We have received…the spirit which is of
God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. — 1 Corinthians 2:12
Reality is Redemption, not my experience of
Redemption; but Redemption has no meaning for me until it speaks the language
of my conscious life. When I am born again, the Spirit of God takes me right
out of myself and my experiences, and identifies me with Jesus Christ. If I am
left with my experiences, my experiences have not been produced by Redemption.
The proof that they are produced by Redemption is that I am led out of myself
all the time; I no longer pay any attention to my experiences as the ground of
Reality, but only to the Reality which produced the experiences. My experiences
are not worth anything unless they keep me at the Source, Jesus Christ.
If you try to dam up the Holy Spirit in you to
produce subjective experiences, you will find that He will burst all bounds and
take you back again to the historic Christ. Never nourish an experience which
has not God as its Source, and faith in God as its result. If you do, your
experience is anti-Christian, no matter what visions you may have had. Is Jesus
Christ Lord of your experiences, or do you try to lord it over Him? Is any
experience dearer to you than your Lord? He must be Lord over you, and you must
not pay attention to any experience over which He is not Lord. There comes a
time when God will make you impatient with your own experience — “I do not care
what I experience; I am sure of Him.”
Be ruthless with yourself if you are given to
talking about the experiences you have had. Faith that is sure of itself is not
faith; faith that is sure of God is the only faith there is.
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