he was willing to do anything for Him, no matter how misguided.

Saul had a desire for God, a desire to serve God, a desire to work for God. He was just going about it wrong.

So, Saul is on the road to Damascus to continue his work for God, when he has an encounter with Jesus. There was a bright light and Saul fell down blinded by this light. Then he heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

Paul asked, “Who are you?”. The voice said, “I am Jesus. When you persecute those who believe in me, you persecute me.”

Paul is transformed. His zeal is redirected. Paul becomes a missionary and goes on three missionary journeys around the known world, teaching others about God.

Throughout these missionary journeys, Paul experienced God. He saw God work in other people’s lives. He saw God transform people from death to life. Paul’s encounters with God involved healings and being set free from prison.

Paul experienced God, when serving God. So, when we serve God, we are giving Him an opportunity to work through us. That gives us an opportunity to encounter God on our spiritual journey.

What Happens When we Encounter God on Our Spiritual Journey?

On our spiritual journey we go through different seasons, different periods of life.

There are really nice moments when we feel intimate and close to God.

Then there are moments when we are frustrated or angry with God.

Then we go through moments where we are waiting for an answer and God feels so silent.

Then there are periods of time when we are just serving God and life feels good.

Through all these moments, in the ups and downs, the hills and valleys, we can experience and encounter God. We can experience God when we worship Him, are wrestling with Him, are waiting on Him, or are serving Him.

So, what happens when we encounter God on these spiritual journeys? The short answer is: we grow. We grow:

• our relationship with God
• our understanding of who He is
• our understanding of how He works in the world
• our understanding of who we are and how we realte to God

Our lives are transformed. No matter where you are on your spiritual journey you are growing in faith and love toward God.

When we encounter God on our spiritual journey it causes us to grow more like Christ. To love more like Him. To live more like Him. Experiences with God on our spiritual journey sanctify us. They make us who we are meant to be, who God created us to be.

So, regardless of where you are on your spiritual journey with God right now, in this moment, take the time to pray and praise Him. Be expectant and wait for an encounter with God.

He loves you, cares about you and is there for you. He wants to sanctify you. And He will do so through these encounters with Him on your spiritual journey. So, continue in your walk with God, continue to walk in the Spirit, continue in your journey.