Spiritual Experience

Basic Christian Doctrines 37

 

1.   God Desires Us to Have True Spiritual Experience.

God has done many things for us, and granted the privilege of being a Christian. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Heaven. We are positionally right with God. But He also desires us to be what we are. He wants us to be and live in practice what we are in Heaven. We are to be daily transformed into the image of Christ. In fact, not just in theory. He has already changed our nature. Now we are to go on being changed gradually. This involves our experience: what we are and what we do. The order is as follows: we believe in our minds, trust in our hearts, speak it with our mouths, and do it with our hands.

 

2.   God Develops the Fruit of the Spirit in Us.

God has changed the root, now He grows fruit on the branches. This is done by the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit that dwells in us. He produces these new attitudes within us. They are listed in Gal. 5:22. They begin internally, then manifest themselves externally. We cannot produce them ourselves. We are connected to Christ, the Vine, who produces them in and through us. God actually changes the way we think, feel, and look at things. This in turn produces spiritual virtues, such as those listed in Matt. 5 and 2 Peter 1.

 

3.   Love is the Most Important Spiritual Fruit.

Love is the first fruit listed in Gal. 5:22. It is the greatest of all God's commandments: love God, love other people. We are to love others as Christ loved us, even be willing to die for them. We are told to walk in love. How important is this attitude of love? Without it, all else is worthless (I Cor. 13). Faith is the primary virtue, but love is the culminating and crowning virtue. Love seeks the well-being of another, seeks to do good to him. God wants us to love in reality. He wants us to really love, not just say it. And show it in our deeds. But it begins in the heart, and that means true Christian experience.

 

4.   We Sin and Backslide.

 

Though we have been born again, sin still dwells in us. We still sin. We do what we should not do, and fail to do what we should do. We develop bad habits of frequent sins. When we sin for a period of time we call this backsliding. It is like riding a bicycle up a hill: if we stop going forward, we go backward. This sometimes happens with besetting sins, which are like weights that pull us down. We need to be aware and beware. Backsliding affects our hearts, and we ought not to get accustomed to sin. We should immediately forsake it.

 

5.   God Chastens His Children.

 

Because we are His children, God chastens us. He does this out of love, not wrath. It is for our good, not for our punishment. He does it as a Father, not as a judge. God does not chasten us to "get even", but to teach us not to sin. How does God chasten? God does it in a variety of ways: affliction, circumstances, illness, financial loss, etc. He even uses our enemies. Chastening teaches us that sin is not worth it. It always hurts - it's supposed to. But it is for our good, and is evidence that we are God's children. Not all the afflictions we suffer are due to sin, but some are. When we are afflicted in some way, we need to pray and search our hearts and Bibles to see if it is because of any specific sin. Chances are, our own consciences will convict us.

 

6.   We Must Deny Ourselves.

Self-denial is another important virtue affecting our experience. It is not easy, and is never fully mastered in this life. Sin wants us to put ourselves first, and this has been the history of our lives. That attitude produces pride. God tells us to deny our selves, not put them first. He does not want us to engage in self-love, self-esteem or self-worth, all of which are simply other words for pride. God wants us to be humble. We need to deny our selfishness, our sinful lusts, our desire to be Number One. Our self must be crucified. 

 

7.   We Must Mortify Indwelling Sin.

Our basic nature was changed in regeneration, but Original Sin still dwells in us as an unwelcome stranger. We cannot expel it once and for all. There is no instant Perfection, as some teach. We daily struggle against it and sometimes give in. We are told to mortify it (see Rom. 6). How? Several ways. For one, we are to make no provision for the flesh. Starve it by not giving in to it or providing opportunity for it. Also, we are to reckon sin as a foreign intruder. Then we are to reckon ourselves as alive to Christ and dead to sin. This means, among other things, to believe that we really have changed and that we do not have to sin. We may still struggle and give in, but we also can fight and win those struggles and gain victories and progress. This is an important part of true spiritual experience, but often overlooked.

 

8.   We Ought to Be Separate from the World.

We are in the world, but are not to be of the world. We are to go in and evangelize it, not let it in us and bring us down. The world ought to be able to see a noticeable difference in us. We need different attitudes, words, lifestyles, deeds, even attire. We ought not to indulge in worldly fashions, entertainment or the like. There ought to be a noticeable difference between us and the world, otherwise we are but hypocrites. We need to be careful lest the world's sin seeps into us and affects the way we think and live. It takes vigilance.

 

9.   We Need to Examine Ourselves.

2 Cor. 13:5 tells us to examine ourselves. The first thing to check is whether we are true Christians or only deceived. We examine our lives by submitting them to God to examine. We look in the mirror of God's Word (James 1), which will show up the imperfections of our character. Indwelling sin likes to deceive us, so it cannot be trusted. We can only trust the Bible to give us a true examination. We need to search and discover our faults, weaknesses, secret sins, bad habits. Then we inspect our overall character, then our words and deeds. One way is to compare ourselves with Christ - we will soon spot the imperfections in us. Also, we need to check and see how much we have progressed so far in the Christian life - how much we have done vs. how much we could have done.

 

10. We Have the Privilege of Enjoying God.

One more thing needs to be pointed out as we conclude this section on spiritual experience. God desires for us to find our joy in Him. We are to love Him and enjoy Him. Love and be loved by God. This actually produces spiritual delight and true pleasure. We taste and see that the Lord is good. We do this by prayer and Bible study, worship at church, fellowship with the brethren, Communion, and walking closely with the Lord Jesus day by day. With Christ in us and with us, it is then possible to enjoy God's presence even in the little things. This is one of the most delightful aspects of the Christian's experience, a little bit of Heaven on Earth.