Experiences

Experiences

Experiences are impressions and the lessons we are left with after our life has passed the various moments with God. They are like writings on a scroll that are lodged in our consciousness. The present moment determines the development of our experiences. If we seek the things of God, they will be gold; if we seek the things of man, they will be only hay and straw. Experiences that are like shining lights in life are the times when we have sought and have been blessed with heavenly treasures. All the many intervals are like long shadows in life. However, a faithful soul will stretch the moments of light in life so far that there is no room either for short or long shadows. He sees to it that his meeting with God is not interrupted in order to please man. He stands before God, and the glory that passes his inner eye is so great that everything else that wants to take its place becomes abhorrent to him and is put in the place that God has assigned to it—on the cross.

Experiences for such a soul become realities with which his life is being built. When each stone is placed precisely according to the Master Builder’s will, the building will arise in perfect splendor. Then the experiences will shine as an image of God’s marvelous wisdom, strength, and power. “Make me understand the way of Your precepts; so shall I meditate on Your wondrous works.” Ps. 119:27. It is God’s light over His work in our soul that is so precious to us.

Experiences never come back. Therefore it is never profitable to continue to think about them in order to enjoy them. However, you may eat the sacrifice of a thanksgiving offering on the same day it is offered, and on the next day. But if anything remains on the third day, it shall be burned in the fire. If it is eaten on the third day, it is an abomination. It is not acceptable. Lev. 19:6-7. Every believer can experience the truth of this in his life. For example, what we have experienced yesterday can also rejoice the heart today; but if we continue to enjoy these things, they will no longer be pleasurable for the inner life. Giving ourselves to old experiences will deprive us of new experiences—that is, new encounters with God. We shall not live by what we have experienced; nevertheless, we have lived our experiences. Therefore we shall not despise experiences, as some people do, for they have been meetings with God. People often fume against an object that is being misused; yet it is not the object that is at fault, but rather the misuse of it, which you don’t find in the object but in people’s hearts. Everything has its rightful place if it is used in purity.

If you have come away from that intimate communion with God in prayer, you like to think back to your latest experiences, and you will then seek to revert to that state in order to seek God. Your inclination is to improve your spiritual life so that you may again be able to enter into the depths of prayer. You are seeking to revert to a previously familiar state and expression, but all your striving does not get you there because you will not find God in an old experience. Precisely where you are, without changing and without doing the least little bit yourself, you can draw near through Jesus’ blood (not by your own striving). The word is near you—in your mouth and in your heart—the word of faith. We don’t have to go to any other place to find Christ, whether it be familiar feelings or old experiences.

Speaking too much about experiences is not profitable, for then you are inclined to press others into the same mold where you were at the time. Give them instead that which has produced the experiences and the truth that was disclosed by what you have experienced. Then those who hear you will rejoice in the truth that you have revealed; then it will become their experience.

Experiences also make a deep impression on our feelings, but when we relate them on the basis of our feelings, they lose the usefulness they should have had. Feelings are an expression of our spiritual taste of what we have experienced. However, no one is sated by being served taste; rather give that which has refreshed your soul, and others will rejoice together with you.