Jason Silver | Pastor & Author
In spite of it quickly becoming more acceptable in some ministries today, the Bible doesn’t tell us anywhere to PRACTICE or to ACTIVATE “seeking” visions, dreams, visitations, or mystical experiences. I am well aware that some of my colleagues and friends are in circles that believe these things. I love you all, but unfortunately, this is one area where I’ll have to completely disagree.
I also take issue with the use of the word/s “mystical or mystic”. They hold too much New Age imagery and connotation. A better and more biblical word would be “spiritual”.
On the popular Got Questions website, the author had this to say, “Are there mystical elements in Christianity? Absolutely. Is it right to desire to live and experience the Christian life, rather than just study it? Absolutely. Every Christian should want to know God personally and have direct communion with Him. No believer is content with just knowing facts about God. The problem is that some mystics would eschew biblical facts about God in favor of their own experience. We must be careful because, if we jettison the facts that God has revealed about Himself in Scripture, we will have no way of knowing if our “direct experience” of God is accurate. The unguided mystic, untethered from Scripture, may have a direct experience of something or someone other than the One True God.”
(Source: GotQuestions.org)
Now to be clear, I don’t always agree with the GotQuestion Author/s view on every matter. But on this point, I concur 100%
This is what it boils down to:
Neither Jesus nor the Apostles taught an outright practice of pursuing these things. We are only told to pursue love, and earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially that of prophesying, as it edifies the Church.
In Acts 2:17 where Luke refers to the former prophecy from Joel it says that, “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.”
It says that they will “see” and “have”. It does not say that they will, “SEEK to see and have”… there’s a big difference.
In other words, the dreams and visions will be a result of God’s sovereign pouring out, and our seeking Him first, not an experience.
Other than Peter’s trance to go to the Gentiles (which he did not seek) and John’s revelation on Patmos, (which he did not seek, but was told to write some things down, yet not all) the only other person we see having a spiritual experience like this in the New Testament is Paul.
2 Corinthians 12:2-4 | “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I know how such a man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows— was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.”
So how did Paul approach his experience?
One: He wouldn’t even admit that it was him who went to the 3rd heaven. Even though the text heavily implies and most scholars believe that he spoke in the third person.
Two: Whether in spirit or body, he did not know.
Three: He said he dared not repeat what he heard and saw. And whether it was him or not, he most certainly never encouraged a practice of others seeking the same experience, and then teaching seminars and writing books on it.
Yet we have many today “teaching” the HOW TO’s of having visitations, visions, and mystical experiences as a practice. I’m sorry, but nowhere in the New Testament are we told to teach on obtaining such things. Because, there lies in these teachings great opportunity for error, if not simply the teachings themselves.
“Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement, the worship of the angels, or taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated (puffed up with pride) without cause by his fleshly mind…” (Colossians 2:18)
And in all of this, many times people under this type of teaching, end up developing little to no interest in hearing the straightforward Word taught, which we ARE told IS to be practiced in the Church. In 1 Timothy 4:13 Paul instructs Timothy, “…devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, and to teaching.” Unfortunately, hearing and learning the Word holds little appeal to those who are seeking mystical experiences. I’ve personally overheard a group congregants complaining that one preacher “Used too much scripture.” Really?
All this being said, I am absolutely not trying to be some “The gifts have ceased!” internet heresy hunter”. In fact, I believe greatly in the power of the Holy Spirit and that His gifts and “enduement with power from on high” are FOR TODAY and should be pursued.
But dreams, visitations, and spiritual experiences are sovereign works of God in the midst of our seeking of Him. You will not find any instruction in the New Testament that these things (in and of themselves) should be pursued, let alone teaching others to do the same.
Seek the Lord first. “Pray at all times.” Get into His Word, until it gets into you! And if you have an experience whilst doing instructed things? Then great! Truly!
Just be careful not to put the cart before the horse.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jason currently pastors New Victory Church in Calgary, Alberta Canada. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology, authored two books, and has been in full-time pastoral ministry for over 18 years. He passionately loves God and people with a heart to see everyone walk out of their full potential in Christ living out the kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
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