Season: 8 Episode: 102
Summary:
Do you seek to have an experience with God? Emotionalism is on the rise in the church and it has led people to believe that emotion and experience is necessary for an effective church service. Shanda shares her own experience with emotionalism and what we can do when we don’t feel God.
Quotables:
“All religions provide an experience. Christians do not have the monopoly on religious experience.”
“Intimacy with God does not mean emotion.”
“It is the responsibility of every believer to chase God; not a religious experience.”
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Hey guys! Welcome back to another episode of Her Faith Inspires podcast where we take cultural issues and align them to biblical truth. We are heading into the holiday season and I want you to have a blast with your family. Be thankful, reflect on God’s goodness, bake cookies, eat pie, light all the pumpkin candles (I’ve been doing this for a few months now), and just enjoy life.
Myself and my podcast team take no breaks (well, we do but that means we have to be super organized and record everything ahead of the holidays), so that means I will not leave you without podcasts. I am planning on dropping a series in December that’s all about Jesus and theological concepts surrounding Christmas that I hope will encourage you and help you stay focused on the true importance of the season.
Apologetics Classes Coming Soon!
We are coming back hot in January and I will have baseline apologetics curriculum for you that is designed to help the average Christian learn how to defend their faith and to know what they believe and why they believe it.
My apologetics 101 class is now offered as more of an advanced apologetics class and I think I’m just going to have to record a bonus episode explaining all of this so you know what courses are coming up and how to register for them.
My point? We got a lot planned for 2022 so rest up, watch for the reg drops, and let’s do this!
Today, we are talking about experiencing God.
I wrote a blog post about emotionalism a few weeks ago, I’ll link that in the shownotes for those of you who haven’t read it. And in all honesty, I was a little nervous about posting it because I grew up in a charismatic church and I didn’t want to offend any of my church family.
Now, don’t get me wrong,I do not … I repeat … do not think there is anything wrong with crying at church. I did it often and I didn’t care what people thought about it. I love God and if that comes out in my worship, so be it. But I also know what it’s like to chase an emotional experience and think that that has to happen in order for church to be “effective” or for me to know God exists. Or, to base how I feel in my relationship with God off of whether or not my own personal bible study was effective enough for me.
Have you ever asked God, “Why don’t I feel you?” Or “God, show me you exist.” Or “God, I just want you to speak to me today?” Or, “God, why don’t you speak to me? Why are you allowing me to go through this difficult time?”
Do you ever use the closeness of your relationship with God as a litmus test for His working in your life?
Do you get upset at bible reading when you don’t walk away with some sort of “word from God” as you read?
We’re going to talk about that because the church is after a few things today and one of them is an emotional experience with God. I want to bring awareness as to why that’s not a healthy outlook on God’s existence or our relationship with Him and I’m going to be completely up front with you about my own way of thinking and why that has changed over the years.
The blog post I wrote was called “3 Indicators You May be an Emotionalism Junkie” and I talked about my experience growing up in a charismatic church. The charismatic, or pentecostal church, emphasizes emotion and if you’re not careful, it can become the evidence you seek in order to know God is moving in your service.
We can confuse loud preaching with passion.
We can confuse tears and goosebumps with the Holy Spirit. Now again, I’m not saying it’s wrong to experience these things in church but I am saying they should not be the evidence we look for in order to believe God is moving or that the church service was effective.
When we study world religions in my apologetics 101 class, we look at the distinctions between all other religions and Christianity. The commonality that all religions have with Christianity is an experience. So experience alone is not exclusive to Christianity. That means experience alone is not an indicator that God exists or that we have some sort of monopoly on “feeling” something in our religion.
The reason I believe this is so important to bring to light is because women’s ministries often put an emphasis on what they feel. And as I’ve stated often … for this reason, we neglect loving God with all of our minds because we are too busy trying to get an experience.
Again, if you chase an emotional experience, please do not get angry. I was there. I am speaking from experience here. So hang in there and wrestle through this episode with me.
The three indicators of an emotionalism junkie that we are going to tackle today are:
- What does it mean or look like when you seek an emotional experience?
- What happens when you seek a word from the Lord?
- Are you consuming church instead of producing?
What does it mean to seek an emotional experience?
As I’ve stated, I was raised in a charismatic church and I know what it’s like to have high energy services. A few years ago, I was at a women’s conference and the woman who preached was a very popular minster within our denomination.
She preached three services in a row and many women in the audience responded well to her preaching. They would clap, yell “amen”, cry. But after the weekend, I asked myself what I would take away from the words she spoke to us. What would I remember about her preaching that drew me closer to God?
And all I could come up with was … she yelled all 3 messages into the microphone. I couldn’t get past the fact that she yelled every message and she would often say, in the middle of the messages, “Come on, somebody” to let everyone know when to respond. I seriously didn’t know how anyone could yell for as long as she did and as often as she did and keep her vocal cords in-tact.
It was at that time that I began to question the emotional hype. If God’s word is truth, does it matter if I yell it into a microphone? The word of God will work in the hearts of the people as I share it. Does it have to come loud in order to be taken seriously?
The sad fact about that women’s conference is that all I could remember was the emotion and the hype but I could not remember the word of God and the message conveyed.
There are many things that give us an emotional experience.
Our culture is so emotional that they are easily offended. Our culture runs on emotion and how we feel.
Motivational speakers often use humor and emotion to spur people on. But the word of God is not for motivational speaking. It’s for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16-17).
Let me tell you, correction and rebuke doesn’t give me goosebumps. It doesn’t feel good. But the purpose of the Bible is more than just how it makes us feel.
I posted a quote last year that said, “Just because you cried, that doesn’t mean it was God.” The appearance of emotionalism brings the appearance of intimacy with God. Jesus said in Isaiah 29:13, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
Intimacy with God does not mean emotion.
Emotionalism can be addicting. The same dopamine rush we feel when we get a notification on our social media apps or when we are young in love can be the same thing we chase with religious experience. It really does become addictive.
I saw this a lot in my youth days. When we went to camp, those experiences were highly emotional. Every teen vowed to stay close to the Lord and never miss a day in church. A few weeks later, everyone was partying again and had one foot in the church and one foot out. The emotionalism of camp was the reason they went the next year. The head knowledge of who God was wasn’t worth pursuing and they always fell away.
Why? Because you cannot sustain an emotional high.
The truth about emotion is that it comes and goes with the selection of worship songs. I like this song … but I don’t like this one because it doesn’t stir me. If we only worship God because the song moves us, our worship is not out of a love for God. It’s out of emotion.
Second, you know you’re chasing an experience with God when you look for a word from the Lord.
Do you know how many times people have told me they read their bibles and it does nothing for them?
Last Sunday, the pastor at church asked us what we want to get out of our relationship with God? What do we seek to get our of bible study time? Is it what God can do for me? Do we want to know ourselves more than we want to know God?
When I was growing up in church, a lot of people had a word from the Lord. When I was younger, I didn’t question it. As I got older, I realized that God is the one who speaks to me as I study His word. Now, am I saying that God won’t give someone a word from Him to speak to someone else? Not at all. God can do what He wants to do and use whomever He wants to use. But … I wholeheartedly believe that God does not need to send anyone to us when we all have His word available to us. The only reason someone would have a word from the Lord is when 1) you aren’t listening to what God is telling you, or 2) you’re not in the word yourself. And, if anyone tells you anything from the Lord, it better align to His word anyway.
If you know anything about pentecostal denominations, the gifts of the Sprit are highly emphasized.
I am a continuationist. I believe the gifts of the Spirit are in operation today. There are cessationists who believe the gifts have ceased. Some will go as far as saying that those who hold the opposing view are heretics, but I disagree. Every believer has the Holy Spirit upon salvation because you CANNOT get saved unless the Spirit draws you. So I am a continuationist and I believe Paul goes into detail on the gifts of the Spirit in Corinthians.
However, I will say that I do think the operation of the gifts are fewer and farther between than what I witnessed growing up. The emotionalism of my denomination has made me more skeptical of those who say they are operating by the Spirit than not.
I am a true believer that those who say they are speaking on God’s behalf better tremble. It is not something to be taken lightly. It is not something to be carried away with emotion.
And on the other hand, if we are relying on others to tell us what God says instead of going to His word, we are in a dangerous place. That doesn’t mean we can’t seek out wise council. We are told to do that. But it does mean that when we rely on others to speak to us on God’s behalf, we are not relying on God or our own relationship with Him.
Let me let you in on something I’ve recently realized.
And I think this has come to my attention because I’m a teacher …but people do not want to dig into God’s word. People do not want to study. Studying requires something of me. Studying takes away the emotion of bible study and it requires I get to know God. And people don’t want that.
When you say, “I read my bible and it doesn’t do anything for me” … you are using Meology to study. It’s about wanting your problems, your struggles highlighted. You want to see yourself more than you want to see God.
A few weeks ago, I posted this: “We want to feel God more than we want to know God.” Bible study is to know God so I can make Him known. Knowing God creates intimacy with God. You cannot get around it.
Here’s the deal: What’s going to happen when you are struggling with a difficult storm in your life? What is going to keep you grounded … what you feel or what you know? It’s going to be what you know. Because what you feel is going to shake you. It’s not going to feel good when the uncertainty of hardship comes your way. That’s when the Holy Spirit will remind us of Jesus’ words.
And finally, are you consuming instead of producing?
I wrote a blog post called “Consumerism in the Church: Living on Bread Alone?” (I told you guys I’ve been writing a lot more). Jesus repeated an OT quote when He said, “Man cannot live on bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
What does that mean?
Jesus is referencing the consumption of two different types of meals: physical and spiritual. We all know that you cannot live without food. Every time I ask my boys if they fed the dogs and one of them says, “Oh, yeah. I fed them yesterday.” I ask, “Did you eat today?” Of course he’s eaten today, and that makes my point … the dog needs to eat every day too.
Food is one of the basic needs for survival. Without it we will die. But Jesus goes further and says man cannot live on bread alone. That means we can also neglect to consume something else that is considered to be a necessity of life … spiritual nourishment, which is the word of God.
We are in a crisis right now as Christians.
And I pray you are assessing the times and see what is happening in this cultural moment. Evil is on a rampage. It is here. The only thing that holds back evil in this world is the church. Jesus told His disciples that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. We hold back evil.
However, Christians are biblically illiterate. We are too busy consuming culture and when we do that, we cannot produce in such a way that impacts culture. It’s impossible.
We use terminology in the church that I call Christianese … and we ask, “Are you being fed at your church?” I get the question. We’re asking if the church offers preaching and teaching that helps you grow spiritually, and I understand that. I think the church we are in should do that. Absolutely!
But we’ve also misrepresented the flip side of that and we need to ask whether or not we can feed ourselves.
Do we go to church and sit in the seat and if the message doesn’t speak to me, challenge me, hit me in the feelers, do we say, “I’m not being fed”?
Sometimes the message is intellectual and deep and it requires we, as the listener, grab onto the content and mull it over and listen to it so that I wrestle with it until I understand. The student is also responsible to gran the message.
Church isn’t about you. It’s not about me. We are to consume the word of God because we cannot live without it. We are spiritually malnourished without it and just like empty calories cannot sustain you throughout your day so that you will produce energy, a malnourished Christian will not produce in such a way that impact culture.
It’s not happening!
Christians used to be the biggest producers and influencers in culture. We influenced the arts, education, entertainment, science. But we stopped producing and culture began to shift. Now culture is the biggest producer and Christians are consuming it.
How do I know? Let’s go back to that stat I know you’ve heard on repeat … 4% of Christians have a biblical worldview. 4%. Christians don’t even know their own religion.
Conclusion
I know this is heavy. I know this can be offensive if you want to feel God. We should always want more of God. We should always want to hear His voice. I’m reading John 10 today and studying that passage and Jesus said His sheep know His voice. God speaks to us but He uses His word to do it.
We are so blessed to have the word of God. But we need to read it, study it and allow God to teach us. We need to love Him with all of our minds and allow the head and the heart to connect to create intimacy with Him.
I say this all the time, but we need your voice in this time we’re living in. But not just the sound of your voice. We need more voices of truth. We need men and women of God who know the word and who are willing to wrestle through the content and put in the word of interpreting it, praying through it and allowing the Holy Spirit to teach you with it.
I had a conversation with someone the other day who said apologetics doesn’t interest them. They said it’s my thing, not their thing.
So I’ll leave you with the words of Voddie Baucham and his words were my response: “Not every Christian needs to be a theologian, but every Christian needs a theology.”
It is the responsibility of every believer to chase God and His word … not emotion.
If it’s too hard to grasp the concepts of Scripture, I get it. I was there. But I want to encourage you to grind through it because it’s worth it.
When you chase emotion, you will never rest because you’ll always chase the next experience. But when hard times come, you will be lost because your feelings will tell you God doesn’t care. The feelings of hard times often override the feelings of peace and joy. But if you know the truth of His word, you will hold fast to that when hard times hit because you KNOW what He has promised and you’ll remember His character that never changes.
I want to start answering questions you may have. I always leave my email address, but I’m inviting you to send me any questions about theology, clarification on anything I mention in my episodes, or if you have questions about what’s going on in culture … email me at hello@shandafulbright.com and I’ll be sure to answer.
Keep an eye out for the classes coming up. If you are planning a women’s event and need a speaker, I do that too. You can email me for info on that. Have a great week and I’ll catch you on the next one!
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