The Spiritual Experience

When we’re at our dearth we’re most vulnerable to the Spiritual experience. That is my experience. God (whom I believe is the source of all wonder-filled and good spiritual experience) specialises in gifting the low of heart. It’s the compassion of God which occasionally reaches out when we’re at screeching depth.

At his lowest ebb, King David cried out to God and it was revealed to him that, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” –Psalm 51:17 (NIV). He’d fallen into a messy affair and had even disposed of the woman’s husband, and only then had he ‘fessed up’ to God about it, after being accused by a seer, I might add. A godly man, he was forlorn.

As I read a blog post of a valued mentor recently I was reminded of these things. The fact is that when we take the time to do what God blesses, he does so, indeed. The situation was that my friend had taken time out to cleanse and rest his mind and empty his heart on a particularly spiritual day. His soul yearned for the time, and he spent it in a spiritual place.

Often in these situations we’re gifted from above with something, however small, it’s always truly significant. My guide-friend was gifted with a book; all its ideas clear and concise--ready to write... three sittings later the manuscript was finished.

The last significant spiritual experience I had was in a dream that I was woken from (in the natural way).

The dream consisted of one single interaction with an angel-like being--a messenger of God--giving me some important revelatory information about my own life context. The reason I know the dream was a spiritual experience was that I was tested quite subvertly. The angel-like being wouldn’t give me the information I needed unless I qualified to be ready--as it happened, I was ready.

The other reason I knew it was a spiritual experience from God was it involved my relationship with a special person in my life, and how I was interacting with them at the time, and how that needed to improve.

I got a vision; indeed it was a film clip. I was given enough to understand and then the angel-like being sought to clarify that I understood; the moment I acknowledged “yes,” I woke up.

I wasn’t at my depths at the conscious level, but the incisiveness of God knows what’s beneath our conscious states and he cuts through to the spirit. Only afterwards did I acknowledge that my handling of this relationship was causing me much concern. At a deeper level I was in anguish.

When I woke after the dream, it was about 2 A.M. I got up and quickly scribbled the vision down on seven A6 notepad pages, re-read it to ensure the appropriate detail was there, and then I went back to bed.

What amazed me most was the personal relevance of this experience. And this agrees with my friend’s experience too. And both confirm my understanding of this personally-relating God of ours, through Jesus (I believe). The apostle Paul was struck down blind on Damascus Road and had the most personal experience of God. “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” said Jesus. Paul went from murderer of Christians to being the chief apostle, overnight!--in one blinding revelation.

Once we are touched by the hand of God--who knows our spirits infinitely--we’re changed and our outlook on life takes on a different, more eternal perspective. He’s reached us and reconciled us to ourselves, and more importantly, he’s reconciled ourselves to him.

Copyright © 2009, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved.