This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to a women’s conference near my home. It was so fun to see friends I haven’t been with for a while and to make some new friends.  However, the best part was the opportunity to worship, be in God’s presence and to fine-tune skills to hear His voice and to speak that encouragement to others in attendance. 

We had a different exercise each session and I received blessings from them all, but I was particularly blessed by the soaking prayer section. We had about 15 minutes to just sit, with our notebooks in hand, with lovely instrumental music in the background and wait for God to speak to us individually. There was no stress on our part because God is well able to speak if He chooses at any given moment and we can trust that He will speak so we can hear Him. Well, He did speak to me and I felt nudged to not only share it with the group on Saturday but with you, my readers and friends as well. 

You may know that I love acronyms and He gave me one as I was listening. We talked a lot about how to encounter Jesus ... to really know Him and not just about Him. 

Encourage 

New

Courage

Overflowing

Understanding

Now

Trust

Experience

Relief, Release. 

As believers, we are to encourage those around us, with new courage. Then they will have an overflowing understanding of God and His ways. Through that understanding, they can now trust in Him and experience relief and release of burdens and problems. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a great way to ENCOUNTER Jesus! 

This week, may we pray for an opportunity to share our belief in Christ with those around us. It could be by sharing a Scripture with a friend, offering to help with a task, or just sharing a hug or a smile to brighten someone’s day! 

This post is part of Kate Motaung's "Five Minute Friday," which she hosts on the Five Minute Friday website. Kate posts a single word each week and each blogger sets a timer for 5 minutes to write and then posts, with very little editing. (Some weeks I have more trouble with that part than others) Check out the other writers this week!