Experiencing God II

Did the believers in New Testament churches have an experiential relationship with the Holy Spirit? And if they did, how is it that a whole segment of the church teaches that experiencing the Holy Spirit is not necessary and that the seeking of such experiences is more dangerous than beneficial?

An answer to the second question can be found by observing that the NT epistles talk far more about right doctrine and right conduct than they do about experiences of the Holy Spirit. And the one letter that has the most on experiences of the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians, is dealing more with some of the problems associated with this in the Corinthian church than championing experiences of the Spirit as essential to discipleship. There is a reason why charismatic churches rarely preach from the Epistles while non charismatic churches preach from them often.

But I am persuaded that the epistles do indicate that the NT believers had an experiential relationship with the Holy Spirit that was foundational for their lives. Gordon Fee makes this observation in his study of Paul’s letters, “crucial to the Pauline perspective is the dynamically experienced nature of the coming of the Spirit in the life of the individual and in the ongoing life of the believing community. This view is fully presuppositional for Paul; it finds frequent expression, not as something Paul argues for, but from.” Paul does not teach people that they should have an experiential relationship with the Holy Spirit, he assumes that they already have that.

James Dunn provides an example from Galatians 3 when Paul wants his readers to examine the reality of their relationship with God in Christ. “In Christian tradition it has become customary to think of the gift of the Spirit as a deduction to be drawn from a correct confession or properly administered sacrament. The new church member is in effect given the assurance: ‘You have believed all the right things and/or received the sacrament of baptism and/or laying on of hands; therefore you have received the Spirit, whether you know it or not.’ With Paul it was rather different. He asks the Galatians, not ‘How did you receive baptism? What confession did you make?’ But ‘How was it that you received the Spirit?’ (Gal 3:2). Their reception of the Spirit was something he could refer them to directly, not merely as a deduction from some other primary factor.” And he does this because he assumes that they experienced something real when they received the Spirit.

We see the same thing in 1 John when John writes about assurance and the Holy Spirit. 3:24 And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. and 4:13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. There is no assurance, no knowing, unless John’s readers are confident that they do in fact have the Holy Spirit. John does not elaborate on these verses, explaining that they can have confidence in their possession of the Holy Spirit because they have believed the right doctrine or been baptized. He is relying on their experience of the Holy Spirit in their lives as a reality that gives them assurance.

When Paul writes in Romans 5:5 “and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us”, he is talking about an experience of the Holy Spirit, not a doctrine.

So my conclusion is that the early believers did have an experiential relationship with the Holy Spirit. This was an important testimony to them of the reality of their relationship with God through faith in Christ. And it was an important part of their lives.