A Reasonable Mystic

In my last post I mentioned the more obvious mystical stream in the Evangelical church, based on the contemplative tradition. Much less recognised, however, and one of the primary motivations for my explorations, is the clear mystical content of the Charismatic Movement. This movement, following on after the original Pentecostal Movement of the early 20th Century, introduced the direct, tangible experience of God into the lives of many otherwise conservative, evangelical believers, who would probably neither have, nor desire, contact with anything they thought of as mystical.

Evangelicals have long had a suspicion, even a fear, of mystics and mysticism, seeing their teachings and practices as closer to Eastern religions than true Christianity. Some of the old mystics appearing to engage with the occult did not help either. The modern equivalent is seen in the New Age Movement. Yet, when we look at the goals of many mystics and those of many charismatics, they are identical – only the point of origin of their journey differs.

Consider my own story. I was raised in a Fundamentalist break-away from a conservative Baptist church. Eventually I migrated back to that Baptist church, and finally my wife and I became its pastors. Before we met we independently found the baptism of the Holy Spirit, largely due to a total dissatisfaction with the absence of real spiritual experience in our earlier training. Then together we embarked on learning, then practicing, and then teaching healing prayer ministry (which was earlier called prayer counselling), intercession and spiritual warfare, and operating in prophetic gifts. Of course, along the way we had to learn how to hear and recognise the voice of God (and other spirits), and had many experiences of hearing, seeing and feeling God’s presence in ourselves and on behalf of others. For us, the Vineyard Conferences in Melbourne, the Toronto Blessing of the 1990s, Intercessors for Melbourne, Tom Marshall seminars, and the prayer ministry courses of Elijah House, Ellel Ministries, Charles Kraft’s Deep Healing Ministries, and Wholeness through Christ were part of God’s great training ground.

While many people appear to see this charismatic movement as a new thing, I have long considered that there is an unbroken stream, which runs right through church history, of people with similar experiences of the power of the presence of God in the believer. It is usually manifested in small groups of people held suspect, or even ostracised by the rest of the church. Some of what they did was indeed heretical, but this is possibly inevitable among pioneers of unpopular views who are willing to risk reputation, and even life, in the pursuit of some reality.

I am sure we will take a closer look at some of these groups in our further explorations of being a reasonable mystic.

A few of the books related to this post:

Vineyard and John Wimber:

• John Wimber, Power Evangelism. Trafalgar Square Publishing, 2000.
• John Wimber, Power Healing. HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.

Toronto Blessing:

• Guy Chevreau, Catch the Fire: The Toronto Blessing an Experience of Renewal and Revival. London: Marshall Pickering, 1995.
• Dave Roberts, The Toronto Blessing. Eastbourne: Kingsway Publications,1994.

Tom Marshall:

• Tom Marshall, Living in the Freedom of the Spirit: Becoming the Person God Intended You to Be. Tonbridge, Kent: Sovereign World, 2002. [Was Free Indeed!, Sovereign World, 1983.]

 

Elijah House and the Sandfords:

• John and Paula Sandford, Elijah Among Us: Understanding and Responding to God’s Prophets Today. Grand rapids, MI: Chosen Books , 2002.
• John and Paula Sandford, The Elijah Task. Tulsa, OK: Victory House, 1979.
• John and Paula Sandford, Healing the Wounded Spirit. Tulsa, OK: Victory House, 1985.
• John and Paula Sandford, Prophets, Healers and the Emerging Church. Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2003.
• John and Paula Sandford, The Transformation of the Inner Man. Tulsa, OK: Victory House, 1982.
• R. Loren Sandford, Wounded Warriors: Surviving Seasons of Stress. Tulsa, OK: Victory House, 1987. (This is now out of print but the material has been incorporated into the following book)
• R. Loren Sandford, Burnout : Renewal in the Wilderness. Concrete, Washington: Exanimo Corporation, 1998.

 

Ellel Ministries:

• Peter Horrobin, Healing Through Deliverance, Vol 1: The Biblical Basis. Chosen Books, 2003.
• Peter Horrobin, Healing Through Deliverance, Vol 2: The Practical Ministry. Chosen Books, 2003.
   

Deep Healing Ministries and Dr. Charles Kraft:

• Charles H. Kraft, Christianity with Power: Your Worldview and Your Experience of the Supernatural. Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Publications, 1989.
• Charles H. Kraft, Confronting Powerless Christianity: Evangelicals and the Missing Dimension. Grand Rapids, MI: Chosen Books, 2002.
• Charles H. Kraft, Deep Wounds, Deep Healing: Discovering the Vital Link Between Spiritual Warfare and Inner Healing. Vine Books, 2004.
• Charles H. Kraft, Defeating Dark Angels: Breaking Demonic Oppression in the Believer’s Life. Tonbridge, Kent: Sovereign World, 1993.
• Charles H. Kraft, The Rules of Engagement: Understanding the Principles That Govern the Spiritual Battles in Our Lives. Wipf & Stock, 2005.
   

Intercession and Spiritual Warfare:

• Cindy Jacobs, Possessing the Gates of the Enemy, Third Edition, Revised with Study Guide: A Training Manual for Militant Intercession. Grand Rapids, MI: Chosen Books, 1991.

More books later.

The posts to this blog also go to my Google Group – reasonablemystic@googlegroups.com. “Dr David” posted the following comment to that group:

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“because God cannot be logically proved without being experienced in relationship”

Spending time looking at this issue of “proof” and “relationship with God” can lead one to some interesting conclusions regarding being “prepared to be reasonable mystics”

It is not possible for me to recount in this reply decades of research along this avenue but I can make a few points. 1) the terms relationship, mystic and proof need definition 2) the links between the terms need clarification, and 3) the application of these concepts to humanity and well being need to be further expanded. I have attempted to do provide some material to address each of these points on my website www.SacredHealingNow.com

I think that any one on the path of the “reasonable mystic” is taking apath that few have traveled with widom and compassion.
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Here is the gist of my reply:

Dr David, you might like to outline briefly how you believe your work relates to the subject of this group, keeping in mind its purpose. I quote from the group website “The visible trail of my journey from reluctant fundamentalism, through evangelical by conviction of Jesus as the only way, charismatic through encounter with the Holy Spirit, postmodern by choice, to protestant mystic as the only sensible response to the presence of God. ”

In the context of this group, and the blog that it is fed from, www.reasonablemystic.com, I would define a “reasonable mystic” to be one who seeks an intimate and experiential relationship with the Living Father God, with Son Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, but who does not at the same time neglect clarity of reasoning and the expectation of learning more about who God truly is and how God relates to his children and the world.

By “relationship” I intend to include all aspects of how two or more beings may interact in ways that enrich each other and bring life rather than death.

I would not wish to separate the terms “reasonable” and “mystic” because then we are talking about something else entirely. For example, I am convinced that true “knowledge” is attained more through the spirit than the mind, whereas the mind is good at remembering, making connections and decisions, and initiating action. The two working together promote understanding. If we focus on the mind as the knowledge source then we are not considering mysticism but materialism and humanism. If, on the other hand, we neglect the mind in this relationship, we are into superstition and ultimately occultism.

However, we can gain much from studying both reason and mysticism in isolation (using both spirit and mind to do so, of course), while keeping clear in our minds that not everything said about either of these is necessarily life bringing.

Having said all of that, and it is necessarily superficial but I hope it gives the general drift, then I must say that I am convinced that such a true “reasonably mystical” relationship with God and the world can best be explored by interacing with and relating to the one true expression of God in the world – Jesus Christ. If God has deliberately revealed himself in this one, then is it reasonable to avoid him in our search? And, since the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, is the presence of God in the world, and has been promised by God to indwell followers of Jesus, then surely the easiest way to get in touch with God is to interact with that Spirit, not some other spirit – human or otherwise.

In the light of this, I did a quick scan through the website you refered us to, Dr David, looking for the terms “God”, “Jesus”, “Christ”, and “Spirit”. There is much material on your site, and I have not been able to read it all. However, I was rather surpirised at the results of my search. I found references to a great many areas of investigation that I would be hestitant to embrace, having seen the mental, emotional and spiritual damage such experimentation caused to many of those troubled souls who come to us for ministry and healing. I found references to “God”, but in a fairly non-identifiable form as to who this “God” is. I found “Spiritual”, etc, but nothing that would point me to the Holy Spirit of God. And I did not find “Jesus”, or “Christ” or “Jesus Christ”, except in one or two quotes from other people.

Could I invite you to respond to the above so we can beter understand your position.

Di and I have just spent 5 days with Peter Toth and Heather Scott of Anazao. The level 1 and 2 conference was excellent, and despite (or probably because of) its stretching some of our theological assumptions. Their way of ministering to the most broken of people is undoubtedly the most effective – and easiest – that I have experienced.

They effectively and quickly minister to DID and SRA victims without delving into the dungeons and dragons like labrynth that others seem to think is necessary, bringing rapid integration while preserving the dignity of the person and not giving the kingdom of darkness a stage to act upon.

Their method of carrying out deliverance resonates very strongly with the practice we learned from Dr Charles Kraft.

If there is any way you could get to one of their conferences or schools, whatever the cost, then do it! Details at www.anazao.com.au.