Addicted to Experience

deacon blues · #1 10-01-2012, 10:47 AM

If we were honest, some of us Christians get addicted to the highs of "experience" at church on Sunday, and that's what we live for---one mountaintop experience after another. But today Oswald Chamber's "My Utmost for His Highest" devotional really puts experience vs. real life into proper perspective:

Quote:

October 1, 2012
. . . Jesus took . . . them up on a high mountain apart by themselves . . . —Mark 9:2

We have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountain, when we have seen things from God’s perspective and have wanted to stay there. But God will never allow us to stay there. The true test of our spiritual life is in exhibiting the power to descend from the mountain. If we only have the power to go up, something is wrong. It is a wonderful thing to be on the mountain with God, but a person only gets there so that he may later go down and lift up the demon-possessed people in the valley (see Mark 9:14-18). We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life— those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength. Yet our spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mountain. We feel that we could talk and live like perfect angels, if we could only stay on the mountaintop. Those times of exaltation are exceptional and they have their meaning in our life with God, but we must beware to prevent our spiritual selfishness from wanting to make them the only time.

We are inclined to think that everything that happens is to be turned into useful teaching. In actual fact, it is to be turned into something even better than teaching, namely, character. The mountaintop is not meant to teach us anything, it is meant to make us something. There is a terrible trap in always asking, “What’s the use of this experience?” We can never measure spiritual matters in that way. The moments on the mountaintop are rare moments, and they are meant for something in God’s purpose.

AreYouReady? · #2 10-01-2012, 11:07 AM

You know, that's pretty good.

Many people are disappointed when life is not one long mountaintop experience and some discard the walk with Christ because of this.

The true learning experiences are in the valley or through the desert. It's for the perfection of some hardheads like me. It's to help me understand so that I can relate to other people and the problems they go through.

If I had never known what it was like to be hungry...prolonged days without a real meal in my belly, I would not have compassion for those who are hungry.

Mountaintops are for the breath of fresh air. For times of refreshing to go on walking through the valley.

If we going to live for Christ, we must continue to walk wherever He takes us.

After all, living in this world was not a rose garden for our Savior either.

bbyrd009 · #3 10-01-2012, 03:38 PM

Amen. I was recently looking for
what I was supposed to be learning
in a situation, when it dawned that
I was witnessing, just by being
present, I guess. "While you are here,
this will not happen" is a distinct
impression I remember getting; weird
for me, as I don't think of myself as that guy.

jediwill83 · #4 10-02-2012, 04:57 AM

Remember...David found the 5 smooth stones that he used to defeat Goliath in the valley.

AreYouReady? · #5 10-02-2012, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jediwill83

Remember...David found the 5 smooth stones that he used to defeat Goliath in the valley.

Sure...he did...but I don't read where David actually stayed on a mountaintop after that.

bbyrd009 · #6 10-02-2012, 08:28 AM

ha whoa.

bbyrd009 · #7 10-02-2012, 11:10 AM

hmm, defeating a nine foot tall guy,
most would say a monster, prolly,
with a rock, would have to be a mountaintop experience.
Dave did go on to become king of Israel afterward,
even if he did die the sin unto death.

navygoat1998 · #8 10-03-2012, 02:21 PM

I have enclosed this from a book I am currently reading "They Drank from the River and Died in the Wilderness" - David Ravenhill

"We are content to pursue an experience rather than the God behind the experience.
We crave the anointing while forgetting that God's anointing does not automatically result in holiness or true spirituality.
The problem is we seek exposure before people rather than hiddenness before God. We settle for the "charisma" of the moment over the "character" of a displaced walk in in the Spirit.
Charisma will only take us only so far. It is character that will carry us all the way to the finish line."