Total experience with God is drastically going down with the modern Christians. Almost everyone is after the material favor, blessings, and connections. Such are what the modern Christians call success or prosperity. One modern preacher boldly said, “You cannot enter into the kingdom of God if you cannot defeat your sorrows here on earth.” He concluded as he said, “the kingdom of God is a place of joy for the joyful people, not for the sorrowful.” He forgot that the Bible calls Jesus Christ, “…a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3 KJV).” The Bible has no record of where Jesus Christ laughed during His stay here on earth. He was full of burden, sorrows, and grief.
Christ called us to a total commitment and total experience. He emphasized much on the need of the cross. He hammered on the crucified – life. Therefore the message of “total experience is all about total yielding of our lives to God.” It is a total yielding to a total crushing of the inner man. It is a total yielding to a total crucifixion of the inner man.
To some modern Christians, this is impossible. Yet it is still possible if the real meaning of the word “discipleship” is still relevant in our hearts.
Therefore, the emphasis in the message of “total experience” is “obedience; yielding to God’s will; suffering with Christ; endurance with every bit of holiness, etc.”
The message of total experience really has to do with holiness and self-life crucifixion.
This type of message is always unwelcome in our altars these days. However, it is indeed the “total experience with God.” This is the emphasis of Joel’s prophecy. “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit (Joel 2:28-29).”
John the Baptist emphasized it much in his baptismal business. Peter too emphasized it also in his message that convinced and converted three thousand souls at once.
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