There is a strange doctrine taught by some which has gained some vogue in recent decades is the doctrine which warns against “going by experience”. You won’t listen to very many sermons before you’ll hear a warning not to depend on your experience. Is this not exactly what the serpent persuaded Eve to do in the garden of Eden? Did he not say, in effect, “Do not make your decisions based on your experiences with God, but on what I tell you about God”? Is that not exactly what happened? Eve had walked with God on the earth; she had talked with Him; she and Adam had been the beneficiaries of incredible blessings. They had been created in God’s own image, given dominion over an earth of great beauty and peace. They had experienced God’s love and care beyond human expression. But Satan, through a cunning use of words, persuaded her to make a foolish, fatal decision –– based on his lie, rather than what she herself had experienced with God.
“Not go by experience”?!? How can anyone not base his life on experience? What on earth is not an experience? Being taught not to go by experience is itself an experience, and if there is an experience which one should not be led by, it is that one. We all begin our earthly journey as fools (Prov. 22:15). If we don’t learn from experience, we cannot grow. Then why do some men teach against “going by experience”? The answers are simple. They do so because (1) They have experienced no ordination from God and (2) the doctrines they teach cannot be confirmed by experience. Therefore, they tell their followers that (1) God no longer bears anyone witness, if he ever did (i.e., “trust me, not God ”), and (2) experience is an untrustworthy guide (i.e., “trust me, not yourself ”).
In seminary, one of my professors told us, “Brethren, if your doctrine is contrary to the facts, it is time to get a new doctrine.” I thought that was an astute observation, but it is one that seems to be lost to both the liberal and conservative side of the religious spectrum. Left-wing professors of theology deny the reality of the life of the Spirit on philosophical and psychological grounds, ignoring the fact of human experience with the Spirit’s baptism and its consonance with the Biblical record. Right-wing fundamentalists deny the power of the Holy Ghost, ignoring the testimonies of many who have come from their own ranks. Let’s be honest. Both groups of Christians are just too proud to confess their need of a Savior who lives and offers an experience that sets men free from pride. All their erudite, philosophical protestations on one end and Bible-thumping denunciations on the other are “red herrings”, thrown onto the road in order to divert the bloodhounds of conviction.
God has enough precious souls of every economic and social background who have experienced and testified of the power of the holy Ghost that no honest person anywhere can reject it. “Whosoever will” may come if he will humble himself to Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. God is an equal opportunity forgiver.
My dear friend, if you have been blessed by God with the holy Ghost, you need never be ashamed of the wonderful experience you have had. In the kingdom of God, it is a dignified thing to feel the blessings of the holy Ghost, to raise your hands, jump for joy, and “speak with the tongues of men and of angels.” You are blessed by what you have experienced, for all that really matters is that Jesus is pleased with you. What is man, God once asked, “whose breath is in his nostrils! For wherein is he to be accounted of?”
When you take your first step toward the experience of new birth, when you kneel alone and sincerely ask God that first question, the things you will feel will not be the result of a psychological weakness. It will be the result of doing something Jesus has wanted you to do for a long time. And if you continue to follow those feelings, your own experience will teach you that it was the right thing to do.
Those of us who have managed, by God’s grace, to follow His call, are pulling for you.
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