What does it mean to “Encounter” God?

What does it mean to “Encounter” God? October 20, 2014

Screen Shot 2014-10-18 at 10.05.39 AMTim Keller, as we have noted in an earlier post, sees prayer as a conversation, but this conversation has a particular shape: God speaks in the Word (the Bible) and we respond in learning to communicate with God in light of that word-y revelation. Thus,

Timothy Ward has shown that the words of God given to the prophets and the apostles, written down in the Bible, comprise the main way we encounter God. “To encounter the words of the Scripture is to encounter God in action.” We must not, therefore, pit theological truth against existential encounter. Rather, we must experience the truth (Prayer, 66).

By “existential” Keller is warding off the common idea that our experiences, our existential encounters, are sources of truth. For him the truth is found in the Bible and our encounters are to conform to that word-y revelation. Bible-based prayer then is Triune:

The primary theological fact about prayer is this: We address a triune God, and our prayers can be heard only through the distinct work of every person in the Godhead (66).

The implications of the Triunity of God for prayer are manv. It means, to begin with, that God has always had within himself a perfect friendship…. God is, therefore, infinitely, profoundly happy, filled with perfect joy—not some abstract tranquility but the fierce happiness of dynamic loving relationships (67).

Prayer is our way of entering into the happiness of God himself (68).

So, in this kind of Word-based prayer, here are his major points:

1. Whom We Encounter: the Father: adoption is discussed.

2. How do we encounter? The Spirit. “Anyone with real faith will desire to pray because, through the Spirit, prayer is faith become audible” (70). But this existential encounter can provide confidence: “The Spirit gives believers an existential, inward certainty that their relationship with God does not now depend on their performance as it does in the relationship between an employee and a supervisor. It depends on parental love. The Holy Spirit takes a theological proposition and turns it into an inner confidence and joy” (71). Notice that expression: takes a theological proposition and turns into encounter at the existential level. That is the order Keller is keen to preserve.

3. How we encounter? The Son’s mediatorial work. “We come to the Father not only in the Spirit but through the Son. We can only be confident that God is our father if we come to him through the mediation of Christ, in Jesus’ name” (73). Some of us know this kind of experience of Keller’s own life:

A teacher of mine, Edmund P. Clowney, once told me that he went to one of his own teachers, John Murray, to discuss a private matter. Murray offered to pray for him, and when he did, the power of the prayer was stunning. Murray’s address combined intimate familiarity with a sense of God’s absolute majesty. The presence of God was instantly palpable. It was clear that Murray knew both the nearness of God as well as his transcendence (73).

Murray mediated God for Clowney (Keller’s expression) and it led Clowney to a deeper prayer life, one more conscious of God’s work in Christ in intercession. This is why we pray in Jesus’ name: “This is essentially about qualification and access” (76).

The aim of prayer is to know God more:

Galatians 4:6-7 says that the Spirit leads us to call out passionately to God as our loving Father. Paul refers to this experience as “knowing God” (4:8). That’s the ground motive of Spirit-directed, Christ-mediated prayer—to simply know him better and enjoy his presence (77).


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