God, is that you?

iMonk has a very interesting post about subjective spiritual experiences. Here are his twenty (yes twenty) points:

1) Subjective spiritual experience is everywhere in the Bible. It’s an incomplete and distorted Christianity that tries to take away the element of feeling, hearing, sensing, enjoying God and his presence.

2) So the Christian life is a life that believes and trusts in a personal God of objective truth, but this God is experienced.

3) Many Christians automatically make the experience of God a matter of suspicion; often to the point that to say “I felt” or “I sensed….” is to commit the sin of disbelieving and ignoring scripture.

4) Subjective Christian experience is often the critical place where God reveals himself to us, leads us, encourages us and gives us particular directions and assignments.

5) For example, at times in the Bible God revealed himself to individuals through dreams.

6) The argument that God does not give various kinds of subjective experiences today generally depends on the desire to honor the sufficiency of scripture.

7) It is, therefore, important to build into the church a culture that values subjective Christian experience rightly, interprets it correctly, and equips us to minister to one another in ways that honor the work of the Spirit.

8) Crucial to this culture will be inter-relating subjective experience (“God spoke to me through this event”) with scripture (“What does the Bible teach and tell?”), the collected wisdom of the church (“What does the wisdom of church tradition tell us about this kind of experience?”), and the role of spiritual leadership and mentors (“How does a wiser, gifted Christian mentor see this experience?”)

9) The relationship of subjective spiritual experience and human personality is the critical area of study.

10) This awareness of our fallenness does not, however, render subjective experience useless. Abraham was a sinner when God spoke to him.

11) Does this experience validate God and the Gospel as revealed in scripture?

12) Does this experience reveal truth that is validated through reason and the wisdom of others?

13) Does this experience make me more useful in my assignments in God’s Kingdom?

14) Does this experience foster Christian virtues like humility and the despising of sin?

15) Does my critical reasoning ability tell me that such an experience is outside of what the Christian worldview presents as the right interaction between God and the world, and between myself and other persons?

16) Is there any obvious reason to attribute this experience to other factors?

17) It is important for all Christians to remember that subjective Christian experience is a significant part of God’s response to our humanness.

18) An unhelpful emphasis on “hearing God’s voice” as the normal pattern of the Christian life can create havoc in the matrix of Christian experience.

19) A further warned is needed for those leaders who base their leadership upon their own subjective experience.

20) Finally, the subjective experience of Jesus was a sense of the Father’s fellowship and constant love.

Read his whole post where he extends his discussion on these points.