Is It Wrong To Experience God?
I find some of the comments/complaints about the current changes taking place in the church both sad and confusing. One of those is the complaint that the church is becoming too worship focused. In other words, more emphasis is being put on worship or experience than exposition of the Word. Now I’m sure there are places where the service is almost all playing good music and people having fun followed by a short devotional that just scratches the surface. And even that is fine under some circumstances, but if that’s all one is getting, that is a problem. However, the arguments seem to assume any church that is putting an emphasis on experiencing God through worship is creating a grave sin, and I just don’t understand.
Personally, I’ve been a Christian attending and serving in church practically all of my life, but it wasn’t until almost thirty years into my Christianity that I really felt God’s presence. It was through the experience that I truly fell in love with God, that I came to know that God is the god of the universe, that He is real, that He loves me, and that He is all powerful. Experiencing God through the Holy Spirit results in changed lives. Now I ask you, what is wrong with that?
Yes, the preaching of the Word of God is vitally important, but too many churches have put true worship that experiences God on the back burner out of fear someone will get disorderly. The result is very few Christians experiencing God in powerful ways and a world that sees us wasting our time and energy on something insignificant.
from my notebook 