Christians, have you had a religious or spiritual experience?

[Nihilist Virus]

Title says it all. Please share as much as you're willing.

 

[Tree of Life]

I don't like the terms "spiritual experience" and "religious experience" because they imply that some experiences are spiritual and religious while others are not. From a Christian POV, all of life is spiritual and religious.

Perhaps you can define what you mean when you use these terms so we can better answer the question you're asking.

 

[Southernscotty]

By experience do you mean a feeling? Because a real christian should never go off of feelings alone. The reason is, that the enemy sows seeds of doubt in the mind. If going by the Word of God which is alive, Then yes. I have seen many wonderful things as prayer is answered and people that have no hope whatsoever, Suddenly Realize there is.
I live for these moments when people find Jesus and the love He offere's

 

[Nihilist Virus]

I don't like the terms "spiritual experience" and "religious experience" because they imply that some experiences are spiritual and religious while others are not. From a Christian POV, all of life is spiritual and religious.

Hmm well I never thought that Christians consider morning breakfast a spiritual or religious experience.

Perhaps you can define what you mean when you use these terms so we can better answer the question you're asking.

For example, Peter's vision on the rooftop.

 

[Nihilist Virus]

By experience do you mean a feeling? Because a real christian should never go off of feelings alone. The reason is, that the enemy sows seeds of doubt in the mind. If going by the Word of God which is alive, Then yes. I have seen many wonderful things as prayer is answered and people that have no hope whatsoever, Suddenly Realize there is.
I live for these moments when people find Jesus and the love He offere's

If you consider a feeling to be such an experience then yes. If you think that Satan is interacting with you by influencing your feelings, that should probably count as a spiritual experience. Obviously if you're not comfortable sharing that then don't.

 

[Tree of Life]

Hmm well I never thought that Christians consider morning breakfast a spiritual or religious experience.

It should be. We should receive our breakfast as a gift from God and thank him for giving us taste buds and delicious foods with every bite. Breakfast can be an act of worship and, therefore, a spiritual experience.

I strive (imperfectly) to make every moment of life as spiritual of an experience as possible.

 

[Nihilist Virus]

It should be. We should receive our breakfast as a gift from God and thank him for giving us taste buds and delicious foods with every bite. Breakfast can be an act of worship and, therefore, a spiritual experience.

I strive (imperfectly) to make every moment of life as spiritual of an experience as possible.

OK... how about when you're defecating?

 

[Tree of Life]

OK... how about when you're defecating?

I should thank God that all my holes work. Easy thing to take for granted. Those who have had problems in this area and later recover can more easily recognize the blessing of a healthy digestive system.

 

[Southernscotty]

If you consider a feeling to be such an experience then yes. If you think that Satan is interacting with you by influencing your feelings, that should probably count as a spiritual experience. Obviously if you're not comfortable sharing that then don't.

Oh I am an open book friend :] I have felt satan a lot unfortunately because I have lived a life of sin. Lust, Alcohol and so forth.[Temptation] But by God's grace I overcame and according to the Word of God I am saved because I have accepted Jesus as my sin atonement.
Until then I was most miserable. So do I "feel" God?. Yes and no. I do not have a flash big explosion everyday and the Word of God say's no sign shall be given except the sign of Jonah and that was Christ in the tomb three days and nights as Jonah was in the belly of the big fish.
I do not "need" a feeling to convince me. I know without a doubt :]
Yes I also feel the love of God present inside of me when I see hurting people, I know this because I used to be prideful and greedy and did not care about anyone. Now I care greatly and that is a gift of God. :]

 

[Nihilist Virus]

I should thank God that all my holes work. Easy thing to take for granted. Those who have had problems in this area and later recover can more easily recognize the blessing of a healthy digestive system.

OK. You consider this to be a religious experience... so why did you come to this thread?

I'm genuinely just trying to read testimonies here, not trying to argue or debate.

 

[Nihilist Virus]

Oh I am an open book friend :] I have felt satan a lot unfortunately because I have lived a life of sin. Lust, Alcohol and so forth.[Temptation] But by God's grace I overcame and according to the Word of God I am saved because I have accepted Jesus as my sin atonement.
Until then I was most miserable. So do I "feel" God?. Yes and no. I do not have a flash big explosion everyday and the Word of God say's no sign shall be given except the sign of Jonah and that was Christ in the tomb three days and nights as Jonah was in the belly of the big fish.
I do not "need" a feeling to convince me. I know without a doubt :]
Yes I also feel the love of God present inside of me when I see hurting people, I know this because I used to be prideful and greedy and did not care about anyone. Now I care greatly and that is a gift of God. :]

OK this will be a little off topic but if you don't believe due to a feeling, what is it that makes you believe? Good arguments?

 

[Sabertooth]

Hmm well I never thought that Christians consider morning breakfast a spiritual or religious experience.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:31,
"Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

 

[Tree of Life]

OK. You consider this to be a religious experience... so why did you come to this thread?

I'm genuinely just trying to read testimonies here, not trying to argue or debate.

I thought it was an invitation to share whatever thoughts we have on our religious experiences.

 

[W2L]

I have experience daily.

 

[Nihilist Virus]

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:31,
"Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

Well done, sir. Although I think that's out of context. Paul is not saying that the act of eating is itself spiritual, but rather that foods devoted to other gods can be re-devoted to the Jehovah God.

 

[Southernscotty]

OK this will be a little off topic but if you don't believe due to a feeling, what is it that makes you believe? Good arguments?

Hebrews 4:12. The Word is alive. And by grace, I have faith.
See I am a very simple hillbilly so you will not receive a fancy answer, But I am outdoors a lot. I fish and hunt, so I see the creation and it screams Creator. I always wonder how someone cannot see a loving God in the beauty of creation? God made Himself real to me and so when I hit my knees and cried out for salvation because I was so miserable I wanted to die, God showed me what I had been doing wrong. I had been trusting in self and I could not save self so I gave it to God and He gladly accepted it.
I am now a volunteer pastor of a very small church and I am also visiting chaplain for jails, prisons, and nursing homes. I love to help hurting people and this friend is a gift of love that God gave me. :]

 

[Nihilist Virus]

I thought it was an invitation to share whatever thoughts we have on our religious experiences.

Yes, and I want that, but you are suggesting that everything is a spiritual or religious experience, and you also say you don't like those terms, so here we are doing the dance.

 

[icxn]

Title says it all. Please share as much as you're willing.

I like your avatar; it’s very… spiritual. Six prongs for practical virtue (the practice of God’s commandments). They look like legs, which signify work. That's two positive reasons to give that interpretation. Five threads for natural philosophy (the understanding of the logoi of created beings) - think of the five senses. And twelve spikes on the illumined mind (that's what I take the lamp to be) as a symbol of divine knowledge.

Quote:

Linked to the four cardinal virtues there is a group of eight natural and general virtues. Each cardinal virtue is accompanied by two virtues from the second category, thus composing a triad. Sound understanding is accompanied by spiritual knowledge and wise contemplation; justice by discrimination and compassion; courage by patience and firm resolution; self-restraint by purity and virginity. From the throne of the intellect, in His wisdom God presides like an architect and mystagogue over these twelve virtues divided into triads, and sends out the Logos to create them within us. From their underlying principles the Logos takes the substance of each of the virtues and creates in the soul a numinous noetic world. He places sound understanding in the soul like a star-filled sky from which two great luminaries - divine knowledge and contemplation of spiritual essences - irradiate it with their light. He makes justice its firm foundation, rich like the earth with every kind of sustenance. He puts self-restraint within it as the air, cooling and refreshing it with a life free from all impurity. He sets courage like a sea around the weakness of our nature, enabling us to undermine the strongholds and citadels of the enemy. In thus establishing this world the Logos fills the soul with the power of the Holy Spirit, so as to maintain it in unceasing noetic activity and in indissoluble and enduring unity. As the Psalmist expresses it, 'By the Logos of the Lord are the heavens established, and all their power lies in the Spirit that comes from Him' (Ps. 33:6. LXX). - Nikitas Stithatos, “On Spiritual Knowledge, Love and the Perfection of Living: One Hundred Texts”​

 

[Nihilist Virus]

Hebrews 4:12. The Word is alive. And by grace, I have faith.
See I am a very simple hillbilly so you will not receive a fancy answer, But I am outdoors a lot. I fish and hunt, so I see the creation and it screams Creator. I always wonder how someone cannot see a loving God in the beauty of creation? God made Himself real to me and so when I hit my knees and cried out for salvation because I was so miserable I wanted to die, God showed me what I had been doing wrong. I had been trusting in self and I could not save self so I gave it to God and He gladly accepted it.
I am now a volunteer pastor of a very small church and I am also visiting chaplain for jails, prisons, and nursing homes. I love to help hurting people and this friend is a gift of love that God gave me. :]

I'm confused on what you're saying here. You go and kill animals, either for food or for your own amusement, and doing so makes you see a loving God in the beauty of creation? I have to assume that you find things like trees and sunsets to be beautiful, and that you hunt because you believe God has given you dominion over animals. But that is an inference of mine, so if it's wrong then please clarify. Lastly, I see why you believe in a loving creator God but I don't see how to bridge the gap to arrive at the conclusion that Jesus was the son of God. Any clarification there would be great too, thanks.

 

[com7fy8]

OK... how about when you're defecating?

lolololololol

Def-initely!

I think it can be clear that you mean specific things we have experienced with God. We can be experiencing Him more or less all the time. But there are things which can stand out.

The Bible says,

"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful." (Colossians 3:15)

One can take this to mean that God wants us to constantly experience Him in us ruling us in His own peace. So, yes it could . . . should . . . be all the time.

But I do have specific experiences.

One morning, I was still on my bed and I understood I needed to submit to how our Heavenly Father would rule me in His peace. So, I started working on getting myself to be and feel submissive to God in His peace, but it came to me that I needed how God Himself in me would make me the way He wanted me to be submissive.

So, there I was, knowing I must not do it myself, but this included I needed to not try use my own ability to get God to make me the way He wants. So, I was kind of in a stuck spot.

But I trusted God to do what He wanted, and then I found myself getting more with Him and in flow with Him, and how I was seeing things and relating and caring in His peace.