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The Danger of Seeking Experiences
by E.W. Kenyon
She said, "I know it is true for I experienced it." It isn't a problem of whether the Word declared it or not. It isn't what the Word says, but what our experience says.
Faith in our experiences is not always faith in the Word. Faith in what I have seen or heard is not always faith in the Word.
Practically all religious experiences are products of the physical senses. It is something felt or heard or seen.
Sense experience always leaves one empty when the experience grows old.
Seeking experiences is always dangerous for it is trusting in the arm of the flesh rather than in the Word, because experiences are always connected with the senses.
Sense experiences are fascinating to a soul-hungry man. They attract the curious. They are always in the realm where most folks live. One of the unfortunate things about seeking experiences is that those who are seeking are in the realm that is governed by evil spirits, for Satan rules most people's bodies, the home of practically all of our experiences.
That is the reason so many have lost their minds; for when people seek experiences for a long time, demons often take advantage and become their helpers.
They are not wrestling with God. It is not with the Word. They struggle with themselves to get their senses to function.
Sense experiences are always based on sense knowledge faith.
We should remember that sense knowledge always fails us in a crisis; and you will notice that the people who are depending on experiences are ever seeking to have the experience repeated. They believe in experiences because they live in the realm of the senses.
They never believe the Word. They assent to it, or they hope in it.
Experience-seekers are always unstable in their faith.
The Word of God does not carry as much authority as the word of the person who has the experience.
These people are ever seeking faith.
They have continual war with doubts and fears and discouragements.
They will tell you that they are having a hard battle with the Adversary.
Most of these people have rented a place at the altar.
They are perpetual seekers who long for experiences and power.
They are seeking their healing, not knowing that the Father laid their diseases on Jesus.
They are honest, but they are walking in the realm of the senses.
Their teachers are sense knowledge taught people.
They believe much about the Word, but they do not believe the Word Itself.
They act on the word of man and it breaks under them.
They read much about the Bible and about experiences, but they do not study the Word systematically.
Consequently they are unstable and double-minded.
They are like people who take dope or liquor. They are drunken with the senses.
If they could only know the sure Word, the unbroken Word, the Living Word, the life-giving Word, the all satisfying Word, they would give up their quest for experiences and let the Word satisfy them.
Seeking Manifestations
What kind of manifestations are they seeking? Something connected with their physical body.
They wish to speak in tongues.
They desire to go under the power.
They wish to have their body vibrate and shake.
They wish to seek some physical demonstration of the Spirit's power.
The Holy Spirit never gratifies them.
The only spirit that will gratify them is dangerous to play with.
But you ask, "Do you believe in speaking with tongues?"
Yes, when the Holy Spirit speaks through you it is beautiful.
But no one needs to wait and tarry for Him to do it, for the tarrying gives the Adversary an opportunity to deceive them, and the people who are seeking this are not spiritually minded.
They will not know a demon from the Holy Spirit.
But you say, "Didn't the disciples tarry ten days?"
Yes, they waited until the fullness of time came for the Holy Spirit to come. From that day to this there has been no need to tarry.
The Holy Spirit is here, and He will enter the body of any man or woman who invites Him in.
Luk_11:13, "How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him."
You don't receive Eternal Life by tarrying and struggling for it.
You receive Eternal Life by acting on the Word.
Tarrying means that the Word isn't true and you have to do something to add to its truthfulness, to its veracity.
Waiting before the Lord for power and for some special blessing that you have heard about is unnecessary because you have in you, if you have received the Holy Spirit, the fountain of all experiences.
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