Adrian defends charismatic experience of God
Adrian Warnock has written an excellent defence of the charismatic position, especially against negative comments from the cessationist Dan Phillips. Adrian contends powerfully for "an authentic, experiential, and relational Christianity", and for the legitimacy of charismatic experience of God's presence. He also quotes passages from Piper, Lloyd-Jones and Spurgeon in support of his position.
Here are some extracts, all Adrian's own words:
The desperate need of the hour is a vibrant, living Christianity which worships a God who is not dead, but acts today! ...I have experienced such "moments when heaven seems almost to break in" myself. Indeed something like this was happening at our church worship and prayer meeting last night. Such experiences must not of course be sought for their own sake, and must not be separated from proper biblical understanding. But I too long to "respond with joy and wonder at the manifest presence of our coming king".
For most of the charismatics I know at least, it is NOT mere emotion that we seek; rather we seek an appropriate emotional response to the presence of God, and we seek His activity in our lives and churches to be manifestly present. ...
We must approach the Bible prayerfully, with an open heart, and cry out to the God of the Bible to make Himself plain to us as we read. I seek my experience of God within the context of His revealed Word to us - not outside it. ...
Such knowledge is, of course, only perfected when we see Him face to face, but in the meantime, here on earth, I do believe we can expect moments when heaven seems almost to break in and we respond with joy and wonder at the manifest presence of our coming king.
posted by Peter Kirk @ 11:26:00 pm
4 comments
4 Comments:
Your comments made me think of Acts 4:31:
"After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly."
I can't say I've ever experienced such a dramatic occurence but I'd like to. It is a right and holy desire to yearn for dramatic manifestations of God's presence.
Thanks, Lingamish. I should say that our experience of God on Monday night was not dramatic, but was quiet, indeed strongest in complete silence. I am not the sort who usually finds God in silence, but that night I did. At other times, such as at Momentum (I am still intending to blog about that), I have found him in noisy worship. And on a few occasions, such as perhaps at the conference I went to in June, I have found him in what bordered on the dramatic. God works in many different ways, and we should expect to meet him in many different ways.
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