Experiencing God is a great
thing, knowing the presence of the indwelling Trinity is something that words
cannot adequately express; our hearts and souls are touched by the Eternal One.
Peter writes about unspeakable joy that is full of glory, and Paul talks about
a peace that passes understanding – to be in a relationship is to experience
the one with whom we have a relationship, and to be in a relationship with our
Father and Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit means that they live in us, individually
and collectively as the people of God. When we consider that marriage is an
image of the relationship between Christ and His Church then perhaps we get a
glimpse of what intimacy God is meant to be. As I write this I think that our
desecration of marriage over the past few decades, within and without the
church, no doubt makes the image of the marriage of Christ and His Bride difficult
to understand – but let us not allow our folly to rob us of the beauty of what
our Lord Jesus wants to give us – which is Himself.
Guard against the temptation
to make your experience with God normative for others. While your experience
with God will have many similarities to the experiences of others, there will
be an element of it that will be special to you. Guard against only associating
with professing Christians who have experiences similar to yours – especially regarding
the way they came to know our Lord Jesus and regarding any crisis experience
they may or may not have had. Jesus Christ has called us to know Him and
experience Him and learn and obey His teachings – while His teachings should be
normative for all Christians as we strive to understand and obey them, the way
Jesus speaks to us and draws us ever deeper into Himself may be as diverse as
the sand of the sea – I say “may” because I don’t know for sure, but I do know
that God created us as individuals and that He knows us as individuals (as
well as His Bride, His Body, His Church).
As you read the Gospels and
the Book of Acts you’ll see that God is diverse in His dealings with women and
men. He brings people to Himself in different ways, He heals in different ways,
He uses people collectively in different ways. As you read the letters of the
New Testament you’ll see that living in community with others means there are
always things to be worked out, that unity is not a given, that it needs to be
protected and worked at…and worked at some more…and then worked at some more.
You’ll also see that the human body is an image of the Church (see 1
Corinthians Chapter 12 and Romans Chapter 12 as examples). We’re not all the
same – I’m not sure why we struggle with such a common-sense idea but we do. I
don’t know why local congregations generally expect everyone to be pretty much
the same but they do. I know what I’m writing about because I’ve been there;
why I’ve been there even when I thought I wasn’t there and for all I know I’m
there now…we can seldom trust our own perspectives of ourselves…maybe never.
One of the things I’m saying
is that if someone says, “You’ve got to have this experience this particular
way,” then I think you should take a step back and ask “Why?” You should also
take a good long look at the entire Bible, especially the New Testament, and
especially what the New Testament teaches us about our Lord Jesus and our
relationship with Him.
God pours His grace through
all of His people so that all of His people may partake of His grace –
therefore we should celebrate the fact that the Body of Christ has many members
who are different from one another…yet we seem to have a hard time with that.
I don’t want you to have
exactly the same experience of Jesus and with Jesus that I do – but I do want
you to know the Jesus that I do. If I insist that another Christian have my
experience then I will seek to superimpose my thoughts and my experience on
that person and I will not allow that person his or her freedom to know Jesus
as she or he was created to know Jesus. I may also create an atmosphere where
others think that unless their experience approximates mine that they do not
have a legitimate relationship with our Lord Jesus. My focus as a brother to
others must always and ever be our Lord Jesus and not my experience.
You see sister, the Gospel is
about our Lord Jesus, not about us – let’s be excited about Him and in love
with Him.
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