Have I really encountered God?
I suspect that there is much confusion, frustration, and just plain ignorance among God’s people when it comes to experiencing our spiritual life. Consider and answer honestly for yourself the following questions: Do I know God? Can I say that I have had a true and powerful encounter with the living God? Can I say that I know what it is to walk with God in my daily experience, just as Enoch walked with God so long ago? (Gen 5:22-24). I suspect that many Christians would sense a disturbing lack of certainty on consideration of these questions. I also suspect that many of those who can answer these questions positively with some measure of certainty would also be painfully aware of their own spiritual shallowness.
Whatever the case, and however certain or uncertain you may be about this, let me begin with a word of encouragement. It is both possible and likely that there will be a significant gap between your spiritual experience and your understanding of that spiritual experience. When an infant first opens its eyes, presumably it can make very little sense of what it sees, much less begin to consider the biological complexity of the eye itself. Even with the mind of an adult, the human body is full of mystery. Our spiritual experience is similar to that of the infant in the sense that we may have it without understanding it, particularly if we are young in the faith. Even as we grow, our understanding of spiritual experience will grow slowly, and lack much. In fact, according to 1 John 2:12-14, the deeper experience of “knowing God” is something that comes with spiritual maturity.
The very practical implication of these insights is that we need not necessarily doubt our spiritual experience just because we don’t understand it. When we feel uncertain or unclear in our spiritual walk with God, we need not and should not assume that we are not true believers. True, we are ignorant of much when it comes to understanding spiritual life and the experience of that life. It is likely true that our doubt and spiritual frustration is even rooted in that ignorance. After all, if it is the truth that sets us free (John 8:32), it is lies and ignorance that keeps us in bondage (Hosea 4:6). But in fairness, if we are going to doubt the reality of our spiritual experience, we must surely also doubt the underlying and often unstated questions in our minds that give rise to those doubts. Let me give you an example of what I mean.
A young Christian may have some idea in their head as to what spiritual experience should look and feel like. They think that knowing God and walking with God should feel a certain way. They think that the experience of praying should be a particular way. They may even expect that an encounter with God should transcend all known human experiences in some inexplicable way, as though to know God spiritually is something to be gained that entirely transcends all known human faculties. When their own experience then doesn’t line up with those expectations, the young Christian may be discouraged. They may doubt their spiritual life in Christ, and they may become even more frustrated as they ignorantly pursue some spiritual experience that does not and cannot exist. These doubts are ultimately rooted in lies about what the Christian life should be, and so they must be shown the door, and truth is to be pursued instead.
The base-level problem here then is ignorance itself. Again, in John 8:32 Jesus said: “the truth will set you free.” And so if ignorance is the issue, the question is: what truth do we need to know to begin understanding and growing further in our spiritual life? The foundational truth that we need to grasp is the spiritual nature of God. All spiritual reality begins with God’s spiritual nature. When it comes to considering our own spiritual life, what we’re basically talking about is the issue of knowing God. Really, that’s the whole sum of the spiritual life. And so, because knowing God is an inescapably spiritual activity, and ignorance is the basic problem in our spiritual growth, we must begin with a careful and prayerful study of the spiritual nature of God. This is a key foundation stone for growing up into the knowledge and experience of spiritual maturity.
With all this in mind, I have a very simple application for you this week. I would like to invite you to follow along with me in the coming weeks by committing to read this series of articles on the spiritual nature of God. In our own Belgic Confession, Article 1, our forebears said that God is a spirit. There is so much in that simple statement, and while it may seem academic at first, there is also so much at stake in the personal, day-to-day experience of our spiritual life. Please seriously consider committing to regularly reading these articles in the church newsletter over the course of the coming weeks. For our regular readers (and anyone else up for it!), I want to encourage you to go even a bit deeper still. Here is a link to a lecture by Dr Joel Beeke on the spirituality of God, if you listen, you will benefit! https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=2411113568
Soli Deo Gloria!