EXPERIENCING GOD

Faith-based communion with God, though something we cannot see, is nevertheless real. And because it is real, there is at least a possibility that it can be consciously experienced.

In fact, we can go further and say that if there is some way in which we can interact personally and spiritually with God, ordinarily we will be conscious of that happening. That’s because there is such a close union between our body and spirit that what happens to the one usually affects the other.

We see this illustrated in the case of Jesus. When the seventy-two disciples returned from a preaching mission, Luke tells us that Jesus was “full of joy through the Holy Spirit” (Luke 10:21, italics added). Here is an instance of a human (Jesus) being influenced by something spiritual (the Holy Spirit) in a way that resulted in a conscious experience (joy). This is typical of how our humanity works. Inner spiritual influences register in our bodily consciousness – however distinctly or correctly we may perceive them.

This is an important element of “experiential” spirituality. There is a sensed or felt dimension to the Holy Spirit’s work within us. He gives birth to a love, joy and peace that are so distinctive that they are called the “fruit” of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). We may not be able to describe exactly what it is that’s unique about them, or how the Holy Spirit produces them. But when we experience them, we know that they are real, and that they are of God. That there are conscious impressions resulting from the Spirit working in our hearts is something that we cannot deny, nor for a moment should we want to.

Yet this is something that has been treated with scepticism throughout the history of the church. Clement R. Vaughan, for instance, writes in the opening chapter of his book The Gifts of the Holy Spirit: “The doctrine of the influence of the Holy Spirit on the human heart is one of those doctrines of the inspired books which the carnal mind has always displayed the most uncompromising hostility. It has been denied as false; it has been scorned as fanatical; it has been assailed with positive hatred as an offence to the dignity and virtue of man. No weapon of argument or invective has been spared in the assault upon it” (p. 17).

Many today still cringe at the mention of spiritual or religious “experience.” They immediately associate it with superficial emotion, or with a purely subjective spirituality. And they have good reason to be cautious. What an earlier generation called “enthusiasm” still abounds today.

But at the same time, there is need to distinguish between a spirituality built on immediate subjective impressions – that is, one that derives its substance and authority from inner feelings – and a spirituality that recognizes conscious impressions often accompany God’s work in the human heart. The two things are quite distinct. The former is often self-induced and delusory, while the latter belongs to the essence of true Christianity.

J.I. Packer provides an illustration of such Christianity when he writes, “To know that God is your Father and that he loves you his adopted child no less than he loves his only begotten Son… brings inward delight that is sometimes overwhelming; and this also is the Spirit’s doing” (Keep in Step With The Spirit, p. 77 – emphasis added). Here is truth, being powerfully felt, through the Spirit’s influence. God is being experienced.

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