My alarm was going off one morning. It woke me up enough for me to turn it off but not get me out of bed. I went back to sleep dreaming I was getting ready to go to work. I don’t recall what finally jarred me enough to really wake me up! I was then in shock because I thought I was ready to go to work but I had not yet experienced getting ready.
A story was told of a woman who spent a great 30 minutes each day vicariously watching physical exercises on YouTube. After 30 minutes, she would crawl into bed. When asked about her exercise program, she would tell what she knew about a physical workout. However, her physical body betrayed a serious disconnect between her knowledge and experience of it.
I am fascinated when listening to people talk about their faith journey with God. Most interesting is how the Holy Spirit uses such a wide variety of ways to move people forward in their spiritual journey. I can reduce their storylines to two types determined by one’s personality. They either came to know God through what they had heard or read, or from one or more experience.
Two classic books that draw attention to these differences are Knowing God by J. I. Packer and Experiencing God by Henry and Richard Blackaby and Claude King. Both present excellent biblical truths. However, since knowing and experiencing can be significantly different, it raises the question, is salvation knowledge based or experientially based?
Paul wrote, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV) This means depending only upon such things as reason, investigation, research, analysis, and comparison to learn God’s ways is folly. However, it also says when the Holy Spirit experientially illuminates the scripture (spiritually discerns); it teaches profound, spiritual lessons. He also wrote until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13, ESV). Reading the Bible is to be a spiritual exercise that engages the heart and head. It is the total person coming into alignment with the Holy Spirit, not a separatist brain figuring out the problems of the text. Humanity cries for understanding, but there is no understanding apart from divine illumination, and no divine illumination without the Spirit. When He reveals truth, the Bible becomes stunningly relevant. Personal revelation makes the Bible as relevant as if my problem just now came to God’s attention.
The prophet Jeremiah wrote of God’s word, When I discovered your words, I devoured them. They are my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies (Jeremiah 15:16, NLT2). When the Bible is my food, joy, and delight, it means I have gone past the intellectual to the spiritual comprehension of the Bible and have encountered the living, Person. Job wrote, I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread (Job 23:12, NIV). The Psalmist felt similar when he wrote; They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb (Psalm 19:10, NLT2). He also wrote; I have refused to walk on any evil path, so that I may remain obedient to your word. I haven’t turned away from your regulations, for you have taught me well. How sweet your words taste to me; they are sweeter than honey (Psalm 119:101-103, NLT2).
If your faith journey has not continued to be life-changing, your greatest sense of significance and joy is still ahead. These rewards increase as you seek to know God as you do your best friend.