Prayer - פָּגַע - Encountering God

Paga - פָּגַע—An Encounter with God

Paga – It is a Divine encounter, it is not just a chance meeting. It is a meeting with God Himself … Face to Face … Eye to Eye … Time spent with the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, time that has meaning and involves both the prayer and God.

It is like what happened in the story of the Good Samaritan (yes, I know that is Greek, not Hebrew – but it illustrates the point very well). A man was on his way down to Jericho, when he had a Paga, an encounter. It was not the type of encounter he wanted, but it was an encounter, a meeting – Thieves fell upon him. They encountered him. It is not something he asked for, it happened. And the results were life changing. Paga, encounter, it can mean to fall upon and to kill – as in the case of: “man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho” in Luke 10:30-36.
Paga, Encounter, that is what happened to Jacob at Mahanaim. Ge 32:1 – The Angels met him. (31:51-32:3)

The Paga, Encounter – It is what you do when you meet your neighbor’s donkey – or even an enemy’s gone astray. You encounter it and return it. Ex 23:4.

Paga, Encounter, it is what happened to Saul when he met the company of Prophets. He not only saw them, he met them, and it changed him – forever. It was a meeting orchestrated by God to change the man. 1 Sam 10:5. (1-8)

Paga. Encounter, It is intentional, on purpose. The Israelites came to Moses, after his first meeting with Pharaoh. The Pharaoh demanded more brick production – without the provision of straw. The Hebrews had to gather their own. They were not happy. The scripture says they Encountered Moses and Aaron (Ex 5:15-20)

Paga, Encounter, It is not like the chance meeting of the Priest or Levite on their way to Jerusalem in that story of the Good Samaritan, for they passed by on the other side. They only saw, they did not encounter the traveler. They passed on. Many in our churches say they want an encounter. They get close, but then when the real thing could happen, they just pass by.
It was the Samaritan who had the encounter. He stopped. He examined the need. He bandaged the traveler. He put him on his Donkey (not unlike the chance meeting with the donkey mentioned earlier in Ex 23:4, The Samaritan placed the traveler on the back of his donkey and took him to the Inn. He got involved. He paid the cost. And he even returned to make sure the traveler recovered – fully. Now that is a Paga, an encounter.

Paga, Encounter means to Intercede - "intercede" (to man: Jeremiah 36:25 (v.19-26) "to beg"; Jeremiah 15:11 (v.8-13);

Paga, Encounter, it is always impassioned. It is not just a casual meeting, or plea. It is impassioned. It is the request of Ruth in 1:16 (v.11-18); It is the request in Jeremiah 7:16 v12-16); It is the recognition of Job 21:15 v.7-15).

Paga, Encounter, it is the impassioned cry of God for His people - Isaiah 53:12 (There can be a cost to “encountering”); Isaiah 59:15-16.

We need to pray with God that there might be revival = Isaiah 64:5 (v.1-7); Jer 27:18 (not to man, but to God).

An intercessor is one who makes "contact" with God as opposed to the many who simply dabble in prayer.

This is a meeting, we are praying this summer we will meet God

Encounter God: Plead for Salvations (names) Pray for Revival
Plead for wellness (names)
Plead for Missionaries (names)
Plead for our prayer meeting – who will you encounter

Encounter – not just a chance meeting. This is major. This summer we hope to Encounter God. Other definitions are to meet, join, attack.