“Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show Myself to him.” Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do You intend to show Yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:21-23).

God Loves Those Who Obey Jesus

I certainly do believe in, and I have always taught about, having personal experience with God. The reason is rather simple. Because such experience with God is what our Lord Jesus literally modeled and clearly taught the life of the obedient Christian would entail. In fact, in the above passage from the Gospel of John the Master Himself plainly tells us that we should expect a real living and personal relationship with Him. Unfortunately many people do tend to miss this today, and the Devil quickly rushed in with His warped and toxic Emergent Church and their core doctrine of contemplative spirituality.

But you see this counterfeit mystical experience, like that taught by Living Spiritual Teacher Richard Foster is actually proof that a mystical union and experience with God is real. However, this experience of a personal relationship with our Lord does have a very critical condition. Here also we see indication that some of what has become known as “Charismatic,” and/or “Pentecostal” teaching, certainly does have a basis in what Christ Himself taught. Now, since Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the LORD God Himself in human flesh, then we have a pretty reliable Source from which to glean our doctrine regarding this issue of Christian experience with God, wouldn’t you agree?

In this short missive I’m just going to make a couple of quick points for you to ponder. We begin with the a part of verse 21 above – “Whoever – [what follows would now apply to everyone] – Whoever has my commands and obeys them, He is the one who loves me. I think we can safely conclude here then, that if someone does not obey these commands of the Master–found in the Bible–then God will consider this person, or religious system such as the Roman Catholic Church who left the faith many centuries ago, as people who do not love Him. We don’t like to hear this, but it is true. We must face the fact that the Church of Rome is Christian in name only.

With the storm that it to come, it is imperative that you come to understand this. This apostasy is actually aimed at destroying true Biblical Reformed theology, and is spreading very quickly as professing Christians are tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive (Ephesians 4:14, KJV). And Dr. John MacArthur is so right when he says:

The Reformation doctrine of justification by faith is, and has always been, the number one target of the enemy’s attack. It provides the foundation of the bridge that reconciles God and man–without that key doctrine, Christianity falls. But the doctrine the Reformers so painstakingly clarified, even spilled blood over, has become so muddled today that many Protestants barely recognize it. Sadly, there are [many] who react against a clear presentation of justification, calling it nothing more than useless hair-splitting. (Online source)

God Is At Home With Faithful Believers

We now move to the b part of John 14:21, as to how it regards those of us who are obedient, and therefore faithful to show that we love Jesus. Here is what the Master has in store for us. Christ says – “He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and show Myself to him.” If you are reading the King James Version it says manifest myself while the New American Standard has disclose Myself. The Greek word – translated “show” in the NIV is emphanizo, which means “to manifest,…to present one’s self to” (Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, p.209). And in his classic work Word Pictures in the New Testament the great Greek scholar Dr. A.T. Robertson says of this verse that the: “Unseen and Risen Christ will be a real and spiritual Presence to the obedient and loving believer.”

So what we can plainly see here is that Christ Jesus Himself is unambiguously telling us that we should expect to experience God as we live day to day in an obedient relationship with Him. However, this proper view of Christian experience with God is so vital for us to recapture today because of the increasing infestation of Gnostic mysticism in our Lord’s Church through the so-called “Christian” mysticism of contemplative spirituality. But if we really hope to have any impact for Christ in this upside-down–and virtually backward–world we now live in, then we had best get over our fear of seeking to actually “hear” from God. A.W. Tozer so often exhorted Christians that we really need not fear God the Holy Spirit Who now makes His home within us (see–1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Test All Experience By The Word Of God

It is also just as crucial for us to remember that every and all spiritual experience must be tested by the Bible, and never the reverse. And if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that this is just not the case in within our Lord’s Church today. Once this problem primarily manifested itself in the Charismatic and Pentecostal camps, but now through this influx of so-called “Christian” mysticism, the “experience interprets Scripture” fallacy is reaching epidemic proportions even within the evangelical community itself. There is simply far too much of: “Well, I feel this way about the Lord”; Or: “I’ve always felt this passage of the Bible means such and such,” going on in Christian circles today.

And if this is how you “feel” personally, then my advice to you is to prayerfully read 1 Thessalonians 5:21 – Test everything (NIV), as in Prove all things (KJV). God the Holy Spirit then further instructs us – Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1). This has probably never been more evident than in this particular spiritually fickle generation. I tell you in the Lord that you had better learn to put everything to the test, because it is going to get awfully rough. Especially when you see how quickly the Ecumenical Church of Deceit of the new evangelicalism has been faithfully undoing the Protestant Reformation for her mother the long apostate Church of Rome.

The pitiful truth is that for years now people have simply allowed others to do their thinking for them. As a result we are now at the point where there is even a great deal of confusion about what it actually means to be a Christian! I had the chance to talk about this the other day with one of the guidance counselors who is not a believer at the secular high school I also work at. However, because I have studied what the Bible actually says on issues–inside of a couple of minutes–he realized that what he’d been told about the Christian faith had not been accurate. And clearly God was drawing this man, whether he’ll come or not, is in the Lord’s hands. But I can tell you this; he sure wasn’t going to think about trusting Christ with the superstitions he’d been told before Jesus put me in front of him.

Let Us Glory In The Lord

I close with the following. Jeremiah 9:24 says – “but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD” (ESV). Under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit the Apostle Paul then quotes this verse in 1 Corinthians 1:31 – “That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (KJV), the NIV reads – “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” The point our gracious Lord is trying to bring out for His rather obtuse sheep in our gelatinous generation is that God wants His children to glory in Him–and to boast in the Lord–before this lost world that we do “know” Him.

Dearly beloved of God, let me encourage you today to faithfully press on in your relationship to really get to know your loving Lord. Never forget that the Great Shepherd has told us that: “If anyone loves Me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” My brothers and sisters, may we love God, and obey Him–no matter what the cost–that the Lord will come and actually make His home with us, or show Himself to us, which is to actually make us more aware of His glorious Presence already within us. O that we may be a people that truly does glory in the Lord. But know this; there must to be a new Reformation…and those with ears to hear will know…