By John Hubble
Divine appointments.
Ever have a Divine appointment, Christian. One of those unplanned, spontaneous opportunities the Holy Spirit gives us to interact with others of our species and tell them about the Good News of Jesus Christ?
In the context of this article, a Divine appointment is a Holy Spirit inspired situation or circumstance in which you engage another person to share with them the Good News of Christ. Either through pre-inspiration or post revelation, you know the encounter is or was clearly orchestrated by the Holy Spirit.
There are two objectives of Divine appointments considered here, introduction and encouragement.
“Introduction” is a circumstance in which you introduce, or re-introduce, someone to the Good News of Christ. This introduction is not to one who has put their belief, faith, and trust in the redemptive work of Jesus.
“Encouragement” is a circumstance in which we find ourselves in the presence of a believer in need of support with their walk with Christ. We are inspired to encourage that believer in their walk.
As it pertains to introduction to the Good News of Jesus, an excellent Biblical example is the account of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch. Here Philip was instructed to go to what turned out to be a Divine appointment with the Ethiopian to tell him about the Good News of Jesus. The full account is in Acts 8:26-35.
As a Christian, your response to the Spirit inspired inspiration to tell someone about the Good News of Jesus may be the determining factor in whether someone receives salvation or not.
Recognize how important your Spirit inspired influence is, Christian. You may be one of the supporting contributors, or you may be the only contributor, in an individual’s decision to believe in Jesus, thereby beginning their walk into eternity with Him. Contrarily, you can be uncommitted to acting on that Spirit inspired influence, in which case, their walk may end up not being one in which they spend eternity in Heaven.
As Divine appointments pertain to encouragement, this must be prefaced by knowing Satan is an active influencer in this world. One of Satan’s objectives is to cause believers in Christ to stumble in their walk and fall. When you are inspired to come along side and support a believer in Jesus, you can help them be victorious over Satan and strengthen their walk with Christ. Here, too, your Spirit inspired influence is most important.
So how do you know when you’re called to a Divine appointment, Christian? How do you know you’ve been engaged in a Divine appointment after the fact?
You know because your spirit, influenced by the Holy Spirit, tells you.
It’s a sensing in your heart supplemented by a thought in your consciousness that you should, or have, interacted with someone in the introduction or an encouragement. It’s a reflection that has you realize God was unmistakably a part of that interaction.
It's spiritual, Christian, not physical. It’s to be viewed with our spirit, not our physical being. Unfortunately, we’re so caught up in the need to employ our physical senses to understand things that we discount, or don’t even try, to understand circumstances or inspirations in our lives that occur on a spiritual basis.
Be confident and attentive to Divine appointments in your life, Christian.
Seek wisdom. “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.” (James 1:5 NLT)
Seek discernment. When inspired to keep a Divine appointment, talk with God. Listen to Him. “And we are confident that He hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases Him. And since we know he hears us when we make our request, we also know that he will give is what we ask for.” (1 John 5:14-15 NLT)
Be confident in Jesus Christ.
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