We won’t last long as Christians without experiencing the love and reality of Christ. If our souls begin to become barren in spiritual pleasures, then we’ll automatically find ourselves going to worldly pleasures in order for our souls to survive. Spiritual experiences are not an extra add-on to our sanctification; they’re essential to our sanctification.
The excerpt is taken from the full sermon, “Experiential Christianity“.
A.W. Tozer warns in saying, “We Christians are in real danger of losing God amid the wonders of His Word. We have almost forgotten that God is a Person, and as such can be relationally cultivated as any person can be.” In Ephesians 3, we have the Apostle Paul telling the church that he is praying for them. That what? They would have the strength to know, to comprehend, to grasp, to understand, to acknowledge the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. Surpasses knowledge. Yes, it is a love to be experienced as much as it is a love to be understood. So please, brethren, do not fear what you should not live without. John Flavel, the English Puritan, speaking of Romans 5:5, he said this, “Ecstasy and delight are essential to the believer’s soul, and they promote the believer’s sanctification. We were not meant to live without spiritual exhilaration. And the Christian who goes for a long time without the experience of heart-warming will soon find himself tempted to have his emotions satisfied from earthly things and not as he ought from the Spirit of God.” He goes on to say, “The soul is so constituted that it craves fulfillment from things outside itself and will embrace earthly joys for satisfaction when it cannot reach the spiritual ones. The believer then is in spiritual danger if he allows himself to go for any length of time without tasting of the love of Christ and savoring the felt comforts of a Savior’s presence.” That is quite the statement and warning. Did you hear him? When was the last time, brothers and sisters, that you laid there in bed at night and your thoughts began to muse upon the love of Jesus Christ for you? And you began to think as Paul was thinking in Galatians 2:20 that that’s my Savior who loved me and gave Himself for me. And there in the dark of the night you began to be stirred. You got a little emotional, and you began to be overwhelmed at the notion: why me, God? Why me? And there you lay relishing, delighting in the love of Jesus Christ for you. When was the last time?
