Ecstasy
and the Journey into Intimacy
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Rev. Johnson
Dorn, M.Div.
My
wife recently recounted to me an experience with the Lord
that she had while attending a conference in Toronto, Canada.
In this experience, she lost track of what was going
on around her and lost all sense of time.
While she said she could have “come out of it” anytime
she wanted, she had no desire to do so.
For some 90 minutes, she basked in the presence of
the Lord, hearing Him speak powerful, specific words of healing
to her, all the while virtually oblivious to her surroundings.
Discovering that she was “out of it” for an hour and
a half, she commented that it seemed like only a few minutes.
The fruit of that 90-minute encounter was nothing short
of life changing for her.
Teresa
of Avila was one of the most spiritual women of her day in
sixteenth century Spain, becoming famous for reforming the
Carmelite order of nuns. She was largely responsible for revitalizing the spiritual
climate of Spain in the 1500s.
In one of her books, Teresa describes an experience
she had with the Lord where a spear tipped with fire was plunged
into her innermost being.
She described this experience as both “painful and
sweet beyond description,” and it left her “aflame with a
great love for God.” (Eerdman’s Handbook To the History
of Christianity, p. 418).
My
friend Leigh recently described an experience that she had
with the Lord that at the time frightened some people because
they did not understand what was happening to her.
From the vantage point of the observer, Leigh looked
as though she had “passed out.”
She remained motionless on the floor for some time.
Then she started trembling and softly crying.
Soon thereafter, she screamed out with an intensity
that startled many of those in the room.
Some mistakenly thought she was being tormented by
demons. Leigh
later told a group of us that she had been taken into a very
intimate and holy place with the Lord and was literally consumed
with His presence, so much so that she literally felt like
she could not take any more. Her cry was one of overload, a pain comparable to what Teresa
of Avila experienced with the fiery spear.
As Leigh recounted her experience, she radiated with
a supernatural aura that left a deep impression on me.
In
Acts 10, a story is told where the apostle Peter “fell” into
a trance for some time.
I assume, in that trance Peter appeared asleep or incoherent,
unaware of what was going on around him, transported to an
intimate place with God.
In that trance, God spoke to him concerning his intention
for the Gentile people and their inclusion in the Christian
experience. Peter’s
experience and his incorporation of it into his life and ministry
changed the course of the early Christian community, and ultimately
Western civilization.
What
was it that my wife experienced for those 90 minutes?
What kind of experience did she have?
How would you describe Teresa’s experience?
Her life was literally filled with similar encounters
with God. What
about Leigh? What in the world was her experience all about?
And Peter’s trance?
Suffice
it to say that the above stories lie beyond the realm of what
we would call normal, everyday, sensory experience.
They defy rationality and a purely cognitive approach
to the faith and the experience of the faith.
What then are we to make of such experiences and countless
others that could be called forth as examples?
The
Bible has a word for such experiences.
The Dictionary of New Testament Theology states the
“The NT uses two different word-groups to express the behavior
of a person who is no longer controlled by his normal reason.
ekstasis means basically that a person has been brought out of his
normal routine and outlook by the experience of a power or
experience outside him.
This can happen through the power of the Spirit of
God.” (DNTT, Vol 1, pp.526-527) Ekstasis
is never used in the New Testament in a negative way to
suggest mental disorder or in a way that describes demonic
activity; a different word group is reserved for such activity
and experiences. The
DNTT goes on to say that ekstasis
is used in the New Testament “to express men’s reaction to
the wonderful acts of God.” (Vol. 1, p. 528)
The word literally means to “stand outside oneself.”
Strictly
speaking then, what all of the people in the above illustrations
experienced was what can be called an ecstatic experience.
They had an encounter with God that was beyond their
control and the control of their reason.
They were lifted out of their normal routine through
the intervention of the power of the Spirit of God.
They were overwhelmed and transported by the manifest
presence of God. It
could be said that they literally were “out of their senses.” In other words, what happened to them was ecstatic.
Ecstasy
is a word and the ecstatic an experience that seem to be confined
to the periphery, if it is to be found at all, in much of
our current, spiritual vocabulary and experience.
Ecstasy is a wild, untamed word, seemingly more appropriate
in the bedroom than in the sanctuary.
If we do associate it at all with the spiritual, we
confine it to something found in more fanatical or fringe
expressions of the faith, putting as much distance between
it and ourselves as we can muster.
We associate it with unbridled emotionalism, inferior
to more rational, thought-out, self-controlled expressions
of the faith.
Ecstasy
seems to be a word that many of us are not comfortable using
in describing our experience with God, nor are we comfortable
witnessing or observing the ecstatic in one of our assemblies
or worship gatherings.
It arouses intense anxiety, objection, and even offense
because it goes so against our preference for control, reason,
and “order.” It
goes against the grain of so much of our religious tradition,
personal history, and cultural norms.
In a culture that exalts reason and rationality and
the control that comes with it, and frowns upon the expression
of emotion and anything that smacks of the mystical, it should
not come as a surprise that ecstasy and ecstatic experience
are looked down upon with disapproval and suspicion.
And
it is no wonder. The
ecstatic can indeed be messy and untidy.
It is the very nature of the ecstatic to be “beside
itself” and thus messy and upsetting, coming as it does beyond
the realm of the everyday and the calmly rationale and the
easily understood. Being
the result of a higher power operating in a limited space
(i.e. our bodies and spirits), “overload” can and will occur.
Someone may pass out (i.e. “falling out” under the
influence of the Spirit).
Someone may cry convulsively.
Someone may laugh uncontrollably in utter delight.
Someone may scream out in fear or overload.
Someone may begin to speak in an unknown language.
Someone may shout.
Someone’s body may seem to shake, spasm, or tremble.
Someone may lie motionless for hours.
Endless are the “messy” possibilities when a person
encounters a power that overwhelms him/her and/or is immersed
in the manifest presence of God.
It
must be observed, however, that there are no hints of any
disapproval and suspicion regarding the ecstatic in the Bible.
Ecstasy and the ecstatic, as seen in the above word
study, are viewed as a part of the normal spiritual experience
in scripture, a phenomenon neither encouraged nor discouraged.
From Adam’s deep sleep, to Jacob’s “wrestling,” to
Moses burning bush, to shepherds hearing and seeing angels,
to Jesus seeing the Holy Spirit come down like a dove, to
Bartimaeus’ miraculous healing, to Paul’s blinding light,
to John’s vision on Patmos, etc., the scripture is quite at
home with the ecstatic. In other words, scripture
over and over again tells the story of a supernatural God
whose power comes to bear upon a person with the result being
that person having an experience that literally takes them
beyond themselves (beside themselves) which often involves
a sense of losing control and being overwhelmed by the presence
of God. Scripture
seems to have a high tolerance and indeed an embracing of
the “messiness” associated with the manifest presence and
power of God. So
should we.
In
reality, we have nothing to fear with the ecstatic and everything
to lose by pushing it to the periphery or banning it altogether
from what is deemed appropriate spiritual experience and behavior.
Pushing the ecstatic aside may make things seemingly
more “orderly” and sterile, but with it comes the adverse
effect of stifling the intimate journey.
Intimacy is sacrificed and compromised when the ecstatic
is banished or disdained.
We
must come to see that ecstasy comes hand in hand with a growing
intimacy. In fact, the journey into a deeper intimacy with God will inevitably
stumble into the ecstatic.
What married couple, as they have grown deeper into
the “two becoming one flesh” have not stumbled into the marvelous
and wondrous experience of the ecstatic, of being so enraptured
with one another that they literally lost themselves for a
period of time? What
two friends have not experienced similar experiences as they
continue to relate in an ever deepening and freeing intimacy?
Should we not expect the same with our Lord?
The
metaphor of the vine and the branches in John 15 paints a
rationale for the ecstatic in the intimate journey.
The goal of the branch is to be grafted into the life
of the vine, to become one with the vine.
In order for this to happen the branch must give up
control. It must
yield to the greater life, energy, and power of the vine.
It must be willing to be overwhelmed by the life in
the vine in order to be one with the vine.
This yielding will introduce new and dynamic life into
the branch, life fully capable of overwhelming and completely
reshaping the branch. Intimacy, or oneness, is achieved by the free operation of
the greater power of the vine on the lesser power of the branch.
I am sure this operation is nothing less than ecstatic
at times.
This
oneness is the purpose of our journey with the Lord.
As we continue to open ourselves to God and the move
of His power and presence in our lives, we should come to
expect the occasional experience of the ecstatic.
Ecstasy is the result of a higher, stronger power operating
on a lesser power (the vine upon the branch).
Ecstasy
is my reaction to the wonderful, powerful move of God in my
life. It is the overflow of being in His presence.
That presence is experienced as so wonderful and awesome
that I cannot seem to contain the essence of what I am experiencing
in my body. It
is as if I am being transported to a higher level or a deeper
level. I am literally being taken into the place where I see and experience
God in a way so intimate, or holy.
And, I am overwhelmed by what I am experiencing.
The
American Heritage Dictionary offers 3 definitions of ecstasy,
which yield tremendous insight into the nature of ecstatic
experience. One,
“A state of exalted delight in which normal understanding
is felt to be surpassed.”
Two,
“A state of any emotion so intense that rational thought and
self-control are obliterated.”
And, three,
“The trance, frenzy, or rapture associated with mystic or
prophetic exaltation.” (p. 413)
Notice
the language in these definitions:
“A state of exalted delight...any emotion so intense
that rational thought and self-control are obliterated...trance...frenzy...rapture
...” All this
language is perfectly in keeping with the sense of the original
Greek word ekstasis.
It is also perfectly in keeping with what happens to
a limited, finite, fallen human being when immersed in the
bigness of God.
The
obliteration of our self-control is the thing most of us fear
when it comes to the ecstatic.
It also is the reason so many of us avoid the ecstatic
or try to control its expression in an attempt to manage it.
This is particularly true to those of us raised in
the American culture which values the rational and the logical
and puts a premium on self-control.
Our culture notwithstanding, there is simply no way
around this issue of the loss of control if we are serious
about intimacy with God.
As
has already been stated, ecstasy involves the loss of control
on one level in order to be brought under the control of a
power operating on another level.
It is by nature a super-rational experience (beyond
reason) and thus beyond my control (my need to be in control).
In order to experience the power of God, which operates
on a level much higher than human experience, I must yield
my control. If we are to truly experience the intimate, holy God in all the fullness
He intends, we must guard ourselves with all vigilance against
all carnal efforts to fence in, limit or control the ecstatic
response.
Keep
in mind that the loss of self-control in an ecstatic experience
is not a violation of the “self-control” listed as a fruit
of the Spirit in Galatians 5.
I believe the self-control described there is the fruit
of the Spirit operative in a person’s life to keep them free
from the entanglements of sinful attitudes and behavior. The self-control there is the supernatural ability to refrain
from such. It
is not referenced to an intimate experience with the Lord,
nor should it be used as a way to control people in that context.
Having
said all this, the ecstatic should not be sought per say.
The experience of ecstasy is not the goal or the end.
Intimacy or oneness with our Lord is what is sought.
I want to be the branch fully engrafted into my Lord.
In the process I am sure to be overcome from time to
time in experiences of intimacy that can only be described
as ecstatic. The
ecstatic is an occasional by-product of intimacy. Do not make of it an idol or an addiction.
Yet, do not fear it or avoid it through control.
The
experience of ecstasy should indeed be seen as normative for
Christian experience and it is indeed a sad commentary on
the state of our spiritual life when it is not.
We should come to expect God to manifest Himself and
in doing so we should not be surprised or offended that the
manifestation of His presence overwhelms or enraptures someone.
No, ecstasy, in and of itself, should never be the
goal of our worship or a litmus test for an authentic spiritual
experience. Nor
should it be pushed to the periphery and seen as inconsequential.
It is simply a part of the larger package of experiencing
God, especially when that experience becomes more intimate.
Thus, we should come to expect and welcome the ecstatic.
At
the very least, the ecstatic should remind us that there is
far more to experience of the power of God than most of us
have experienced. There
is a realm of experience that is simply beyond our normal
experience, even beyond our reach.
Yet, if we will open ourselves to the moving of God’s
Spirit, and not fear the loss of control that comes with the
manifest presence of God, we may be swept away into a dimension
that will enrich and deepen our lives in dramatic ways.
You
may reach Johnson at:
Rev.
Johnson Dorn
12735 Cedar Fall Dr.
Huntersville, NC 28078
704-875-2158
DADDYDORN@aol.com
Taken
from www.neurosemantics.com
(c)1999 Johnson Dorn All rights
reserved.
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