Great quote came in an email:
" Why are so many Christian believers ineffective, anemic, disappointed, discouraged? I think the answer is that we need confirmation within ourselves, and we are not getting it.
I have no doubt that God, in love and grace and mercy, awaits to confirm His presence among those who will truly hunger and thirst after righteousness. For a long while I have been on record insisting that true spiritual experience is conscious awareness, illustrated early in the Old Testament by Abram's personal realization and knowledge of the presence of God.
In the Christian Church, genuine spiritual experience goes back to the apostles---actually back to our Lord Himself. I do not refer to a dream while a person sleeps. I do not refer to something a person has buried in his or her subconsciousness. I refer to a conscious intelligence, an awareness.
The human personality has a right to be consciously aware of a meeting with God. There will be a spiritual confirmation, an inward knowledge or witness.
I repeat: Experience is conscious awareness. This kind of confirmation and witness was taught and treasured by the great souls throughout the ages.
Conscious awareness of the presence of God! I defy any theologian or teacher to take that away from the believing church of Jesus Christ .But be assured they will try. And I refer not just to the liberal teachers. God has given us the Bible for a reason. That reason is so it can lead us to meet God in Jesus Christ in a clear, sharp encounter that will burn on in our hearts forever and ever!
Genuine Christian experience must always include an encounter with God Himself. The spiritual giants of old were those who at so some time became acutely conscious of the presence of God. They maintained that consciousness for the rest of their lives.
(Adapted from Chapter 1 of the book Men Who Met God, published b
by Christian Publications, Inc.)
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