Experiencing God

In the word that I will share today I intend to speak of what it means to experience God. In my life, I have discovered that as Christians we are apt to express our faith in such super spiritual terms that sometimes the truth of a certain thing can be very hard to discover.

I have also discovered that there are many Christians who agree with the word of scripture which speaks of our relationship with God in terms of very real experiences that take place between the creator and his creation however there are also those who would disagree with such a statement.

Recently I heard from a pastor friend, who had been part of a conference where the speaker had expressed his view that today, in the 21 st century, the Lord only communicates with His people through the word of God. It is my view that nothing could be farther from the truth and by means of the word of God, I will endeavour to show you that in this life, to know God, is first and foremost to experience God. I also intend to demonstrate that scripture shows us that it has always been so and that it will continue to be so until the Lord returns to gather up his own to spend eternity in his presence.

The Value of Experience.

In life, when we apply for a job, one of the first things we are likely to be asked will be, what has been our experience? This is because, in life it is understood that all the book learning in the world can never take the place of experience. Imagine if you had to go in to be operated on only to find out the day of your surgery that your doctor actually had no operating experience. No matter whether we choose to be a medical doctor or a soccer player, experience will be the key to becoming recognized as one who is gifted whether as a professional in law or in medicine, as a carpenter or plumber or as a sporting personality. In each case, experience will be considered to be irreplaceable when it comes to evaluating our ability to undertake a job or a particular calling. shaping up our skills.

It is no different when it comes to knowing God. Experience, as we walk out our lives with God is what will teach us more than any number of books written by the very best authors and that is to be the subject that I would like to address in this teaching.

Recognizing the Voice of God.

There is a story in scripture that tells of a young boy by the name of Samuel who had been given by his mother into the service of the priesthood. We read that one night as he slept Samuel was wakened by a voice calling his name. His natural response was to run to his mentor the priest Eli, to ask what his master needed but the old priest assured the boy that he had not been calling him. Three times the boy was awakened by the voice calling his name, and after the second time the old priest realized that it must be the Lord who had been calling out to Samuel and so he instructs the boy to go back to bed telling him that if he hear the voice again he ought to respond by saying,

Speak Lord, your servant is listening. (1 Sam 3:9)

Samuel did not yet know the Lord. He was in training. He wasn’t yet familiar with God’s voice or the word of God and it’s a very instructional picture that we are given that demonstrates that there will be those times when the people that we minister to may need our help to learn how to recognize the voice of God.

Whether as pastors or as mature Christians, there will likely be times when those who may be less mature in the faith will need our help to help them find their way along the path of the Christian life. It was that way with young Samuel.

Time Spent One of One with God.

Did you know that when the Lord works with His people He often begins from the inside out. He works on our Spirit and the result is that changes begin to take place that then begin to affect in both our soulish nature as well as our flesh. On the other hand, when Satan seeks to influence humanity he always does so from the outside in. He works to tempt our fleshly and our soulish nature knowing, if he can influence us there our spirit man will likely have no choice but to submit to influence of our soul and our flesh.

It is no wonder that we discover so many of the heroes of the faith spending one on one time being nurtured and prepared in their spirit long before they are released into their calling. In many cases they spend years of their lives being made ready, prepared for the work of the Lord. David for example, spent years listening to God, talking, worshipping before Him as he watched over his sheep in the fields and it would have been in those times that David learned to respond to God’s presence in his life by writing songs and poems to the Lord. It would also have been in those times that David learned to come to know the voice of the Lord, long before he would be released into his kingly calling.

Long before God chose to use Samuel to bridge the divide between the leadership of the prophets and the time when God would anoint kings to rule Israel, the prophet first spent years in training under the priest Eli. Here he was trained in the word and in the spiritual discipline of waiting and listening to the voice of God. (1 Sam 3:1-10)

We read in the word of God,

Those who seek the Lord will find Him, when they seek Him with all their heart. (Jer 29:13) ……..

Learning to hear the voice of God as David and Samuel and Jesus did cannot be taught, it can only be experienced. As the word itself suggests, to experience God is to live out such moments in the presence of the Lord, in person.

The Spirit of Man.

In the beginning the Lord had breathed the spirit of man into Adam and it was that spirit that brought Adam’s flesh to life. This is a truth that is very important to understand. Creation was not simply a spiritual event. Creation was an experience through which life entered into mankind for the first time. In Paul’s letter to the Romans we read, ……

The Spirit of the Lord bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. (Rom 8:16)

By the words of Paul we can clearly see that the Spirit of God is not to be confused with the spirit of man. In scripture when the Spirit of God is being referred to there will always be a capital ‘S’ to identify it. When the spirit of man is being referred to however, we are able to distinguish it because it will always have a small ‘s’ in the English language.

Returning to the act of creation in Genesis, it is important that we understand that it was the spirit of man that was breathed into man, and it was that spirit that brought his flesh to life. We can deduce this from many other scriptures in the bible but particularly in the New Testament where we know that Jesus told his disciples to go and wait until the Holy Spirit came upon them in Acts 1:4. You see until Jesus sent the Holy Spirit when he returned to heaven to be with his heavenly Father once more, mankind did not have the Holy Spirit. From that truth we are able to deduce that the spirit being breathed in to Adam in the beginning must be other than the Spirit of God.

We are told in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonian church in 5:23 that mankind is created body spirit and soul. Since we know that the Holy Spirit does not come into us until Jesus sends it after he ascends to be with the father, then we can deduce that the spirit in us can only only be the spirit of man spoken of in Romans 8:16.

In the Old Testament, the Lord ministered only to the prophets, priests and kings of Israel. Ordinary people did not have the opportunity to commune with the Lord.

In the garden, Adam and Eve were able to commune with God by means of their own spirit. The function of the spirit of man, apart from bringing life to the flesh, was also to commune with God. However, once mankind was relegated from the garden and separated from God now, he was no longer able to commune with the Lord.

Sin entered the world as a result of the disobedience of Adam and Eve. It was because of their disobedience that they were no longer able to commune with God. This is not just a theological truth, this was the actual experience of the first couple in creation.

Being exiled from Eden meant that the spirit of man no longer had any role to play beyond sustaining life in its fleshly host. It’s secondary role, that being to communicate with God, was no longer a possibility, and so it is as though, from this point forward, the spirit of man within his flesh slept or effectively died. We were now incomplete beings in terms of all that we had been created to be. We were effectively operating at 2/3 of our capacity.

It would not be until after the Lord Jesus would send the Spirit to live in us that mankind could be restored to all that he had been created to be. We continued to be in touch with creation but not with the creator himself. That is why as Christians we refer to the moment that we accept Jesus as our Lord and saviour as a ‘Born Again’ experience. It is although our spirit within us having been effectively dead, has now been brought back to life by the presence of the Spirit of God which has now come in to us.

When we talk about being ‘Born Again’, we often want to relegate the experience to the realm of the mystical. However, as I am able to testify in my own life, being born again was not only a supernatural happening but it is also very much a real fleshly experience and one would help every believer to better understand the nature of their faith and our relationship with God.

The Function of the Soul.

When the Lord breathed the breath of life into man in the form of the spirit of man, not only was the flesh brought to life but our soul came into being also. From the moment that our conscious awareness comes into being, our soul is born. Now we are made three in one body spirit and soul.

At this point it is necessary of us to understand the role of our soul. Our soul is comprised of our will, our intellect which is our intelligence and our emotions. These are the things that make up our personality and so the soul is the place where our personality resides.

Since our spirit is sleeping and without the ability to commune with God any longer, it is our soulish nature guided by our will that takes charge of our being. Our soul is the center of our feelings and our awareness, and these functions inform our will of all that we desire so that our body may carry out the instructions it receives from our soulish nature.

Our soul has a voice. And it is the voice of our soulish nature this is the only voice we hear from the moment we are born until the moment we are ‘Born Again’ in our spirit. The voice inside us telling us to do this or go there or taste this or desire that is the voice of our soulish nature and until we become born again it is the only voice that is speaking to us.

The one exception belongs to those who are involved in the dark arts. Until we are born again, we have only one voice speaking to us, however the moment we are born again, we discover that we have a second voice now eager to get our attention.

The Nature of the Battle within.

In the book of Romans, in Chapter 7:15, we read the Apostle Paul describe what is going on inside himself. This description is not something that was written by C.S. Lewis as he went about the work of describing the fictional Narnia. Not at all, what you are reading in this letter to the Roman believers are the actual experiences of Paul as he discovers that a battle is raging within himself.

What I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do (15)…. For the good that I will to do, I do not do, but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. (19) (Rom 7)

Paul, just like you and I, was describing his own very real experiences. He was not reading a fantasy novel and so we need to understand that in life we actually experience the fact that he had become aware of the battle that was going on within. The moment the spirit man in us comes alive having been joined with the Spirit of God, it begins to communicate with God and as it does, what it discerns it then begins to communicates with our soul.

Just like the disciples, we have been born again but Jesus informs them now they need to wait until they receive the promised gift of the Holy spirit to come in. It is as though it is a second infusion of the spirit that will bring with it the power of God to enable us go into battle with the enemies of God fully equipped. Jesus said,

Go and wait until the Holy spirit comes upon you in Power (Acts 1;8)

Up to this point our soulish nature has had it all its own way. It has been able to choose the things of the world and the things of the flesh. It was able to choose to have illicit sex, steal money, use drugs, or chase after power and wealth. It has been used to going after all the things of this world but now, all of a sudden, it begins to hear another voice. It begins to hear the voice of the spirit in us that perhaps there is a better way.

When the Apostle Paul spoke of a battle, too often we have imagined a spiritual battle that is unseeable and while it may be it also a battle that is taking place in our very own flesh, between parts two of our being, the spirit and the soul.

As our spirit begins to hear from God it begins to call upon our soulish nature to submit to our spirit’s leading. Our spirit has begun to ask our soul to listen to this new voice now joined in perfect union with the Spirit of God, ‘S’. Where before we were only aware of one voice, now there are two voices both asking to be heard.

When Samuel heard the voice of God calling him, he was not able to recognize it. we are no different to Samuel. We need to learn how to recognize the voice of God. Up to now we have only had to listen to one voice but suddenly, as Born Again believers, the voice of our spirit has joined in on the experience of life and it is asking us to recognize his voice.

The Spiritual Process in Terms of Life Experience.

We began in the book of Romans where we discovered that the Spirit of God ministers to the spirit of man so that we understand that we are God’s children. As we continue to read Paul’s thoughts in his letter, we discover a declaration made by Paul that helps us to recognize the Holy Spirit’s purpose in bringing us this teaching. The Born Again experience is designed to renew not just our spirit but our soul also. As has been mentioned God always works from the inside out and in chapter 12 of Romans, Paul declares,

We (our soulish natures) are not (any longer) to be conformed to the patterns of this world, instead, we are to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So that we prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2)

We discover that the purpose of the Spirit of God coming to live in us has been to join with our spirit so that our spirit can lead us to discover the good and acceptable and perfect will of God for our lives. Our spirit is made perfect now that it is joined with the Spirit of God. It is the only part of us that is made perfect for we know that our body will be replaced with a different body when we go to be with the Lord and our soul also, when we go to be with the Lord will also be made perfect at that time.

The Experience of Life.

As we learn to live in the new, Born Again experience of our human condition, we discover, just as Paul declared, that

We need no longer conform to the pattern of this world. (Romans 12:2)

Paul is encouraging the believers to discover that there is a better way. To this point in our human experience has been the only truth revealed to our soulish nature. It has been the truth discovered by my intellect as I have engaged with this world and as I lived life according to the only patterns that have been available to me.

By sending us the Spirit of God to live in us now, Jesus provided us with the way to no longer have to conform to the patterns of this world which will eventually lead us to spiritual death. Finally we have been given the means by way of the Spirit now living in us to have our soulish nature transformed and our minds renewed. What a gift the Holy Spirit is.

As our soulish nature begins to recognize the messages that our spirit man is sending, it awakens to the fact that it no longer needs to conform to old ways and the old patterns of being. Another choice exists, and as we learn to follow the leaning our spirit instead of our soul, transformation begins to take place as our minds begin to be renewed. Our soul is quite literally being transformed by the renewing of our minds just as Paul had said and that has only come about as a result of the new patterns being provided by the spirit as it is being allowed to direct to my soul.

Everything that I have just described works its way out in every one of our lives as new born again believers but so few of us have comes into the truth of this reality. Being Born Again is an actual experience that works itself out in the 3 parts of our being. It is not just spirit speak. Our soulish nature is being changed by our spirit nature and it brings about transformation at the very most basic parts of our being Paul’s words that painted the picture of a spiritual battle have for too many sounded like nothing more than a theological construct but as we become enlightened in our minds as well as our spirit we can begin to recognize that what Paul is referring to actually takes the form a life experience worked out among the three individual parts of our being.

It is only as our spirit man begins to instruct our soulish nature and one voice begins to communicate with the other that another pattern, a different way, begins to emerge as an option to the only pattern that we have ever known. This new pattern forms in us new spiritual patterns providing us with the means of being transformed from the inside out.

We are quite literally being renewed.

All that I have shared has since creation been the way of our experience, but for most we been unable to recognize the connection between the words and our actual life experience. We have received the process as theological guidance without understanding how it actually translates into the workings of our everyday lives.

In my own life I have discovered that the battle of the wills between my soul and my spirit does not need to remain a battle. The struggle between the two does get easier as my soul begins to will itself to defer to my spirit man. The older I get I find the more conformed to the will of my spirit my soulish nature is willing to become as my spirit man provides me with guidance to be able to understand the things of God in my life.

Returning where we Began.

It is so important that we discover who it is we have been created to be. It is as we discover how we are made that we can begin to better navigate the way ahead. We are going to be faced with choices, and like Paul we will discover there seems to be an internal struggle going on. As we learn to discern the nature of the struggle our spirit is going to be better able to communicate intelligently with our soul so that our fleshly nature will being to conform because our minds are being renewed. Our spirit by informing our minds is paving the way for the soul to choose to submit to our spirit so that the battle begins to be won.

Just as the Great Apostle Paul wrote

Thank God for Jesus …. [who sent us the spirit to guide us]. ( Rom 7:25)

What we have discussed today is not a concept It is a reality that too few believers have ever been challenged to understand. As Pastors and leaders surely our role must be to share this truth with as many as are willing to hear so that as we do we fulfill our calling to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.