God is the reality that is always present in our lives, time, place, space, and life’s problems. God truly becomes real to those who genuinely deal with Him—those who earnestly long to experience encountering God. We must trust and acknowledge that God is more than what we can witness, touch, see, or hear. God has existed from eternity to eternity. Everything else may pass away, but God remains the same.
That is why God is more than reality. He existed before any dimension known to humans—whether time, space, or other dimensions—existed. He is the One who created everything from nothing into being. As long as we live, we must truly encounter Him. It is impossible for someone who has never encountered God to become a child of God and enter as a member of the family of God’s Kingdom.
Experiencing the living God—having the experience of encountering God—is not optional but a necessity; something that ought to happen and continue in the life of a believer. If it does not occur, it is a misfortune. Other creatures, like animals, do not need to encounter God. But humans are different. People who practice religion only by religious rites can live out their religious practice without an encounter with God. And sadly, that has become the standard for many religious people. As a result, encountering God is regarded as extraordinary, even though it should be normal and natural.
In fact, many theologians, church leaders, and Christian congregations still live in empty religiosity. They know God but do not experience an encounter with God. Their Christian life is built solely on the doctrines they accept as true. When someone feels they know God, they often assume they have already encountered God. Congregations also think that knowing teachings about God and attending church are enough to constitute an encounter with God.
Even if someone has experienced a miracle, that does not necessarily mean they have encountered God. An encounter with God is a life that walks continuously with God, living in real fellowship with Him. God must be as real as a life partner, as real as a parent, as real as a doctor giving medical advice, as real as a lawyer giving legal counsel, and as real as a friend we socialize with. If God is not that real, then something is wrong—that is a deviation.
Many Christians—including theologians and church leaders—are busy with doctrine but not busy building a concrete encounter with God. Moreover, when someone has earned a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree in theology, they often feel they have become agents of knowledge about God. Congregations then regard them as trustworthy leaders who can lead the congregation to God. Yet what they often possess is only knowledge about God in the mind, not the experience of encountering God. So do not be surprised when a theologian, pastor, or clergyman falls into moral failure. Knowledge about God alone is not enough to build a true fear of God, because a God who exists only in the mind does not make a person fear God proportionately. Without a real encounter, the human heart is not formed to fear God correctly.
If teachers are in such a state, then that empty Christianity becomes the norm for churches and congregations. And this has continued from century to century, decade to decade, and even for hundreds of years. As a result, the church experiences a very sharp decline. We witness how Christianity is almost extinct in many Western countries, once known as Christian nations, full of theologians, seminaries, and highly accredited, academic theological schools. We also see the reality that God allowed the most magnificent church in the world, Hagia Sophia, to be turned into a house of worship for another religion. This is a stern warning that religion-only Christianity is something nauseating and disappointing to the heart of God the Father. Christians are busy arguing, attacking, and hurting one another, but are not living in a true and real encounter with the Lord.