20. I have had a few experiences where I felt an incredible delight, a feeling of being totally with God and unaware of my surroundings, a joy that I can’t explain.
Have you experienced something that resembles the description of provided above?
If so, how did it shape you?
If not, is it something that you would like to experience?
Why do you think God would give this kind of experience to a few but not everyone?
Our spiritual journey is essentially a process of coming to know God. The journey may include experiences in which we know that we have encountered God. These might include hearing God, connecting to Him without words, sensing His presence, feeling His power, experiencing the manifestation of His Spirit and much more.
But there is yet another God experience that some Christians throughout the ages have reported. This experience, sometimes called “ecstasy,” is powerful and supernatural encounter with God. They seem to be overtaken by God; time seems to stop and they feel incredibly loved by God and any sense of separateness from God is lost.
These encounters are never something that a person can make happen—they occur completely at the will of God and always to the surprise of the recipient. Some believe that people can prepare for this by quieting themselves and focusing their thoughts, hearts, and love towards God in a patient and open posture. Others will say that these encounters come at times when people are desperate, vulnerable, and despondent. This experience of God is not something everyone receives, and truly most do not, but nonetheless, it does happen.
The question we need to explore then is, “What role does it play in our journey if we do receive it”? One frequent answer, both from modern and classic writers, is that ecstasy is the ultimate goal of the journey, something we wait for and hope to experience although we understand that it is reserved for the truly advanced journeyers. Some would propose that this “non-dual” experience of God (also termed by some as “union with God”) is our ultimate calling and the state that we will enjoy for eternity, after our death.
Personally, I believe this is incorrect. I believe these experiences are given as a way of deepening our understanding of God, His love, and His very real existence in our lives. They do shape us, transform us, and encourage us, but they are not the goal of the journey. They often occur for a season on our journey and then do not re-occur.
My belief is that we are created to be in a loving relationship with our Creator, to be deeply connected but still distinct and separate. To participate in a relationship requires duality—an existence of two persons. The ecstasy that creates a “oneness” that removes our separateness, is not meant to be our normal or continuous state.
It is a gift from God that is unique and exceptional, and it can serve to deepen our relationship with God—but by definition, our relationship requires two persons. The first person is the Creator of the universe and the other is a person created by God to enjoy God. Ecstasy is a unique and rare experience that no one fully understands, and I believe it is not to be the goal of our journey.