Mystical Experience

[JM]

Have any of you (Reformed and or Calvinistic Christians) had what is considered a mystical experience? How did you, or do you deal with them?

Warfield mentioned in his article on the subject that a mystic is mute because mystical experience is emotional, not conceptual. Do you believe that is accurate?

Yours in the Lord,

jm

 

[brightlights]

I have had what I consider to be a mystical experience. It was prolonged, unique, unusual physical sensation that lasted for a few hours during a time of prayer with another. The best way I can describe it is an intense sensation of pins and needles covering my entire body. Though even this is not accurate because it was different from your typical pins and needles experience and I have never experienced it before or again since.

I don't think it was normal, repeatable, or that anyone should expect this sort of thing. I think God sometimes does things that are out of the ordinary for purposes known only to him.

 

[John Hyperspace]

In my experience "mute" is an accurate description. But both the full spectrum of emotion and profoundly conceptual. Dealing with it? Purely by the grace of God.

 

[RC1970]

Have any of you (Reformed and or Calvinistic Christians) had what is considered a mystical experience? How did you, or do you deal with them?

Warfield mentioned in his article on the subject that a mystic is mute because mystical experience is emotional, not conceptual. Do you believe that is accurate?

Yours in the Lord,

jm

The problem with mystical experiences is that they are understood in different ways. There are different terms that touch on the same issue, but could be thought of as being or not being mystical.

An example would be the concept of "illumination" where the Holy Spirit opens your mind to understand the spiritual concepts in the Bible more so than the average person.

Or, maybe you have an "intuition" about other people and their circumstances that allows you to offer beneficial advice or assistance.

It is possible for the Holy Spirit to give an individual special knowledge for the purpose of advancing the kingdom, however, if the so called mystical experience does not correspond to Biblical truth, then it's not from the Spirit. See 1 John 4:1

 

[JM]

I've had 'mystical experiences' for over 15 years now and for the most part I've ignored them. Maybe I'll explain further one day when time permits.

 

[bsd058]

Have any of you (Reformed and or Calvinistic Christians) had what is considered a mystical experience? How did you, or do you deal with them?

Warfield mentioned in his article on the subject that a mystic is mute because mystical experience is emotional, not conceptual. Do you believe that is accurate?

Yours in the Lord,

jm

I've come to believe that I cannot trust my experiences even more than others cannot trust theirs.

When I was 8 years old I woke up and saw what I perceived to be a devil of some sort. It looked physical. Glowed blue in the dark. Had long ears like a bat. A snout like a pig. And was only a head. It appeared to be laughing at me, but no sounds came out of it. I had to literally rub my eyes because I thought I was dreaming. I rubbed them like 4x before I "realized" this was real (truth is I only thought this was real). So I got up and closed my eyes and ran through it.

Later in life I found out I was bipolar. I cannot know if what I saw was real. So I don't trust my senses when it comes to the supernatural anymore. Just the Bible.

 

[twin1954]

mystic experiences are very emotional and very personal. The problem comes because we are so prone to look to emotional experiences. I get emotional when I "feel" like the spirit has opened up a passage to me. I get emotional when I preach but I do not trust those emotions as the anchor of my faith. The anchor of my faith is the person and work of Christ Jesus the Lord. He is God in the flesh and He if truthful and faithful in all His promises because He cannot go back on His Word. I look to Him and not to what I may have experienced.

 

[JM]

Guys like Isaac Ambrose and J.C. Philpot come to mind when I think of Protestant, Bible believing Christians that have a deep experiential knowledge of God. As some folks have already pointed out, they are personal experiences and really can't be compared to the experience of another. The biggest problem I have with the 'Reformed' view is the emphasis on being rational and logical, excluding experiences of faith when it is clear they happen.

We can't really know our experience of Christ is real if we can't rely on our experience at all...it's self defeating.

Yours in the Lord,

jm

 

[bsd058]

Guys like Isaac Ambrose and J.C. Philpot come to mind when I think of Protestant, Bible believing Christians that have a deep experiential knowledge of God. As some folks have already pointed out, they are personal experiences and really can't be compared to the experience of another. The biggest problem I have with the 'Reformed' view is the emphasis on being rational and logical, excluding experiences of faith when it is clear they happen.

We can't really know our experience of Christ is real if we can't rely on our experience at all...it's self defeating.

Yours in the Lord,

jm

You can experience Christ through the Bible. But consider my situation. I have a mental illness. If I were to take my experience and say that I know it's God or I know it's something else, I'd be denying the fact that I have a faulty/fallen brain. I can't afford to do that. I need to depend solely upon God's word for my experience. Perhaps I'm an outlier, though. Perhaps most people CAN trust their experience. I would disagree though, since we're all fallen and can misinterpret our experiences.

Mind you, my experience of the Holy Spirit is one of conviction and witness that I'm a child of God. But I only know this because he brings me to passages that tell me that the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and the conviction comes when I am disobedient to the word of God. Just as examples.

 

[JM]

You can experience Christ through the Bible.

Amen.

But consider my situation. I have a mental illness. If I were to take my experience and say that I know it's God or I know it's something else, I'd be denying the fact that I have a faulty/fallen brain. I can't afford to do that. I need to depend solely upon God's word for my experience. Perhaps I'm an outlier, though. Perhaps most people CAN trust their experience. I would disagree though, since we're all fallen and can misinterpret our experiences.

Mind you, my experience of the Holy Spirit is one of conviction and witness that I'm a child of God. But I only know this because he brings me to passages that tell me that the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and the conviction comes when I am disobedient to the word of God. Just as examples.

Amen. Better safe than sorry. Stick with the word you'll never go astray.

Yours in the Lord,

jm

 

[JM]

“Mystical” Experience

 

[raschau]

I had an experience quite similar to one described by Richard Rolle: http://plainfieldfriends.com/pdf/RichardRolle.pdf