The Lord is here; his kingdom has come. (Part 4)

The Lord is here; his kingdom has come

Part 4: Our personal experience of what it means to experience God’s presence can be very distinctive

Let us try now to home in more closely on this experience that “the Lord is here”. I will be considering this within my understanding of Christianity, though I don’t deny for a moment that other faiths also enable an encounter with God. So, within Christianity, we have to consider the particular issue of Jesus. I will have to bring in some of my own experience of Christian faith, which I hope will help to cast light on the issue, though I am well aware of how particular my experience is, and there will be multiple other ways for Christians to understand this. I hope that I will be able to work out from my own experience to say something that is of general use.

So, I begin with my own experiences of God. A very strong feature of my faith is that I have felt from an early age a strong affinity with God the Father – certainly from the age of 15. When I say that I experience God’s presence, or say that, “the Lord is here”, I generally am referring to a sense of encountering God the Father. I have no problem at all in embracing the gospel of Jesus Christ, and my theology completely rests on the central Christian conviction that in Jesus we have seen God, and in Christ we are saved. However, in my personal experience of God’s presence, Jesus is an almost absent figure – except perhaps in the last few years, as I’ve considered the matter more closely and as my spiritual experience has shifted a little.

This was always a particular problem on Easter Sunday, when I was called to celebrate the resurrection. I have never had any problem with declaring and believing in the Christian conviction in the resurrection of Jesus – but I didn’t feel anything. Given the awesome, joyful significance of the occasion, I felt that I ought to feel more than this, but I was not able to “make contact” with God in the way that I do when I am experiencing the presence of God – God the Father. The reason for my recent shift is that I recognise more clearly the absolutely vital role of Jesus as incarnate, crucified and risen Lord. In crude terms, having had the wonderful privilege of feeling united with God the Father at such an early age, what need did I have for Jesus? Just to repeat, this in no way denies Christian theology, but I am trying to dissect what it was that I was experiencing when I claim that I am experiencing the presence of God. It is as my understanding of the role of Jesus deepens that I experience him more deeply as a spiritual reality in my life. This isn’t quite correct – my understanding of Jesus’ role has not “improved”, as though I could not see clearly before, or did not accept the full truth of it; my faith has always been completely orthodox in that respect. However, my sense of connection with what Jesus has done has deepened. I feel a greater or more personal reliance on the saving work of Christ, and this has allowed an increased resonance in my prayers, so that, when directing my attention to Jesus, I experience a spiritual power of connection to the person of Jesus that is more akin with my sense of connection to God the Father.