Visionary Encounter Prayer

In this episode of the Embracing Grace Podcast, I’m joined by my dear friend and guest, Samantha B. Nqoko, as we explore the beauty of Visionary Encounter Prayer.

Together, we unpack what visionary encounter prayer is, how it’s rooted in Scripture, and how silent prayer and waiting on the Lord can deepen your relationship with Jesus. Samantha shares how stillness creates space to hear God’s voice and grow in intimacy with Him, and we offer simple, biblical ways you can begin positioning your heart for your own encounters — free from striving or pressure.

If you’re longing for deeper spiritual intimacy, a more vibrant prayer life, and greater awareness of the Holy Spirit, this conversation will both encourage and equip you.

Read it in the magazine
You can read Samantha’s full article on this powerful expression of prayer in our newly launched Embracing Grace Magazine, available on Amazon.

To connect with Samantha:
Website: https://isambulocoaching.com/
Facebook:   / samanthabongeka.nqoko.1 
Instagram:   / samanthabnqoko 

You can also find her devotionals on YouVersion and her books here:
Christ and His Bride: https://tinyurl.com/Christandhisbride

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to the Embracing Grace podcast with me, your host, Cindy Nicholson. May today's conversation empower you to live confidently in the truth of who God says you are and remind you that you are loved, chosen, redeemed, and called. Here is to Embracing Grace Together. Hello and welcome back to the Embracing Grace podcast, everyone. This has been a very quiet season, so I'm so glad to be back. And I cannot be happier to be able to do this first session back with my beautiful friend Samantha Noku. And I'm gonna have her introduce her in a little bit, but I wanted to just say thank you for being here. Thank you for um the all the messages and the comments that I get on YouTube and the emails that I receive from you. It is always such a blessing to know that the podcast is touching lives around the world. So if you could, I'd really love for you to like and subscribe to this video and the channel. It really helps people um get the message of the love of Jesus, and we want people's lives to be transformed. So if you could just take a moment to like this video, subscribe to the channel, it makes a huge difference. This is a beautiful friend, you know. She is somebody who really impacts your life in so many different ways. I have known her for about two years now. We actually did our first podcast together in February 2024, which was about encounters with God, which ties in so beautifully to what we're going to be talking about today. San, welcome. It is such a pleasure to have you here. Nice to be back on here again, Cindy. Thanks for having me. Sam's got such a heart for Jesus, guys. And you know, she'll inspire you to want to spend time in God's presence. And she's just such a reflection of who the father is, his heart in so many different ways. So, Sam, for those listeners who have not met you yet, because you have been on the podcast before and we've done some wonderful work together in the past. For those who don't know you yet, would you just do a quick introduction about who you are and what you do?

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Hi, my name is Samantha. I'm originally from South Africa and I live in Germany now with my son. And I am an author. I write books on intimacy with Jesus, how to grow in that. I have books for adults and also a one for children to help parents, you know, lead their children into encounters with Jesus. Um, and this is really a passion of mine, specifically because, you know, I had always known God just as God. And it was when I went through a season in my life, a very difficult season, where I really started to experience him as father. And that just changed everything. It changed my whole relationship and um the image, the God image that I had of him completely upside down. And I really learned to yeah, just rest and be uh a daughter of God. And also my relationship with Jesus grew at the time, and I got to learn uh different aspects of him. For example, Jesus as the bridegroom and Jesus as the shepherd, and Jesus as a friend, where previously he'd just been Jesus the savior. Um, and so this is just that intimate journey that I've been on the past decade, and it's my passion to help other people also awaken to these possibilities.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

That is so beautiful, and I'm I'm really excited to get into our topic today. Um, and I have not really spoken about this at all on the podcast. Can you believe it? But I recently launched the Embracing Grace magazine. Um, it launched in December, so it's been out for a few months, and it has just been such a joy to be able to feature the authors and their hearts and the message that God has placed on their hearts for all of you out there. And Sam wrote an article called Visionary Encounter Prayer, and I'm just gonna show you what it looks like. I don't know if you can see that. And we are gonna be talking about visionary encounter prayer today and what it is, what does it mean? Um, so Sam, for those who those people who are not familiar with the phrase visionary encounter prayer, how would you describe it in simple terms?

SPEAKER_00 4:59

To be honest, I made that word, I made that term up. Um I was looking for a way to describe what I wrote in the in um in the article, and basically it's a type of prayer that brings you into encounters with Jesus, which are visionary. That means you get to see and experience heaven in your prayer time, and that can include you know, visions of Jesus, visions of heaven, visions of angels, whatever the Holy Spirit is leading you in that moment to reveal to you, you know, because the Bible is a very revelatory book from the Old Testament all the way to the end. It's not just the book of Revelations, you know, from the beginning, it's it's very revelatory, it's very experiential, full of powerful encounters, and not just for prophets, just even for normal people, you know. If you but we'll get into that, I guess. Um, so that's why I call it visionary encounter prayer. Another way uh or another term that I've heard people use is waiting upon the Lord, where it's about coming into your prayer closet and waiting. And in and with waiting, it's referring to coming into a place of silence or stillness and opening up or giving God room to speak to you and giving him room to encounter you. So it's like waiting upon God. Um, and that refers also back to Moses. You know, when Moses went up the mountain to meet with God, he first waited for six days, and then on the seventh day, God appeared and he had these 40 days where he was, you know, in heaven with the father, receiving the law, and when he came back down, his face was shining. But there was that period of waiting, and so it comes, it comes from that. And also, maybe probably from the book of Acts when Jesus told the disciples to wait, and you know, wait and until I send my spirit to you. So there's like an aspect of waiting, and so it's also called waiting upon the Lord, but you can also use the word meditation, um, and that can come in different ways. You can meditate on the character of God, like his goodness, his grace, his faithfulness, his love, where you're just focusing on an aspect of God and you kind of yeah, just basically surround your yourself with that, like you turn your thoughts towards that, and you really feel it. Um, or it's meditating on the word. You know, Psalms 1 tells us that the man who meditates on the word of God day and night, he shall be like a tree planted by the river and bearing fruit in all seasons. So it's also just taking a piece of scripture that really resonates with you and meditating on it, letting it, you know, um just focusing your heart on it and and letting it fill you up, letting the truth of that scripture, letting the the anointing, the glory of the scripture really fill you up, and it becomes becomes your reality, it becomes part of your identity. And um, yeah, so I don't was that simple enough? Maybe I've completed it.

SPEAKER_02 8:38

And it's beautiful, but and and there's so many facets to what you were saying. I was going like, okay, we in which direction do we even take this? So I want us to just touch on the the point of being still, because meditating on the word, for example, doesn't necessarily mean quiet, right? I think some the um new agey type of meditation means to empty yourself out, empty yourself your your mind of everything, and that's not actually how the Bible describes meditating. Meditating means that you're um ruminating on the word, you are speaking it, you are you know, um it it's you are filling yourself up actually with the word rather than emptying yourself out.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

So, how does the still how does stillness come into that?

SPEAKER_02 9:26

Because in the article, you also mentioned the difference between, and and it was a quote, and I wish I could find it right now.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

Um and I have it, I know Eric Hilmer.

SPEAKER_02 9:35

Yes, quiet versus stillness. Just explain the difference between that because, for example, music. I love having music when I do encounters with God, right? Does music interfere with that stillness? So let's talk about that quickly.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

No, so the quote you're mentioning is um quiet, uh, quietness is the absence of external noise, yes, and that is referring to that verse in the Bible that talks about uh going into the prayer closet, shut the door behind you, so you're shutting the world out, and then stillness is the absence of inner noise, yeah. And yeah, so the the inner noise, because you can be in the quiet, you can be in the prayer chamber, but your mind is running with stuff like the grocery list that you still have to buy later today, you know, something that your husband asks you to do, the kids, the parent-teacher meeting, life, right? Your mind is running with life, and um and also prayer requests because we carry people in our hearts. So we're thinking, oh, you know, my brother is in need right now, this is what his family's going through, my best friend. So getting to a place of silence is being able to not only shut the the the outside noise, but also the the inside noise. And one way that you can do that is to um when you're going to when you're going to your uh your prayer time, if that if those things keep coming up, then pray them out, pray through them, work through that list, lay things at the feet of Jesus until you know you don't have anything else, and then you can start focusing on him. Because at the end of the day, you want to give him time to speak to you too. An intimate relationship, it's a two-way communication, just like any marriage. And so if the husband comes home from work, let's say, and he's just going on and on about his boss, his colleagues, and you know, all his problems, doesn't give time for the wife to speak herself and say what's on her heart, how her day was, and whatever her concerns were, you know, that's not real intimacy. And so we want to get to a place in our in our relationship where it is two-way communication. But I want to say here as well that this is also outside of the prayer closet, because you know, as believers and as we grow in intimacy with Jesus, we are moving into that union or we're becoming more aware of how we are one with Christ. You know, the Bible tells us that it's Christ in me that is the hope of glory. We've been crucified. It is now Christ that lives in us, and Jesus in John 14, if he prays the prayer of union, he says, Lord, I pray that they would become one as you and I are one. And um uh one of my favorite verses, I'll have to look it up now. It talks about how he who is joined with the Lord is one spirit with him, and so that intimacy that you build up, you you take it everywhere. It's it's it's who you are, and so you are in one one-to-one or two-way communication with Jesus the whole time, with the Father. And I'm sure you've experienced this Cindy, where you can be out and about, and then you hear a gentle nudge or a gentle whisper, and you follow it, and it leads to you know something amazing happening because he's he's with you the whole time and he's like speaking to you the whole time. I get a lot of uh stuff in the shower, for example.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

I know you know stop talking to me in the shower when I don't have a book to write this.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

I think you have to jump out and you're not completely recorded, or I get so much stuff in the shower, but I think it's also you're in that relaxed state, yeah, which is similar to when you're praying, when we were talking about the stillness, that that relaxed state where the noise, the external noise and the internal noise have quieted down so that you can really start to receive. And same in the dream realm, right? When you are asleep and your body's at rest, it's so much easier for God to speak to us in dreams. Even one of his favorite ways, if you study the Bible, I did my thesis on this on in the prophetic school on dreams in the Bible, and really it's the most clear, the most directful, and he's got free access to really speak to us in the dream realm as well.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

I love that, love it so much, and again, there's so many directions we can take this in. I want us to just quickly touch on how a visionary encounter is different from our imagination, and how can someone uh discern the difference?

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Okay, that's really good. So, first of all, I I I want to detox um that saying where people say it's just your imagination very quickly. Because when we were children and we were using our imagination, you know, children are so much more aware of, I believe, of the heavenly realm than we are as adults, because you know, as we grow, layers and layers get piled on. And so, but when we were children, we were able to play and we were free to imagine, and so imagineering is part of our unique design, it's something that the father placed in us, um, because it's you know, it's just part of the package of who we are as a human. So imagineering is not bad, okay? And for a lot of people, that is a tool that they can use to step in more and more into the kingdom, if it's a sanctified imagination, of the horse. And so when we so when we detox that and we realize, hey, imagination, our imagination is a beautiful gift from the father, then we're not afraid to use it and we don't push it to, oh, it's just your imagination. And this is just really important to quickly mention because there have been people where they've been told it's just your you know, as children, it's just your imagination. And so you don't take those things that you see seriously, and then you get your spiritual sight gets cut off. And our spiritual sight was never meant to be cut off. You know, we even sing that song, open the eyes of my heart, Lord, open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you, and so the eyes of our heart is is is just an inherent part of who we are. Now, when it comes to spiritual encounters and in general to spiritual senses, right? Spiritual touch, taste, um, hearing in the spirit. Um, for example, receiving prophetic words, that's you know, that's spiritual hearing, or like spiritual downloads, words of knowledge, and all of that. These are all spiritual senses that we have because we're not just uh a body, we're also a soul, and we're also a spirit. And I have to mention here quickly, I went to a conference last year in in the US, and when I came back, I had this burning sensation on my on the top of my head for like a few weeks when I came back. It was almost like that flame of it's like a flame of fire was sitting on my head, and I could feel it. Now, with the physical eyes, there's obviously nothing there. And if somebody would run their hand there, they wouldn't feel it. But I was feeling it for weeks afterward. And so I was picking that in in my spirit, man. I was picking up a spiritual reality. And when we when we see with our spiritual eyes, we are picking up spiritual realities, we are picking up whatever the father wants to reveal to us in that moment. And sometimes he just wants to reveal his heart, he just wants to reveal how much I love you, and so you can see yourself with him, him holding you, or you just spending time with him. One of my favorite uh experiences is just to share a meal or to take communion with Jesus, the bread and the wine. Um, it doesn't have to be something spectacular, but it is and a lot of the time these encounters are for healing, to heal the brokenness and the trauma that's still there, and he's doing it step by step. And so for some people it's easy to see. For me, it was easy to see because I think it was just a gift, um, part of the prophetic gift. But for some people, it it might take practice. And so, what you do is you want to use your imagination tool that's been given, and for example, go to the Bible and imagine, see the woman at the well having that conversation with Jesus. You can hear it because it's in the scripture. See him sitting at the temple mount and giving the the you know his teaching on the beatitudes. Uh, so use your imagination. It's if it's sanctified and use it, and the more you practice, the more you will cross over into really seeing spiritual realities. Now, one way that you want to make sure, you know, that you're not making making things up, but you're really um focusing on on Jesus and heaven is it's the intention, first of all, it's the intention of your heart. So if your heart um's intention is to encounter the Father, encounter Jesus, encounter the Holy Spirit, you know, the pureness of your heart, then that's already, you know, it's a protection because you're not just going to, you know, like you talked about the new ages who are going and flying around in the astral plane, who you know, whatever they're doing. So that's one thing. And then also the encounters that you have or the things that you see, you want to bring them back and kind of you know, use the word of God to prove them, you know. The Bible tells us to test everything and and and keep the good. So that's what you want to do. Is what did this encounter reveal? Did it reveal to me who Jesus is? Did it reveal to me more of you know the Holy Spirit? What is how has it changed me? You know, what is the effect that it's had on me? Is it making me more like Jesus? Is it giving me a greater awe, you know, a greater honor for God? You know, and then so you want to use the scriptures against your encounters, and then um just pray, you know, pray for discernment. Uh, this the spirit of you know, the gift of discernment is is one of the gifts of the spirit. But also if you are not practicing, you know, I and I brought this verse up, um, which is in Hebrews 5, verse uh uh 13 and 14, but 14 specifically it talks about solid food is for the mature whose senses are trained by practice to distinguish between what is good and what is evil. And it's just like children. We we you know, we let children play, we let them learn by doing and learn by playing. And so that's how you can practice, you practice, you mature your senses by allowing yourself to see, allowing yourself to discern, proving it with the Bible, testing it. And and then you grow in it. You will grow in discernment. You will grow in, well, is this really from the Lord, or is this something from you know from the soul that you know that needs to be needs to be discerned and dealt with? Um, but use your imagination, feel free to start off like that. And as you mature, you know, and you're using those parameters to test to prove you will grow in um you will grow in spiritual encounters.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

Yeah. I love that you mentioned that because um in the same way, you know, there are people that are trying to understand the evil of this world so that they think they can identify it. But what they do by spending time focusing on getting to know the evil um plots of the enemy, for example, in order to identify it, means that they're actually becoming familiar with that, and actually, what we need to do, which is the meat of the word, is actually we need to spend time in the word getting to know the truth so that you can identify the lie. Because the lies of the enemy is so subtle, you know, the counterfeit is so subtle. Like, for example, I mean, I love that you use the word counterfeit now with money, for example, it is so subtle you can't see the difference to a trained eye. Yes, they might be able to pick it up immediately, but to somebody who's just going to the shop and buying something might not know because you're not familiar with it. But it is so important to know the truth of the word, to know the presence of the Lord, to know the Holy Spirit, to be able to discern the difference between what is from God and what is not. The focus should be on the truth. Only when you know the truth can you recognize the lie.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

Oh, that is so good. And I I love what you said about the money because the bank tellers, right? The ones that work at the bank, they can recognize because they with the touch, I've heard, because they handle money all the time. And so as soon as a fake note comes, they can they can feel it from the touch, and then they look at it straight away. But because they're so experienced with the with the real, and and I love what you said, you know. Um I think it's 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18. It talks about how we behold, as in a mirror, you know, we behold Jesus and we become transformed into his very image, you know, from glory to glory. But we have to behold him. As we behold him, we become transformed. But as we behold him, as we spend time with him, and in his word, more and more of who he is is is is you know, is transforming us. And so it's it's like with the phone call, right? And we had this conversation with my with Elia yesterday. He sent me a uh a short about the deep fakes, how they're using the deep fakes now and they can fake your family members. And I said to Elia, yeah, sorry about the side note. I said, we need our own password. So if somebody calls me and I think it's you and I think there's something wrong, I said, What's our password?

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Right?

SPEAKER_00 25:22

And so, but if somebody calls me, or I call his phone, he knows it's me because he knows my voice, right? And the sheep know the voice of the shepherd. And another quick side note because this is so important. There was a case in Germany where um some thieves uh stole a farmer's sheep. They just put them all in this big van and they were driving them, uh, they were going to drive them to Turkey. Um, but luckily they were detained by the police and they had stolen sheep from different uh farmers, and they were detained, and and now there was this field of all these sheep, and the the farmers were contacted, the ones that had reported uh theft, they were contacted to come and find their sheep. And there was one farmer who from Cologne, which is the neighboring city here, and he drove down and he was like, Okay, uh, I need to gather all my sheep from all of these thousands. How do I do it? And he just called out to them and he kept calling out to them. And the ones that recognized his voice came forward and he counted them, and it was all his sheep, all the ones that had been stolen, because they were familiar with his voice. And so, just going back to that point, Cindy was saying, when we spend time in the word, when we are spending time with him, that intimacy, that relationship will lock us in, you know, we become imprinted with who he is, and so we will learn to recognize um faith, but it is the training, right? And uh dedicating and investing time in that, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:09

So true, so true. Um, what would you say, Sam, to someone who feels nervous about seeing in the spirit?

SPEAKER_00 27:19

Well, I mean, I think I was nervous too. Um honestly, I was just uh encouraged uh by my previous teachers to journal everything down, um, and once again test what I had seen, test what I experienced, and keep the good. And to to just keep going and to and to keep trying. And if and and also to know that the Holy Spirit is with you and the Father is with you. And so when you are going into because you're going into you're going into your place of prayer, your time of prayer, and in that time, you are with the Father, you're with the Trinity, right? You are um in a place of communion, in a place of relationship, and so that has to be your confidence that I'm with my father, I'm with the Holy Spirit, and I'm with Jesus. So anything that I experience is because it's they are giving that to me. And anything else that comes that is, you know, because I've also had to deal with things, but it came from the Holy Spirit where he wanted to deal with things in my past, places that still needed healing, or places that where I still needed deliverance, but he was leading me into that, so it was like he was saying, he was shining the light on a on a dark area so that it could be dealt with, so that I could pray repentance or I could speak out forgiveness over you know the situation, but so he was leading me at the same time, and so but it's come it's coming from resting in your relationship with the father, the spirit, and the son, and really resting in that like a child, you know, and and saying, Okay, Father, you know, I want to see you, I want to encounter you, I really want to experience you today, and then resting in the security of being loved, being protected, being taken care of, being shielded, and resting in that identity, and that gives you the freedom. You know, it's it's also coming back to that childlike, childlikeness because as children, we were so free, you know, we just had so much freedom to dream, to imagine, to play. Um, and then unfortunately uh we come into a place of fear. So um, yeah, I think being able to return to that childlikeness where we are not fearful, but we are more faithful, and we have faith that we are in a safe place in Christ so that he is able to lead us into these visionary encounters. And just one last point on this is that it's all about identity. So knowing that we are sons of God, you know, and from salvation because of salvation, we have been seated, you know, raised up and seated with Christ in the heavenly places. So we already have full access to the heavenly realms. We are already there, and we have the full permission and the full access, you know, to the throne of God. We can come to the throne of mercy and grace without any fear because our father sits on that throne and that veil was torn. The veil was torn for us to go in and encounter and to step into the holiest of holies and really have you know what Moses had, that face-to-face, what David had, what you know the prophets had. We really having that face-to-face um encounters and from there letting him lead us and show us, you know, heavenly places and realms. And for me, that's that's more exciting than fearful. So get excited for it, guys.

SPEAKER_02 31:32

Amen. Amen. That's such, I mean, just all of what you shared, and obviously the identity piece is very important because when you know who God is, you know that He's got good things for you and that He is a good father. So even though the spiritual realm is very real in terms of the you know what the enemy is trying to do and experience, we need to know our authority in Christ. Um, and that therefore any kind of spiritual encounter, we do not need to fear because we have Christ within us, and greater is he that is in us than he that is in this world. So I love love what you've shared. Um, one thing I want to just ask you is how can visionary encounter prayer and specifically this type of encounter prayer, how does that bring us into deeper intimacy with Jesus?

SPEAKER_00 32:27

I love this because oh gosh, this is this is basically what made me fall off the edge. Um because I really got to know him and I gave him full access to to my heart. So when I started having encounters with Jesus, they were very simple. It and just even seeing his eyes, it's it's it does something to you. Seeing him look at you face to face, um it really changes you. But um, you know, when we go to church, we have a very outward expression of our faith. And even if we, you know, we're going out there and we we serving and ministering in our community, it's outward, and it's an outward expression of love. But there's that inward expression, which is just that intimate time between you and him, and being able to see him and being able to, you know, have conversations with him, which is different to you know, you praying to him, but it's like being with him, be sitting next to him, and then in those times, that's when the deepest healing happened for me, because I was able to really work through the pain and the brokenness of my past with him, and I would see him, you know, also giving me things, giving me, you know, a new heart, you know, giving me new garments and taking all those old garments of shame away, and and really seeing him see myself through his eyes as well was incredible because I really got to understand how precious I am, how absolutely beloved I am. And and then also with the father, you know, just being in the father's garden and and just basking in his presence, or like when he came as just this cloud of glory and enveloped me in this cloud. There's just an S a different dimension that comes in when you are having these encounters. It's just more than just the daily prayers or that you do. It it you really get to experience, you know, the Father and Jesus really as like people. Like I don't know how to explain it, it there's just that heart-to-heart connection, my friend. Um that's how these uh kind of encounters can really help um with the intimate journey. True, so beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 35:29

And I mean, you get to see, I think you get to see different sides of him. Um and as you were talking, I had to fight back tears because as you said, you know, just looking into his eyes, it took me back to an encounter that I had with Jesus when he was carrying the cross. I was standing there and we locked eyes, and just the the the physical pain of what he went through for our sins and for what we would do, just I mean just seeing it now, it just takes me back somewhere, and I'm gonna have to just give me a sec. It just the love that the Father has for you, to everyone listening here today. When you have these type of encounters with the Lord, there is something that changes inside of you, and God desires that for you. God desires having these intimate moments with you where he reveals his heart to you, and where you get to really experience how he sees you. Exactly what Sam was saying is we're seeing ourselves from his perspective. He wants to clothe you with his righteousness, being in right standing with him, that you know that there is absolutely nothing that can separate you from the love of the Father. And these type of encounters really reveal his heart to you, and it goes back to what Sam was saying right in the beginning. It's the intention of your heart, right? The imagination. I'm glad we actually touched on that because, like you said, sometimes we think our imagination is bad, and that's what the world has taught us. It's because that's one more counterfeit way that the enemy will try and use to stop us being able to experience all of heaven and what heaven has has for us. Um, but God actually wants to reveal Himself and His heart and who He is through that. I was listening to an audio of an encounter um recently. I've been trying to just listen to it over and over again. And in it she talks about how God and Jesus are laughing together. And you know, you know, oftentimes, sometimes we don't see God that way. We don't see God as a God who's laughing and enjoying himself. We see him as either a taskmaster or we see him as somebody who's trying to get stuff done, who's you know, trying to coordinate the whole entire universe. That he's no, actually, God is at rest, he's not striving up in heaven, and that's what he wants to reveal to you is that you can have joy, you can have peace, you can have the love of the father in who there is no fear. So I really want to encourage you to seek this out. Go in by the magazine, read Sam's article because she actually lays it out so beautifully in the magazine as well, in that article where she talks about what it is and how you can encounter him. So, Sam, as as we just close this part of it, if someone listening wants to try silent prayer tonight and wants to have a visionary encounter in God's presence, what simple instructions would you give to them?

SPEAKER_00 39:02

Um, yeah, so like I mentioned before, if you just make time, make set aside 30 minutes. Uh Cindy, you talked about soaking music. I I love soaking music too. I I I do use it as well. So um, but it there's no lyrics in in, you know, because if there are lyrics, that is somebody else. You are singing somebody else's revelation of God, which might be true. They sing about God's goodness, but that's somebody else's revelation, and you want to um use that time now to really let Him show you something about Himself that that's only for you in that moment. So music without lyrics is also great. Yeah, instrumental worship, socking worship. Um you don't need it though, but it's it's nice as well. Um and and then if if you have things on your mind, if you have that internal noise, then first work through that. Try to, and this might take practice for some people if you're not used to this, um, especially in this modern day and age, right? You kind of have to weave yourself off from technology and and and work through those. If there's something bothering you, if there's something right at the tip, then pray through it, release it, lay it at Jesus' feet, and get to a place where you are now able to receive. And um if if you don't see anything the first time, just you know, continue. The first time I did this, I I wasn't seeing anything for a few weeks, but I persisted because I knew it's you know, it's waiting upon the Lord, and that's what Moses did, you know, he waited, and then he had the most amazing encounter, you know. He saw, you know, it says um it talks about the the sapphire stone, you know, on top of Mount Sinai. So just persist, persist, and practice makes perfect, you know, and keep going. Don't be discouraged. And you might not necessarily see something, you might hear something, you might get uh a Bible verse that's highlighted to you, you might even hear a worship song in your heart, and maybe that the lyrics of that song are messaged to you, you know. Um, just be aware, or you might even smell something. There might be uh a fragrance, I don't know, of roses in the room. You know, you might sense something, you might just sense the presence of God, you know, or the presence of angels. Um, sometimes at church, you're doing worship, um either I'll be you know in the worship, I feel like I'm taken up into the throne room. And as we are worshiping at church, I'm amongst thousands of other people, and we band down and I can see the throne ahead. And sometimes I'm just sensing it, it almost feels like it's like there's an angel there, you know, the angels carry the presence of God, and I'll feel it maybe on one side or the other, and I don't see anything, but I can sense something. Yeah, angels are all around us, right? All around us. Um, but just one point there. If you know, if you do see an angel or or a messenger in a vision, you always want to ask, Did Jesus come in the flesh? Because that's one way to discern the spirit um that you are seeing. Did Jesus come in the flesh? And they have to answer yes, you know, and that Jesus is the Son of God. Um, so just a point there, but um yeah, be led by the spirit and um yeah, practice, just make room, make time for it.

SPEAKER_02 43:00

Yeah, I love that. And it brings to mind the scripture which says draw near to God and he will draw near to you. It's that persistence in his presence, it's the continuous drawing closer to him, and he will draw near to you. He is there already. It's sometimes we just need to become familiar and uh get to know what the presence of God feels like, you know, because there is a difference, there is a shift in the spiritual realm when that happens.

SPEAKER_00 43:26

You sense it, yeah. And um, you know, Isaiah talks about be still and know that I am God. And one of my favorite quotes is there are aspects or dimensions of God that you will only know in the stillness.

SPEAKER_02 43:41

Yes, yes, so beautiful. Ah, Sam, that is so so amazing. Thank you so much for sharing that. I'm going to just ask you quickly about your devotionals on you version. You've already got two out, which is absolutely amazing. Just share a little bit more about that so that read up. Listeners, I'm saying readers because I'm thinking about the magazine where listeners can find it. I will share the links in the show notes, but tell us a little bit more about that.

SPEAKER_00 44:09

Yeah, so the one that uh came out recently this year is uh about the bride of Christ, and that's about growing in your identity as a bride. Earlier, I talked about uh being a son of God, but this is about being a bride and coming into that intimate relationship with Jesus as a bridegroom. I laid out in very simple languages for um you know for everybody so that everybody can follow. And we know that you know, this is the greatest story that was ever, you know, written, written in the stars, written in heaven. And you know, Jesus is coming back for his bride, and we know there's going to be a wedding feast of the Lamb. And so just looking at that type of imagery and that type of language and what it means, and what does it mean to be in union, you know, into coming into bridal union and looking at the verses that Paul wrote, you know, when Paul said um a man and you know, he talks about a man and a wife being joined together, but and then he says, But this is a mystery, it's about Jesus and the church, his bride. And so what is that mystery? And you know, I start to reveal that a little bit in this five-day devotional. And anybody who wants more, um, after they've gone through those five days, they have, you know, they can uh download a free chapter of my book. Um it's called The Architecture of the Bridal Chamber, which is a very interesting look at how you know the architecture of the Old Testament, the outer court, the inner court, and the most holy place, and how that parallels the bridal chamber, which is the chambers in our hearts, and how we are moving outwards to the most intimate union, that heart-to-heart, that oneness, that bridal union with Jesus. Um, so if you're hearing this and your heart is jumping, it's probably for you. Yes. And my second new version devotional, Cindy, it's about life purpose. And that's just uh uh I'll call it um a foretaste of what a life purpose journey looks like, where you can start to think about you know, what is the message that you carry, what are your spiritual gifts, who are the people that you call to. Um, and so just the foretaste of that um as well. And maybe one day I can come back and we can talk a little bit more about it.

SPEAKER_02 46:48

Definitely. That's a date. And I've done both of the UVersion devotionals, so I really, really encourage you to go and find it. I will put the details in the show notes. Sam's also mentioned some of her books. I've got two of them here. This is the one for children, which talks about leading your children into encounters, which is really awesome. And the other one is called The Doors Within. Sam, um, so amazing to have you here today. It is just always a pleasure. I'm looking forward to all of the exciting things that we're going to be doing together because there's a few things that are coming up that we won't share.

SPEAKER_01 47:26

Oh please, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:28

Watch this space, everyone. But if um, how do listeners get in touch with you before we close?

SPEAKER_00 47:36

Um, yeah, through my website, um, istambulocoaching.com for coaching. Um, but I'm pretty active on my public profile on Facebook. Feel free to drop me a DM there, um, or even on my Instagram, uh Samantha. I'm also pretty active there, so you can also just drop me a message there. Um, when it's more topics about intimacy with Jesus, more than happy to just answer questions or respond. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:12

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining. And everyone listening again, go and check out Sam's profiles and her devotionals as well as her um books. It's going to truly bless you. And today's message was just so awesome. Um, I think if you need to learn how to encounter God's presence, then this is the way to go. So please go and buy your Embracing Grace magazine on Amazon or get the digital version on my website. Details are on the screen. And please like and subscribe to the channel. You never know whose life you are called to impact when you share this message with somebody who really needs it. So please do share it with your friends and always remember that you are loved, you are chosen, redeemed, and you are called. And we just want to bless you. We thank you for being here. Sam, thank you very much. Lots of love, everyone. Goodbye.

unknown 49:13

Bye.

SPEAKER_02 49:14

Thank you for joining me on this episode of the Embracing Grace podcast. I'd love to know what challenged or encouraged you the most and what felt like it was meant just for you. Please take a moment to leave a comment. It's a simple way you can help spread this message and encourage someone else. If this episode blessed you, please like, subscribe, and share it with a friend. You never know whose life you're called to impact. And always remember you were loved, chosen, redeemed, and called. Lots of love and hugs until next time. Bye.