You don’t have to read any portion of Scripture very long to discern that God’s definition of faith involves trusting Him to fulfill His Word more than how we feel because of present circumstances to the contrary. We will go through very strong emotional experiences in life ranging the gamut from death to life and even traversing both the worldly and heavenly realms, but contrary to what our feelings may tell us, the actual truth of the matter is that such can never alter God’s love for us. It’s a far surer thing than our temporal emotions can confirm.

And yet there seem to be no shortage of believers who DON’T read their Bible and therefore don’t grasp the true definition and working of faith. So many are caught up in the attempt to manage their spiritual life according to emotions and feelings that we’ve had to coin the phrase “Experiential Theology”. It expresses the pursuit of spiritual experiences, even at the expense of faith in God’s Word. I liken it to because we may have had a legitimate and deeply emotional Pentecost-type of experience at the time of conversion, some people seem to pursue experiencing that type of thing over and over again. They have a need to FEEL connected, and misinterpret the lack of such intense experiences as separation from God.

At some point, true faith in Christ has to materialize in one’s life as trusting and living in spite of one’s feelings, in spite of circumstances to the contrary. Paul’s own personal “Experiential Theology”, if you will, was that nothing he ever experienced or felt in this life was “able to separate us from the love of God“. At times I have certainly felt like there are things that could, but in every instance I can also personally testify that I was wrong, that my feelings were definitely wrong. All “created things” come and go, but Christ’s love is the only thing here to stay._††_†

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