He who has not believed will not experience, and he who has not experienced will not understand; for just as experiencing a thing is better than hearing about it, so knowledge that stems from experience outweighs knowledge derived through hearsay.
~Saint Anselm (c. 1033-1109)
For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
~ Ephesians 1:15-23
There is, beloved, a most powerful proof of G_d for the true believer in Christ. We can feel Him. No, it is not just some sort of warm fuzzy or burning in the bosom… This is a knowing.
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,~ Romans 8:16
But there is something that is backwards from the world’s way of handling a situation like this. We gotta believe before we come to know. It is impossible for us to know until we believe. This writer is in the habit of deferring to experts on important matters. Read the following quote from Aiden Wilson Tozer. This guy was seriously plugged in to the truth.
In natural matters faith follows evidence and is impossible without it, but in the reality of the spirit, faith precedes understanding; it does not follow it. The natural man must know in order to believe; the spiritual man must believe in order to know.
“So,” we say, “that’s nice. What does all of this have to do with me today?”
Everything.
Our faith is not just some academic or intellectual pursuit. Oh surely, a scholarly approach will yield the intended results within the confines of scholarship. The Bible is eminently true. It is historically accurate, incredibly consistent, and sound under any unit or method of measure.
But our faith is not a faith in a book.
Our faith is not a faith in the teachings of person.
Our faith is not a discussion on the various tenets of Christianity.
Our faith is in a Person. The G_d/man, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. It is an intimate friendship with the best Friend one could ever have. It is a Love affair with the Love who made the worlds. It is a surrender to the very Presence of G_d that He might so invade our lives as to kill the old man and a new one be created in Him.
Let’s bring it home a bit here.
This writer is involved in a torrentially beautiful romance with a godly woman. She is his wife by the way…. She is a gorgeous spirit – full of Him, funny, real, transparent, weak, strong, true, sexy, righteous, smart and good. It is a love story written many aeons ago in the great council of our great G_d. And soul mate only begins to describe the feelings of intimacy i am beginning to find with this woman.
How did it happen? How did i get such a great wife? i believed it was possible (by His Grace) to actually experience true intimacy with another human being. And, by the Grace of G_d – so did she. It really is as simple as that.
Can we see it? Believers are filled with His Spirit… and this Spirit is infinitely loving and good. And it is this Spirit who transforms us into His likeness. And as we yield to this truth in belief that He is truly true – the Spirit gains greater access to all parts of our being and transforms them all into the most beautiful humanity possible. And as both partners allow for this to happen – there cannot help but happen a love story of epic proportion! For it is the attractive power of the Love of G_d (this same power that holds the Triune One together) that draws two people together.
Said more simply: We do not seek proof that our friends, lovers, or G_d are wonderful before we will feel love for them. We begin to feel this Love when we begin to believe that the proof will be there – even if we do not yet see it. And there is an amazing thing about belief. It brings about the proof. The power in belief is that it actually engages a synergy between the present and the future and begins to draw them together.
So, if human marriage is merely a shadow of our relationship with Christ – how much more will this power of belief work here? Power source in this relationship in infinite and good, even if we don’t feel it. However, what if we simply began to trust that He is who He says He is and let Him begin to work in our lives? Some of you already know. This writer does. His wife does. We begin to actually experience G_d. We no longer think we know. We no longer even simply believe.
We know.
Come tonight beloved. Believe that you might know, and know that you might experience Him fully.
I do not believe… I know.
—When asked if he believed in God
~Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961)
