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The theme of this year is “How Will They Hear?” (Romans 10:14)

There is a command to go into all the world and make disciples of nations, preaching of Jesus and the Gospel. To be salt and light of the world. (Matthew 28:19-20)

However, it should not be from duty but from our hearts.

We are called to share Jesus from our hearts and the only way to do that is to have a face to face encounter with Jesus ourselves. (Proverbs 4:23)

An encounter with the Lord can transform us and everything and everyone around us. There cannot be great evangelism without a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

The story of Saul was a man who hated Jesus and persecuted and killed Christians. On the road to Damascus, Saul encountered Jesus in a bright light and was transformed into the greatest church planter.

Moses was changed to become the redeemer and deliverer of Israel from an encounter with God in the burning bush.

There are so many accounts in the Bible of people who were changed and did what they did because of an encounter with the Lord.

What encounter with the Lord do you remember? Our God is a real God that, when His children come to Him, will meet us.

We are kidding ourselves if we want to have a great harvest if we ourselves haven’t encountered Jesus Himself first. We cannot do it without Him.

You can encounter Him through reading the Word of God. The God of the Word longs to come to to us.

Until we have an encounter with Jesus and are connected to His heart, we will move out of duty but not out of connection with Him and seeing the needs of those around us.

When we have an Encounter, we have:

1. A sense of confidence
2. A heart of compassion
3. A rising of conviction

Our church has been built on legacy of Encounters. Let us return back to those Encounters and have a new knowing of Him again and prepare for the great harvest of souls.

We just need to surrender our hearts to the Encounter for the sake of the world around us and let Him move, whatever it looks like.