As a result of acting on a dream, a woman told me she’d saved several hundred dollars. Then she asked, “That had to be God, didn’t it?”
It certainly might have been. In any case, God certainly allowed the dream. But who can say if He directly caused it?
I do not deny that Christians can have such unexpected experiences with God. In fact, I would affirm that the Holy Spirit stirs up thoughts about God and the things of God in the mind of every believer every day.[1] While riding in the car, the Spirit may cause us to recall something we heard in a sermon, or to think of the return of Jesus, or to pray for our family or a missionary. Our part is to cultivate these Spirit-initiated thoughts—doing so may lead to wonderful experiences with God. Additionally, we may encounter the Lord in prayer or in congregational worship when He grants a sense of His presence that’s almost atmospheric.
These kinds of experiences with God are valid, but by themselves they are unreliable and insufficient. Rather, Scripture-induced meetings with God should have priority in our spirituality. And Scripture alone should be the standard by which all spiritual experiences are evaluated.
Jesus and His apostles didn’t urge people to seek dreams or impressions from God; rather they went about preaching and teaching the Scriptures (see, for example, Mark 1:14-15). Jesus did not say to live by mystical experiences, but rather to “live . . . by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). The apostle Peter taught that God has “granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4, emphasis added).
So as Scripture itself teaches, the main method of meeting God is through Scripture. Through the words of Scripture, the power from Heaven shines a divine and supernatural light into our mind, and ignites a passionate love for God in our heart.
How does this happen? When indwelled by the Holy Spirit, we can hear God speaking through the Bible in ways that spiritually nourish us, encourage us, guide us, and give us hope like no mortal can. We read of “Christ, who is your life” in Colossians 3:4, and while meditating on that our hearts turn to Christ as flowers to the sun. He refreshes our spirit and evokes our thanksgiving and adoration. His love renews our desire to live for Him and speak of Him. This is the sort of spiritual experience we need regularly, and it comes most reliably when we seek Him through the way He has revealed Himself to us—through Scripture.
All other experiences with God that do not begin with Scripture should be informed by and interpreted by Scripture. So when a breathtaking sunset, the sparkle of the stars, the scent of spruce, or the sound of a laughing baby ushers us into communion with God, let us enjoy Him through it to the full. However, everything we learn, affirm, or enjoy about God in that experience—if it is of God—will agree with what He has already revealed about Himself in Scripture. We may sigh at the beauty of the sunset and exclaim, “God is so good!” The statement is true, not because we feel it, but because the Bible says that God is good. Our experiences do not determine whether the Bible is true; rather, the Bible determines whether our experiences are true.
It simplifies the spiritual life to evaluate all spiritual experiences by a single standard—Scripture.
[1] For more on this, see John Owen, “The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded,” The Works of John Owen, vol. 7 (1850-53; reprint, Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1965), 262-497.
