It’s been a few years since I left the Charismatic movement. Since doing so it hasn’t been uncommon to be judged as legalistic, religious or a Pharisee who pays too much attention to head knowledge at the expense of being sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. That is, I’m trusting too much in the natural and resisting the spiritual. What’s interesting, however, is this can be flipped on its head.
When in the Charismatic movement I would be taught to seek healings, visions, dreams and hunger for greater intimacy with God through ecstatic worship concerts. Success in achieving such intimacy would be gauged by how I felt. However, I now learn to trust in the written word of God despite my feelings. To trust in what He has done and continues to do regardless of emotion. So, with this in mind, who’s truly depending on the natural, and who’s depending on the spiritual? Are you trusting in what you experience or what God has spoken?
Feelings are good. They are, in the words of Greg Koukl, “What makes life delicious”. But, to trust in them and use them as a gauge for the working out of one’s walk with God is a certain recipe for confusion and spiritual derailment. To be truly spiritual we must know the truth of what God has actually revealed to us in His written word.
Blessings,
Bevin