14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John *bore witness about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has been ahead of me, for He existed before me.’” 16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. John 1:14-16 (LSB)
There is a certain hysteria currently amongst many of our 21st Century Puritans. While I gladly count myself as a Puritan, I also know that our enemy desires to shackle and nullify our witness and divert our focus, by feeding our heightened perceptions as to what is godly and what is false with misleading and derogatory information that cause us to turn on one another. Having experienced this against my own ministry over the last few months I can say that it is very frustrating and eye opening.
For example, if you have read a great deal of what I have written then you know that I believe that Christians can partake of the Fullness of Christ in this life right now. At the same time, I have never once given credence to New Age and Mystical forms of “Christianity.” I do not believe that experiential forms of Christianity are authentic. I do not believe that there is a certain level of maturity that Christians can reach where they will live in a life of perfect victory over sin because of their mystical aspirations. These are all what I call extra-Biblical experiential and mystical religious things that are counterfeit forms of Christianity. <Continue reading post>