Ever have a “Mountain Top” experience?
“What’s a ‘Mountain Top’ experience,” you ask.
It may vary according to specific individuals. But there is a common thread. Some may describe such an experience as spiritual re-empowerment or re-invigoration, or as spiritual enlightenment, a dazzling moment of inner spiritual awareness. Others may describe it as an unusual enabling to suddenly hear and obey God, to follow and do, according to God’s leading. Still, others may experience it as comforting reassurance that God is present in one’s life; a reminder of God’s enduring love for one’s person, a needed sense of God’s unconditional love re-affirmed. And for others it may be a renewed sense of vision and purpose, an eye-opening jolt of clarity as to life’s direction and calling. And others may experience it as a strengthening of faith, or as an expansion of hope, and still others may experience it as a call to repentance and/or self-sacrifice. We could go on.
It’s a kind of spiritual high; personal contact with the Divine; a touch of God upon one’s life, an eye-opener to the things of the Spirit, a transformation of the heart, a spark of light upon one’s soul. It can be described as a moment of spiritual clarity, a re-centering of SELF, leading to an acute refocus toward God’s presence, power, and purpose for one’s life. It is transformative in its impact, often refreshing and renewing, and purifying and cleansing to one’s inner being.
Many eagerly seek for such an experience from God, finding it only after much travail of heart and earnest prayer. The irony is that some have had such an experience without ever having sought after it. For them it just happened, unsolicited, unsought for, and even uninvited; but, boom! There it was. They were hit.
A Mountain Top experience can also be likened to a computer’s reset button. When a computer gets overloaded and too many programs are up and running and too many commands are in its command-center queue, the computer freezes and there’s nothing left to do but hit the reset button. Start Fresh! Sometimes we need a Life-Reset button. A Mountain Top experience can be just the thing.
Interestingly enough, of those who have testified to having had such an experience, in the history of humanity, not all would claim that they were the religious type. Some would even claim to have been anti-religious. Still, they would not deny the experience.
So, what is the evidence that such an experience is real and genuine?
I would submit to you that it is not in whether or not the person immediately afterwards joined this or that church or became a “religious” convert to this or that denomination, or submitted to this or that religious institution. No, I submit to you that the evidence is in whether or not the person became more human in the best sense of the term. That is, did the person become more kind and compassionate, more merciful and gracious, more just and righteous, and more loving. Or, being a Christian, I’d put it this way: did the person become more like Christ?
There is a difference between becoming more spiritual as opposed to becoming more religious. It’s fairly easy to define what we mean by “religious.” What is more difficult to define or describe is what it means to be spiritual. So what is the real evidence of a spirit-driven life, that is, a God centered life or a holy life?
One could answer by saying that it is when the presence of God is obvious, where the work of God is evident and the hand of God upon that person’s life is certain. But that still begs the question. What precisely is that evidence of God’s hand upon that person’s life and God’s work in that person’s heart?
Is it evidenced in that person’s power, prestige, and honor? Or is it evidence in the person’s wisdom and knowledge and insight? Is it evidence in the person’s range of influence and impact in society for good? Perhaps it is evidence by the person’s good living by engaging in personal self-denial and abstinence from certain indulgences? Yes, these may be signs, but these do not constitute the real substance and evidence that it is God that is at the center of that person’s life. So what is?
The Apostle Paul gives us the answer in the 13th chapter of his first letter to the Christians in Corinth. There he says things like, if I could speak in a multitude of languages, or in the language of heaven, but do not have love, I am nothing but a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Or, if I had great prophetic powers so as to proclaim God’s mighty Word with great authority, but have not love, I am nothing. Or, if I understood all of God’s mysteries and had all knowledge, but had not love, I am nothing.
Thus, a holy, spirit-driven life is not demonstrated by the naked show of spirit-power such as the moving of mountains, or the raising of the dead or the healing of the sick in and of itself. Rather, a true demonstration of ongoing spiritual connectedness with God, God centeredness, or spiritual enlightenment, is living a life that is responsive with love.
Today we are constantly being called upon to takes sides out of anger and disgust. We are to villainize, condemn, and ostracize anyone that is not with us. We are to be wrathful and hateful of the opposing side, whatever the cause may be. People are drawing lines, staking out their territory and their positions. We are to classify and categorize: these are the in’s and those are the outs. These are for us, those are against us. They are our enemies. In short, there is little place for compassion and mercy, no offering of grace, and no room for redemptive love.
Yet, in fact, the greatest evidence of the work of the Spirit of God within a person’s life is whether or not that person is becoming more and more like Jesus Christ, more Christ like. And what does it mean to be like Christ? It means being a person that is full of loving kindness and merciful compassion, ready to offer redeeming grace toward anyone, even one’s enemies.
So, yes. There is a great difference between religion and spirituality. But true spirituality is not what we think it is, unless it is rooted and empowered by God’s love and grace.
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