Supernatural experiences are wonderful, and God guides us by them. So long as one doesn’t go traipsing off after a demon, of course, or one’s own delusions.
But seek them. Paul said in Corinthians to earnestly seek the greater spiritual gifts, one of which was Prophecy. The other gifts include miracles, healing, knowledge, discernment of spirits, etc.
In the Book of Acts, Christians are very frequently encountering God.
I personally have only seen spirits
very rarely, but I have heard God speak to me for years. It is a blessing of incredible proportions, and I firmly believe it is something he desires to have (in different ways, of course, depending on who we’re talking about) with everyone. They are such a deep and wonderful blessing, and the example from scripture is clear. The disciples all had them, and the Early Christians in the Bible had supernatural experiences routinely, though Paul points out that not everyone has the same gifts. He urged the Corinthians to “earnestly seek the greater gifts,” though, and that statement wasn’t just for the Cornithians. It is for us, too.
It is a natural part of the character of God to desire to come as close as possible to us. That’s a big piece of what the Incarnation is about. And the highest fulfillment of humanity on Earth is found in its unity with God. The closer we are to him, the more fulfilled we are.
Spiritual, supernatural experiences with the Lord are a stupendous and glorious part of intimacy between God and man that the Lord longs for with his disciples. He said, “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” “I am with you always” includes today as well as the past, and as well as the future.
An important part of it for me is that Jesus said we should love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, strength and minds. We are also to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Why do we come to love our neighbors? Often because we interact with them over time and get to know them, and so come to love them.
It is the same with God. Before I began to interact with him on a personal basis, to hear his voice and experience his presence for myself, I did not love him with my whole heart. How could I love someone so deeply when I did not even know him? I knew of him, but I didn’t know him. So I prayed that I would, because my faith was falling apart and I needed to know he was real. He proved himself to me, coming to me and transforming my life. Now I love him very deeply, but for me, this love is the natural result of spiritual intimacy.
I’m just saying these things to show what can happen. My family members have direct experiences with the Lord, sense his presence, hear his voice (spiritually), feel his love and see their prayers answered regularly. I strongly believe that the Lord wants everyone to feel his love deeply. When they feel so fully his love for them, they will in turn feel love for him. Spiritual experiences are a doorway through which that intimacy can travel back and forth, just as interacting with neighbors and family members is central to the development of our relationships with them.
Pray for deeper intimacy with God. I pray that
all the time. It is the way that we can come to love God more fully, and that is the way by which we experience his love more fully. That union between man and God is a crucial part of what God did in the Incarnation. We now have unity between man and God, unity created by love and for love, and that is what we can become immersed in through spiritual experiences of various kinds (God works with different people in different ways). But the scripture says, “Ask and you will receive.” Jesus also once said, “Up till now you have not asked for anything- ask, that your joy may be complete.” The best thing to ask for that I know of is a closer relationship with God. Spiritual experiences are a means by which that relationship can become much deeper. Jesus also said, “If you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will God give the Holy Spirit to the one who asks him?”
That is what we should be asking. It’s a prayer that our Savior encouraged people to pray himself, a prayer for the Holy Spirit, the one who descended on Pentecost and consumed the Church with spiritual fire. Praise the Lord!
It’s obvious to me that God would want deep, powerful intimacy with his every one of us. That’s the nature of love. That this intimacy should involve us not only knowing of God, but also knowing God himself, is also a natural, logical part of the nature of love. He wants intimacy with us so badly, and spiritual experiences are an avenue by which that can be achieved. A most glorious avenue, I might add, and one that both Paul and Jesus urged his followers to pursue.
How can it be a bad thing or why should it be an unusual thing for people to have the relationships with God that he longs for them to have? He cares every bit as much about each one of us as he does St. Patrick or St. Peter. He longs for intimacy with each one of us just as much as he desired and desires it with them. It’s not like some Christians are just special. He wants the highest for each one of us, and Peter and Patrick were just more responsive to him than many of us are. They sought him more, so they found him more. So let us seek more, and find more!!!
