THE CHRISTIAN LIFE: MORE THAN EXPERIENCES

“…There is more to the Christian life than living on experiences. Being born again is an experience. Being healed is an experience. Being baptized in the Holy Spirit is an experience. But if the experience does not open the door to an ongoing process, then we soon fall to earth again – battered, flattened, and often worse than when we made our upward leap.

Conversion – turning your back on a self-centered way of life and allowing Jesus Christ to take control – is an experience. But a man needs more than conversion, he needs salvation, which is an ongoing process. Salvation, in its truest sense, is becoming who we really are. And that process is never complete – at least not here on this earth.

Healing is an experience, and I am grateful that thousands of people are experiencing divine healing in their bodies. I am grateful the healing ministry is once again being recognized by the church as a valid experience. I am grateful that in liturgical and evangelical churches alike, men and women are discovering that one of the purposes of the redemption was not only to save us from sin but to save us from sickness. The same Jesus who healed 2,000 years ago is alive and, through His Holy Spirit, still healing bodies. But while divine healing is an experience, it is not enough. The people of God must move upward to the ongoing process of divine health. And that, like the process of salvation, demands discipline, exercise, determination and the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit.

…The baptism in the Holy Spirit is an experience. For many of us it was an exhilarating, revolutionary experience. It opened our eyes to understand the Bible. It was the instrument which allowed us to call Jesus Lord in all areas of our lives. It brought freedom from the bondage of legalism and set in motion the various charismatic gifts which had laid dormant ever since the Holy Spirit first entered at conversion. But, while the baptism in the Holy Spirit is an experience, the Spirit-controlled life is an ongoing process.”