When I was 16 years old, the Lord Jesus came into my life and dynamically saved me. I say “dynamically” because it took a definite experience of the Spirit of Christ to snatch me from Satan’s grasp. I was living completely in the world, doing everything possible to find joy and pleasure. The Lord, however, graciously came in and let me experience Himself as the true joy and pleasure. In a matter of a few hours, I felt like a completely different person and was asking the guy who preached the gospel to me questions like “what is happening to me?” and “what do I do now?” I felt as though I had just entered a new world.
My new-founded joy and zeal in the Lord remained for a considerable time. I began reading the Bible and discovered the incredible life of Christ in the Gospels, the stories of the Old Testament saints, and the writings of the New Testament apostles. I distinctly remember reading about David and Goliath for the first time and thinking, “Man, someone really needs to make a movie about this! This is incredible!” My friend groups changed from the partiers to the church-goers. My music choices changed from rap to Chris Tomlin. Everything was changing, and I was on fire for Jesus.
Fickle feelings
However, that feeling quickly faded. My joy and zeal for the Lord lasted for a few months, but I soon entered into the mundane life of a church-going, Bible-reading, cross-wearing Christian. I longed for that fire that began at my regeneration, but settled for simply learning the Bible, memorizing verses, and gaining a seemingly flawless, systematic, Reformed understanding of the Scriptures. Of course, I had the occasional raising of my hands during worship so that others knew I was still zealous.
After about a year into my Christian life, I met someone who was a part of the charismatic movement. He started talking to me about a living God and an experiential Christ. As he shared with me about not only his salvation experience, but his day-to-day experience of the Spirit, I had the registration that he was describing the Spirit that first enlivened me a year prior. I didn’t realize you could experience Him after initial salvation, and I was attracted. My senior year of high school I started going to this charismatic denomination and entered fully in. I kneeled down at my bed every night expecting an audible voice from heaven to tell me who I should text to encourage. I shamelessly raised my hands, clapped, and occasionally lied down on the floor during worship. While I had many emotional roller-coasters and stimulating, “goose bump experiences” as I like to call them, I never truly figured out how to access this Spirit that saved me two years prior.
Discovering my spirit
Then I came to the University of Texas at Austin, and I stumbled into an event called “Ice-Cream Connect” with Christian Students on Campus. Some brothers shared with me about the three parts of man (1 Thes. 5:13), the distinction between the soul and spirit (Heb. 4:12), and the way to experience God. While those who have been with the group for a while may consider these elementary, I took them as the answer to all my questions and longings during the past two years. My experience of Christ prior was His joining Himself to my human spirit at regeneration (Jn. 3:3, 6; 1 Cor. 6:17), but my experiences since were mostly in the mind and emotions, which are a part of the soul (Prov. 2:10; S.S. 1:7).
Some brothers revealed to me that I had a part in my being known as my human spirit (Zech. 12:1), which is where I could contact the indwelling Christ. It was as if I was given a heavenly road map that showed me how to “turn on the switch” and touch the Lord. I’ve since been experiencing Christ in a normal, regular way, learning to take the Lord in as food through the Word (Eph. 6:17-18), calling on His name to taste His riches (Rm. 10:13), and many other spiritual practices.
Learning to experience Christ
We all need to recognize that Christ is very much alive and active today. He is the Spirit, accessible, available, and experiential. We are told by Paul to be imitators of him in seeking to gain this living Christ and know the power of His resurrection (Phil. 3:17, 8, 10). This is not something that we learn all at once, but is rather something that we should seek and strive for the rest of our lives to know and experience. Though it may sound abstract or hyper-spiritual, this is the life that we have been called into! This is the mystery and hope of glory that we have as believers (Col. 1:27). God Himself lives inside of us, and He desires to guide us into all the reality (Jn. 16:13).
So as a conclusion, I implore you all to deeply consider what it means that we have a spirit. It is a wonderful truth that has the power to revolutionize your Christian life and experience. We only need to learn to turn to our spirit, where Christ will make Himself real to us. Lord Jesus, teach us to abide in You!
By: Reese Walling
- How Rich is Your Christ? - June 13, 2017
- Fact, Faith, Feeling - April 13, 2017
- The Experiential Christ - March 2, 2017
Wow. You (and I) were given a road map and now you (and I) are following it. I like your sentence that this is not something all at once but we seek the rest of our lives to know and experience.