It’s a great old movie, ‘Harvey’, starring Jimmy Stewart. Stewart plays Elwood P. Dowd, an eccentric whose best friend is a six foot rabbit that talks. Only problem is, Dowd is the only one that can see or hear his friend Harvey. This creates lots of problems for Dowd.
Just imagine if this were possible: Imagine that you had a friend that no one could see; no one else could hear, yet your perception of Him is perfect. How would this make you feel? Among other feelings, I think it would make you feel special, but you would certainly have troubles communicating who and what your friend was.
This, I think, is a great example of ‘faith in Christ’. No matter what I say about Him. No matter how passionate I am in my explanations, it is impossible for me to adequately describe who Jesus is to me. I may say to you, "He told me thus and thus today’. Or, "he is helping me in this way today." Or, "He did something very great in my life." Still you might look at me the same way as if I said that Harvey the six foot rabbit did and said all these things.
Before I go on, let me say that I am not advocating or promoting purely unsubstantiated, subjective experiences. Every religion has it’s esoteric experiences. Voodoo has it’s emotional trances. Mormonism has it’s ‘burning in the bosom’. Pentecostalism has it’s tongues and constant prophetic utterances. All these and and myriad more, claim legitimacy and authoritative proof to validate the “faithful”.
Neither am I saying that ‘all personal experiences are somehow ok and right for the individual. After all, many hear voices that tell them to commit murder. Though, generally, we should not judge others experiences, there are principles which can define what are more likely true and honest, and what might be evil.
What I am saying is, God can give you your own experience and you have to trust it; and I must trust my own!
Check this out, it just adds up:
It’s is impossible for God to lie ( Nu.23:19 )
God said that if you seek Him with your ‘whole’ heart you would find Him. (Prov.2.1-10, Matt.7.7)
Jesus said that God wants us to worship Him is Spirit and in truth. (Jhn.4.24)
The apostle John said that the Spirit of God would lead us into all truth (1 Jhn. 2.27 )
Jesus said that, ‘all that came to Him, he would not cast us out. (Jhn.6.37)
Finally, Jesus said that he would actually live inside us by His Spirit. (Jhn.14.16-17)
Essentially, all religion is subjective; none of it can be scientifically proven to be genuine. This is not to say that all religion is valid; only that God is the one that judges its validity. For instance, human sacrifice in religion is not valid. This is why God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son.
But aside from religion's subjective nature, pure religion - actual faith, must have its source from God. And if the source is from God, I should not have any control over your experience. I may have an opinion about it, but ultimately, your experience is between you and God.
I know with good evidence, that God wants a relationship with His children (us humans), but we do not always want that relationship. We usually come to God with conditions. This is not allowed; but for some reason we think we can bring them. God has a perfect right to make His conditions, which among others are: To give up our life and fall down before and trust Him with our whole heart. ‘How’ this trust plays out is a long story. But I can tell you, not many will actually do it. Usually they hold back and hope that it does not matter.
Here is the problem, there is definitive test where one can tell who these people are- those who actually put their trust in God. I only know who ‘I’ am. And I am not totally cognizant of myself either! But I know that God knows every man intimately. And He said that he would reveal Himself to any man who wants to know Him. So, what this adds up to is, ‘that it matters little what I think of your experience with God’. Nor does it matter what you think of my experience. What matters is- what God see deep down in our heart. Are we trusting Him, or are we trusting some amalgamation of beliefs that our rebellious heart finds more compatible?
The tricky part: Elwood P. Dowd may just have liked being eccentric. He may have invented Harvey just to pacify some need deep in his soul. Though his belief in Harvey made him different, I am certain that it is not God’s intent, just to make us different from the world. His intent is more complicated than that. I have found that my relationship with God does make me different; but here is the huge distinction, Harvey made Dowd different according to Dowd's own propensities, while Christ will make us different according to God’s propensities and His character. This is never easy, and there is a strong part of me that continually fights this change. But change I do, not just outwardly, but actually deep inside. And, by the way, this is one evidence by which I know that my relationship with my invisible friend is genuine - my propensities change and I end up turning against my hedonistic side!
To try to convince anyone of this subjective experience is futile, and a waste of time. The fact is, God does a better job, we only need to ask Him to reveal Himself to us, and if our heart is honest, He will. It is this invisible connection to God which creates another invisible connection to all who have faith in Christ. If we attempt to manipulate this invisible thread to God in others, prematurely, something very real is lost, or at least set aside until actual faith occurs.
“If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself;.....” 1Jhn 5.9-10a
“Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.” Rom.14.22
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I wish I could say, ‘now that we turned to Jesus, all things instantly became perfect’. However, that is far from our actual experience. Unbelievers really glom onto this reality; to them it proves all that Christianity cannot be true.
As it was, as a child, I no solid foundations in my life to help me be the person who could find success.
Have you ever played ‘Pick up sticks’? It’s an old game of large, thick, toothpick type sticks about eight inches long. There’s about 100 of these sticks in the box. You throw them into a mixed up pile. Now you attempt to take out a stick without disrupting the pile. The first person to cause the pile to fall and collapse loses the game. Now imagine your soul as a pile of pick up sticks, randomly stacked together.
Some people have their soul (lives) with very orderly, and almost perfectly stacked (pickups stick) lives. This gives them an integrity and strength that someone like myself never had. Now imagine, as a person grows and develops as a child; there are those who can strategically add ‘pickup sticks’ into your life, arranged in an orderly manner, very much like a truss, thereby giving strength and integrity. As a child grows into a teen, these are critical times for a parent. If the child is expected to be a success, the parent must be careful to ‘add’ Faith, wisdom, knowledge, understanding; and proper concepts of love into their children’s lives. If this, for any reason is not done, the child will remain a child. That is, until that time someone is allowed to deposit these ‘pickup sticks’ into their lives. On the other hand, if we do not have this integrity and strength of character, any kind of shaking can cause this child/adult to fall.