It’s been said that a man with an argument is always at the mercy of a man who has an experience.” This is true in many aspects of life and in my experience the greatest example of this in knowing God.That’s a strong claim so let me use an example to explain. In cinematography there are two main ways movies are shown: 2 dimensional (2-D) or 3 dimensional (3-D). In 2-D movies the picture appears flat upon the screen and you feel like you are watching characters “up there.” You see the story that is unfolding, but you don’t really feel like you are a part of it.3-D movies, however, are made in such that a way that you feel like you’re in the reality of the movie and it adds excitement and thrill to watching the movie. 3-D movies make what we are seeing more vivid and more real. We can almost touch the world the characters exist in and feel like we are part of the story. 3-D movies are so realistic some people report experiencing motion sickness and nausea while viewing the movie.What’s the main difference between the 2-D and the 3-D movie? Simple, it’s the third dimension that makes what is on the screen come to life for the viewer. Did you know this is true for spiritual matters also? Did you know that God has 3 parts and he wants you to experience Him in 3-D. Think about it, he is a triune God made up of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father and the Son (Jesus) both reside in heaven. The Holy Spirit was the person Jesus sent after he ascended into heaven to make the reality of the kingdom of God evident in the life of the believer on the earth.While the church at large has done a great job teaching on the Father and the Son, there has been very little teaching or in some cases mis-teaching on the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in the earth. This has left many people, especially Christians, not experiencing much of the reality of God in their life. This has caused many of us to live life in 2 dimensions when God has called us to experience him in 3-D.The book of Acts records the ministry of the early church. In Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit who was already present inside of the 120 believers in the upper room, fell upon them and were baptized in the spirit. Baptize simply means to immerse. The spirit that was in them came upon them and filled them to fullness and began to overflow out of them. There was an outpouring that caused them to speak in other tongues. These believers had not learned these tongues (languages) in a classroom setting or by some effort on their part. These languages came upon them supernaturally by the power of God.These 120 believers began to declare the works of God in languages previously unknown to them. They spoke the languages of the Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and others. The 120 were now experiencing the supernatural power and reality of God and were beginning to live life in 3-D. But just as important, the unbelievers who heard them began to experience the supernatural power and reality of God. Many of them began to declare the glory of God. Many of these unbelievers surrendered their lives to Jesus that day as 3,000 people got saved.I know speaking in tongues is one of the most controversial topics in Christianity. For the purpose of this article, I’m not going to give my position on the topic. That would defeat the purpose of why I’m writing this article. My goal in writing this article is to stir the desire in everyone reading this to want more. More of the supernatural reality of the miraculous power of God operating in your life. Wanting to know more than the Father and the Son are in heaven waiting to welcome you one day. Wanting to experience the reality of God in your life right now! I want you to experience God in 3-D!Some teach the Holy Spirit was given on the day of Pentecost and now once a person accepts Jesus there is nothing more to get. I want to address that quickly before I share some of my own personal testimony. In the book of Acts, Phillip preached Christ at Samaria and many got saved. After that, the apostles sent Peter and John to Samaria to strengthen the Samaritans in the things of God and the first thing Peter and John did was pray they receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:15-17). We also see subsequent fillings of the Holy Spirit after a person believed in Christ in Acts 9:17, and Acts 19:2-6.I shared the above scriptures to verify what I am teaching is backed by the word of God. In other words, I just gave good theology. I believe in good theology, however its important to not get limited to just a theological knowledge of God or only experiencing Him in 2-D. Two dimensional knowledge of God doesn’t heal terminally ill babies or bring miraculous provision for single moms.It’s the reality of the power of God that is what we were created for. It’s this reality that causes us to fall in love with Him and creates life change. It’s this reality that touches the coldest, stoniest heart, and opens that person up to a faith in Jesus when a theological argument won’t suffice.I have seen numerous examples of where the reality of God or God in 3-D has impacted the lives of the people he touched and then impacted the lives of the people they touched. When I was 12 years old, I saw a 30 year old woman raised up out of a wheelchair and begin to dance around the church with the Pastor who prayed for her. That did something on the inside of me that made God real.At the time I was saved, but had questions about my faith. Those questions increased as I went through high school and begin to hear my biology teacher talk about how humans came from monkeys. She had a lot of facts and arguments, but I had an experience. Remember what I said at the beginning. The person with an argument is always at the mercy of the person with the experience. Even as she expounded with her scientific research, I knew what I had seen with my own two eyes. A paralyzed woman walking. Her science couldn’t explain that. I didn’t understand everything but I knew God was real.Years later, I heard some of the creation science that counters the arguments made by evolutionary science. The scientific arguments that support the biblical account of creation have certainly strengthened my faith, but they aren’t what its anchored in. They are anchored in the reality of the resurrection power of Jesus which I experienced that day as a 12 year old. That was my first experience in a supernatural reality that firmly convinced me that there is a God. It prepared my heart to receive the truths of creation science when they were presented. But most importantly, it planted a hunger in me to want to experience more of Him.As I close, I want to encourage you to hunger to experience more of the reality of the resurrection power of God in your life! Jesus promised those who hunger and thirst will be filled! God wants to fill you with the reality of him in every area of your life. He wants to fill you more than you want to be filled. He wants you living in another dimension! The 3rd dimension which is the experience of the fullness of Him!
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