The Spiritual Experience

1 John 2:4-6 Whoever says, "I have come to know him," but does not obey his commandments,
is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist;
but whoever obeys his word,
truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection.
By this we may be sure that we are in him:
whoever says, "I abide in him," ought to walk just as he walked.

All humans are potentially spiritual beings. "Spiritual" necessarily refers to the entire person engaging the dynamic and contiguous presence of God. The problem is that none, not one, of us can always be selfless and God-focused all of the time we all fall short of His glory. This means that a spiritual experience, however spontaneous or temporal is necessarily a small component of a life long 'process.'Thus, acknowledging and conscientiously respecting God's presence can be understood in terms of degrees of intensity and duration. That means that when I am "prayed up" and acting according to God's will and in reverence to His presence and glory, however I feel or think, I am having a spiritual experience! When I am not, I am normally either sinning or headed that way quickly. The goal of the spiritual experience is to sustain a prolonged righteous relationship with God saturated in His love and our selflessness for the sake of loving God and loving our fellow man.

I have proposed that a heightened sense of God's presence is primarily a process of maturation for the individual to the end of advancing His agenda. Because of some phenomenal experiences, spiritual experience has often been confused with another term, "epiphany." These windows into God's reality are subjective in nature we just can't fully explain it. Their essence and meaning are often ascertained long afterwards, often with its significance fluctuating dependent on adapted relevance and amended significance. That is the point; that even an epiphany serves the spiritual process of bringing the recipient into a righteous spiritual relationship as well as with the Christian community of faith.

Unfortunately, some people have no capacity to perceive things other than that of the profane, while others have "matured" to varying degrees of insight. In Scripture, the term "spiritual" can also refer to wicked entities that may give 'anti-spiritual' experiences which serve as a insidious compost heap inducing long term retrogression in the recipient's spiritual well-being. For this very reason, we should proceed cautiously with our claims of special insight or supernatural acumen. Examples of misguided charlatans or manipulative religious pundits are diverse and abounding. The playground of spiritual fanaticism is replete with masquerading kooks.

Humans were made to be spiritually mature. The highest state of man is to be a play with the Lord. It is our fuel. We need to take care of our heart and mind, so as to be always at optimum performance. That is a spiritual experience.