I’d be very suspicious of such visitations/manifestations. Satan can manifest himself as an angel of light. That’s why salvation is by faith, not by feelings or by any “visitations.”
Which is not to say that the Spirit cannot manifest Himself in such a way. Only that one should cling to Jesus as salvation, and not some experience that “everything will be fine from here on out.”
Which is why we have 1 John Chapter 4 as the ultimate test of what these spirits may presume to be, teach, or pretend to impart loving joy!
and not some experience that “everything will be fine from here on out.”
One thing I experience is not always a constant Joy(as in mountain top experience) but even when things aren’t so “joyful” there is a kind of buoyancy I sense and other more wiser men of the faith talk about. In despairing, I don’t fall into total hopelessness, in wishing to be unkind, I’m not allowed to fully express it, in being hurt I find myself blunting the hurt I might have returned. I might express anger, but I’m not allowed to fall into sin or if I do I find myself very remorseful and wanting forgiveness. These are some of the unsung fruits of the Spirit, the gritty not so pretty things the Holy Spirit does in our hearts. We are enabled to stand in the day of trouble, and above all to stand!
Then there are the times of refreshing, the visitations, the joyful spiritual songs and wordless joys that arise like frothy artesian springs from our bellies as Christ stated in John 7:38.
There are the sudden illuminations when God finally imparts the meaning to you over a piece of scripture you might have puzzled over. These illuminations can be almost so mentally blinding that one drops the Bible in astonishment at what God has wrought in fashioning so great a salvation.
One such illumination came to me was of the reading of Abraham’s near sacrifice of his only son on Mount Moriah...when God acted at the last instant to stop the sacrifice, providing instead a Ram, entangled in a briar. Thinking of Christ, dying on the cross with a crown of THORNS on his head(the Ram caught in a briar THORN BUSH)...the connection between Christ’s sacrifice and the Mount Moriah incident some 2000 years before came to me like a bolt of lightning and I still stagger inwardly. God was already signaling to Abraham, just how he was going to bring salvation to men. Like Abraham offering up his only son who was supposed to further the line of his heirs the Hebrews, God was going to offer up his only “begotten Son” in blood substitution for our own sins. Indeed Abraham, I think,finally began to see it and believed it, rejoicing in it and such faith was credited to him as Christly righteousness.
Agree with you 100%, kevao, but figured if I posted same I’d be crucified....you see the flack I’ve been given over RCC not being the true body of Christ.
But when I read this, I had exactly the same thoughts.
Btw, I did not ping you on my latest post called The Eye of Faith. Have a read.....talk about a man of faith...making all his needs known only to God and letting God provide. Wonderful testimony and witness...his name was George Muller. Have you heard of him? Those Victorian believers really had faith!
The Lord has always spoken to me thru Scripture, and occasionally thru another believer...but the primary way is thru His word. The Charles Stanley sermons, of which I sent you the first, is the best series I have ever heard on how to listen to God.
God bless you,
Jodyel