Quote:
Originally Posted by countmeworthy
Any "experiences of Christ" should only draw us nearer to our Creator that His WILL be done in us.
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The Bible expresses God's will. It points to the person of Jesus Christ, who fully expressed God's will, on Earth, and has been raised to eternal Glory. We look in the Bible and by faith perceive Jesus Christ and endevour to obey, and follow. We become, in effect, disciples of the Jesus revealed therein.
So our actions, our attempts to obey and follow, becomes a behavioral pattern, an experience set. We no longer are hearers but doers of the Word. And the Spirit comes alongside (the Paraclete) because we are unable to match our Savior in full. (At least I am; some may be fully transformed. I don't know). This experience of the 'parousia' of the Holy Spirit, which is an "amen" from the Father, is meant to encourage, enlighten, and somewhat adjust us on the journey. We are thus motivated to press on. The experience of the Spirit overcomes our weakness and darkness and gives us breath to continue.
Now all this I see as somewhat in line with the previous posts by
Igzy and
UntoHim. But I'd like to add another item: the fellowship of the ekklesia, which is essentially a 'group consensus' of what the Word is saying. Otherwise our experiences may fool us, and we become sensory addicts. We'll want visions and bright clouds and voices from heaven. We'll only trust our experiences, which will over-ride and eventually occlude the Word. We'll overly rely on our special 'revelation' which may go alongside the Word for a time, and tolerate it, but ultimately this proprietary revelation will triumph and we'll disregard the Word.
"Your old men will see visions, and your young men will dream dreams"... I think that's good. But our visions and dreams need to be tempered in the church. You don't know how many people I've met who have been driven from the flock by the power of their visions. They are essentially unable to have fellowship, because they'll wave the Bible at you, with their special verses and their special experiences and their special interpretations. They're unable to receive the correction of the flock.
So our experience of the community of faith is also essential. If you don't have anyone around you who can say "no", where will your revelations, and your experiences take you? The Bible is no match for the fallen soul. This was arguably WL's greatest failure: he built a society that simply couldn't tell him "no". And so he and his followers went into the ditch, Bible and all.