Sensual Faith: Oh, God, You Make Me Feel Sooo Good! | Christian Forums
Blaspheming the Spirit.
In a growing section of the evangelical Christian community, the pursuit of a sensual experience of God has led to a kind of blasphemy against the Spirit. In an effort to “experience God,” many believers today are chasing after tingles, warm sensations, and electrical pulses that run over and through them. They cheer at fog (aka “glory clouds”) coming out of air vents, and gasp at gold dust and feathers falling from above. “This is the Spirit of God!” they say. But when they are pressed to explain how they know this, the answer is ultimately “I just know! And if you knew the Spirit like I do, you would, too!” Thus, without good grounds, believers assign to the Holy Spirit experiences and actions to which they cannot adequately connect him. It may well be that he is not involved at all in the things they are feeling and experiencing and so to say that he is amounts to lying about the Spirit which is tantamount to blasphemy.
The apostle James warned of the “wisdom that is not from above” (
James 3:15), describing it, among other things, as “sensual,” that is, oriented on what appeals to our physical senses and our emotions. We are fundamentally sensual creatures, interacting with reality in large part through our physical senses. When we are confronted with interacting with God, who is a Spirit and not accessible to our senses like the material reality in which we constantly move, we may begin to try to force an experience of Him that conforms to our natural sensuality. But when we do this, we corrupt and diminish the
spiritual nature of our fellowship with God and open ourselves to demonic deception. So it is we are commanded in Scripture:
John 4:23-24 (NKJV)
23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
In the record of Scripture, when God “showed up” He did not resort to fog, feathers and gold dust; He did not confine Himself to trivial things like giving people shivers, and tingles, and warm oozies; He did not make them laugh like maniacs, or writhe about in ecstatic prostration. No, when God manifested Himself, He empowered one man to kill a thousand with the jaw-bone of an ass, the wicked were swallowed alive by the earth, cities were destroyed by heavenly fire, seas were parted, mountain tops were clouded in thunder and lightning, and the dead were raised to life! How is it, then, that the expectations of modern believers of God have grown so small? How is it that so many have settled for a momentary shiver instead of fire from heaven? How is that believers enthuse over gold dust from air vents instead of the conviction of the Holy Spirit driving them to their knees in deep and full confession of, and repentance from, their sins? How is it that when a person claims God is manifesting Himself in these trivial ways, so many are eager to believe it without skepticism? This is where a sensual pursuit of God leads people: Grasping for anything that might provide a sensual experience of God, however silly and trite.
Matthew 12:38-39 (NKJV)
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You."
39 But He (Jesus) answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Satan is the Great Counterfeiter. At every turn he is looking to deceive believers with false facsimiles of God's truth, presence and power. He comes to us as an angel of light (
2 Corinthians 11:14), offering us half or twisted truths, and/or outright lies made to look like “good sense.” If we aren't “sober and vigilant,” as Scripture warns us to be (
1 Peter 5:8), we will soon fall prey to his deceptions. So, it is that we must have more than “I just know!” as a basis for our claims that the Spirit is at work. If we say, “These shivers are the Holy Spirit!” we must be able to prove it; if we say, “This healing is by the Spirit's will and power!” we must be able to show that it really is; if we say, “This vision is from the Spirit!” we had better be able to fully justify our claim. When believers get in the habit of making unfounded, unproved and unprovable claims about the work of the Spirit, they run the very great risk of falling under false beliefs and the destructive manipulations of the devil.