At LoveSingapore Youth Night 2024, burning questions from youths about faith were explored by a panel of four pastors:

• PS Daniel Khong (Faith Community Baptist Church)
• PS Janelle Ong (Mount Carmel BP Church)
• PS Ian Toh (3:16 Church)
• PS Liaw Zheng Kai (Hope Singapore)

Sharing from their personal and ministry experience, we hear from their insights on what “encountering God” really means.

PASTOR JANELLE: I think it really begins with a hunger of wanting to know God.

As a pastor, I cannot fake your encounter with God. But what I can do is stir in you a hunger to seek God and know who God is, on your own.

When I visited a church at 18, I was inspired by how people there talked about God. They were always saying things like “God spoke to me last night” and “I heard from God”.

Hearing from God was so natural and conversational to them. It was as if God was right there with them. And that got me really curious.

I began to wonder how they encountered God in such a tangible manner, and I hungered for the same. I really wanted to know God and hear from God.

One day, during a worship service, I prayed to God in my heart as I was worshipping Him.

Right then, I began to feel heat flowing from my fingertips! It was so tangible that it felt almost like fire flowing through me.

It was so hot, but it wasn’t painful. It was a peaceful and comforting sensation that I had never experienced before in my life.

As you seek God, pray for a repentant heart. We won’t be able to encounter God if we don’t even talk to God in prayer. As you pray, pray also for God to stir in you a hunger to desire for more of Him.

PASTOR IAN: I learned how to seek God and encounter God when I was in my 20s. I was inspired by two youths in church who had a great hunger for God and often came together to pray.

In hindsight, I realise that being around them created a holy covetousness in me. When I saw them encountering God, I was drawn towards that and I also desired for that.

There has been much within church life that has stirred me to encounter God. And I think this applies to everyone, because it is impossible to be in the church and unable to find anyone who is more hungry than you.

Secondly, I believe that encountering God also comes in the form of the Word.

I don’t believe that God doesn’t speak. By faith, I believe that every time I come to the Word, God will speak to me.

Some people say that when God is silent, He is not absent. But to me, my God is never silent. His voice is found in the Word.

When we come to the Word, He always speaks. Sometimes generically, sometimes specifically.

Sometimes we will have special moments of encountering God, but there are also daily encounters of hearing God through His Word. And both types of encounters are precious to me.

PASTOR ZHENG KAI: A great tip for young people nowadays: learn to be silent before God.

One of the challenges faced by our generation is that we are way too connected. We are always talking to people, whether it is physically or on our phones. We are often bombarded  by notifications from our phones, and many of us start and end our days with our phones.

But when I went for a silent retreat last year, I had to surrender my phone for a few days. As I put my focus on contemplating and meditating God’s Word instead, I realised that His voice became louder and louder, clearer and clearer.

So after the retreat, I decided to set a time limit for all the social media apps on my phone. And I encourage everyone to do the same: put aside these distractions and grow in our spiritual habits.

PASTOR DANIEL KHONG: One of the biggest problems we have when it comes to encountering God is that we want things to be very dramatic.

Sometimes we are hoping to hear the audible voice of God or see a specific sign from God. We tend to crave for dramatic things.

But as we look at the heroes of faith in the Bible, we see that even though they had these special encounters with God, they were always wanting to know God more in their ordinary daily life.

Don’t overthink or overdramatise our encounters with God. Just get more and more familiar with His Word and His voice.

If you missed this LoveSingapore event, don’t worry — Day of His Power is coming up real soon! English DOHP will take place on Thursday, 8 August, at nine regional centres across Singapore this year, with the addition of two new prayer hubs: Grace Assembly of God and Kum Yan Methodist Church. Full details here!